Super Smash Bros. – Sephiroth / Characters

78 – Sephiroth

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One-Winged Angel

^Shirtless

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa

SEPHIROTH DESCENDS TO BATTLE!

Home Series: Final Fantasy

Debut: Final Fantasy VII [PlayStation], 1997
Nintendo debut: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy [Nintendo 3DS], 2012

Creator: Squaresoft

Publisher: Square Enix

Playable in: Ultimate
Specials: Flare/Megaflare/Gigaflare, Shadow Flare, Blade Dash/Octaslash, Scintilla
Final Smash: Supernova

"I have been waiting for this moment. Now, I shall give Smash despair."^note

The fearsome One-Winged Angel himself, Sephiroth is the Big Bad of, and second Smash fighter from, the seventh entry in the mind-meltingly popular Final Fantasy series (which also had a remake the same year as his reveal), as well as both the first playable third-party villain and the first non-Echo Fighter from an already-represented third-party series. He's one of the most feared antagonists in gaming history, and the Arch-Enemy of Cloud Strife. He was revealed at the Game Awards on December 10th, 2020, and details on how he plays were revealed a week later on December 17th in a "Mr. Sakurai Presents" video. Following said video, players were able to unlock Sephiroth early by beating the limited-time Sephiroth Challenge event. He was officially made available to everyone on December 22nd, 2020.

Sephiroth is a former member of SOLDIER, the elite military unit of the Shinra Electric Power Company. In his prime, he was heralded as a war hero who served his company and comrades faithfully. Unfortunately, the man would be driven to insanity when he discovered that he was the product of genetic engineering using the DNA of Jenova, an ancient alien monster that nearly destroyed the world 2000 years prior. Believing himself to be the son of Jenova, Sephiroth makes the decision to finish her work by absorbing The Lifestream — the planet's life force, becoming a god, and departing for the fabled "Promised Land" while leaving the planet a lifeless husk. Despite seemingly meeting his end multiple times, this former operative of legend has continued to return from beyond the grave to meet this goal, and if possible, torment his arch-nemesis Cloud until the end of time.

Sephiroth is a tricky fighter with various caveats and differing mechanics that makes him stand out. His signature weapon, the Masamune, is a massive nodachi sword that covers a wide range, and has varying sweet spots along the blade depending on whether he is using a slashing or stabbing attack. His attacks are incredibly powerful, his Smash attacks in particular, but are also slow and can leave him open to a counterattack if whiffed. In addition, when the tables are turned against him, he can assume a "Winged Form" wherein he sprouts his iconic singular black wing, gaining powerful attack and speed buffs while granting his smash atttacks super armor. The fewer stocks he has in comparison to his opponent, the less damage he will need to take to attain this form. A good Sephiroth player can keep their opponent on their toes with his unusual attacks, and turn the tide of battle back in their favor with his Winged Form if need be.

Special Moves^{Click to show}

See Sephiroth's page for more information on the character in his origin series.

