Curse of Sephiroth

I was kind of in a hurry to finish Kingdom Hearts II when I did it the first time, but I wasn't too worried about missing anything because I knew I was going to go back and replay most of it to import videos for lizalou. But it bugged me that there wasn't much resolution to Cloud's story and he didn't make an appearance in the closing credits. I figured I had just overlooked something, and a quick check online confirmed my theory. You have to fight Sephiroth in order to get more Cloud goodies. Well, I never did beat Sephiroth in the first game. Never really even gave it a good try. But I thought I would make my best effort this time.

So, I started leveling up and gathering materials to synthesize all the ultimate weapons. I spent several hours on this, figuring that beating the game again to import the ending videos would be a breeze because of it (which it was, in fact). Then I headed down through the Great Maw (don't know why that name cracks me up) toward Sephiroth. I didn't know if I could beat him, but I figured I had a fighting chance at least at this point. I didn't look up any strategy because I wanted to see how well I could do on my own. I really had leveled up quite a bit, so surely I could last through a few lifebars (though Sephiroth has fifteen!).

I step up to him. He says something snotty. I get ready. There's an immediate reaction command. I thought I hit it in time. I didn't. Wham, bam, slash! I'm dead. Dirty bastard!!!!! I tried it again. I lasted half a minute and barely dented his lifebars. My best effort sucks. But so does Sephiroth. Asshole...