While deciding what character to feature in my next “Case For” article, I took it upon myself to do a bit of research. I knew I wanted to create a case for another Square-Enix character, but I had several options on my mind. It turns out that the top 5 best selling titles from the company are as follows: Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tomb Raider, Kingdom Hearts, and Gex. This made things a bit easier, as I had already created cases for Lara Croft and Gex, and Final Fantasy already has a representative in the game. This left me with two options: Dragon’s Quest and Kingdom Hearts. Fan demand over twitter and in our comment sections made it clear which of those franchises I should tackle. Without further adieu, here is The Case for Sora.
Sora looks kind of tough, but the guy on the right just looks Goofy
Character Background:
Originally hailing from the Destiny Islands, Sora is an adventurous and cheerful youth with a strong sense of loyalty to those he cares about. The chosen wielder of the powerful keyblade, it is Sora’s duty to traverse a multitude of worlds to to end the threat of the heartless. The fact that those worlds happen to be representations of classic and beloved Disney films just makes his journey that much more memorable.
Sora is the protagonist of the majority of the games in Square-Enix’s Kingdom Hearts series. He has played a central role in the franchise since its inception with 2002’s Kingdom Hearts on the Playstation 2. The Kingdom Hearts series is interesting as it is a collaboration between both Disney and Square-Enix, and as a result, the game features various Disney and Final Fantasy character. This can also be seen in the design of Sora himself, as he amalgamates aspects of both companies in his general appearance.
Kingdom Hearts, as a series, has been quite prolific. The franchise consists of 11 games over a variety of platforms, with a title currently being developed for the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Its reach extends beyond just video games as well, with supplemental media including 6 novels, 11 books, 5 manga series.
Reasons for inclusion: Sora has quite a few things going his way. As mentioned previously, the series has been a financial success with over 22 million units sold. Kingdom Hearts has also managed to stay relevant with fairly regular releases since 2002. In this way, Sora has two very important point in his favor: a proven track record and current relevance.
Guy has MULTIPLE Plush Dolls
Sora has also proven to be a very popular character, with various plushes, toys, and other collectibles made of his likeness over the years. His popularity is not limited to the West either, as the Kingdom Hearts games have also proven to be quite popular in Japan. To prove this point, a poll in the January issue of Famitsu magazine features Sora as the fifth most popular character of all time.
While Kingdom Heart was initially a Sony exclusive, the series has had several titles on Nintendo platforms. All of these feature Sora, and some of them are exclusive to Nintendo. This puts him in a better life then fellow Square-Enix creation Cloud, who is already part of the Smash roster. Although not a make or break point for any character, it should be noted that Sora’s cartoony, colorful anime design, would fit very well into the world of Smash Bros.
Reasons for exclusion:
Sora might seem extraneous to many people, as he does suffer a bit from “generic anime protagonist” syndrome. This is an even more prevalent issue since some would argue that many such characters already exist within Smash. Still, Sora has unique moveset potential and is a beloved and recognizable character, two attributes that would likely supersede any such complaints. Sora is also seen more as a Sony character then a Nintendo one, although the inclusion of characters like Snake and Cloud make this a moot point.
A more serious issue it the question of Sora’s ownership. Kingdom Hearts was a joint effort between Square-Enix and Disney. That means that a request for Sora for Smash would likely have to be approved by both Disney and Square-Enix. This might be a bit of an issue seeing as how Disney can be a bit protective over their intellectual properties.
One day we might just see the real thing.
Music
What is Smash Bros. without music? Here are a few tracks you can look forward to if Sora makes it in.
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Bringing Sora to Smash may be an interesting thing, as he represents a secondary face of Square side games alongside with Final Fantasy, while Dragon Quest series represents the face of the Enix side. His moveset can be unique as well too; while Cloud didn’t use any Materia Magic in Smash, Sora can be another fighter who won’t use magic in Smash, while physical moves like Sonic Blade, Ragnarok, Vortex, etc.
