Battle! Sephiroth vs. Dracula

[Raziel]

Arena: Unhallowed Ground

In the Red Corner, equipped with the fearsome Masamune, an extensive repertoire of destructive magic and the most violent mommy-complex since Norman Bates! The One-Winged Angel, the son of Jenova, from Final Fantasy 7: Sephiroth!!!

And in the Blue Corner, armed with ancient vile magics, a terrifying cornucopia of demonic forms and the sheer, bad luck to get his ass kicked repeatedly by descendants of the Belmont clan over and over again! The immortal parasite, the right hand of the Devil, from Castlevania: Dracula!!!

Confidently striding through the upturned hills of the graveyard, Sephiroth catches a glimpse at the full moon and smirks. Unsheathing the Masamune, he feels the ground beneath him quake violently, and a large crypt placed at the top of a hill directly ahead of his suddenly ruptures, spraying rock and debris in all directions. Sephiroth fails to do even so much as flinch at this, and watches stoicly as the glowing, vile form of the demonic Dracula emerges from the smoldering crater. The ancient vampire bares his fangs summoning a destructive orb of dark energy into his palms. Sephiroth smiles calmly, brandishing his weapon. The two lock eyes, and the fight begins...

[Medieval Bob]

Has Dracula ever been a playable character? I can't really think what to base this off of other than boss fights. Anyhow, I seriously don't see this going to Sephiroth. Say whatever you will about him, but this fight, just on principle, must go to Dracula.

He is the most famed villain ever. There have been umpteen billion movies about him, and the only reason he loses (most of?) them is because he is the evil that threatens the world. It's pretty rare the the bad guy wins and the world plunges into darkness.

Anyhow, if we take the series, only the Belmont clan (destined Dracula slayers) and Alucard are able to kill Dracula. Sephiroth isn't a Belmont, and he certainly isn't Alucard... because... Alucard is elsewhere in the brackets.

Anyhow, someone who's played SotN throw in some info. I haven't played the most popular Castlevania game, so I'm surey lacking on some good information. I'll throw something up later. I'm swamped at work and swamped with homework right now.... Bleh.

[Draco2003]

Although Dracula is very powerful, Sephiroth has something Dracula doesn't: a mom!!!
And Dracula just fights to control the world, which Sephiroth believes belongs to his mommy. Now, wouldn't you do everything possible to make your mom happy? YES! So Sephiroth has that, and besides, dracula's own son wants to kill him, so I am pretty sure he is in an emotional rut right now, so sucks to be him. That's what he gets for sleeping with mortals.

And Sephiroth looks better. So there. :P

[Raziel]

Well, techically, Dracula did have a mother at one point. He was mortal once, and if you're mortal, you had to have spilled from a vagina.

[KagomJack]

Sephiroth. Seriously, look at him: Masamune, speed, METEOR

Those are more than enough for sephiroth to make quick work of Dracula.

[Raziel]

Meteor takes days, possibly weeks to summon. There's no concievable way he could summon it in this fight. The Masamune isn't a very convincing argument when Dracula has survived death repeatedly for millennia. I don't see any possible way that Seph could win this.

[Penny_Bags]

Yeah, Sephiroth couldn't do jack shit against the fucking lord of vampires.

[Titusfied]

First off, Sepiroth was part of the very first Super-SOLDIER task force that was formed to bring Shinra Inc. to the Promise Land. He weilds an extremely powerful Masamune blade that takes down Dragons in a mere swing, and his swordsmanship is next to unmatched. His powers were considered unnatural by those who knew him, and the other Super-SOLDIERs.

It was in an attempt from Sephiroth to take the Jenova head out of a Mako factory that Cloud impaled him with his Masamune, critically wounding him.

After that incident, Sephiroth's body was sealed in a Mako chrysalis, which made his psyche extremely powerful, most likely from the Jenova cell mutation. During this state, he found that he was powerful enough to come together in a physical form, of which any shape he could fathom was possible. Meaning basically, he can fly, appear transparent, make himself almost ten times his normal size, and travel through the ground. It was through this process he was successfully able to retrieve the Black Materia and summon Meteor.

