Sora

Sora is the hero and main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, and a wielder of the Keyblade. Sora is voiced by Haley Joel Osment in the English versions and Miyu Irino in the Japanese versions. He is an upbeat teenager who may seem simple minded at times, but is very aware of the importance of his quest. He possesses a strong sense of justice and an unrelenting heart. At times he is impulsive and quick to anger, but he is always sincere about what he says and does.

Sora is 14 years old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and 15 during the events of Kingdom Hearts II. He lives on Destiny Islands with his best friends Riku and Kairi, and others including Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. Sora, Riku, and Kairi wish to escape from the Destiny Islands, and find out what lies beyond. On the night before they leave a huge storm comes. The storm turns out to be the Heartless destroying the heart of the world.

His name is derived from the Japanese word for 'sky'.

Kingdom Hearts

 * First Entry

''A spirited youth. He was cast into an unknown world when a swarm of Heartless raided his island. He battles the Heartless with a mysterious weapon called the Keyblade as he searches for his friends Kairi and Riku''
 * Second Entry

''The one who fights the Heartless. Upon reclaiming the Keyblade from his rival, Riku, Sora sacrificed his heart to save Kairi and became a Heartless. Kairi's deep feelings for Sora restored him. Now he must confront Ansem, the seeker of darkness.''

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A bright and spirited boy chosen by the Keyblade to battle the Heartless.

It was Sora who defeated Ansem, ending his plan to shroud the world in darkness.

However, Sora continued his journey, seeking the friends he lost during the struggle.


 * Reverse/Rebirth

Riku's childhood friend, and the hero of light chosen by the Keyblade to stand against the darkness.

Riku fought Sora while bridled by darkness, but their friendship proved stronger, and they ultimately worked together to close the door to darkness.

Kingdom Hearts II

 * First Entry

A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.

Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friend Kairi, who had been spirited away into the darkness.

In the end, they saved the world of all worlds from the darkness that was closing in.

Then, somewhere along the way, Sora fell into a deep slumber.

Now that he is awake, he can't recall why he fell asleep to begin with.


 * Second Entry

A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.

Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friend Kairi, who had been spirited away into the darkness.

In the end, they saved the world of all worlds from the darkness that was closing in.

''After that, Sora continued journeying in search of Riku, who was trapped on the other side of the door to darkness. And somewhere along the way, Sora fell into a deep slumber.''

With a new outfit and strengthened resolve, Sora has set out once more on a search for his friend Riku.

The Secret Place
Sora and Riku were friends and rivals as they grew up. They would often battle with wooden swords, and race, and do anything else that was competitive. One day a mysterious little girl named Kairi came to their islands from a different place. She was adopted by the mayor and Sora and Riku quickly became friends with her. Another day Sora and Riku found a small, hidden cave on their islands. They searched the Secret Place while discussing Kairi and the meteor storm that had recently hit. They found a door with no handle at the back of the cave and, because they couldn't open it, they left. But not before Riku saw something more.

Journey off Destiny Islands
Sora and his friends Riku and Kairi lived in the isolated world of the Destiny Islands, and often wondered about what lay beyond their small world. They decided to build a raft to sail to other lands. The day when they started construction, Sora dozed off on the beach and had an odd dream where he traveled through an odd, dark realm and battled a massive dark creature. Sora was awakened by Kairi and he went and help get the provisions for the raft. However, the day before they were to set sail, a storm ravaged the island along with a strange dark force. Riku succumbed to the force, claiming he was not afraid of the darkness it so clearly embodied, while Sora tried and failed to save his friend from the evil. However, it was during the tempest Sora first unlocked his potential as a Keyblade wielder, summoning the power of the Kingdom Key to battle the Heartless that now infested his home. He battled the massive Heartless that he had fought in his dream and defeated it, but Sora was swept off the island and thrown into a Corridors of Darkness, which landed him in a place called Traverse Town.

Quest to Find His Lost Friends
There he met Donald Duck and Goofy, the respective Royal Court Magician and Captain of the Royal Guard of Disney Castle. Under orders from King Mickey, the pair were searching for two things - a mysterious 'key' and a man called Leon. As the King has disappeared in his own quest, Donald and Goofy accompanied Sora and they started searching for their respective friends. In addition to that, Sora found that his Keyblade might perhaps be the mysterious key the King had asked them to find.

