A feature published by GamerHelp included Sephiroth's "Kingdom Hearts"s fight in a feature titled "The Hardest Bosses of All Time", noting that regardless of the player's skill "walking away from this match unscathed" is not possible, to the point of saying that the fight was more difficult than the entirety of "Final Fantasy VII". AnimeFringe stated that only advanced gamers would be able to defeat "Kingdom Hearts"s Sephiroth because the player has no backup and that his "devastating attacks can kill in seconds." In 2013, "Complex" ranked Sephiroth in "Kingdom Hearts" and "Kingdom Hearts II" as respectively the seventh and fifth hardest boss fights in video games; in addition, Safer Sephiroth from "Final Fantasy VII" placed 12th. Yoshinori Kitase stated that the fight between Cloud and Sephiroth was popular enough to make Japanese gamers do a remake of it for the crossover "Dissidia Final Fantasy" and expected Western fans also emulate it. Designer Masahiro Sakurai regarded him as one of gaming's most popular villains alongside Bowser and wanted to make him an iconic boss in "Smash".