Has Square ruined Sephiroth?

[Uzumaki Goku]

One of the most iconic video game villains of all time... but I feel that in many ways, he was the victim of his own popularity.

Like him being a secret boss in Kingdom Hearts 1 was a HUGE deal back in the day. Since then, he's gone on to be a secret boss in a lot of games. (On a side note, I'm going to assume the secret boss against him in KH1 is noncanon since in KH2 Sora acts like he's never met Sephiroth before)

Sephiroth had clear motivations in the original Final Fantasy VII... but ever since then, his motivation has been: Screw with Cloud no matter how bad... (which to be fair WAS present in the original game, see that little smirk he gives Cloud when he kills... y'know) (Why do I have to avoid spoilers from a 23 year old game)

But then he just kept showing up... like the Wolverine effect... he's popular so let's overuse him... even in Advent Children, he comes back.... for fan service.

It just felt like Square had no idea why he was so popular in the first place.

 

[_zoipi]

Tetsuya Nomura handling the extended universe was a mistake

 

[Socivol]

Possibly, but I will say I laughed my ass off at the thought he followed Cloud into Smash just to mess with him.

 

[bunikerrim]

Square has ruined a lot of things about VII and Cloud got it definitely worse than Sephirot

 

[mopinks]

I find him exactly as uninteresting as I always have, personally

 

[Minthara]

He's always been an inferior version of Kefka. So nope, not ruined.

 

[zoabs]

The more words Sephiroth says the lamer he becomes. Advent Children and FF7R did incredible damage to his intimidation factor. But that was also decreasing by the end of FF7 (original).

I will agree he was pretty cool in the original Kingdom Hearts though. His appearance and fight were both chilling as his original incarnation.

 

[OrigamiPirate]

Nah. The original FF7 still exists, and you can ignore the rest. Otherwise, there's an ongoing story being told, and hounding Cloud may yet still be in part a means to an end. I like Sephiroth more now than I did back in the PS1 days, personally. (enjoying the KH fights from a gameplay perspective helped, lol)

 

[My Blue Heaven]

the treatment of sephiroth isn't anywhere near as bad as some of the extended FFVII lore like loveless, genesis rhapsodos and all that stupid shit from advent children

 

[Deleted member 51539]

 

[--R]

no

 

[big_z]

He's always sucked. Dude is a product of a 90's fad.

 

[Misterhbk]

Nope. Hes just as awesome as ever.

Sephiroth doesn't exist as a character to be whatever you want him to be. With the extended universe lots of people who weren't there to play the OG game when it released have gotten a chance to experience him from their own perspective.

I didnt play FF7 until many many years after its release. Sephiroth is still my all time favorite video game villain. Hes badass.

 

[Dark Cloud]

No he made it to Smash. Mission accomplished

 

[McNum]

Possibly, but I will say I laughed my ass off at the thought he followed Cloud into Smash just to mess with him.

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While Sephiroth's main goal is smashing a giant rock into the planet, his hobby is definitely messing with Cloud. And with Meteor out of the picture, well, messing with the spiky-haired guy it is.

It is notable that we've had a clear trend in Smash trailers of people receiving invitations in those Smash sealed envelopes. Sephiroth, however, doesn't have one. He just teleports in, cuts Galeem in half, and proceeds to mess with Cloud again. And that is hilarious.

 

[Lunchbox]

Lol if that's the case they've ruined the whole FF franchise.

 

[Dolce]

He's always been an inferior version of Kefka. So nope, not ruined.

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Kefka is an insane joker villain type while Sephiroth had his own identity and self worth shattered which pushed him off the edge. They're not really similar.

That's honestly one of the things I've always found interesting about Cloud and Sephiroth. Cloud's journey was him accepting and coming to terms with not achieving his goals, his own mental health issues and problems. All of his flaws and failures.

Sephiroth could not accept it. He couldn't accept that he was the son and result of an insane man who did genetic experiments. He couldnt accept what he was born into. He lost his mind and to make up for it wanted to take back and destroy what he felt was his.

 

[tokyostomp]

If you spoiler warn for the death why not the secret boss thing?

 

[Deleted member 43657]

The original FF7 still exists, and you can ignore the rest.

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Bingo. This is Sephiroth and FFVII as I like to remember them. His inclusion in games like Smash is nothing more than a cool bonus.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Most Final Fantasy VII characters were ruined by the compilation content. That material is brutally damaging to almost every character. Some side characters benefit but the main cast suffer a thousand injuries.

I think people will have different breaking points, but for me Sephiroth was ruined the second I saw him talking on a cell phone.

 

[RecRoulette]

Thought this was gonna be about the nipples in smash lol

 

[Lua]

They ruined final fantasy VII lore in general. The ending being open is way more interesting than that dumb ps2 vincent game or that stupid movie that is only good for youtube fights. But yeah,they never really understood why sephiroth works, even in the remake. The first time you see him in the original, you have to follow a trail of blood and then find his sword impalling the game's villain until that point. It was a great build up to show how powerfull he was, but whatever, lets just make him a ghost and say mean things to cloud now.

 

[Deleted member 35509]

I find him exactly as uninteresting as I always have, personally

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Same

 

[Professor Beef]

If you spoiler warn for the death why not the secret boss thing?

