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Smash Bros Sephiroth

FF7 Rebirth’s Director Didn’t Know Sephiroth Would Be in Smash Bros!

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is almost upon us. Due to this, we are finding interesting tidbits of information, like how the game’s director had no idea Sephiroth was being added to Nintendo’s massive title Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

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This bombshell was part of an interview Kinda Funny conducted with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi.

At around the 43-minute mark, Kinda Funny cohost Imran Khan asks Hamaguchi if he had any feedback on Sephiroth being added to Smash Bros. or if he played as him and used any of that experience to influence the character in Rebirth. Hamaguchi responded, surprisingly, “So, actually, um, with sort of Sephiroth in Smash Brothers, it was actually extremely confidential that he was even going to be in it. So, none of the dev team knew, including myself. So it was more like when the whole world knew it, and that’s when we knew it like, ‘Oh! I had no idea!'”

Related: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Has an Amazing Story – And Too Many Mini-Games [Review]

I am shocked no one on the Rebirth team knew about Sephiroth being added to Smash Bros as DLC. You are telling me Nomura and Kitase didn’t know, either? It makes me wonder who at Square Enix permitted Nintendo to add Cloud’s adversary to the brawler. Regardless, it is comforting to know that developers and gamers can be genuinely surprised by a great reveal at the same time. It makes it feel like, at least in this instance, we are all on the same team, wanting the best for all the iconic video game characters out there.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be available on PlayStation 5 starting Feb. 29. If you’re looking for more information about Final Fantasy, here are all the pre-order bonuses and editions for Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) Rebirth.


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Author
Image of Arthur Damian
Arthur Damian
Arthur Damian has been covering the video game industry for over ten years, and joined The Escapist in 2022. He is a huge fan of platformers, indies, and fighting games, and strives to cover them for The Escapist every chance he gets. Arthur received his Bachelor’s Degree in English from Brooklyn College in 2009. He is also the Editor-in-Chief over at That VideoGame Blog. When he isn’t writing, Arthur enjoys playing games on his Switch and PlayStation 5, and sings the praises of the greatest video game ever, Chrono Trigger, to anyone who will listen.