Nomura says he was 'very picky' about Sora's appearance in Smash Bros. Ultimate, but Disney had no issues

Disney digs it, but Nomora nitpicks

14 June 2022
by rawmeatcowboy 3
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One of the greatest moments in Nintendo history has to be the reveal of Kingdom Hearts’ Sora for Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sora was a character many fans wanted for decades, but never thought it would happen. Then, to the shock of everyone, Sora was revealed as the final DLC character for Smash Bros. Ultimate.

In an interview with Game Informer, Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura sets the records straight on Sora making the leap to Smash Bros.. Many thought working with Disney on this must have been a nightmare, but it turns out Nomura was the troublemaker!

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.

[Tetsuya Nomura, director of Kingdom Hearts]
[Game Informer]

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Comments (3)

gybones

12M ago

Very interesting! Certainly seemed like Disney was being picky with the lack of Disney character inclusions (Donald/Goofy) but I guess I can see how Nomura was hesitant about everything being KH continuity and this conflicting with that. In any case, so glad that it was able to happen

Edited 1 time

noxide

12M ago

I'm very happy they didn't add any non gaming IPs to Sora's DLC. I like a lot of Disney content but I prefer Smash bros be about gaming icons.

hammergalladebro

12M ago

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, though.

Thank goodness they didn't add anything in Smash relevant to the already convoluted plot of Kingdom Hearts, though.