Discussion How Sakurai Met Sora - The Story of Sora in Smash

[Waluijob]

Crazy how the world works, right? If you're familiar with the backstory of how Kingdom Hearts came to be, you may know that fate finds a way for things to work out. It's a tale as old as time - Square Enix developer runs into Disney representative, they get to talking, and next thing you know a multi-decade generations-spanning megafranchise comes to be.

Well, history may not repeat, but it sure does rhyme. In Sakurai Column 639 - The Final One - Sakurai talked about how Sora came to be the final character in Smash Bros and the story sounds eerily familiar. You can read a translation on Twitter:



What a time to be alive - we have all the marvels of technology at our fingertips and decisive moments are still based on chance encounters.

 

[Kano]

The details given there are crazy. Sora basically only happened by sheer luck, the kicker being the fortuous meeting of Sakurai and a Disney rep at (probably) The Game Awards. FP2 was only planned to have five fighters, and they were all decided from the start. Talk about a miracle.

 

[Brewster123]

I swear between this and the elevator meeting anything related to Kingdom Hearts can only seem to happen via coincidence. Nothing ever gets started deliberately.

 

[Golden Darkness]

The details given there are crazy. Sora basically only happened by sheer luck, the kicker being the fortuous meeting of Sakurai and a Disney rep at (probably) The Game Awards. FP2 was only planned to have five fighters, and they were all decided from the start. Talk about a miracle.

From the sounds of it, it almost looks like Sora was a late minute addition before the contents of FP2 had to be locked down before development. It was probably still ongoing late 2019, as the September 2019 Direct that announced FP2 didn't say how many new fighters were planned. It was only with the Byleth reveal on January 2020 that they confirmed it would be six new fighters.

 

[Lord Azrael]

Realizing just how much luck, perseverance and careful planning/coordination goes into making any kind of crossover whatsoever is simply incredible. I remember hearing the story behind Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright and being similarly blown away.

 

[Squiddo]

Holy moly! As if (sorry for the xigbar pun lmao) it was fate!

 

[LoneRanger]

Sakurai mentioned (and it was rumoured by some journalist/insider) that Sakurai with Iwata tried to get Sora for Smash 4 DLC, but negotiations fell through.

Don’t doubt that Smash team received various Sora requests since Ultimate was announced back at march 2018. So well, probably Sakurai saw the chance and ask about it when the opportunity came.

Great desigion.

Also the Sakurai’s Famitsu column mentioned that Banjo-Kazooie also got lots of votes at 2015 ballot and people at NoJ was a little surprised about the result.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Also the Sakurai’s Famitsu column mentioned that Banjo-Kazooie also got lots of votes at 2015 ballot and people at NoJ was a little surprised about the result.

that's a weird thing to be surprised about. maybe in a "oh yea, BK was real popular on N64" sort of way. but it shouldn't be surprising in a "who'd vote for them" way

 

[Mekanos]

that's a weird thing to be surprised about. maybe in a "oh yea, BK was real popular on N64" sort of way. but it shouldn't be surprising in a "who'd vote for them" way

It was their first time polling Smash fans outside of Japan so they probably didn't know what to expect, even though if you spent a lot of time on English speaking video game forums it was obvious Rare's old characters like K. Rool and Banjo were still popular. So I can see why they were surprised.

 

[Deleted member 1108]

Sakurai mentioned (and it was rumoured by some journalist/insider) that Sakurai with Iwata tried to get Sora for Smash 4 DLC, but negotiations fell through.

I’m not a business person but I cannot fathom how these things are done.

‘Hey we would like to put your very famous character in out multi million seller game, it will make you millions of dollars’
‘Dunno let me think about it’

 

[Mandos]

It was their first time polling Smash fans outside of Japan so they probably didn't know what to expect, even though if you spent a lot of time on English speaking video game forums it was obvious Rare's old characters like K. Rool and Banjo were still popular. So I can see why they were surprised.

I’m still hoping for K Rools return in main dk stuff

 

[RailWays]

Unsurprising that K. Rool and Banjo were high on the ballot. The campaigns for them during Smash 4 were immense. The events that lead to Sora's inclusion were incredible chance though. I wonder what that means for whether they renegotiate (at all) for Kingdom Hearts content later down the line.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Unsurprising that K. Rool and Banjo were high on the ballot. The campaigns for them during Smash 4 were immense. The events that lead to Sora's inclusion were incredible chance though. I wonder what that means for whether they renegotiate (at all) for Kingdom Hearts content later down the line.

I suspect SE decided on the quickest way to get Switch owners the series to coincide with Smash and figured streaming was the way. that would just tells me that they never really thought about getting the game on switch in the first place after their attempts at 3 failed

 

[mazi]

 

[Jersh]

(probably) The Game Awards

Probably not; Sakurai didn't even catch Smash's award live because he was busy working, so he almost certainly wasn't there (Doug Bowser accepted the award). Based on the timeline given, it could line up with the Japan Game Awards (no affiliation to Geoff Keighley or TGA); Smash won the grand award in 2019 (basically GOTY), and Kingdom Hearts 3 won an award for excellence.

From the sounds of it, it almost looks like Sora was a late minute addition before the contents of FP2 had to be locked down before development. It was probably still ongoing late 2019, as the September 2019 Direct that announced FP2 didn't say how many new fighters were planned. It was only with the Byleth reveal on January 2020 that they confirmed it would be six new fighters.

If my guess above is correct, the chance meeting occurred just under two weeks after the second pass announcement. It seems they may have been holding out for Sora even before that happened.

 

[ze_]

Sakurai mentioned (and it was rumoured by some journalist/insider) that Sakurai with Iwata tried to get Sora for Smash 4 DLC, but negotiations fell through.

Don’t doubt that Smash team received various Sora requests since Ultimate was announced back at march 2018. So well, probably Sakurai saw the chance and ask about it when the opportunity came.

Great desigion.

Also the Sakurai’s Famitsu column mentioned that Banjo-Kazooie also got lots of votes at 2015 ballot and people at NoJ was a little surprised about the result.

that's a weird thing to be surprised about. maybe in a "oh yea, BK was real popular on N64" sort of way. but it shouldn't be surprising in a "who'd vote for them" way

The column doesn’t mention Nintendo. Both PushDustin’s and Nintendo Everything’s translation have Sakurai stating that Japanese fans might find Banjo’s performance surprising.

 

[Rooster]

I bet Sakurai was also surprised at K. Rool's performance on the ballot given his Smash treatment before and after. But if that came as a surprise to Sakurai it makes me question how tuned in they were to the western fanbase since K. Rool demand was inescapable throughout Smash 4.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

The note about the second fighters pass originally only having 5 characters is interesting, as it provides further evidence that Piranha Plant was originally meant to be in the base game before turning into a early purchase bonus.
In fact, the funneh plant is the only DLC character to not use the generic Palutena's Guidance conversation.