Sora

Sora is the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as a Keyblade wielder. 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. He has been best friends with Riku and Kairi ever since he was a small boy.

Sora is four years old during the events of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, fourteen during Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and fifteen during the events of Kingdom Hearts II. He lives on Destiny Islands with his best friends Kairi and Riku, and all three of them dream to venture from Destiny Islands to find out what lies beyond. Sora is also the original persona of his own Heartless and Roxas, the source of Xion's memories, and the carrier of Ventus's heart. Sora's name is derived from the Japanese word for "sky".

Kingdom Hearts
''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.''
 * First entry

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

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
''A bright and spirited boy chosen by the Keyblade to battle the Heartless.
 * Sora's Story

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.

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

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
A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.
 * First entry

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.

A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.
 * Second entry

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.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
A cheerful, energetic little boy.

He and his friend Riku always play together out on the island.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
''A boy chosen by a strange sword called a "Keyblade." After his island home was lost to the darkness, he joined forces with Donald, Goofy, and Mickey and saved all worlds. All these adventure were carefully recorded in Jiminy's Journals.''

Inside the datascape generated within the computer, a digital version of the real Sora (Data-Sora) quests in our hero's stead.

Development
Although Square Enix originally wanted Mickey Mouse to be the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, and Disney wanted Donald Duck as the protagonist, the role was eventually set as Sora, because Tetsuya Nomura wanted a human protagonist. Early on, Sora was designed as a young lion/human hybrid, wielding a chainsaw-like weapon with a lion's head keychain. The merging of Sora's design with elements from Square's proposal is referenced by his original costume, which shares many elements with Mickey's.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
After Ventus's heart is damaged by the creation of Vanitas, Master Xehanort brings the unconscious Ven to the Destiny Islands. Here, Sora's newly born heart encounters Ven in his Dive to the Heart. He offers to join hearts with Ven until Ven's heart can heal. This connection mends Ven's damaged Station, and as a side effect, it causes Vanitas's face to resemble Sora's.

Sora and Riku grow up together on the Destiny Islands as best friends and rivals. They are often seen around the islands battling with wooden swords, racing, and competing in any other way they can think of.

When Sora is four years old, he encounters Terra and Aqua, two Keyblade wielders, on separate occasions. He never speaks with Terra, but they see each other from a distance. Terra shows no interest in Sora because he is unable to sense his potential, and is instead attracted to Riku. When Aqua meets Sora and Riku, she senses that their friendship parallels that of Ventus and Terra, and she tells Sora to protect Riku if he ever falls into darkness. Sora, despite his confusion, agrees.

Later on, Sora and Riku rest on a beach. When they prepare to go home, Sora suddenly feels sad. Riku tells him that maybe someone in another world is in pain and encourages him to reach out with his heart. Sora successfully calls to Ventus, whose heart has been lost after the destruction of Vanitas and the χ-blade. Ven's heart makes its way to Sora's Station in the Dive to the Heart, and Ven asks if it can stay with Sora while he sleeps. Sora, wanting to make Ven better, happily accepts, and Ven's heart merges with him.

Between Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts
Some time later, a young girl named Kairi arrives at the Destiny Islands from another world during a nighttime meteor shower. Not long after that night, Sora and Riku explore a small, hidden cave on their islands, in search of a "howling monster". They are disappointed to find only a featureless door in the "Secret Place", and they decide to someday leave the island and have real adventures. As they leave, they decide to go see "the new girl", and Riku, unbeknownst to Sora, looks back at the door to see the Keyhole of the Destiny Islands.

Sora and Riku befriend Kairi, and the three quickly become inseparable as they play together on the islands. Often during the next several years, they often wonder about what lies beyond their small world, prompted by the mystery of Kairi's forgotten home.

Kingdom Hearts
By the time they reach adolescence, Sora, Riku and Kairi decide to build a raft, in the hopes of sailing to other worlds. The day when they start construction, Sora dozes off on the shore of the beach, and has an odd dream where he travels through an odd, dark realm and battles a massive dark creature. Sora is awakened by Kairi, and he goes to help get the provisions for the raft. However, the night before they are to set sail, a storm ravages the island along with a strange, dark force. Riku succumbs to the force, claiming he is not afraid of the darkness it so clearly embodied, while Sora tries and fails to save his friend from the darkness.

