Official DLC Speculation Discussion Volume II

[Professor Pumpkaboo]

I’m just praying for a Sora reveal. Would also love Monster Hunter or a Pokémon.

Yes, Sora would be cool

 

[Perkilator]

I'd be willing to bet Sora is just not happening. (unless Disney approves) They technically own Sora and the Disney stuff in FF games, and thus would need their approval for Sora to get in. At the same time though, Square does still have the rights to FF characters, hence how we got

Actually:

If you want specifics

They would let Sora in if:
- Fans want it (which is ready proven many times over by now)
- SE/Nomura approve (when they ask out of courtesy, not because they have to)
- Nintendo approaches them

— Eliza | Dandadan Arc (@Eliza_Artz) April 12, 2021

 

[Deleted member]

Actually:

If you want specifics

They would let Sora in if:
- Fans want it (which is ready proven many times over by now)
- SE/Nomura approve (when they ask out of courtesy, not because they have to)
- Nintendo approaches them

— Eliza | Dandadan Arc (@Eliza_Artz) April 12, 2021

well, I've just made a fool of myself.

 

[chocolatejr9]

well, I've just made a fool of myself.
View attachment 310991

Eh, it's the Internet. Not only do we all make fools of ourselves, we fall for anything that would imply insert big corporation here are the bad guys.

 

[SharkLord]

Actually:

If you want specifics

They would let Sora in if:
- Fans want it (which is ready proven many times over by now)
- SE/Nomura approve (when they ask out of courtesy, not because they have to)
- Nintendo approaches them

— Eliza | Dandadan Arc (@Eliza_Artz) April 12, 2021

"We have word from a guy" always makes me wary by default. Not sure how credible these people have proven themselves, but until further notice I approach anything regarding insiders with caution.

 

[Gnateb]

I'm basically just doing some math stuff for fun to try and predict the next character's background color.

Wait how lol

 

[DanganZilla5]

Sora is such in a weird spot. He is owned by Disney so he is still in contention but at the same time Nintendo would likely still have to talk to Square which you could interpret it in different ways. I'll say that I don't think there is anything stopping Nintendo from talking to Square again, in fact they could have asked Nomura while getting the rights to Sephiroth.

At this point I'll say that Sora has about a 25% chance of happening. There is just so many big characters not in the game yet and there is potentially only one more opportunity left for a big character. Still, it's hard to imagine Nintendo not at least trying to get the rights to Sora, and for the record I'm skeptical on Imran Kahn's words.

 

[epicmartin7]

Wait how lol

I used the most sophisticated mathematical methods known to man.

Spoiler

In all seriousness, this basically uses a math trick. I take all of the current RGB values, and total them together. But... I track the evolution of that total depending on how many fighters exist. This allows for me to track the evolution of the total with a trendline, and then subtract the previous total from the projected one to get a value!

 

[Deleted member]

Spoiler

In all seriousness, this basically uses a math trick. I take all of the current RGB values, and total them together. But... I track the evolution of that total depending on how many fighters exist. This allows for me to track the evolution of the total with a trendline, and then subtract the previous total from the projected one to get a value!

bottom text

 

[Golden Icarus]

I imagine that the big issue with Sora is in the grey area that he represents and not necessarily in the company that owns him.

The one rule that Sakurai has been adamant about is that every character must originate from a video game. Sora is obviously a vg character, but Kingdom Hearts is literally a bridge between video game and “4th party” characters. I’m unsure that they could add Sora, while simultaneously dodging all of the Disney references. Would they have to remove the Mickey Mouse logo from the keyblade? Would it be appropriate to have a KH spirit board without Goofy or Donald? With how passionate Sakurai is about representing characters as good as possible, he might find it hard to make some of these exclusions. I think that he could pull it off, but he’d have to be very precise about it, and I’m not sure if it’s worth the trouble.

 

[Cutie Gwen]

I imagine that the big issue with Sora is in the grey area that he represents and not necessarily in the company that owns him.

