Sephiroth

Vanguard

Sephiroth’s katana seems to extend for eternity, but that doesn’t keep him from swinging it with superhuman celerity. He can compensate for his slow footspeed with well-timed dashes, resulting in an unrelenting flurry of blows.

Original Appearance: FINAL FANTASY VII

Year: 1997

Role: Sephiroth was once a highly venerated member of the elite military arm, SOLDIER. His path to a vengeance-fueled madness began upon uncovering the truth of his origin. However, Sephiroth’s insanity is rivaled only by his force of will. Assumed to be killed in action at the hands of another SOLDIER, Cloud Strife, Sephiroth simply refused to assimilate with the Lifestream—to succumb to a non-existence. Years pass and Sephiroth eventually retakes a corporeal form, further affirming his vow to do everything in his power to become a god.

Other Noteworthy Appearances: Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring (1998), Kingdom Hearts (2002), Kingdom Hearts II (2006), DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY (2009), DISSIDIA 012 FINAL FANTASY (2011)

Arsenal

Bravery Attacks

HP Attacks

EX Skill

Sephiroth’s Perfect Dash Cancel

While most melee-based characters can dash cancel their attacks (in order to reduce their attack recovery period), Sephiroth has a mechanic unique to him that allows for a frame perfect dash cancel at the end of his melee bravery combos. With a perfectly timed input, usually within a three-frame window (3/60ths of a second), you can perform a special dash cancel that rewards you with an even greater advantage than that of a normal dash cancel. When successfully executed, the dash cancel is accompanied by a green flash effect.

When inputting , you can alter the direction of your dash cancel by leaning the left stick any way you want to go.

Sephiroth’s dash canceling allows for easier combo follow-ups, safer bravery attacks, and stronger offensive pressure overall. Like normal dash cancels, you can dash cancel your attacks if the enemy guards them.

Each cancelable bravery combo has a unique timing. Mastering the rhythm and timing of this technique is essential for optimizing your effectiveness as Sephiroth.

Bravery Attack Breakdown

Telluric Fury

Due to his lackluster footspeed, Sephiroth’s primary weakness is his inability to close distance safely. However, if you can successfully weave your way into a target’s melee zone, Sephiroth’s Telluric Fury is the ideal attack to possess in your arsenal to deal with vulnerable marksmen and assassins. Telluric Fury ranks as one of the best neutral Bravery Attack combos in the game, as the initial hop before the first strike provides a quick burst of forward movement, transitioning swiftly into a four-hit, distance-covering combo with excellent wall-pin potential. The threat of Telluric Fury makes Sephiroth a lethal threat that must be dealt with immediately, so expect foes to flee from range as soon as they realize you’re nearby. Although it’s difficult for opponents to guard or sidestep on reaction, attentive opponents may predict your attacks and retaliate accordingly, since Sephiroth’s offensive toolkit comprises risky long-range thrusts.

Strikes two through four of Telluric Fury can be forced on whiff, so it’s a bit more versatile than other melee attacks. While it’s easily punishable when sidestepped, it does a decent job of chasing down backtracking enemies thanks to the continued lunging effects of the second through fourth hits. Essentially, the fourth hit is double the range of the first.

For Telluric Fury this three-frame cancel window is before Sephiroth’s katana makes contact with the enemy on the fourth  input.

Aeolian Onslaught

Sephiroth readies the Masamune, then leaps forward a large distance with a sweeping slash. If the katana draws blood, Sephiroth converts the attack into a two-hit combo with an overhead slash, dealing significant damage.

Aeolian Onslaught is the quintessential thrust attack meant for catching vulnerable prey. It has a moderate windup time and should be used on unsuspecting enemies and those fleeing from you rather than foes who are willing to engage with you in a standoff.

Aeolian Onslaught shares functionality with another one of Sephiroth’s attacks, Heaven’s Light, as they’re both great for chasing opponents. Aeolian Onslaught covers the same amount of range and deals slightly more damage than Heaven’s Light, but it’s a bit slower in its initial windup. It can be evasion canceled relatively early in case you miss your target.

Aeolian Onslaught has a frame perfect dash cancel point, with its precise cancel window after Sephiroth makes contact with his sword during the second  input.

Shadow Flare

After a significant casting time, Sephiroth conjures forth a mass of gravitic energy at the target’s location, pulling in all enemies nearby before exploding and damaging foes failing to escape its orbit.

Shadow Flare is a long-range spell designed both to compel enemies to migrate from a defensive position and to surprise unsuspecting groups of enemies with a damaging crowd-control effect. While its start-up time is a significant drawback, Shadow Flare is an excellent asset in Sephiroth’s arsenal because of its reach.

Ideally, Shadow Flare is cast on groups of foes, such as those preoccupied in a skirmish among your teammates. Otherwise, if you’re in the fray yourself, refrain from its use since it’s highly vulnerable to engagement attacks as well as ranged spells.

To make your Shadow Flare casts safer, you can opt to evasion cancel out of the tail end of the cast. For instance, you can potentially lure a melee opponent with a Shadow Flare cast, canceled into a left, right, or back evasion cancel.

