FInal Fantasy VII Rebirth director had no idea about Sephiroth's Smash Bros. Inclusion
A well-kept secret
By now Super Smash Bros reputation precedes itself, it’s one of the biggest gaming crossovers and was thusly prone to lots of rumors and leaks whenever a game was in active development. With so many prying eyes on the series it’s only natural that eventually something would fall through the cracks and leak to the public before Nintendo wanted, but it’s also just as impressive when an announcement is made that no one was expecting.
One such announcement was that Sephiroth would be joining the roster as part of the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighter’s Pass Vol. 2. Announced during the 2020 Game Awards, many fans were shocked by this inclusion as rumors and speculation was not pointing to Sephiroth or anything else from Final Fantasy VII at the time. Turns out another group that was just as shocked were people who were more familiar with Sephiroth than anyone else in the gaming industry, the developers of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
In an Interview with Kinda Funny Games, game director Naoki Hamaguchi revealed that neither him nor anyone on the dev team was aware of Sephiroth joining the battle and found out at the same time as everyone else. You can read his full words down below.
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!’
Given the iron grip Nintendo tries to maintain on Smash’s development this makes sense. Information on Smash fighter’s development is on a need-to-know basis and the developers of a game featuring the character wouldn’t need to know at all as funny as that may sound.
You can watch the full interview with Hamaguchi on Kinda Funny Games’ YouTube Channel down below!
About jmaldonado
A recently graduated creative writer hoping to work his way into the greater gaming sphere.
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