Sephiroth (SSBU)

Sephiroth Descends to Battle! Sephiroth (, Sephiroth) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the third fighter from Square Enix after and. He was revealed on December 10th, 2020 at, and was released as part of Challenger Pack 8 on December 22nd, 2020 as the third downloadable character of. However, Sephiroth could also become playable as early as December 17th, 2020 by defeating him in the limited-time Sephiroth Challenge that was made available from December 17th-22nd. Sephiroth is classified as Fighter #78.

, who has voiced Sephiroth as of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, reprises his role as the character in all regions.

Sephiroth is ranked 27th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him at the end of the A+ tier. Sephiroth's greatest strengths are his great KO power and long range; the latter of which is courtesy of his Masamune, which grants him the ability to apply constant pressure to his opponents without having to risk fighting in close-quarters combat. Sephiroth's Winged Form also grants him increased attack power, higher mobility, super armor on his smash attacks, and a second double jump throughout the form's duration.

However, Sephiroth has some glaring weaknesses. His very light weight and tall hurtbox collectively make him easy to hit and KO in a similar vein to. Sephiroth's long range also comes at the cost of sluggish frame data and the Masamune's hitboxes being very narrow to compensate for their long range. Lastly, the Winged Form is a high-risk, high-reward fighter ability: due to being a comeback-oriented mechanic, it requires Sephiroth to be at a noticeable disadvantage in order to be accessed, and upon dissipating, it will be able to be reactivated only after Sephiroth is KO'd.

Despite his shortcomings, Sephiroth is seen as a high tier in the current metagame, with players such as, , and showing what he is capable of.

Attributes
Sephiroth is a tall, lightweight fighter, tied with, , and  as the 7th lightest in the game. He has the 14th slowest walking speed, yet his dashing speed and traction are both above-average, with the former being marginally faster than 's. Despite his height, Sephiroth's crouch is deceptively low. In the air, Sephiroth's overall jumping force and air acceleration are both average, he has slow air speed and below-average air friction, and yet he has the 11th fastest falling speed and above-average gravity. Notably, Sephiroth's short hop is tied with 's for the lowest in the game, which aids him very well in the neutral game.

Sephiroth's possesses a unique fighter ability: the Winged Form. Like Aura and Super Special Moves, it is a comeback mechanic that activates when Sephiroth has received sufficient damage. This threshold is influenced by the score count/stock count; it activates at ≈90% when the score/stock count is even and will activate earlier or later if Sephiroth's score/stock count is behind or above the opponent's, respectively. Upon activation, Sephiroth's wing unfurls and grants him a third jump, a 1.3× damage multiplier, and much higher mobility overall. In particular, Sephiroth gains the 7th fastest dashing speed (tied with '), the highest traction (surpassing 's), as well as higher air speed, air acceleration and air friction. Sephiroth's smash attacks also gain damage-based armor that can withstand up to 20%, making them incredibly risky to challenge, save for a few exceptions. Winged Form deactivates after a cetain amount of time based on attacking and especially KOing opponents.

Sephiroth's ground game offers him fairly crucial tools, with a moveset reminiscent of to similar effects. Neutral attack, despite having the shortest range of his grounded moves, is Sephiroth's fastest move while having decent melee range for a neutral attack, making it one of his few reliable tools to quickly ward off an opponent. Forward tilt has incredibly long range (comparable to Simon's) and can be angled, making it a superb spacing option and a viable KO option at high percentages when fresh, especially in Winged Form. Up tilt boasts incredible vertical range, a decently long duration, can scoop opponents in front of him and renders his upper body intangible for a brief period. Down tilt is Sephiroth's fastest tilt attack and, although it is slightly slower than Cloud's down tilt, it functions almost identically to his: it boasts great range by propelling Sephiroth forward and significantly lowers his hurtbox, giving him a way to punish more ranged attacks. Dash attack, despite being fairly punishable due to being his slowest melee attack, covers a lot of ground and has respectable power, making it useful as both a burst option and a situational but potent KO option.

Sephiroth's smash attacks also boast varying degrees of utility. Forward smash is a very long-ranged slash that is potent at punishing and spacing, especially in Winged Form, and boasts excellent KO potential at the middle of the blade, but is very slow and easily punishable. Up smash is an overhead arcing slash, much like and 's up smashes. Although it is weaker than theirs and slower than Ganondorf's, it is Sephiroth's best anti-air option due to sporting more range overall, to the point that it allows him to cover an area wider than an entire platform of Town and City. Down smash only hits in front of Sephiroth, but it is faster than his forward smash and has the unique property of becoming even stronger if the Masamune's blade hits the ground, dealing immense shield damage. This makes it a good mix up tool to break shields and a niche edgeguarding option due to how low the hitbox extends.