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Absurdly Sharp Blade: Demonstrated a few times in his trailer, Masamune is capable of doing things like cutting Galeem in half despite being minuscule compared to him.
Adaptation Distillation: His Final Smash, Supernova, is mercifully cut down to around 5 seconds, compared to the lengthy 2 minutes from Final Fantasy VII.
Always a Bigger Fish: Galeem seemed to be winning against the other fighters before Sephiroth slices him in half. Now they have to deal with him instead.
Angelic Abomination: He's an inhumanly handsome biseinen who has a black angelic wing, is capable of corrupting The Lifestream for his own ends, and promises to bring "despair" to the Smash universe upon appearing. For his Final Smash, he can transform into an even freakier-looking angelic form with six white wings instead of legs (his Final Boss form Safer Sephiroth, appropriately enough). More often than not, the Sephiroth seen in media is really just a piece of Jenova or a clone transformed to look and act like the man, either way, he's a walking cluster of Jenova cells. Fittingly, he is introduced vanquishing the other Angelic Abomination in Ultimate, Galeem.
Anti-Air: He casually thrusts Masamune upwards for his up tilt, and due to its insane length, it has the largest range out any up tilt. It's great against opponents who'll likely barrage you with aerial attacks.
Arch-Enemy: To Cloud, as always. Cloud is none too pleased when Sephiroth appears, and the feeling is more than mutual.
Armor-Piercing Attack:
- His down Smash does incredible damage to shields — so much, in fact, that any shield with less than 100% strength is guaranteed to shatter. When used in combination with Shadow Flare, good Sephiroths will find themselves with more shield break punishes than any other character.
- If Scintilla catches a King K. Rool attack that has his belly armor act as super armor, such as his neutral aerial, the resulting counterattack shreds K. Rool's belly to pieces.
Ascended Extra: He was alluded to in the fourth game a couple of times: in Cloud's trailer, Ike stands in as a Sephiroth stand-in during Omnislash's reveal,^note as does Palutena in Cloud's All-Star Mode ending^note. Cloud's trophy for Omnislash also namedropped Sephiroth.
Ascended Meme: Fans have noticed that Sephiroth's placement on the large mural places him next to a peppy Pichu, which has led to many pieces of fanart of Sephiroth and Pichu together. This didn't go unnoticed by Sakurai, who has acknowledged the meme by outright posting a snapshot of Pichu laughing as Sephiroth outranges Marth.
Background Music Override: Much like Cloud, his victory music overrides the music that typically plays during the results screen. Unlike Cloud, his is a dark drone that emphasizes the fact that The Bad Guy Wins once his Leitmotif finishes.
Badass Boast: Drops two of them as his win quotes:
Remember who brought this pain upon you.
I will show you the way as many times as you want.
Badass Fingersnap: Sephiroth casts his Shadow Flare spell with a snap of his fingers. His Neutral Air also has him casting a quick burst of dark magic with a snap.
The Bad Guy Wins: Highlighted above all with his victory screens, which are unique in that it goes against two conventions of traditional ones:
- Background Music Override kicks in, as after the traditional ending of "One-Winged Angel" plays, the post-battle results screen is replaced with a dark drone that highlights his cruel nature far so than any other villain in the series.
- The background itself changes to a sea of flames referencing Sephiroth's destruction of Nibelheim, marking the first time in Smash history the traditional results are replaced entirely.
Battle Intro: Floats down to the stage wreathed in dark energy, then loses his wing as he lands, leaving a short shower of black feathers.
Beehive Barrier: One of his moves is Scintilla, which has him summon a hexagonally segmented energy barrier in front of him to block attacks, which he follows up with a Counterattack. The barrier is decently sturdy, capable of blocking most attacks, but along with only blocking attacks in front of him, it has a limit to how much damage it can absorb, with anything above that threshold shattering it and preventing the counterattack.
BFS: Sephiroth's iconic weapon is his enormous nodachi, Masamune, which he gracefully wields with only one hand despite it being longer than he is tall.
Big Entrance: It honestly doesn't get much bigger than casually one-hit killing a god like Galeem.
Bilingual Bonus: Like Cloud before him, Sephiroth speaks Japanese in all regions.
Blade Brake: His forward aerial can stick his sword into the sides of walls and solid platforms, preventing his fall and allowing him to jump up afterwards. This can be done up to three times before touching the ground (or a blast zone).
Blade Spam: His charged up special is the Octaslash technique, which involves him rapidly slashing his opponents with the Masamune while charging forward.
Boss Rush: His Classic Mode is one, with all of his opponents being heavily-weakened versions of all the bosses except the two World of Light villains instead of playable characters to emphasize his power.
Breaking Old Trends: Sephiroth is the first DLC character that can be unlocked before his official release date. This could be done by defeating him in a special event if the player has previously purchased him.
Bring It: One of his taunts has him beckon his opponents while saying "come on".
Casting a Shadow: A decent number of Sephiroth's attacks utilize darkness for damaging opponents:
- His dash attack infuses it into his fists, which explodes on contact with an enemy player, causing decent damage while knocking them away.
- His neutral air creates a burst of it around him, damaging and slightly launching opponents close to him.
- His grab attack envelops the grabbed foe in it, using it to blast foes away in a chosen direction, with the back throw teleporting the enemy behind him before doing so.
- His side special is Shadow Flare, which shoots a small beam that produces up to five orbiting darkness balls around an opponent. They fly inwards and detonate after a short time, which can be comboed with other attacks, such as knocking an opponent off the stage shortly before the detonation to prevent recovery. They have the properties of projectiles, meaning they are vulnerable to all the usual strategies, with Villager's and Isabelle's Pocket being capable of neutralizing it entirely by repeatedly pocketing and throwing away the balls.
Charged Attack:
- His neutral special is the full line of Flare. With no charge, he casts the long-range Flare, with some charge, the shorter-range but more powerful Megaflare, and at full charge, the near-point-blank but utterly devastating Gigaflare.
- His side special Shadow Flare can be charged to increase how many orbs are created at once.
- His up special Blade Dash can be charged into Octaslash, which increases the dash distance and performs an extra damaging Blade Spam at the cost of more landing lag.
Cherry Tapping: While the main purpose of Shadow Flare is creating orbiting balls of darkness that shortly after home in and explode, the beam for creating them does a small but non-negligible amount of damage. While it has no launch potential, it is very fast and very flinch-heavy, which can be used in Stamina mode or a Boss Fight to KO the enemy with a humiliating Death of a Thousand Cuts, in addition to whittling down an opponent's shield fast or popping them into the blast zone if they’re off stage.