But I do agree on his reasons of exclusions. Sora is also owned by Disney, and when it comes with Disney, we already know how strict they are regarding to copyrights. Sure, we don’t even know if Sora is also being owned by Disney, but as long there’s Disney characters fully involved in the game (aside Final Fantasy and The World Ends with You are simply special guests), then it’s really REALLY difficult to make a contract with them to borrow their properties. But this really depends actually. Not to mention Wreck-It Ralph didn’t bring up any Nintendo characters in the movie for some reasons, except for Bowser to be the only Nintendo representative villain to be in the movie without a voice, and Mario only being mentioned just once but never appeared.
By the way, sorry for bringing up something unrelated, but I’ve sent a guest article to this site as a challenge. Did it reach or did I do it wrong?
Yeah Disney would be the biggest obstacle with getting Sora in.
For example I heard that the Final Fantasy Dissidia series was originally going to be a Kingdom Hearts game,
but Disney didn’t want their characters in a fighting game, so Squire went with Final Fantasy.
Speaking of Wreck-It Ralph, I heard the main reason that Mario didn’t make an appearance is because the writers couldn’t find suitable way to incorporate them in the movie. Interestingly enough, the director had plans for a sequel and wanted involve Mario to a degree, but that’s only if the proposal of the sequel gets approved. (Which I am not counting on, but would like.)
I’ve seen many people say this. They were really going to make that game off of Kingdom Hearts but there’s actually no real proof of that go ahead and search the rounds of the internet because I sure as hell can’t find nothing.
Some nice music picks, I love the violin that kicks in at 00:32 in Spinning Wheel battle.
Kingdom Hearts has so many good tracks, alas a lot of my favorites aren’t fitting for battle music.
Though there are certainly a lot of great battle tracks like L’Impeto Oscuro, and L’Oscurita dell’Ignoto. Then there is Vector to the Heavens, Scherzo di Notte, Sinister Sundown, and so on. Who knows what Kingdom Heart 3 will bring!
Ah, I knew I was forgetting something. L’Eminenza Oscura II is another great track.
I think that the possibility of Sora getting in is the equivalent of getting Goku in: impossible without alot of influence. There’s also the fact that the majority of the cast is either Disney characters, the majority being non-video game characters, and Square Enix characters, mostly FF. Then there’s the fact that Disney is willing to freeze the public domain in the United States to keep their characters out of it (1998 Copyright Term Extension Act). If you want Sora in the game, then you’re going to have to wait until 2098 for him to enter the public domain (Fun Fact: This method will give Goku an earlier start than Sora since his entrance to the public domain is 2080. But this is in the U.S.).
Long story short: Nintendo would have to bow before Disney if they want Sora in Smash.
But Sora originated in a video game unlike Goku- a very successful new Video Game IP as well.
I don’t think Nintendo would have to bow to get sora. Sega got Wreck-It Ralph in a freaking Sonic racing game (again Sega lmaooo) you have to remember Sora is not as big as Mickey Mouse Disney probably doesn’t even care that much about Sora so they probably won’t even have to go through too much trouble.
I would agree with you that it’s impossible but now that cloud is in the Smash Brothers I just can’t go on any person’s word on the internet anymore .
The Creator can do pretty much whatever the heck he wants as long as the character’s iconic enough and there’s a demand and popularity for that character (and as long as the characters born from a video game which Sora is) sora definitely has a chance in the future no doubt about it.
He was a very popular contestant for the voting for Smash 4 HMK The Gamers joint and other YouTubers made big pushes #SORA4SMASH I’m going to bet sora was in the top five most voters care characters hands down. He had to be Kingdom Hearts fans pushed hard with that voting.
Hopefully the Super Smash Bros 4 NX is true and it’s powerful enough to fit a few more characters on if not I guess we’ll have to wait till smash 5 who knows.
There is another Square-Enix franchise I could think of which may make sense…Secret of Mana. Secret of Mana was another face of Square before Kingdom Hearts, and although most were Japan exclusives like Seiken Densetsu 3 (or Secret of Mana 2), it was really popular back then. Randii, the main protagonist from the first Secret of Mana (but Seiken Densetsu 2 in Japan), can be the better choice for this case, but really depends according to his reasons of inclusion and exclusion…
Sora could have a Final Smash utilizing his Master Form, and he could have companions, the obvious choices being Riku and Kairi, whereas Roxas, his nobody, could be more of a secondary KH Fighter.