Sephiroth's air game also comprised of long ranged options. Neutral aerial has the shortest range, but is his fastest option in the air, covers his entire body, and its overall low lag allows it to be used very flexibly, such as for warding off close-ranged opponents, including from out of shield, or for starting or continuing combos. Forward and back aerials serve similar purposes as spacing options in the air. Forward aerial comes out faster and is a stabbing attack with a tipper sweetspot and has a unique property where it can be used to pierce solid walls and perform a pseudo-wall cling up to three times in a row before landing. Back aerial is Sephiroth's strongest aerial and is a slashing attacking with a middle sweetspot, making it incredibly deadly in Winged Form, even if used from a short hop. Up aerial, like up smash, covers a wide arc above Sephiroth, though its sluggish frame data makes it punisable if used recklessly. Sephiroth's down aerial, Hell's Gate, is a powerful stall-then-fall that is a meteor smash at the start; when combined with its massive range, going an incredible distance underneath surfaces, it can reliably 2 frame punish an opponent.

Sephiroth's grab game is surprisingly effective compared to other sword users. He holds the distinction of having three combo throws, though each gradually becomes less effective the more damaged the opponent is. Down throw is Sephiroth's most varied combo throw until mid-percentages, as it can lead into neutral, forward, back and up aerials, or be used for mix-ups. It also becomes even more effective in Winged Form in spite of rage, as Sephiroth's enhanced mobility can allow him to catch up to the opponent faster. At low percentages, up throw can set the opponent up for a neutral aerial or up tilt, the former of which can lead to longer combos and the latter of which can lead to juggling. Back throw launches at a favorable angle while having low ending lag. This makes it notable for leading into follow-ups until high percentages, including an infamous KO confirm into back aerial, which becomes especially dangerous when he is in Winged Form. In stark contrast to his other throws, forward throw lacks combo potential, but is nevertheless useful. Thanks to being a semi-spike, it can be used to set up an edge-guard or a tech chase, which could potentially allow him to score an early KO.

Sephiroth's side special, Shadow Flare, is unique among chargeable projectiles in that, while the initial projectile deals little damage and cause flinching, it generates larger, darkness projectiles that do not immediately attack the opponent, but instead orbit around them and deal damage by homing in. Depending on how long it is charged, one to three projectiles can be generated by a single Shadow Flare, and up to five projectiles can be orbiting a single opponent at a time. Its range is also comparable to his sword attacks on top of having low lag all around, making it easily spammable and useful for spacing.

Sephiroth's neutral special, Flare, is a more traditional projectile that can be charged between three different projectiles of different properties: Flare is the quickest and travels slow but has the longest range; Megaflare is stronger overall and has a larger blast radius, at the cost of some range; and Gigaflare has the shortest range and the longest charge time, but has the largest blast radius and deals the most damage (enough to instantly break a shield while in Winged Form) and the strongest knockback, making it an effective way of pressuring at the edge for an edge-guard, or as a way to extend the damage the opponent takes as punishment from a shield break.

Sephiroth's up special, Blade Dash, is a dashing blade attack that functions differently depending on if the button was tapped or held. Tapped Blade Dash is a single-hitting move that sweetspots edges easily. When held, the move becomes Octaslash, which travels slightly farther, has huge range and hits multiple times, dealing higher damage and knockback at the cost of sweetspotting edges.

Lastly, his down special, Scintilla, is unique among counterattacks in that it will always produce a hitbox regardless of whether or not any attacks were countered, while its multi-hitting nature allows it to pressure shields, and is one of the strongest counters in the game with a 1.5× damage multiplier. However, Scintilla only covers in front of Sephiroth and has a damage cap of 25%; any attack that exceeds this cap will break the move, doing no damage but putting Sephiroth in a flinching animation and pushing him slightly backwards.