Heaven’s Light

While in flight, Sephiroth swoops aggressively toward his target with a three-hit shoulder charge and finishes with a rising uppercut with the Masamune, launching the enemy up high into the air.

Like Aeolian Onslaught, Heaven’s Light excels in chasing fleeing enemies. Usually, the choice between the two attacks comes down to whether or not you’re already dashing toward a target—using Heaven’s Light is preferable if you’re already in a dashing state.

Since this Bravery Attack launches its victim airborne, you can follow up with a neutral dash cancel toward your target. This sequence generally isolates the target from their teammates and allows you to continue pressing an offense.

The precise dash cancel window is slightly after Sephiroth ascends during the uppercut animation. This special dash cancel can be difficult to time since the timing is after the uppercut hit impact, and not precisely during the hit.

Heaven’s Light is one of the most important attacks to dash cancel. Most characters can’t normally dash cancel their “while dashing” attacks. Not only can Sephiroth dash cancel his, but his knockdown advantage from doing so is incredibly significant, allowing for a powerful follow-up offense.

Hell’s Gate

Sephiroth swiftly leaps toward and above his target before plunging his blade downward, pulverizing enemies below.

Hell’s Gate is an extremely useful attack for descending on unsuspecting opponents below. This unique attack can be altered into a dive-bomb by holding  when executing, allowing a complete descent to the ground and devastating enemies below with a unique visual earth-shatter effect. Note that this visual effect has no gameplay implications, as Hell’s Gate deals the same amount of damage as without it.

While Hell’s Gate can be used aggressively during a forward dash, its strength is most highlighted when used while being pursued, due to the abrupt transition from a retreating dash into a 180-degree dive attack. If you’re being pursued at a high altitude, you can go for a rapid escape by holding  when performing Hell’s Gate to drop all the way down to ground level, which can be difficult to deal with for most characters.

Since there are two versions of this attack (normal and full descent), it can potentially be the most difficult attack when it comes to landing the frame perfect dash cancel. For the normal version, its three-frame window is precisely at the “blast” effect. You can go by the visual or audible effect to help you get the rhythm timing.

For the full descent version, the window is slightly after the blast effect. This one’s particularly difficult to execute, especially if done from a high altitude.

Empyrean Wrath

Empyrean Wrath is a slightly modified form of Telluric Fury. There are minor differences in animation, but for all intents and purposes, these two Bravery combos are identical. Because Telluric Fury is one of the best vanguard melee combos, Empyrean Wrath is naturally a superb aerial combo for quickly dismantling targets in melee range. Use it as you would use Telluric Fury—which, in most cases, is anytime you’re close to an enemy.

The three-frame dash cancel window here is identical to that of Telluric Fury; the moment before Sephiroth lands his fourth  attack.

Zanshin

From range, Sephiroth swings his katana three times at his mark, generating a high-velocity, crescent-shaped energy projectile with every swipe.

Damage dealt by Zanshin isn’t extraordinary, but it’s an exceptionally powerful attack in the context of Sephiroth’s role on the team. A vanguard with a relatively fast mid-range projectile makes for an incredibly versatile teammate.

Zanshin complements Aeolian Onslaught well. Since Zanshin marginally outranges Aeolian Onslaught, you can keep your enemies on their toes as they anticipate a long-distance engagement.

However, the drawback to this attack is that it doesn’t track verticality at all. Sephiroth unleashes waves primarily along the transverse plane, so make sure to line up your target accordingly.

Although Zanshin isn’t necessarily a spell, Sephiroth retains some mobility during its attack animation, as with some of the magical attacks that other characters use. You can employ this feature as a way to back off in a retreating posture while fending yourself with projectiles.

HP Attack Breakdown

Scintilla

Sephiroth briefly projects a barrier to parry incoming strikes, then steps forward with a strike, stunning the enemy before finishing his victim with an HP-damage slash.

Scintilla is a hybrid HP Attack. It functions as a parry as well as a finisher, with the added benefit of dealing 160 Bravery damage before its HP damage ender. However, its range leaves much to be desired, and the parry aspect can be difficult to use properly (the block window is short) against certain characters. Scintilla is best against other vanguards, and not as effective against marksmen.

Fortunately, Sephiroth is one of the better characters at setting up wall pins for a guaranteed Scintilla (thanks to his perfect dash cancel mechanic).

Successfully countering a bravery attack with Scintilla adds invincibility and a large amount of range on its follow-up attack. For instance, if you counter Terra’s Fire spell from 1.5 range, you become immune to all attacks as you lunge forward to decimate her with your counterattack.

Heartless Angel

Enflaming the Masamune with dark energy, Sephiroth lunges forward with a sweeping slash, condemning his target with impending doom.

Sephiroth’s signature attack remains thematically consistent in DISSIDIA. On a successful hit, Heartless Angel deals HP damage as well as inflicts a Doom-like status effect, with a countdown of 20 instead of 10. The afflicted player can remedy the effect by successfully scoring a hit on Sephiroth; otherwise, they lose all Bravery.

