Dissidia: Final Fantasy Character Spotlight – Sephiroth

As the August 25th launch of Dissidia: Final Fantasy approaches, I’ve decided to help ease gamers into the surprisingly complex PSP fighter by spotlighting a specific character every weekend until launch.  Today is Sephiroth. 

The inclusion of the silver-haired king of the pretty-boys into the Dissidia ranks should be of no surprise to anyone who’s played a Final Fantasy game in the past 20 years; love him or hate him, Sephiroth is perhaps the most iconic villain in the entire franchise, and the first Final Fantasy villain most younger players ever had a chance to face.  As such, his inclusion in the cast was one of the first unveiled by Square all the way back at the game’s announcement.  However, media on the Masamune-wielding momma’s boy went quiet after the initial trailer, and hungry gamers had to wait until just a few short weeks before launch to catch a glimpse of him in-game.  I’m going to be nice and not string you along that long.

Now, watching the footage above, captured and exported by yours truly using Dissidia’s Battle Replay feature, one might notice a few key facts about Sephiroth in the game.  For one, his range is extremely long; not only is the Masamune already an incredibly long weapon, but many of his attacks involve the sword firing off energy beams with which to slice distant enemies.  His attacks also have a tendency to hit multiple times.  His arsenal of attacks is largely culled not from Final Fantasy VII itself, but rather from his later appearances in Kingdom Hearts, Crisis Core, and Advent Children – though a few iconic moves from VII still appear.  Here’s a breakdown of some of his more iconic attacks.

• Empty Sky – Originally pioneered in his Kingdom Hearts appearances, this attack allows Sephiroth to teleport through his opponent, then damage him several times with a flurry of invisible slashes; this attack is likely influenced by Odin’s Zantetsuken maneuver or Shun Goku Satsu from Street Fighter.
• Octaslash – Sephiroth’s Limit Break from Crisis Core makes an appearance as one of his more powerful special moves, allowing him to deliver a multi-hit combo of powerful slashes before ending with a wide attack that knocks the enemy back.
• Black Materia – Self-explanatory; Sephiroth calls upon the power of the Black Materia to summon Meteor; the longer this move is charged up, the larger the meteor summoned will be, and the wider its effective blast radius will become.
• Prison Gate – While Aeris is nowhere to be found in Dissidia, the attack Sephiroth used to skewer her in the City of the Ancients makes an appearance as his default aerial special move; be careful when using it though, as it’s impossible to cancel out of.  Once he starts to fall, he’s going to hit the ground.
• Heartless Angel – This attack, notorious for having instantly killed many an inexperienced Kingdom Hearts player, makes an appearance as a secret move only usable while Sephiroth is in his EX Mode; using it instantly drops the opponent’s Brave to 1.  Beware, though, as it has a very long charge time.
• Super Nova – Last, but certainly not least, is Sephiroth’s EX Burst, pulled straight from the final battle of Final Fantasy VII.  While you won’t see 2 minutes of the entire Milky Way exploding, watching him cut a star in half and the ensuing explosion engulf your opponent is always a satisfying way to end a match.

Now, Sephiroth’s moves are certainly very flashy, but they also reveal a key flaw in his moveset; due to the long reach of his sword, most of his attacks require a significant startup and recovery time, which means that timing is essential in everything you do.  If you strike too early or too late, a faster character can and will exploit Sephiroth’s sweeping range and long recoveries.  A quicker character like Zidane will be able to run circles around you if you’re not careful, which makes Sephiroth an intermediate character to play; not for beginners, but not quite as hard to play as some of the other members of the cast.

Hopefully, this little primer has been informative to those of you looking forward to Dissidia; the game’s out in a few short months, and with over 20 characters in the playable cast, there’s plenty more to cover and plenty more to see.  Next week, we’ll be jumping over to the hero side to take a look at one of the good guys; Cecil Harvey from Final Fantasy IV.