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 25th on the tier list, a small leap from his 29th-place position on the last tier list at the very bottom, but it is 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 range in most of his attacks, solid, speedy aerials and has reliable KO 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 range 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 KO.

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 range in them. His strongest aspect is his air game, which is where his combo ability shines the most. He has reliable KO ability in his forward smash and a very damaging up smash. Sora has a very strong recovery, as he can perform Aerial Recovery and then a Flowmotion. Sora has a spectacular edgeguarding game, which opponents may have trouble breaking through. His Command Deck is very useful as well: Blizzard may be used to freeze enemies for a short time, Thunder is an excellent anti-air move, and Fire is useful for its KO ability.

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 heavy characters like. His forward smash has a lot of ending lag, And his up smash is often used as an anti-air, and often will not KO most characters until over 100%. His down smash does not have that much KOing power, either.

Even though Sora may have a good recovery, 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. Aerial Recovery gains a lot of vertical distance and does not transition into a helpless state, but it is rather slow. 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. His back throw is almost useless due to having set knockback. 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

 * Sora swipes with the Keyblade vertically downwards. Used to jab lock. 3%
 * Standard attack 2: Sora performs another attack similar to his first attack, but it has more knockback. 3%
 * 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 move's priority makes it an efficient way to deal with projectiles. 11% uncharged, 14% fully charged. The attack itself is based off of the "Explosion" ability from KHII, though the sprite effects appear closer to electric that light-based like in the original game.
 * Forward tilt: Sora swings the Keyblade in an outwards motion. It is possible to link this into another side tilt. 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. 14% uncharged, 19% fully charged.
 * Up tilt: Sora swings the Kingdom Key overhead in an arc. Can combo into itself. 7%
 * Up smash: Sora thrusts the Kingdom Key upwards in the air and casts "Aero", summoning a powerful wind around the blade. Very damaging if all hits connect properly, but has rather low knockback. Hits multiple times. 27% uncharged, 35% 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 does a spin while swinging the Keyblade. It has the property of sending guiding Sora's momentum upward. Hits twice. 6% + 6% = 12% total.
 * Forward aerial: Sora does a flip while slashing forward. It has KO power and can also be used for spacing and combos. 12%
 * Back aerial: Sora spins around and swings the Keyblade behind himself. It has the most knockback out of all of his aerials. There is a small hitbox directly in front of Sora near the end of the move which can lead into forward air depending on DI at mid percentage. 11%
 * Up aerial: Sora thrusts the Kingdom Key up in the air, creating an uppercut. It can often combo into itself due to its low knockback, but will be unable to combo at mid-percentages. Sora's momentum will be guided upwards a bit upon contact with an opponent. 8%.
 * Sora slashes underneath himself quickly. If the Keyblade hits the person behind, it sends them forward giving you a possible follow up. It can tumble at 0% allowing for some follow ups. .Connecting it can lead into fair. 6%

Grabs & throws

 * Grab: Sora swipes his hand to grab the opponent. A mid-ranged grab.
 * Pummel: Sora hits the combatant with the Kingdom Key. 1% first hit, 1% every subsequent hit. Fairly fast.
 * Forward throw: Sora hits the opponent three times with the Keyblade. Not the most reliable for KOing, due to its low knockback. 2% + 2% + 5% = 9% total.
 * Back throw: Sora puts the enemy behind him and performs an outward slash with the keyblade. Strangely enough, this throw has set knockback. 9%
 * Up throw: Sora knocks the enemy into the air with the Kingdom Key. Can link into a few up aerials at mid-percentages. 6%
 * Down throw: Sora vanishes and appears 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. May also be used as an alternative back throw. At high percentage there really isn't any follow ups other than getting them off the edge for a potential edgeguard. 5%

Other

 * Ledge attack: Climbs up while jabbing Kingdom Key forward. 3%.
 * Floor attack: Gets up and sweeps around himself with the Kingdom Key. 6%

Misc.

 * On-screen appearance: 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 record of how many enemies the player has defeated in his journal in KINGDOM HEARTS.
 * Victory theme: Short remix of the song Hikari, specifically the -KINGDOM Orchestra Instrumental Version- rearrangement, 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 v1.0.2 Beta
Sora has received multiple buffs for many of his moves, which most are increasing hitbox sizes.

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

 * From demo v0.6 to v0.8b, Sora's portrait was taken from KINGDOM HEARTS II.
 * Sora is one of the few characters that does not 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 alongside with Jigglypuff and.
 * In demo v0.6 to v0.7, Sora's voice clips was taken from the very first video game, KINGDOM HEARTS.

External link

 * Sora's v0.8 Dev Blog