Sora

[Terry Bogard]

Wow. What a reveal. What a way to end it all. I'm still shaking, knowing that SSBU got a perfect ending. From what I heard in the direct, Sora was the real winner of the Smash Ballot. I guess he didn't get in sooner because of Disney Still, we should be happy that he's in now. It's also a bit sad that there's not gonna be much else in the future. Yeah, there will still be tournaments, but nothing new from Nintendo. I'm still gonna play the game of course, and I'm sure most people will for a long time. I'm also not leaving Smashboards. I love this series too much to do that.

Thank you Sakurai. Thank you for everything.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

So weird we've got Disney in Smash. Well, Sakurai sure likes to subvert expectations. But why does it have to be MY expectations and not all those people who wanted Sora? Am I cursed or something?

 

[Bowser D.X]

I don't know much about Kingdom Hearts, but I'm really digging him. Will definitely try him out once he's released.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

Well, at least he still has his Kingdom Key with the Mickey Mouse keychain. People thought he was going to get a new Keyblade with a Smash symbol. No Donald and Goofy though because Smash would have to categorize them as Mickey Mouse universe instead of Kingdom Hearts, but we did see plenty of Disney characters in those clips in the Sakurai Presents. However, what could this mean if each series get expanded upon in the next Smash game?

 

[Anomilus]

I had the shakes typing my initial reaction. I've hadn't had those shakes in YEARS! What a day!

I've wanted Sora because... well, he's the protagonist and no other KH character would have gotten in first. What I mean is I wanted Kingdom Hearts in Smash, moreso than its main character.

I have to say I'm pleased, but not exactly blown away by the overall content. Hollow Bastion was absolutely the right stage to go with, so great! But it's basically a simple stage that just shows it off. But the "Dive into the Heart" thing is awesome. But only getting pictures of other KH characters and no actual cameos is unfortunate. As is only getting 9 songs and one off-stage arrangement. But it IS KH music, and it includes some of my favorites, so yay!

And Sora himself looks amazing, and I can't wait to dive into his potential. At the same time I know I was hoping for something deeper and more complex, like having his Flowmotion skills translated into Smash. But in retrospect I think Sakurai made the right decision to make Sora's moveset easy to get into. And the Sonic Blade shenanigans definitely gives Sora a lot of potential depth! Looking forward to seeing just how far we dive into that hole!

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Sora had to be one heck of a copyright nightmare to work around. I guess the only way to get him into Ultimate was to remove all major Disney universe references; the Mickey Mouse keychain is all that we're getting.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

Imagine the next Smash game being another Ultimate and everyone is back in and every series is expanded upon with more Fighters, Stages, Assist Trophies, and Trophies. Would we get any Disney cameos from the expanded Kingdom Hearts representation in the next game?

 

[Dreamking]

I have a question about the bonus song from having Melody of Memory.l save data. Will demo save data work or do I need the full version? Is it too soon to tell? I remember downloading the Dragon Quest 11 demo to get the Tockles spirit.

Out of all Sora's outfits, I plan on using Timeless River Sora most of all.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Imagine the next Smash game being another Ultimate and everyone is back in and every series is expanded upon with more Fighters, Stages, Assist Trophies, and Trophies. Would we get any Disney cameos from the expanded Kingdom Hearts representation in the next game?

Probably not, since almost every single character from the Disney universe did not originate from a video game. And the price for using such characters would've been very costly.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

Probably not, since almost every single character from the Disney universe did not originate from a video game. And the price for using such characters would've been very costly.

Well, I've bet against Sora for being a Disney character and look what happened. In fact, almost every character in Smash had people say they are not going into Smash for some reason before they made it or just couldn't believe they're in. At this point, I don't believe in the video game rule anymore.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Well, I've bet against Sora for being a Disney character and look what happened. In fact, almost every character in Smash had people say they are not going into Smash for some reason before they made it or just couldn't believe they're in. At this point, I don't believe in the video game rule anymore.

Kingdom Hearts is kind of a story of two halves. The characters whom Square Enix owns are fair game, but for the Disney universe half, not so much.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

Kingdom Hearts is kind of a story of two halves. The characters whom Square Enix owns are fair game, but for the Disney universe half, not so much.

Haven't you noticed the Disney credit in Sora's trailer? Disney owns Sora. Not Square Enix. They just own Final Fantasy. Sakurai had to go to Disney to acquire the rights to Sora, which I thought would never happen because of that one rule. Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Maleficent and the movie characters may not be in Smash, but Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Axel, Xion, Aqua, Terra, Ventus, the Keyblade, Hollow Bastian and Dive to the Heart are all copyrighted by Disney, and so are the music tracks. Hand in Hand is a Disneyland song remixed into a video game battle theme.

