By: Elliott Garske
After years of requests, by not just fans, but even Nintendo themselves, Sora, the protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, has finally been introduced to Super Smash Bros., and as the final character nonetheless.
To say that Sora was a heavily requested character is an understatement. Between Nintendo announcing the final “Mr Sakurai Presents” stream back in September, and the stream happening on October 5th, Sora was so speculated as the final character by fans of Kingdom Hearts that he was trending on Twitter for over 3 days straight. In fact, it was revealed during the aforementioned “Mr Sakurai Presents” stream that all the way back in 2015 when Nintendo held the Smash Ballot to determine who fans wanted most to be in Smash Sora was the highest requested character by a long shot.
Sora’s moveset is heavily inspired by that of the first Kingdom Hearts game. A lot of his moveset is actually just building upon other sword fighters from the game’s past but changing them up just enough to where he is his own thing. For example, he has a counter like other sword fighters, but his counter only works when the attack hits him from the front, and if he counters a projectile it will shoot out back from him instead of being reflected back at the original person who shot it. He is also able to cycle between three types of magic featured throughout the Kingdom Hearts games, which includes Firaga, Thundaga, and Blizzaga.
Sora serves a special niche where he can completely control all interactions off stage and in the air. Most of his moves excel in either going through the air or taking care of people already in the air. Not only does he have an extremely high double jump, but he also has two different recovery moves in the form of his side-special and up-special moves.
The stage that will be added alongside Sora is the Hollow Bastion, which was a world that was included in multiple Kingdom Hearts games, but was most prominently featured as the final gauntlet at the end of the first Kingdom Hearts. Hollow Bastion was notorious for being extremely hard to get through and involved defeating multiple bosses and hard enemies one after another. In Smash though, when the match time gets low or if players are low on stocks, the stage changes into Dive to the Heart, which is a place that you visit during multiple points of each Kingdom Hearts game, most notably at the beginning of each game. Dive to the Heart is the inner realm of one’s heart in the series, and shows a stained glass painting looking mural depicting what a certain character cares or feels most about. When transitioning to Dive to the Heart a random mural will be picked from one of multiple characters from the series
Sora, along with Hollow Bastion and a multitude of spirits to challenge and unlock will finally arrive in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on October 18th.
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