Sephiroth (Life & Death)

Sephiroth (セフィロス, Sephiroth) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Life or Death.
Sephiroth is the main antagonist of the Final Fantasy VII series of games, including spin-offs and the FFVII remake. As well as being the arch-enemy of Cloud, Sephiroth has become one of Square-Enix's most iconic villains since his debut in the original FFVII.
Sephiroth is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa in-game, who reprises the role from all productions involving Sephiroth since Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
==How to Unlock==
*???
*???
*Get him to join your party in the Kiss of Death.
With the exception of the final task, completing one of the above will lead to Sephiroth challenging the player on Northern Cave. Defeating him unlocks him for regular gameplay.
==Moveset==
*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 Winged Form to activate can be seen on its page.
*Sephiroth wields his signature weapon, the Masamune, which possesses extremely long range, yet a relatively 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, while a sourspot covers the inner blade and handle, and a mediumspot at the tip. The sweetspot for slashing attacks is signified by a glowing area in the middle of the swing.
**For stabbing attacks, the sweetspot is located at the tip of the Masamune's blade, while the mediumspot is at the blade.
*Sephiroth's forward aerial lets him 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.
 	Name 	Description
Neutral Attack 	N/A 	A mid-level roundhouse kick, followed by a mid-level sidekick, followed by a forward thrust with the Masamune's pommel. It is Sephiroth's overall fastest attack. It is based on some of Sephiroth's moves from Ehrgeiz: the kicks resemble the second and third hits of his Jenova Linkage DEATH, while the pommel thrust is almost identical to his Hilt Attack.
Forward Tilt 	N/A 	An outward slash. It is almost identical to his Cruel Strike from Ehrgeiz.
Up Tilt 	N/A 	An upward thrust. It is based on a rapid series of upward thrusts a flying Sephiroth performs against an airborne Cloud in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete.
Down Tilt 	N/A 	A baseball slide. It is almost identical to his Slide Charge from Ehrgeiz
Dash Attack 	N/A 	A lunging, dark energy-infused palm thrust.
Forward Smash 	N/A 	A spinning, inward slash. It resembles his Sudden Cruelty, which debuted in Ehrgeiz and is used throughout the Dissidia Final Fantasy series.
Up Smash 	N/A 	Twirls to perform an overhead arcing slash. It resembles the second hit of his Heaven's Light from the Dissidia Final Fantasy series.
Down Smash 	N/A 	A downward thrust. This stab attack is unique, as Sephiroth will pierce the ground in front of himself should there be any, making the move larger, stronger, and giving the more powerful hitboxes higher priority. Otherwise, the move's hitboxes will behave normally, with the tip being difficult to land and the hitbox being narrow. Should the move pierce the ground, it deals immense shield damage, having the capability to instantly break a damaged shield if the tip and the debris connect. It is almost identical to the last hit of his Hell Quake Slash from Ehrgeiz.
Neutral Aerial 	N/A 	Snaps his fingers to emit a circular burst of energy around himself. It resembles a combination of Heartless Angel's depictions in Kingdom Hearts II and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, albeit surrounding Sephiroth instead of the opponent, and is fittingly magical both in type and effect.
Forward Aerial 	N/A 	A forward thrust. The move is also unique in that it lets Sephiroth pierce walls and cling to them, similarly to Dragon Lunge. After piercing a wall, Sephiroth can choose to jump by moving up or pressing jump or attack or let go of the wall by pressing away or down or simply waiting long enough. Sephiroth can pierce a wall this way up to three times before landing on the ground, and the jump option does not use up his double jump. However, the move will fail to pierce a wall below a stage's camera bounds, even during its first usage. It resembles his Sudden Strike from Ehrgeiz.
Back Aerial 	N/A 	Turns around to perform an outward slash behind himself. It resembles his Flying Air Strike from Ehrgeiz.
Up Aerial 	N/A 	A backflipping overhead slash.
Down Aerial 	N/A 	A downward thrust. It is based on the infamous scene where he kills Aerith in Final Fantasy VII, while the landing hitbox's fissures are based on the massive fissures of energy that Hell's Gate emits upon hitting the ground in the Dissidia Final Fantasy series and Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Grab 	N/A 	Reaches out with his right hand, which is infused with dark energy.
Pummel 	N/A 	A burst of dark energy. Although very similar to Mewtwo's, it is actually a magic attack instead of a darkness attack. It resembles a spark of dark energy Sephiroth uses to render Cloud unconscious during a cutscene in Mobius Final Fantasy.
