User:Darthrai/Sora (SSBU)

Sora in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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Universe	Kingdom Hearts
Availability	Downloadable
Final Smash	Ultimate Form

Sora (ソラ, Sora) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Along with Roxas, Riku and Terra/Aqua/Ventus, he was announced as a surprise DLC fighter as part of the KINGDOM HEARTS Bonus Fighters Pass on April 1, 2021. Sora is classified as Fighter #89.

Miyu Irino and Haley Joel Osment reprise their roles as Sora in Japanese and English, respectively, with new voice clips.

Attributes

Sora is a medium-weight character heavily focused on racking damage and combos. His strongest aspect is his air game, which is where his combo ability shines the most, as his aerials have good range and priority. His neutral aerial is a fast combo extender or starter, as players can keep Sora's forward momentum on hit due to each hit giving him a slight upward boost. Forward aerial is a fast and reliable KO option which can be set up into from most of his aerials, and while his back aerial can do the same slightly earlier, it does have some startup. Finally, his up and down aerials can serve as viable combo extenders due to their vertical launch angle and low knockback, further compounded by the vertical boost they provide on hit. Sora's fast aerials, in addition to his fast air speed, also give him a spectacular edgeguarding game, which opponents may have trouble breaking through.

This impressive air game is also mirrored in his ground game. He sports good ground mobility, allowing him to chase down his victims to start or extend combos reliably. His neutral attack is very quick, and has an above-average damage output, in addition to the first and second hit being capable of locking. All of his tilts serve as reliable combo starters due to their low knockback, vertical launch angles, and low ending lag. His most reliable KO moves are his forward smash and up smash, with the former having good range and strong knockback, and the latter is a good anti-air option due to its vertical range and can deal a large amount of damage, allowing Sora access to reliable finishers. His grab game also sports decent utility, as his forward throw can set up a tech-chase situation or edgeguard due to its horizontal launch angle, while his up and down throws can set up combos, with the former being able to chain-grab fast-fallers and high-fallers, and back throw is his strongest throw and can set-up an edgeguard.

His special moveset is also very versatile. Strike Raid is a projectile and is a good damage-racking tool because of its duration, and this can also turn it into a good edgeguarding tool. In addition, its hitboxes send the opponent towards Sora, allowing it to extend combos. Flowmotion can allow different attacks depending on the directional input, and like the rest of his attacks, is a good damage-racking tool. Command Deck is very useful as well: Blizzard can be used to freeze enemies for a short time, denying approaches; Thunder is an excellent anti-air move and can KO at high percents, and Fire is useful for its KO ability and covers Sora's entire body, like his down smash. Additionally, Aerial Recovery sports impressive maneuverability and does not leave Sora helpless, allowing him to extend his already-lengthy combo strings or extend his recovery with Flowmotion.

However, due to Sora's below average weight, and below average accelerated falling speed, he is easier to KO vertically and horizontally than a good amount of the cast, giving him mediocre endurance. Additionally, he lacks reliable ways to deal with projectiles despite having a projectile himself, as his main options are slow or require him to be on the ground, which gives him trouble breaking through fighters with a camping-heavy playstyle.

Arguably, his most crippling flaw is his over reliance on damage strings to rack up damage reliably; most of his attacks, including his aerials, have unimpressive damage outputs. While this does grant Sora his impressive combo game, it forces him to perform lengthy strings of combos to rack up amounts of damage that most other characters could achieve in far fewer hits, which gives him difficulty in taking stocks. This is further exacerbated by Sora having only two aerial KO moves, in the form of his forward aerial and back aerial, and two reliable grounded KO moves, his forward smash and up smash, with the latter having mediocre KO potential despite its high damage output in comparison to the rest of his moveset and Command Deck can only KO at high percents while using Fire or Thunder, with the latter only hitting above and in front of Sora. As such, this can prove problematic if Sora goes against opponents who perform good D.I., momentum canceling, or heavy characters like Donkey Kong. In addition, many of his grounded moves have punishable lag, which can leave Sora open to attack if he misses them, and all of his throws, while sporting good utility, cannot KO at reasonable percentages, with only his back throw doing so at very high percents.

His recovery options do grant him some control over his route, but leave him extremely open to gimping once he loses his double jump, further worsening his offstage survivability. Despite having a somewhat versatile recovery near the stage, once Sora is knocked far enough away from the stage with no double jump, his chances of survival are very low, as Aerial Recovery, though it does not leave Sora helpless, is rather slow and does not grant a high vertical distance. Additionally, Flowmotion covers very minimal vertical height, even when angled upwards, has a very slow startup, does not ledge snap until the end of the move, has a very small edge grab range, and leaves Sora helpless when used in midair, in addition to being somewhat slow.

Overall, Sora is a combo-heavy character who sports a playstyle similar to Sheik: the objective of his playstyle is to rack up damage quickly, and finish them off when he gets an opening. However, his mediocre recovery, low weight, and overreliance on lengthy combo strings to rack up damage hold him back somewhat.