However, it is during the tempest that Sora finally unlocks his potential as a Keyblade wielder for the first time, due to harbouring Ventus's heart, summoning the power of the Kingdom Key to battle the Heartless that have now infested his home. He battles the huge number of Heartless that he had fought in his dream as he makes his way to the Secret Place, where he finds Kairi, who disappears when their bodies meet, forcing Sora to battle the same dark creature from his dream. Sora defeats the monster, but he is swept off the island and thrown into a Corridor of Darkness, which lands him in a world called Traverse Town.

In Traverse Town, Sora wanders around until he runs into a man called Leon, who demands the Keyblade from him. Sora refuses and instead fights Leon, but the battle takes its toll on Sora and he collapses. He is taken to a safe house by Leon and Yuffie, who explain the nature of the Keyblade, the Heartless and Ansem the Wise to him. Eventually the Heartless make their way to the house and Sora is forced to part with Leon and Yuffie. Sora makes his way to the town's Third District where he first meets Donald Duck and Goofy, the respective Royal Court Magician and Captain of the Royal Guard of Disney Castle. Shortly after, they are attacked by Heartless and the leader, the Guard Armor. After the battle, the three allies introduce themselves, and Donald and Goofy reveal that under orders from their King, Mickey Mouse, they are searching for two things: a mysterious "key", and Leon. As the King has disappeared on his own quest, Donald and Goofy accompany Sora to search for their respective friends. In addition to that, Sora finds that his Keyblade might perhaps be the mysterious key the King had asked them to find.

Sora travels to numerous worlds but is unable to locate Riku and Kairi. Finally, he finds Riku in Traverse Town, but Donald and Goofy take an immediate distrust to Riku. Sora discovers that Riku is also searching for Kairi, though neither of them can find her, but as he gets into an argument with Donald over Riku's reliability, Riku disappears. Satisfied with the knowledge that Riku is fine, Sora resumes his quest to find Kairi, unaware that Riku is slowly being manipulated into turning against him by the evil witch, Maleficent.

His quest allows him to make countless new friends while the power of his heart increases, which also improves his Keyblade's power. Sora's friendship with Donald and Goofy is also strongly magnified over the course of the journey. However, numerous times across his journey, Sora crosses paths with an increasingly hostile Riku, and in Neverland, Riku finally turns on Sora, revealing that he has found Kairi and even creates a Heartless out of Sora's shadow to battle him.

Upon reaching Hollow Bastion, Sora confronts Riku once again. Riku reveals to him that he is the true Keyblade master, claiming the Keyblade for his own. Despite their guilt at doing so, Donald and Goofy are forced to abandon Sora because of the King's orders to stay with whoever has the Keyblade. Sora finds Beast, whom Riku had previously injured in a scuffle and who is searching for his lost love, Belle, following their world's destruction by Maleficent. Since Sora now lacks a weapon, Beast agrees to protect him on their journey into the castle.

But Sora and Beast end up separated and Sora confronts Riku, Donald and Goofy by himself. Riku attacks Sora, but Donald and Goofy intervene to defend Sora, unwilling to work with Riku any longer. Due to his stronger heart, Sora regains the Keyblade from Riku and defeats him in battle, forcing him to retreat. Sora makes his way deeper into the castle where he encounters and defeats Maleficent. However, Riku reappears, now possessed by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, goading Sora to follow him deeper. Eventually Sora finds an inconscious Kairi in the castle's Great Hall, where Ansem reveals that Kairi has lost her heart, which is inside Sora. Ansem attempts to extract Kairi's heart from Sora in order to complete the final Keyhole, but Sora fights back and defeats Ansem. But in order to save Kairi, Sora stabs himself in the chest with Ansem's Keyblade, freeing Kairi's heart but at the cost of turning into a Heartless. Retaining his selfhood due to willingly releasing his heart, Sora follows Donald, Goofy and Kairi until Kairi recognises him and helps him return to his normal state. Sora and the others promptly flee back to Traverse Town, where Sora decides to go back to Hollow Bastion and free Riku from Ansem. Kairi gives Sora her Lucky Charm, and tells him that she will be with him wherever he goes.

