Sephiroth (SSBU): Difference between revisions

|utiltdesc=Stabs upward with the Masamune. Its hitbox is very high, able to reach through the top platform of {{SSBU|Battlefield}}, although its very narrow range makes it difficult to land as an anti-air. It has a weak grounded hit that has transcendent priority and knocks into the main part of the attack, similarly to {{SSBU|Marth}}'s up smash. Its early hit has excellent KO potential; the tipper is stronger than even Snake's notorious up tilt, and KOs Mario at 85% from Battlefield's top platform, thus making it the 3rd strongest up tilt in the game, only losing to {{SSBU|Mega Man}} and {{SSBU|Ganondorf}}. It also lasts for a decent amount of time, making it surprisingly difficult to avoid if the opponent tries to challenge Sephiroth from above. Unique to Sephiroth's stab attacks, the tip and blade hitboxes have higher priority than the sourspot at the handle. Sephiroth's upper body is intangible while the clean hit is active.

|usmashdesc=Twirls while performing a wide cleaving slash upwards with the Masamune. Similar to {{SSBU|Ganondorf}} and {{SSBU|Ike}} in terms of functionality. Has fairly slow startup, but covers an extremely wide area in front, above and behind Sephiroth, making it his best anti-air attack and giving him the ability to cover an entire platform with one move. Despite its incredible range, its relative endlag is only moderate, which may make it very hard to punish at farther ranges. While in Winged Form, this move gains 20% damage-based armor.

|nairdesc=Snaps his fingers, creating a circular burst of corrupted Lifestream around himself. Has the fastest startup and ending lag of Sephiroth's aerials, as well as the lowest landing lag thus making it his safest, and its hitbox covers him all-around, though it's also his aerial with the lowest range and the hitbox only lasts for 2 frames. It is one of Sephiroth's best combo starters; it can combo into forward aerial, up aerial, Shadow Flare and back aerial, with the lattermost being an effective KO confirm at around 50%-70% depending on the character's weight. It has very low interruptibility as well, which allows it to combo into itself multiple times without the need to even land on the ground, similarly to Terry's neutral aerial. Interestingly enough, it has a magic effect.

|bairdesc=Turns around to slash horizontally with the Masamune. Unlike other slash attacks, its hitbox is narrow, in a similar fashion to a stabbing attack, and the hitboxes only last two frames. However, it is very powerful, especially in his Winged form; it has high base knockback and deals exceptionally high damage, often KOing very early when sweetspotted (it starts KOing middleweights at the ledge at around 60%, and the KO confirms into it can happen as low as 40%). Its only average startup in relation to its power also makes it an excellent combo finisher, being able to almost consistently connect after a neutral aerial, back throw or down throw. However, it has an extremely strict autocancel window, only doing so on the first frame of Sephiroth's full hop without his one wing, making it punishable to land with unless if spaced.

|uairdesc=Backflips while performing a cleaving slash above himself. Very slow startup, but has immense range, covering a very wide arc above, in front of and even behind himself, making it exceptionally hard to avoid in the air if the opponent runs out of resources. Despite its massive reach, it also possesses great knockback, with the sweetspot KOing at around 110% on Battlefield's top platform. However, it has the highest landing lag out of any up aerial in the game (22 frames), and it cannot autocancel out of anything but a double jump. As a result, while its early hitbox can hit opponents while Sephiroth is landing, it is very punishable as a landing option compared to other aerials.

|dairdesc=A downwards stab with the Masamune. A [[stall-then-fall]] aerial; it powerfully [[meteor smash]]es aerial opponents during its initial frames. The blade extends through the ground, allowing for opponents under platforms and ledges to be hit by the move. It has excellent vertical reach below Sephiroth (being able to pierce through the edges of [[Battlefield form]] stages and even the entirety of [[Town and City]]), allowing it to consistently 2-frame opponents with good timing and often KO them very early, even without the need to go offstage to land the move. Unlike other stab moves, it deals the same damage at the blade and the tip, making it more consistent, and it plays a unique stabbing sound on hit. References an infamous scene where he kills Aerith Gainsborough in ''Final Fantasy VII''.  

|pummeldesc=Blasts the opponent with corrupted Lifestream from his hand. Similar aesthetically to Mewtwo's pummel.

|bthrowdesc=Teleports the opponent behind him then pumps his fist to send them away and behind himself. It is moderately weak, but it sends at a rather high angle and has low ending lag. This in turn makes it a surprisingly useful combo throw, being able to combo into neutral aerial, back aerial and forward aerial; if in Winged form, its back aerial combo becomes a KO confirm impressively early, starting at around 35% for lightweights, around 48% for middleweights, and around 60% for heavyweights, while also often being a natural DI mixup as it sends more vertically than most back throws.

