Sephiroth (SSBU)

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Sephiroth in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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Universe	Final Fantasy
Availability	Downloadable
Final Smash	Supernova

“	Sephiroth Descends to Battle!	”
—Introduction Tagline

Sephiroth (セフィロス, Sephiroth) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the third third-party fighter from Square Enix after Cloud and Hero. He was confirmed as a playable character on December 10th, 2020 at The Game Awards 2020, and will be released in December 2020 as the third downloadable character from Fighters Pass Vol. 2. He is classified as fighter #78.

Toshiyuki Morikawa, who has voiced Sephiroth since Kingdom Hearts, reprises his role as Sephiroth. His base design for Ultimate is based on his design from Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, a prequel to Final Fantasy VII on the PSP, while his Coatless design is from the final boss fight in Final Fantasy VII.

Moveset

Sephiroth's full moveset is currently unknown but is likely to be fully showcased on his respective Mr. Sakurai Presents video presentation on the 17th of December.

Currently, parts of his moveset have been showcased in his reveal trailer:

• Sephiroth wields his signature weapon, Masamune, which possesses extremely long reach but a slow attack speed.
• He can stab Masamune against walls and jump afterwards, acting somewhat like a wall grapple.
• His up smash appears to be a wide upward swing, similar to Hero's up tilt.
• His down aerial appears to be a downwards stab, a homage to an infamous scene in Final Fantasy VII where he kills Aerith with a stab from above. This downward stab was then named Hell's Gate in Dissidia.
• His up aerial is a backflipping slash above himself.
• He has a projectile that causes three dark spheres to orbit around his opponent, which explode some time after. It is currently unclear what triggers the explosion.
• He appears to possess a counterattack, resembling Scintilla in Dissidia. It generates a honeycomb-like barrier that deals multiple hits upon counterattacking.
• His Final Smash seems to cause a cinematic that involves him transforming into Safer∙Sephiroth (his final boss form) for an attack, likely Super Nova. Fighters caught in the attack face towards him with their backs to the camera, much like Cloud and his party do in his final boss battle.
• Some of his taunts and idle animations were shown:
  • One involves him turning to stare menacingly at the screen, which is likely a reference to the Nibelheim Incident.
  • He has two variations of him readying Masamune in a battle pose, one of which is a direct reference to the final duel between him and Cloud from Final Fantasy VII.
• He possesses a unique fighter ability to unfurl his black wing, although it is unknown how this is accomplished. While his wing is active, he gains access to several moves, and his wing will glow purple upon initiating them:
  • One of his forward attacks becomes a wind-up stab forwards.
  • One of his attacks becomes a wild flurry of 8 sword slashes, loosely resembling Octoslash in Dissidia. Directional arrows appear during its charging phase.
  • One of his special moves appears to be a chargeable attack that throws explosive fireballs at opponents, resembling Shadow Flare in Dissidia.

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. If loading an existing save file that meets this condition before downloading Sephiroth, he is 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.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Sephiroth's splash art.

• 

  Sephiroth standing and holding Masamune on the currently-unnamed Final Fantasy stage.

• 

  Attacking Captain Falcon on Umbra Clock Tower.

• 

  Facing a fireball on Dracula's Castle.

• 

  In his coatless alternate costume on the currently-unnamed Final Fantasy stage.

• 

  Sephiroth in his Safer form facing Ness, Bowser, and Robin.

• 

  Fighting Cloud in his Advent Children alternate costume on Midgar.

Trivia

• Sephiroth is the second character to be revealed at a non-Nintendo event/presentation, the first being Joker. Coincidentally, both of them were revealed at The Game Awards (in 2018 and 2020, respectively).
  • Unlike Joker's, however, Sephiroth's featured actual gameplay footage, was announced ahead of time, and was a standard world premiere trailer, rather than an "intruding" announcement.
• Sephiroth is the fourth enemy to be available as DLC, after Piranha Plant, Zombie, and Enderman, and the first to be the primary antagonist of his game.
• Sephiroth is the first:
  • DLC character from a universe that was introduced as DLC in a previous installment.
  • Character from an already-represented third-party universe to not be a clone of another character.
  • Third-party playable antagonist (not counting Steve's Zombie and Enderman alternate costumes).
  • Ultimate DLC character to not have their full Final Smash shown in their reveal trailer.
• Sephiroth's reveal trailer is the first reveal trailer to feature previously-announced Ultimate DLC fighters in an animated segment, with Erdrick, Banjo, and Kazooie all making appearances.
• Sephiroth is the second character whose trailer references the World of Light, the first being Hero's.
  • Coincidentally, both are downloadable fighters from Square Enix, and both fight opposing forces from the World of Light, as Hero fought Dharkon and its controlled fighters and Sephiroth sliced through Galeem. Additionally, they each hail from one of the two companies that merged into Square Enix, as Sephiroth comes from Squaresoft and the Hero from Enix.
• Sephiroth's trailer makes several references to both the original Final Fantasy VII game, and the CGI-animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, with much of his and Cloud's dialogue being adapted from it.
• Sephiroth's trailer currently features the most playable characters in the animated portion of any reveal trailer (excluding himself), with 18 characters.
  • Aside from Erdrick, Banjo, and Kazooie, who are DLC characters, Bowser Jr., Cloud, and Richter are the only characters of these that do not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene.
    • Sephiroth’s trailer marks the first time that Cloud has appeared in CGI in the Smash series, with all of his other appearances in trailers and cutscenes using his in-game model.
• Like Cloud, Smash 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.
• Oddly, Sephiroth's English trailer shown during The Game Awards is slightly different from the one uploaded to Nintendo's official channels later: 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 Cloud's trailer for Super Smash Bros. 4.
• Sephiroth is the third DLC fighter in Ultimate to hail from a pre-existing series, with the first two being Piranha Plant and Byleth, respectively.
  • However, Sephiroth is the first third-party DLC fighter in Ultimate to hail from a pre-existing series, as Piranha Plant and Byleth hailed from pre-existing first-party series.