Cold Ham: Sephiroth carries an air of superiority and grandiosity, yet always acts like he's in control (with the strength and skills to back it up).
Colony Drop: His reveal trailer shows him summoning Meteor — a planet-shattering asteroid — to devastate the battlefield. This is a background event on the Northern Cave stage, just like how it appears during the final boss fight of Final Fantasy VII.
Comeback Mechanic: Played straight and inverted. When Sephiroth takes enough damage, he gains one black wing; this increases his attack power and speed, while also granting Super Armor to his smash attacks and giving him an extra midair jump, but the wing is lost if Sephiroth gets a KO or is KO'd. The catch is that the damage threshold changes depending on his current standing in the match: the wing comes out sooner if he's losing, and comes out later if he's winning.
The Comically Serious: Like other characters from more mature franchises, Sephiroth remains calm even after ingesting the Superspicy Curry or while swinging the Hammer from Donkey Kong. But because it's a super serious villain doing these ridiculous things, it becomes hilarious.
Counter-Attack: His down special is Scintilla, which creates a temporary energy barrier that he explodes into a burst of light, with the explosion damage being determined by how much damage it took beforehand. Unlike most counter attacks, however, Sephiroth makes it explode even if he isn't struck, the barrier is only effective in front of him, and sufficiently strong attacks can break it and stop the attack outright (though Sephiroth will still be unharmed).
Critical Status Buff: Sephiroth gains his signature black wing at high percentages, greatly improving his mobility and damage output. Particular notable however, in that he only gains this at around 90%, while being a very light character himself. Whereas other characters with similar critical buffs, like Terry and Kazuya are decently bulky, Sephiroth is a very light Glass Cannon. If he hasn't already been KO'd by the time he reaches 90%, a single good hit is enough to finish him off at that point.
Curb-Stomp Battle: At the beginning of his reveal trailer, he effortlessly cuts Galeem in half, then proceeds to beat the snot out of the rest of the roster before being matched by Cloud.
Cutscene Power to the Max: Sephiroth is introduced as powerful enough to cleave Galeem in half, but in gameplay he's no more destructive than any other character.
Dark Is Evil: The only things on Sephiroth's person that aren't black are his hair and pauldrons, and the only characters that rival how evil he is are ones like Ganondorf, Dark Samus, and Ridley. He also uses literal darkness energy in many of his attacks, most notably Shadow Flare.
Death from Above: His down air, Hell's Gate, has him plunge his sword downwards into the ground, reminiscent of a certain scene from his home game. Thanks to the sheer length of Masamune, it's capable of piercing a good distance through the ground, with it able to reach even crouching opponents (even those as short as Kirby and Jigglypuff) on the bottom of Battlefield from the first platforms, and is quite effective as a low ledge-recovery denier.
Defeat Means Playable: While this has been a staple of the Smash series since the very beginning, Sephiroth is unique in that a special event was held prior to his official release date in which players who purchased him could challenge him and unlock him as a playable character if they defeated him.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: His reveal trailer sees him make his grand entrance by instantly killing Galeem with a single hit. The same Galeem that handily eradicated the universe at the start of World of Light and is one of the two Physical God main villains of said story mode. Though this part is a bit more understandable, since Sephiroth himself is also a Physical God.
Difficult, but Awesome: Sephiroth's overall kit is very unconventional with unique caveats built in. He's fast and hits like a truck with good combo potential, but he also has a larger frame with a surprisingly low weight. His standard and Smash attacks have very long reach, but if whiffed, they leave him wide open, and his sword has sweet spots at the middle and tip dependent on if a slash or thrust is used. His Comeback Mechanic gives him huge buffs like super armor for his Smash Attacks, but comes out later the better he's doing and it vanishes when he or his opponent are KO'd, so it can't be relied upon. Flare is a reliable projectile that sacrifices range for power depending on charge, Shadow Flare is a trap that activates after a short time so it can't cause immediate damage, Scintilla can come out even if it doesn't counter anything, though strong attacks (whether ranged or melee) can break it (Sephiroth still doesn't take damage, but the counterattack fails to happen) and it only works on frontal attacks, and Blade Dash is very strong as an attack (especially for launching), but linear as a recovery move. Altogether, Sephiroth has a ton of drawbacks, but his strengths can more than make up for them when properly mastered.
Downloadable Content: The third member of Fighters Pass Vol. 2, released on December 22nd of 2020. Buying this fighter also comes with the Northern Cave stage, 9 songs (6 from Final Fantasy VII and 3 from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and all can be played on Midgar), and a unique DLC Spirit Board, where thirteen Spirit Battles for Final Fantasy VII characters await.
The Dreaded: Given his origins as an ex-SOLDIER turned Physical God, just seeing him causes Cloud to go Oh, Crap!, and then for the roster to do the same.
Dynamic Entry: In his reveal trailer, Galeem is about to wipe out all of the fighters with a big attack, only to be slain with one slash. As Galeem fades away, "One-Winged Angel" begins to play, announcing Sephiroth's arrival into Smash.
Earn Your Fun: Soon after his showcase, he was technically added in with a patch. That said, while his official release is days after, coinciding with the patch was a temporary "Sephiroth Challenge" where you can unlock him early by beating him in a Stamina Match. If you want to unlock him early, you need to beat that challenge.
Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Supernova, his Final Smash.
Enemy Mine: In World of Light gameplay, unlocking him means he'll be in the same group as Cloud to go against Galeem, especially as Cloud is amongst the obligatory story unlocks.
Eviler than Thou: He effortlessly takes down Galeem in one fell swoop, then promises to deliver the rest of the playable cast despair as he conjures a hurricane of corrupted Lifestream.
Evil Is Bigger: He's a villain with the power and desire to destroy planets, and he's the largest human in the Smash roster.
Evil Is Petty: One moment in his reveal trailer has him seemingly impale Mario with his sword... only to reveal that he narrowly missed, possibly just to screw with him.
Evil Laugh: As an extremely confident Smug Super who likes toying with his opponents, he naturally has a habit of belting out some mocking laughs. In this game, he performs some particularly sinister ones in both his down taunt and one of his victory screens.

