The fact it was the final reveal aside, there was something very bittersweet sad about that last trailer. The fire going out, everyone turning back into toys and things just going dark felt really...sad? And then the magic from Sora bringing everyone back one last time together, it had some heavy feels I wasn't really expecting. I think it was really well done. The handshake at the end with everyone standing patiently in the background, like coming back together for one last time as friends. Trailer had such a pure feel to it.
People like to conflate sadness with being a bad thing, but it’s not. Finality is an important part of everything and I’m glad they didn’t shy away from that here. Smash Ultimate is and always has been a celebration but every party must come to an end.
Just from an irl standpoint, managing to successfully negotiate with the mouse and bringing Sora into the game is an accomplishment worthy of being the game's finale.
Eh, I'd imagine negotiations with the mouse were pretty normal all things considered. Having a KH rep is basically free advertisement for them. With Square Enix, however...
@@RubyRedPhoenix413 Disney is VERY protective of their IP. I imagine there were a lot of negotiations involved and quite the chunk of money. I'm sure Disney was pretty specific about their demands and likely had a rep looking over every single aspect of the design. Wouldn't be surprised if getting the KH games on Switch, in any was possible, was something Disney demanded as well.
@@RubyRedPhoenix413 I dunno about that. Nomura gave the okay a long while ago and said it was essentially up to Disney for the final say. If Square had any stinginess it would mostly be for the music (see Cloud and Hero). There's a reason why Dissidia became a Final Fantasy spin-off and not a Kingdom Hearts spin-off like it was originally supposed to be.
Square itself doesn’t like to negotiate with the mouse, one of the directors of square wouldn’t touch sora or anything Disney related with a 15 foot large stick
Remember, he doesn’t really care much for the story, other characters, and games. He only really played it just to see the Final Fantasy characters. So ofc he’s gonna forget that.
@@amarikristopher8409 I know Max is a big Final Fantasy fan, but man imagine playing Kingdom Hearts ONLY for the FF characters. I remember when I was a kid that I was interested in the games because it was Disney, but that ALSO introduced me to Final Fantasy.
Sora has the power of waking. The small flame from the keyblade made Mario move. When Sora came with his light, the first in line woke up, then he flew around to wake the others. Pretty neat subtle storytelling!
I love how they framed this trailer to use the end of the first Smash Ultimate Trailer so that it makes us the viewers feel like we've been waiting for this specific moment. Also, I love it because we have little to no idea what Sora's next adventure holds so this could be part of it lol
@Toad Taylor that's simple, you see Dreams hold our Memories, Sleep holds our Dreams...and Darkness- it holds our sleep.... Darkness within Darkness: holds sleep within sleep. (75% of this is straight from KH 3D... KH is a true top 10 game franchise.)
@@TheUltimateMachineGod that’ll only happen when they introduce non-video game characters like Goku, Spider-Man, Mickey Mouse (even if it’s King Mickey specifically), etc. which I highly doubt/ don’t want, since Smash is meant to be a celebration of gaming.
When sakurai said goodbye, he isnt just saying goodbye to us. Its a goodbye to an era. Smash was one of the last og games to have thrived through the ages and it was amazing. From the N64 to the switch it has been fun.
He was only supposed to work on Melee and that’s it. Until they announced Brawl and told him day of “you can do it. If not, we’ll just port Melee with online” and he did it. And keep on doing it. Sakurai you beautiful man.
I love that this wasn't a "Yeah I'm here to fight!" intro, but a genuine nice moment of Mario just shaking his hand. It's a wholesome end to Smash Ultimate.
i am just worried te way he got in with a dimentional keyhole, it can EASILY be made canon in his games after the cluster fuck of KH3 ending with him traveling to unknown realities and shizz
@@nezothgarone2319 I can already hear the gears turning in Nomura's head. Cackling "These fuckers think I won't do it? I'll hyukin' do it!! SMASH WILL BE CANON!!L"
Fun fact: Kingdom Hearts' composer, Yoko Shimomura, has made remixed tracks for Smash Bros. dating back to Brawl, including one of my personal favorites, Banjo-Kazooie's "Treasure Trove Cove" remix.
