The announcement of Sephiroth coming toSuper Smash Bros. Ultimateat the Game Awards 2020 came as an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise for many people. With a secondFinal Fantasycharacter now joining the ranks, a lot ofSuper Smash Bros.fans have a lot to look forward to. Although, surprisingly,Final Fantasy’spresence inSuper Smash Bros.had a few more hurdles than some may have initially realized.
The inclusion ofCloud Strife fromFinal Fantasy 7back whenSuper Smash Bros. For Wii Uwas still at its peak had a lot of people excited for what was to come. Though, for some fans, it was rather unfortunate, considering that until the arrival of Sephiroth, Cloud was the only playableFinal Fantasycharacter, and the subsequentFinal Fantasy 7stage came with only two songs from the series.
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In the recent gameplay showcase for Sephiroth,Masahiro Sakurai, the director forSuper Smash Bros.Ultimate,explained why there weren’t as many songs forFinal Fantasycompared to the dozens of songs from series likeCastlevaniaandFatal Fury. It essentially boiled down to some songs requiring certain kinds of permissions in terms of copyright. A number of songs require multiple copyright holders to give permission, while others only require one holder to give permission.
Thus, if Sakurai and his team can’t get permission from all of the respective copyright holders, then the song cannot appear in the game. This truly is unfortunate, considering that one of greatest strengths ofFinal Fantasyis its music. There are multiple tracks throughout the entireFinal Fantasygame library that resonate heavily with a number of players, withFinal Fantasy 7in particular having a significant amount of memorable songs.
Luckily, the arrival ofSephiroth as the next DLC charactercame along with a wider variety of music to choose from. Including the two originally included on the Wii U/3DS version ofSuper Smash Bros., nine new songs are being added to the game, bringing the total number ofFinal Fantasysongs up to eleven. This will be sure to satisfy a great deal ofFinal Fantasyfans.
For many fans, it’s nice to know thatFinal Fantasywill now have a greater presence inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate. The recent success ofFinal Fantasy 7 Remakewill definitely give players greater incentive to want to play as Sephiroth and Cloud in the future. Perhaps, moreFinal Fantasycharacters will make an appearance inSmash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimateis available now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
