Sora from the Kingdom Hearts series is going to be released, (or has already been out) at the time of me posting this, as the final DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! This is a big deal, for tons of reasons but what does it mean for personal reasons. I’ve been into the Super Smash Bros series since the very first game! “Oh cool, an actual Nintendo fighting game with all the mostly well known Nintendo characters!” Then you get to play the game and then you some familiar faces like of course Mario, Link, Pikachu, Kirby, then you get to wait who is Captain Falcon? Who’s Ness? Super Smash Bros as a series as since became somewhat of staple game that I always looked forward to whenever a new Nintendo console was happening. I looked forward to Melee, with the GameCube, and then Brawl happened.
Now, when I say when Brawl happened this was when I started to get into the actual community of Smash. I mostly lurked in those SmashBoards forums back in 2008. Brawl was technically my first introduction on the fandom and what the community was like. Brawl was also the first game of the series where it started to get more big and interesting. So, where does Sora fit into this? Well, Brawl was also the first introduction of getting third party characters ever into the franchise with having big characters like Snake from the Metal Gear series and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic Joining Brawl
While Sora was a requested character during the Brawl days I think deep down most of us knew he wasn’t going to make it in. This was at the very least, the start of introducing other video game franchises that weren’t really Nintendo owned! So, it was possible that Kingdom Hearts could eventually make it into Smash someday!
This was also around the time when Kingdom Hearts was starting to make appearances on Nintendo consoles with the first being on a Game Advanced with the game being, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Then the DS games came about with 358/2 Days and Dream Drop Distance on the 3DS. Though this is kinda where the Nintendo connection stops. Kingdom Hearts major mainline games ended up being on PlayStation mostly. Though the “Nintendo connection” rule almost doesn’t even matter anymore and it hasn’t really mattered since the past two Smash Bros. entries for third party characters.
Cloud Storms Into Battle
When I say that third party characters that don’t have the so-called “Nintendo connection” didn’t matter anymore mostly until when the character Cloud Strife appeared in Smash 4 as apart of the line up. Cloud being in Smash back then was a BIG DEAL. Not only was it a big deal, but it was the introduction of Square Enix as a third party company for making it into the series. Though there was some downside to Square was there was very little content that came with Cloud and Final Fantasy.
Though how does this affect Sora? Well, with Cloud already in the game, it at least meant that Square was willing to collab with Smash and got their feet wet with having Cloud even with the little content he did bring. Though, the reason this somewhat affected Sora in a way was with the Super Smash Bros. Fighter ballot. The ballot was a way to give Nintendo and Masahiro Sakurai (the Super Smash Bros. series director) some ideas and requests for characters. This was when the #Sora4Smash campaign really started to kick off. Again, he was pretty requested during the Brawl days, but this was when Sora’s popularity got kicked into high gear as being a candidate for Smash eventually, and I’ll talk more about this Smash ballot a little later.
Chances in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Then we go into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! This game felt BIG even more so than BOTH Brawl and Smash 4 were. The game was first announced back on a regular direct with a Splatoon fake out with the Inkling obviously being one of the first newcomers to be revealed for the game. When they went into E3 of 2018, we all knew that Smash was going to be there. There was a lot of speculation amongst the community pretty early on in base game that many though that this game was going to be a port of the Smash 4 Wii U game.
Could we have not been proven to be anymore wrong! Not only that but, there was also, speculation about cuts or if certain veteran characters can be bought back? Well, not only did anyone not get cut, but EVERY single fighter from Smash history got bought back, making it the BIGGEST roster within the series history!
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was catered to getting so many character requests with getting some major characters like Ridley, Simon & Richter Belmont, Dark Samus, Chrom, and King K. Rool. Then you have your necessity characters like another obvious Echo character like Ken from Street Fighter or your usual current gen Pokemon like Incineroar and your popular relevant first party character in Isabelle from Animal Crossing, okay nothing too earth shattering or ground breaking and that was it for base game characters!
I think most of us had known that Sora wasn’t going to make it for base game roster. His best chances were for him to be used for DLC for later. This was where Smash Ultimate’s speculation cycle really started to get interesting for tons of characters chances not just Sora’s.
