Cloud of Darkness/Dissidia (PSP)

The Cloud of Darkness is one of the villains fighting for the side of Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. She is an entity that appears when the balance between light and darkness is disturbed, and tries to pull the world into the Void. She hovers like a cloud, and attacks with the tentacles wrapped around her body. Cloud of Darkness allies herself with Kefka, Exdeath, and Kuja in her attempts to destroy everything and return the world to darkness. Her rival is the young Onion Knight, whose wish to protect his friends piques her interest.

While the Onion Knight is her rival in the original Dissidia, her main rival in the 012 storyline is Laguna.

Attire
Cloud of Darkness's appearance is based on her Amano artwork, depicting her with pale skin and a red and black cloak attached to her wrists. Black and red coverings adorn her body, including her breasts and hips, and two mouthed tentacles extend from her back.

Cloud of Darkness's first alternate outfit, "Dark Robe," recolors her cape blue. In Dissidia, her EX Mode is colored a mixture of light green and dark green with a dull red for the legs. In Dissidia 012, her EX Mode in this outfit is changed to a bright orange and yellow form with blue markings along her legs, reflecting her NES sprite while invincible.

Cloud of Darkness's second alternate outfit, "Lucent Robe," has an overall lighter appearance. Her cape is white, and her tentacles are a more pale yellow and lack faces. Her body coverings also change to black, white and various shades of purple, and she has several loops of beads along her legs. In this outfit her EX Mode colors her body coverings gold and different shades of white, and gives her red markings on her skin.

Her manikin version, Counterfeit Wraith, is green.

Twelfth cycle
At some point prior to the 12th Cycle, the Cloud of Darkness aids Sephiroth upon his request, due to the latter taking interest in her abilities when fighting the Warrior of Light and Lightning. The Cloud of Darkness ambushes Laguna while he is separated from the others, their fight ends with Laguna getting a leg cramp after unintentionally offending as well as flattering her by staring at her scantily clad body; this, and Laguna stating his reasons for helping Cosmos, caused her to develop an interest in him, leading Cloud of Darkness to reveal where the manikins are coming from.

She reveals this information as it is a potential suicide mission, and is curious about the manner of death Laguna would choose for himself. She later appears with Kefka, Garland, the Emperor, and Ultimecia to fight against Laguna, Vaan, Lightning, Yuna, and Tifa before they could seal the rift leading to the Manikins' domain. In the aftermath of the battle, she is later ambushed by Kefka who marks her as a traitor for her indirect part in the Manikins' world being sealed off from World B, receiving purification in preparation for the next cycle though it ultimately is of no consequence to her.

Thirteenth cycle
Working with Kefka, the Cloud of Darkness attempted to kill off Terra and the Onion Knight from a distance before Kefka stops her due to his desire to regain control over Terra. Though not convinced of Terra's power, the Cloud of Darkness agrees to capture her and release her full power. After Terra loses control of her powers and battles the Onion Knight, the Cloud of Darkness arrives after the fight to abduct Terra. She berates the Onion Knight on his blindness to Terra's struggle during their travels and tells him he has only himself to blame for her capture.

The Onion Knight travels to the World of Darkness, where the Cloud of Darkness is standing over an unconscious Terra, proclaiming the girl is too fragile to be of use. The Onion Knight arrives and offers to take Terra's place as her servant, only to fool the Cloud of Darkness and strike her with her guard down, proclaiming he will defeat her and protect Terra. The two battle and the Cloud of Darkness is defeated. She fades away, leaving Terra to recover and the Onion Knight to claim his Crystal. The Cloud of Darkness later appears when Kefka realizes he cannot have Terra, cornering the girl and Cloud Strife when the Onion Knight comes to their aid and helps Cloud double team the villain while Terra fights Kefka. The outcome of her battle with Cloud and the Onion Knight is not shown, but the two of them are safe once Terra dispatches Kefka.

After Cosmos is killed, the Cloud of Darkness speaks to Ultimecia, who tells her Shinryu has begun to stir, and reveals it is Shinryu who is responsible for the cycle of war. The Cloud of Darkness is unfazed by the Emperor's plans, along with Ultimecia's own Time Compression scheme, and focused only on the eternal Void. Later, when the Onion Knight confronts her, Cloud of Darkness asks him why he and the other Warriors are still moving on with Cosmos is gone and there nothing for the boy himself to protect. After losing, the Cloud of Darkness tells the Onion Knight it is too late, claiming they cannot stop the current of change. He replies he is listening to his heart and will not run away, because the determination of his friends encourage him to move forward. The Cloud of Darkness comments that living creatures are fascinating and she will be waiting in the rifts of the Void as she disappears into the darkness, going back to sleep.

Official Quests
The Cloud of Darkness is the central character of "Cloud of Darkness' Quest 013: The Power of Destruction". After kidnapping Terra, she questions Kefka as to the value of going through the trouble of enslaving Terra when they have the manikins, but Kefka claims their supply of manikins is growing limited and any power they can use is helpful. After Kefka leaves Terra regains consciousness, still unable to control her power, and the Cloud of Darkness fights her to see Terra's power for herself. The battle leaves Terra to fall unconscious again, and the Cloud of Darkness wonders if she is fighting for a personal reason instead of for Cosmos, then senses the Onion Knight approaching.

