Counterattack (Sora)

Counterattack (, Counter) is 's down special move in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Overview
Sora shifts his Keyblade into a defensive stance. Similarly to Mii Swordfighter's Blade Counter, grounded opponents that hit Sora in this state will enter their rebound animation as if their attack collided with another, and Sora will launch a swift upward slash to counter. Since the counter detection is in front of Sora, he's left somewhat more vulnerable from behind, although the counterattack can still be potentially triggered. Uniquely, this counter can also reflect projectiles with a 1.4x multiplier, but they will continue their normal trajectory. When doing it in up in the air and the opponent attacks, the opponent will be in the air release animation before Sora counterattacks on them.

Because the opponent is staggered on contact, Sora is able to break through attacks that are normally invincible for a longer duration and counter, such as Wonderwing. The stagger effect is applied even if the opponent is fully invincible, such as from respawning. It can even force Hero out of Kaclang if Sora counters the falling hitbox, which no other attacks besides Metal Slash can do. The stagger is applied regardless of how far away the attacker is, even if they are out of range of the actual counterattack. This effect causes occasional situations where the counterattack misses the opponent entirely. In this case, the opponent will exit the stagger effect and will continue as normal.

While the reflector does not alter projectile direction, it does change ownership to Sora. This means that stationary projectiles which overlap with the user, such as Lucario's Force Palm, and returning projectiles, such as Link's Boomerang and Simon's Cross can hurt the original owner. When reflecting a projectile, Sora skips his initial recoil animation (when the stagger would occur) and immediately swings his Keyblade, which is still capable of dealing damage.

Unlike many other counter moves, Counterattack cannot be B-reversed. Additionally, its damage cap is just 30%, while all other scaling counters have a cap of 50%. Due to the opponent being staggered the moment their hitbox collides with the counter, characters with particularly long range and disjointed attacks can sometimes be staggered outside of the counterattack range, causing the attack to miss entirely. This interaction is especially common with and, as well as characters trying to recover low to the edge.

Origin
Guarding and using reprisals is a major part of combat in many Kingdom Hearts games. By successfully blocking or parrying an enemy's attack, they will be staggered, allowing the defender to use a quick counterattack to strike while the enemy is open. There have been many different styles of Guarding and Reprisals throughout the series, and sometimes the same character is able to use different defensive actions depending on their equipped abilities or Forms.

The defensive stance and counterattack seen in Smash are based on the and  abilities seen in Kingdom Hearts, respectively. By using the former ability to parry an enemy's attack, the latter allows Sora to immediately attack a staggered enemy with an upward slash that automatically deals a critical hit and restores some MP. In the game, Sora will learn the Counterattack if he is at level 24 with the Dream Sword, level 21 with the Dream Shield, or level 18 with the Dream Rod (level 15, 45, and 57 in the Final Mix version). It costs 2 AP to equip. Like in Smash, Guard only defends Sora against attacks in front of him. In Kingdom Hearts, guarding against projectiles will reflect them back to the owner, which does not happen in Smash.

Trivia

 * A glitch with this move can cause the partner Ice Climber to be frozen in place until they are hit by an opponent
 * If the Shadow Assist Trophy freezes Sora while performing Counterattack, the counter hitbox will remain active and trigger if hit. The visual effect will trigger and Sora will remain intangible until unfrozen, however the opponent will not be staggered and the attack will not trigger at all when Sora is unfrozen.