In this fight his psyche will come greatly into play to confuse Dracula.

Also, when he casts Meteor, the time guage in the game halts, and won't allow another attack to be maneuvered during that time, which means that we can either say (1) He can cast it, fight it out with Dracula, and when the time comes for the spell to be ready, it hits, or (2) No fighting occurs until Meteor is processed and hits it's target.

[Medieval Bob]

In the last tournament, we decreed that spells that take time to cast in game would take time to cast in a battle. Therefore, unless casting Meteor physically freezes the other charcters, Dracula would be able to do whatever he wishes while Sephiroth is summoning it.

Standing still and casting a spell while being gutted by the lord of vampires is probably not the best strategy.

[Titusfied]

It honestly doesn't even really matter. Sephiroth can easily take on a different physical form to fight/fend off Dracula while Meteor is being cast. BAM! POW! WHOOPIE! KABLAW! Meteor is devastating.

[Medieval Bob]

So, if he wanted, Sephiroth could summon Meteor then go make a PB&J sammich. He could eat the sammich. He could then take a nap. He could get up and go to the beach for a little vacation. He could learn to surf and build a sand castle. Then, 11 days later, (I'm using Raziel's post as reference) he could come back to fight Dracula, and Meteor would finish summoning?

Somehow, I don't think this will fit in with Dracula's schedule very well.

[Titusfied]

Meteor takes days, possibly weeks to summon.

That is one big assumption actually. If the spell takes that long to cast, I don't think it would ever be used in the game, however it is. I still don't understand why Dracula would be able to attack a defenseless Sephiroth while he tries to cast Meteor, but no other character to ever face Sephiroth could? It just doesn't make logical sense to me.

[Raziel]

Titus, you're confusing Meteor with Supernova. Supernova is the summon he uses in the final battle. Meteor is the giant rock that hits the planet at the end of the game. Between the time that Sephiroth actually summons Meteor and the time that Meteor actually hits the planet, Cloud and his party engage in possibly weeks worth of activities. There's no way it could be used in this fight.


I still don't understand why Dracula would be able to attack a defenseless Sephiroth while he tries to cast Meteor, but no other character to ever face Sephiroth could? It just doesn't make logical sense to me.

Because, Titus, there is no way to gauge how long it takes Sephiroth to cast a spell. You never actually take full control of Sephiroth at any point in the game, and therefore you don't know if while he's being attacked, he's actually in the process of trying to cast a spell. You know that Cloud has basically instantaneous spell-casting ability, but you don't know for certain when exactly it is that Sephiroth initiates the command to begin casting a spell, and therefore there is no concrete way of determining how long it takes him between beginning the casting process and actually using the spell. I'm not saying that this is irrefutable proof that his spell-casting abilities are slower, I'm just saying that there's no way to prove otherwise.

Heh, I also have another pretty crippling argument against Sephiroth, but it will take a while to post, and I'm not up for it right this second.

[tokill.ace]

sephiroth will definetly own his ass when u get to play him for like a second u get u vs this huge ass dragon and sephiroth + sephiroth is the fucking king he can own anybody (cept cloud at the end which i beat him :)) and he can just fucking own anyone look at the heaven sephiorth at the end of ff7 he kicks ass and he has the coolest hair the best char of all time sephiroth will own u all

[Raziel]

Well, here's my big rant. Now, none of this is necessarily set-in-stone proof, but it's pretty hard to argue against one way or another.

First and foremost, let's examine a few key scenes in FF7. One, Sephiroth's original "death" at the hands of Cloud. After impaling Cloud upon the Masamune, the seemingly unbeatable Sephiroth's attack is suddenly thwarted as his assumedly inferior opponent grasps the blade of the sword and uses it as a lever with which to hurl the superior warrior into an abyss of whirling Mako energy. There are two things that this scene suggests to the player. 1) Cloud is mush stronger than you would initially assume. 2) Sephiroth is nowhere near as powerful as he is reputed to be.

