by Doc, Owner, Founder, Man with Long White Hair
First, be advised that this isn’t being made with a full understanding of the Sephiroth amiibo. He ain’t out yet, and although I’ve personally seen footage of him in action and an amiibo tournament has already been held with the Sephiroth amiibo, it isn’t the final Sephiroth amiibo AI.
So remember that we’re not necessarily talking about the version of the Sephiroth’s AI that will end up in the game when the amiibo hits shelves. This is based on the footage I saw, and our early understanding of how he uses his moves. Don’t point to the final amiibo tier list and say that this was inaccurate, because there’s a probability that it will be.
Let’s talk about what Sephiroth has going for him, and what’s bringing him down.
Smash attacks
His Smash attacks are slow and ridiculously powerful, and his Forward smash would work wonderfully as a Musket method Smash attack. It covers massive range, has a lot of startup lag, and leaves him vulnerable when used at point-blank range.
Now, who does that sound like?
Right, that sounds like the Belmonts. The Belmonts ran into a problem where their best option was to completely avoid Forward smash, because the startup lag left them vulnerable every time they used it. I can easily see Sephiroth going down the same road as them and using Forward tilt spam (considering they have very similar tilts, this makes sense) instead of Forward Smash.
AI Screwery
I was concerned about his use of Side Special, whatever the hell it’s called. Moreso I was concerned about the opponent’s response to it. If the opponent treated it the same way they treat Mega Man’s sticky Side special projectile, (with erratic, dodgy behavior until it exploded on them) then I could see it being a tremendous asset for Sephiroth. A corrupting force, if you will.
That ain’t how it turned out. The opponent doesn’t even notice the impending hitbox, and using Side special leaves Sephiroth vulnerable to counterattack. Darn.
Fortunately, he seems to use his Neutral special quite effectively. The mod appears to have good understanding of how it works, so he uses it appropriately and doesn’t have much issue. That’s a problem avoided.
Actual results
The Sephiroth amiibo as we have it is good. It’s really good. It doesn’t appear to be game-breaking, but it holds its own against some of the top contenders that competitive amiibo currently has. The best of several characters have been thrown at the examples of Sephiroth amiibo (who, by the way, is a brain transplant and wasn’t trained with Sephiroth in mind) and most of them have fallen to him. Don’t forget that this is a pre-release version, and that Nintendo will probably introduce a worse version of the AI into the game, as they did with Hero.
Nonetheless, as it stands right now I see a good argument for the Sephiroth amiibo being A tier on the amiibo tier list.
Amiibo Doctor 