Sephiroth Comes To Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Next Week

After being announced last week as the newest fighter coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, we finally got our first look at how Sephiroth plays in the game, and his release date. This all came as part of a presentation by Game Director Masahiro Sakurai in which he broke down his move set. Sephiroth will be available next week on December 22nd, but starting on December 17th, players can take part in a limited-time event called the Sephiroth Challenge. This mode has three different difficulties and pits you against Sephiroth as a boss character. If you’re able to defeat him, you can play as Sephiroth before his official release on the 22nd. The event runs from December 17th to December 22nd, so anyone who wants to play as him early needs to hop on soon.

As for his move set, Sephiroth’s moves mostly revolve around his weapon. Similar to characters like Marth and Lucina, some of his sword attacks do more damage if you hit the enemy with a certain part of the blade. When doing his stab attack, hitting with the very tip of the blade does the most damage, whereas hitting with the middle of the blade for his slash attack will do the most damage. One unique aspect of Spehiroth is his winged form. Once he’s reached a certain damage threshold, Sephiroth’s will enter winged form, making him stronger and faster. The wing will go away if you KO an enemy, or if you yourself are KO’d. His winged form is situational though, as its appearance is determined by the state of the battle. In a stock match for example, if Sephiroth has more lives than his opponents, he’ll need to take more damage for the wing to appear than he would if he had less lives. Sephiroth’s Final Smash is Supernova, a move that summons Meteor to destroy the Earth. It also causes a random status effect to whoever is hit by the move.

The new stage that comes with Sephiroth is called Northern Cave. This stage displays the final events of Final Fantasy VII in the background, something that is a first for the Super Smash Bros. series. Sakurai then took the time to demonstrate how Sephiroth performs in real fights by playing through his Classic Mode route which is a boss rush against enemies from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Also coming with Sephiroth are nine new music tracks from Final Fantasy VII, with four of them being new arrangements. These songs have been added to the Midgar stage that’s already in the game as well.

Sakurai also revealed the new Mii Costumes that will be releasing. Aerith, Tifa, and Barret will each get their own Mii Costume for players to use, while a Chocobo is represented as a hat for your fighters to wear. The final Mii Costume is Geno from Super Mario RPG. He’s been long requested to be a fighter in the game, so the news that he’s a Mii Costume is sure to disappoint many of his strongest fans.

He may not be the character I was hoping for, but I’m still very excited to play as Sephiroth. I intend to take on the Sephiroth Challenge so that I can play as him early and start to get a feel for him, so keep an eye out for those impressions coming soon!