Another key sequence involves the only spoken lines of Sephiroth's "mother", Jenova. After killing Aeris, Sephiroth flees, leaving behind a fragment of Jenova to finish off his opponents. Upon defeating the creature, Cloud and his party hear the creature utter the words "Cloud, you are nothing more than a puppet." This line is immediate proof that Jenova is not some mindless, destructive creature, and it is the beginning of the future revelation that it is not Sephiroth who is in control, but Jenova who is authoring his villainous deeds.

Throughout the entire rest of the game, we watch as Sephiroth behaves in an odd manner, almost as though he is not truly the one in control of his actions. The scene in which he kills Tseng is a great example of this. During that scene, we watch as his body blurs and distorts, phasing in and out of reality, exactly how Cloud's body looked each and every time Sephiroth chose to exert his genetic control over him. This is clear and irrefutible evidence that Sephiroth is not the one in control, but it is Jenova who is in command.

Every aspect of Sephiroth's transformation from a hero into a blood-curdling villain is clear evidence of this. Every seemingly illogical or unclear motivation of his is clear and undeniable proof that he is not the true villain, he's just simply the avatar for the true villain, Jenova.

Another key sequence involves the very end of the game, in which Cloud and his allies battle against a final form of Jenova, as well as two of Sephiroth's uber-destructive forms, Bizarro Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth. There is one very specific but minute detail that many people may not quite catch during the Bizarro Sephiroth sequence. If you look closely, you can see that the massive creature indeed looks like a giant, malformed, freakish Sephiroth. However, growing out of the top of the beast's head is the torso of Jenova, using her tentacles like the strings on a marionette to control Sephiroth's actions. In the Safer Sephiroth battle, Sephiroth has taken the form of a monstrous angel, with one huge wing protruding from where his arm should be. It should be noted that the colors of the wing are blue, white, reddish brown and black, the exact colors of the four incarnations of Jenova that Cloud and his party fought against, once again signifying Jenova's control over her son.

Finally, after being thoroughly defeated in all of his forms, Sephiroth meets Cloud, face to face, in his natural state, no weird bizzarro forms, no tampering from Jenova. A true fight, one on one. And he falls before Cloud's feet after a single attack. (Make note, even if Cloud chooses to not use Omnislash on Sephiroth, eventually Seph will attack Cloud, doing an insignificant amount of damage to the hero, which will cause Cloud to automatically counterattack, which will kill Seph instantly.) So, how is it that the villain that was capable of summoning Meteor, Super Nova and killing untold numbers of people single-handedly now falls helplessly at the feet of a man that required an entire party of allies to defeat him earlier? Because Jenova is no longer helping Sephiroth. After defeating Sephiroth in his Safer form, Jenova's influence over him disappears. She is defeated and her augmenting powers are rendered null. Thus, Sephiroth proves a second time that, on his own, he is nowhere near as powerful as one would be lead to believe.

To furhter emphasize this, once Sephiroth dies in this scene, he disseminates into Lifestream energy, destined to join with the rest of the Lifestream inside of the planet. However, Lifestream energy is green. When Sephiroth evaporates, the energy he turns into is red, signifying the contamination of his life energy by Jenova's prolonged control over his mind, body and soul. Why does that signify a contamination? Because the green Lifestream energy of the planet identifies natural living creatures in the cycle of the planet's existence. The green energy signifies things that are naturally a part of the planet's cycle. Jenova is an outsider, an irritant in the planet's cycle. She is a pollutant, and the fact that her life energy is tainted red instead of green is evidence of that. The fact is, if it hadn't been for her exerting control over Sephiroth throughout the entire game, his Life Energy would have been green, because he was born naturally, not in a test tube or created from Jenova's cells. He was the biological son of Hojo and Lucretia, and therefore he was a natural part of the planet's life cycle. Jenova's prolonged influence over him corrupted his Life Energy, turning it red in the process.

So, it can then be deduced that Sephiroth's great powers did not, in fact, come from himself, but instead from Jenova's prolonged control over him. Once she has been destroyed, we see clearly and plainly that he is nowhere near as powerful as he was before. He's just a guy with a badass sword and some cool Materia. Badass swords and cool Materia are certainly nifty, but I doubt very much that they would be sufficient to kill the demonic Lord of Vampires.