The one rule that Sakurai has been adamant about is that every character must originate from video game. Sora is obviously a vg character, but Kingdom Hearts is literally a bridge between video game and “4th party” characters. I’m unsure that they could add Sora, while simultaneously dodging all of the Disney references. Would they have to remove the Mickey Mouse logo from the keyblade? Would it be appropriate to have a KH spirit board without Goofy or Donald? With how passionate Sakurai is about representing characters as good as possible, he might find it hard to make some of these exclusions. I think that he could pull it off, but he’d have to be very precise about it, and I’m not sure if it’s worth the trouble.

Idk man we have Dracula in the game just fine, not to mention that while Disney is part of the appeal, KH has enough fully original content to back up on

 

[ShotoStar]

SOON

babe wake up new epicmartin7 post just dropped, Banger as usual King.

 

[cashregister9]

Sora is not as large of a Gray zone as is being insinuated here.

-Kingdom Hearts is not "Co-owned" by Square, the franchise is 100% owned by Disney, Square just owns the Code to the games and the FF characters
-You can easily make a spirit board from just the original characters
-There are several famous locations unique to KH that can be good stages (Twilight Town, Traverse Town, Castle Oblivion, Destiny Islands, Hollow Bastion)
-The Mickey Mouse Keychain can be replaced with a Star Fruit, which is another icon that is associated with Sora

Sakurai is all about representing things as faithfully as possible, but don't forget this is the same team that
-Left out arguably the most popular Fatal Fury character, but was able to censor another character (Mythra's Spirit)
-Included 0 Modern Kirby Stages or characters.
-Left out several songs because they were too calm yet kept in Electroplankton and 25m

So the team doesn't have a flawless track record, and not having Donald and Goofy would be a bit larger, but as shown in Union Cross you can have the spirit of Kingdom Hearts with not that much Disney Content. (UX did have disney stuff but it was just Worlds and Gacha medals.)

 

[Hadokeyblade]

I imagine that the big issue with Sora is in the grey area that he represents and not necessarily in the company that owns him.

The one rule that Sakurai has been adamant about is that every character must originate from video game. Sora is obviously a vg character, but Kingdom Hearts is literally a bridge between video game and “4th party” characters. I’m unsure that they could add Sora, while simultaneously dodging all of the Disney references. Would they have to remove the Mickey Mouse logo from the keyblade? Would it be appropriate to have a KH spirit board without Goofy or Donald? With how passionate Sakurai is about representing characters as good as possible, he might find it hard to make some of these exclusions. I think that he could pull it off, but he’d have to be very precise about it, and I’m not sure if it’s worth the trouble.

When Sora crosses over into Final fantasy games (Which he has) they managed to avoid referencing the Disney stuff pretty well.

As for the keyblade, ifeel like they could just design an original weapon for him made for Smash. To reference how everytime he enters a new world in his home series he unlocks a new Keyblade variant designed after that universe he jumped in.

 

[Speed Weed]

Also, his song basically just Moon Over The Castle from Gran Turismo. Thought that was something worth pointing out.

adol car has come full circle

 

[Ivander]

Sakurai Says To Wait "Just A Bit Longer" For His Next Announcement

News on the next Smash fighter doesn't seem far off.

www.thegamer.com

Sakurai is saying that we're going to have to wait a bit longer for the next announcement. I think this combined with Nintendo having an E3 Direct confirms we're not getting anything in May.

So we could possibly have a double reveal. Not guaranteed, but possible. It would be nice at this point to wrap up the last 2 characters for Fighters Pass 2.

That aside, don't you feel really conflicted when you try to go for a Limited 3-Star in a Gacha, thinking it shouldn't be that hard to get it, and you don't get it, but you get the Limited 5-Star instead?

 

[Golden Icarus]

Idk man we have Dracula in the game just fine, not to mention that while Disney is part of the appeal, KH has enough fully original content to back up on

There definitely is more than enough KH content, without the Disney references. I just don’t know if Sakurai would want KH without the Disney references. Or better yet, I don’t know if Disney would want KH without the Disney references.

