While Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has finally allowed for many much-requested fighters such as Banjo & Kazooie, Ridley, and King K. Rool to finally join the fray, there are still quite a few others that have still been left out in the cold. One such character is that of Sora from Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts series. Despite pleading from fans (like our own Cameron Hawkins) Smash still features no Square Enix representatives other than Cloud from the Final Fantasy series and Hero from Dragon Quest. Now, we might have a better idea of why this is the case.
On a recent episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast podcast, host Imran Khan shared what he has heard about Nintendo’s pursuit of trying to get Sora added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and stated that the fault seems to lie with Disney. Khan, a former Senior Editor at Game Informer, blatantly said that Nintendo has tried to add Sora to the roster of Smash in the past. “Yeah, no, [Nintendo] absolutely approached Disney about it once,” Khan said. When asked if it was Disney who was keeping Sora from coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Khan stated, “Yes, Disney Japan specifically.”
If you’re unaware of how Disney would play into all of this, Kingdom Hearts is a joint venture between both Square Enix and the House of the Mouse. In fact, Disney is technically the entity that outright owns the Kingdom Hearts IP. Even if Square Enix management was cool with having Sora join Smash, Disney would technically need to be the one to greenlight such a thing. Based on this rumor from Khan, they seemingly have no desire to play ball with Nintendo.
The only thing I’m somewhat confused about based on what Khan has stated here is that I don’t understand how the Japanese division of Disney would be the one to completely nix a decision like this. Even though Square Enix is headquartered in Japan, The Walt Disney Company is located and operated out of the United States. And despite being a worldwide company that has operations in Japan (there are no corporate offices in the region, however), one would think that the decisions needed to make something like Sora in Smash happen would come from Disney’s western front. Furthermore, Disney Interactive, the division of Disney that works with Square on the Kingdom Hearts series, is also headquartered in the States. Khan could clearly know something that we don’t, but the logistics of what he has said don’t make much sense to me.
It’s also worth noting that Khan doesn’t outright say that Sora could never come to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, either. He says that it could still transpire, he would just be surprised to see it occur.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is out now on the Nintendo Switch. Moving forward, the game is planned to get 6 additional fighters as DLC before the end of 2021. Hopefully, Sora ends up making the cut, even if at the end of the day, he would be another swordsman joining the roster.
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