You’d be hard-pressed to find a more iconic villain than Final Fantasy 7’s Sephiroth. The silver-maned antagonist is instantly recognizable from a single glance, not to mention the disturbingly tragic story behind his obsession with destroying the world. A big part of Sephiroth’s image has always been his ten-foot-long Masamune sword — but as it turns out, that length is actually deceptive, and Sephiroth’s sword lengthens or shortens as it needs to. Yes, you read that right, and it comes directly from the character’s creator, Tetsuya Nomura.
As part of its celebration of “Cool Sword Day,” Polygon interviewed Nomura on the origin of Sephiroth’s sword and some of the design philosophy behind it. But the fact that Sephiroth’s sword changes lengths as needed is definitely the most shocking — and hilariously out of pocket. I’ll do my best not to see that as some kind of bizarre double entendre.
“The Masamune’s blade has an organic quality to it, lengthening and shortening as needed,” Nomura says, “In the recently released second seasons of The First Soldier arc in Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, there is actually a scene in which the Masamune grows longer for the first time.”
It’s a little disturbing that there’s an in-lore justification to all this, and it’s not just an artistic choice. But it also allows Sephiroth’s design to shift in various different appearances, with Nomura saying the length of his sword is often adjusted to fit the distinct style of game he appears in. That’s kind of a brilliant explanation for why Sephiroth doesn’t feel out of place in games like Kingdom Hearts 2 or Super Smash Bros Ultimate.
Sephiroth has appeared in a variety of styles, and I guess it’s good to know his sword transforms along with him — like it’s almost a part of his body.
Even more interestingly, the dichotomy of Sephiroth’s weapon with Cloud’s Buster Sword seems to have been a factor in creating both characters, and it’s directly inspired by a famous historical rivalry in the Feudal era, between the swordsmen Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro. Nomura thought the “juxtaposition” would be interesting, with the far more powerful Sephiroth wielding a much longer and skinnier blade than Cloud.
If you haven’t been following Ever Crisis, The First Soldier is a canonical prequel story that follows Sephiroth's early days in SOLDIER, and how he became a legendary hero. It’s a pretty fascinating look at the character, as we get to see how his work for Shinra molded his ideology, and how even when he was “sane,” there’s a chilling kind of ruthless edge to Sephiroth.
While you don’t HAVE to play Ever Crisis to understand the Remake trilogy, it has proven surprisingly important in terms of narrative. The mobile introduced the character Glenn Lodbrok, who briefly appeared in Rebirth, and an abundance of fan theories have speculated that he could be Cloud’s father.
Ever Crisis is the best look we’ve ever had at Sephiroth’s history, and how he became the ideological villain he’s known as.
And it looks like another piece of important lore is about to be revealed in Ever Crisis, as Polygon asks about the origins of Sephiroth’s sword, and whether it was crafted by someone. Nomura says the “settings and background were brewing in my head,” as he details an upcoming episode of The First Soldier, where players will meet the blacksmith who crafted Masamune. Apparently, he even consulted Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Motomu Toriyama, and asked scenario writer Kazushige Nojima, who penned both the original and Remake, to write the section. So if you want to see Sephiroth’s magical sword come into being, you better tune in — or at least look up the cutscene on YouTube.
After learning all this, I sincerely apologize if, when playing the next Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3, you obsessively look at Sephiroth’s sword in every scene to see if it’s changed size. I know I’m going to.