Sora returns to Hollow Bastion and manages to seal the final Keyhole. He is then reunited with Leon, Yuffie and Aerith, who claim Hollow Bastion was their previous home. However, the Princesses of Heart tell Sora that Ansem has departed for another world. Sora eventually tracks Ansem to End of the World, a Heartless world made of the remnants of all the worlds destroyed by the darkness. Sora, Donald and Goofy corner Ansem on the remains of Destiny Islands and do battle with him, eventually defeating him and his World of Chaos battleship in the endless abyss just outside the Door to Kingdom Hearts. In desperation, Ansem tries to open Kingdom Hearts, but Sora realises that beyond the door is Light, which proves to be true when the Light shines out and seemingly destroys Ansem.

Sora, Donald and Goofy attempt to close the door before the Heartless can come through, but have very limited success until Riku and Mickey himself appear to aid them. As a final request before the door closes, Riku asks Sora to "take care of [Kairi]", and Sora and Mickey use their Keyblades to seal the Door to Darkness forever, at the cost of leaving Riku and Mickey trapped on the other side.

As End of the World breaks apart, Sora spots Kairi and promises to return to her as they are separated once again, with Kairi returning to Destiny Islands. Sora, Donald and Goofy end up on a path in a grassy field, thinking about a way to find Riku and Mickey. Just then, Mickey's dog, Pluto appears with a letter from Mickey, and they follow him into the distance with renewed hope.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Eventually, they reach a crossroad and night falls, so they decide to sleep. But a mysterious man in a long black hooded cloak appears and informs 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 disappears and only one path remains. The trio follow the path which leads them to a mysterious castle known as Castle Oblivion. They enter the castle hoping to pick up some clues as to the whereabouts of their friends only to discover, as they ascend the floors of the fortress, they are beginning to lose their memories and become more and more uncertain of what they are truly after. Even Jiminy's journal has been erased of its entries.

Little do they know, their memories are being manipulated by a mysterious organization that seeks to capture and manipulate Sora. To do this, they use 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 Kairi with herself, partly because she is Kairi's Nobody and so is unable to completely erase her from Sora's memories. Meanwhile, a conflict between the members of the Organization leads to several encounters between Sora and Riku, whose memories of Kairi have also been replaced with ones containing Naminé.

The trio's uncertainty builds up to a point where they end up in Twilight Town, a place that Sora is fairly certain that he has never been in, and thus should not exist in his memory. Organization member IV, Vexen, reveals 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 ends up betraying Marluxia, the lord of Castle Oblivion and the man who led Sora there, revealing that Marluxia and Larxene, the newest members of their group, intend to use Sora to overthrow the Organization's Superior. Axel manipulates Naminé into doing what she believes is right. Donald and Goofy try to reason with Sora about the whole situation later, but he is so stubborn that he separates from them to go on his own.

On Destiny Islands, Sora is touched to have finally found Naminé, who tries to make him remember who was truly important to him. After taking one look at the lucky charm, it returns to its original form and Naminé takes the temporary form of Kairi. Sora escapes the memory-based Destiny Islands and confronts Naminé, who reveals that she never existed in Sora's memory and that she has been replacing the person most important to him. Riku appears to them again and is again defeated by Sora. When Sora tries to help the injured Riku, he attacks Sora and gains the upper hand. Having left no choice, Naminé uses her power to break Riku's memories, and it causes him to collapse. Larxene comes forth to eliminate Sora and Riku, who is revealed to actually be a Riku Replica, created by Vexen.

When Larxene is about to eliminate Sora, Donald and Goofy catch up to save him, fully prepared to forgive him for his past actions. Together, they defeat Larxene and Sora forgives a regretful Naminé for her actions. She promises to restore the memories of the trio once they reach the 13th Floor of Castle Oblivion, where Marluxia is waiting for them. Axel attempts to destroy Marluxia himself, but then Marluxia uses Naminé as a human shield. Sora steps in and defeats Axel before Axel fakes his death and leaves. After finally catching up to them, Marluxia orders Naminé to completely erase Sora's memory so he could make Sora his puppet; Naminé refuses, but Sora orders 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 are broken, arrives and saves Naminé before she can do so.

