Kingdom Hearts series director Tetsuya Nomura has spoken about Sora’s surprise inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, revealing that it was he who had been picky about wanting the character to join the roster rather than Disney.
The final character to have been added as paid downloadable content through the Fighters Pass Vol. 2, the game’s community was overjoyed when it was revealed that the Kingdom Hearts protagonist would soon battle it out in Nintendo’s mascot brawler.
Asked as part of an interview with Game Informer about how he felt about the character appearing in the game, Nomura responded:
“Obviously, I was very happy that we were able to have Sora make an appearance in Smash Bros. Ultimate. Most of the feedback when Sora was [announced] for Smash Bros. Ultimate was, ‘I can’t believe Disney okayed for him to be in this game.’ Behind the scenes, I was actually the one being very picky about his appearance in Smash Bros. Disney was the one that was like, ‘Go ahead! This is a great opportunity.’ I thought it would be tough to pull off because it might clash with the established lore in Kingdom Hearts and the Disney worlds, so it was an opportunity I had to consider very carefully. After seeing how happy everybody was in welcoming Sora to Smash Bros., I feel like the end result was really great.”
Fighters Pass Vol. 2 had also introduced Min Min from ARMS, Minecraft‘s Steve and Alex, Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Kazuya Mishima from the Tekken series.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is now available at retail and digitally on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch worldwide.
