Square Enix is aiming to make Cloud a better team member in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, and as part of that initiative, he'll come equipped with a crucial sword right from the start.
If you played the original Final Fantasy Tactics, you might not have the fondest memory of Final Fantasy 7 OG Cloud, who isn't available until about halfway through Chapter 4. The process of adding Cloud to your team is long and convoluted, and once you do have him by your side, he needs the Materia Blade, which also isn't easy to find, to perform his Limit abilities, essentially chaining him to a specific weapon that otherwise might not be the most viable choice.
There are other complaints about Cloud in Final Fantasy Tactics, but Square Enix is specifically addressing the Materia Blade situation in the upcoming remake. Talking to Future Games Show during Gamescom 2025 (timestamp), The Ivalice Chronicles director Kazutoyo Maehiro admitted Cloud isn't the easiest team member in Final Fantasy Tactics and touched on some vague and specific plans to remedy that.
"Some people might remember that Cloud was a little hard to use and utilize within your party," Maehiro said. "But we have made some different tweaks that do improve upon that. And in order to use his special Limit abilities, you needed a specific sword. But luckily, for The Ivalice Chronicles, when Cloud joins your party he already has the sword."
Now, you might think that Square just left the location of the original sword empty now that Cloud comes auto-equipped with it, but no, there's something to be discovered there, and Maehiro said, "I hope that everyone will play and discover what is where the original sword was."
Challenge accepted.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles comes out on PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch on September 30.