For those of you confused by the drop of fire that remained after the smash logo faded; Sora once said when referring to the heart - "And sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!" That's Sora's Heart.
The dlc train started with joker, who steals corrupted hearts, and it ends with Sora, who saves hearts. Even though I'm not a fan of kingdom hearts, I can appreciate the fact that Sora is in the game.
That actually makes A LOT of sense now that I've been reminded he said that. Maybe the teaser wasn't the Dark Souls fake out reference that we thought it was, after all.
It's also connected to Smash Ultimate's theme song, Lifelight. Listen to the song and then watch Sora's trailer again. The final trailer was literally the explanation of the song and it makes me thing it was always made with Sora in mind.
Took me awhile to realize Sora was meant to be the last light within all that darkness. Really thought that was gonna be a bonfire though not gonna lie. Take a break Sakurai, you more than earned it at this point.
@@Blah3210 That's definitely their intention when thinking about adding him in. I don't remember the exact quote, but in KH2 Sephiroth said something about the last bit of light that is the hardest to extinguish (talking about Cloud). Turns out it was Sora all along lol.
@@brotbrotsen1100 Really hope he takes on a more supervisor role on the next Smash. I'm sure whoever he picks to helm the next Smash will be great. Next Smash really needs rollback though, just to set a precedent for the other upcoming Nintendo Online games.
@@tinybee7780 Well one thing is clear, the next smash will pale in comparison to ultimate, almost hope they just port this one as it is to the next console maybe add a few requested characters to it.
"can he recover from that? Probably not" Turns out he has the best damned recovery in the game. I'm getting some serious bayonetta Sm4sh PTSD from those combos
Want to know what’s worse for your ptsd. Tag match brackets with Sora and Bayonetta or any other magic users like the heroes from dragon quest. Prepare to get stomped on by magic son. (Slight fun fact: if Bayonetta asked Sora how to treat a lady, ask your mum. It be awkward for Sora to answer that. In cannon because Sora was kinda Mia for a bit , his mom totally forgot about her son due to affects of darkness or something.
@@sakuraryuji01 "Sora, your dinner's ready!" Then everything in their world gets destroyed. Then it all comes back a couple months later but Sora is missing. Frantic searching, then suddenly she forgets why she's freaking out. An entire year passes... "Oh shit I have a son!"
It seems fitting for Sora to be the final character as his super is literally him sealing the door to "Kingdom Smash", thus preventing anyone else from entering.
???: Like that's going to happen! * The smell of onions becomes ogrewhelming * * Smash Mouth cranked up to 11 smash universe unaware of the shrekoning that's about to unfold *
Solid Snake, Ryu, Cloud, Mario, Pacman, Minecraft Steve, SANS, and now Sora. Smash’s roster is insane, I can’t believe it’s now coming to an end. The series evolved from a Nintendo brawler to a full blown celebration of all gaming. We should be grateful that Mr. Sakurai and his team did the impossible ten times over, because Smash has been one hell of a journey.
@@jadenquest9544 who knows. It's up in the air and previous smash games were said to be the last. But one things for sure is that there will probably never be a game like this again
The handshake at the end with all the fighters smiling in the background feels like such a perfect send off i hope sakurai enjoys retirement or at least some rest if hes not done working yet he really puts his whole heart in his games and probably is the most caring of his fans than any developer i can think of
He had an interview recently with Harada of Bandai Namco (Max did a video on it actually, it's something like 'this interview is hilarious' or something), Sakurai's mentality on retirement is that if you can still perform your job at an old age you should continue to do it until you can't, and at that point you should look for another line of work you can still perform so you can continually contribute to society. With that in mind, he's not retiring any time soon.
@@adcon00 Lol do you think he wants to rest? I'd like him to retire and chill as well, but he's a workaholic. I don't think he's been training anyone to take over either.
He's far from a workaholic, he's only been apart of making 14 titles. Compare that to a person the Nintendo community trashes on, Junichi Masuda who has worked on 32 games.
I always imagine that any time someone wants to make an agreement with disney, it is like this one poor, lone individual creeping into a dark crypt barely lit by torches alone walking into a big central room and he says, "I have come to make a deal." And after a moment a low, grumbling, mocking chuckle from the ominous darkness before a slimey malicious voice says, "Deal? I like deals..."
