Board 8 > Mega Man vs. Sephiroth

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Sephiroth fared worse than Mega Man X against Tifa back in 2018, though some have argued the Sephiroth/Tifa match was a bit fishy. Now that FFVIIR is fresh in voters' minds, though, would Sephiroth be able to reverse that deficit against the original model?

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Mega Man would have beaten Sephiroth easily in 2018. I'm of the opinion that the site is just not behind Cool Anime Badass the way it was in the 00's (see also: Vincent), and that the loss to Tifa is legitimate and would repeat if the match occurred again today. Sephiroth is weaker today than he was in 2002, and he only barely beat Mega Man then.

Maybe FF7R boosted him but I don't think the effect will be much. I'd expect it will do a bit more for the PCs who have more screentime.

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It's not that I wouldn't think Tifa would beat Seph again, but that doesn't mean she's indirectly stronger and it's pretty clearly a SFF match and can't be taken at face value regardless.

I think FF7R helps him to victory, while he probably loses it before, but it's tough.

Comparing them to 2002 is very flawed when it's the longest time ago and the only time Mega Man got close to Sephiroth. They met again in 2003 where Mega Man didn't stand a chance and they were far apart for a long time since then, partially because Mega Man himself is weaker. 2002 is without a doubt his best year.

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Okay but Sephiroth also did this

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7365-finals-bracket-round-1-mario-vs-sephiroth

That is very bad. Mega Man was clearly stronger than that in 2018. He's been clearly stronger than 40% on Mario in literally every contest.

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More like sephiroth vs Aeris

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Night crowd bumpo.

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Sephiroth takes it, but it's much closer to the percentages we saw in 2002 than in 2003.

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KamikazePotato posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7365-finals-bracket-round-1-mario-vs-sephiroth

This was just a really really sad day for Sephiroth. Like, we all knew Mario was going to get his revenge, but reversing a 60-40... Have we ever seen such a swing in a 1-1 grudge match, even with such a long time gone by?

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Underleveled posted...

This was just a really really sad day for Sephiroth. Like, we all knew Mario was going to get his revenge, but reversing a 60-40... Have we ever seen such a swing in a 1-1 grudge match, even with such a long time gone by?

https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/(4)Phoenix_Wright_vs_(5)Gordon_Freeman_2006

https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/(1)Phoenix_Wright_vs._Miles_Edgeworth_vs_(8)Gordon_Freeman_vs._Dr._Breen_2011

I know it partially required LOL RIVALS to get this bad, but it's pretty close.

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ctesjbuvf posted...

It's not that I wouldn't think Tifa would beat Seph again, but that doesn't mean she's indirectly stronger and it's pretty clearly a SFF match and can't be taken at face value regardless.

I think FF7R helps him to victory, while he probably loses it before, but it's tough.

Comparing them to 2002 is very flawed when it's the longest time ago and the only time Mega Man got close to Sephiroth. They met again in 2003 where Mega Man didn't stand a chance and they were far apart for a long time since then, partially because Mega Man himself is weaker. 2002 is without a doubt his best year.

2002 was before KH, KH did indeed make Sephiroth quite beastly. He's just decayed a lot since. I used 2002 as a point of reference because I'm quite convinced that Sephiroth is now weaker than he was in 2002. I don't really feel Mega Man has decayed much by comparison. He looked pretty solid in his last couple contests to me, certainly moreso than Seph did. Seph jobs to Mewtwo while Mega Man beats Charizard with Zero in the poll. 40% on Mario looks a lot worse than going even with Pikachu in 2018.

FF7R is the huge unknown here of course, so I can't blame anyone picking Sephiroth here, but in an alternate universe where FF7R doesn't exist or bombs I don't think this is much of a conversation.

I think Tifa is very likely stronger than Sephiroth indirectly too these days, but that's just a feeling based on shifts in this site's tastes + generally not believing in RSFF.

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Not an easy match, but I think Mega Man takes this.

As silly as it sounds, I don't think FF7 will boost Seph enough. I don't know if Seph has the same level of iconography Mega Man has now, and while the remake will boost him a good percent, he's making up at least 5% against Mega Man, who isn't really losing stock like Skyrim did this contest.

Does Seph even beat X?

