Final Fantasy 7 Creator Teases A New Sephiroth Design For The Remake's Final Installment
The end draws closer.
With Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth now in the rearview mirror, all eyes are on the third and final piece of the remake trilogy. While we don’t even know the name of the third game yet, we do have a glimpse at what could be the new design for Safer Sephiroth, the villain’s iconic final form... and it’s thanks to Magic: The Gathering. While it’s a cryptic hint, it has some interesting implications.
At PAX 2025, Magic: The Gathering unveiled a first look at its upcoming Final Fantasy set, detailing cards from across all 16 mainline games. Many of these cards include brand-new art from artists who have worked on Final Fantasy for decades, including original Final Fantasy 7 director Tetsuya Nomura, one of the leading creators on the Remake trilogy.
To celebrate the set, Nomura created a stunning new piece of art for Sephiroth’s card, showing his transition from young recruit to vengeful god. But what’s really interesting is the note Nomura put out alongside the art, where he talks about how both sides of the card line up into a single piece.
“There is also a reason that the design for Safer Sephiroth is different from the original game, but I unfortunately can’t share more about that,” says Nomura.
That’s vague, but it’s logical to assume the reason he can’t say anymore is because this is the version of Safer Sephiroth we’ll see in Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3. First and foremost, this seemingly confirms that we’ll be fighting Safer Sephiroth in the third game, which does fit thematically with the trilogy.
It seems like each final boss of the trilogy will represent one of Sephiroth’s forms.
Sephiroth is still the trilogy’s main villain, with the party fighting his desire to reshape the world, and each game of the trilogy represents the different phases of the final boss fight in the original Final Fantasy 7. In Remake, we fight Sephiroth in his one-winged angel form. In Rebirth, we fight his Bizarro Sephiroth form, and in Part 3, it’ll be his god-like Safer Sephiroth.
While it’s nice to have that confirmation, there are some subtle differences in the design. If you look closely, you can see feathers sprouting from Sephiroth’s right arm that weren’t there before, and just under that, what looks like a knee.
While there could be a story reason for the change, it seems more likely that the revision is mechanical. The original Safer Sephiroth is monstrous, with just the upper torso of Sephiroth attached to a grotesque construction of wings.
The new Safer Sephiroth design feels more human than the original.
Here, it seems like Sephiroth retains more of his human form, which could give Sephiroth the opportunity to wield his weapon and go mano a mano with the party, rather than floating above the battlefield.
There’s also the trilogy’s multiversal aspect, with Rebirth introducing different timelines and realities. While it’s doubtful the final game will go full-on multiverse, it could be a case where this Safer Sephiroth is some kind of amalgamation of multiple Sephiroths from various realities.
Everything is speculation at this point, but Nomura’s comments do indicate that Safer Sephiroth’s visual change will somehow be important to the third game. Considering all the questions still left to be answered by this trilogy, any snippet of information is welcome.
