Let's talk about Sora in Smash Bros.

Wow, I was NOT prepared whatsoever for the last character to be Sora from Kingdom Hearts to be revealed as the last DLC fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.  Though it wasn't a character I was hoping to be in the game, I felt that he has the tools, the history, and the following to make a great addition to the roster; however, I gave zero thought about Sora making it in because he was locked behind Disney copyright gates.  What a magical trailer.  What an absolutely amazing choice for the last DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Here's what I wrote on Facebook:

(3.5 hours before the Stream):

[Pre-Smash Presentation Rant] - Do not read if you don't want any preconceptions or expectations out of the character reveal.

The final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC Fighter Presentation will air on October 5th, 7AM PT.  No matter who it is, it'll break the internet.  I'm still hoping for Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, but I don't think that's a particularly good choice for a last DLC.  A mind blowing reveal would be Master Chief from Halo.  A lot of fans still want Sora, but c'mon, Nintendo would have to deal with Disney.  If Nintendo wants a shocking and meme-worthy reveal, then Waluigi (and the reveal would be him breaking out of the trophy capsule).

...But what if Nintendo went for the marketing route for the last character?  They did put one in Season Pass 1 (Byleth from Fire Emblem Three Houses), but they put two in Season Pass 2 (Min Min from Arms and Pyra/Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2).  Would it be possible that they'd put a third one in, and as the last DLC fighter?  If that's the case, I'd love to see the Howard siblings from Astral Chain in Smash.  Astral Chain's combat is unique that's unlike any other character, leading to a dynamic moveset and playstyle.  Also, I just really loved that game (albeit, I still haven't finished it...).  This was the character I predicted and wanted when Season Pass 2 was announced.  As much as I would like the Howard siblings in Smash, I imagine it would cause a huge uproar within the Smash community (relatively unknown and an obvious market towards Nintendo's games).

Regardless of who Nintendo reveals as their last DLC character, Super Smash Bros. 4 (3DS/Wii U) and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate delivered some of the most exciting character reveals in gaming history and I'm happy for all that it has given us.

See you guys on in a few hours!

(Right when Sora was revealed):

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! SAKURAI TRULY IS A MIRACLE WORKER! I DON'T BELIEVE IT!

(After waking up from getting more sleep):

[Post-Presentation Thoughts]

This was the one impossible dream I thought Nintendo and Sakurai could not fulfill as it was locked behind Disney's copyright gates.  Sora from Kingdom Hearts is definitely one of the most requested characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.  I'll admit, upfront, that I am not a fan of Kingdom Hearts.  To reiterate, I WISH I was a fan so I could appreciate the reveal that much more as I've listened through all the music, own every Kingdom Hearts game, BUT I never played through a single one yet...

As the trailer started and the Smash logo blaze withered into a tiny flame, I actually thought it was Demon/Dark Souls which I thought would be a surprising choice.  But when Mario throws the flame and it zooms in on the Mickey head keychain for the keyblade, my heart skipped a beat and I was in disbelief.  Of all the choices for the last character reveal, Nintendo and Sakurai managed to bring the impossible dream come true character.  As that keyhole opened up and Sora drifts into the rest of the Smash Bros. roster, the orchestrated version of Simple and Clean/Hikari plays as I fight back tears (I may not have an attachment to the game or characters yet, but I've listened to that song for half my life by now).  Sora's character model looks absolutely incredible and his moveset looks like so much fun (he is going to be annoying to fight against).  So how did they manage the whole Disney thing?  Seems like Square-Enix, Disney, and Nintendo all agreed that they'll have everything Kingdom Hearts in Smash EXCEPT anything Disney: characters, music, level references, etc.  Sora is truly worthy of the last character reveal and the whole experience (of watching the trailer) was kind of magical.

Aside from that, I was also extremely shocked about Doom Slayer added as a Mii Outfit (I am absolutely buying that).  Also, it was announced by Sakurai that every Kingdom Hearts game is coming to the Nintendo Switch, albeit through cloud streaming.

