After ongoing requests, Sora from Kingdom Hearts joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate earlier this week as the final DLC fighter.
For a lot of fans, it still seems too good to be true, so how exactly did it happen? In Sakurai's latest column (translated by @PushDustIn and @KodyNOKOLO), the Smash director goes into details about how it all played out. While it was clear Sora was a fan favourite after the Fighter Ballot results, Sakurai himself still thought it would be highly unlikely.
That was until he one day had a chance encounter with a Disney representative at a certain awards venue, who said they were all for Sora's addition to the all-star roster (it sounds similar to Kingdom Hearts' original elevator pitch). This then apparently led to a lot of "long and careful discussions" between Square Enix, Nintendo and Disney.
From there, Sakurai apparently had to follow a lot of guidelines and overcome many hurdles when developing the character. His team also had some difficulties creating the model:
“The first Sora model that the Smash team sent to Disney / SE was very quality and there weren’t a lot of issues...just kidding. It was quite difficult.”
In the same column, Sakurai also mentioned how Fighters Pass 2 was originally planned to have only five characters - like the original Fighters Pass until Sora's addition got approved by higher-ups.
Are you glad Sora made it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the end? What do you think of this latest DLC fighter in battle? Leave a comment down below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 74
“In the same column, Sakurai also mentioned how Fighters Pass 2 was originally planned to have only five characters - like the original Fighters Pass until Sora's addition got approved by higher-ups.”
This right here is spectacular. They always billed the 11th character as a special bonus, even as going as far as initially teasing five before throwing on a sixth. It’s so cool that they literally only had five before throwing on a sixth.
Congrats to Sakurai, the whole Smash DLC team, and everyone involved in this massive feat.
Great that Sora is finally in Smash, and all Sakurai had to do was sell his soul to Disney.
It's funny how Sora's addition to Smash parallels the very creation of Kingdom Hearts stemming from a chance encounter, too
@HotGoomba He simply made Disney a very awesome model of Sora for approval... Out of many dollar bills.
Funny enough, Kingdom Hearts itself came into existence in a similar matter: Shinji Hashimoto happened to run into a Disney executive in an elevator during some public event. Realizing the opportunity, Hashimoto offered an elevator pitch (haha) for a Square Enix × Disney crossover on the spot.
The rest is history.
I'm angry at Sora because after playing him for 1 hour, I could no longer play as anyone with normal gravity. My hours of labbing Sephiroph and DK gone in a flash because I'm just that bad.
Anyway I love the music
So…. Kazuya was originally meant to be the final fighter? Can’t imagine how many would had been angry about that one.
Sometimes it is really cool the lengths creators will go to in order to get things made. There is a lot of passion that goes into a product and I think that is often overlooked. Glad it worked out.
@Tharsman It honestly couldn't be any worse than Byleth at the time (full respect to FE fans). Like, with Kazuya, it's decently deserved because Tekken is a prominent series, and with Bandai-Namco co-developing, it would be a completely fair pick getting one more character outside of Pacman.
That said, hearing this news about Sora kinda being a bonus makes me think that mayyyyybe Sephiroth was intended to be the final fighter, but they didn't want two SE characters back-to-back? Both characters' trailers have some strong "Last Pick" energy to them in their own ways.
@DTFaux Yup, if we ended on Galeem getting sliced, I would be happy, that trailer was so good.
Disney's next major acquisition Nintendo confirmed!!!
So it was originally supposed to end with Kazuya huh? That would've been a much more sour way to end this whole thing, honestly, in my opinion. I'm glad they had that chance encounter there.
I like Tekken but have no interest in Kingdom Hearts whatsoever I wouldn't have minded Kazuya as the final fighter
To think, it would have probably ended with Teken or steve. I'm so happy he is in this game, and its like a dream.
I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they must have switched the order around... But I mean, Byleth... Nintendo clearly doesn't understand how to go out with a bang
Removed - unconstructive
Glad they managed to work out a deal. Disney is probably just as hard to please as Nintendo itself.
@Thrallherd no.
I am pleased as peaches he has made an appearance in the game, though I still have to buy the game to use him first!
Very glad they managed to work it out, Sora is my favorite of the newcomers in Ultimate.
If Sora is not the character Sakurai mentioned in one of the presentations when he said there was one character he wanted but had a hard time getting because the owner only wanted to meet in person and Japan had COVID at the time, I wonder who that character was.
Lol imagine if piranha plant was the final character 😂😂😂
While I don't care for KH whatsoever, I have full respect for Sakurai and his team at Nintendo for going through all the hoops involved with Square and Disney to get this character that people have wanted for so long. Hope everyone is happy with the end result.
