SPOILERS Influences on Remake?

[Roger]

And yet I'm still more terrified of Itachi than Sephrioth as Itachi managed to successfully manipulate the people he wanted to manipulate. Sephrioth... doesn't really. And that's with Sephiroth having a literal mental link to the minds of some of the people he's trying to manipulate and actual bodily control of them. Itachi is more on the level of "I can make people see what I want them to and can use that to break people mentally because I know psychology".

It's a *really* good thing Itachi never wanted to *actually* destory the world...

Cloud gave him the Black Materia willingly. And Tifa wasn't able to assert that this was the Cloud she grew up with when push came to shove. And Barret/Red XIII gave Sephiroth the Black Materia in disguise, even though it was entrusted to them by Cloud as Sephiroth couldn't directly mentally control them. That's 4/6 mandatory main characters whose number he had. And really he played Shinra Inc. too. Going out of his way to assert he was headed for the Promised Land to Palmer got Rufus to race him too it. When actually Sephiroth had been waiting at the end of the journey with a substantial death trap ready that entire time. They escaped, but the manipulation part of Sephiroth's plan was played to perfection.

 

[Roundhouse]

An influence that Obsidian sometimes brings up is Berserk:

Spoiler

with Sephiroth as Griffith and Cloud as Guts, a mercenary with a massive sword. The allies to betrayal thing echoes Cloud's reaction to Seph's actions in Nibelheim, making it an eclipse style moment in the plot. After Seph kills Aerith the player also feels a real desire for justice, for Cloud to confront and take Seph down, similar to how people have always waited for a final confrontation with Guts and Griffith.

 

[looneymoon]

Cloud's original design (repurposed for Zack) is as much Guts-like as Sephiroth is Griffiths-like.

 

[Roundhouse]

More Berserk...

Spoiler

 

[Theozilla]

Okay I love Berserk but it didn’t invent the wideshot for two swordsmen showing down. Watch any samurai film or show, that type of shot is everywhere (plus the Remake is just referencing the OG final scripted boss fight).

 

[Roundhouse]

It's not so much the facing down alone, it's the character models doing it...elegant silver-haired swordsman in a long coat on the left, with a thin and curved blade, spiky-haired protag on the right with the chunky rigid/straght blade. But even if there is no influence from that whatsoever, it's neat to see a parallel. (Maybe I should rename the thread to include parallels regardless of influence...)