One of Sephiroth's most defining traits is his range. He notably sports among the longest overall range in Ultimate, thanks to his signature weapon, the Masamune, and surpassed only by in this regard. This gives him a great advantage in terms of safety and pressure. Unlike other swordfighters, Sephiroth's hitboxes differ between his stabbing and slashing attacks: his stabs (up tilt, down smash, forward aerial, and down aerial) have sweetspots positioned along the tip of Masamune (very much like  and 's own tippers) with a mediumspot at the center of the blade, whereas his slashes (forward tilt, forward smash, up smash, back aerial, and up aerial) have sweetspots positioned along the upper center of its blade (similarly to 's inverse tipper, but with better range overall) with mediumspots at the tip. Opponents can be deterred from approaching over fear of being hit at any time, and the various sweet spots force opponents into certain positions to avoid the most damage, which Sephiroth can use to trap and punish them. Sephiroth's extremely low short hop also helps him in the neutral game, as it allows him to mix up whichever attack he will use, allowing his other attacks to be kept fresh until he is in a prime position to use them. Said tools, combined with his grounded mobility, can sometimes even help him counteract opponents with good zoning games, such as, , or Simon. Sephiroth's range can also allow him to effectively poke opponents, gradually whittling away at both their health and patience until they are forced to take drastic actions that could easily backfire. Thanks to Shadow Flare, the opponent can also eventually be put into said disadvantage more easily at best, or simply force them to avoid the damage and thus reset the neutral game at worst. His Winged Form helps significantly on both regards, as his increased mobility allows Sephiroth to reposition himself more easily while also increasing the damage he can deal and, unlike other fighter abilities like Limit Gauge or Rebellion Gauge, it will not disappear until Sephiroth is KO'd or has inflicted a lot of damage, which can potentially lead to him turning the tables on the opponent should they try to play around him carelessly.

However, Sephiroth also possesses a notable amount of weaknesses. The most notable is his frailty: Sephiroth's tall frame results in him being prone to get more easily hit by most attacks, which is further compounded by him being a fast falling lightweight. Much like, these traits collectively result in Sephiroth being easy to combo and KO compared to many other characters of his size and/or weight. Adding to this is Sephiroth's recovery: his polarized air physics result in him covering a mediocre distance midair, meaning that careless use of his resources can lead Sephiroth to be easily edge-guarded or gimped, in spite of both of his recovery options having their perks. Blade Dash, his quickest recovery option, does not cover as much distance as other recovery moves and does not fully protect Sephiroth other than from the front, which can leave him vulnerable to sufficiently disjointed moves. On the other hand, Octaslash offers excellent protection that can deter opponents from edge-guarding Sephiroth because of its range and power making it useful for edge-guard breaking, but has the slowest start-up, leaving Sephiroth vulnerable to being put at a worse position in the air. Semi-spikes can also be especially deadly for Sephiroth, as his air physics do not give him too much air time.

Furthermore, Sephiroth's overall frame data is unimpressive to compensate for his long range. Even his fastest aerial attack, neutral aerial, has mediocre start-up for an attack of its kind. This means that opponents can easily punish Sephiroth if certain moves are spammed or used carelessly. On top of this, Sephiroth's sword moves at the base of the Masamune all deal poor damage, knockback, and pushback, meaning that if improperly spaced, Sephiroth's moves can be easily punished at close range. Moves like up tilt and forward aerial have narrow ranges that can easily be avoided or shielded, while up aerial and down aerial are highly commital attacks that are sometimes difficult to reliably connect. Outside of neutral aerial, Sephiroth's melee-based moves also tend to have high ending lag, which results in him not having much in the way of mixing up his pressure at close range. Adding to this is Sephiroth's grab game, which is polarized in spite of its respectable utility; his grabs are short-ranged, his pummel is merely average, and his throws lack KO potential due to their meager damage outputs, average knockback, and/or unsuitable launching angles. All of these issues result in a poor close-quarters game that, when combined with his frailty, collectively culminates in Sephiroth being vulnerable to rushdown-based pressure if the opponent is able to keep up with his defense, such as or.

Another prominent issue on Sephiroth's moveset is his inconsistent KO potential. Due to his moves' sourspots, Sephiroth must always be at a distance from the opponent in order for them to KO reliably. His differing sweetspot mechanics can also work against him, due to how varied their locations are. His stab attacks possess narrow ranges and require the opponent to be at their longest range in order to be effective, which can result in them missing. On the other hand, his slash attacks do not require perfect spacing at long range to be effective, but their sweetspots are harder to land as a result of being located between the weaker sourspots and mediumspots. In regard to sword attacks, Octaslash should also be noted in that it only becomes consistently reliable for KOing while the Winged Form is active. Outside of his sweetspotted sword attacks, Sephiroth does not have many reliable ways to KO an opponent. Although dash attack's clean hit KOs at reasonable percentages, its slow start-up can make it easily predictable.

