Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Director Reveals How Nintendo Got Sora in the Game

By Marc Deschamps

Earlier this week, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate received its final DLC fighter in the form of Sora from Kingdom Hearts. While Sora was one of the fighters most frequently-requested by fans, many thought it would have been too difficult to achieve given the character's ownership by Disney. However, in his latest Famitsu column, director Masahiro Sakurai revealed that a chance meeting with a Disney executive at "an award venue," opened the door to negotiations between the companies. It still took several meetings between Nintendo, Square Enix, and Disney to make it happen, but eventually a deal was struck to get the character into the game!

The Famitsu column was translated by @PushDustin and @kodyNOKOLO on Twitter, and some of those Tweets can be found embedded below.

Interestingly enough, Sakurai reveals in the column that Fighters Pass Vol. 2 was originally intended to have just five DLC fighters, as the first pass had. However, the meeting between Sakurai and the Disney executive led to further discussions between the three companies. This prompted Nintendo to shift course and add another fighter. There were many discussions held between the companies, and strict guidelines for Nintendo to follow. That's likely the reason characters like Donald and Goofy were not included in Sora's stage or Final Smash, and why the character's song list is on the stricter side. However, most Kingdom Hearts fans will probably agree that Sora was worth the effort!

When Sora was first announced, Sakurai revealed that the character was the winner of Nintendo's 2015 fan poll. In the column, the director reveals that Banjo and Kazooie was another highly-requested fighter, which came as a surprise to Nintendo. While Nintendo couldn't make these fighters happen in the previous Smash Bros. game, the company was clearly able to make them work in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Now that Sora is available, hopefully fans can appreciate all the hard work put into the game by Sakurai and his team.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.

Are you happy Sora made it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Were you surprised the character made it into the Switch game? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

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