Why does Tetsuya Nomura include pauldrons on the left shoulder and not on the right?

[SuperMillionaire]

That still doesn't explain why Cloud removed his right pauldron.

Sephiroth is officially left-handed; he was right-handed in the first Kingdom Hearts, but officially, he's left handed in all other appearances, and thus if Cloud had to remove his right pauldron, Sephiroth would reciprocally have to remove his left pauldron.

Perhaps Cloud could have redesigned his outfit in some other way instead of removing his right pauldron, which leaves his right shoulder exposed.

[BarelySeeAtAll]

hence Cloud went with a different look to Zack

He wanted to!!

stop itttt

[Iceglow]

A lot of armours over the millenia have featured just one pauldron or shoulder guard of any sort. Ancient Roman Gladiators often had just one Pauldron if they even had any armour at all (for the best examples of designs made on actual historical references watch episodes of Spartacus Blood & Sand which shows the very pauldrons of leather we're talking about here)

As for Zack having 2 Pauldrons...in the ending of FFVII Crisis Core Cloud too has 2 pauldrons displayed as seen here, note mega spoilers. It would seem Cloud removed a pauldron from his uniform probably for personal preference of mobility or style but there is also a possibility that his pauldron gets bent, broken or damaged and he cannot replace it so just discards it.

There probably is a reason for the use of a single pauldron but atm I'm not in the mood to go digging for it and will only do so if pressed by the one who calls me a guilty pleasure.

[SuperMillionaire]

And that right pauldron gets damaged because he uses his right arm more often than his left arm?

[VeloZer0]

I'm going to go with Cloud and Zack both had one pauldron in FF7 and they changed it to two for the CC FMVs because one looked silly when rendered in a higher definition FMV.
Not that I don't think they agonized about the decision to change it.

[SuperMillionaire]

Oh, so they added the right pauldron in Crisis Core.

But what about Advent Children? Since he got new pauldrons, and only wore his left pauldron, what did he do with his right pauldron?

[VeloZer0]

I'm sure they have a detailed explanation in the Ultimania and it isn't an oversight.

[SuperMillionaire]

Well then where is the Ultimania, and what does it say?

[Jaffer]

SOLDIERs were always supposed to have two pauldrons, the SOLDIER enemies you fight did, they were just lazy with Zack's design (or he was genuinely that unimportant, take your pick). I don't think Cloud destroyed his right shoulder at some point on a job and damaged his left ad enough that the only way he could repair it is with sticking another plate on it with gigantic bolts sticking out. But it did accomplish the look what he wanted it too: "Ex-SOLDIER, but SOLDIER nonetheless, don't **** with me." I assume that he just got used to the weight distribution by the time AC rolled around.

[SuperMillionaire]

Perhaps then he should have just removed both pauldrons altogether if that was the case...

[champagne supernova]

Maybe he misplaced it before he went on his first mission with AVALANCHE and by the time he got home, he forgot about it/preferred only having one.

[ChickenHeart]

Maybe he wanted to be different and make a fashion statement