|uthrowdesc=Slashes the opponent upwards with the Masamune, which has a collateral hitbox useful for fights with multiple opponents. Sends the opponent upwards and behind Sephiroth, which can lead to an up tilt or neutral air at low percentages if the opponent does not react. It also works as a 50/50 KO setup into his up aerial at around 110%; the opponent's only escape route out of this combo is to jump out of it, which then puts them further into disadvantage due to Sephiroth's huge reach being able to usually catch their landing afterwards.

|dthrowdesc=Telekinetically slams the opponent on the floor. Its extremely low ending lag grants it excellent combo potential at low-mid percentages; it can combo into all of his aerials (except down aerial) at low percentages, and at mid-percentages, Sephiroth can perform a reverse aerial rush back aerial as a KO confirm, which is even more effective when in Winged form due to his better mobility.

|nsdesc=Charges Flare, an explosive fireball, in his right hand that travels slowly when fired. A chargeable projectile as long as the special button is kept pressed, it can be [[charge cancel]]ed (but the charge is not stored). It has three different variations, each producing incrementally stronger projectiles with larger explosions, but also significantly lowers their travel speed and distance. Tapping the button results in Flare, a scarlet red flame that is the quickest and travels the most distance, but has the smallest explosion. Charging it for some time results in Megaflare, a blue flame that is more powerful and has a larger explosion, but travels a shorter distance. Fully charging it results in Gigaflare, which causes the background to darken dramatically, and the music's volume to lower; the small, yellow spark fired travels an extremely short distance, but results in an immense explosion with extreme knockback, being capable of KOing most characters as low as 20% near a ledge, or even potentially KOing at 0% if in Winged form. Gigaflare has moderate ending lag, but when it explodes at its farthest ranges, Sephiroth has enough time to follow up with another attack, most notably forward smash which can most likely KO at 0%. However, it has extremely high startup across all versions, making it punishable if used as a conventional projectile. Despite Gigaflare being extremely slow to start, its very large hitbox makes it a notoriously effective ledgetrapping tool, allowing it to simultaneously cover nearly every option when timed correctly; against opponents with a reflector, Sephiroth can simply cancel the charge and punish the attack. All three versions can be [[reflection|reflected]] and [[absorption|absorbed]]; it should be noted that despite Gigaflare's extreme power, it is relatively unrewarding to absorb due to its initial hit dealing very low damage.

If the special move button is held down, it becomes '''Octaslash''', a multi-hit dash that, true to its name, hits eight times, gaining significantly more power and slightly increased travel distance. It deals high damage and is an effective combat move, but has high ending lag and extremely high landing lag (one of the highest for an up special). It is unreliable at grabbing the ledge; however, its large hitbox can be used to deter opponents from camping a ledge. If Sephiroth starts a midair Octaslash and aims diagonally at the ground, he will travel along the ground as he moves, similarly to [[Fire Wolf]]. If he aims directly down towards the ground, however, Sephiroth bounces up slightly and the attack cancels. Octaslash's hits also slow down significantly on hit. Octaslash has great range overall, not only extending far in front of Sephiroth, but also having great reach above and below him; when combining this with the fact that every successive hit has only a one frame gap, this makes the move excellent for 2-framing nearly every character when timed correctly.

|dsdesc=A [[counterattack]] consisting of a honeycomb-like barrier that deals multiple hits upon counterattacking. It can only counterattack attacks in front of Sephiroth. It is unique for a counterattack in a few ways: for one, it will activate and deal minimal damage even if an attack does not connect with it, though it still grows stronger like a normal counterattack depending on the damage it has taken. Secondly, it has a damage cap of {{rollover|25%|effectively 30% under the 1v1 multiplier|y}}, after which the barrier will shatter, negating the damage and causing Sephiroth to stagger briefly. Finally, the counterattack is considered a projectile, meaning it can be reflected and absorbed. Despite its appearance suggesting so, Scintilla cannot [[reflection|reflect]] projectiles, as the barrier breaks and nullifies the projectile as if it hit the damage cap. Like most counterattacks, Scintilla freezes the opponent right before the retaliating hit. Its unique properties make it excellent for edgeguarding any sort of recovery due to its ability to automatically trigger. It is also one of the strongest counters in the game with a damage multiplier of 1.5x, making it tied with [[Gut Check]] and [[Counter Throw]] as the second strongest counterattack. This move can deter most opponents from sharking with their recovery move, making it effective against attacks that don't snap the ledge as quickly.