For many, Sora from Kingdom Hearts was a dream addition to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster and the perfect way to cap off the game. Sora was one of the most requested characters, but many thought it wouldn't be possible as Disney own the rights to the Kingdom Hearts series.
However, in an interview with Game Informer around the upcoming Kingdom Hearts IV, series creator Tetsuya Nomura, has revealed that it wasn't Disney that was particular about Sora's appearance in Nintendo's brawler, but rather himself!
When asked about how he felt having Sora involved in the hugely popular Smash Ultimate, Nomura revealed that he had concerns about adding this much-requested character to the game and that he was the one being "picky" about his appearance as he was concerned that it may "clash with the established lore in Kingdom Hearts":
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.
Kingdom Hearts itself crosses over with multiple Disney and Pixar films, but it's also featured many Final Fantasy and The World Ends With You characters. So given the nature of this — and, amusingly, many a fan joke about how every single game and crossover might matter — Smash disrupting Kingdom Hearts lore is a possibility. But given Kingdom Hearts IV's existence, we think Smash hasn't disrupted the balance of Kingdom Hearts' story.
And, after everything, the fan reaction is what made Nomura happy that he decided to let Sora join the fight. Many of us welcomed the Keyblade wielder with open arms, and we're glad Nomura was able to let him square off against others in the Smash arena.
What do you think of Nomura's comments? Let us know down below!
[source gameinformer.com]
Comments 47
Because Smash Bros is SO important to the lore of all the franchises pulled into it.
They sure did ruin my Wii Fit lore tho.
Smash Bros lore is simply that the characters featured are animated replicas, and not the true characters, be them dolls, trophies, etc.
It's a simple point that resolves any potential lore conflicts, like how big Kirby, Olimar, Bowser, or Ridley are, or any of the characters on any given stage.
And all we got in exchange was crappy cloud versions of KH games. Doesnt make much sense to have him in smash to be honest. He doesnt have any significance on the console hes on.
"...he was concerned that it may "clash with the established lore in Kingdom Hearts"
He must still be able to be added to Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2!!!
...nah, not a fan of either FF or KH, so can't really say anything. It's just strange that he is considering Smash canon.
The lore is so over the place it would be easy to make it fit, like that easy.
Oh wow, when he got announced I thought "I can't believe they actually got Disney to agree to add him"
The fact that it wasn't Disney but a stubborn guy makes it less special
@Justaguest we had a GBA game, 2 DS games, and a 3DS game, PLUS the rhythm game and the Cloud saga of all games. KH is a franchise that has belong on Nintendo consoles too since the beginning.
He totally deserved being in Smash.
I think it's embarrassing they made such a big deal out of this character in Smash and then all the games are in the cloud.
Not as embarrassing as some of the other comments Nomura made during this interview. Like where he says Kingdom Hearts was never meant to be a final fantasy crossover. That's a blatant lie.
I know the company has been morally bankrupt for a while but sometimes I wonder if he's the source of the cancer.
Doomguy would be still better or Leon Kennedy. Even RE series has been loyal to Nintendo unlike Kingdom Hearts series that released as a SHI&@y cloud game. RE4 was exclusive for a long time to Gamecube and it’s maybe the best game in the franchise and started on Nintendo! That would be an epic appearance! Or James Bond from Goldeneye- instead of a lame Minecraft Steve:/
Concerned about the lore? After all the side games and retcons. That's why it took so long.
Such a stupid reason. Come on now.
Isn't the lore in Kingdom Hearts already a confusing mess? I fail to see how a Smash feature would make it an issue.
Kingdom Hearts is the most overrated series in entire Video Game landscape and the storyline is the worst part. They made games ignoring everything that happened on previous iterations, than tried to fix after, throwing the same excuses for everything that has continuity problems (time travel, multiverse, dimensions and stuff). Somehow they made an RPG series with a story worst than King of Fighters.
@Justaguest Most of the third party characters are more heavily associated with other platforms. But given how Nintendo usually acts like they're off in their own little world, I actually like that Smash Bros. bucked that trend and has slowly become a celebration of gaming as a whole. The cloud games are absolutely a slap in the face, though.
@Znake Bad trolling attempt
Many people above already explained how the lore excuse doesn't hold water. Smash Bros exists in it's own isolated world. It never affected the Zelda franchise how each Smash game has a different Link, Zelda and Ganondorf duking it out with Kirby and Pikachu.
Maybe Nomura was constrained by his own idea of a crossover like Dissidia FF and World of FF where every minutiae MUST be explained
Ah, yes, we must be concerned about how Sora being in Smash reflects on Kingdom Hearts but why would we even lift an eyebrow at how releasing incredibly poor cloud versions of the KH games on Switch reflects on the series?