F-L

Fallen Angel: His nom de guerre of "One-Winged Angel", black and silver color palette, and, well, one wing evoke images of this in his main form. The same goes for his Safer Sephiroth form, where his bottom half is replaced by six wings and his right arm with a singular black wing◊. Rather fitting given his status as a Fallen Hero.
Fantastic Nuke:
- His neutral special consists of Flare spells, which creates powerful explosions and are akin to nuclear explosions (even being called "Nuke" in the first English localizations of Final Fantasy and IV). While the explosions are much smaller in Smash, the attack — especially when charged to Megaflare or Gigaflare — is still devastating.
- His Final Smash is Supernova, which is half-fantastic and half-actual nuke, since it involves hurling a massive meteor into the Sun and making it go, well, supernova. Unlike his Colony Drop attempt with Meteor, this one does succeed in destroying the Earth, albeit only in a quick cutscene, as the planet is fine afterwards.
Fight Dracula: In his Classic Mode route, Castlevania's Dracula serves as his fourth opponent.
Force and Finesse: The Finesse to Cloud's Force. Sephiroth's swordplay is far more refined and graceful compared to Cloud's more brutish swinging of his Buster Sword. This also applies to Sephiroth's dynamic with Ganondorf, the main villain from the "rival" series to his own; while Link and Cloud also had this relationship, so too do their arch-nemeses (but in the opposite direction), with Ganondorf's more rugged design, hard-hitting punches and greatsword smash attacks contrasting with Sephiroth's more graceful, precise slashes.
The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In one of his victory screens◊, Sephiroth looks up staring ominously at you. Not the fighters, just you.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: While in his reveal trailer, he's shown to easily dispose of Galeem and become a bigger threat to the rest of the fighters, in World of Light gameplay, he's no different from any other character, being unlocked the same way as other DLC fighters and thus assisting against Galeem and Dharkon, who retain their infamous difficulty.
Glass Cannon: Sephiroth possesses some of the longest-reaching, hardest-hitting moves in the game courtesy of his BFS and magic spells; couple that with his above-average movement speed and a Comeback Mechanic that grants him Super Armor on his smash attacks, and it's not uncommon for him to end an opponent's stock at ridiculously early percents. However, due to his tall frame, light weight, linear recovery outside of his Winged form, and unforgiving lag time if he whiffs an attack, and lack of defensive tools, it also means that he is susceptible to dying just as early, putting him in the same archetype as Mewtwo (to the point that he and Mewtwo have the same weight).
Good Wings, Evil Wings: Sephiroth retains his trademark, singular black-feathered wing, a symbol of his start as a hero and subsequent fall to irredeemable villainy.
Gory Discretion Shot: Played with; during his trailer, Sephiroth appears to stab Mario through the shoulder, with both figures in silhouette… until Mario looks down and realizes that Sephiroth's sword is holding him up by his overalls.
Graceful Loser: Surprisingly for such a dark villain, Sephiroth will grin and clap for the victor if he doesn't win, even if it's against Cloud.
Grandfather Clause: Like Cloud, he speaks Japanese in all versions of the game. While it's unknown if Sephiroth's English voice actors (Lance Bass, George Newbern and Tyler Hoechlin) were subject to the same contractual limits as Steve Burton^note, there's no doubt that it was for consistency with Cloud.
Guest Fighter: Hailing from Square-Enix's rip-snortingly popular Final Fantasy franchise, Sephiroth is the company's third playable fighter, the 16th third-party character overall, and in an interesting bit of trivia, the first playable third-party villain.
Hellish Pupils: Sephiroth retains his slitted cat-like pupils here, befitting of his dangerous nature and ancient alien heritage.
Hijacked by Ganon: How he introduces himself in his reveal trailer: he murders Galeem while it has the other fighters on the ropes and then promptly goes after them himself.
Home Stage: Ultimate: Northern Cave, a traveling stage which recreates the final moments of Final Fantasy VII. The stage begins by following the Highwind's descent into the Northern Crater and into the Planet's Core (with the background visually resembling its appearance in Dissidia), where Holy is released to stop Meteor. When the Lifestream is summoned to fight back Meteor, the stage leaves the Crater and returns back to the surface, where the flashing light emitted by Meteor's destruction causes the background to loop again.
