Can Sephiroth use any kind of magic without materia?

Good day everyone! I found this wonderful site and I guess you guys are the only ones who can help me find this out.

In a lot of wikis about Sephiroth a lot say the following:

"Sephiroth's other powers are augmented. He can cast magic without the need for Materia, can fly, levitate, project illusions into the minds of other beings, and manifest the Masamune at will."

But they don't quote or show where did they get this info. I've looked into the game, the enemy's data base and search for abilities but I just can find it anywhere. Is it mention in some kind of official guide, artbook or Ultimania? If so, can you please link me into that please?

Also, Bizarro Sephiroth. What is it exactly? What I can come out with is Sephiroth merged with Jenova's head and created this "cocoon" which then gave birth to Sefer Sephiroth?

Thanks for your time!

It's an extrapolation of what we see him do in cutscenes and in ACC. For the entire game, Sephiroth is at the Northern Crater. Everything he "does" in the game until the last boss fight is him controlling the Jenova remains and we see the remains do all that as well.

As for the "casting magic without materia" bit... using materia is really accessing the memories of the Lifestream that are in the materia. Sephiroth has seen all the memories that are in the Lifestream and he's sitting on what is practically a bunch of infinite MP. The reason he needs the Black Materia (most likely) is to get to the memories inside it. So he's probably got more magical knowledge then everyone else combined.

Obsidian Fire said:

It's an extrapolation of what we see him do in cutscenes and in ACC. For the entire game, Sephiroth is at the Northern Crater. Everything he "does" in the game until the last boss fight is him controlling the Jenova remains and we see the remains do all that as well.

As for the "casting magic without materia" bit... using materia is really accessing the memories of the Lifestream that are in the materia. Sephiroth has seen all the memories that are in the Lifestream and he's sitting on what is practically a bunch of infinite MP. The reason he needs the Black Materia (most likely) is to get to the memories inside it. So he's probably got more magical knowledge then everyone else combined.

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True, materia is the memories in the livestream but has it been stated in an official document or in other games that he has access to all magic except holy?

1. I remember the "materia=memories" bit from the OG (is it...from the Materia Fountai dialogue?? Or somewhere else?), but it seems like one of those in-universe explanations that's done so that there is at least a reference to how things are happening, but that isn't necessarily thought through all the way. 8 had moments like this with "Yeah, it was Sorceresses" (what a strange plural, btw). Other series like Metal Gear Solid, of course, have "it was nanomachines". Now, I obviously realize how important concepts like The Lifestream are to the entirety of FFVII, but what exactly a grunt is using to cast "Bolt 2", less so. I mean, is it supposed to mean like, somebody remembered seeing a thunderstorm, and it was saved in a recreatable, in fact mass-produced rock in the form of being able to attack somebody? I think of it along the same lines as the explanation for the entire planet (conveniently minus towns) being littered with monsters of all shapes and sizes being given as "mako pollution"...the reason there are monsters is because they have to be there, this is a turn-based-battles RPG.

2. Thinking about this in terms of the Black Materia and Meteor, which was already discussed, is also kind of odd/interesting. Like you said, Seph's got access to "all" of the memories, so, if we're going with that line of thought...he shouldn't need the lil' rock, right? Then again, if I remember right, when discussing exactly what the Black Materia is, I believe they say something about the Ancients 'discovering' this destructive magic...now, that doesn't mean it's not a memory at this point, but that...it existed as magic before it was? I'm confusing myself now, sorry ya'll

It's probably intentionally vague enough to be modified in whatever ways suit the plot while being a solid enough explanation to understand why the plot calls for it.

The precise nature of the mechanics to it all are probably best left unclear, but the basic premise is:

- You get the rock
- The rock is made of crystallized mako, containing whatever memories
- The rock establishes a link between yourself and the planet
- Provided enough spirit energy is available, a spell based on the memories in the rock can be conjured

Whether the casting uses just the energy of the person holding the stone or that of the planet as well is not entirely clear, and has been a matter of some debate here in the past, but suffice to say the most important aspect of a matera's function is in establishing a link between the planet and the person with the materia. Seph had all the power he needed to cast Meteor when he called for the Reunion, but he still needed the Black Materia.

Yeah, I quite like your explanation of/addition to the "Materia Logic" (I know the majority of folks here use the forum-standard 'quote original post to respond to minutiae' methodology, but that's not really my bag). The relationship with the planet thing is interesting...the ancients didn't need materia, because they were in touch, right? And it seems like the rationale goes that once Shinra started producing materia, it was a 'bad' thing, but what about the materia that existed naturally before Shinra's rise? It's still a conceptually-disturbing "soul harvest", but since it's at least naturally occurring, it seems far less sinister.

In regards to the Black Materia...so, it was something that only an extremely powerful individual could 'wield', so to speak? Almost like a GF/summon obeying users of a certain level in some of the other games? I hadn't considered that, I thought part of the danger was that if any bozo somehow managed to get their hands on it they could end up putting the whole planet in irreversible danger

leadmyskeptic said:

In regards to the Black Materia...so, it was something that only an extremely powerful individual could 'wield', so to speak? Almost like a GF/summon obeying users of a certain level in some of the other games? I hadn't considered that, I thought part of the danger was that if any bozo somehow managed to get their hands on it they could end up putting the whole planet in irreversible danger

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Aerith describes it as requiring an enormous amount of spirit energy to cast:

---
Aerith: Nope, we can't use it right now. You need great spiritual power to use it.
Cloud: You mean lots of Spiritual energy?
Aerith: That's right. One person's power alone won't do it. Somewhere special. Where there's plenty of the Planet's energy...
---

It's still unclear to me whether this means it makes uses of just the caster's energy to manifest the spell or whether it draws additional power from the planet too -- e.g. does the caster need [X] amount of power that they give up, and [X] amount is then taken from the planet; or does it just require [X] amount of power, which the caster can absorb from the planet into themselves if need be.

At the risk of conflating combat mechanics and story, MP would rather imply that it merely takes spiritual energy from yourself, but for a powerful enough spell like Meteor you would need to siphon the extra energy from the Planet?

But then I know there's that whole line Cloud gives about not carrying more than x materia because they're fighting for the life of the Planet, which was a source of this debate in the past

And materia work differently in Crisis Core which is where we actually see Sephiroth casting in combat (I've seen some fun fic trying to explain the differences) so it's even harder to be sure.

(I don't think Shinra's materia science is considered a major ethical issue, though? It's the reactors that are killing the Planet.)

CC doesn't have a party system so I assume they didn't bother to program whether he had Barrier materia at the reactor or...whatever the hell he was using for that stupid badass close-range casting when Genesis attacked Midgar. Hm. But that's when he's alive, anyway...