This reveal is basically Sakurai, after grabbing SE along, going to Disney’s metaphorical HQ (email correspondence to execs) and saying “Disney, I’ve come to bargain”
@@Kanethedragon Mickey Mouse walks in, goes pale in the face, and simple asks “M-Mr. Sakurai! What uh… to what do I owe the pleasure of your v-visit today?” Sakurai: Sora. Hand him over. Mickey: Yes sir
I feel like there's a deeper message behind the shot of Mario shaking hands with Sora... It isn't just Mario welcoming Sora into SSB with the entire roster in the background. That shot, I feel, is Sakurai saying "I did it Iwata-san. You told me to do what I could, and to do it to my fullest potential. Well, look at what I could do... The final mission you gave me, the promise I made you, has been fulfilled."
@@TimelessSnake More like the magic of Daddy Sakurai. Even that new animated Netflix series, Inside Job, makes a reference to the much celebrated inclusion of King K. Rool in Smash.
@@someoneelse9680 I really wish they would've put literally everyone in the trailer. They put a good majority in, but it's missing a few characters like Banjo and Steve. Imo it would've been cool as fuck to see Steve here.
Fun fact: In English Sora said "Let's go!" then the text read "Sora is finally here!". In the Japanese version of this trailer Sora said "Omatase!" which roughly means 'thanks for wating' and the text just read "Sora joins the fight" (thx for the beautiful people in the reply below for the explanations, you guys rocks [except those who just dissing and not even helping])
The kanji are read as "sansen", roughly translating to "joins the fight". It's been used for all of the fighters in the Japanese trailers instead of the unique messages we get in the English trailers.
23:45 I absolutely love that they had Sora fight cloud with Sonic Blade as a huge nod to KH1 when Cloud gives him that ability. And I love to think that Sakurai or somebody else made that choice deliberately. They really did everything right with this one.
Several choices like that were made. Sora's up tilt is nearly identical to Ice Climbers (hebused it on them). He also used Sonic Blade on Bayo (nodding to her similar attack). So many of the choices were done like this, and I adore them.
Sakurai: Hey Disney, this is the biggest gaming crossover ever, and this is literally your last chance. Are ya sure you don't want in on this? Disney:...What's your offer?
I mean there’s no way in hell that didn’t factor into funny enough considering how much anything attached to a smash character blows up. Also I saw another guy post something about this but Disney does indeed own soras ass that is legit the reason why it took so long for him to get into smash, Disney is stingy as fuck with their properties.
@@diamondminer5459 People would harass him all the time for characters, he's not required to comply with what fans ask of him but imagine many people just annoying the shit out of you just because of some character you couldn't get in even though it's not even your fault.
Disney: "You gotta have the Timeless River skin haha" Sakurai: "Yeah, we're putting in heaps of skins and that's one of them!" Disney, gripping Sakurai by the neck: *You gotta have the Timeless River skin*
“I mean it’s still dark souls” Well in fairness, it was probably a dark souls like experience to do negotiations with the almighty monopoly mouse to make this shit happen
“It’s Dark Souls” Real talk it was shot perfectly like an Ashen One reveal and I’m glad i woke up to “Sora got in” because I would have been STUPIDLY disappointed it wasn’t soulsborne if i’d seen the trailer blind.
I wonder if he could be an advisor for the next games lie ones who gives the ok to stuff being added and all and not having to work that much and can take vacations when he wants hmm...
Cloud: Sora! What are you doing here? Sora: The heart may be weak. And sometimes it may even give in. But I’ve learned that deep down, there’s a light that never goes out! Sephiroth: We’ll see about that. Sora: Time for round three, son. Nomura: This is canon, btw.
Ya know, in a weird way this comes full circle. When Kingdom Hearts was originally pitched, Nomura originally wanted it to be with Nintendo characters. So now, the fact that Sora is now an official guest character in Smash kinda comes full circle. Bet you Nomura was smiling from ear to ear when the event happened and Sora finally appeared. Edit: So apparently I got some info wrong here. Sorry about that, but with the info I've been given I think the "full-circle" term still applies. I think. Either way, it's still crazy Sora is in Smash officially now. For the record, after some of the other DLCs, I never doubted the possibility that he could get in. He'd just probably have certain stipulations. Honestly, the fact that they kept the Mickey Mouse symbol on the Keyblade ALONE is impressive to me.