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because kingdom hearts 1 is a nearly two decade old game they're talking about

 

[The Unsent]

He was quite unnerving in the original, because he didn't really have a personal rivalry with Cloud, who is treated as a failed clone, and just a courier for the black materia. He's more of a generic cool, rival now, who says pretentious things.

 

[Leo]

Judging by how his featuring in Smash Bros has still had an overwhelmingly positive reception after all those years, I wouldn't say Sephiroth is "ruined".

 

[Professor Beef]

And to get back on topic, no i don't think Sephiroth is ruined. If anything he's only been improved by expanding on his backstory in Crisis Core.

 

[Dougieflesh]

Absolutely not.

 

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

The man's no Gackt.

 

[Cactuar]

Nah, he's still the greatest villain in the history of video games. Thanks for your concern, though.

 

[MrCibb]

I wouldn't say ruined since he's still fantastic in FF7 itself but yeah, Square don't handle their characters that well in other media imo and tend to make them caricatures of themselves. Seph seems the worst for that just because he is so popular so get stuffed into everything, as you say. I think there's a term for when a character becomes a bit one-note.

 

[Chumunga64]

the compilation made a lot of characters lame and the remake salvaged a lot of them

unfortunately, sephiroth was not one of them

he's not "ruined" since you could make him cool again anytime, just look at how the remake cast made the characters cool again

 

[The Unsent]

Judging by how his featuring in Smash Bros has still had an overwhelmingly positive reception after all those years, I wouldn't say Sephiroth is "ruined".

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Imagine with all this

Spoiler

timeline meddling, the only thing he can do is kill Aerith again

hope they go in a different direction.

 

[--R]

because kingdom hearts 1 is a nearly two decade old game they're talking about

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And FFVII is 23 years old, and yet they avoid to say spoilers.

 

[Hailinel]

People sure do love to blame Nomura for literally everything they hate about Square Enix.

 

[Squid Bunny]

I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think entering Smash would be a symptom of "overexposure", since it's really cool that he's in.

His excessive appearances in gatcha games is way worse (I mean, you can fight him with Arianna GrandeO.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

He was so over used that now I just hate seeing him. Heck the whole FF7 universe is so damn overused.

I wish they ended it at the original game and we got a faithful remake of that instead.

 

[Alek]

And FFVII is 23 years old, and yet they avoid to say spoilers.

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In KH1 it's not really a plot spoiler though, doesn't spoil the story of the game. It's a nice surprise in some side content, like spoiling an easter egg. I think it's very different.

 

[Viale]

The more words Sephiroth says the lamer he becomes. Advent Children and FF7R did incredible damage to his intimidation factor. But that was also decreasing by the end of FF7 (original).

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Exactly this. By the end of seven, I didn't think sephiroth was personally that great a villain, but he was effective and worked well within the realms of 7.

A lot of his post OG 7 incarnations have made him much, much worse though. It's difficult to take him seriously in 7R.

 

[Horohorohoro]

Advent Children was literally written as an excuse to have Cloud and Sephiroth fight again so I don't think that really ruined him lol

The original game still exists. The compilation in particular bugged me with how it handled a lot of characters but I still like all of them. It's fine. It isn't retroactively making them worse or anything.

Also the irrational hate people have toward Nomura is fucking wild lmao

 

[apathetic]

Yes, yes they have. The "expanded FF7 universe" ruined a lot of it's characters though.

 

[King Kingo]

People sure do love to blame Nomura for literally everything they hate about Square Enix.

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Exactly. Yet it's the Nomura lead properties that continues to sell gangbusters, money doesn't lie.

 

[crimsonECHIDNA]

I'm kind of ambivalent towards Sephiroth as a whole. Outside of the Nibelheim stuff and his killing Aerith....I always found him kind of weaksauce in the original game. He's a fucking momma's boy with a god complex.

The expanded stuff basically made him into a edgy Voldemort.

I think the expanded stuff did Cloud way more dirty because it basically ignored all of his character growth in his own game because they thought "Anti-Social Badass Cloud" should've been his default instead of a constructed persona he was projecting.

 

[Jimnymebob]

I don't think he needed to show up as often as he did on Remake, but he's been handled way, way better than basically everyone from VII except Tifa these past 20 odd years.
Edit: Until Remake, just to clarify.

 

[TheDarkKnight]

Ruined? Hahaha of course not

 

[Chindogg]

Tetsuya Nomura handling the extended universe was a mistake

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Maybe one day we can finally admit that Kingdom Hearts sucks and nothing Nomura directed has been anything better than mediocre.

Exactly. Yet it's the Nomura lead properties that continues to sell gangbusters, money doesn't lie.

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It's almost as if making a jrpg with Disney characters then remaking one of the biggest final fantasy games would be popular.

 

[Dennis8K]

Sephiroth saw that Cloud was living it up on Smash and was like: "Not on my watch!"

 

[Deleted member 721]

No, he's not a complex villain, he was always the cool cold type of villain with gorgeous hair

 

[Tathanen]

The more words Sephiroth says the lamer he becomes. Advent Children and FF7R did incredible damage to his intimidation factor. But that was also decreasing by the end of FF7 (original).

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He talks... a lot in FF7. A veritable chatterbox in nibelheim.

 

[halcali]

Only the original FF7 matters to me.

Everything after that is just 'meh' and I just go with it, otherwise I'll be a bitter FF7 fan. lol