So as all of us know when fighting Sephiroth There are 3 phases. So I decided to fight against him on lvl 1 for fun and then I realized I might have skipped his transformation into his 3rd phase.

It started when Sephiroth decided to use his orb attack on me. (In his second phase.) I reflected to repel the projectile and while in the animation of reflecting Sephiroth was about to attacked me. This was near the health where the reflect should have damaged him to get to the third phase. In addition to being damaged by the reflect he went into a staggered animation.

The first thing I realized is that he wasn't glowing. Like at all. I thought he was still in the second phase but upon realizing his moveset was different, the sky was already dark.

That's as far as I can say though, I honestly wished I had recorded my attempt because it surprised the crap out of me.

Keeping in mind I was playing on an emulator but I have a feeling it might have some potential. Maybe I'm just crazy but who knows.

I hope someone sees this. lol
In addition, I don't know if this skip/glitch might work on the hd collections

I've never heard of this but I wouldn't be surprised if it's extremely rare but possible. I don't fight Sephiroth commonly so I don't have many opportunities to see it. Since there's no video, unless someone else has experienced it I can't really say much.

Darn, but thanks for the response. 🙂 @neraigo

It's a 4-year-old question but I have encountered the skip, it should happen if you hit sephiroth revenge value and while he teleports you hit the hp barrier for 3rd phase. The timing is very tight and it requires a certain revenge value and a specific hp which is why it's very rare. It's probably not viable for any form of speedrun unfortunately
Here is an example (on crit lvl 99 so it's easier to get past hp barriers)