This is the wrong information. Hashimoto & Sakaguchi wanted to develop a game to rival Mario, & it was deemed that only a Disney character could achieve that. When Kingdom Hearts was originally pitched, they wanted to use Mickey as the main character, but Disney said no.
This is incorrect information. The whole thing began with a Squaresoft guy and a Disney guy meeting in an elevator. How in the world would Nomura want Nintendo characters when he never would’ve had any way to use them? Anyway, he did want to rival Mario so he got his wish with them shaking hands
@@Diamond_2403 I’m pretty sure Sakurai just had to narrow his eyes at the Disney execs and they caved. This is the man that broke the internet several times, who knows what his power level is
Considering they had a pole and sora being the number one requested character for YEARS and even more after ultimate was made it shouldn't be surprising he had put this much time and effort in because square and Disney being well square and disney copy right claims and what not
Lol I love Sakurai's reaction after the reveal, he sat back like "You doubted my powers mortals? Ye of little faith, behold what your father has done for you!" Lol
Sora is the perfect final character. He travels to so many different worlds so appearing in Smash just makes so much sense. That final part of his trailer with him falling through all the different worlds/stages is amazing.
The hesitation in Mario as he reached to grab the keyblade seems almost symbolic of the hesitation Sakurai must of had due to the legal hoopla that comes with it.
Sora being the final character, lore wise, makes complete sense. World of light and all that....granted Sephiroth already killed that big bad and took over, but still!
Yeah, the best thing about Sora coming over, for me, are the lore parallels. I can't wait to play World of Light with Sora, like it's some unique KH world!
Better yet, how about this: Sephiroth killed Galeem, but that lead to the Darkon Wins scenario where the world is bathed in darkness, which leads into Sora's trailer and THEN everyone bands together to beat Darkon in the World of Darkness and get the Perfect ending.
Wasn’t it said that Disney was ok with Sora after much talk but it was Nomura who was so held back with Sora in smash? Because he wants it connected to lore.
@@TacoLexyep! Disney execs were tottally on board with Soras inclusion, however Nomura was hesitant because he "wanted to consider how it would with the series (KH) lore."
He's not wrong. There's a reason why neither Donald or Goofy has any sort of appearance at all. I can imagine the negotiation being a nightmare. This is probably the most they can get out of Disney
I'm 32 years old and grew up with Kingdom hearts. I won't lie, I teared up when Sora flew around and that beautiful music played. Such an amazing memory brought back for a brief few seconds.
I’m his final smash it literally looks like he banishes you, kicks you out of smash, and the door looks like a subspace door wish makes it even cooler. Like he throws u into subspace. The dark past and locks you there for eternity.
This was honestly my favorite smash character reveal other then sephiroth I just love how sora is flying in the air while everyone is looking at him in awe this was a beautiful ass trailer
I love that this trailer didn't have Sora attack anyone in the cinematic. Like he's come here to spread joy and the gang are happy to see him rather than trying to fight him immediately.
Nomura actually said Disney was all for sora being in smash but it was actually him who was hesitant and very picky about how he was presented in the game. Who would’ve guessed. Great stream!
Man ngl this final stream made me a bit emotional I don't really even care for Sora but it's such a perfect sendoff character for this great game. Bravo, Sakurai and the team that worked on this game. The netcode may be whatever it is, but this game was something incredible
I'm definitely not a Kingdom Hearts fan, yet I still sat through this presentation with a big smile on my face. There's something about this inclusion that just feels right (outside of the fact that he was the most requested character), like something has come full-circle, for lack of a better explanation. Congrats to the KH fanbase, I'm genuinely happy for you!
Agreed, I'm familiar with the series but indifferent towards and still think Sora was a excellent way to close the roster. Like it or not KH it's popular, raised a bunch of aRPG fans and most importantly Sora was an actually requested character unlike the vast majority of the fighter pass.
Was personally wanting Master Chief, but GG’s to all of the Sora fans. Glad you guys got your character, especially since he’s been requested for so long.
