“My Friends Are My Power!”
When Tetsuya Nomura retires, he’ll have one hell of a career to look back on. Not all of it landed for everyone, but his work has had a major impact on so many people: notably, his stewardship of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Nomura opened up about several facets of the Kingdom Hearts series in an interview with Game Informer: and shared an interesting behind the scenes tidbit about Sora in Smash Ultimate.
We already learned that Sora ended up in the game due to a “chance meeting” with a Disney rep, but now Nomura confirms that he was actually more “picky” than Disney was in regards to his appearance. Nomura notes that he was “obviously happy” that Disney would acquiesce and allow the character to appear, and “[couldn’t] believe that Disney okayed him to be in [the] game.” But once the deal was ready to go, Nomura admits that while Disney was gung-ho, he was the one who had reservations.
Nomura was concerned about his ability to pull it off, “because it might clash with he established lore in Kingdom Hearts and Disney worlds,” (it’s wacky enough, no worries there!) and had to “consider [it] very carefully.” But he doesn’t regret it one bit, seeing the positive reaction overall to what ended up being the final [for now] Kingdom Hearts DLC character.
Sora definitely made a splash, and it’s safe to say that he and the Smash team made the right choice. It’s also cute to see Nomura so humbled by the crossover. Through thick and thin, and all the ups and downs the series has had, it’s clear he still cares about it.
