Cloud’s snowy face-off against Sephiroth just got much more intense!

The annual Sapporo Snow Festival, held every February on Japan’s northern-most island, is well under way. The event showcases spectacular sculptures of events, celebrities, or pop-culture highlights from previous years, shaped entirely out of snow. This year’s festival includes the likes of Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen’s Piko Taro, Star Wars characters, a giant cup of instant ramen, and a Final Fantasy battle scene, which is getting even more attention now that it’s been given life with an impressive projection mapping treatment.

One festival attendee – Twitter-user @yoshiyaan – shared the video they took of the mapping reveal on the night the festival opened.

▼ Part one

▼ Part two

This clip from YouTube shows us what the display looks like from a much closer vantage point.

The exhibit, called “Decisive Battle! Snow Final Fantasy”, was designed by Square Enix to commemorate the upcoming 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII. It shows the series’ hero Cloud facing off against nemesis Sephiroth, and includes a state-of-the-art sound system playing well-known music from Final Fantasy. The sound system really adds another dimension to the projection mapping display as well. Fans of the game seem pretty impressed by the commemoration:

“I’m from an area where they don’t do live broadcasts, so this video is a blessing… Thank you, thank you…”
“Thank you for sharing this. I can’t contain my love for FFVII…”
“That huge FF sculpture is so cool!”
“Projection mapping on a snow sculpture, how amazing! I want to see it up close.”

The Snow Festival will still be going on until February 12 so there’s still time to go see it! If you’re too far away to make the trip, you can also view it via the event’s online live camera.

Source: Twitter/ @yoshiyaan via Hachima Kisou 
Top image: YouTube/ 上村昭智