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I still can't believe how poorly Sephiroth did. He looked kind of okay in the main bracket, but 40% on Mario is really bad, indeed. I wonder if his ToC matches were a fluke?

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No, Seph just hasn't been the juggernaut he was in the early days since around 2008, and has flat-out been lower-tier N9 since somewhere between 2010 and 2013. There's a reason he was selected to be the N9 member tossed into the main bracket in 2018.

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NeoElfboy posted...

2002 was before KH, KH did indeed make Sephiroth quite beastly. He's just decayed a lot since. I used 2002 as a point of reference because I'm quite convinced that Sephiroth is now weaker than he was in 2002. I don't really feel Mega Man has decayed much by comparison. He looked pretty solid in his last couple contests to me, certainly moreso than Seph did. Seph jobs to Mewtwo while Mega Man beats Charizard with Zero in the poll. 40% on Mario looks a lot worse than going even with Pikachu in 2018.

Oh, Seph is definitely below his 02 strength, he did better on Link that year that he did on Mario in 18. Doubt see anyone doubting that, he was incredibly strong even before KH.

Bringing up the Mewtwo match doesn't work either. Mewtwo was significantly rallies in that round and in round prior in an attempt to outrally Draven since people thought a Pokmon light pull it off. Every single other contest makes it clear that Mewtwo was in a different league in those matches.

The Mario match looks bad. I also said I believe Mega Man would win that year, but the Noble Nine is quite divided these days. I don't think Mega Man would do much better, he didn't back in 2010 and Mario had all the reason to be better in 2018 than 2010, because he's usually strong when Nintendo is. The rest of Mario's matches in 2018 are all weird and all include SFF, bandwagons or both. It's not easy to compare them.

Also, the matches between Mario, Samus, Tifa and Sephiroth makes it pretty clear rSFF exists in some way.

Underleveled posted...

No, Seph just hasn't been the juggernaut he was in the early days since around 2008, and has flat-out been lower-tier N9 since somewhere between 2010 and 2013. There's a reason he was selected to be the N9 member tossed into the main bracket in 2018.

Regardless of how strong Sephiroth might be, Allen straight up said he was chosen for the light bracket to have the other 8 represent different series.

Also, 2013 was a fine Sephiroth year. He was third wheel in one of the biggest rally vs rally matches and looks pretty good when you remember to consider that. It's really impossible to use 2013 to base anything on.

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Sephiroth would likely win now thanks to FFVIIR, but personally I feel the bigger factor is Mega Man is going to decline over the years more than Seph will. Nobody really seems to talk about Mega Man anymore after 11 was released, his Smash announcement is almost seven years old now and Capcom has been quiet about the franchise besides the Zero/ZX collection and some mobile game.

Mega Man was an odd case where the lack of games actually seemed to make him stronger due to all the Capcom controversy, but when we finally got Mega Man 11 it feels like we went back to the ZX-MM9 years where he fell out of the public's eye.

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I disagree with the latter but I don't entirely know why. Maybe just a hunch.

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2013 Mewtwo was a fraud

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Pikachu is the only Pokemon who has any genuine lasting strength. Charizard and Mewtwo have proven themselves to be frauds, and if Squirtle ever came back he would probably do the same.

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You mean Squirtle wouldn't beat Cloud in a match again?

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He sure wouldn't get 45% on him or whatever his actual number in that match was.

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I do like Squirtle's chances of being pretty strong, not because of the Cloud match, but because of the Snake/Pikachu/Squirtle match where the two Pokemon split really evenly. Granted, there's bound to have been a bandwagon effect, but it's still a good sign that there was no heiarchy present, because I don't see Mewtwo or Charizard doing that to Pikachu.

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Mewtwo murdered Pikachu in a similar bonus match that contest for what it's worth.

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_SecretSquirrel posted...

I do like Squirtle's chances of being pretty strong, not because of the Cloud match, but because of the Snake/Pikachu/Squirtle match where the two Pokemon split really evenly. Granted, there's bound to have been a bandwagon effect, but it's still a good sign that there was no heiarchy present, because I don't see Mewtwo or Charizard doing that to Pikachu.

Mewtwo DID do that to Pikachu in the bonus third place match though!

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