@@afrogenix Based off Halo Infinite, you could use the grappleshot as a recovery, and the repulsor for counters. Energy sword, gravity hammer, different grenades, there’s a wide variety of weapons and attacks Chief can use
I really don’t think there could’ve been a more perfect final character.. 1) most requested character 2) popular in west and Japan 3) extremely hard to obtain due to legality 4) main character of a series that embodies the crossover of many franchises/characters 4) has games on Nintendo consoles 5) and to top it off coincidentally shares the name of Sakurai’s company It doesn’t matter if you don’t like KH or if he’s not who you wanted, who else would’ve been more fitting seriously?
No doomslayer, masterchief, shantae or walugi would have been able to make that many people this happy. This is the undeniably perfect end to this game.
The fact that it was extremely hard due to legality made this a terrible pick for the final character. If he was in the base game, whatever. But he’s DLC and there’s virtually no disney references and his moveset is devoid of any flare and he only comes with 9 songs? They could’ve gotten 2B from nier automata and had like 30 songs and a really unique move set. And acquiescing to fan cravings doesn’t make the character better. If Nintendo and Sakurai did more of that, we’d have Shrek, Goku, and Superman in the game. Have some class.
@@EndorphinSauce “have some class?” Are you serious dude, we talkin about adding smash characters here. You sound like a bitter man child. So you’re just gonna ignore that he’s the most requested character too? I really don’t even care about what character gets added and I can still recognize sora’s significance
I’m not a Kingdom Hearts fan at all, but I’m glad this character is in smash. Like smash bros, KH is a crossover game, one of the first popular crossover games to be released after the original smash bros. For smash to have Disney related characters, levels and music in smash is a HUGE deal.
same. I don't care at all about KH, but seeing SO many people that have wanted Sora since before fucking brawl... I'm really glad for them, because it's been so long, and they've wanted him for so long, its so sweet that he's finally here.
When Mario walked up to the flame I was really confused on what was going on, but I think I get what was happening: Mario sees the last ember of smash and uses it's last bit of power to put Sora in the game
I’m not really a Kingdom Hearts fan, at least not yet. But I’m happy for the people who wanted Sora in. I feel like he was the perfect character to end Smash Ultimate with. Now with all that being said. This hype reveal definitely made me feel like playing some Kingdom Hearts! I might have to buy that “all in one package” or whatever it’s called. And give the series a second chance.
Even if you don't play them all, at least play 2. 2 is such a solid, well designed, timeless game with incredible animation, an emotional story and gameplay that's addicting af and has features that were so before their time.
Playing 1, 2, and some of the in between games would be great. Just watch the youtube videos on KH3, save yourself some time and brain hurt not worth playing to me.
Definitely buy the games on anything other than the Switch releases. Square Enix is using Cloud versions for these games, but KH games require pretty precise button presses for boss fights so the Cloud versions are not great
Kingdom Hearts 1,2, and 3 are the best ones of the series so be on the look out for those and like Sakurai says it's a series you have to commit but alas have fun on your journey its wonderful.
"The heart may be weak, but deep down there's a light that never goes out!" As Smash Ultimate comes to an end Sora is the final light, the final fire, of all the Smash fans throughout the years. Thank you Sakurai
Sore has always felt like a mix of final fantasy protagonist and Disney movie main character so it makes sense he even has a disney-ish personality outside Kingdom hearts
Fun fact: disney was open mind the whole time and it was nomura been stupid for getting worried on how his inclussion will be canon in the kh lore, yup believe it or not that was the main reason on why it took a while to see Sora in smash. Max won't bother to know this fact anyway, but as a kh fan this got me suprise when we got this answser thanks to the kh4 news that we got so far.
When you look at the roaster of characters, sometimes you just have to take a step back in awe at the fact that this a real game with all these characters in one…. like holy shit. You just forget sometimes how truly amazing this really is. Thank you Sakurai.