Nintendo Choosing the DLC
Though, of course Nintendo and Sakurai always have something up there sleeve when it comes to Smash. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ended up getting something called a Fighter Pass, which is a format that Smash hasn’t done before with their DLC. They also planned this DLC this time around from the beginning, but what had me concerned with the DLC this time around was that Nintendo was choosing the characters for DLC and not really Sakurai.
Originally, this had a lot of people concerned with the DLC and rightfully so. Who knows what we were going to get with Nintendo choosing the DLC. Was this going to be mostly first party characters that deserve a chance, or were we going to get some hype third party characters that we weren’t expecting? These were legitimate questions at the time, again we haven’t had this kind of DLC cycle before where most of the DLC had been planned and outlined for us and knowing how many that we were going to get. It also didn’t help that before the announcement of DLC, this came around the time of after the Grinch leak “hype” and the last base game Smash November direct happened.
Joker Steals the Show
That leak ended up deflating that direct for a lot of people and its understandable as to why certain people did felt deflated considering the characters that we did end the base roster on, which was Ken and Inceneroar. At least DLC, would be able to put some people at ease when we got our first reveal at the 2018 Game Awards with the reveal and the announcement of Joker. If anything, the reveal of Joker basically told the Smash community this DLC this go round may actually be crazier than Smash 4’s DLC cycle was. Revealing Joker at the Game Awards that year really did help set the tone of how crazy this roster could end up by the time its all said and done, and boy did it.
How does Joker help Sora’s case for being DLC? Well, as I’ve stated earlier that Joker being in Fighter Pass 1 starting Fighter Pass 1, did help set the tone of what the DLC could end up being like. Joker was still so surprising to see at this time, because we just had announced Piranha Plant being the first DLC character (technically) and that was if you had already bought Fighter Pass Vol. 1 at the time. During this time, it was also revealed on how Nintendo chose the DLC by giving Sakurai a list of names and see if he can make them work as playable fighters and just go from there. At the time, Joker was a BIG deal, almost another Cloud esque situation again. Nintendo is once again pointing out, that, “Hey, any video game character can make it into Smash, whether you have ‘Nintendo connection’ or not!”
The Second Square-Enix Character Debacle: The Hero Draws Near
Around the time base game was wrapping up and with the announcement of DLC exciting or well temporarily exciting people for the most part a lot of rumors started to swirl for who could be DLC. Vergeben was a known leaker among Smash Ultimate’s base roster and some throughout the DLC speculation cycle.
As of E3 2019 the next character from Square-Enix was announced being Hero from Dragon Quest. The Luminary was chosen as the default for the Hero as a playable character while other Dragon Quest characters including the most recognizable character of Erdrick being an alternate costume. Alongside with Hero Slime was also apart of Hero’s moveset as part of his taunts. Dragon Quest is one of the most popular JRPSGs in Japan, so to say that it definitely more than earned its spot within the Smash Bros. roster. As someone whose also a big Dragon Quest fan myself I was very happy to have seen Dragon Quest get some very much deserved love in Smash. It was just one of those franchises that should’ve been in Smash a long time ago.
Though, as happy as I was with seeing Dragon Quest in Smash even knowing it deserved to be here with other legendary video game franchises, a part of me was also disappointed that it wasn’t Sora. Hey, all hope wasn’t completely lost though. Having Dragon Quest in Smash still proves that Square is still 100% behind in supporting Smash Bros., even with it’s limitations when it came to adding content like songs.
Square once again proved they were still behind supporting Smash Ultimate with having content in the game by adding in Spirit Events from other series that didn’t have a playable character for them. Series such as the Secret of Mana had a spirit event, and a more recent Square game also got some love in Spirit event form with Octopath Traveler which was celebrating it’s second year anniversary of that games release. This once again proved that Square was willing to give content for franchises that didn’t have a playable character attached to that series. Though, the spirits did give fans hope and speculating that year that it was very possible that another Square character was more than likely to make it into Smash.
