When it came to Super Smash Bros Ultimate, the DLC packs were arguably as hyped as the main game, as no one outside of Nintendo and certain other game developers knew who was going to be “invited” to join the game. Which was proven in the very first entry via Joker from Persona 5 (bring Persona 5 to Switch!!!) coming in and shocking everyone. But now that Sora has entered the battle finally, Square Enix now finds itself with 3 characters in Smash Bros via DLC, and one person who is most pleased with that is Tetsuya Nomura.
Of course, Tetsuya Nomura is the man behind Kingdom Hearts and key Final Fantasy games (he started on IV and worked his way up to lead on ones like FFVII Remake!), so needless to say he has intimate knowledge of Cloud Strife, Sephiroth, and Sora. So, when GameSpot asked him about his feelings about having three major Square Enix characters in Smash Bros, his feelings were not hard to pin down. First up was Sephiroth:
“I think Sephiroth was pretty unexpected, so it was fun to see how surprised people were. Considering he was the second Final Fantasy VII character to be added to the game, I was somewhat unsure if it was okay for him to take up one of those precious slots in the roster. I was relieved to see that people responded positively to his announcement.”
Most people would agree that Sephiroth had one of, if not the, best trailers for Smash Bros ever, invoking Advent Children and making people remember why he’s such a grand villain.
As for Sora, he admitted that bringing in the character to Smash would allow for a certain…business opportunity:
“With Sora, we were thinking that the news would create buzz, so we prepared some other Kingdom Hearts related announcements to coincide with that day. We knew that putting out any sort of message ahead of time could draw suspicion, so we were lying low prior to the announcement. … the fan reaction exceeded even what I’d imagined, so I was extremely happy. (Sora’s handshake with Mario at the end of the trailer) was an element we were insistent about including, so I hope fans noticed and enjoyed it.”
That handshake bit was an interesting detail that adds onto what else was revealed about the trailer by Sakurai himself recently.
Finally, and arguably most importantly, Tetsuya Nomura stated that he was more than anything…just plain happy to have three characters very close to his heart that he’s worked on in Super Smash Bros Ultimate as a whole:
“It’s truly an honor that Cloud, Sephiroth, and now Sora – not just one or two of the characters I helped make, but three of them – have been invited into a world that features such an impressive group of characters. I had been hoping to repay Mario and friends someday, as I’ve greatly enjoyed so many of their games, so this opportunity has made me so happy. In fact, nothing makes me happier than seeing the fans’ joy towards the three of them, and I hope that Mr. Iwata would be pleased with their inclusion, too.”
