Tetsuya Nomura Says Lore Concerns Initially Made Him “Picky” About Sora’s Appearance In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The creator of Kingdom Hearts himself has shared an interesting behind-the-scenes story about Sora’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate!

In an interview with news outlet Game Informer, Tetsuya Nomura admitted that contrary to popular belief, it was himself rather than Disney (who owns the rights to Kingdom Hearts) that had reservations about adding the highly requested protagonist of Kingdom Hearts into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, mentioning how he initially thought that doing so might lead to conflicts with the series’ “established lore”.

Obviously, I was very happy that we were able to have Sora make an appearance in Smash Bros. Ultimate. Most of the feedback when Sora was [announced] for Smash Bros. Ultimate was, ‘I can’t believe Disney okayed for him to be in this game.’ Behind the scenes, I was actually the one being very picky about his appearance in Smash Bros. Disney was the one that was like, ‘Go ahead! This is a great opportunity.’ I thought it would be tough to pull off because it might clash with the established lore in Kingdom Hearts and the Disney worlds, so it was an opportunity I had to consider very carefully. After seeing how happy everybody was in welcoming Sora to Smash Bros., I feel like the end result was really great.

As Nomura himself mentioned in the above quote, the reception to Sora’s addition from fans was very positive, with many sharing online how they were amazed that it actually happened.

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