Hyperbolus has altered my taste to be geared way more amicably towards the classic 1.9 style, and that can be seen with how much I like Severe winter. As such I'll compare my experiences with this level when it came out against what I think of it today

2024: 6.5/10

• Sephiroth Ultra's unrestraint on using really widened structuring reminds me of a lot of amateur levels I see on level request streams, where the space isn't maximally utilised. I find this choice in Sephiroth Ultra to be less disquieting since it does toy around this idea of wide structuring interestingly though said parts have designs repetitive in nature

• The colour palette in this level is extremely unfocused, though primairly being quite saturated and using notably more warm colours than cool ones, diluting the intensity a bit through how random some of the colour choices feel. The dark ball part especially doesn't feel threatening or epic due to it being this really muted grey. It being very faithful to 1.9 doesn't really make it amazing by itself.

• The rest of the level is quite underwhelming compared to the last third

2025: 10/10

• Sephiroth Ultra unrestraint on using really widened structuring is honestly quite unlike most levels I've seen in the modern era (possibly thanks to 2.2 making conventionally good structuring far easier to achieve). This is not inherently a good or bad thing, despite it typically showing up in lesser levels. Sephiroth Ultra's designs don't try to be at odds with the structuring at all, instead riding off of the repetitive nature of it. This structuring is also mainly only used throughout the level where a big break in the song exists which allows for greater opportunity to use the wide structuring. Taking the gently sloping ship corridors as an example, them being this uncompromisingly archaic was seized by Soup to create this really neat "soft-feeling" pattern of gameplay; each dive up and down is minute and non intrusive to the player's path of travel, while the orb patterns echoing "Se-phi-roth" also strangely feel cushioned and hence non-obstructive to the overall gameplay flow. This is in line with the gentle violin contrasted against the otherwise climactic bits of the song, while the emphatic vocals in the sections don't really warrant a massive disruption in the gameplay in the first place

• The colours in this level are extremely simplistic, yes, but this adds a good amount of fun while complementing the also simplistic structuring. The single-colour approach would make the colours blend in heavily and creating issues with discerning everything apart from each other, but Sephiroth Ultra's structures are all extremely simple, clearly defined and separated from one another, rendering this issue void in the level itself. By the way that dark ball part has every element of the song clearly represented by exactly one element of the deco. While it can't pop as a result of the grayscale colours this portion of the song isn't emphatic, more-so pretty darkly set with a really noisy techno bass underscoring the whole thing. Keeping the style of the level overall (not making it too complex or messy) while also retaining the song rep for this part is extremely impressive

• The entire level is prerty consistently fantastic also yeah the last third is still probably the highlight lol