[Titusfied]

No doubt, he was the child of Lucrecia and Hojo, the two assistant scientists in the Jenova Project. But, when Lucrecia was pregnant, Hojo decided he would inject her with Jenova cells so that she would give birth to a child with powers of the Cetra.

It is for this reason, that I don't think you're giving Sephiroth enough credit. By the time Cloud got to the 1 vs. 1 battle with Sephiroth, Sephiroth was already greatly wounded from the three previous battles. It can be agreed that Jenova was the puppet master of this whole game, but that shouldn't take anything away from the fact that Sephiroth was a super-SOLDIER injected with Jenova cells, and mutated using Mako Reactor Number One into an extremely efficient fighting machine. Even before the Mako contaminated him, the game clearly shows his destructive power when fighting Dragons and destroying the entire city of Midgar just to take Jenova out of the Mako Reactors in the mountains.

He is not this little welp that was manipulated by some fraud. Jenova is a planet destroying virus that could easily manipulate anyone and anything it encounters.

[Raziel]

He was certainly a powerful individual, but not nearly as powerful as he is made out to be. The fact is, Cloud too was injected with Jenova cells, and he wasn't capable of the immense amounts of destruction that Sephiroth was capable of. It was solely because of the fact that Jenova exerted influence over him that he had the power to take his Bizzarro and Safer forms, and solely because of her interferece that he was capable of his most destructive acts. He is still an extremely worthy combatant on his own (as is evidenced by his badassery in Kingdom Hearts) but he's not nearly as formidable without Jenova's assistance. This fight is between Dracula and Sephiroth, not Dracula vs. Sephiroth with some help from Jenova.

The fact is, Cloud was pretty badly wounded too after those fights, and even in that light, he was capable of taking a full attack from Sephiroth while incurring almost no damage while a single counter-strike from Cloud was capable of defeating the villain.

And maybe my memory simply sucks, but I don't recall Sephiroth single-handedly destroying Midgar. I recall Meteor destroying Midgar, and we've already established that Meteor would be a logical impossibility in this fight.

[Titusfied]

I'm pretty positive it wasn't Meteor, since that was before Jenova had control over him, which means that he wasn't on his quest for the Black Materia yet, which is better known as Meteor. He destroyed Midgar, then went into Mako Reactor Number One to take Jenova out, which is when the whole Cloud getting impaled and throwing Sephiroth scene took place, or so I believe.

I don't think that last scene with Cloud and Sephiroth is a true indication of Seph's powers though. It was like in DMC, when Mundus was a piece a pussy cake while trying to flee in the last scene. He was basically there for the final touches, and Dante was assisted by Trish to finish him off, which is basically identical to the way Cloud gets his Break Limit for no apparent reason other than intense rage. If you were dumb enough (Not you Raz, just in general playing the game) not to use Omnislash to finish the game, then they made the game so you would counter and kill him, so you couldn't possibly lose, which was the point of that last scene, that Cloud couldn't lose.

I don't really have anything to base Dracula's fighting abilities off of, other than reputation of him being the Lord of Vampires, which honestly means nothing to me, especially after seeing Blade! ;)

[Medieval Bob]

Well, that's a different case really... I mean, Blade is a superhero. He ranks with all the competitors here. Blade would have a shot at Dracula if they were to fight. (I'm not sure of the outcome unless the fight were to take place in a Blade movie.. and... thus.. obviously..)

Anyhow, has Dracula been in any games other than Castlevania? I wouldn't be surprised at all, but I can't think of any.

[Titusfied]

Yeah, I wasn't actually trying to put up an arguement against Dracula with that Blade comment, I was just stating my non-existent respect of Vampires in general. They aren't as bad ass as everyone thinks, or is that just my opinion? :)

I need to hear what this Lord of Vampires can actually do before trying to base an arguementative scenario favoring either combatant.

