Smash Bros. Ultimate Is Adding FF7's Sephiroth, Release Date Reveal Set For Next Week

Nintendo revealed Sephiroth--the villain from Final Fantasy VII--as the next fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate during The Game Awards. In a short trailer, the Smash Bros. cast--including Final Fantasy VII protagonist Cloud--came face-to-face with the famous villain. The video then went on to show Sephiroth in action with both gameplay and an animated cutscene. Of course, it all culminated with Cloud and Sephiroth facing off, at which point Sephiroth teased what appeared to be his Final Smash: the One-Winged Angel. [Update: Nintendo has now confirmed that Sephiroth releases in Smash Ultimate on December 22.]

Sephiroth is slated to join the Smash Bros. Ultimate roster sometime this month. While Nintendo didn't share any further details about the character during The Game Awards, the company announced it will be airing a video presentation revolving around Sephiroth next week, on December 17. The broadcast will kick off at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET and will be hosted by series director Masahiro Sakurai, who will offer another look at the upcoming DLC fighter and reveal when he'll go live.

Each of Smash Bros. Ultimate's DLC characters have released alongside a new stage, as well as a handful of music tracks and some new Spirits. That will presumably be the case for Sephiroth as well, and we'll likely learn more about those during next week's broadcast. In the meantime, you can check out some screenshots of Sephiroth below.

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Smash Bros. Ultimate has a history of announcements at The Game Awards. In 2018, Nintendo used The Game Awards to surprise-announce the first DLC character for the game: Joker from Persona 5. That character arrived as part of the first Fighters Pass, which also included Hero from Dragon Quest, Banjo and Kazooie, Terry Bogard, and Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

That batch of DLC has completed, and Nintendo is now releasing characters as part of the Fighters Pass Vol 2. So far it has included Min Min from Arms and Steve from Minecraft. There will be six fighters in total as part of the Fighters Pass Vol. 2, which means there are still three more fighters to be revealed after Sephiroth. The pass costs $30 to buy, a slight savings from purchasing the characters for $6 apiece à la carte.

Cloud himself originally appeared as DLC in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Fans have long noted that Ultimate is low on Square Enix Easter eggs and music, compared to what has been added for Pac-Man, Banjo-Kazooie, and other non-Nintendo characters: it's possible that the addition of Sephiroth will be used to rectify that.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is one of Nintendo's most successful Switch games, currently standing at more than 21 million units according to the company's most recent sales data. That puts it only behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (29 million) and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (26 million).