Then Sora, Donald and Goofy step into the thirteenth floor's dimension where they engage Marluxia in battle. Once Marluxia is defeated, Naminé asks that they step into Memory Pods that will rearrange their memories back to the way they were at the cost of breaking the links she created. She also informs him that the process will take some time, during which Sora, Donald, and Goofy will have to sleep as their memories are slowly restored. While they know that this will cause them to forget Naminé, Sora promises her that while she is forgotten, she will remain somewhere in his heart, never lost, and when he wakes up, they will become friends for real.

Right before he goes to sleep, Naminé informs him that some of his memories are unreachable and asks him to remember Kairi, because his memory of her is the light that will bring them all back. Sora then uses most of the power of his memories to remember Kairi before going to sleep for real.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Over the course of Sora's year-long sleep, Naminé begins to have difficulties in restoring Sora's memories due to the existence of Roxas, Sora's Nobody created when Sora stabbed himself with Ansem's Keyblade, and Xion, a replica of Sora created by Organization XIII in case Sora proves useless to their plans to create an artificial Kingdom Hearts by slaying hordes of Heartless. Sora's memory restoration gradually slows down and eventually comes to a complete stop after Xion is defeated and absorbed by Roxas. In order to help Sora awaken with his memories intact, DiZ orders Riku to capture Roxas with the intention of merging him with Sora, at the same time moving Sora, Donald and Goofy from Castle Oblivion to Twilight Town in order to keep them safe from the Organization.

Kingdom Hearts II
After sleeping for a whole year, Sora, Donald and Goofy awaken in the basement of the Old Mansion in Twilight Town with their former memories restored, thus unable to remember anything after defeating Ansem. Moments prior, Roxas comes to see Sora and eventually fuses with him. Eventually they find their way out of the mansion and explore Twilight Town, with Sora expressing a familiarity with the world due to Roxas having visited previously. Eventually they meet three locals, Hayner, Pence and Olette, who direct them to the Train Station, where they claim to have seen Mickey. They rush for the station but are ambushed by strange creatures. Still weary from sleep, Sora, Donald and Goofy collapse but are saved by Mickey himself, who dispatches the creatures and provides them with some Munny to board a specific train. Hayner, Pence and Olette arrive to see Sora off, and Sora briefly cries as he parts company with them, due to Roxas crying inside him (since Roxas had previously met and befriended digital versions of them in a simulated Twilight Town).

The train takes them to the Mysterious Tower, where they meet a humanoid cat named Pete, who intends to conquer the universe with Maleficent's help. Sora comes triumphant by defeating Pete's Heartless squad and telling him Maleficent is gone. When Pete reveals that the owner of the tower is Yen Sid, Mickey's teacher, Sora, Donald and Goofy rush inside to meet him. Yen Sid tutors Sora on the results of their past endeavours and the enemies they will face, such as the Heartless, the Nobodies and Organization XIII. On Yen Sid's request, three good faires, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather provide Sora with new clothes containing new powers, and Yen Sid recovers the Gummi Ship for them. Now fully prepared, Sora sets out on a new quest with his friends to find Riku and stop the Organization.

Sora's first stop is Hollow Bastion, having been mostly rebuilt by Leon and his group, now calling themselves the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. However, the reunions are cut short when the remaining members of the Organization appear and set a group of Nobodies on them. Sora manages to defeat the Nobodies and confront the Organization, but they flee. One member briefly stays behind to taunt Sora, cryptically remarking on the similarities between Sora and Ventus, but Sora scoffs it as banter. Shortly after the member leaves, the Keyblade opens a pathway to new worlds and he sets out on his quest.

After visiting numerous worlds Sora, Donald and Goofy are summoned to Disney Castle which is under attack. Sora investigates and discovers, to his horror, that the assailant is the resurrected Maleficent, who has sent Pete to the past to destroy the castle's Cornerstone of Light, which protects it from the darkness. With Merlin's help, Sora ventures into the past and manages to stop Pete before he can succeed, saving Disney Castle from doom.

