Sora (Super Smash Flash 2)

Sora is a playable newcomer character in Super Smash Flash 2. He is a starter character. His design is overall based on Kingdom Hearts II.

Sora is currently ranked 29th on the tier list; a small drop from his 25th place position in the last tier list, however suffering the second-largest tier drop from last demo, going from 5th to 29th (The largest tier drop was suffered by ). Sora has great combo ability, good reach in most of his attacks, solid, speedy aerials and has reliable kill moves in his forward smash and up smash. He has a great air game with his low falling speed keeping him in the air longer then usual, long reach in his attacks and little start up and ending lag in most of his aerial attacks. He is one of the best edgeguarders in the game so breaking his guard will be tough.

However, due to Sora's weight and falling speed makes him easy to KO vertically and horizontally. Some of his recovery options leave him open while he is trying to recover back to the stage and Finishing Leap covers little vertical distance. He has low priority for someone with a disjointed hitbox. He has a hard time KO'ing his opponents due to having only two reliable KO moves which are needed to be kept fresh in order to kill.

Sora's pros are vastly overlooked by his inadequacies and that is why he is ranked at the bottom.

Sora appears to have a low player base and lackluster representation in online tournaments. His tournament placings are low and inconsistent when compared to other characters.

Attributes
Sora is an air-focused character. Sora has fast, low-lag aerials with good reach in them. His strongest aspect is his air game and is where his combo ability shines the most. He has reliable KO moves in his forward smash and up smash. Sora has many options to help him recover like Flowmotion which can aid him in his horizontal recovery and he can angle it up or down, Thundaga which helps stall him in the air, a Strike Raid also helps slow his falling speed in the air and Finishing Leap being his main means of vertical recovery. Sora has a spectacular edgeguarding game and opponents may have trouble breaking through the guard.

However, due to Sora's weight and falling speed, it makes it easy for him to get KO'd vertically and horizontally. This prevents Sora from being able to camp the opponent, but he also lacks reliable ways to deal with projectiles, as his main options are slow or require him to be on the ground, which gives him trouble breaking through opposing campers. Sora has a few reliable KO moves which make him need to keep the few KO moves he has fresh which may prove problematic with opponents who perform good D.I., momentum canceling, or characters who are heavy characters like. Additionally, his KO moves can often serve another purpose such as combo tools (Forward aerial), defensive options (Thundaga), or another purpose entirely (Up smash being a good anti-aerial approach tool), leading to them staling fairly frequently in some cases. Sora's recovery is average, but his recovery options leave him vulnerable and making him susceptible to being gimped; he also may have trouble recovering when he is up against a good edge guarder. Finishing Leap covers little vertical distance which makes him need to have his midair jump to help him recover. He has a poor grab game considering his throws, outside of his down throw, providing little follow up ability or kill potential, and his grab has poor range. He also struggles with characters who have better Reach than him (e.g. and ), as he is forced to rely heavily on openings in order to start combos.

Ground attacks

 * Standard attack: Sora swipes with the Keyblade vertically downwards. 3%
 * Standard attack 2: Sora stabs forward with the Keyblade. 3%
 * Standard attack 3: Spins and then slashes horizontally. The move is overall quite fast, but does very little knockback and might not set up for Sora's air game, can be used out of a dash by Dash canceling or Multi-directional input. 5%
 * Down tilt: A sharp jab across the ground with the Kingdom Key. A combo starter. Slower than U-tilt, but viable when approaching/defending. 4%
 * Down smash: Sora stabs the Keyblade into the ground causing motes of electricity to circle him, dragging enemies towards him and hurting them. Deals multiple hits. This moves priority makes it an efficient way to deal with projectiles. 13% uncharged, 19% fully charged.
 * Side tilt: Sora attacks forward with the Keyblade in a batting motion. Much slower compared to Sora's other moves, but has a pretty decent amount of kill power. Use sparingly. 8%.
 * Forward smash: Sora holds his keyblade backwards, then he thrusts the Kingdom Key out in front of him. Surprising range on this move, and it's one of Sora's best KO moves. 12% uncharged, 17% fully charged.
 * Up tilt: Sora thrusts the Kingdom Key up in the air very quickly. Pops the enemy up into the air, so useful as a combo starter for defense. Hits twice and can efficiently combo fastfallers. 13%.
 * Up smash: Sora thrusts the Kingdom Key upwards in the air, summoning a powerful wind around the blade. Nearby characters are blown away, with the key being the center from which they are pushed. A good anti-air and Sora's best KO move. 16% uncharged, 23% fully charged.
 * Dash attack: Sora lunges forward with the Keyblade, leaving an after-image of himself. Can act as a good combo starter, considering it can be immediately followed after the hitbox finishes. Can be used to combo fastfallers. 9%.