For me, Kazuya is my personal favorite of Pass 2.
man, what is gonna happen after talking with disney...
Yes I am glad they did
There is absolutely no way that Kazuya was always planned to be the final character of Pass 2. That's too underwhelming. If they couldn't make Sora happen, they would have just moved onto another character for the "surprise" 6th character. There are a ton of other Fire Emblem characters Sakurai could have chosen from. A quick Google search shows some sword-wielding character named 'Eliwood' who is basically a red-headed Marth. Right up Sakurai's alley.
Yeah I'll second the idea that Sephiroth was probably planned as the final fighter. Ending Smash with another fighting game character would've been underwhelming.
This does make me wonder how many of the third party characters were due to either chance encounters or pre-existing relationships between individuals at these companies. We like to talk about characters that make sense from a consumer perspective, but perhaps small-scale interactions behind the scenes are a lot more influential than most tend to think.
(That said, the sheet variety of Mii costumes shows that Nintendo isn't shy about reaching out to other companies about their IP, and vice versa).
I mean, to be fair, I would of been happy with Kazuya being the last character. He was the only character in the second pass who I actually liked and that is bearing in mind I have only ever played Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (other encounters were Street Fighter X Tekken and Project X Zone 2).
Not a fan of Sora myself, and definitely not of how he plays; he feels very floaty to me, but good job to everyone involved for making it work.
@FNL
Eliwood is from Fire Emblem: Blazing Blade (the prequel to the game Roy is from) and eventually becomes a Paladin (horseback rider) in subsequent games. Marth cannot become a Paladin in any Fire Emblem game. They're two completely different characters.
@JR150 Ok, but this only further reinforces my point that this character would be a strong contender for Sakurai's final pick if Sora didn't work out.
@FNL as a Fire Emblem fan I'm really struggling to not curse at you for both the generalization and that hate you're dumping on this series. Sora is great addition and wonderful way to end the DLC waves. let's enjoy every character and stop whining that our favorites didn't make it.
if you're going to complain and whine about FE then remember: a plant made it in the game. let that sink in. so next time you plan on hating on FE you'd be wise to remember that
All I have to say, there is still plenty space in the roster for another fighters pass. So maybe Waluigi?
@Fujimoto-San
> if you're going to complain and whine about FE then remember: a plant made it in the game. let that sink in. so next time you plan on hating on FE you'd be wise to remember that
What an odd tangent to go on. If we want to 'remember' something and 'let it sink in', perhaps we should keep in mind that while Piranha Plant is a relatively dumb character, it's at least unique. Marth/Roy/Ike/Lucina/Byleth/Corrin/Chrom may as well all be an alternate skin of the same character.
It's also utter nonsense that the Fire Emblem series is so overly represented in the game. It's not even a secret at this point that Sakurai's obsessive bias is a driving force behind which characters are included in the game.
I'm not personally holding a candle for any other character who didn't make it in. I think there are a ton of other characters who should have made it in, but none that affect me on such a personal level that you seem to be affected by people criticizing Fire Emblem.
Perhaps you should keep in mind that it's completely fair to be critical of some really questionable roster decisions. Not everyone deifies Sakurai as a god and believes he can do no wrong. Some of us can recognize him as an obsessive fanboy who wants to play as all of his own personal favorite characters.
@FNL Marth, Roy, Ike, Corrin and Byleth plays differently. This is like if someone were to complain that Mario characters looks similar. The reason FE is "overrepresented" is because Everyone is here, Nintendo choose the DLC and Chrom was an easy echo for a heavily requested character.
Melee had Marth and Roy.
Brawl had Marth and Ike.
3DS / Wii U had Marth, Ike, Lucina and Robin. Then got Roy back due to popular demand. And then got Corrin because Nintendo wanted him.
There are strong possibilities neither Corrin or Byleth would have been added if Nintendo did not request those games to be represented in Smash.
Sakurai might be an obsessive gamer at home, but base game rooster additions for the most part seems to be what people ask for (he can't please absolutely everyone) and DLC is choosed by Nintendo.
@FNL each FE character may be similar on paper but each plays differently in execution. the claim that Fire Emblem is overrepresented as well as the reason for all of them being playable is due to the "everyone is here" tagline which defined Smash Ultimate. Chrom was included as an echo fighter because he was a highly requested character, just as @Tobiaku explains.
no one is deifying Sakurai and he didn't get to choose the DLC, it was Nintendo. if anything he had some role to play but ultimately it was Nintendo's choice.
Personal shoutout to the openness of that Disney exec, especially after they went out of the video games industry famously a few years ago. Now we wait to see how Nomura tries to make this canon to the Kingdom Hearts storyline.