Sakurai is all about representing things as faithfully as possible, but don't forget this is the same team that
-Left out arguably the most popular Fatal Fury character, but was able to censor another character (Mythra's Spirit)
-Included 0 Modern Kirby Stages or characters.
-Left out several songs because they were too calm yet kept in Electroplankton and 25m

The fact that he felt the need to point out Mai's absence and apologize just shows how much he cares about such things. If leaving Mai out of the KoF stage was worth apologizing for, then leaving Donald and Goofy out of Sora's challenger pack would be on another level.

 

[Pillow]

I’m pretty sure the video game character rule only applies to characters and not logos...I very much doubt they’d even have to censor the mouse head.

 

[cashregister9]

The fact that he felt the need to point out Mai's absence and apologize just shows how much he cares about such things. If leaving Mai out of the KoF stage was worth apologizing for, then leaving Donald and Goofy out of Sora's challenger pack would be on another level.

Yeah that was absolutely my weakest point, but I feel like that inconsistency is still there.

The bottom line of my point is a Sora challenger pack could represent the entire Kingdom Hearts franchise and that doesn't really need Donald and Goofy, But the addition of those 2 would just enhance a Sora Specific pack.

 

[Cutie Gwen]

There definitely is more than enough KH content, without the Disney references. I just don’t know if Sakurai would want KH without the Disney references. Or better yet, I don’t know if Disney would want KH without the Disney references

We've had stranger absences in the past, hell, one can argue Dr. Coyle's lack of a Spirit battle is in the same boat, as is the lack of a Jenova Spirit, Rugal's entire absence despite Rugal influencing Terry's trailer, etc. Not to mention that the whole 2 songs meme that died out as of Sephiroth means Sakurai isn't against including minimal content if he's still able to get the character in Smash

 

[Louie G.]

Sakurai is all about representing things as faithfully as possible, but don't forget this is the same team that
-Left out arguably the most popular Fatal Fury character, but was able to censor another character (Mythra's Spirit)

I'm not one of those guys who will argue that Sora can't come without Disney content (even though I wish he wouldn't), but I don't think these cases are particularly great examples that bode on Sora's situation much. Er well, this case in particular.

Mai's exclusion is all about faithfulness. They couldn't do her correctly and they left her out, rather than screwing with her core design. Mythra is irrelevant to this because Mai's fixes involve more than just the addition of tights - Mythra's legs are not particularly the focal point of her design, while Mai's battle stance and outfit is iconic of her character and a central part of her identity.

As a side note, I think it's comparable to how Sakurai felt the need to acknowledge Ridley's exclusion as a playable character twice. He makes it pretty clear when something is a glaring omission that he at least gave it a good deal of thought before deciding he couldn't do it justice in a feasible way - in Ridley's case at least the boss battles allowed for his character to exist within Smash either way.

But yeah, I think it's clear whose design suffers more as a result. Mythra still keeps everything important in tact. I know the Mai one is fan edit and one that overcompensates to a humorous degree, but since Mai shows so much skin in the first place there isn't all that much you can do.

Taking say, the Mickey Mouse head off of Sora's keyblade would be more akin to a Mythra adjustment, so I think it's a nonissue anyway.

I also don't fully agree with your examples for the music point but I at least get that your point is "they could exclude Disney music and it wouldn't be a big deal" which is obviously true. KH has plenty of original tracks. I'll be the first to say I don't want Sora anywhere near Smash but I don't think the Disney points hold up very well at all - of course it is significant enough where I'm sure Sakurai would point it out in a hypothetical presentation, though.

Also I know that someone already acknowledged this point so I'm not trying to hound on you either, I just started writing it so I figured I may as well see it through and offer my perspective lmao

 

[ahemtoday]

I'm not one of those guys who will argue that Sora can't come without Disney content (even though I wish he wouldn't), but I don't think these cases are particularly great examples that bode on Sora's situation much. Er well, this case in particular.

Mai's exclusion is all about faithfulness. They couldn't do her correctly and they left her out, rather than screwing with her core design. Mythra is irrelevant to this because Mai's fixes involve more than just the addition of tights - Mythra's legs are not particularly the focal point of her design, while Mai's battle stance and outfit is iconic of her character and a central part of her identity.