[Raziel]

Titus, you're thinking of Nibelheim, not Midgar. Midgar is the giant plate-city, which was crushed at the end by Meteor. Nibelheim is Cloud's hometown, which Sephiroth set ablaze, but didn't completely destroy. A nifty task, but it wasn't utter decimation, and it's evidence of the fact that he's not as powerful on his own as he is reputed to be.

Well, the difference between Mundus and final Sephiroth is that Mundus still required quite a bit of damage to finally take down. In addition, Dante needed help from Trish in order to finally put him out completely. Sephiroth went down in a single attack, regardless of what that attack was. I understand that the point was that Cloud simply couldn't lose, but that right there should be indicative of Sephiroth's overblown abilities. Cloud would have been pretty well-hammered by that point as well, what having been slammed by Supernova a few times, and he was capable of eliminating Sephiroth in a single attack, regardless of what that attack was. In addition, any attack that Seph would have tried to use against Cloud would have proven futile.

Seph's a tough guy, but I sincerely doubt he's got what it takes to best Dracula. Shit, even a Belmont was incapable of beating Dracula in Aria of Sorrow, and those guys have been fighting Drac for millennia.

If you want evidence of Dracula's powers, you can look into a single game and see what his abilities offer him. Aria of Sorrow being an exceptional example, because you actually play as Dracula. In Aria, he's capable of devouring the souls of some 150 monsters and using their own powers to benefit himself. Here are a few examples of everything he can do in just that one game.

Abilities - The following are all permanent once acquired and can be used at any time.

Grave Keeper - Allows for quick lateral dashing to evade attacks.
Malphas - Allows for a midair double jump.
Hippogryph - Allows for a massive vertical super jump (spanning as many as five screens in vertical height; I'd estimate somewhere around 100 to 150 feet maximum.)
Galamoth - Immunity to time freeze.
Kicker Skeleton - Allows for a quick, downward aerial kick.
Skeleton Blaze - Allows for a quick ground slide used for evasion, attack and mobility.

Of the following three lists, only one from each can be activated at a time, allowing for three simultaneous abilities to be used. He can switch which souls he has activated at any time, including in the midst of battle. I'm not going to list every one of them, because it would take too friggin' long.


Attack Souls - All of these require MP to use

Balore - Unleashes a punch powerful enough to kill most any enemy in a single blow.
Chronomage - Freezes time for a limited period.
Cockatrice - Fires a beam that petrifies the enemy instantly.
Flame Demon - Unleashes a barrage of devastating fireballs.
Kyoma Demon - Makes the user invincible for a short period of time.
Legion - Fires three intensely destructive laser beams.
Needles - Leaves behind a large, floating spiked ball that explodes on contact or after a short amount of time.
Nemesis - Makes the user invisible for a short amount of time.
Siren - Plays a song that puts nearby targets to sleep.
Ukoback - Leaves a trail of floating fire behind the user, creating a damaging obstacle that lasts for several seconds.

That's only a small portion of the massive list of attack souls he can use.


Protect Souls - Once equipped, their effects are constant until the soul is unequipped.

Arc Demon - Whenever the user is attacked, he regains some MP.
Ectoplasm - Makes user immune to Curse status (immune to MP drain attacks like Osmose).
Gargoyle - Makes user immune to Stone status.
Giant Worm - Recover HP constantly when not moving.
Iron Golem - Improves user's constitution greatly (can absorb much more damage than usual)
Poison Worm - Makes user immune to Poison status.
Skula - Allows user to walk underwater indefinitely without taking any damage.
Succubus - User regains HP each time he attacks.
Wooden Golem - Causes MP to recharge faster than normal.
Zombie - Makes the user stronger when Posioned.


Time Souls - When used, all of the following continue to work until all MP has been consumed or until the user de-activates them.