Flare's decent damage output is mostly counterbalanced by its middling knockback and slow start-up and speed, making them easy to shield, absorb, or reflect. This results in it failing to KO at reasonable percentages like Megaflare and Gigaflare, which themselves are compensated by even less range and even slower start-up. As a result, Sephiroth must be careful when it comes to being able to secure KOs in spite of his impressive damage racking potential. Although Shadow Flare has low overall lag, it still must be used wisely, especially if used by a character with a reflector, as it can result in Sephiroth being struck for high damage himself and allow the opponent to capitalize on it. While Octaslash covers a great distance on its own and is risky to edge-guard, characters with counterattacks can easily use this to their advantage, which can leave Sephiroth at an even worse spot for recovering. Finally, despite its animation suggesting otherwise, Scintilla cannot reflect projectiles whatsoever (although it can stop them without effort). It also does not directly protect Sephiroth (especially from behind) and its damaging hitbox is treated as a projectile, making it a double-edged sword if reflected.

Last but not least, Sephiroth's Winged Form suffers from its own limitations. Despite the wide array of benefits it grants, including being able to mitigate the previously mentioned weaknesses, it only activates whenever Sephiroth receives damage, and is further dependent on his standing relative to the opponent. While the Winged Form can activate as low as 30% if Sephiroth is 2 stocks behind the opponent, it conversely activates as late as 110% if Sephiroth is 2 stocks ahead. Thus, the Winged Form suffers from consistency issues similarly to Aura in that Sephiroth will have to play very carefully if he is to keep his advantage, which is easier said than done due to his noticeable frailty. Although the Winged Form's damage-based armor on Sephiroth's smash attacks can definitely help him power through incoming offense, reckless usage of his smash attacks can render him predictable and open to being punished. Additionally, Sephiroth cannot regain the Winged Form until he gets KO'd, which can result in Winged form going to waste if Sephiroth is not able to capitalize on its benefits properly.

In the end, Sephiroth is arguably the most unique swordfighter in Ultimate, as his playstyle is a polarizing hybrid of the glass cannon and turtle archetypes, resulting in a high learning curve. His high overall damage output, immense range, varied sweetspots and effective projectiles grant him a respectably solid ranged melee playstyle, as it can become difficult for the opponent to approach Sephiroth should he consistently make the right choices, and it is equally difficult to surmount him should he break through the opponent's zone or defense. However, Sephiroth's inconsistent KO potential, polarized grab game, and poor close-quarters game can leave a much-to-be-desired offensive playstyle, and he is just as susceptible to pressure as much as he can dish it out himself. The benefits offered from his Winged Form can seriously help him on this regard, as it can help him greatly recover from a deficit should he be able to survive long enough, but his frailty means he also must play carefully in order to retain this advantage.

Update history
Sephiroth was buffed slightly via update 11.0.0, in which Scintilla's last hit was enlarged in order to link more reliably with its looping hits. Aside from this, Blade Dash's angle was adjusted and a glitch involving Shadow Flare was fixed.

As a result, Sephiroth's competitive standing has been virtually unchanged since his release.

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Sephiroth's hitboxes, see here.
 * Sephiroth has a unique fighter ability called the Winged Form. While active, it increases his overall damage output by applying a multiplier of 1.3×, improves his mobility by applying multipliers to his attributes, and grants him both a third jump and damage-based armor to his smash attacks. The following moveset list details the properties of all attacks when the Winged Form is not active. The conditions for the Winged Form to activate can be read here.
 * Sephiroth's sword, the Masamune, possesses extremely long range, yet a generally slow attack speed. It has different sweetspots depending on the attack used.
 * For slashing attacks, the sweetspot is located approximately at the middle of the Masamune's blade, a sourspot covers the handle and inner portion of the blade, and a mediumspot covers the tip of the blade. The sweetspot for slashing attacks is signified by a glowing area in the middle of the swing.
 * For stabbing attacks, the sweetspot covers the tip of the Masamune's blade, while a mediumspot covers the blade.
 * For simplicity, if the handle deals 8.5%, the blade deals 10%, the tip deals 11%, and that part of the attack has no other hitboxes, it is formatted on the table as 8.5%/10%/11%.
 * Sephiroth's forward aerial can pierce walls and cling to them, similarly to Dragon Lunge. After piercing a wall, Sephiroth can choose to jump and thus boost his recovery by moving up or pressing the jump button/attack button, or let go of the wall by pressing away/down or waiting long enough.