As a side note, I think it's comparable to how Sakurai felt the need to acknowledge Ridley's exclusion as a playable character twice. He makes it pretty clear when something is a glaring omission that he at least gave it a good deal of thought before deciding he couldn't do it justice in a feasible way - in Ridley's case at least the boss battles allowed for his character to exist within Smash either way.

But yeah, I think it's clear whose design suffers more as a result. Mythra still keeps everything important in tact. I know the Mai one is fan edit and one that overcompensates to a humorous degree, but since Mai shows so much skin in the first place there isn't all that much you can do.

View attachment 310996View attachment 310998

Taking say, the Mickey Mouse head off of Sora's keyblade would be more akin to a Mythra adjustment, so I think it's a nonissue anyway.

I also don't fully agree with your examples for the music point but I at least get that your point is "they could exclude Disney music and it wouldn't be a big deal" which is obviously true. KH has plenty of original tracks. I'll be the first to say I don't want Sora anywhere near Smash but I don't think the Disney points hold up very well at all - of course it is significant enough where I'm sure Sakurai would point it out in a hypothetical presentation.

Also I know that someone already acknowledged this point so I'm not trying to hound on you either, I just started writing it so I figured I may as well see it through and offer my perspective lmao

Honestly, I kinda dig that Mai design...

 

[N3ON]

Actually:

If you want specifics

They would let Sora in if:
- Fans want it (which is ready proven many times over by now)
- SE/Nomura approve (when they ask out of courtesy, not because they have to)
- Nintendo approaches them

— Eliza | Dandadan Arc (@Eliza_Artz) April 12, 2021

Couple things here:

• this is not very well sourced. If the source goes back to HMK, you have to keep in mind that guy is incredibly biased towards Sora. It's like getting your Geno news from Papagenos.
• it's vague; it speaks of "they". Is this the liaison speaking on behalf of Disney, or are they speaking on their own behalf? As in they, the person, would let Sora in?
• if it's the liaison between SE and Disney, it sounds like the middleman, not someone who actually calls the shots
• is this the liaison between Disney USA or Disney Japan? Because from the other claims, it sounds like Disney Japan was the one Nintendo went to
• Speaking of those other claims, there are conflicting stories from Imran Khan (who has made some questionable allegations regarding other stuff with Smash, but has had correct info in the past, so we can't completely throw out the baby with the bathwater here) and possibly Maximillian Dood (though it's hard to tell how much he knows and how much he's guessing) that Nintendo did go to Disney and failed to get Sora and then landed on Sephiroth because SE was still on board.

All in all, there's either enough or not enough here to not make this claim the definitive info when it comes to Sora in Smash. The alternative claim that Nintendo tried and failed to get Sora is still entirely possible.

 

[TriggerX]

I’m surprised people are still caught up on whether or not sora’s Mickey Mouse keychain would prevent him from joining the roster.

Honestly I doubt Nintendo even cares whether or not it’s there anyways. It’s probably a detail only random smash bros fans trip over.

Even his brave exvius ( whatever that mobile game is called ) didn’t shy away from the Mickey Mouse symbol on his key chain.

I’m sure third party characters originating from source material outside of video games is still a no go, but I’m going to make an assumption that only applies to major cameos like assist trophies, spirits, stage cameos, taunts, etc. (So no Disney character spirits or assists). It’s really no different from Terry Bogard’s brand on his hat.

Personally though, I can’t ignore how Disney seems to treat most of their Dlc related content in the past. I think we’d be more likely to get Sora as a bonus character outside the pass. Maybe even as the first timed exclusive.

 

[cashregister9]

I'm not one of those guys who will argue that Sora can't come without Disney content (even though I wish he wouldn't), but I don't think these cases are particularly great examples that bode on Sora's situation much. Er well, this case in particular.