Sora discovered that Riku was also searching for Kairi, though neither of them could find her. Maleficent saw her chance and used her magic to poison Riku's mind against Sora, saying that befriending Donald and Goofy was a betrayal to Riku and Kairi. With this false knowledge, he set out to find Kairi on his own, as Sora traveled to a number of worlds to stop the Heartless. Sora from there on unlocked the doors between the worlds, and locked them out from the reach of the Darkness.

Upon reaching Hollow Bastion, Riku confronted Sora, and took back the Keyblade. Donald and Goofy are forced to abandon Sora because of the King's orders: to stay with whoever has the Keyblade. However, when Sora was about to fight Riku, they rejoined their old friend after he has strengthened his heart. The Keyblade returned to Sora because his friendship with Donald and Goofy gave strength to his heart, stronger than Riku's. Enraged, Riku fought Sora and lost. Furious at his weakness, he opened his heart further to darkness and allowed himself to be possessed by Xehanort's Heartless.

After this, the party encountered Maleficent. She was defeated and the darkness of her heart was unlocked by Riku, possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, who was known as Ansem. She transformed into a black, fire-breathing dragon from the proliferation of darkness in her heart, but was again defeated and the Heartless swallowed her heart. Further into the depths of Hollow Bastion, Sora first encountered and fought Ansem, the supreme seeker of darkness and Kingdom Hearts itself, who now spoke through and controlled Riku's body, making him mortal again. Although it was difficult fighting his best friend, Sora emerged victorious in the struggle.

Kairi was revealed to be one of the Seven Princesses of Heart, but the door to Kingdom Hearts could not open because her heart lay within Sora. In order to return her heart and wake her up, Sora used the dark Keyblade that Riku had to remove both their hearts, sacrificing his humanity and becoming a Heartless himself. When he managed to reunite with Kairi after a brief stint as a Shadow, Kairi used her light to return him to his human form. Which as he himself becomes only a shadow, it would seem that Sora has little darkness in his heart is the reason he was made into a weak Heartless a person's Heartless is made in strength by the measured darkness in his heart.

After regrouping in Traverse Town, Kairi gave Sora her lucky charm (Oathkeeper's keychain) since he insisted that she should stay behind while he tried to reclaim Riku from Xehanort's Heartless' clutches.

Sora and his friends managed to defeat Xehanort's Heartless at End of the World, the "Heartless" of all the worlds that fell into darkness. Xehanort's Heartless, slowly fading, called forth to Kingdom Hearts to fill him with the power of Darkness, but Sora proclaimed that Kingdom Hearts was light and Xehanort's Heartless was destroyed by said light. However, Heartless began to swarm inside of the door and Sora, Donald and, Goofy rushed forward to close it. As Sora attempted to close the door to darkness, Riku and King Mickey appeared on the other side of the door and together King Mickey and Sora sealed it from both sides; with Sora's Keyblade from the realm of light and Mickey's Keyblade from the realm of darkness. However, Mickey and Riku were trapped behind the door as it closed shut. Riku’s last words to Sora before it closed were “Take care of her”, referring to Kairi.

As the worlds began to restore themselves, Sora saw Kairi on a platform of sand that was drifting away. Kairi and Sora were separated with Kairi going back to the islands. Sora promised to return to her as soon as he found Riku and King Mickey.

Castle Oblivion
After being separated from his friends, Sora wandered down on a long, meandering path with Donald and Goofy searching for a way to find Riku and Mickey, encountering Pluto on the way. When they reached a crossroad and called it a night, a mysterious man in a long black hooded cloak appeared and informed Sora, "Along the road ahead lies something you need. However in order to claim it you must lose something that is dear to you." The man disappeared and only one path remains. The trio followed the path which led them to a mysterious castle known as Castle Oblivion. They entered the castle hoping to pick up some clues as to the whereabouts of their friends only to discover, as they ascended the floors of the fortress, they were beginning to lose their memories and became more and more uncertain of what they were truly after.

Losing His Memory
Little did they know, their memories were being manipulated by a mysterious organization that sought to capture and manipulate Sora. To do this, they used Naminé, a young witch who could rearrange the chains of memories in a person's mind and create new links between them. In order to make Sora forget Kairi, Naminé begins to replace his memories of her with herself. Meanwhile, a conflict between the members of the Organization led to several encounters between Sora and Riku, whose memories of Kairi had also been replaced with ones containing Naminé.

