Note: This post is mostly spoiler-free for The First Soldier. EDIT: If you haven’t played Chapter 8 yet, you may want to stop reading this at the section for Cloud.

Also, Happy New Year! (LOL)

There was a lot about Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis that caught me by surprise or that I just didn’t understand having never played a gatcha game before. One of those surprises was the Japanese voices during battles, particularly the fact that Young Sephiroth speaks mostly in polite form.

Before I go further, let me clarify that when I say “polite form” I’m referring to the construct of Japanese grammar. Besides polite form, there’s plain form. The main difference between these forms in terms of how they sound is how verbs are conjugated. For example, the verb for “to give [a gift]” is 贈る (okuru) in plain form, and 贈ります (okurimasu) in polite form. The main difference between these forms in terms of when they are used is that polite form is used when talking to strangers, people you know but who aren’t part of your peer group, and people who are higher up in the social hierarchy (such as your boss, people who are older than you, etc.). Plain form is used when talking to people in your peer group (e.g. close friends & relatives) or to people who are lower than you in the social hierarchy. So, it would have sounded silly if Sephiroth’s Advent Children line, “Shall I give you despair?” had been spoken in polite form rather than plain form. It’s slightly ironic that the English ended up sounding so formal, but ultimately, there’s no way to translate these grammatical constructs; what can be translated is what those speech choices show about how the character views themselves and others.

Young Sephiroth, though bossy, speaks mostly in polite form—with the exception of some battle lines—probably because he’s younger than everyone he’s interacting with. I was kind of mentally cataloguing everything he said but didn’t make a list until a friend asked me about what he was saying in battle. After that, I posted a mostly un-organized thread to Twitter, then, after spending more time playing the game with the volume up and the music turned off to be able to hear better, I posted this much better organized thread that included more lines. As I continue to play, however, I see that I can’t keep the thread organized since Twitter doesn’t allow editing of tweets on free accounts. So, I decided to make a blog post about it. I’ll be updating this as I hear more lines from Sephiroth and/or more lines are added. As far as I know there is no official release that has these voice lines written out, so I’m doing this by ear and make no guarantees. That said, I’m pretty confident that what I’ve put here is correct. So, on to it!

Young Sephiroth’s Voiced Battle Lines

Before Battle

「始めましょうか」(hajimemashou ka) “Shall we begin?”

「殲滅します」(senmetsu shimasu) “I’ll annihilate them.”
(Note: I initially assumed this was 全滅 zenmetsu, which means nearly the same thing, but Twitter user takayamaff informed me it was 殲滅 senmetsu.)

「排除します」（haijo shimasu) “I’ll eliminate them.”

「さ、来い」(sa, koi) “Come on!”
(I think “Bring it!” would be more natural though.)

Healing

「念のためです」(nen no tame desu) “Just in case.”

Switching to (or back to) controlling Seph

「終わらせましょう」(owaresemashou) “Let’s finish this.”

「参加します」(sanka shimasu) “Joining in.”
(I think “Taking the lead” would be a better choice though, because to me it’s odd to say “joining in” when you’ve been in the battle from the beginning.)

「速やかに対処します」(sumiyaka ni taisho shimasu)
“I’ll deal with this quickly.”

Firaga A
「無駄だ」(muda da) “It’s useless”
(“It’s pointless” would also be good, but I feel like “Waste of time” would be more natural here.)

Limit Break: Astral Gate

「突破」(toppa) “Break through!”

「極みの彼方に」(kiwami no kanata ni) “[Go] beyond the limit!”

Limit Break: Ardent Flare

「果て無き力！」(hate naki chikara) “Endless strength!”

Victory

「訓練と同じですね」(kunren to onaji desu ne) “Just like practice!”

「さ、次」(sa, tsugi) “Ok, next.”

Defeated / Game Over

「こんなこと、ありえない」(konna koto, arienai) “No way…”

「やりなおし．．．だめですか」(yarinaoshi…dame desu ka)
“Can’t I…do it over?”
(This is the only defeat line so far in polite form. So it’s like he’s talking to himself in the others, but this one, I get the feeling is something he said frequently, perhaps to Hojo.)

「ゆるされない」(yurusarenai) “Unforgiveable…”

「どこで間違えた？」(doko de machigaeta?) “Where did I go wrong?”

おまけ！ Bonus! Some Other Characters’ Lines

Lucia

Besides plain form and polite form, Japanese also has 敬語 (keigo), which is honorific language that includes yet another way to conjugate verbs, as well as alternate verbs that are conjugated the regular way. For example, the regular verb for “to eat” is 食べる (taberu), but in keigo, it’s 召し上がる (meshiagaru). Keigo is normally used only in very formal situations, like if you were addressing someone much much higher-ranking than you.