Mai's exclusion is all about faithfulness. They couldn't do her correctly and they left her out, rather than screwing with her core design. Mythra is irrelevant to this because Mai's fixes involve more than just the addition of tights - Mythra's legs are not particularly the focal point of her design, while Mai's battle stance and outfit is iconic of her character and a central part of her identity.

As a side note, I think it's comparable to how Sakurai felt the need to acknowledge Ridley's exclusion as a playable character twice. He makes it pretty clear when something is a glaring omission that he at least gave it a good deal of thought before deciding he couldn't do it justice in a feasible way - in Ridley's case at least the boss battles allowed for his character to exist within Smash either way.

But yeah, I think it's clear whose design suffers more as a result. Mythra still keeps everything important in tact. I know the Mai one is fan edit and one that overcompensates to a humorous degree, but since Mai shows so much skin in the first place there isn't all that much you can do.

View attachment 310996View attachment 310998

Taking say, the Mickey Mouse head off of Sora's keyblade would be more akin to a Mythra adjustment, so I think it's a nonissue anyway.

I also don't fully agree with your examples for the music point but I at least get that your point is "they could exclude Disney music and it wouldn't be a big deal" which is obviously true. KH has plenty of original tracks. I'll be the first to say I don't want Sora anywhere near Smash but I don't think the Disney points hold up very well at all - of course it is significant enough where I'm sure Sakurai would point it out in a hypothetical presentation, though.

Also I know that someone already acknowledged this point so I'm not trying to hound on you either, I just started writing it so I figured I may as well see it through and offer my perspective lmao

I could have stood to think about my original selection a bit longer... I apologize for that

Gwen's Rugal & Dr. Coyle comparison is probably more accurate to the Donald and Goofy situation.

 

[Evil Trapezium]

I imagine that the big issue with Sora is in the grey area that he represents and not necessarily in the company that owns him.

The one rule that Sakurai has been adamant about is that every character must originate from a video game. Sora is obviously a vg character, but Kingdom Hearts is literally a bridge between video game and “4th party” characters. I’m unsure that they could add Sora, while simultaneously dodging all of the Disney references. Would they have to remove the Mickey Mouse logo from the keyblade? Would it be appropriate to have a KH spirit board without Goofy or Donald? With how passionate Sakurai is about representing characters as good as possible, he might find it hard to make some of these exclusions. I think that he could pull it off, but he’d have to be very precise about it, and I’m not sure if it’s worth the trouble.

We already know that Nintendo tells Sakurai who to include. While Sakurai can decide if they can make the character work, Nintendo can still insist upon certain characters like Steve so if Nintendo wants Sora along with Mickey, Donald and Goofy at Disney's request then he'd have to do it... I think...

 

[Louie G.]

We already know that Nintendo tells Sakurai who to include. While Sakurai can decide if they can make the character work, Nintendo can still insist upon certain characters like Steve so if Nintendo wants Sora along with Mickey, Donald and Goofy at Disney's request then he'd have to do it... I think...

Not exactly. Sakurai has the right to deny something as he wishes - with Steve it was probably a lot easier to get through to him since Steve is a video game character. I think people take Sakurai's little jabs more seriously than they ought to, since his concern seemed to be more along the lines of "can I even do that?"

The inclusion of Disney characters actively contradicts the core philosophy behind Sakurai's vision and the one rule that he has consistently refused to break. That's a whole other level of meddling that I think even Nintendo has a bit too much respect for Sakurai's ideology to force upon him. He's still the game's director at the end of the day.

 

[SharkLord]

I'm kinda tempted to go back and review all the statements Sakurai's made on fourth-parties. Does he want to keep it limited to video games, or is it just that he doesn't think he can access fourth-parties? From what I can gather, he'd have to deal with multiple different sources that he usually won't need to deal with for video games, like how Goku need Toriyama as the manga owner, Toei the animators, and Funimation for the dubs, and I dunno who own the music. There's also the rather famous James Bond example, where they'd need the rights to his actor's likeness. I'm wondering how much of Sakurai's stance is just personal preference and how much is necessity.

