Okay but Cloud being"denial" is funny as hell because it's not "I can't/won't believe Zack is dead", it's "There is no Zack Fair. There is only Cloud Strife."
Its actually worse then that.
Cloud joined Shinra at a young age after promising to protect Tifa if she ever needed it cause he wanted to be like Sephiroth.
He lost both his homes (Shinra and Nebilheim), lost his only family (his mom), believed he lost his only friend from Nebilheim (tifa) and failed to keep his promise to her, lost his idol (Sephiroth) and felt a deep sense of betrayal, lost his career and had many career paths now blocked (cause Shinra), got captured and medically tortured/expiramented on by a sadistic maniac for years, was rescued and cared for by his other friend (if you don't know what goes into caring for a comatose patient then I'll tell you this: they can't eat or use the toilet by themselves. That is a very personal level of care), Cloud wakes up only to find Zack dying and he had only been a burden to him the entire time and likey believes Zack would have lived if Cloud had just died, leading to survivors guilt on top of everything else.
Oh, and Cloud is canonically 21 at the start of the game, and it was stated that Nebilheim burned 5 years prior. So he was only 15 when his world burned, so to speak. It's also stated that Cloud left to join the army 2 years before that, so he became a child soldier at 13.
Most people can be sent mentally and emotionally spiraling from just one of these factors. Cloud really is that blorbo that the creators love to torment, huh.