Some of Lucia’s lines include sarcastic uses of keigo and other polite language. Well, to me it’s sarcasm. The first three things listed here are examples of that.

Limit Break: Queen’s Shot

「召し上がれ」(meshiagare) “Eat this!”

「お気に入るといいな」(oki ni iru to ii na) “I hope you like it.”
(Ki ni iru is a regular phrase, but the prefix “o” makes it honorific, or at least, fancier-sounding.)

Attack: Diving Burst (IIRC)

「ご機嫌よう！」(gokigen’you!) “Farewell!”

Before Battle

「君は運が悪いね」(kimi wa un ga warui ne) “You’ve got bad luck”
(I’d change this to something more like “Oh dear, you have such terrible luck” to match the overall tone of the original. Might be a bit too long though.)

Victory

「次だ。早く次へ。」(tsugi da. hayaku tsugi e.) “Next, quickly to the next one.”
(I’d change this to something more natural in English though, like “Let’s go, let’s go!”)

「実戦って最高」(jissentte saikou) “Real fighting’s the best!”
(It’s possible that “jissen” is 実践 instead, which means “put to practice” or “to apply [theory, training, etc.].” It would still make sense as the comparison would still be between the actual battlefield and training.)

「私の居場所だな」(watashi no ibasho da na) “This is where I belong.”

Note: Lucia’s LB lines were in this post from the first version published, but the other lines I added 8/4/2024.

Glenn

Before Blazing Onslaught, one of his lines is 「待ってくれ、ばあちゃん」(matte kure, baa-chan). This is line is basically “Wait for me, granny.” But “baa-chan” is the most affectionate way to say “grandmother,” and to me, “granny” doesn’t seem terribly affectionate. I feel like Glenn would have some cutesy nickname for his grandma. So while “Wait for me, granny” is an accurate translation, it doesn’t feel right to me. But maybe that’s just me.

Matt

I can’t catch what Matt is saying before his limit breaks. But I can catch that it’s a whole bunch of numbers, at least for Valiant Attempt. One of them being 83 (hachi juu san). I’m guessing it’s a percentage of some sort. I find it hilarious because it’s so specific, but he only has two line variations for this. How is whatever always at 83? LOL EDIT (10/07/2024): Thanks to chaostheory10 on Reddit for pointing out that Matt is saying the Fibonacci Sequence, starting from 1:　「１、２、３、５、８、１３！」(ichi, ni, san, go, hachi, juusan!)

Cloud

For his Limit Break Cross Slash, Cloud says「殲滅する」(senmetsu suru), which you may recognize is the plain form version of one of Young Sephiroth’s opening battle lines, “I’ll eliminate them.” Cloud’s second LB line is 「不運を恨め」(fuun wo urame), “Blame your bad luck.” Both of these lines were also used for Cross Slash in FFVII Remake. Actually, to me it sounds like he’s saying “fuun wo uraMU,” which could make sense but “uraME” (command form) seems more natural. Also a Japanese fan site with lines for Remake has it written as “urame,” so I’m going with that.

Grown Sephiroth (Critical Threat battle appearances)

I think these are from before Octaslash, but I’m not sure, since I haven’t fought against Seph much and that’s the only chance to hear him.

「痛みを刻もうか」(itami wo kizamou ka) “Shall I carve you with pain?”
(Really, the way Seph was in Remake, I’d go as far as to make this “Shall I carve pain into your body?” or even “Shall I carve every inch of your body with pain?” But that’s too long to say. LOL)

「耐えられる？」(taerareru?) “Can you withstand [this]?”

Upon losing, he says 「何度でも舞い戻ろう」(nan do demo maimodorou), “I’ll come back again and again.” Sometimes he’ll say 「終わりではない」(owari de wa nai) instead, meaning “This isn’t the end.”

Grown Sephiroth (First Soldier Ch. 8 battle appearances)

Limit Break: Octaslash

「極みの彼方に」(kiwami no kanata ni) “[Go] beyond the limit!”
(This is the same thing Young Seph says for Ardent Flare.)

Before Wutaian Behemoth(?) Battle

「俺の世界に触れるな」(ore no sekai ni fureru na) “Don’t touch my world.”
(“Don’t mess with my world” would be more natural. When I heard this, I couldn’t help but wonder if the Sephiroth we’re seeing here actually has knowledge of future events, especially since we see Edge of Creation Sephiroth shortly after this.)