 

[N3ON]

Not exactly. Sakurai has the right to deny something as he wishes - with Steve it was probably a lot easier to get through to him since Steve is a video game character. I think people take Sakurai's little jabs more seriously than they ought to, since his concern seemed to be more along the lines of "can I even do that?"

The inclusion of Disney characters actively contradicts the core philosophy behind Sakurai's vision and the one rule that he has consistently refused to break. That's a whole other level of meddling that I think even Nintendo has a bit too much respect for Sakurai's ideology to force upon him. He's still the game's director at the end of the day.

Well, it sounds like Sakurai did initially deny Steve (no, not on the basis of "not liking him" you lunatics, not every decision is based on that) and then "Executive with Glasses" came back and impressed upon Sakurai that it would be "nice to have Steve" and Sakurai made it work.

Could be part of the reason why Steve's path was so long.

 

[Golden Icarus]

I do wanna say that I don’t entirely doubt Sora’s chances; quite the contrary in fact. His sheer popularity is enough to make him a possibility. I just feel that he has some very unique hurdles that might keep him out of Smash for a while. The lengths that Sakurai, Nintendo, and Disney would have to go to make Sora work would be completely different from any other character. I do feel he’ll happen eventually, I just don’t know if there is enough incentive yet.

 

[SharkLord]

Well, it sounds like Sakurai did initially deny Steve (no, not on the basis of "not liking him" you lunatics, not every decision is based on that) and then "Executive with Glasses" came back and impressed upon Sakurai that it would be "nice to have Steve" and Sakurai made it work.

Could be part of the reason why Steve's path was so long.

Yeah, that's what it seemed like to me. Nintendo wanted Steve, Sakurai didn't think he could pull him off properly, and they go back and forth until Sakurai finally caves in and says "Screw it, I'm making this happen."

 

[Hadokeyblade]

Probably worth mentioning that smash bros has: Referenced Pokemon anime only stuff on multiple occasions, has a Street fighter spirit based on a character who was made for the Street fighter manga and retroactively added to the games after the fact and references Advent children way too much.

So there is already content from outside of gaming in Smash, just in small areas.

I can kinda see them putting Mickey in as a legendary spirit or something under the pretense that "It's Square's version of Mickey who's an entirely different character than the regular Mickey we all know and tolerate."

 

[N3ON]

Yeah, that's what it seemed like to me. Nintendo wanted Steve, Sakurai didn't think he could pull him off properly, and they go back and forth until Sakurai finally caves in and says "Screw it, I'm making this happen."

That's what I'm getting too. And it has nothing to do with how Sakurai feels about Minecraft. I've seen people say "Sakurai loves Minecraft, obviously he wanted to add Steve!". But that's looking past the fact that Sakurai actually has to be the one getting these characters working, and he wants them to be faithful; he sees them as much more than just "do I like them or not?".

A long time ago he said he has to be able to "see the character dance" in his head, or something to that effect. Steve makes as much sense as anybody that that might be a hurdle for him. Sakurai denied Pac-Man as well the first time that idea was broached.

It's not all about feelings, sometimes it's just a question of practicality. We don't have to deal with that, he does.

 

[SKX31]

Well, it sounds like Sakurai did initially deny Steve (no, not on the basis of "not liking him" you lunatics, not every decision is based on that) and then "Executive with Glasses" came back and impressed upon Sakurai that it would be "nice to have Steve" and Sakurai made it work.

Could be part of the reason why Steve's path was so long.

Yeah, that's what it seemed like to me. Nintendo wanted Steve, Sakurai didn't think he could pull him off properly, and they go back and forth until Sakurai finally caves in and says "Screw it, I'm making this happen."

I'm pretty sure said executive is Shuntaro Furukawa. Not only since he's, y'know, Nintendo's President, but also Sakurai's boss by being Ultimate's Executive Producer and thus deeply involved in negotiations.

That and he's done the glass tilt in other context:

 

[Technomage]

So how many people would be okay with Sora and other KH content getting into the game without any Disney content at all? Would it feel neutered without the Disney stuff?