@d-slice Kirby is the new Keyblade user. that's Kindom Hearts 4 lol
@Thrallherd I don’t play the game, but find these articles interesting. I’m one of the ones they get the clicks from 🤣
I was really hoping WaLuigi would be revealed. I think Sora is better (never played that game either), but there was such a push by fans for him. Not really sure why.
I’m happy for Sora fans. It seems that Nintendo listened to some of the community.
Personally I was really bummed when they revealed him. I let out a big “NOOOOO” I don’t care for Sora at all because I don’t like anything Disney. I’m not into Disney shows or the characters at all. The company is self is hella shady and is perverted. I never played a KH game and I never will. We all have our own opinions. I’m not happy with Disney being in my favorite Nintendo series.
Of course, I am happy for everyone who wanted Sora in the game. For me, I got who I wanted in Smash Brothers. Or at least, I’m happy to see characters I like included in smash brothers like: the Belmonts, Ridley, Dark Samus, etc.
I would of much rather seen Nintendo celebrate with another Nintendo character as the final DLC.
In general I don’t really like the fighters pass. Sephiroth was the only DLC I got hype for. The rest of the characters are really lame in my opinion. Like Steve. I just cannot believe Minecraft is in smash brothers…
I did give Hero a chance and now I’m in love with the DragonQuest series! ~<3
Anyways happy gaming everyone! Time to be spammed by Soras online
@MikeGold if you stack your echoes it's a perfect rectangle
Fighter pass 1 was all killer no filler... Fighter pass two on the other hand..... I uh got steve from Minecraft
@Fujimoto-San they hardly play differently.. i been using roy since melee and theres like 3 other characters who play pretty much the same...kind of a waste but so is wolf and toon link but then again they play just differently enough everyone can pick their favorite
Not a KH fan, so I was disappointed, personally.
Really broke my heart when Dante, Shantea, AND Doom Slayer were all turned into marketable plushies.
As it is, Sephiroth was my favorite reveal.
@buggysdad
Waluigi was NEVER a serious contender for Ultimate's Fighter Passes, just like Isaac from Golden Sun was NEVER a serious contender. It just doesn't make sense to upgrade from Assist Trophy or Mii Costume to full Fighter in the same game.
Both are SHOE-INs for the Smash 6 roster, though. As are most of the DLC Mii Costumes - Bomberman, Doom Slayer, Dante, Lloyd Irving, Nakoruru, Dragonborn are all great examples of Smash 6 hopefuls that they can now gather data on based on how many people download and use their Mii Fighter costumes. And Heihachi is a shoe-in as an Echo Fighter of Kazuya in the next title; it just didn't make sense to bring him in this game given that they had already revived his Mii Costume in the first wave of DLC before they knew they would bring in a Tekken character as a Fighter in wave 2.
In any case, being an Assist Trophy or Mii Costume makes you 2x as likely to make it into a future title. Nintendo already is gathering data on you. And Smash 6 IS coming. I wonder if it'll be called Super Smash Bros. MEGA EVOLUTION over here?
@ParadoxFawkes You can't be serious. Byleth not filler? Steve not hype or deserving? I don't care for Minecraft but I can still see why Steve made it in and how so many people were happy to see him.
@buggysdad I think people mainly wanted Waluigi because it just doesn't make sense for him not to be in already. Why is Daisy and Piranha Plant in the game, but not Waluigi? Why can't Wario have his number 2 (pun intended)? Waluigi and Toad are the two iconic Mario characters just left out for some reasons.
At least that's the sensible crowd... then there's the memer social media crowd "waluigi lul funny"
I don't really care for him (never really cared for Kingdom Hearts), but there could've been worse choices. His reveal trailer was actually pretty awesome and at least he doesn't have an annoying voice or over-the-top yells/screams like a certain other third party character. I'm just hoping he doesn't have 5 amiibo since that'd be overkill lol
There is literally no argument to be made that Fire Emblem isn't overrepresented in Smash. Making that argument is absurdly disingenuous.
And I can't believe we're still supposed to take Sakurai for his word for anything. How many times do we have to catch him in a lie before we're allowed to question him?
@FNL No franchise is particulary over represented in Smash. If anything they are under represented when it comes to stages. Do you also think Mario and Pokémon are over represented?
And when did Sakurai lie?
@Tobiaku
That's a pretty silly thing to say, really. The Mario franchise is the core franchise behind Super Smash Bros. since the very beginning and is the absolute flagship franchise for Nintendo. Without the Mario franchise, there wouldn't be a Super Smash Bros. If anything, they are underrepresented given their rich history and importance to gaming.