We Celebrate the future Hand in Hand!

That song may not sound like the Traverse Town battle theme but I recognize the title referencing the ending theme to a Walt Disney World 2000 video I watched as a kid.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Haven't you noticed the Disney credit in Sora's trailer? Disney owns Sora. Not Square Enix. They just own Final Fantasy. Sakurai had to go to Disney to acquire the rights to Sora, which I thought would never happen because of that one rule. Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Maleficent and the movie characters may not be in Smash, but Sora, Riku, Kairi, Roxas, Axel, Xion, Aqua, Terra, Ventus, the Keyblade, Hollow Bastian and Dive to the Heart are all copyrighted by Disney, and so are the music tracks. Hand in Hand is a Disneyland song remixed into a video game battle theme.

We Celebrate the future Hand in Hand!

That song may not sound like the Traverse Town battle theme but I recognize the title referencing the ending theme to a Walt Disney World 2000 video I watched as a kid.

Strange, because when I recently checked an article on an upcoming Spirit Board Event (it's for Metroid Dread), the credits do not mention Disney in any form or way. But that could be more because the game is still on version 12.0.0.

 

[Terry Bogard]

To everyone talking about Square Enix and Disney, here's how I (the OP) see it:
Sora and Kingdom Hearts are legally owned by Disney but were created by Square Enix. That's why I think of Sora as the fourth Square rep. The only reason Disney is credited is because of copyright law. This doesn't mean we're getting anything Disney now or in future Smash games. They are not a game company.

 

[fogbadge]

To everyone talking about Square Enix and Disney, here's how I (the OP) see it:
Sora and Kingdom Hearts are legally owned by Disney but were created by Square Enix. That's why I think of Sora as the fourth Square rep. The only reason Disney is credited is because of copyright law. This doesn't mean we're getting anything Disney now or in future Smash games. They are not a game company.

the fact that disney interactive used to exist would beg to differ

 

[Terry Bogard]

the fact that disney interactive used to exist would beg to differ

Are we really gonna count licensed games?

 

[fogbadge]

Are we really gonna count licensed games?

No we’re counting games made and developed by Disney

 

[1FC0]

I guess he didn't get in sooner because of Disney

I think that many characters beat Beyonetta. Sora probably did not get in because the Smash dev team had already decided on Bayonatte as a marketing pick before the Smash Ballot's results were in.

No Donald and Goofy though because Smash would have to categorize them as Mickey Mouse universe instead of Kingdom Hearts

Donkey Kong and Mario debuted in the same franchise yet they have a different symbol. And the Miis use the Smash symbol despite being Miis. Franchises are not that strict.

Well, I've bet against Sora for being a Disney character and look what happened. In fact, almost every character in Smash had people say they are not going into Smash for some reason before they made it or just couldn't believe they're in. At this point, I don't believe in the video game rule anymore.

Yeah, I am with you on this one. The roster has broken many old rules already. It seems like the Smash dev team does not care about rules.

And neither do I. The "video game franchise only" rule to "celebrate video games" is the one of the silliest rules there is. Since when are celebrations about restricting yourself instead of being about having fun? Leaving fun characters out of the roster is no way to celebrate anything IMO.

Besides, Donald and Goofy really ought ot be referenced in Sora's character somewhere. They are very intimately linked to him, Sora is not complete without them.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

Donkey Kong and Mario debuted in the same franchise yet they have a different symbol. And the Miis use the Smash symbol despite being Miis. Franchises are not that strict.

Donkey Kong has his own games separate from Mario. Then again, I agree that Donkey Kong, Yoshi and Wario probably should have mushroom symbols as they are connected to Mario. Miis, I really don't get why they are treated as Smash originals. Maybe it's because there's never been Brawler, Swordfighter and Gunner Miis outside of Smash? Giga Bowser has this weird case of being a Smash original as a boss and a Mario property as a final Smash. Series symbols can be weird.

 

[1FC0]

Mario, Donkey Kong, the Hammer, 75M, and Pauline all originated in the same game, so they all must have the same origin franchise. This shows that the franchise classification does not have to be based on origin. Wario and Yoshi also shows this, because they both originate from the Mario franchise. At this point they might as well classify Luigi in his own franchise because of Luigi's Mansion. Maybe they just did not want half the roster to be from Mario's franchise and therefore split it up to hide the fact that the roster is flooded with Mario characters.

