You’d be hard-pressed to find a more iconic villain than Final Fantasy 7’s Sephiroth. The silver-maned antagonist is instantly recognizable from a single glance, not to mention the disturbingly tragic story behind his obsession with destroying the world. A big part of Sephiroth’s image has always been his ten-foot-long Masamune sword — but as it turns out, that length is actually deceptive, and Sephiroth’s sword lengthens or shortens as it needs to. Yes, you read that right, and it comes directly from the character’s creator, Tetsuya Nomura.
As part of its celebration of “Cool Sword Day,” Polygon interviewed Nomura on the origin of Sephiroth’s sword and some of the design philosophy behind it. But the fact that Sephiroth’s sword changes lengths as needed is definitely the most shocking — and hilariously out of pocket. I’ll do my best not to see that as some kind of bizarre double entendre.
