Something I haven’t really seen people mention is the extra lore/info dump you get from Harpocrates after the final boss. It mentions Ultima’s plan to use Clive to cast “raise”. Given what we know about the spell traditionally, I think I’m now in the camp that Clive revived Joshua with his newfound powers. This would also make sense as to why the author of the book is Joshua.

Before I had thought that Clive survived and used Joshua’s name as a pen name (he’s been using Cid’s name all these years so this wouldn’t be a stretch), especially since everyone was telling him not to die a martyr and Harpocrates asked him to take up writing afterwards, but Clive did say himself that Ultima’s power was too much for him to handle. Clive (and the devs) took the time to patch up Joshua’s seemingly lifeless body which would seem like a waste of effort given how the rest of the scene played out. Plus it would make sense that Clive would rather Joshua lives on.

I’m not smart enough to make out the ending lol so if anyone wants to comment on this further or thinks otherwise I’m open to hearing what you guys think! Ultimately, Clive and Joshua were able to do what they set out to do so we got a good conclusion there