The trio's uncertainty built up to a point where they ended up in Twilight Town, a place that Sora was fairly certain that he has never been in, and thus should not exist in his memory. Organization member IV, Vexen, revealed that it is a place that exists on the other side of Sora's heart, but is eliminated by Axel, another member of the Organization, before he can explain anything.

Axel ended up betraying Marluxia, the lord of Castle Oblivion, revealing that Marluxia and Larxene, the newest members of their group, intended to use Sora to overthrow the Organization. Axel manipulated Naminé into doing what she believed was right. Donald and Goofy tried to reason with Sora about the whole situation later, but he was so stubborn that he would separate from them to go on his own.

The Truth Behind the Lies
On Destiny Islands, Sora was touched to have finally found Naminé, who tried to make him remember who was truly important to him. After taking one look at the lucky charm, it returned to its original form and Naminé took a temporary form of Kairi. Sora escaped the memory-based Destiny Islands and confronted Naminé, who revealed that she never existed in Sora's memory and that she had been replacing the person most important to him. Riku appeared to them again and was defeated by Sora. When Sora tried to help the injured Riku, he attacked Sora. Naminé used her power to break Riku's memories, and it caused him to collapse. Larxene came forth to eliminate Sora and Riku, who was revealed to actually be a Riku Replica, created by Vexen.

Sora defeated Larxene and forgave a regretful Naminé for her actions. She promised to restore the memories of the trio once they reached the 13th Floor of Castle Oblivion, where Marluxia was waiting for them. Axel attempted to destroy Marluxia himself, but then Marluxia used Naminé as a human shield. Sora stepped in and defeated Axel. After finally catching up to them, Marluxia ordered Naminé to completely erase Sora's memory so he could make Sora his puppet; Naminé refused, but Sora ordered her to do so in order to protect her from Marluxia's wrath. Fortunately, the Riku Replica, its true memories returned after his false ones were broken, arrived and saved Naminé before she was able to do so.

Then Sora, Donald and Goofy step into the 13th floor's dimension where they fight Marluxia in an incredible battle.

Forget to Remember
Once Marluxia was defeated, Naminé asked that they step into Memory Pods that would rearrange their memories back to the way they were at the cost of breaking the links she created. She also informed him that the process will take some time, during which Sora, Donald, and Goofy would sleep as their memories were slowly restored. While they knew that they would forget Naminé, Sora promised her that while she was forgotten, she would remain somewhere in his heart, never lost. And when he wakes up, they would become friends for real.

Right before he went to sleep, Naminé informed him that some of his memories were unreachable and asked him to remember Kairi, because his memory of her is the light that would bring them all back. Sora then used most of the power of his memories to remember Kairi before going to sleep for real.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
The game takes place during the time Sora is asleep in order to regain his memories. According to Naminé, the restoration of Sora's memories is slowing down, which not only affects Sora's Nobody, Roxas, but it also seems to affect Xion. In actuality, Xion is actually a "copy" of Sora that Xemnas created from Sora's memories, but because of his strong feelings for Kairi, Xion instead ended up having the physical appearance of the latter (with slight differences). The purpose of her creation was so that she could become her "true self" by merging with Roxas (the same way her "real self" Sora would merge with his Nobody and become whole), so that Sora would never awaken.



When Xion discovers this truth, she becomes depressed and soon falls apart mentally, knowing that she doesn't have a true self. In her fit of depression, she turns against Roxas, so that she can absorb him, and become whole. By this time, when the two meet on the Clock Tower of Twilight Town, she removes her hood, revealing that she now has a complete resemblance to Sora with the effects of his memory flow. Taking on a different form, she engages Roxas in battle, only to be defeated. After returning to human form (now resembling her female self again) she reveals Xemnas' intentions to Roxas, while she fades away in his arms, in turn, merging into Roxas (rather than the other way around). Naminé and DiZ (who have now moved Sora from Castle Oblivion to Twilight Town) have discovered that this has caused the memory flow to come to a complete stop. The only option left was for Riku to capture Roxas, leading to their eventual battle outside the Skyscraper in the World That Never Was. As the battle progresses, it shows that the memories of Xion are slowly disappearing.

Sora also appears as an unlockable character in multiplayer mode (in his first Kingdom Hearts appearance). His battle style in this game resembles that of Limit Form from Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix. To unlock him, you must beat the game and purchase the item Sora's Awakening from the Moogle shop. His Limit Break is Ragnarok.