So... I'm three months late to the party. Back in December, my old Switch broke down completely, and it took me a long while to acquire a replacement unit. As such, I missed a whole bunch of stuff that came out for Switch, like Animal Crossing events, new Switch Online offerings, and new Smash Ultimate DLC. Today, I begin my quest to make up for lost time. BACKGROUND:
Sephiroth was the bombshell reveal back at the 2020 Game Awards, sending the Internet into a collective uproar. Given how much effort Nintendo had to go through just to get Cloud back for Ultimate, the idea of another Final Fantasy character seemed highly unlikely, so Sephiroth flying in was completely unexpected. Of course, you have the usual slew of complaining from the "ugh anime swordsman" crowd, but I'm quite OK with the fact that he made it in. After all, he's one of gaming's most iconic villains. Leading up to Sephiroth's release, they had a fun limited-time mode in Smash where you go into a special boss fight against Sephiroth. If you win, you got to unlock the character early (if you have the Fighters Pass). I unfortunately missed it since my Switch was bricked by that time, but I thought it was a cool idea. Also, Mario fucking "dies" in the trailer (again). That was hysterical. WHAT'S NEW: Our main attraction is the One-Winged Angel himself. He's got a big-ass sword (meaning long range), really strong normals (some of them are pretty quick too), decent mobility, and some neat specials. Apart from Shadow Flare (which is a neat spin on Mega Man's Crash Bomb) and Scintilla (a counter that isn't really a counter), Sephiroth feels mostly straightforward in terms of moveset. But it can't be DLC without some potentially busted gimmick, right? Well, Sephiroth's got one of those, and it's his One-Winged Angel form. It functions similarly to Joker's Arsene in that it's an install-style comeback mechanic, but instead of filling a meter, the form activates at a certain damage threshold (which varies depending on the current situation). Sephiroth doesn't get any new moves, but he gains an extra jump, super armor on his smashes, and everything basically just hurts more. I can't really tell how oppressive it is since I'm only playing with AI at the moment, but when it activates, the opponent has good cause to be afraid. All in all, Sephiroth provides the kind of ridiculous fun that only a hilariously strong character can, with some pretty lethal tools in his arsenal and a mechanic that makes you kind of afraid to damage him. The moveset is more or less standard fare for a sword character, but he does have some neat specials that I enjoy using a lot. Sword characters also tend to not have a very referential moveset (i.e. a lot of their normals are kind of just made specifically for this game), but Sephiroth does have a couple moves that reference FFVII (like the infamous downward stab). Unfortunately, his palette swaps leave something to be desired, but the shirtless alts are great. I was hoping Sephiroth's Final Smash would be his Super Nova move in the final boss fight (it's the one with an animation that takes like three full minutes), and while it's fast forwarded here, I did get what I want. That attack is over-the-top as hell and I'm glad that it's here. Sephiroth arrives along with a second Final Fantasy VII stage, and it's the Northern Cave, the area where the game's finale takes place. It's kind of a spin on the classic traveling stage, where the stage transitions from location to location. However, instead of being a simple tour of classic FFVII locations, the background plays out what is essentially the finale of FFVII (it is pretty much one big spoiler). The layout itself is pretty standard (it's just a slightly larger Small Battlefield), and I'm kind of over traveling stages at this point, but the stage looks pretty, and I like that the background is essentially telling a story. It is a little distracting, though. With a new stage comes new music, and holy shit, we now have more than two Final Fantasy songs. They don't add many more tracks, and the selection is exclusively FFVII, but I think we have a solid assortment here. JENOVA (a highly requested track) is in there, One-Winged Angel is there (of course), and some personal favorites of mine (like the main theme, Aerith's theme, and the opening track) make it as well. As much as I like the regular battle theme, I'm glad there's more variety to FF tracks now; perhaps playing on Midgar won't feel as stale with new tunes to listen to. As with every other DLC character, you get the usual DLC Spirits, Mii costumes, and a new Classic Mode. The Spirits are notable, as before this, Final Fantasy had exactly zero Spirits (other than Cloud's fighter Spirit). The Spirit battles, like always, contain neat references to the characters. As for the Mii costumes, we actually got costumes for other FFVII characters, like Tifa, Aerith, and Barrett, which is fantastic. Classic Mode is unique, as Sephiroth's route is essentially a boss rush. I wish boss rush were a proper mode, because Sephiroth's Classic Mode is so much fun. I don't recall any other big changes, but the most notable one outside of Sephiroth-related updates is the change to Cloud's Final Smash. If you're using his Advent Children alt, his Omnislash becomes Omnislash Version 5, which is the move he uses in the movie. Needless to say, it looks awesome. VERDICT: Sephiroth himself is a lot of fun, but I think the biggest win of this DLC is that FFVII gets significantly more love than it did during the game's launch. Brand new stage, new music tracks, Spirits, and even Mii costumes.... it feels like FFVII is well represented in Smash now. "Anime swordsman" complaints be damned, I'm glad Sephiroth made it in. - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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