And Pokemon is a global phenomenon. A successful juggernaut in pop culture and entertainment. To even claim that Fire Emblem has half of the relevance or importance of Pokemon is absurd.
Sakurai has lied countless times. From claiming he's so incredibly busy that he's literally on the verge of dying, but somehow still finding time to play through 247 Playstation games in one year, bragging about how he obsessively 100%'d Death Stranding.
Claiming that he had to ignore the results of fan polls in favor of including new swordfighting characters in the game because characters like Simon Belmont and King K. Rool "wouldn't make interesting fighters". And then turning around years later and adding them anyway. They just magically became "interesting" after he got his Fire Emblem picks, naturally.
Claiming that Nintendo is mandating all of the swordfighting Fire Emblem characters "against his will" but then fangushing all over the characters on his various social media accounts and talking about how much he loves them and their games.
Lying about who actually won the top spots in Smash polls.
And so on and so on.
@Tobiaku
He said everyone was here but I don't see Zombies Ate My Neighbors representation 😤
@FNL
That's moving the goal posts. Calling one over represented but giving others excuses is being disingenuous
@Classic603
What are you talking about? I'm not saying that all franchises should be equally represented. I've never once said that. Some most definitely deserve the representation they have and some deserve more. Fire Emblem doesn't even come close to being deserving of being on par with the Mario and Pokemon franchises. Especially since even the most ferocious fans of the franchise struggle to think of reasons why all of their Smash characters are different from each other.
"Well, yeah, sure they all fight very similarly and basically have the same moveset, but this guy can shoot fire and this guy can turn into a dragon for his Final Smash. See? Different!"
@FNL
Well that's down to a matter of opinion being touted as fact, then. So either you don't like Fire Emblem, which is fine, or you love another series. Again, fine. But to sit back and say that Fire Emblem isn't deserving is weird. There have been 16 mainline titles, it's a pretty big series.
Fire Emblem deserves some character slots, for sure. Maybe 4 at the most. But not 8. That's not even a matter of opinion, because if you want to judge by how "big" a series is, it's odd that Mega Man, with all of its history and characters only has 1 representative out of 29 games. Street Fighter, 2. Kirby, 3 out of over 30 games. Heck Zelda has less representation than Fire Emblem. All of these aforementioned series are bigger in sales, name recognition and worldwide pop culture relevance than Fire Emblem.
It's incredible to see the depths that people will lower themselves to defend Sakurai and Fire Emblem. You can always just admit that maybe we just didn't need 8 sword-fighters from Fire Emblem in Smash and that perhaps it's a little overkill. Or that perhaps, just maybe, there are franchises that are bigger than Fire Emblem.
Even then, you can be a huge fan of the series and think it's super cool and everything, but I find it baffling that you don't find it weird how overrepresented it is in relation to everything else.
@Classic603 Lol, he ment everyone who has been in Smash before, lots of franchises not represented 😂
@FNL Personaly I don't belive any franchise is overrepresented in Smash, I just asked how you felt about those two since Mario has 11 fighters and Pokémon also have 8.
Sakurai at one point needed a iv drip. Its very possible he worked himself almost to death back then. He has later said its less stressfull to work on the DLC, so its very possible him almost working himself to death and playing Playstation were at different times so the situation would be different.
Do you have a link to him claming K. Rool and Belmonts would not be interesting? Its still possible he himself don't find them interesting as characters but added them due to the ballot.
Sakurai might like the FE characters as characters in FE but agree with people that they are well represented in Smash but Nintendo tells him to add more.
When did he lie about the ballots? Bayonetta was number 1. in Europe and top 5. of realizeable characters in 2015. Sora won. But they did not get the rights to him until around 2019 or so. Nintendo was suprised to see how well K. Rool and Banjo scored. We know that out of characters who were not even game characters, SpongeBob and Iron Man did well.
Non of these are proveable lies.
@FNL
Okay I guess the metric better suited would be Fire Emblem has 600 playable characters to choose from.
I do agree that 8 is a lot, but I enjoy them and it isn't like having less Fire Emblem characters would mean more elsewhere. I do wish we had more variety, with bow wielders, magic, axe, lance, etc. Ton of variety in Fire Emblem
@Classic603
Ok. So they're significant and worth including because you like to play as them. What did you say about matter of opinion stated as fact, again?
> it isn't like having less Fire Emblem characters would mean more elsewhere
I... what? Of course it would. The time spent licensing, conceptualizing and developing the characters could have absolutely been spent on a number of other characters. Sakurai has made no secret of his love of the Fire Emblem series, so he obviously worked very, very hard to get all of his favorites included.