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial: Sora slashes around himself twice can be used to extend combos. Two hits, 3% each hit. 6% total.
 * Forward aerial: Sora spins in a circle while slashing forward. Makes for an excellent Wall of Pain. Great follow-up attack after landing Finishing Leap on an opponent. 14%.
 * Back aerial: Sora slashes behind himself twice. Sora's most damaging aerial. One of his better combo moves, as it's easily comboed into from Uspec. Two hits, 7% first hit, 9% second hit. 16% total.
 * Up aerial: Sora thrusts the Kingdom Key up in the air creating an uppercut. Nice coverage after Uspec for recovering, and when shorthopped becomes a decent juggler. 6%.
 * Down aerial: Sora slashes underneath himself quickly. If the attack connects against an opponent, even if they are shielding or invincible, Sora will rise up a little. Great combo starter, albeit his slowest option in the air. 6%

Grabs & throws

 * Grab: Sora grabs the opponent. Short-ranged.
 * Pummel: Sora hits the combatant with the Kingdom Key. 1% first hit, 1% every subsequent hit. Fast.
 * Forward throw: Sora does three hits with the Keyblade. 2%, 2%, 5% 9% total. A get-off me throw, useful to set up edgeguarding situations.
 * Back throw: Sora puts the enemy behind him and uses Blizzaga. Freezes the opponent. 9%
 * Up throw: Sora knocks the enemy into the air with the Kingdom Key. 6%
 * Down throw: Sora teleports behind the opponent yelling Take..., then flips backwards slamming the Keyblade into the ground yelling ...this! and vaults back into his original position. This move can be used for chain grabbing slow characters, as it only leaves a few frames for the opponent to escape. 5%

Other

 * Ledge attack: Climbs up while jabbing Kingdom Key forward. 3%.
 * 100% ledge attack: Climbs up and turns around to attack towards the ledge. 11%
 * Floor attack: Stands up and hit both ways with the Kingdom Key. 5%

Misc.

 * Entrance: Sora exits out of the Door to Darkness and summons the Kingdom Key.
 * Taunts:
 * Standard: Sora holds the Kingdom Key behind his head, saying: "Whatever."
 * Side: Spins the Kingdom Key in the air, saying "Back off!"
 * Down: Puts the Kingdom Key on the ground, tip touching it. Jiminy Cricket then jumps out of his pocket and writes in his journal '+1'. This is a reference to how Jimmy keeps track of how many enemies you have defeated in his journal in Kingdom Hearts.
 * Fanfare: Short remix of Hikari from Kingdom Hearts.
 * Win: Sora twirls his Keyblade and poses with the Kingdom Key on his shoulder. This is a reference to Sora's animation for when he wins a round in the Olympus Coliseum.
 * Lose: Looks at the ground sadly.

Changes from v0.9a
Sora has received a mix of buffs and nerfs. He was buffed in how to start and extend combos. Thanks to the lower hitstun of the demo makes Sora much harder to combo than he was and he is one of the few characters who can combo like last demo. However, he was nerfed in losing two KO moves and giving him more problems finishing off his opponents. The loss of KO options has made Sora be seen as a less effective character.

Active

 * Cruisin
 * AfroWarrior

Inactive

 * SwiftyDragon
 * DSwift

Tier placement history
In the tier lists for demo v0.6; Sora ranked 6th of C tier on the first list and ranked 8th of C tier on the second list where he was seen as a mid-low tier character. On the tier lists for demo v0.7; Sora stayed a solid mid tier character due to him staying C tier for both lists. He ranked 9th of C tier on the first list and ranked 8th of C tier on the second list. Sora's tier position jumped in demo v0.8v; Sora ranked 4th of A tier where he was seen as top tier character. In demo v0.9a; Sora ranked 5th of what can be considered A tier where he is still seen as a top tier character. However, in demo v0.9b, whilst initially considered a Top 5 character by many, Sora dropped to 25th of C tier where he is now seen as a low tier character again.

Trivia

 * Sora, along with, , , and , is one of the few characters to have a different "Defeated/No Contest" pose.
 * Sora has gone through the most moveset changes throughout the development of SSF2