He was.Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno
He already had the ultimate will power in Final Fantasy VII-1 and all of his abilities. They are even explained during the story. The source of power in Final Fantasy VII is the will power and that's even the reason why he was able to absorb the source of magic in Final Fantasy VII, the knowledge of the ancients - so he doesn't even need any materia to use magic except sealed magic like the Ultimate Destructive one (however since he got the materia now by Cloud he was able to learn the knowledge since materia is like a "how to use magic by summoning the planet's life power in form of it" for those who are strong enough to use the spiritual energy in it) - not to forget we need a plot, otherwise it could have ended in the night Cloud and the other's were in ShinRa's prison, so of course there are many things like in all the other Final Fantasys which are just ignored for the plot - Cloud is the only one who can beat Sephiroth because of his Hero factor which makes him stronger and surprises Sephiroth over and over again once Sephiroth underrestimates him and makes him angry instead of just killing him. The materia and junctioning system of the battle dimension with all of its stats has nothing to do with who can beat which character. If Squall would be in Final Fantasy VII instead of Cloud and would have that Hero factor, then he would be able to defeat Sephiroth. Otherwise not. Sephiroth has no problem to kill people who are not Cloud. It was the first moment Cloud "defeated" Sephiroth because of the Hero factor why Sephiroth accepts Cloud as his nemesis and wants him to suffer before he dies instead of just killing him. That's all because of Sephiroth's arrogance.
Definitely not. It is not said how strong Ultimecia really is while Sephiroth follows the rules of the Final Fantasy VII universe which make him the strongest being. This is the same like people who say "Kefka is stronger than Sephiroth!" - "No! Sephiroth is stronger!". You cannot compare them but Sephiroth even has something which tells how powerful he is and that he is the most powerful being in his universe. And even though many people think that, Ultimecia was not able to absorb the time. If she would have been able the story would have ended. That's the reason why she is the final boss. Same here for Sephiroth and his meteor - even though Meteor could not have been stopped by defeating Sephiroth but the heroes didn't know that, of course.
If Ultimecia would have succeeded then indeed she would be an incredibly - even more than she is normally - powerful sorceress. Ultimecia: "I'm Ultimecia. I compress time." - Squall: "Yeah, you sure do that...NOT during my shift!"