Alastor - Summons the "Alastor" familiar, a massive sword that automatically attacks any nearby enemy.
Black Panther - Allows for a super-charged dash that renders the user invulnerable and damages any enemies in his path.
Buer - Summons a whirling ring of fire that surrounds and protects the user.
Devil - Transforms the user into a massive Devil, allowinng him to charge through any obstacle.
Final Guard - Creates an impenetrable shield.
Flying Armor - Allows the user to float long distances when jumping.
Giant Bat - Transforms the user into a bat, allowing for increased mobility and making the user a generally harder target to hit.
Giant Ghost - Creates a circular barrier that reflects projectiles back at the enemy.
Medusa Head - Allows the user to stop in midair and hover in place.

On top of that, Drac's MP constantly recharges, albeit not particularly quickly, however there are (as noted above) souls that can speed the process up.

[Medieval Bob]

I completely forgot about playing as Dracula in Aria of Sorrow. (By the way, that game completely fucking owns.)

Raz listed spells, I'll throw out a couple of weapons:
Name: Ronginus' Spear
Type of Weapon: Spear
Description: Holy spear
Element: Holy
Stats: ATT+102
Special Info: The following info was submitted to me by Aaron Mitschelen: "If
you're interested in where that name came from, the Lanceof Longinus is the
spear that was supposedly used to stab Jesus before hiscrucifixion. It's
mentioned in a LOT of Japanese stuff, anime inparticular, and was also
mentioned in the game "Spear of Destiny" (thesemi-sequel to the original
Wolfenstein 3d). As for why it's "Ronginus'" inthis, I can only assume it's
the lack of an "l" sound in the Japanese language that's responsible. It
wouldn't be the first time a game used an r when it meant l."

Name: Excalibur
Type of Weapon: Sword
Description: Legendary sword in the stone
Element: N/A
Stats: ATT+120
Special Info: Can only be obtained in Boss Rush Mode. Very strong, but very
slow as well.

~from Gamefaqs

[Titusfied]

You are completely right, I was mixing up Midgar and Nibelheim, my mistake. A lot of those abilities of Dracula wouldn't work on Sephiroth, such as the Petrify, Sleep, etc. There are definitely some devistating attacks, but Masamune is quite the hefty sword, of which only Sephiroth can weild because of it's intense power.

Most of his reputation was known before Jenova controlled him, and even though he didn't decimate Nibelheim, he still devasted the entire city, killing everyone there except Cloud, Tifa, and Zack.


Sephiroth's Attacks:

Basic Sword Slash:
This is a basic standing sword slash, of which his sword has an incredibly long reach.

Teleport Sword Slash:
This move teleports him somewhere around you, generally behind you, and then follows with a sword slash.

Flame Pillar:
He will summon a huge pillar of flame to surround him. He is not invincible while he does this, but he'll get far enough away that it will be next to impossible to get close enough to him while he does it to hit him..

Sin Harvest:
This is when he teleports into a corner and summons some nasty voodoo against you. This move will hurt! It will reduce your HPs to 1 and your MPs to 0, but I doubt it would do that much damage to Dracula, or would it?

Omnislash:
Everyone who's played FFVII knows this badass move. It's Cloud pattened ending move in the game, which does a frenzy of standing and leaping blows, then leaps up and does a finisher.

Darkness Ball Attack:
He will summon 5-8 Darkness Balls that surround him, at which time he will close in on you, causing extra damage along with any landed attack, or if you touch them.

Meteor Shower:
This is when he turns white and summons a bunch of meteors. They circle around him slowly, causing you damage if you get hit. The meteors then will get sucked into a black hole over his head, after which a huge meteor from the black hole hits you, every time. He's invincible while he's doing this, and this is definite.


Sephiroth is not going away without a tough fight. It is instinctive that he will do a Teleport Sword Slash if too much damage is incurred or multiple attacks land, hence he will not be killed from a barrage of quick attacks. Dracula has plenty of speed, but with the consistency of Meteors or Darkness Balls surrounding Sephiroth, Dracula will undoubtedly be damaged when he gets too close, which is a big part of Seph's defense.

[muff-knight]

go sephiroth he won ...

[Titusfied]

After an intense and grueling fight between the Lord and what some call, the Puppet, a victor has emerged! Whose wit outmatched whose in the most memorable fights of this second tournament? Find out later tonight when thou is revealed in the Bracket Thead..