Part of what makes fighting games special is that they allow gamers to explore matchups not normally conceivable. Some absurd matchups over the years with unlikely guest characters include Link vs. Nightmare in Soulcalibur II, Negan vs. Heihachi in Tekken 7, and Cyclops vs. Ryu in X-Men vs. Street Fighter. When talking about fighting game guest characters, however, no other game comes close to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. And while fighting games like Mortal Kombat, Soulcalibur, and Tekken will continue to add guest characters, none of them will likely ever be able to top Sora's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Prior to Sora being added to the roster, Super Smash Bros. as a series already had a reputation for crazy and outlandish guest characters. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launched with a high number of guest characters, many of which fans weren't expecting to come back. This included Snake from Metal Gear Solid, Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, and Sonic from his titular franchise. But after its launch, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would continue to add highly unlikely and unique characters through DLC, like Joker from Persona 5 and Steve from Minecraft. However, as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was nearing the end of its support, there was one final guest character that many had been wanting for a long time: Sora from Kingdom Hearts.
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The Challenge of Including Sora in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
On October 5, 2021, game director Masahiro Sakurai revealed that Sora from Kingdom Hearts would be the final DLC character added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. While Sakurai and his team at Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. had become known for including guest characters difficult to attain, Sora would be the biggest challenge yet. Even Sakurai is quoted as saying he thought adding Sora to the roster would be impossible.
When securing a guest character for any game, the biggest challenge is licensing. The game developers must show the copyright owners every part of the character's looks, movements, and design in order to get their approval. If the copyright owners don't sign off on the character's depiction, the developers have to go back and rework the character to the owner's desire.
Sora in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was thought of as impossible because Sakurai and his team had to work with two companies to secure the license: Disney and Square Enix. Getting the copyrights of a character can be difficult even when there's just one company to deal with, let alone two. But this meant that the developers for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate had to show both Disney and Square Enix what they were working on every step of the way.
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How Masahiro Sakurai and His Team Pulled It Off
Sakurai stated that the inclusion of Sora in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was due to a lucky encounter with a Disney executive at a "certain game awards venue." After this coincidental meeting where both mentioned the idea of including Sora in Super Smash Bros., Sakurai was able to enter into long discussions with both Square Enix and Disney about getting Sora into the game. Ironically, this is also similar to how Kingdom Hearts came about in the first place, as Shinji Hashimoto, a former producer at Square, met with a top executive at Disney by happenstance on an elevator.
Disney has a reputation for being protective of their characters and how they are portrayed. Considering the global reputation that Disney has established and likely wants to uphold, it would make sense that Disney wants to control their characters' image as well. This is also part of the reason why many fans, and Sakurai himself, thought Sora's inclusion was unlikely.
This is also likely why Super Smash Bros. Ultimate includes Sora and some original Kingdom Hearts characters, but not any mainline Disney characters like Donald or Goofy, however, that hasn't been confirmed. Sakurai elaborated on some of the details regarding working with Disney and Square Enix on the project and stated that there were various stipulations if development was to go forward. However, Sakurai did also mention that development for Sora went smoother than he was expecting and that there was much cooperation.
Why Future Fighting Games Will Likely Never Be Able to Top Sora as a Guest Character
Fighting game guest characters will likely never be able to top Sora because of the combination of high demand and high difficulty that came with Sora's inclusion. In 2015, there was a global ballot released by Super Smash Bros. asking fans who they'd most like to see in the game; Sakurai would later reveal that Sora was the most requested character. Sakurai also mentioned that Sora was more requested than even Banjo & Kazooie and Bayonetta.
As far as the legal challenges, most fighting game guest characters only have to pass through one company to make an appearance. For example, a character like The Predator from the Predator franchise likely only had to go through 20th Century Fox for approval in Mortal Kombat X. It's hard to think of any other possible guest character that will require going through two bigger companies than Disney and Square Enix to get them in a game.
Beyond that, Sora's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is also a testament to the work that Sakurai and his team have put into the game, as well as the game's legacy. Sora's inclusion shows that Sakurai, Bandai Namco Studios, and Sora Ltd. were so reliable that even a mega-corporation like Disney could trust them with their character. For the Super Smash Bros. series as a whole, Sora is a fitting capstone on the game, helping to cement Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a celebration of video games, bringing characters from all different franchises together to celebrate the medium as a whole.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is available on Nintendo Switch.