Sora's next destination is Twilight Town, where they are attacked by a horde of Nobodies led by Organization member Saïx. Saïx expresses concern for Sora's safety, informing him that his fellow member, Axel, intends to turn him into a Heartless, and warns him not to rely on darkness in order to avoid Riku's fate, leaving Sora confused before departing. Hayner, Pence and Olette arrive and inform him that Kairi turned up in their world recently but was kidnapped by a man in a black coat. Sora resolves to find Kairi no matter what.

Eventually, Sora returns to Hollow Bastion, where Leon discovers the computer of Ansem the Wise, but which has been blocked by security measures. Careless acting by Donald leads to them being digitised and sent into a world inside the computer, where they meet a security program named Tron. Tron helps Sora, Donald and Goofy fight their way through the datascape where they access the DTD. Unfortunately, at the same time, the tyrannical Master Control Program, rebellious towards being controlled by "Users", tries to initiate Hollow Bastion's destruction sequence, but is stopped by Tron, who sends Sora back to the real world. During this time, Sora, Donald and Goofy are reunited with Mickey, who is unable to provide them with information on Riku's whereabouts but reveals to them a stunning truth: the man they fought outside Kingdom Hearts was not Ansem the Wise, but actually the Heartless of Ansem's apprentice, who stole Ansem's name at one point. Just then, Hollow Bastion is attacked by an army of Heartless. Sora, Donald and Goofy rush to help, running into Organization member Demyx, who they manage to fight and defeat after an intense battle. However, Goofy is incapacitated and apparently killed after taking a blow for Mickey, and the group is forced to continue without him, but he quickly rejoins them. After fighting off the rest of the Heartless, Sora confronts the Organization's leader, Xemnas, the Nobody of Ansem's apprentice, Xehanort, but before they can fight him, Xemnas flees. Then, Axel appears before Sora, who obviously does not remember him. Axel reveals Xemnas's name, but is interrupted by Saïx, who stole Kairi from Axel, forcing him to flee. Sora literally begs Saïx to let him into the Realm of Darkness to find Kairi, but Saïx refuses and orders Sora to carry on slaying Heartless and releasing their hearts in order to complete their Kingdom Hearts. Sora loses the will to fight after this, but thanks to Maleficent's intervention, Sora, Donald and Goofy manage to escape. Sora then resumes his quest, determined to find Riku and Kairi and stop Xemnas once and for all.

Sora travels across the worlds again, encountering several Organization members and defeating hundreds of Heartless along the way. Eventually, his search takes him back to Twilight Town, where Hayner, Pence and Olette are trying to find Kairi inside the Old Mansion. They are ambushed by Nobodies, but manage to defeat them when Mickey narrowly arrives on the scene. Sora finds a way to the simulated Twilight Town, and through there, a way to Betwixt and Between, where they are attacked by an army of Nobodies. This time, Axel reappears to aid Sora, and eventually sacrifices himself to destroy the Nobodies. As he lays fading away, Axel apologises for kidnapping Kairi and opens a portal to the Organization's stronghold, The World That Never Was.

Once inside the world, Sora is confronted by Roxas, who transports them to their Awakening. Roxas attacks Sora relentlessly, at one point asking why Axel chose Sora over him, but Sora gets the upper hand and defeats Roxas, returning to the real world with Donald, Goofy and Mickey. They make their way to the Organization's castle, where Kingdom Hearts is nearly complete. Sora makes his way through the castle with Donald and Goofy while Mickey reunites with DiZ, revealed to be the real Ansem the Wise, who seeks to seal Kingdom Hearts away with a data encoder. Sora encounters and defeats Organization member Xigbar, the same man who taunted him in Hollow Bastion and who makes a few cryptic remarks about Sora's predecessors (Terra, Aqua and Ventus). Following this, Sora is finally reunited with Kairi, having been freed by Naminé and protected by Xehanort's Heartless. Though Sora forgives Xehanort's Heartless for his previous wrongdoings, he quickly realises that the man is actually a disguised Riku, who had to take this form in order to defeat Roxas in the Realm of Darkness. Now reunited with his friends, Sora encounters and kills Saïx and Luxord before reaching Ansem and Mickey just as the encoder overloads and explodes, apparently killing Ansem, leaving a huge hole inside Kingdom Hearts and restoring Riku's original form. Sora confronts Xemnas at the top of the tower and refuses his request to gather more hearts.