Battle
In battle, Cloud of Darkness' fighting style is Bane of Life, as she uses a wide array of powerful energy beam attacks to drain the opponent's HP, and has the most HP attacks of any character. Her Bravery attacks are limited to attacks of her tentacles, which can attack in one of three ways according to when the circle button is pressed a second time while attacking. Though limited, her Bravery attacks are still very formidable. Her HP attacks cover a wide variety of tactical options and can hit across multiple ranges and altitudes. A drawback is that she moves a bit slowly, and her reliance on HP attacks can leave her vulnerable to counterattacks before she can recover her Brave.

Boss
In Dissidia, Cloud of Darkness is fought in Destiny Odyssey III, Shade Impulse, Distant Glory and Inward Chaos.

In Dissidia 012, she is fought in Clues, An Undocumented Battle, Wisdom or Courage?, and Conclusion of the Cycle chapters of Story Mode.

EX Mode
Ultra Particle Beam MySeaKAyWSs The Cloud of Darkness's EX Mode is Flood of Darkness, where she loses her cape and her skin turns green, identical to her in-game appearance from Final Fantasy III. When in EX Mode, the Cloud of Darkness gains ability "[Null] Particle Beam". This lets her cancel out the lag after she attacks by using an HP attack, allowing her to attack faster in succession and combo her attacks together.

Her EX Burst, Ultra Particle Beam, has her attack with a smaller beam of energy, then summoning a large orb of darkness. The player must hold down to charge a bar up to 120%, allowing the Cloud of Darkness to blast opponents with a powerful beam of energy. Releasing the button at the wrong time will result in the bar dropping to 80% and the Cloud of Darkness firing a smaller beam that does less damage.

Equipment
Cloud of Darkness can equip Rods, Staves, Bangles, Hats, Hairpins, Clothing, and Robes. In Dissidia 012, the Cloud of Darkness can also equip Thrown Weapons and Poles.

Allusions

 * When the Cloud of Darkness uses Aura Ball, she laughs her characteristic laugh from Final Fantasy III.
 * In Shade Impulse II-3, when fighting the Cloud of Darkness with a character other than Onion Knight, one of her pre-battle quotes is "We have had an eternity in the Void to prepare. We will flood this world with darkness---and return all to the Void." This is roughly the same as the dialogue in Final Fantasy III. That scene was removed from the Dissidia 012 version.
 * All of Cloud of Darkness's HP Attacks and her EX Burst are variations of her signature attack in Final Fantasy III, "Particle Beam" ("Wave Cannon" in the Japanese version).
 * When the Cloud of Darkness charges her EX Burst, she takes on the same pose as her original NES battle sprite from Final Fantasy III. She assumes the same pose if Onion Knight uses his EX Burst against her.
 * While Cloud of Darkness's attacks "Tentacle of Pain," "Tentacle of Suffering" and "Aura Ball" did not appear in any game version of Final Fantasy III, they did actually appear in the game's 1992 manga adaptation. The manga, like the game, was written by scenario writer Kenji Terada.
 * Cloud of Darkness seems to dislike the manikins, as they are a foreign presence that upsets the equilibrium of the world. This alludes to her appearing when the equilibrium between light and darkness is destroyed.
 * Cloud of Darkness's opening line towards the Warrior of Light in both games might be an allusion to the fact that she was only defeated after the Warriors of Darkness sacrificed themselves and the Warriors of Light weren't enough to defeat her alone.
 * Cloud of Darkness's opening line towards Cecil in Dissidia is an allusion to how she needed both light and dark energies to invoke the Void's power.
 * In Final Fantasy III, the Warriors of Darkness explain that the Cloud of Darkness is actually made of both darkness and light, and that it was predominantly made of light when they fought it. The Cloud of Darkness's third costume, "Lucent Robe" (lucent meaning giving off light) may be a reference to this side of its nature.
 * When the Cloud of Darkness faces Yuna, it says, "Try and summon us," referring to a line it said to Xande in Final Fantasy III.

Trivia

 * Tetsuya Nomura has stated that when he joined the company, he saw Yoshitaka Amano's original design of the Cloud of Darkness which was not featured in Final Fantasy III, and decided to use the design in a future game once he got the chance.
 * In the Dissidia Ultimania guide, the Cloud of Darkness is described as being genderless and merely takes on the form of a woman. This is implied by Zidane's comment, "Well, she is a lady...I guess," before battling her. In-game however, female pronouns are used when referring to her.
 * With the exceptions of her introduction quotes when fighting Cloud, Squall and the Warrior of Light, the Cloud of Darkness refers to herself as "we." Her use of plural pronouns is explained in her character file as being due to her two tentacles, which have minds and personalities of their own.
 * The Cloud of Darkness is the only defeated Warrior of Chaos that returns to her resting place of her own accord.
 * The Cloud of Darkness is one of only three characters in Dissidia 012 to have one of their outfits modified, the other two being Jecht and Tidus.
 * The Cloud of Darkness shares her English voice actress with Serah Farron from Final Fantasy XIII and Belle in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers. Her English voice actress also voiced Lust from another Square Enix project: Fullmetal Alchemist and its reboot Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
 * The Cloud of Darkness shares her Japanese voice actress with the Cadetmaster from Final Fantasy Type-0 and Kairi's Grandmother from Kingdom Hearts.

Nube de Oscuridad/Dissidia Nube oscura (Dissidia) Wolke der Dunkelheit (Dissidia)