9 Best Heated Character Rivalries In Gaming History

7. Cloud Vs. Sephiroth

A rivalry born from intensely personal motivations, Cloud and Sephiroth might be two Dragon Ball Z-style combatants now, slicing through entire city blocks to take each other down, but the origins of their hatred are far more down to Earth.

With Sephiroth largely losing his mind after visiting a Shinra facility that inadvertently revealed he was a test tube baby science experiment, Cloud happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. After Sephiroth stabs Tifa's father and swipes at Tifa herself, Cloud is impaled on the end of Sephiroth's sword, Masamune, only to drag the pair of them down into the planet's "Lifestream" (a core energy holding the world together).

Cloud goes through his own soul and identity-searching adventure before meeting back up with Sephiroth for the final duel, but their rivalry has since spanned 20 years of spin-offs, canon expansions and the recent FF7 Remake... which is arguably more of a sequel anyway.