 Aerith has received an overall positive reception from critics . <unk> referred to her as a " gaming legend . " <unk> 's Stuart <unk> opined that although Aerith " represented the token damsel in distress , " she " broke the mould in terms of personality , " possessing " an admirable <unk> that was not brassy nor off @-@ putting . " In 2007 , she was included in Tom 's Games list of top 50 greatest female characters in video game history , for her death scene and the beauty of her appearance and personality . That same year , she was named the fifth best character of all time in Dengeki PlayStation 's retrospective awards feature about the original PlayStation . IGN ranked her the number two in their top Final Fantasy VII character list – a rank higher than the game 's protagonist , Cloud Strife . GameTrailers ranked her at the top of their list of " <unk> who are out of your league " in 2010 . Heath <unk> of <unk> ranked Aerith as fifth on his 2012 top list of Final Fantasy characters and wrote she " has become an icon in not only the Final Fantasy series , but also in video game history . " Her relation with Cloud has also received positive response , including the two being listed in IGN 's article about the best video game romances . 
