A new chapter for Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis has revealed more of Sephiroth’s origin, giving fans a closer look at the early days of the infamous villain back when he wasn’t hellbent on becoming a god-like being. As part of The First Soldier missions (and spotted by Eurogamer), this new chapter has a key moment in which Sephiroth holds up a photo of a woman that he believes is his mother and that he refers to as Jenova.
She always has been my favorite and I’m devastated by the news about Sephiroth and Lucrecia, from Ever Crisis 🥺😭#lucreciacrescent#Sephiroth #professorhojo #finalfantasyVII pic.twitter.com/oV2zfGCF71
— LucreciaCrescent (@AerithIfalna) September 29, 2023
The plot twist here is that the woman in the photo is Sephiroth’s birth mother. As established in the original Final Fantasy VII timeline, Sephiroth is the son of Shinra scientists Hojo and Lucrecia, but with a twist. Hojo injected Lucrecia with Jenova cells while she was pregnant as part of the Project S experiment, a procedure that built on the foundation of Project G to produce the powerful but flawed super-soldiers Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley.
Unlike his two comrades, Sephiroth was a success story and established himself as the most powerful member of Shinra’s SOLDIER military force. At the same time, Sephiroth was left detached from humanity and alienated, and this new chapter expands on Sephiroth’s story with a more tragic layer. While Sephiroth never grew up to know who his mother was, Hojo clearly lied to him about the identity of his parent.