You can't blame him. Sakurai is practically a new developer and Smash Brothers is an unproven series with no third-party characters. It only makes sense he'd have doubts.
Terrible addition when he add nothing to the Switch lineup. Because those cloud garbage are there, it makes new Switch players think the Kingdom Hearts games had always been that terrible. Square Enix should be ashame for ruining young KH players the KH experience they want for their favorite hybrid console.
Lara Croft or Scorpion have more video game history relevance than Sora and should have been added instead.
I said it before, but I would've liked to see Mario fighting a Mii dressed like Cuphead in front of Mickey Mouse, or Banjo-Kazooie duking it out with Kazuya while the Beauty and the Beast dance in the background for no reason.
I understand that would've been almost impossible, but this makes it sound it was more a Nomura thing rather than Disney's.
Thank goodness they didn't add anything in Smash relevant to the already convoluted plot and lore of Kingdom Hearts, though. Or is he gonna do an @$$pull and say Mario can also wield the Kingdom Key within the boundaries of Kingdom Hearts?
Because of the lore, LOL yeah right...
@jedisquidward I feel the only negativism here is from you. Or I am not allowed to express my opinion? Am I not allowed to say my disappointment? I wasnt the only player who wished for Doomguy. And I do not see a single bad thing about enforcing Nintendo to focus on franchises that have been more loyal to N, over a company that doesnt treat players with respect- like not even porting ps2 games to Switch. So from where I stand, you are the one provoking with irrelevant comments and antagonizing the environment instead of listening to what people want to say. If you were happy for Sora- good for you, I love the original games, but I felt the character was bland without Donald and Goofy. I could picture more deep and creative character design like Duck Hunt.
@Kage_M I agree that I would of preferred doom guy, but I think the inclusion of Sora is one I can’t really argue with because he did win the smash ballot
@Justaguest Does that mean we should not have Banjoo and Kazooie as well?
Very glad Sora joined Smash!
@Yosher Just watch them, they might actually make Smash a important footnote somehow. KH is the type of game where even the spinoffs are important to the story
If Disney cared so much about the lore of Kingdom Hearts they would have fired Nomura long ago.
@Znake Just so you know, any character in Smash Bros. has to originate from a video game. James Bond did not originate from a video game.
Translation:
It is Nomura's fault that Kirby doesn't get an actual Keyblade during his copy ability, even though Kirby can manifest (and use, with no drawbacks) his own:
Falchion (three versions),
Binding Blade,
Ragnell,
Failnaught,
Galaxia,
Monado,
Palutena Bow,
a Splattershot,
Silver Bow,
various Star Fox Blasters,
a Peanut Popgun,
a Blunderbuss,
Tkachev (Joker's gun),
Samus's Paralyzer,
three different Link's bows,
the Buster Sword,
Aegis,
and 2/4 Love is Blue guns at a time.
He can also cast Gigaflare, Thoron, and Kafrizz, high-tier spells in their respective series.
But apparently a Keyblade (which it seems like every named character in KH gets nowadays) was a bridge too far.
I can't believe that he can give such a dumb reason when Smash is perfectly explained with "they are just dolls and not the real deal" while the KH games have a terrible, confusing story that for some reason some people still care about.
I'm sorry for the KH fans, I was one many years ago and I'm happy that you got Sora in the game but personally there's many characters that I would have preferred. On top of all, he was picky, so I think that they shouldn't have insisted on including his mediocre franchise on one of the most popular ever and just go with someone that would appreciate it.
If only he was as picky about how the games were ported to Switch we would’ve had natively running ports rather than cloud versions.
@BTB20 Please do not take everything so literally. I meant there is a plenty of great games that originated on N64- so it could be Joanna Dark then- the same thing- best N64 fps- she would be amazing addition with very iconic weapons like Laptop gun. Or look at Jet Force Gemini- the very origins of this sci fi cartoonish third person shooter on N64-a precursor to Ratchet and Clank- I would take these characters any day over some silly Steve. But thats just my opinion. I just believe that Nintendo has so many iconic characters, and it feels to me that their choices are sometime money driven, not creative driven. Dont you feel that Smash should better have characters that made past Nintendo concoles famous? thats why I mentioned Leon Kennedy. Plus smash has too big roster with characters with swords and brawlers, but not many characters that natively use guns, so my take on Smash to feel more balanced overall is to pick a more adult charater with a gun- that could also have original gameplay. imagine RE charater- like Whesker, that would summon Zoombies for example- that would be super fun and original.
@Tobiaku Lmao if it does I would love to see how they're gonna fit Smash into KH canon.
Hey, maybe this was the gateway we needed into getting Mushroom Kingdom Hearts all along...