Hope Crusher: He promises to "give Smash despair" in his reveal trailer. This is directly after he kills Galeem, giving a bit of hope to the roster, only to quickly take it away when they realize that they have to deal with someone far worse.
Humanoid Abomination: You mistake this tall, dark, and handsome biseinen for human at your own peril. He Was Once a Man, but his original self is long dead. The Sephiroth of the present day is a collection of Jenova cells molded into his old form; there's nothing remotely human about him anymore.
Hunk: Just as prominent as Cloud — he's a biseinen, but while he may be prettier, he's just as swole as his nemesis (at least in his Advent Children costume), and even has a shirtless alternate costume to show off his well-honed muscles.
Idle Animation:
- He hold his sword downwards with his opposite arm under it and his heel up.
- He shift his position to the other side.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Subverted in his reveal trailer. Sephiroth pretends to impale Mario with the Masamune, and it sure looks like he succeeds, but he just catches one of his overall straps on his blade, possibly to screw with him.
- Played straight in-game with his thrusting attacks. Stabbing into enemies has Masamune pierce right through them, with it dealing more damage the closer the enemy is to the tip at full thrust. The impressive length of the sword also means that Sephiroth can impale three opponents at once if they're in a close line.
Implausible Fencing Powers: Sephiroth slices Galeem clean in half in his reveal trailer, all with just one stroke of his sword.
Katanas Are Just Better: Wields his iconic nodachi in battle. He actually makes a bit of history as the first Smash combatant to wield a katana as his primary weapon.
Knight of Cerebus:
- His trailer clearly emphasizes why he is The Dreaded. While Galeem is already giving the fighters a hard time, Sephiroth comes in, kills the Lord of Light... and only makes matters worse; he then conjures a hurricane of corrupted Lifestream followed by beating the tar out of the other Smash characters. He is on par with Ganondorf, Dark Samus, and Ridley as one of the darkest and most evil playable characters in the roster, enough for Cloud to go Oh, Crap! when he sees Sephiroth descending from the heavens. He even lampshades just how dark and evil he is by declaring "Now I shall give Smash despair" before gameplay kicks in.
- In a meta example, his own trailer is definitely this to the rest of the newcomers up until his reveal (excluding Ridley). Even focusing on the ones that involved villains like King K. Rool, dark settings akin to the Belmonts, and even an antagonistic figure in Incineroar, Sephiroth's trailer portrays him as an unstoppable force of nature that nobody on the roster is safe from, even including the man powerful enough to have defeated him multiple times before. Ironically, he fails where Ridley succeeded, attempting to impale Mario on his Masamune and missing him by a couple of inches (despite this gesture being somewhat true to his character).
Leitmotif: His theme song as the Final Boss of Final Fantasy VII, "One-Winged Angel", kicks in during his trailer to announce his presence. The trailer specifically uses the Symphonic Metal version that was composed for Advent Children, which features electric guitars and Latin lyrics that are different from the original version. Both the original and the Advent Children versions are included in his Challenger Pack, and are used quite often to represent him: the original version plays in the final stage of Sephiroth's Classic Mode run against Master Hand and Crazy hand, in addition to being his theme for the Easy and Normal versions of the Sephiroth Challenge, while the Advent Children remix serves as his theme for the Hard variation, and is his victory fanfare.
Limit Break: Sephiroth turns into Safer Sephiroth and performs Supernova, firing a gigantic meteor at the Sun, which subsequently blows up and destroys the Earth. Fighters hit with the attack will be inflicted with a random status effect.
Little "No": His KO and Star KO screams are noticeably tamer than the rest of the cast.
Long-Haired Pretty Boy: The second notably long-haired male fighter after Terry, and just like Terry, he's a a biseinen Hunk with slightly more delicate facial features than him, but a very jacked frame.