 

[fogbadge]

Besides, Donald and Goofy really ought ot be referenced in Sora's character somewhere. They are very intimately linked to him, Sora is not complete without them.

well it wont happen cause including them would probably cost far more

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Donkey Kong has his own games separate from Mario. Then again, I agree that Donkey Kong, Yoshi and Wario probably should have mushroom symbols as they are connected to Mario.

The only problem with that notion is when you bring Diddy and K. Rool to the mix; they did not debut in a Mario series title.

well it wont happen cause including them would probably cost far more

Another thing to probably keep in mind is that the majority of the characters from the Disney universe did not originate from video games. Sora is one of the very few exceptions out there.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

The only problem with that notion is when you bring Diddy and K. Rool to the mix; they did not debut in a Mario series title.

But they are still part of the same universe as Mario. Diddy Kong regularly appears in Mario Sports games.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

But they are still part of the same universe as Mario. Diddy Kong regularly appears in Mario Sports games.

Ironically, King K. Rool only appeared in one Mario spin-off title, and it was one that was never released in Europe.

 

[Sean Wheeler]

So, with Sakurai confirming Sora as the true winner of the Smash Ballot, I wonder what would have happened if Goku won instead? Would Sakurai have tried this hard to get the rights to the true winner in? Was Sora the real reason Sakurai made Smash Ultimate? Was Sora planned to be the fifth fighter but Sakurai couldn't acquire the rights from Disney in time so he shoed in Byleth and made a whole second pass to delay Sora? The 2019 release year of Three Houses will always make Byleth's placement on that first pass suspicious because Sakurai previously stated 2017 was too late.

 

[1FC0]

well it wont happen cause including them would probably cost far more

IIt not happening is to a large extend confirmed by them not being in the presentation or trailer. If Donald and Goofy were with Sora then the trailer or presentation would probably have mentioned it as that would have been pretty major.

 

[fogbadge]

So, with Sakurai confirming Sora as the true winner of the Smash Ballot, I wonder what would have happened if Goku won instead? Would Sakurai have tried this hard to get the rights to the true winner in?

no

IIt not happening is to a large extend confirmed by them not being in the presentation or trailer. If Donald and Goofy were with Sora then the trailer or presentation would probably have mentioned it as that would have been pretty major.

i was talking about in general not just for this game

 

[Capybara Gaming]

So, with Sakurai confirming Sora as the true winner of the Smash Ballot, I wonder what would have happened if Goku won instead? Would Sakurai have tried this hard to get the rights to the true winner in? Was Sora the real reason Sakurai made Smash Ultimate? Was Sora planned to be the fifth fighter but Sakurai couldn't acquire the rights from Disney in time so he shoed in Byleth and made a whole second pass to delay Sora? The 2019 release year of Three Houses will always make Byleth's placement on that first pass suspicious because Sakurai previously stated 2017 was too late.

Will you ever stop trying to justify your belief that "fourth parties" are a thing and that Sora is one?

Firstly, "fourth party" means nothing, because you can only be a first party (owned by the company producing), a second party (owned by an affiliate/subsidiary of the producing company) or third party (not owned by the producing company or any of it's affiliates and subsidiaries). If we ever were to get a non gaming character, they would still only be "third party."

Second, and I can't believe I still have to say this to you because you still haven't wrapped your head around it, but just because it's owned by a non-gaming company doesn't make it ineligible. If Dragon Ball was a video game franchise first, he would be just as eligible as Sora, if not already in.

And don't even try the "Mickey emblem" argument, because it's literally three circles on the end of a chain. It's a nod to the character, yes, but it is completely different from the mouse himself actually showing up. Hell, outside of Sora himself, whose weapon canonically has the emblem on it, even it's scrubbed from the rest of the KH content, as Aqua's Dive to the Heart normally has Mickey emblems on it.

Sakurai has not and will not ever break his rule on non-gaming characters or characters who may be OCs in a game from an established franchise. End of story. Smash is a celebration of games, not media as a whole.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

It should be worth noting that Nintendo only had permission to use the characters and BGM tracks that are original to the Kingdom Hearts series. All the other Disney universe characters and media had to be removed to avoid copyright infringement.

 

[1FC0]

Then Nintendo needs to get buying!

 

[Oracle Link]

Well, I've bet against Sora for being a Disney character and look what happened. In fact, almost every character in Smash had people say they are not going into Smash for some reason before they made it or just couldn't believe they're in. At this point, I don't believe in the video game rule anymore.

Including actual disney chars seems wrong! i mean even anime is not that well liked for smash think if elsa or the minions make it in Smash would be hated!
The only problem everyone had was the keychain and i still think they shouldve gone with The kairis Pendant wepon!

 

[Artic223]

hope the sora fans are happy