Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Mr. Sakurai Presents “Sephiroth”: Information and Reactions

The latest “fighter no one expected” of many in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is about to launch, and has launched, and he is quite something. Details below.

Fighter #78: Sephiroth:

• Release date: December 22
  • However, as an acknowledgement of Sephiroth’s notoriety as a villain (and, most likely, his extreme popularity), the game will provide a time limited event from the time of the presentation’s release to Sephiroth’s release: The Sephiroth Challenge. It allows players who’ve bought the DLC to fight Sephiroth; beating him immediately unlocks the fighter
  • Initially, the plan for The Sephiroth Challenge was that players who lost to Sephiroth would not be able to unlock him until the release date; this idea was thankfully scrapped
• From Final Fantasy VII, with his design drawing almost exclusively from the original game and Advent Children, its animated sequel whose title I keep writing as “Adventure Children.” There is effectively nothing in here from Final Fantasy VII REMAKE
• Sephiroth’s main gimmick is his Winged Form, when he spouts his notorious one wing. It grants him sizable stat boosts (including an extra jump), but only when he’s in a position of danger during the fight
  • Sephiroth gains his Winged Form when he takes damage – somewhat like a boss changing forms – but the amount of damage needed depends on his stock. If he has more stocks than his opponents (for Time matches, this may translate to being lower in score), he requires more damage, and conversely transforming is easier when at a disadvantage
  • He loses his wing after being K.O.’d or K.O.’ing an opponent
• Sephiroth’s other defining features are his immensely long Masamune sword, his height (and subsequently large hurtbox), his painfully slow walking speed (and decent dashing speed) and his being a lightweight
  • The sword’s sweetspot changes depending on the attack; for slashes, it’s “just above the middle of the blade,” and for stabs it’s the tip
• In addition, Sephiroth’s moves are mostly very slow, leaving him open for counterattacks
• Neutral Special: a slow fire magic attack that can be charge, but whose charge can’t be held. They go between Flare, Mega Flare, and Gigaflar
  • Gigaflare is so large and powerful that it can’t even be used in midair, and it can badly hurt Sephiroth if it’s reflected. But it allows him to make grabs or follow-up attacks on foes
  • Notably, these attacks are only powerful when the explosion is triggered, meaning they don’t heal significant damage when being absorbed
• Side Special: Shadow Flare: Sephiroth infects an opponent with a shadowy bomb, which will hit them after a few seconds (they can be shielded or dodged, as with Mega Man’s Crash Bomber). These can be stacked, with up to five flares orbs surrounding a foe, and charged to fire multiple orbs at once
  • Villager can pick up flare orbiting another player
• Up Special: Blade Dash, a sort of stabbing take on Fire Fox
  • By holding the special button down, it becomes Octaslash, which hits more times and faster than Blade Dash – in fact, at times too fast, as it can send you off the stage
• Down Special: Scintilla, a counter. Unlike other counters, though, it still attacks regardless of it’s hit. As it’s a honeycomb wall, it can be broken, andit  only defends Sephiroth from the front
• Final Smash: Supernova. The attack (which thankfully truncates the original move’s comically long animation) does damage, and it causes status effects based on either their proximity to Sephiroth or their damage. The exact nature is somewhat unclear
• Other attacks:
  • His side tilt can be angled, his up has long hit detection, and his bottom is a slide
  • His smash attacks have super armor, and substantial range; his down in particular even hits enemies with debris from the ground
  • The front aerial allows him to plant his sword in the wall
  • His down aerial (and Aerith murdering technique) Hell’s Gate can pass through walls and has a (very limited) meteor smash effect
  • Sephiroth’s grabs are much stronger than those of other sword fighters
• Sephiroth will only speak in Japanese across all regions
• Before discussing Sephiroth’s history, Sakurai noted his iconography as a gaming villain. And appropriately, Sephiroth’s Classic Mode, The Chosen Ones, is a literal boss rush. The order takes him from Rathalos to Galleom, Marx, Dracula, Ganon, Giga Bowser, and Master and Crazy Hand (both, naturally, in his Northern Cave stage)
• Additionally, Sephiroth has a unique victory screen, along with part of “One Winged Angel” as a fanfare

