The final DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has been announced to be Sora from the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Sora will be available to purchase and download on October 18th, 2021, along with three newly announced Mii character costumes, including the iconic Doom Slayer from Doom and two Splatoon costumes.
The announcement was revealed in this morning’s ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: The Final Battle‘ presentation, with Masahiro Sakurai, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s director, ecstatically announcing the iconic character and showcasing his moves against every character featured in the game. Sakurai also revealed Sora’s alternate costumes, which are directly taken from his appearances throughout the Kingdom Hearts series, including a unique appearance based on the ‘Timeless River’ world from Kingdom Hearts 2, which itself is based on the 1928 Disney short ‘Steamboat Willie’.
Sora has been a character long requested to be added to Super Smash Bros., with Sakurai revealing during the presentation that Sora was the most requested character in the ‘Super Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot’ in 2015. Since the character is co-owned by Square Enix and Disney, many fans believed that Nintendo would be unable to collaborate with both companies. It seems Nintendo/Sora Ltd. wasn’t without limitations, however, as no Disney characters appear in the DLC, including Donald Duck and Goofy, Sora’s partners throughout the series.
As is custom with every other DLC fighter, a brand-new stage is included with Sora: Rising Falls, based on the Kingdom Hearts location of the same name. The stage moves throughout Rising Falls and eventually transforms into a platform similar to the room players find themselves in at the beginning of the first Kindom Hearts game. Elegant mosaics of characters from the franchise appear in the background during this part of the stage, such as Riku and Roxas. A Spirit Board is also included in this upcoming DLC, featuring a plethora of human characters from the series.
The presentation ended on a completely unexpected note, with Sakurai announcing Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III for Nintendo Switch. This is the first time a mainline Kingdom Hearts game has appeared on a Nintendo console, with previous titles being spin-offs, such as Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance on Nintendo 3DS and Kindom Hearts: Chain of Memories on Gameboy Advance.
Interested in the Kingdom Hearts series? Check out our Kingdom Hearts 3 Review.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, along with its two Fighter Packs, are available for Nintendo Switch.
