Final Fantasy VII Rebirth director says Sephiroth in Smash Bros. Ultimate was “extremely confidential”

New character reveals for Smash Bros. are always a big deal, and Nintendo tries to keep as much secrecy around each announcement as it possibly can. Even those you may think would be tuned in to what’s happening behind the scenes are kept in the dark.

One example is this was the Sephiroth DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. As it turns out, no one on the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth team knew that he would be joining Nintendo’s game. That includes Naoki Hamaguchi, the director of Square Enix’s new RPG.

Hamaguchi was asked in an interview with Kinda Funny if he gave any feedback for Sephiroth’s inclusion in Smash Bros. or if he took anything away from his appearance there. In response, he said:

“So actually, with Sephiroth in Smash Bros., 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, that’s when we knew. It like, ‘Oh, I had no idea!'”

Sephiroth joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in December 2020. Between the two Fighters Passes, eleven DLC characters were added to the game.