Sora fights Xemnas one on one in Memory's Contortion, and defeats him. After this, Xemnas merges with the remains of Kingdom Hearts and shapes the realm into one resembling the World that Never Was. Sora and company pursue him and manage to defeat him once again. As Xemnas apparently fades back into darkness, Roxas and Naminé appear and fuse with Sora and Kairi at last. However, just as everyone but Sora and Riku return to Destiny Islands, Xemnas reappears and resumes the battle. Though the battle takes its toll on all three warriors, Sora and Riku manage to defeat Xemnas once and for all, taking all Nobodies with him.

Sora and Riku end up on the Dark Margin, where Sora finds a bottled letter from Kairi. The Door to Light finally appears before them and sends them back to Destiny Islands, where they are reunited with Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Mickey. Sora finally returns Kairi's Lucky Charm to her.

Kingdom Hearts coded
Mickey digitises Jiminy's Journal in order to find the source of a mysterious message, and creates a Sora made of data in order to rid the journal of countless bugs. Eventually, Data-Sora and Mickey find a data version of Naminé, who reveals that she was responsible and the message is for the real Sora, who as the "Key that Connects Everything", must venture out on another quest to find and rescue those connected to his heart who are suffering, namely the real Naminé, Roxas, Xion, Axel, Terra, Aqua and Ventus. Mickey sends Sora a bottled letter to inform him.

Soon after, Sora is walking around in the Secret Place. He smiles while looking at all the pictures he and Kairi had drawn over the years. He glances down at the picture of Kairi and himself, and sees that Kairi drew the other half of a Paopu Fruit, and smiles to himself, mimicking Kairi's actions from a year ago. Outside of the cave, Sora asks Riku what he thinks the door to light was. Riku replies that it was Sora's heart; "It's always closer than you think". Kairi runs up to them breathlessly with Mickey's bottled letter, which Sora reads with Riku and Kairi.

Blank Points
Having read Mickey's letter, Sora decides to venture out to find Terra, Aqua and Ventus. Kairi loans him her Lucky Charm once again.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Sora appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, wearing his attire from the first Kingdom Hearts game. He is seen in the trailer for the game sitting with Riku near the Paopu Tree. Several unconscious Soras are then seen raining down from the sky in Traverse Town, one landing and summoning the Keyblade. This Sora fights off several Heartless. After this, Sora suddenly snaps awake to find himself sitting next to Kairi near the Paopu Tree.

In two of the few screenshots of the game revealed, Sora is seen with Riku on the beach at Destiny Islands, and is also seen in the Second District of Traverse Town fighting a Twilight Thorn.

The Tokyo Game Show 2011 has revealed that Sora will have a new set of clothes, reminiscent of his first Kingdom Hearts attire.

Also, in the trailer, Sora is asked by Yen Sid to participate the Mark of Mastery exam alongside Riku; in which he confidently replies with "Even without taking it, no one can beat me!". He then appears in Traverse Town, wondering about his new outfit and looking for Riku. As he shouts Riku's name, he is surprised by the appearance of Neku Sakuraba, a character from Square Enix's game, The World Ends With You. Neku reveals he was separated from his partner and needs a new one in order to survive "the Game". Sora then offers himself to be Neku's partner and asks him about his name, as they got interrupted by the Dream Eaters. At the end of the trailer Neku reveals his name, prompting Sora to call it "an interesting name".

Personality
Sora has a typical brave and heroic personality, meaning he'll willingly risk his life, even for people he doesn't even know yet. He's extremely loyal to his friends, and has been shown to be extremely forgiving to Riku (even forgiving Riku for the times he has attacked him), and is highly protective of Kairi. He constantly thinks positive and is therefore highly optimistic.

Sora is an upbeat person, and although he is simple minded at times, he has a strong sense of justice. Sora has matured over a year's time, for instance, when battling enemies in the game, he seems to have a more serious expression on his face. Sora is more confident than before and takes charge of his group. He is also quite caring and reassuring to his other-world friends, such as when Beast quits after Xaldin steals his rose. Sora reassured him that they would get it back.