M-X

Mass "Oh, Crap!": Causes one within the cast upon suddenly worfing Galeem.
Master Swordsman: Of the many, many sword wielders in the game, Sephiroth is debatably the most skilled. His strikes are incredibly graceful and efficient despite Masamune's absurd size.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Downplayed. While he's nowhere near as out of the box as Hero or Steve and his attributes are quite similar to Mewtwo, he's so extreme in every facet that he stands out among the cast anyway. Like Mewtwo, he's a super featherweight on par with the likes of Kirby and Pikachu as the 7th lightest character in the game and is tall, strong, and laggy as opposed to being small, weak, and quick like most other featherweights. However, he's got even more range than Mewtwo, is even stronger, has much worse recovery options, extreme startup and end lag on pretty much every attack, and the sweetspots on his sword vary between moves. Even his counter is completely unique, as it 1. Is actually a projectile (and can therefore be reflected back and kill Sephiroth) and 2. Activates even if you miss the counter, which can either be useful in catching approaching opponents or screw you over since it leaves Sephiroth wide open. As a result, he's very much so an "all or nothing" character with a very high learning curve to actually be effective; he's easy to combo and very easy to KO, but God help you if you're over 50% and get punished by him, and if you get edge-guarded by Scintilla then not even God can save you.
Meet the New Boss: A powerful, winged foe easily defeats the powerful, winged Galeem with a single attack before the latter can do so first. Then he causes the entire cast trouble anyway.
Mind over Matter: Like Palutena and Mewtwo, his grab animations utilize telekinesis.
Mr. Fanservice: One of his alternate costumes is him shirtless and he's in very good shape. You'd kind of have to be if you were one of SOLDIER's best fighters. Even his more modest outfits make a pretty clear showcase of his upper body.
Musical Spoiler: In Sephiroth's reveal trailer, the iconic opening notes of "Advent: One-Winged Angel" begin to play a good ten seconds before he appears on screen, immediately clueing the audience in on who the next character is.
Mythology Gag: His reveal trailer, Smash Bros. Ultimate website profile, and in-game touches contain numerous references to his appearances in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII:
- His introduction in his reveal trailer has him kill Galeem only to attack the Smash fighters himself, referencing how Final Fantasy VII had him kill President Shinra only to emerge as an even bigger threat to the planet.
- Much of the CG scenes from the trailer are shot-for-shot recreations of Sephiroth and Cloud's fight in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children:
  - At the beginning of his reveal trailer, he conjures a hurricane of corrupted Lifestream, like he did at the end of Advent Children, while saying "Now, I shall give Smash despair."^note
  - At the end of his reveal trailer, he attempts to impale Mario the same way he did to Cloud in Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children, narrowly missing.
  - After Cloud hits him with Omnislash Version 5 at the end of his trailer, Cloud and Sephiroth repeat their exchange from the end of Advent Children.
    Cloud: Stay where you belong, in my memories.
    Sephiroth: I will... never be a memory.
- One sequence has him perform an aerial attack at the same time the Odin summon on Midgar cuts through the stage, giving the impression that he himself sliced it in half. This is in reference to the massive collateral damage he and Cloud cause during their battle, which results in chunks of the Shinra tower to collapse.
- Another scene has him slowly walking towards a black hole, homaging a scene in Final Fantasy VII Remake where he slashes open a portal and walks through after inviting Cloud to come after him.
- Midway through his trailer, he uses Hell's Gate to stab the ground beside an unconscious Zelda — referencing how he killed Aerith in the original Final Fantasy VII. This is also a follow-up to Zelda being used as a stand-in for Aerith in many photos featuring Cloud, which date back to the latter's days as a DLC newcomer from the previous game.
- One of his victory screens shows Sephiroth smirking at the camera before walking into a sea of flames, a direct homage to the iconic scene of him razing the town of Nibelheim.
- His shirtless alternate costume is taken from the final encounter he has with Cloud at the end of Final Fantasy VII, further emphasized by a screenshot on the official website of Sephiroth standing in said costume while brandishing his sword. It also marks the third time it's acted as a selectable alternate outfit, following Dissidia and Ehrgeiz.
- One official screenshot of him fighting Cloud on Midgar mimics◊ the cover◊ of Advent Children Complete.
- His tagline uses the word "descends", referencing the traditional call-out of one signature Limit Break of his, Heartless Angel.
- His Final Smash can only target three people at a time, a nod to the three character party system in Final Fantasy VII. All three opponents also stand lined up in front of him just like Cloud and his party in the original game.
- Supernova inflicts all characters it hits with one of many randomized status effects, similar to what it did in the original game.
- Blade Dash, the uncharged version of his Up Special, visually resembles the Flash attack he uses as a boss in Kingdom Hearts II, albeit not as a multi-hitting attack, as well as the first hit of his Aeolian Onslaught attack in Dissidia NT and Oblivion from the PSP games.
- Sephiroth having Flare at all is due to it being one of his moves as Safer Sephiroth in the original Japanese release, before it was replaced with Shadow Flare in all subsequent versions.
- A lot of Sephiroth's dialogue, from the taunts he does while performing attacks to his win screen quotes, don't just contain references to Advent Children, but from his appearances in Dissidia as well.
- His Down Special, Scintilla, functions almost identically to when it first appeared in Dissidia Final Fantasy and its sequels, even going as far as failing to block exceptionally powerful attacks. The only differences between Smash's version and the original are the animations and the fact that the blind spot behind Sephiroth is easier to exploit because of the two-dimensional plane.
- Upon clearing Sephiroth's Classic Mode path, the 'Congratulations' image shown is a direct reference to the scene from Final Fantasy VII in which Sephiroth manipulates Cloud into giving him the Black Materia in the Northern Cave. The image consists of Sephiroth's shirtless alt encased in a block of ice (referencing the Mako cocoon in which his real body lay in stasis), while Cloud holds a Black Hole item in his outstretched hand.
- His Winged Form acting as a Super Mode harkens to mind its function as Sephiroth's EX Mode in Dissidia, under the name "Reunion", as well as the form he assumes during his boss fight in the Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Not Drawn to Scale: His sword, the Masamune, has often varied in length in its various depictions. Even between his alternate renders, where the sword appears much shorter than normal in his regular alts.