Stage: Northern Cave, from the climax of Final Fantasy VII:

• Sakurai’s conception of this stage is that it “tells the story” of the original game’s climax. The platform descends from the mouth of the cave into the center, and both the platform and the Highwind attempt to escape the meteor – which is countered by the effects of the Lifestream
  • The Highwind itself incongruously switches between its second and third form in a small Easter egg
• Inspiration also comes from its portrayal in Dissidia: Final Fantasy

Music. Remixes are bolded:

• “Opening – Bombing Mission”
• “Those Who Fight (AC Version)”
• “Those Who Fight Further (AC Version)”
• “Aerith’s Theme”
• “Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII”
• “JENOVA”
• “Cosmo Canyon”
• “One Winged Angel”
• “Advent: One-

Spirits: These weren’t presented in the initial presentation, but shown afterwards. These are likely not the final total given the images shown, and the board itself will only be released on the 22nd:

• Moogle
• Tifa
• Barret
• Aerith
• Red XIII
• Cait Sith
• Cid
• Vincent
• Yuffie
• Chocobo & Moogle
• The Turks & Rufus Shinra
• Shiva

Mii Costumes, all from Square Enix, as was the case when Hero was released:

• Barret Wallace [Outfit only, Gunner], from Final Fantasy VII
• Tifa Lockhart [Outfit only, Brawler], from Final Fantasy VII
• Aerith Gainsborough [Outfit only, Swordfighter], from Final Fantasy VII
• Chocobo [Hat], from Final Fantasy
• Geno, returning from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U

Other:

• Cloud’s Advent Children inspired costumes will now have a new animation for Omnislash
• Sakurai joked during the presentation, after mentioning specific details about Sephiroth’s frame data, that he shouldn’t talk about things on a more competitive, detailed level in a presentation
• Following Sakurai’s history of casually revealing narrative details and twists, he joked about giving away multiple spoilers of Final Fantasy VII – itself an over twenty year old game, by his admission – by the very existence and function of the Northern Cave stage
• Apparently, Marx – it’s not clear if Sakurai means his role in either this game or in his debut in Kirby Super Star – was intended to be much creepier, but was toned down for audiences against Sakurai’s preference
• One thing Sakurai noted was a response to a long held fan criticism about Final Fantasy having only a paltry two songs, that he stated explicitly that it came from issues of copyright
• The presentation was shot at a studio, as the shoots from Sakurai’s home apparently had audio issues and were more difficult to check
  • …But Sakurai didn’t wear a damn mask! He’s still in a room with a crew

Wolfman’s Soapbox: Wow, Sephiroth really got the special treatment, huh? It makes sense, certainly. If Steve was a big deal because he’s from the most popular game in the world, and if Terry (and Ryu before him) made sense for embodying an entire culture of arcade fighting games, Sephiroth is one of the most important baddies. He’s a legitimate icon of edgy alternatives, pretty much the biggest one in gaming after Sonic and one whose popularity kind of transcends the medium as a whole. That’s part of what made him – a character I’ve almost never liked much, from a series that’s already in Smash – appealing when he appeared. He’s popular, and it’s nice to have a character who so many fans and players are clearly happy to have in this game. And people being happy was, initially, more than enough for me to be deeply excited. I was jazzed!

But this ended up being the most satisfying of the presentation videos since Terry’s (and I’ve liked them all and liked all the characters). That was selling a company; this was selling a character… and one who didn’t need to be sold. Sephiroth’s design isn’t inherently “more” filled with love and history than any of the other characters – the last two fighters were two of the most difficult to make in the series’ history, and that attention to detail is always there – but it’s still out there with him, and in a way that’s cool. There’s an argument to be made, and I’d make it, that characters like Ganondorf and Ridley evoke their histories as bosses, that video game trope I love so much. But Sephiroth just gets at that so much more exactly and aggressively, to the point where he upends the whole game by getting a mode just for himself! Mario never got that! That sense of going above and beyond was there throughout, as though Sephiroth was dragging the music and spirits we never got with Cloud into the game through sheer force of will. It was deeply fun, and having gotten just a bit of a chance to play as the character, that feeling of overwhelming power is there.

…But seriously, Sakurai, bubbeleh. Wear a mask.

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Wolfman_J

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