The word is officially out: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has its final DLC fighter. The final fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is none other than Sora, the main character from the Kingdom Hearts series, complete with Keyblade, combos, magic, and various costumes from all across the series.
Sora has been a long time coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate by the estimation of players and the game's creator, Masahiro Sakurai, alike. In the same tradition as other DLC fighters, Sora's arrival also comes with a new stage from the world of Kingdom Hearts: a tour around the outside of Hollow Bastion plus a Dive to the Heart. But that second part of the stage has people noticing something odd.
With everything announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate including Sora, the stage details were relatively tame. The simple stage changes its look, but not its function, when the match moves towards its conclusion. It becomes a place called the Dive to the Heart, the inner landscape of a Kingdom Hearts character's heart. But one fan noticed a subtle change to Sora's heart: the picture showing the most important things in Sora's life is missing Donald and Goofy.
In the original art for Kingdom Hearts, the image shows Sora in repose before what looks like a stained glass window featuring four other characters. These are Kairi, Riku, Donald, and Goofy. However, in the Smash Bros stage, Donald and Goofy are conspicuously absent, replaced by a paopu fruit and a raft, two things important to Sora early in Kingdom Hearts 1. This will be even more noticable to Switch owners since the Kingdom Hearts series is coming to Switch, and the original art will be on display for everyone to see. The same is true for Riku's Dive, which no longer features Mickey Mouse.
Some players are baffled by this, but there are already explanations being offered. The most prominent one is that Disney did not allow its characters into Smash Bros. Considering the upcoming 20th anniversary Kindom Hearts celebration, this explanation has its subscribers annoyed.
However, one other explanation is offered: that Super Smash Bros Ultimate uses assets created after the original Kingdom Hearts Dives, assets that don't use the Disney characters. This might well be the case, as removing all of the Disney characters specifically doesn't seem to serve much purpose. Hopefully the change won't detract from people praising Masahiro Sakurai.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is out now for Nintendo Switch.