And don't get me wrong, I don't think the characters are poor choices because I "hate Fire Emblem" or simply because it's massively overrepresented. I actually have no opinion one way or the other about it as a series. It's the fact that they're literally all same-y swordfighters and admitted personal favorites of Sakurai's.
@FNL If anything, I agree Kirby, Zelda, Streetfighter and Megaman could have had more characters than they currently have, I just disagree with FE didn't need those we currently have and they are overkill.I happen to want more FE characters than we currently have. I also disagree with Sakurai being a liar.
@Tobiaku
I'm sorry, but I just don't have the time to spend arguing about Sakurai's shaky track record with the truth right now. I can see that you have a vested interest in defending him and that's your right, so I'll just check out of that conversation. He's made enough questionable statements that his fans will accept as fact, even though he contradicts them in other interviews. He also overstates his own importance on working on Smash. How did someone who, by his own admission, works very little on the actual hands-on development of Smash ("I mostly input numbers, do character sketches, give guidance on movesets and show poses with action figures") end up working an alleged 80 hours per week on a largely-finished game?
Anyway, you have your opinion that having 8 sword-fighters from Fire Emblem with very similar looks and movesets is not overkill. And you're entitled to that opinion. Enjoy your Fire Emblem fighters.
I just hope that the director of the next Smash game keeps in mind that this is a series meant to celebrate numerous video game franchises and not just fans of JRPGs. If Sakurai wanted "Fire Emblem Fighters", I'm sure he could have pitched that to Nintendo and had it greenlit.
@FNL
What? I didn't say that. I just personally enjoy the series. And you're irritated that the guy who made the series and does the decision making added characters from a series he enjoys?
Also, there is no merit to the thinking that "had they not included Fire Emblem, another character could have made it in". It's all first party owned by Nintendo, and there wasn't a preselected number of fighters. Had they left it at 4 Fire Emblem characters, the total roster could very well be 4 short of It's final total.
@Classic603
And so we're just making excuses now to justify the inclusion of 8 Fire Emblem characters.
> And you're irritated that the guy who made the series and does the decision making added characters from a series he enjoys?
Yes. Because he's literally asked fans who they want to see in the series and received hundreds, if not thousands of suggestions and yet keeps including his own pet characters. You're not supposed to make a game for yourself, you're supposed to make it for your audience.
If he wanted to make his own game, his way, just at least be honest with it. I'd respect him and his decisions more if he stopped shifting the blame to everyone but himself. "Don't blame me, I wasn't the one who wanted to include these three characters who just so happen to be characters who I routinely gush over and post fan art of on my social media accounts. It was all Nintendo's doing! I know that Waluigi has been the number 1 most requested character for Smash for roughly 4 years now, but Nintendo just wouldn't let me license him! They only offered more Fire Emblem characters!"
Dude. Come on.
(And no, I'm not 'just mad that Waluigi didn't make it in', it's just an example)
@MH4 In Sora's case, more like massive FEET. If you know what I'm saying. Anyone? Anyone?
@aznable Maybe you should put your foot in your mouth after that one. 😉
@FNL after reading your replies to the fine people in this comment section I must say your one sad sad internet person. you're spreading nothing but unfounded lies and hate. having an opinion is one thing and being toxic is another.
Just imagine being so hopelessly devoted to a random game developer that you literally treat him as some sort of a cult leader. It's so embarrassing.
I'm sure you're just arguing from an unbiased position here anyway, guy with Fire Emblem avatar.
@FNL argue? there's no argument here since it was your generalization and one sided arrogance that began this so called argument.
quite frankly I have better things to do with my life than argue with an immature troll like you.
Thanks for stopping by!
Removed - unconstructive
@PtM Eh, say what you want, but Kazuya as the final character would just have been incredibly underwhelming. In my opinion of course, for others it could probably be the most hype thing.
@Mario500 The COVID 19 pandemic. Sakurai said in one of the presentations that there was a character they at the time wanted to have in Ultimate but had not gotten the rights to yet due owner of said character only wanted to deal in person.
@MH4 The joke did it for me.
@PtM Oh sorry, I didn't catch that. That makes a lot more sense!
@bimboliquido Calm down he was just being tongue-in-cheek. Was more a joke than a condescending lecture.
@Username_unknown Yes - Disney is pure evil. Only Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm for me, uh, no wait....
At least Sora was designed by Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura. Which is why the character model features multiple zippers and chains (though oddly enough only one belt.)
Edit: apparently I forgot about the two wrist belts on the Smash version of Sora.
@bimboliquido lol wtf chill
Tap here to load 74 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...