Not Quite Flight: If his wing is out, Sephiroth can jump for a third time in mid-air by flapping the wing.
Not Worth Killing: Implied; in his reveal trailer, him being dismissive towards Bayonetta and Greninja, as well as barely missing Mario, seems to indicate that he sees only Cloud as a respectable challenge.
Offhand Backhand: During his trailer, Bayonetta and Greninja both attempt to attack him while his back is turned to them. He responds with a singular slash of his blade before quickly turning on Mario.
Optional Boss: The limited-time Sephiroth Challenge allows you to fight him as a boss and unlock him prior to his official release.
One-Handed Zweihänder: Just like Cloud with his massive and bulky Buster Sword/Fusion Sword, Sephiroth wields the Masamune — a nodachi longer than he is tall — with only one hand.
One-Winged Angel: The definitive Trope Namer himself.
- After taking a certain amount of damage, he'll sprout his iconic singular black wing, becoming faster and powering up his attacks, reminiscent of his EX Mode in the Dissidia games. Like with Joker's Rebellion Gauge, he'll transform faster if he's behind in the game. However, the wing will disappear after he either scores a KO or gets KO'd himself.
- He also transforms into his Safer Sephiroth form for his Final Smash.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Why does Sephiroth defeat Galeem, you may ask? Because he wants to do good and because he cares? No. Galeem is in Sephiroth's way of getting to Cloud, so Galeem has to go. Defeating Cloud is Sephiroth's job, massive deity or not.
Out of the Frying Pan: His reveal trailer starts with him effortlessly killing Galeem as it was seconds away from obliterating the other smashers... only to go on and attack them himself.
Out of the Inferno: His victory scene inverts this, as it recreates the Nibelheim Incident with him slowly walking into the flames.
Perpetual Molt: Whenever that one wing of his so much as twitches, black feathers go everywhere. His reveal trailer even brings focus to this.
Perpetual Smiler: Another contrast to the straight-laced Cloud. Unless Sephiroth is taking damage, his model is almost always smiling. Unfortunately, it's not a very friendly one...
Physical God: Even after dying, he refused to fully pass on through sheer willpower, and plotted to absorb the Lifestream as a whole to become a god. His immersion into it — which bears repeating, is the life energy that governs the Planet itself — has given him enough power to be considered one, making him one of the only combatants in Smash history that can be classified as a deity; all that said, it speaks to his own godly strength that he succeeded where others who could be called gods themselves like Palutena failed in defeating Galeem in a single hit.
Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: When activating Supernova:
Sephiroth: Return to the Planet.^note
Psychotic Smirk: Apparent in both of his Ultimate renders. It's not Sephiroth without a grandiose level of smug.
Random Effect Spell: While the main damage of the attack is mostly consistent, his Final Smash, Supernova, afflicts opponents with a wide variety of randomized Status Effects, such as being dizzied from a shield break^note, having controls reversed, or getting launched farther than usual, among others, just like how it worked in the original game.
Reverse Grip: Keeping with his other appearances, Sephiroth holds the Masamune in a reverse grip for his idle animation.
Satanic Archetype: A beautiful man with a dark angel motif who was a member of SOLDIER and considered to be the strongest member, until he betrayed everyone in an attempt to become a god. His debut trailer fittingly has him make his presence by slaying another Satanic Archetype.
Shoo Out the Clowns: Unlike all the other trailers, his features nary a funny moment (barring his stab fake-out with Mario, who is subsequently flung aside after the fight with Cloud has already begun), even in the gameplay sequences. This serves to further emphasize his Knight of Cerebus status. To add to this, the only silly/goofy characters besides Mario to be featured in his trailer (such as Banjo & Kazooie and Inkling) are those that appear before his entrance and subsequently disappear afterwards.
Shown Their Work: The "correcting a previous inaccuracy" kind. Supernova's infamous equations have been changed to different ones because, while they did theoretically ultimately calculate the energy required to trigger an actual supernova, it makes two errors: 1) it operates as if the explosion was on a two-dimensional plane, and 2) more importantly, the Sun is too small of a star to be able to go supernova. Thus, the new equations are merely well-known ones applying to quantum mechanics, fluid dynamics, and spacetime, such as the Hellman-Feynman theorem and the Einstein gravitational constant, with no direct connections to physics of supernovae. Ptolemy's diagram of the celestial spheres remains, however, seen behind Safer Sephiroth.
Single-Stroke Battle: In his reveal trailer he eliminates Galeem with one swing of Masamune.
A Sinister Clue: In case you need more reasons to be wary of the towering psycho dressed in all black, with silver hair and a single dark wing, the hand that Sephiroth wields his enormous nodachi in is his left one.
Smug Super: As a Physical God, he doesn't break a sweat when dealing with his opponents, and even when a few of them are lucky to get stray hits on him in his trailer, he mocks their efforts as "pathetic" before going back on the offensive.
SNK Boss: The version of him fought on the Very Hard difficulty of the Sephiroth Challenge is straight-up unfair, using Perfect Play A.I. that can do perfect dodges, combos, punishes, and edgeguards, making the fight very reminiscent of his brutally difficult Superboss appearances in the Kingdom Hearts series. On top of that, he starts with 200 HP, while the player only starts with 150. Mercifully, he can still be defeated by falling off the stage, which is almost encouraged by a major flaw in his AI — he will always fully charge Octaslash to recover if he is far enough offstage, giving the player ample time to land a finishing blow.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: Barely raises his voice, yet he still makes his sadism known easily.
Speed Blitz: His up special has him perform Blade Dash normally and Octaslash when charged, both involving Sephiroth performing a Flash Step while slashing any opponents in the way, with Octaslash moving farther while also doing a Blade Spam. The special can be angled in any direction by tilting the control stick shortly after the move first activates, which allows it to work as both a dash attack and a recovery.
Status Effects: Inflicted by his Final Smash. Sometimes it's just a heavy knockback like a normal Final Smash, but other times it ends in the enemy being stunned, put to sleep, flowered, or with reversed movement controls.
