The trailer for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate by Sephiroth offered video game fans a real show as we learned the identity of the character behind Challenger Pack 8. Those familiar with Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children probably noticed some memorable scenes from the film when the revelation happened.
According to Masahiro Sakurai in the last Famitsu column, the script for the Sephiroth revelation was created to honor the Advent Children. Apparently, plans for this were created before the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. In other words, there is no intentional reference to events that occurred in Final Fantasy 7 Remake in the Super Smash Bros. trailer. Ultimate.
In fact, the scenes of Sephiroth in Advent Children that had him enveloping the sky in darkness, impaling Cloud and lifting him up in the air, falling victim to Cloud’s Omni Slash Ver. 5 and swearing that he would never become just a memory, everything was referenced in the great revelation.
Of course, the violent nature of the villain’s attack on Cloud was mitigated in the trailer. Instead of impaling someone with his 2.10 meter Masamune, the One-Winged Angel lifted Mario up in the air by his jumpsuit in a hilarious way that was more suitable for Nintendo’s audience.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake was released earlier this year on April 10, 2020. At this point, Min Min from ARMS and Steve from Minecraft were not even revealed as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
It is not very surprising to hear that Sephiroth was already chosen to become a playable character at that time, considering that it was declared that Nintendo had already decided on the list of Fighters Pass Vol. 2 in 2019, as well as with the first Fighters Pass. Again, there is no need for a “Smash Ballot” to find out which fighters deserve a spot.
This seems to imply that One-Winged Angel was being worked on to some extent, while Min Min and Steve were also being developed. At a minimum, plans for each combatant’s film development trailers and movement sets have already been created.
Masahiro Sakurai mentioned earlier that he received the first builds of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Fire Emblem: Three Houses for the purpose of putting Breath of the Wild Link and Byleth in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in a timely manner.
Likewise, Sakurai received the first sketches of Greninja before the release of the sixth generation of Pokémon games during the development of Super Smash Bros. 4. Of course, this obviously wouldn’t happen with one of Square Enix’s intellectual properties, so there was no possibility of Final Fantasy 7: Remake being referenced in the Sephiroth trailer.
At the end of the Famitsu column, Sakurai declares that he is happy that he and the development team were able to release Sephiroth before the end of the year. Considering the complications surrounding the global pandemic COVID-19, there was no guarantee that this would happen as Sakurai expected.
In any case, this seems to imply that the newest character has only recently been prepared for release. This may mean that we are at least a few months away from the next fighter.
Source: Source Gaming.