I feel a lot of people seem to forget that the lore of kingdom hearts is also part disney whereas due to copyright issues each lore will have to find a perfect lore that mixes with the originality of the game rather than disney itself. for example, yen sid in the original disney is the master of mickey but in terms of magic. in kingdom hearts it is the same but he trains the keyblade wielders to pass a special exam for keyblade wielders. that kind of lore would conflict with the disney properties and the lore of kingdom hearts.
@OnlyItsMeReid I loved the first KH game so few years back I kind of wanted Sora too, but when they started bringing more 3rd party characters, I felt like there were better choices. Sora is epic in its own way since he travels through Worlds so thematically it fits the Smash formula perfectly, but I feel Sora didnt deserve the spot as much as other characters that actually made Nintendo famous. It was just unacceptable that they bring Sora over, and there is Zero effort to port the old games at least. What would be your top pick characters if you could choose 3?
@dood1 ? I don't see your point. There's nothing to fit in Smash because the real Sora wouldn't be there. No one has to break their heads thinking how does Sora, Samus and stuff from Disney fit together because it's as simple as the Smash characters being toys.
@Kage_M The idea that characters need to be chosen based off of how "faithful" they are to Nintendo hardware has always been a fan rule. Going on about how Square or Kingdom Hearts doesn't "deserve it" in some way is trying to moralize it in a way that doesn't really pertain to the mindset of the developers. I don't have any personal connection to Sora and of course I would have loved Doomslayer or someone like that as well, but to come to an article made 8 months later about this character that was a bonus and that extra time and effort and exceptional negotiation went into and the ONLY response is "who cares about this, it should have been MY favorite character" is just so immature.
@Justaguest neither did Cloud when he first appeared. Or Joker and Snake although those at least eventually got games on the platforms of their Smash debuts; FFVII never made it to Wii U. And heck, the only remotely Tekken-related game on Switch certainly doesn't have any Mishimon among its roster.😄 Something tells me Nintendo and Sakurai pick representatives by other criteria.
@RupeeClock Ok, but what about the stages?
...But smash isn't canon why do did he care about that so much?
say the man who made the franchise with the most convoluted story of the game industry , the Legend of Zelda timeline debacle is nothing compared to Kingdom Hearts complicated plot.
@jedisquidward it would be immature basing a choice on favoritism, and it’s not really wise to judge so fast, when maybe you didn’t get fully what I wanted to say. One of the main points is how awesome/badass the character is, then how creative can you be with the combat and when we take the battle options of for example Duck Hunt and compare it to Sora- you Can get a a better sense of what my point is.I actually agree with you, all you said is totally right, but I still felt that Sora just had strongest support in Japan, not the US or EU. And I don’t think it’s bad to talk about it since this won’t be the last Smash game so the future choices might be impacted too. You tell me, who would you chose as the last character of you could change it?
@nhSnork
Twin Snakes was a few years before Brawl. The Wii was completely skipped for any MGS game.
I really hate when game developers think we are morons that will believe any nonsense they spit.
First of all, how on earth will Smash bros. mess with KH's lore?...Seriously, HOW? It's absurd and doesn't make sense. It never happened with any game in any other series. Also, KH's "lore" is by all means a big, non-sensical mess already.
Second, WHAT DISNEY CONTENT?! There's ZERO Disney content in smash. ZERO. No Disney characters, no disney music, no disney NADA. Sora is more SE than Disney.
Why Nomura thinks that we Nintendo users are dumbheads that w'll buy everything he says or cheer for his insulting and degrading "cloud" versions? I don't know. But more absurd are Nintendo "fans" that support this man.
Get lost Nomura.
@geiseldiesel If we assume every game is the same as the opening of the first Smash Bros., the stages are dioramas and not the real locations within their original games.
That may be the inspiration or idea for the offical Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U Diorama for amiibo figures.
I think some characters have mentioned Smash Bros in their respective series, haven't they? Whether it's canon or not seems to depend on the series or game. But it doesn't really matter.
Kirby not getting his own Keyblade is what matters.
What do you think the conversations were like?
Sakurai: Alright, that's Sora's move set done! So about Kirby's Sora copy ability. Spiky brown hair and a Kirby Keyblade, right?
Nomura: Yeah.... about that. See, only the CHOSEN can wield a keyblade. So I think having a pink alien puffball be a chosen one would kinda, sorta ruin the lore entirely.
Sakurai: Nani?! My greatest creation, my own SON, is not worthy of holding an oversized key?!
Nomura: Oversized key?! How dare you!!
And it just escalated from there until Kirby got that weird NOT-keyblade.
@nukatha oops, guess I misremembered Snake's Smash debut, comparing Twin Snakes release against Melee instead of Brawl.
@Znake Minecraft Steve is way cooler than James Bond though 😎
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