 

[Wigglerman]

I do wanna say that I don’t entirely doubt Sora’s chances; quite the contrary in fact. His sheer popularity is enough to make him a possibility. I just feel that he has some very unique hurdles that might keep him out of Smash for a while. The lengths that Sakurai, Nintendo, and Disney would have to go to make Sora work would be completely different from any other character. I do feel he’ll happen eventually, I just don’t know if there is enough incentive yet.

Would the hurdles to make Sora 'work' be any more extensive or crazy when Steve exists? Sora can work just fine. They have plenty of material to work with. I'd say the only 'hurdle' is if Disney content would show up at all and in what capacity.

In regards to his keychain: It'd be probably a tedious task but if they wanted to remove the Mickey Keychain all together a neat thing they could do would be during the character select his keychain is the Smash logo but whatever stage he fights on the keychain becomes the Smash icon of that series (Mushroom in a Mario stage, Egg on Yoshi's, DK on DK stage, Arwing on Starfox stage, Triforce on a Zelda stage, etc) as a little nod to the keyblade changes based on the world he's in or something.

 

[N3ON]

I'm pretty sure said executive is Shuntaro Furukawa. Not only since he's, y'know, Nintendo's President, but also Sakurai's boss by being Ultimate's Executive Producer and thus deeply involved in negotiations.

That and he's done the glass tilt in other context:

Could be, though "executive with glasses" describes not only every president Nintendo has had for the past seventy years, but probably three quarters of their higher management.

I do wonder how much the president of Nintendo was actually involved in Smash's negotiations, and not just a high authority proxy team.

So how many people would be okay with Sora and other KH content getting into the game without any Disney content at all? Would it feel neutered without the Disney stuff?

Would still come with more content than Ryu and Cloud got last time, and FF had up until a few months ago. And I still embraced those additions. So I'd be fine.

 

[Idon]

So how many people would be okay with Sora and other KH content getting into the game without any Disney content at all? Would it feel neutered without the Disney stuff?

As many people as there are KH fans.

If you're a KH fan in the modern era, you're generally more interested in the 50 OCs and 60 hour JRPG plotline than the Disney characters that appear for about like 10 minutes and are never mentioned again. The core of KH isn't Disney movies, it's KH. There's a reason none of us bought like, Disney Infinity.

 

[Golden Icarus]

Would the hurdles to make Sora 'work' be any more extensive or crazy when Steve exists? Sora can work just fine. They have plenty of material to work with. I'd say the only 'hurdle' is if Disney content would show up at all and in what capacity.

That’s what I’m referring to, yes. It has nothing to do with Sora’s playstyle or anything. It’s just how exactly they want to handle the Disney content. Whether Sakurai would be willing to break his non-video game rule, or if he’d want to include Kingdom Hearts without much of what makes it special. It’s a very unique issue that no other character has to deal with.

 

[CapitaineCrash]

I'm kinda tempted to go back and review all the statements Sakurai's made on fourth-parties. Does he want to keep it limited to video games, or is it just that he doesn't think he can access fourth-parties? From what I can gather, he'd have to deal with multiple different sources that he usually won't need to deal with for video games, like how Goku need Toriyama as the manga owner, Toei the animators, and Funimation for the dubs, and I dunno who own the music. There's also the rather famous James Bond example, where they'd need the rights to his actor's likeness. I'm wondering how much of Sakurai's stance is just personal preference and how much is necessity.

I found 2 sources on that (there might be more). The first is when talking about James Bond (you can find it here.). He said: “Showing realistic guns = no good! Character uses an actor’s likeness = no good! Since the original game is based on a movie, getting those rights = no good! He’s Rare’s property = no good! Blocked on all fronts.” So James Bond had many problems (realistic guns, Microsoft just bought Rare), but it seems that getting the movie rights might be very hard for him too.

The second is more recently here. This time he didn't say the specific reason. If I had to guess, I think it's just that his vision of Smash is "video game crossover" and he don't want to go further than this. I do wonder if he would be open to add characters that are breaking the limits a bit (like Sora with Disney content, Geralt from the Witcher or Hatsune Miku).