It was a bit sad seeing everything coming to an end.  The final character reveal, the final smash presentation, and possibly the final game.  Perhaps Nintendo will make more Super Smash Bros. in the future, but it's hard to believe any of them ever matching the sheer amount of content and company collaboration as this one.  I hope Sakurai can take a break and do something he wants to do: work on a non-Smash Bros. related project (a new game), spend time with his family, or maybe finally get some actual rest.

Thank you Nintendo, Sakurai, and all those involved in the making of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.  It's been some of the most exciting moments in gaming history.

(And now some of the best reactions I found in no particular order):

These reaction videos are some of the best ones we've seen throughout the years of Smash character reveals with the sheer amount of joy and overwhelming happiness from the fans.  Man, what a wild ride.  I'm looking forward to playing Sora on October 18th.  I should really get around to playing the Kingdom Hearts series, but man...10 games is kind of intimidating...

Let's talk about Nintendo Direct 9-23-21

Another month has quickly gone by and we're at the last week of September.  My sister was able to come back for a few days to celebrate our mom's birthday together earlier this month, and it's the first time she's been back home for 2.5 years.  I was happy to see her after so long.

I still spent most of this month practicing piano, exercising, and trying to get better at Guilty Gear Strive.  I'm struggling with piano as I'm learning very slowly and not finding enough time in the day to practice as much as I'd like to.  Exercising has been okay, but my weight has been going up and down between 137 lbs to 142 lbs since we're eating out a bit more now that we're vaccinated and also because my sleep schedule has been pushed late again (currently trying to fix it once again).  I often feel tired throughout the day because I can't sleep at night but am still trying to wake up earlier so that I'll feel more tired by night time.  As for Guilty Gear Strive, I think I've made some breakthroughs that I can be proud of, but playing a bit more ranked online recently has proved to me just how inexperienced I am and how much more I have to learn (and yet I've already put in over 270+ hours...).  I think I should focus on more piano and being mindful about my sleep schedule in the month of October.  Trying to do anything else productive might be difficult as Melty Blood Type Lumina releases this Thursday and Back 4 Blood releases next week.

And now, I'd like to talk about the Nintendo Direct as I feel like I haven't been talking about videogames much this year.  It'll be nice to talk about future releases and things I'm looking forward to.  The Nintendo Switch has gotten a lot of great releases that I haven't picked up and played yet (they're rarely on discount and I also don't have enough time for them), but they teased a bunch of new games coming out in the next year that I know I'll be eventually picking up.

Capcom teases a massive expansion to Monster Hunter Rise.  While it's cool to see more content coming to Rise, I'm still waiting for it to release on Steam PC first.  I just hope I have a new PC before then because my current one was barely handling Monster Hunter World.

Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is Yoko Taro's newest game.  Keiichi Okabe is also composing the music for this game which is incentive enough for me to pick it up.  While card games are generally a genre I don't look much into, I like the new trend of single-player focused RPG-aspect card games that have been made the past half decade and am willing to try this one out as well.

More content is coming to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, but I haven't even picked up the game yet.  There have been so many Zelda games coming out the past few years that I haven't been able to keep up with them.

Chocobo GP looks so cute!  I hope it comes to Steam PC so I can convince my non-Switch owning friends to pick it up as well.

Then they announce that the final Smash Bros. presentation will be streamed two weeks later as to not get people excited and disappointed for the new Kirby game they were about to reveal.  It's unfortunate that it's another early stream (7AM PT on Oct. 5th), but I'll definitely wake up for it.  It makes me a bit nervous on who the last character could possibly be.  By this point, they would have to reveal Master Chief from Halo to get a large positive response from the community.  I'm still hoping Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden gets in, but I also don't see him being entirely well received by the Smash community.  I guess I'll find out in a week.