Generally, HP Attacks are meant for finishing off enemies, but Heartless Angel grants an extra bit of utility without requiring a high Bravery count. If you can sneak in Heartless Angel on a target, that target is forced to engage with you to remedy the Doom effect; otherwise they risk breaking their Bravery before they can do any HP damage.

The downside is Heartless Angel isn’t easy to connect with on its own, and its countdown timer is twice as long as that of the EX Skill Doom.

Black Materia

Sephiroth calls down a descending meteor directly above his target, devastating them upon impact.

If you can build Bravery effectively as Sephiroth, Black Materia becomes incredibly dangerous for the enemy team. The threat of an unguardable HP Attack from long range is invaluable, especially for a vanguard-type character. Although it’s easily avoidable by simply being on the move, enemies have to respect it—like Shadow Flare, it can force foes out of position.

In conjunction with his frame perfect dash canceling mechanics, Sephiroth can set up HP traps mid-stage with Black Materia. For instance, after a successful perfect dash cancel off of Heaven’s Light, you can immediately throw out Black Materia on the same enemy. If your opponent performs an immediate air recovery, your meteor will fall and potentially score massive HP damage if the opponent fails to evade the descending projectile.

OctaSlash

Sephiroth warps toward his victim, delivering a deadly series of slashes with the Masamune.

Octaslash is the most straightforward HP Attack Sephiroth can equip. It deals more Bravery damage than Scintilla and covers more distance than both Scintilla and Heartless Angel, thus is ideal for raw killing power.

Thanks to its high Bravery damage, you only need around 3300 Bravery to defeat a max-HP target.

Jenova

Through sheer force of will, Sephiroth emits an aura that drains the resolve of his enemies.

Enemies inside this generated aura have their movement speed decreased while in range, making escape from Sephiroth difficult.

Jenova complements Sephiroth’s attacks well, especially when hunting down vulnerable marksmen. Activate Jenova to ensure you can easily catch fleeing targets with advancing attacks like Telluric Fury, Aeolian Onslaught, and Empyrean Wrath.

EX Skill Breakdown

Battle Plan

Sephiroth is classified as a vanguard, but he can be viewed as a vanguard/assassin hybrid thanks to his hyper-mobile attacks, frame perfect dash cancel mechanic, and an EX skill designed to hunt down fragile targets.

Sephiroth excels in duels with assassins and other vanguards, but can potentially hold his own against marksmen on small, flat stages. With access to both strong mid-range attacks and adequate long-range projectile attacks, Sephiroth can lure out enemies from a defensive position as well as chase them down.

Sephiroth’s close-combat game is second to none, especially when he can isolate and duel a target uninterrupted. His grounded neutral  (Telluric Fury) and airborne neutral  (Empyrean Wrath) are incredible tools for one-on-one scenarios, but are even better for chasing fleeing enemies, since these quick Bravery combos have deceptively long horizontal range and—unlike most Bravery combos—Sephiroth can force-combo Telluric Fury and Empyrean Wrath on whiff, further extending their effective ranges.

When it comes to offensive follow-up pressure, Sephiroth can dash cancel all of his melee-based attacks. Dash canceling is an important tool for all vanguards and assassins, but it’s especially effective for Sephiroth since most of his attacks are far-reaching lunges with otherwise high recovery periods. Combined with the high poise attributes that vanguards naturally possess, Sephiroth’s barrage of attacks can be difficult to fend off as he mows through enemies with dash canceled +  (Aeolian Onslaught) and melee-based HP Attacks.

If your team doesn’t require a delegated defender, you can play Sephiroth in the role of a disruptor instead, jumping around the battlefield tagging enemies with Heartless Angel. With this HP Attack, you don’t necessarily need to ramp up your Bravery to be effective. Heartless Angel applies a Doom-like status effect on any foe hit with it, forcing the victim to lose all Bravery unless they successfully score a hit on you (essentially relieving pressure from your teammates).

While your primary objective as a vanguard is to defend your marksman and assassin, you can fill in as an assassin if the situation calls for it. If you can apply the proper combo and dash cancel techniques, you can decimate foes quickly, especially if you can corner your victims and pin them to a wall. With masterful map awareness and in conjunction with a well-timed Jenova buff, you can jump from enemy to enemy with dash canceled Empyrean Wraths and Aeolian Onslaughts, wreaking havoc on the enemy team before dispatching them with Octaslash. To enhance this type of pursuit playstyle, you can equip the common EX Skill Enfeeble to further limit your opponents.

Sephiroth’s toolkit allows him to chase valuable targets as well as defend key objectives and teammates. He specializes in duels, and he can take advantage of the dash cancel mechanic more than most vanguards can. However, he may have a difficult time dealing with marksmen on high-verticality maps. Another potential drawback to his move set is his inability to throw out a long-lasting threat to help him cover his advance (although Zanshin and Shadow Flare are decent long-distance attacks, they’re not as effective for zone control as an attack like Cloud’s Terminal Vortex).

Gallery

Appearance

Weapons