Forward Throw 	N/A 	Blasts the opponent away with dark energy.
Back Throw 	N/A 	Teleports the opponent behind himself, then pumps his fist to blast them away with dark energy. It is based on Sephiroth's ability to teleport himself and others in Mobius Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy VII Remake, although its visual effects resemble the former's depiction.
Up Throw 	N/A 	An upward slash. It is almost identical to the second hit of his Heaven's Light from the Dissidia Final Fantasy series.
Down Throw 	N/A 	Telekinetically slams the opponent onto the ground. It is based on the cinematic in Final Fantasy VII Remake at the beginning of phase 3 of the boss fight against Sephiroth, in which he uses his Boundless Void to pin down Cloud and Tifa/Aerith.
Neutral Special	Flare/Megaflare/Gigaflare	Carges Flare, an explosive fireball, in his right hand that travels slowly when fired. A chargeable projectile as long as the special button is kept pressed, it can be charge canceled (but the charge is not stored). It has three different variations, each producing incrementally stronger projectiles with larger explosions, but also significantly lowers their travel speed and distance. Tapping the button results in Flare, a scarlet flame that is the quickest and travels the most distance, but has the smallest explosion. Charging it for some time results in Megaflare, a blue flame that is more powerful and has a larger explosion, but travels a shorter distance. Fully charging it results in Gigaflare, which causes the background to darken dramatically, and the music's volume to lower; the small, yellow spark fired travels an extremely short distance, but results in an immense explosion with extreme knockback, being capable of KOing most characters as low as 20% near a ledge, or even potentially KOing at 0% if in Winged form. Gigaflare has moderate ending lag, but when it explodes at its farthest ranges, Sephiroth has enough time to follow up with another attack, most notably forward smash which can most likely KO at 0%. However, it has extremely high startup across all versions, making it punishable if used as a conventional projectile. Despite Gigaflare being extremely slow to start, its' very large hitbox makes it a notoriously effective edge trapping tool, allowing it to simultaneously cover nearly every option when timed correctly; against opponents with a reflector, Sephiroth can simply cancel the charge and punish the attack. All three versions can be reflected and absorbed; it should be noted that despite Gigaflare's extreme power, it is relatively unrewarding to absorb due to its initial hit dealing very low damage.
When releasing Megaflare, Sephiroth may say 行け ("Go."), and when releasing Gigaflare, he may say 焼き尽くす ("Burn to nothing.")
Side Special 	Shadow Flare 	Snaps his fingers to emit a thin, short-ranged surge of dark energy at the opponent. If it connects, spheres of dark energy will orbit the opponent, then home in on them and explode after the spheres make at least two revolutions around the character. The initial surge can be charged, increasing its damage and range while creating more spheres on hit. An uncharged surge creates only one sphere, whereas a fully charged surge will create three spheres; up to five spheres can orbit an opponent at once. Sephiroth can also quickly turn 180° before firing Shadow Flare by quickly flicking the control stick in the opposite direction, similarly to B-reversing. The spheres can also hit bystanders while they orbit around the opponent, with each sphere being able to collide twice before disappearing. The spheres can be reflected and absorbed. If Pocketed, the sphere is thrown as a standard projectile. In comparison to Sephiroth's other moves, Shadow Flare is very spammable, thanks to its fairly low interruptibility. As a result, it can be used frequently without fear of retaliation, and allows him to set up follow-ups or condition the opponent into picking an option. However, the move has very low safety due to it causing minimal hitstun and shield damage.
When using the move, Sephiroth may say 目障りだ ("Annoying." or "Pathetic."), 焼き付ける ("Burn."), 跪け ("Kneel."), 滅びる ("Perish."), くらえ ("Take this.") or simply chuckle.
Up Special 	Blade Dash/Octoslash 	An omnidirectional slash with a brief charge time, indicated by a directional arrow which points towards Sephiroth's travel direction before he begins moving. It travels similarly to moves like Fire Fox. Grounded versions of both moves will stop at edges. Its functionality changes based on whether the special move button is tapped or held.