Stepping-Stone Sword: His forward air has a feature where Sephiroth can plant Masamune into a wall if he is near one, allowing him to use Masamune to lift himself up. Much like grabbing ledges, it only works up to three times before it stops working until he lands onto solid ground.
Super-Persistent Predator: Sephiroth is the odd exception of a fighter that didn't receive a Smash invite; he invited himself, no doubt obsessively trying to crush Cloud's hopes as usual.
- This factors into gameplay too. There is nowhere safe against Sephiroth when he is on the offensive. Below the stage? His down air can slightly pierce the edges of the ledge, meaning when you come up, you get hit by a spike. Above him? Two really strong sweeping attacks that are often used as killing blows. Taking potshots? Hope you enjoy blowing up when Shadow Flare goes off. Off stage? Sephiroth's favourite killing grounds. Behind your shield? Down Smash = "Pop, goes the shield." TL;DR, Fighting a compitent Sephiroth when on the defensive just plain sucks.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Most characters' Final Smashes involve things like using their signature attack at full power, utilizing their trusty personal vehicle, or summoning allies for assistance. Sephiroth's Final Smash, Supernova, involves obliterating the entire planet.
Token Evil Teammate: Of the DLC characters, he and Kazuya are the only ones to be unambiguously evil in his source material, and unlike Kazuya, he didn't need a Protagonist Journey to Villain to become this.
Trash Talk:
- He has a unique victory quote against Cloud, referencing the end of their fight from Advent Children (and by extension, Sephiroth's reveal trailer):
  Sephiroth: "I will never be a memory."
- He actively partakes in prefacing all of his attacks with taunts that spit poison at his opponents. Barring instances of characters Calling Your Attacks, this actually makes Sephiroth one of the more vocal characters in Smash history:
  Perish.
  Burn to nothing.
  You're an eyesore.
  Kneel.
  Foolish.
  Disappear.
  I will crush you.
  I carve terror.
  Know your place.
Truer to the Text: In games like Kingdom Hearts and World of Final Fantasy, Supernova is generally depicted as a Colony Drop, having a fiery meteor colliding with the enemy. In Ultimate, it is depicted much closer to the solar-system-obliterating super move of the original game, albeit significantly sped up, and even inflicts status effects like the original move. Also, like the original game, Sephiroth performs the move in his Safer form in Ultimate, while most other games have him perform it in his One-Winged form.
Ultimate Lifeform: Sephiroth was engineered by Professor Hojo using biological material from the planet-destroying alien horror Jenova, and is magnitudes more powerful than even other SOLDIER First Class members. His merging with Jenova and absorbing the Lifestream of the planet effectively made him a god, best shown with his effortless slaying of Galeem.
Unflinching Walk: In his reveal trailer, he causes a huge explosion while fighting some of the other characters and as seen here, he's not even the least bit affected by said explosion. He just turns around and walks away!
Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Possibly even more so than Ganondorf, Dark Samus, and Ridley in this regard! This is a villain so infamous, so powerful, so dangerous, so focused on his goal, and so hard to get rid of, that the only way to properly introduce him is to have him slice one half of the Final Boss in two, only to promise that he'll "give Smash despair". This is emphasized when he wins a match, where instead of the typical backdrop, he's surrounded by an inferno not unlike the one from when he burned Nibelheim to the ground. The backing music after he's declared the victor is dark and droning instead of the happy-go-lucky jingle that most characters have.
Villain Song: "One-Winged Angel" is one of the most classic pieces of music in gaming history, with opening notes so distinctive that, within his reveal trailer, it gives away Sephiroth's presence before he even appears on screen. It is a threatening, bombastic piece with lyrics adapted from Carmina Burana that serves as Sephiroth's primary battle theme in almost every piece of media he appears. The version used for Smash in particular hails from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, where it is sung from the perspective of his "mother" Jenova, who encourages her son to become more than just a memory, even if he must bring death to do so.
"Noli manere, manere in memoria
Noli manere, manere in memoria
SE-PHI-ROTH!"^noteDo not remain, remain in memory
Walking Shirtless Scene: Two of his alternate costumes removes his shirt and coat, leaving his chest bare for all to see.
White Hair, Black Heart: Sephiroth possesses a long, voluminous mane of silver hair, and his reveal trailer emphasizes his villainy.
The Worf Effect: His reveal trailer sees him make his grand entrance by instantly killing Galeem with a single hit — the same Galeem that handily eradicated the universe at the start of World of Light and is one of the two Physical God main villains of said story mode, and the one that not even the memetically powerful Kirby could beat on his own. Though, to cut Galeem some slack, anyone who's played the games from his home series can attest that this trope is nothing new for Sephiroth. Especially when he's usually been on the giving end, too. At least most of the time
World's Strongest Man: In his home universe, he already qualifies, being the result of an experiment to make superhuman soldiers from alien DNA. He continues to live up to this status in Smash, by killing Galeem with one slice of the Masamune and handing a Curb-Stomp Battle to all the other fighters. He also has the skills to back it up, summoning powerful spells for some of his attacks and demonstrating his master swordsmanship while in combat. Gameplay-wise, if you use certain item and spirit combinations as well as an opponent with the poorest defense against said spirits along with the manual buff and debuff system and do so with an attack raise on the Find Mii stage, then Sephiroth has the highest attack potential in the game with Gigaflare, coming out to over 59,000% damage, as seen here.
Xanatos Gambit: Shadow Flare's Why Am I Ticking? design benefits Sephiroth no matter how the opponent reacts.
- If opponents try to shield, reflect, or absorb it, that leaves them vulnerable to a grab or a Down Smash shield break.
- If opponents want to preserve their shield by knocking Sephiroth away, then they'll just take Shadow Flare's damage, bringing them that much closer to KO percentages.
- No matter how opponents react to Shadow Flare once it goes off, the move forces them to stop what they are doing, which saves Sephiroth from getting grabbed or comboed.

Characters / Super Smash Bros. – Sephiroth

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa

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Characters / Super Smash Bros. – Sephiroth

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Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa

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