On-screen appearance

 * Slowly descends onto the stage while emitting a blackish purple aura and losing a few feathers.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Uses his right hand to gesture to the opponent to approach him, saying ("Come after me.")
 * Side taunt: Assumes the kasumi-no-kamae, a stance in . It is based on his fighting stance as a guest party member in Final Fantasy VII, as well as the climax of the game in which the metaphysical Sephiroth assumes the stance against Cloud before being defeated by him.
 * Down taunt: Shifts the side of his body forward and chuckles sinisterly while emitting a blackish purple aura. The pose heavily resembles the one he assumed during the cutscene in Final Fantasy VII where he destroyed Nibelheim, while the aura is based on the one he emits during his entry cutscene before his boss fight in Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Idle poses

 * Holds the Masamune downward with his opposite arm under it and his heel up.
 * Shifts his position to the other side.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses
All of Sephiroth's victory screens occur in a fiery area instead of the standard area where most of the victory screens occur. This is a direct reference to the Nibelheim Incident from Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Instead of having a colored background behind him when his name appears, the screen will be tinted red. If Sephiroth is the leader of a winning team, he will use his special victory screens without any of his teammates being seen, similarly to.

If Cloud is present during the match, Sephiroth has a chance of saying ("I will never be a memory.") during any of his three victory poses. This is a reference to his final line of dialogue from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and, by proxy, his reveal trailer for Ultimate.

 SephirothVictoryPose1SSBU.gif SephirothVictoryPose2SSBU.gif SephirothVictoryPose3SSBU.gif SephirothTeamVictoryPoseSSBU.gif 
 * Left: With his back turned, Sephiroth turns his head toward the camera while chuckling. He then turns around and slowly walks deeper into the flames until he disappears. It is based on the second scene of the Nibelheim Incident cutscene.
 * Up: Slowly raises his head and glares at the camera, saying ("I will usher you as many times as you want.") It references the first scene of the Nibelheim Incident cutscene.
 * Right: While turning his back to the camera, he swings the Masamune and assumes his Winged Form, saying ("Remember me through your pain.")
 * Team: In Team Battles where Sephiroth is not the leader, he faces to the side in the same pose as his up-inputted victory pose, keeping his face away from the camera. This resembles his victory animation in Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Sephiroth players (SSBU)


 * - Co-mained Sephiroth alongside and was the best Sephiroth player in the world prior to relegating him to a secondary or an occasional counterpick. He is the only Sephiroth player to win a major, doing so at  and using the character for all of top 8.
 * - The best Sephiroth player in Europe and a top 10 player in Europe for the first half of 2023. He has placed highly at several European events, including 3rd at the superregional, 5th at the superregional , and 25th at the majors and.
 * - The best Sephiroth player in the world in 2021 and currently uses the character alongside and . He was the first Sephiroth player to place well at an offline event, placing 2nd at the superregional . He has also placed 5th at the major  and 9th at the major  and the supermajor.
 * - The best Sephiroth player in Australia. He has seen strong results outside of Australia with Sephiroth, including placing 4th at the superregional, 17th at the major , and 33rd at the supermajor , notably upsetting in the latter tournament.
 * - Uses Sephiroth as a secondary alongside or as a counterpick. He has placed 5th at  with solo-Sephiroth and 2nd at,  and  with Sephiroth as a secondary.

Tier placement and history
Initial reactions to Sephiroth were positive overall; players such as, , and  believed him to be a top tier fighter. Dabuz and Tweek, in particular, claimed that Sephiroth could potentially be a top 5 fighter, citing his incredible range, his unique and powerful projectiles, Scintilla bolstering his advantage state, and his Winged Form being a very strong comeback tool when mastered. However, other players (such as ) believed that Sephiroth's frailty, poor disadvantage state, inconsistency and generally slow frame data could prevent him from reaching such status. Although he was released during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sephiroth saw success in online play, thanks to players such as.

Following the return of offline competitive play, opinions on Sephiroth mellowed out as players identified how his light weight, tall stature, and unimpressive frame data were noticable weaknesses. In addition, many players believed Sephiroth was more difficult to consistently play at a top level than most fighters, which led Sephiroth to garner a rather small playerbase compared to other top-tier fighters. Despite this, Sephiroth's overall representation remained strong thanks to performances from players such as, Ned, and , all of whom have achieved respectable placements and wins at majors while using Sephiroth; this was most notably demonstrated by KEN's win at where he used only Sephiroth throughout the top 8. However, these results were either set back by the players' inconsistency with the character or were complemented with other characters. For example, KEN mostly played at Battle of BC 4 prior to top 8, while his Sephiroth became less consistent as time went on, including going 1-2 at the invitational ; he has since regulated Sephiroth to an occasional counterpick. Overall, Sephiroth's smaller playerbase compared to other top-tier characters, as well as his general inconsistency at higher level play, has led many to consider him as just a high-tier character, which is reflected in his placement on the current tier list, where he is ranked 27th.