I wasn't expecting a new Kirby game, and I was certainly not expecting it to be a 3D open-world game set in a post-apocalyptic world of our own modern environment.  It's just so wild and weird, but I like what I see so far.

More content is coming to Mario Golf: Super Rush.  I was interested in picking up the game, but haven't found the right time for it since I've been constantly digging through backlogged games.

Triangle Strategy had a bit more to show this time around and it's looking great.  I still have so many games like it that I haven't gotten around to playing or finishing yet that I'm probably not going to pick it up at launch.

Metroid Dread is looking great and I'm pretty interested in playing it now.  But it's releasing at a time where I'm already spending a lot of money and probably have most of that time occupied already to be able to even play this game.  I'll definitely be playing it one day, but sadly not at launch.

Nintendo Online is finally adding N64 games to play on the Switch as well as Sega Genesis games.  I was excited at first since I haven't played a lot of N64 games, but then I realized it was going to be sold as an expansion pack.  Depending on the price and the timing, I might consider it since I want to try playing through some of those N64 games.

I've been seeing leaks of Castlevania Advance Collection for months now and have been wondering when it'll be out.  I was super happy to find out that it was releasing later that day and on Steam PC.  I never actually beat Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance so I'm keen on picking it up and playing through them again and actually finishing them all the way through.  As mentioned many times, it's out at a poor time and I'm tempted to get it knowing that I may not have enough time to play it.  For now, I'm holding off on purchasing it until I finish some more games.

ActRaiser Renaissance was the highlight of the Direct for me.  When the map zoom of the original appeared, I was already shocked to see ActRaiser in any form and thought it might be porting the original to the Switch.  But when that map transitioned to one with modern looking graphics, I lost my mind.  I started jumping up and down in my seat and screaming from the pure joy and excitement that ActRaiser was getting remade.  Then I saw the gameplay and was a bit turned off by the graphics and animation.  They look like they came from the Playstation 1 era.  What was even more surprising was the game was releasing later that day.  I looked up gameplay and saw that combat was a little different with a bit more depth as well as the God Phase having a tower-defense like gameplay much like  the ActRaiser inspired game SolSeraph had in their game.  I really want to play the game, but perhaps not at $30 and at this time.  So I will have to sadly wait until a later date before I can find the time to play it.

A quick look at upcoming games sped through and it covered a lot of games previously announced.  I'm looking forward to Shin Megami Tensei V and Rune Factory 5.

We've known about the Mario movie for a while now, but they didn't reveal the voice actors until this Direct.  The idea of a Mario movie already has me skeptical, but the surprising and weird cast of celebrities voicing the Mario crew has me even more worried.

Details of Splatoon 3 were shown and while it doesn't make me super excited, I am looking forward to eventually playing it.  I haven't even finished the expansion campaign on 2 yet.

And then finally, after 4 years of waiting, we get a glimpse of Bayonetta 3.  It was already leaked before the Direct that it might have a mention during Nintendo's Direct and that the release date would be in 2022.  Despite that, I didn't know it was the trailer for Bayonetta 3 when it was revealing "the last game of the direct".  It was a good trailer because it kept me guessing.  You have dudes in military gear shooting at a large monster that doesn't look quite angelic in a modern looking city.  Thoughts were swimming in my head: "Viewtiful Joe?  Earth Defense Force?  Xenoblade Chronicles?"  And then I remembered the leak and realized "oh, this is Bayonetta 3!"  But then I saw the dog suit and thought I was being played and it was actually a sequel for Astral Chain.  But then Witch Time happens and you see Bayonetta's reflection on the blade.  Bayonetta looks great and her new abilities are wild!  I still have my pre-order from 4 years ago and am ready to play it whenever it releases next year.

Over all, it was a pretty good Nintendo Direct Presentation and there's a lot to look forward to for the Nintendo Switch.  I'll probably be making another post next week after the Smash Bros. Presentation.