Basically, they knew Sora won, they couldn't come out with it because of the legal wranglings that came with getting Sora. And this was done because they feared that people would go after Disney or square enix demanding Sora be let into Smash 4. This probably would have caused a great deal more problems between square and Nintendo, which could have led to smash ultimate not even having any square enix characters in them, let alone square enix games on the Nintendo switch and the like. Thank goodness that wasn't the case. This was truly a great send-off. Thank you sakurai
That's why they had a disclaimer about Bayonetta winning the ballot among the characters that were doable at the time, otherwise Sora would've most like been included in Smash 4, and it was a good idea to keep it a secret, otherwise it would've been harder or downright impossible to add him in Ultimate had people started an uproar to get him.
@@GravityRavenYT Just gonna tell you that during Smash 4, the dataminer did mention that Bayonetta was already planned *during* the Ballot (it used ZSS data as a placeholder), so it was presume that they rigged the Ballot, which it probably wasn't.
Essentially Sakurai put himself on the firing line to prevent the smash community from harassing Disney and Square Enix, at least until he could seal the deal with them first.
@@Trimint123 That's quite interesting. I don't think they "rigged" the ballot, but more like having Bayonetta as a back-up plan. Sakurai probably figured that the winner could be a character he couldn't get at the moment, and so he made a disclaimer after the ballot ended to clarify that it was characters that was doable in Smash 4. Either way, it was a smart move at the end, and the fact that even after so many years, he was still determined to include Sora in Smash is truly admirable.
Nostalgia hit hard! It was “simple and clean”, my friends. I laughed when Sakurai said “EEEEEEY” lol. Thank you Iwata, Sakurai, and Nomura for all that you do in the gaming community. To quote Mickey Mouse: “SEE YA REAL SOON.”👊🏾
Well one ofc he’d be flying like Peter Pan, that’s where he got his flying ability. 2 he was the most requested character since the ballots. Not cause anyone was bitching nor complaining. Besides Sakurai was a huge fan ofc he was gonna add him in. The game sold millions of copies, Sora was known the best and most loved video game character in both Japan and USA, and again, he as Sakurai said was the most requested.
Them turning all into amiibo as the dream is ending, but then the keyblade appears and gives mario hope, and then he throws it and summons sora to keep their dream going or you could say their Worlds light not going out
Though I don't really agree with Max's thoughts about the games, I understand where he's coming from. I've played and love the shit outta these games and this reveal put a huge grin on my face.
I doubt Disney even cares about this abortion of a character. However, if it was Mickey, Donald or something, that would be a complicated deal for sure
@@RRRRRRRRR33 for fucks sake. HE IS LITERALLY OWNED BY DISNEY. not even SQUARE FUCKING ENIX get free reign with Sora. Like it or not, Disney happens to give a shit about Kingdom Hearts so PLEASE. Don't downplay the weight of this feat
@@8pierrot89 Almost everything is owned by Disney, nitwit. Why are you using the capslock like that? Some IPs are more valuable than others, simple as it is. Nintendo did not go as far to include actual Disney characters along with this abortion, they could have used Goofy and Donald in his attacks, cameos of Disney characters in the background, etc.. Just like many other IPs that are present in this game. But that didn't happened, because these licenses are far more complicated and expensive
@@RRRRRRRRR33 good lord you do not know how licensing works goodnight look, just say you don't care about smash bros and leave?? maybe go watch a video about some other game, instead of disrespecting the work of overworked japanese game developers
@@8pierrot89 wth are you even talking about dude, lol why are you acting defensively like this? Who cares if the japanese overworks their developers, that is a cultural thing spread out in the entire country, ever heard about "karoshi"? And the videogame industry also follow this mindset, what is the difference between Sakurai working 100 hours per week compared to a jondoe doing the same working for Rockstar? One wellbeing is more valuable than the other? No wonder such ignorance could be found in the Kingdom Hearts fanbase, I am not surprised really, you actually made me laugh
Same, well except finnishing KH3 which I already did. I never got a switch because except maybe pokemon I'm not a huge fan of the nintendo exclusive franchises and games. I did end up planning to get a switch in the future after 10 or so games came out I wanted to play which is the minimum before I buy a console (..except with it's KH.. I got a psp and a 3DS just for Kh.. I have a KH problem I am aware). Then the oled switch news came out, and now this. I will be getting myself the oled version once I can find one, and then I will for the first time ever get smash, because you guessed it, I have a KH problem and just for Sora I want to play this game now... I will need to learn how to download dlc..I hope it's not to complicated to do.