Sephiroth Descends Into Battle & Brings the Smash Fanbase Despair
It was around Game Awards time of 2020 and many fans were hopeful that a Smash reveal would more than likely happen. After FINALLY getting confirmation from Nintendo that a new character from Challenger Pack 8 was happening, most didn’t know who it could be. This was also around the time where a lot of the known leakers didn’t really know much of anything about DLC, including the most “reliable” Smash Ultimate leaker Vergeben hasn’t really been sure on who was coming to the game anymore.
After getting some spirits during the past year, a lot of people were looking at Square as the candidate for Pack 8. Though there were other characters that were also being popped up during speculation around this time, such as DOOM Guy (DOOM series), Ryu Hayabusa (from Ninja Gaiden), Crash Bandicoot, Jonsey (from Fortnite) etc. Sora was also bought up a lot during this time as you know, Sora is definitely a big enough character to be hype up enough for a game awards show.
We were completely in the dark around this time, as there really wasn’t much of any leaks for anybody around this time. 2020 was not a great year for leakers at all. Nobody didn’t really have that much of a good track record anymore like they once used to, as it was much just much harder to try and info from insiders, considering the kind of state that the world was in as of last year and still kinda is in currently.
On December 10, 2020; Challenger Pack 8 was revealed to have been none other than the One-Winged Angel and the main villain of Final Fantasy VII himself, Sephiroth. I and many other were completely floored by this reveal. I think most people had assumed that we would get another Square character in this pass, but it just wasn’t the right one that most of us were thinking of. After Sephiroth was announced at the show, Nintendo eventually had confirmed that a Sakurai Presents was coming. That meant anything Square related was in a very dire and dangerous situation from being a Mii costume instead of being playable.
Both Geno, Sora, and any other supporters of Square-Enix characters fans were both anxious and nervous during this particular presentation, more specifically with the Mii costume section. Even though, having a Mii costume is at the very least having something in the game, but its just not the same when the character you want isn’t fully playable.
Geno fans were in an even more of a dire situation than any other Square character considering they waited this long to reveal for him to only just be a Mii costume again, when they could’ve revealed him back during the Sakurai Presents Hero presentation (to have ripped the band-aid off early). At least Sora and other Square characters at the very least had a shot to still make it, but it was still pretty rough for the Geno fanbase, as their Mii costume was still the same costume from Smash 4 and didn’t even get a fully updated wooden head, or even a song from Super Mario RPG like Forest Maze, to have soften the blow of the Mii costume returning.
While it was bad for them, other Square characters might still have a shot, even they might seem small. Most people didn’t think that a third-party company wouldn’t be able to double dip from the same Fighter Pass. If there was something that Smash Ultimate has taught us, it was that fan theories & rules, and character gate-keeping were useless.
THE FINAL & HOPEFUL STRETCH
We were now down to the final two characters, after Sephiroth was revealed, it was Pyra & Mythra’s turn to give Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fans their day in the Smash sun. So, this simmered down some people, and somewhat lowered down fans expectations during the final homestretch of characters now left. After Aegis girls made their way into Smash, it was now down to the final two. The penultimate character leading into the final character was Kazuya from the Tekken series who was revealed at Nintendo’s E3 2021 presentation.
Not something that was too crazy but completely deserving. Banda-Namco is one of the developers that helped make both Smash 4 and Smash Ultimate, along with Sakurai and Sora Ltd., so it only made sense that they would eventually have another new character that wasn’t just PAC-MAN. Its just what threw some people off with this character though, most people had kinda written Tekken off when the Heihachi Mii costume from Smash 4 had came back with MinMin.
It also didn’t help that during E3 Smash speculation many fans were looking into other characters and franchises to be possible reveals. Master Chief from the Halo series and a Breath of the Wild character from Zelda were the characters most fans were thinking of and talking about for a possible E3 double reveal like with they did Hero and Banjo-Kazooie from E3 2019. Nope, they didn’t even do a double reveal this time. At this point, most were thinking that final character could end up going two ways.
