Cloud of Darkness



The Cloud of Darkness (暗闇の雲 Kurayami no Kumo lit. The Dark Cloud) is the Final Boss of Final Fantasy III. She appears to be a green, naked, humanoid female, but only the top of her torso is shown. Although she is the final boss, she does not appear in the game until the very end.

Story
The Cloud of Darkness plays no role in the story until the Warriors of Light confront Xande in the World of Darkness. After his death the Cloud of Darkness appears, and the imbalance caused by Xande causes her to decide to return the world to a state of nothingness. A battle ensues in which the Cloud of Darkness kills the Warriors of Light without difficulty, seemingly ending any resistance to her plan.

However, the Warriors of Light are revived by their former allies and return to the World of Darkness to confront her. At first the Cloud of Darkness is still too powerful for them, but the Warriors of Darkness sacrifice themselves to weaken her, thus making her vulnerable. The Cloud of Darkness unleashes her full power onto the Warriors of Light, but in the end, she is defeated and her plan to extinguish all life is unfulfilled.

Battle

 * Cloud of Darkness (Boss)

The Cloud of Darkness is fought twice in Final Fantasy III. The first time she is invincible and cannot be damaged in any way. The second time, she is the Final Boss of the game.

Music
The original battle theme for the Cloud of Darkness was called "Saigo no shitou" ("Final Battle to the Death"). The track is split into three parts, each successive part faster than the last. The OST also includes an arrangement by The Black Mages. The Black Mages included a rearrangement of the theme in their third studio album. The theme was retitled "Kurayaminokumo" ("The Cloud of Darkness")

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Chaos has summoned a combined force of Final Fantasy's ultimate villains in an attempt to gain control of a number of Crystals, resulting in total control of the Final Fantasy worlds. Cloud of Darkness is one of these villains. She stands as the villain opposing Onion Knight. Interestingly, the Ultimania guide for the game has listed her as genderless, possibly because she is just a physical manifestation of the imbalance between light and dark. Her appearance was based from the original Amano sketch, as she is now more "human"-looking with pale skin, silver hair, and a cloak. She is actually wearing clothes, albeit extremely revealing ones. She does, however, still have the tentacled mouths from her original sprite. Her alternate costume differs only in that the outside of her cloak is blue, rather than red.

Cloud of Darkness' appearances thus far have been limited, but she has been seen battling Onion Knight and is apparently working with Kefka Palazzo. In one trailer, Cloud of Darkness attempts to attack Terra Branford, who is not visible to the viewer. However, Kefka bats her hand away and she is visibly annoyed and questions Kefka's actions, only to be reprimanded. Within the ranks of the Warriors of Chaos, Cloud of Darkness wishes to destroy the world and possibly all of reality as well, along with Kefka, Kuja and Exdeath, as part of the destruction faction, the group that remains loyal to Chaos. In battle, Cloud of Darkness attacks using various waves and blasts of dark energy, and her tentacled mouths can extend and whirl about to attack as well. She has been described as a "wave-cannon master", and her attacks do varying damage depending on the timing of their strikes, allowing powerful combos if the player can time them correctly. Her EX mode is to change into the familiar green skinned version of herself as seen in Final Fantasy III, and her EX Burst is "Super Wave Cannon", in which the player holds the Circle button until the displayed gauge reaches 120% in order to complete the charge for the attack. Her alternate costume's EX mode has a closer resemblance to her Nintendo DS appearance, coinciding with Luneth being Onion Knight's alternate costume.

Her voice will be provided by Ikeda Masako, who previously voiced Gillian Hewley in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, in the Japanese version.

Ivalice Alliance
The Totema Famfrit from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and the Esper Famfrit in Final Fantasy XII are loosely based on the Cloud of Darkness.