Sora (Super Smash Flash 2)

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

Sora is currently ranked 27th on the tier list, a small leap from his 29th-place position on the last tier list at the very bottom, but its still a big drop from his 5th place position on the tier list for last demo, with him having the third largest tier drop. 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 than 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 appears to have a low player base and lackluster representation in online tournaments. His tournament placings fluctuate, but are generally low and his results are incredibly 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, which 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 below average weight, though he is not far from being a medium weight, and below average accelerated falling speed, makes it easy for him to get KO'd vertically and horizontally. Additionally, he 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.

Arguably his most crippling flaw is his possession of 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. Forward smash has a sweet spot at the tip of key, making players need to space it. Up smash is often used as an anti-air, and often will not kill most characters until over 100%.

Sora's recovery is average distance wise, 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, as well as having a fixed, and at times awkward, recovery angle and being unable to consistently snap to the ledge. Flowmotion has angling issues, poor startup, does not ledge snap, and has a very small edge grab range.

He has a mediocre grab game. His throws, outside of his down throw, have little utility and his grab has poor range. That being said, his down throw can chain throw to high percentages on fast fallers and high fallers using either well-timed dash grabs or on-spot turnaround grabs.

Ground attacks

 * Standard attack: Sora swipes with the Keyblade vertically downwards. 4%
 * Standard attack 2: Sora stabs forward with the Keyblade. 2%
 * 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. 4%
 * 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 and also 13% fully charged.
 * Side tilt: Sora attacks forward with the Keyblade in a batting motion. Works somewhat as a get-off-me option, but has low KO power. Best used from a Down tilt or a jab reset.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. 7% + 6% = 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. 17% uncharged, 24% 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, and it's one of Sora's best combo tools due to its quick startup. 4% + 2% = 6% total.
 * Forward aerial: Sora spins in a circle while slashing forward. Great follow-up attack after landing Finishing Leap on an opponent. Can occasionally KO the opponent at high percentages if the knockback angle is favourable, however is considered unreliable. One of Sora's best edgeguarding options. 15%.
 * 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, 8% first hit, 8% 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 will often combo into itself due to its low knockback. Sora's momentum will be pushed upwards a little bit upon use. 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. Can confirm into a Flowmotion at around 20%. DAMAGE: 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. A get-off me throw, useful to set up edgeguarding situations, however it cannot follow up into anything and primarily serves as a DI mixup..  3% + 1% + 5% = 9% total.
 * Back throw: Sora puts the enemy behind him and slashes once with the keyblade. 9%
 * Up throw: Sora knocks the enemy into the air with the Kingdom Key. One of the most powerful up-throws in the game, but can also be used for followup mixups. 7%
 * 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, however it often requires you to buffer a pivot grab or dash towards your foe to continue the chain grab. 6%

Other

 * Ledge attack: Climbs up while jabbing Kingdom Key forward. 4%.
 * 100% ledge attack: Climbs up and turns around to attack towards the ledge. Travels halfway across Battlefield. 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 thrice, once in the air, second to his right, and last to his left while 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.

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 lower-mid 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. On the second tier list of V0.9b, he dropped once more to at 29th of C tier, dead last and is considered the worst character of the demo. However, in new tier list Sora raised from 29th tier to 27th, making him no longer the worst character of v0.9b.

Trivia

 * Sora is one of the few characters that doesn't applaud on the results screen when he loses., , and  also share this trait.
 * Throughout SSF2 ' s development, Sora has gone through the most changes to his moveset out of all the characters in the game.
 * As of version 0.9b, Sora is the only character to have two KO audio clips instead of four - one KO audio clip and one Star KO audio clip