Whoever they had set up for the final character almost had to be a big deal on their own if they didn’t need to be revealed at E3 (especially if they overshadowed Kazuya) OR its a shill let down pick like a Pokemon or some promotional character like the SMT V main protagonist. Speaking of Kazuya, the Kazuya Presents also featured a bloodbath of the most hopeful characters that some thought would make into Smash this time around. Not only did the Lloyd (from Tales of series) got his Mii costume from Smash 4 came back but, Shantae and a BIG character like Dante (from Devil May Cry) got Mii costumed. The fact that Dante got Mii costumed let so many people wonder who could this last character be.
After the Mii costume bloodbath that was the Sakurai Kazuya Presents we were now down to one last fighter. Most of the speculation was down to a shill first party pick: a Gen 8 Pokemon, a random first party character (that would make no sense), or a big hype third party character.
As far as the third party characters go; the characters most people were hopeful for were: Sora, Master Chief, DOOM Guy, Ryu Hayabusa, Crash Bandicoot, Jonsey, and Phoenix Wright were some of the most talked about characters that most would be okay with. Well aside from maybe Fortnite Jonsey. On September, Nintendo had announced that a new Nintendo Direct was happening and we had all assumed that a new character would be revealed there, but what really happened was that we only got an announcement that a new Sakurai presents was happening on October 5th.
Sora is FINALLY HERE
On October 5th, 2021; he’s FINALLY HERE! Sora from Kingdom Hearts has OFFICIALLY & FINALLY made it into a Smash Bros game! Not only did we get Sora, but we also ended up getting the most requested character from the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot during the Smash for Wii U and 3DS days. The ballot was important to so many characters for this particular game. Characters like Banjo-Kazooie, King K. Rool, Ridley, Castlevania, and others probably wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for the fan demand of the Fighter Ballot.
I’ve been a Kingdom Hearts fan since I was 9 years old when the first game came out and it’s still one of my favorite video game franchises of all time. It has always been such a staple in my gaming life, and Smash Bros is also one of my favorite video game franchises of all time! So, seeing these two big crossovers finally collide for the first time is HUGE! The content Kingdom Hearts in Smash got was nothing short of AMAZING! I love that they gave him all of outfits (Timeless River was probably the BIGGEST suprise alt costume), Hallow Bastion/Dive into the Heart was great as a two-in one stage, and the spirits were all what you expected from a Kingdom Hearts spirit board.
The only section that was kind of disappointing but also understandable was the music section. To be fair we at the very least got way than what Final Fantasy originally got when Cloud first made into Smash back in Smash 4, so we kinda got treated a little bit better in the music front.
The fact that we already had a Square-Enix character in Sephiroth in the pass was probably did made it a bit easier to have Sqaure cooperate m but it was really getting Disney into the mix. The fact that Disney allowed it, a company that’s known to be so ironfisted with their properties and characters said yes to Smash, should not go understated! To say that I was going throw so many emotions with this reveal was an understatement. Sora was one of the few newcomers during Ultimate that I cried for. I cried in a total of six times with Simon & Richter, King K. Rool, Isabelle, Joker, and Sora. Those were all characters that I was so hopeful for that would make it into Ultimate, I’ve been eating so well as far as newcomers go.
Ultimate really ended on my and probably so many people’s favorite and most requested character ever! I honestly don’t know where Smash can go after Ultimate, as both the roster and as a game series. That may be another diary entry to talk about for another day though.
Sure, there are still some big named characters that’s still not in Smash like Master Chief, Phoenix Wright, DOOM Guy (who got Mii costumed), Crash Bandicoot. There’s still other big names that don’t have anything in Ultimate at all but would be great as newcomers to be saved for a next game. Not every character is going to make it into a single Smash game, sometimes you really have to wait your turn. It might take some years, but eventually your favorite video game character will be able to battle it out with some of Nintendo’s best all-stars and gaming legends some day! Until then, let that man Masahiro Sakurai finally have his long deserved rest. Thank you Masahiro Sakurai, Sora Ltd., Nintendo, and Bandai-Namco for making this game a dream game come into a reality!
A Gaming Girl's Diary ❤️ 