: The Chosen Ones
Uniquely, Sephiroth's Classic Mode route functions similarly to Super Smash Bros. Brawl's Boss Battles Mode: each of his opponents are the bosses of Ultimate (excluding Galeem and Dharkon), referencing his status as the final boss in Final Fantasy VII. The title of his route also references his leitmotif from Final Fantasy VII, "Those Chosen by the Planet".

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Sephiroth has  accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light
Due to his status as downloadable content, Sephiroth does not have a legitimate role in World of Light. Instead, he is unlocked for use in the mode after freeing 10 fighters from Galeem's control. Loading an existing save file that meets this condition before downloading Sephiroth will result in him being immediately unlocked.

Interestingly, Sephiroth's trailer takes place during World of Light, where he makes his presence known by slicing Galeem in half and fighting the heroes himself. Additionally, other DLC characters that have no role in World of Light are present fighting Galeem before Sephiroth makes his entrance, including Erdrick, Banjo and Kazooie.

Spirit
Sephiroth's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Sephiroth has been downloaded. Unlocking Sephiroth in World of Light allows the player to preview the spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. His fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with his artwork in Ultimate.

Trivia

 * Sephiroth's internal codename is "edge".
 * Sephiroth is the second fighter to be revealed at a non-Nintendo event/presentation, the first being . Both of them were revealed at (Joker in 2018 and Sephiroth in 2020).
 * Oddly, Sephiroth's English trailer shown during The Game Awards is slightly different from the one uploaded subsequently to Nintendo's official channels: the crossover card states Super Smash Bros. Ultimate × Final Fantasy during The Game Awards, whereas in later uploads it displays Super Smash Bros. Ultimate × Final Fantasy VII, in line with 's trailer for Super Smash Bros. 4.
 * According to Masahiro Sakurai, Sephiroth was developed to feel like a boss character while having boss-like strength for players to enjoy when using him.
 * Sakurai also mentioned that the incorporation of the Masamune and making Sephiroth's attacks easy to use were two problems that occurred during Sephiroth's development.
 * Sephiroth is one of three characters to fight Master Hand and Crazy Hand on a stage other than in Classic Mode, with the others being  and Joker.
 * Sephiroth's introduction tagline is a reference to his leitmotif, "One-Winged Angel". It may also reference one of his battle quotes in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II in which he says, "Descend, heartless angel."
 * Sephiroth's trailer makes several references to both the original Final Fantasy VII game, the game's remake, and the CGI-animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, with much of his and Cloud's dialogue being adapted from the latter, including him nearly impaling Mario using his Masamune. Several shots in the trailer are direct recreations of shots from Advent Children.
 * His introduction tagline pose references his official artwork from Final Fantasy VII.
 * Like Cloud, the Super Smash Bros. series marks the third time that Sephiroth has been playable in a fighting game/series, with the first two being Ehrgeiz and the Dissidia Final Fantasy series.
 * Sephiroth's render resembles a flipped version of his original Dissidia Final Fantasy render, albeit in 3D and with his wing displayed.
 * Sephiroth is the only character from an already-represented third-party universe to not be an Echo Fighter of the former, as and  are echoes of  and  respectively.
 * Sephiroth is the first DLC character who must be unlocked through fighting him, although this is only for early access and not a permanent feature.
 * Sephiroth is the only fighter whose Classic Mode consists entirely of bosses and, by extension, lacks any fighters as opponents.
 * Sephiroth is the only DLC character to have a unique quote when winning against certain characters. He is also the second third-party character with this distinction, following.
 * Sephiroth,, , Hero, Banjo & Kazooie, Pyra, Mythra, and Sora are the only fighters who use their walking animation when navigating through the map in World of Light.
 * Sephiroth's victory screens load much faster than other characters, likely due to the fiery background being pre-rendered instead of a modeled setting.
 * Sephiroth is one of three fighters who are not featured in any Spirit Battles whatsoever, with the other two being and . This makes him the only fighter in Fighters Pass Volume 2 not to be in a Spirit Battle.