If the special move button is tapped, Sephiroth performs Blade Dash, which deals a single hit, travels less distance and can snap to the edge. It deals low damage, but has moderately low ending and landing lag, allowing it to be used as a movement option. If the special move button is held down, it becomes Octaslash, a dashing flurry of slashes that, true to its name, hits eight times, gaining significantly more power and slightly increased travel distance. It deals high damage and is an effective combat move, but has high ending lag and extremely high landing lag (one of the highest for an up special). It is unreliable at grabbing the edge; however, its large hitbox can be used to deter opponents from camping an edge. If Sephiroth starts a midair Octaslash and aims diagonally at the ground, he will travel along the ground as he moves, similarly to Fire Wolf. If he aims directly down towards the ground, however, Sephiroth bounces up slightly and the attack cancels. Octaslash's hits also slow down significantly on hit. Octaslash has great range overall, not only extending far in front of Sephiroth, but also having great reach above and below him; when combining this with the fact that every successive hit has only a 1 frame gap, this makes the move excellent for 2 frame punishing nearly every character when timed correctly. When using Octaslash, Sephiroth may say 消え去れ ("Disappear."), 愚かな ("Foolish."), or 恐怖を刻む ("I carve terror.")
Down Special 	Scintilla 	Erects a honeycomb-shaped barrier in front of himself. It hits multiple times upon counterattacking, yet only counters an attack that is in front of Sephiroth. It is unique for a counterattack in a few ways: for one, it will activate and deal minimal damage even if an attack does not connect with it, though it still grows stronger like a normal counterattack depending on the damage it has taken. Secondly, it has a damage cap of 25%, after which the barrier will shatter, negating the damage and causing Sephiroth to stagger briefly. Finally, the counterattack is considered a projectile, meaning it can be reflected and absorbed. Despite its appearance suggesting so, Scintilla cannot reflect projectiles, as the barrier breaks and nullifies the projectile as if it hit the damage cap. Like most counterattacks, Scintilla freezes the opponent right before the retaliating hit. Its unique properties make it excellent for edge-guarding any sort of recovery due to its ability to automatically trigger. Due to having a damage multiplier of 1.5×, it is tied with Gut Check and Counter Throw as the second strongest counterattack. This move can deter most opponents from sharking with their recovery move, making it effective against attacks that do not snap the edge as quickly.
When using the move, Sephiroth may say 目障りだ ("Annoying." or "Pathetic."), 来い ("Come."), 消え去れ ("Disappear."), 愚かな ("Foolish."), いい顔だ ("I like the look on your face."), 打ち砕く ("I will crush you."), 跪け ("Kneel.") or simply chuckle.
Final Smash 	Supernova 	Performs a wide slash while announcing 星に帰れ ("Return to the Planet."). Up to three opponents hit by the slash will be trapped in a cutscene where Sephiroth transforms into Safer∙Sephiroth (his final boss form) to summon Meteor and trigger a supernova, wiping out the world and causing random status effects to foes who are not KO'd. These status effects include an automatic shield break, being slowed down, having reversed controls (indicated by a mushroom on the victim's head), having a flower planted on the victim's head, being put to sleep, or simply using the darkness effect alongside more knockback than usual (albeit still below-average for a Final Smash). Fighters caught in the Final Smash face towards him with their backs to the camera, much like Cloud and his party do in his final boss battle in Final Fantasy VII. The attack is also based on the attack of the same name in Final Fantasy VII. Once the move successfully concludes, Sephiroth assumes his fighting stance from Final Fantasy VII and then performs an animation based on his victory pose as a guest party member during the Nibelheim flashback.
==Other Animations==
Animation 	Description 	Notes
On-Screen Appearance 	Slowly descends onto the stage while emitting a dark aura while losing a few feathers. 	N/A
Taunt 1 	Uses his right hand to gesture the opponent to approach him, saying 来るがいい ("Come after me."). 	N/A
Taunt 2 	Assumes the kasumi-no-kamae, a stance in kendo. 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 takes the stance against Cloud before being defeated by him (more so apparent with his Coatless costumes). 	N/A
Taunt 3 	Shifts the side of his body forward and chuckles sinisterly, emitting a dark aura as he does so. The pose heavily resembles the one he assumed during the cutscene in Final Fantasy VII where he destroyed Nibelheim, while the dark aura is based on the one he emits during the entry cutscene before his boss fight in Final Fantasy VII Remake.	N/A
Star KO 	 	N/A
Screen KO 	 	N/A
Character Selection Screen	 	N/A
Crowd Chant 	Seph - i - roth! 	N/A
Victory Pose 1 	With his back turned, Sephiroth turns his head towards the camera while chuckling; his coatless alternate costumes also show him eerily smiling while turning around. He then turns around and slowly walks deeper into the fire until he disappears. It is based on the second scene of the Nibelheim Incident cutscene. 	All of Sephiroth's victory screens take place in a fiery area instead of the standard area where most of the victory screens take place, a direct reference to the Nibelheim Incident from Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core. 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, similar to Joker.
