I've been busy right as the UW starts the Fall Quarter, but I've been playing Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis on my iPad with Ahsoka playing on my laptop. Ever Crisis recaps parts of FF7 and Crisis Core while mixing in some new origin and side stories in the greater FF7 universe. The "incremental gacha" style of the RPG makes it so I don't have to press as many buttons; the characters do their thing, and I'm resigned to play it in the background for the next year. And for cutscenes below, I enjoy it enough to login once a day. Until FF7: Rebirth releases in February, more downloadable content will be drip fed, which means more backstory.
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| A hero appears to save your surrounded party. |
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| Combo. |
One Winged Sith Lord
Sephiroth's final boss music, One Winged Angel, has a full choir and orchestra. Whenever he's on screen or implied in the story or background, different sections play in a lower key. The music makes him so menacing, just as the Imperial March can signify Vader or Vader-adjacent machinations. Nostalgic callbacks play throughout his Ever Crisis reveal.
Similarities between Sephiroth and Darth Vader:
- Obsessed with their mothers.
- Culling of non-combatant populations.
- Hallway scenes.
- Wears black.
- Cool boss music.
- Hero in the war that took place before the original series.
- Transformed into something more than human after a major defeat.
- Slay their own boss: Shinra and Sheev.
- Cool weapon coupled with weird magic powers.
- Some of their sidequests require obtaining crystals: materia or kyber.
- Fights a protagonist in a weird world between worlds.
- Variants in other media are not as evil.
- Competes with the protagonists as the most recognizable character of the franchise.
- Non-English name origin, Hebrew and German, respectively.
Unlike Vader, Sephiroth is not redeemable. He torches your village, turns the protagonists into orphans, and then literally trolls you by causing headaches. He also permanently deletes a playable character. There aren't any favorable opportunities to tag team against a common enemy, unless the Remake "maintain the canon" ghosts become more active, and even then, preserving the canon might be the "bad ending." He's also not environmentally friendly. Beyond burning, he summons a lot of calamities to Gaia.
He's like Voldemort, showing visions and whispering discouragement all game. He also shares a quality with Tom Riddle because his parents never loved him,. Which is why he always gets defeated by the animoo trope: "The Power of Friendship."
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| When your sword arm gets tired. |
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| Enemies remaining: 0.0. |
Descend Heartless Angel
The scene switches over to stylized in-game graphics. Glenn, Matt, and Lucia are resentful about how overpowered Sephiroth appears, without having gone through the same training. The scene establishes the power difference between you, the looming threat Sephiroth represents. He burns a nostalgic memory into your brain, the iconic turn around in the flames.
It's not quite clear what Sephiroth has already done at this point in time, but right now, he's generically destructive. His shorter hair might be a function on his SOLDIER salary, since canonically, Sephiroth uses a special shampoo and conditioner every day for full animoo powers.
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| Your team instantly hates Sephiroth for being too cool. |
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| Ah, he's looking over here. |
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| Another wave of enemies that clearly didn't see or infer what just happened to their comrades. |
Discussion
"Tell me what you cherish most. Give me the pleasure of taking it away."
- Sephiroth, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Sephiroth is a different kind of villain since he's mainly from a video game, meaning the player's relationship to the character is more transactional than other genres. Early in the original game, he helps you escape while leaving his sword as a present, in the back of Mr. Corporate Greed. It plays out differently in the Remake, suggesting other things might play out differently in the next installment. Some of the player's choices and interactions can affect how much backstory gets revealed, such as who Sephiroth's parents are, the atrocities Sephiroth commits, and how he was originally defeated.
More than Vader or Voldemort, Sephiroth hurts the player by reducing the playable cast by one in an unstoppable cutscene with sad music. In the sequel movie, the party all wear red armbands in their final fight. It hits different than making Obi-Wan become a Force Ghost or Avada Kedavra'ing Cedric Diggory. Sephiroth takes away hours of playtime and investment, as well as a beloved character.
On the original Playstation game, he was voiceless, but for some reason, my brother associated him with a "Hweh" exclamation. Lance Bass from NSync voices Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts. George Newbern played him in Kingdom Hearts II and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Tyler Hoechlin plays him in Remake and Rebirth. To me, Newbern's voice is what I imagine, since "I will never be a memory" is more quotable than "Seven seconds til the end."
A younger Sephiroth isn't as unhinged, but still possesses a lot of power against weaker enemies. You kinda wonder where the P0 Class of SOLDIER went before the start of FF7. An unmistakable visual design, characterization of being on the brink of a breaking point, and musical motifs all point to a popular video game villain becoming a bit more nuanced.
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| Some flavor text on the splash screen with new art of Young Sephiroth. |
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| A cool way to start the game before getting Metroid-vania'd. |
More on FF7
Here are some more posts I've written about Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis.
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