So, Sora's out in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. But how does he play, exactly? Over the past day, I've played around with him a bit in Classic Mode, online, and World of Light, and I have pretty positive thoughts!
Honestly, when it comes to his overall feel, there's not much to say here; he's pretty fun and shockingly faithful to the games. However, it isn't just his moves; even his movement feels very Sora in a somewhat tricky way to pin down. He's light, agile, and pretty much everything he does is taken directly from the Kingdom Hearts games. He even dual-wields in the style of Valor Form if you pick up an item, which I thought was a pretty nice touch!
His basic attacks reference various moves and abilities throughout the series, such as his dash attack being reminiscent of Sliding Dash. Additionally, he retains his basic 3 hit combos for both air and ground. And, although most of his kit is taken from KH1, several of his moves originated elsewhere in the series, including his up smash being taken from KH3's Magic Flash ability.
The stage is also beautiful; it's an exceptional recreation of Hollow Bastion. Unlike many other stages, it has no area-specific hazards to deal with, letting you face off against your opponent(s) without worrying about the location itself being an enemy. I also like the touch with the Station of Awakening, which lets a few of the KH characters that we got as Spirits cameo in the background with their stained glass designs, making for a dramatic finale
His Classic Mode seems decently well crafted and primarily utilizes Stamina Mode, which makes sense to me given how Kingdom Hearts’ combat works. It pits you against a series of opponents mimicking his enemies. Mr. Game & Watch as Heartless, the white-haired Robins as Xehanort, and a fun little reference to KH1 with him facing off against Cloud in a coliseum map; not to mention a mirror match against Sora himself. His ending image seems to reference KH3, being extremely reminiscent of the Final World, with Sora staring off into the distance…
Compared to other characters, Sora seems reasonably well balanced, in my opinion. He is both light and agile, letting him pull off insane recoveries, but also having the weakness of being relatively easy to catapult off the stage entirely even at moderate levels of % damage. There were some fears of having a repeat of SSB4 (Wii U and 3DS) Bayonetta, but while he has some decent combos, they aren't quite as horrifying as hers was, so far as I can tell. Although, ultimately, we'll see how other, more experienced players hash out the details of his kit.
Overall I am delighted with how he's turned out in the game. The only real complaint I have is the sheer amount of mirror matches online. But… then again, what could be more appropriate to Kingdom Hearts than Sora facing off against himself?
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