If Cloud is present during the match, he has a chance of saying 思い出にはならないさ ("I will never be a memory.") in any of his three victory poses, a reference to his final line of dialogue from Advent Children and, by proxy, his reveal trailer for Ultimate.
Victory Pose 2 	Slowly raises his head and glares at the camera. Reference to the first scene of the Nibelheim Incident cutscene, saying 何度でも導いてやろう。 ("I will usher you as many times as you want." or "I am cut above you."), which comes from one of his three victory lines in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. This is most likely a reference to his role in Dissidia Final Fantasy.
* In team battles where Sephiroth is not the leader, he faces to the side while doing this pose, keeping his face away from the camera. This resembles his victory animation in Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia.	All of Sephiroth's victory screens take place in a fiery area instead of the standard area where most of the victory screens take place, a direct reference to the Nibelheim Incident from Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core. 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, similar to Joker.
If Cloud is present during the match, he has a chance of saying 思い出にはならないさ ("I will never be a memory.") in any of his three victory poses, a reference to his final line of dialogue from Advent Children and, by proxy, his reveal trailer for Ultimate.
Victory Pose 3 	While turning his back to the camera, he swings the Masamune and unfurls his black wing, saying その痛みで私を思い出せ。 ("Remember me through your pain." or "Remember who brought this pain upon you."), another one of his three possible victory lines in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. 	All of Sephiroth's victory screens take place in a fiery area instead of the standard area where most of the victory screens take place, a direct reference to the Nibelheim Incident from Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core. 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, similar to Joker.
If Cloud is present during the match, he has a chance of saying 思い出にはならないさ ("I will never be a memory.") in any of his three victory poses, a reference to his final line of dialogue from Advent Children and, by proxy, his reveal trailer for Ultimate.
==Role in Classic Mode==
Like all other fighters, Sephiroth appears in Classic Mode. Sephiroth's Mini-Boss is unknown. 
===Sephiroth Ending===
==Role in The Kiss of Death==
==Alternate Costumes==
Sephiroth's default design for Ultimate is based on his redesign from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children with some design elements taken from his in-game model from Final Fantasy VII, such as the brown-colored straps on his pauldrons. His coatless design is from the final cinematic boss fight in Final Fantasy VII. The Masamune is based on its redesign from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, in which it sports blue leather wraps with a golden hilt, and a golden handle guard with loops on two of the four sides.
Image	Number	Color 	Notes 	Unlockable?
 	01 	Black 	Based on his design from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. 	Default
 	02 	Purple 	Resembles 1st Class SOLDIERS from Final Fantasy VII. 	Default
 	03 	Green 	Resembles the Midgar Zolom, a giant snake located outside the Mythril Mine in Final Fantasy VII. Also resembles Heidegger, Rufus Shinra's right-hand man 	Default
 	04 	Red 	Resembles Genesis Rhapsodos, another subject of the Jenova Project. Also used in Dissidia Final Fantasy NT as the second alternate color for his default outfit "Operative of Legend"	Default
 	05 	White 	 	Default
 	06 	Blue 	Resembles 3rd Class SOLDIERs from Final Fantasy VII. 	Default
 	07 	Coatless 	Based on his appearance in Final Fantasy VII's final boss fight. Also appears in Dissidia Final Fantasy as his "Executioner" outfit. 	Default
 	08 	Coatless Violet	 	Default
 	09 	 	 	Unlockable
 	10 	 	 	Unlockable
 	11 	 	 	Unlockable
 	12 	 	 	Unlockable
 	13 	 	 	Unlockable
 	14 	 	 	Unlockable
==Smash Taunts==
===Palutena's Guidance===
===Snake's Codecs===
==Fighter Spirits==
Sephiroth's Fighter Spirit can be obtained by completing Classic Mode. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 500 coins. Unlocking Sephiroth in The Kiss of Death allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a Fighter Spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. Each Fighter Spirit has an alternate version that replaces them with their artwork in Life & Death.
File:Sephiroth-FFVIIArt.png
==Trivia==
Category:Super Smash Bros. Life or Death Newcomers
Category:Unlockable Fighters
Category:Fighters in Super Smash Bros. Life or Death