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Sephiroth - Stats
Occupation (at start of game): Top ranking SOLDIER officer, heartless murderer
Age: Unknown
Weapon: Masamune
Height: 6'1"
Birthdate: Unknown
Birthplace: Unknown (probably Hades)
Blood type: Unknown (probably green)
Likes: Killing, staring contests
Hates: Everything else
Ultimate Weapon: N/A
Limit style: N/A
Story
Sephiroth is pure evil. That's the only way to describe him. He's so sinister he makes Darth Vader look about as fearsome as Tinky Winky out of the Teletubbies. But the mercenary swordsman's aura of mystery and darkness has actually made him a figure of worship amongst many people (the type that keep AK-47s in the umbrella stand, pierce themselves in bizarre places and stand in graveyards at midnight conducting black magic rituals, typically), to the extent that he even has his own Internet cult! (Brr.) His mysterious past seems to be linked to an entity known as Jenova, but other than that, little is known about him. What is his connection with Nibelheim? No one knows... nor should they wish to!
Sephiroth's Forms
Sephiroth
Encountered: Mt. Nibel (Cloud's first flashback)
HP: 3264
Attacks: As well as his Masamune (around 3000+ points of damage), Sephiroth is equipped with the following Mastered Materia: Restore, Revive, Ice-All, Earth-All, Lightning-All, Fire-All. He also wears a Tough Ring (Vitality and Spirit +50) which is one of the best accessories in the game. You can steal one from Reno in the Midgar sewers during your return trip there on disc 3.
Notes: At this point in the game, Sephiroth is fighting on your side.
Note: I've been informed that the difficulty of Bizarro-Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth alter according to Cloud's level. Apparently, if Cloud is at level 98 or 99, they'll be super tough to defeat. I was at level 84 when I defeated them and they were nowhere near as tough as I thought they'd be.
Bizarro-Sephiroth
Encountered: Northern Crater
HP: Unknown
Attacks: Bizarro Energy, Fallen Angel, Demi3, Deen
Notes: Bizarro-Sephiroth is split into five parts; Left Magic, Right Magic, Head, Torso and Core. First concentrate on the Left Magic, Right Magic and Head - destroying these will enable you to damage the Core, which heals and protects the Torso. Destroy the Core, then go for the Torso. If the Torso dies, Bizarro-Sephiroth dies too.
Tips: Even if you're forced to split into two or three teams for this fight, you only need to use the first team. The first team will automatically go on to fight Safer Sephiroth, so make sure they're well equipped with their Ultimate Weapons, Knights of the Round, Destruct (with DeBarrier learnt), E.Skill (with Big Guard learnt), at least one Mime, and preferably at least one Final Attack-Revive or Final Attack-Phoenix (the latter will revive all fallen team members and hurt the enemy) combination. Also, give at least one character a Ribbon. You should have plenty of Elixirs, Megalixirs and X-Potions (if not, see the Small Tips), so use those instead of Cure Materia.
Use KotR on Bizarro as soon as you get the chance. This will destory his Left and Right Magic and Head, as well as seriously damaging his Torso. Now you should only need to deal a few blows to the Torso to finish him off.
Safer Sephiroth
Encountered: Northern Crater
HP: Unknown
Attacks: Pale Horse, Fallen Angel, Super Nova, Shadow Flare, Deen
Notes: Sephiroth finally appears in his true form - the One Winged Angel of infamy. Pale Horse inflicts a multitude of status ailments, similar to Malboro's Bad Breath; Fallen Angel reduces each character's HP to 1; and Super Nova is Sephiroth's devastating summon. Shadow Flare is an Enemy Skill which you have probably encountered already - it hits one character for around 7-8000 points of damage. Deen is no big deal so don't worry about it.
Tips: Use Big Guard first of all, then KotR (mimed if possible), Ultima, normal attacks and Limit Breaks. I managed to finish him off using KotR once, Bahamut ZERO once, a few normal attacks, one Omnislash from Cloud and one Catastrophe from Barret. When he finally went down, one of my characters was dead and the other two were clinging to life - thanks to Fallen Angel - with just 1 HP each! Talk about close!
Origin of Sephiroth's name
Sephiroth. Sounds sort of arcane, doesn't it? But we had absolutely no idea of the mystical significance surrounding FFVII's very own Satan figure until we read this on RPGamer:
"At the Creation," explains Kabbalist spokesman Steve Edelman, "God sent out a pulse of energy into the void. It presently branched and sorted into
ten distinct spheres or aspects, corresponding to the numbers 1-10. These
are known as the Sephiroth. To return to God, the soul must negotiate each
of the Sephiroth, from ten back to one. Armed with magic and faith,
Kabbalists have set out to conquer the Sephiroth. Many Kabbalist secrets
have to do with making the trip successfully.
"Now the Sephiroth fall into a pattern, which is called the Tree of
Life. It is also the body of God. Drawn among the ten spheres are 22 paths.
Each path corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and also to one of
the cards called 'Major Arcana' in the Tarot.
"Some Sephiroth are active or masculine, others passive or feminine. But the Tree itself is a unity, rooted exactly at the Bodenplatte. It is the
axis of a particular Earth, a new dispensation, brought into being by the
Great Firing."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon, p. 753
Good grief.
As for "Safer", there's been a bit of confusion about what this means, but I think I've finally managed to clear it up. It's not a corruption of "Seraph" or "Saviour", it's actually something to do with Judaism. I think. (I'm not a religious person, unless you count my devotion to Tifa.)