Sora seems to have a remarkable capacity to forgive, even to his sworn enemies; when Maleficent loses control of the Heartless to Organization XIII and is overwhelmed by Dusks in order to allow Sora's group to escape, Sora is clearly concerned for her and is only stopped from helping her by being restrained by Donald. Another prominent example is when he forgives Naminé for rewriting the majority of his memories, despite the severity of her doings. More examples would be when he shows gratefulness towards Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, despite all the harm he had caused, for saving Kairi's life, unaware that he is actually a disguised Riku, and when he forgives Axel for kidnapping Kairi and even remains by his side as he fades from existence.

In Kingdom Hearts, he puts Riku and Kairi above all else; when telling Tarzan which friends he is missing, he starts to mention Donald and Goofy, but stops himself and instead says he is looking for Kairi and Riku. However, another reason for this could be that he had an argument with Donald before crashing into the tree house in Deep Jungle, which is further expanded on by the fact that he refers to Donald as "the loud one". However, he and Donald at first appear to be genuinely happy to see each other after they reunite at Jane Porter's campsite before turning their backs on each other, proving once more his capacity to forgive. In Kingdom Hearts II, he puts all four of them on an equal level. A prominent example of this is when Goofy is apparently fatally injured after getting hit in the head by a rock during the Battle of Hollow Bastion; Sora is clearly traumatized by Goofy's apparent death, and utters, "This is not happening. It can't be happening. It can't."

On the other hand, Sora shows little tolerance for cowardice and selfishness, criticizing both Hades and Iago for being cowardly and selfish, though ultimately forgiving the latter when he proved genuinely sorry for his actions.

Like most children his age, Sora shows a highly competitive streak, as he often competes with Riku over numerous things, mostly for Kairi's affection and attention. Also, when he asks to fight Hercules alone in the Hercules Cup, Donald calls him a show-off, and Goofy says in Chain of Memories, "Whenever there's a contest, you're always rarin' to sign up." He doesn't like to be called a kid but prefers to be called Sora.

Though he is far from stupid, Sora has often seen to be highly gullible and oblivious to what should be obvious. For example, he fell for Mulan's attempt at passing for a man; proceeding this, Mushu stated that Sora "could fall for anything". Ironically, he doesn't let his enemies fool him as easily. An example would be when he didn't fall for Xemnas's attempt to play on Sora's sympathetic side, which was far more convincing than Mulan's attempt to appear as a man. Sora is often quick to anger whenever he's confused, and is quite childish at times. He can also be seen as quite impulsive, as he tends to jump into things without thinking them through beforehand. While simple-minded and naive at times, he has a strong sense of justice, like when he proves Alice's innocence by finding pieces of evidence around Wonderland.

Sora also shows somewhat of an admiration of sea pirates during their first visit to Port Royal, wherein he is excited to meet Captain Jack Sparrow and even states that he hopes that they would be able to "take a pirate ship out for a spin" (though he tells Donald and Goofy that he was merely joking about it). Of course, he likely gets over this after Barbossa double-crosses them. Strangely enough, he doesn't show this admiration for Captain Hook or his pirate ship, probably due to the fact that Hook was holding both Kairi and Wendy captive on the ship. He was also eager to meet Santa Claus during their first visit to Halloween Town in Kingdom Hearts II (and he also shows lots of disappointment when Santa told him about the time he announced to everybody that he did not believe in Santa Claus).

Also, Sora does not seem to have experience with computers, as evidenced in the episodes in Radiant Garden and Space Paranoids—he hits the computer keyboard hard while in Radiant Garden, and whilst he was in Space Paranoids, he did not understand a single word Tron said, as it all appeared to be tech jargon. However, he does at least seem to know how to use a computer, but with very little skill, as he is shown to type with only one finger each instead of using all five each, and a Journal page of the story calls him "hardly computer-savvy", and bangs the keyboard with his fists expecting it to do what he wants. This is most likely because he lived on Destiny Islands all his life and probably didn't have access to computers there.

On occasion in Kingdom Hearts II, Sora seems to unintentionally show somewhat of a disrespect towards people of higher authority than himself upon meeting them. For example, when meeting Yen Sid, Donald and Goofy respectfully bow to him, while Sora greets him by simply saying, "Hey there!". Goofy is clearly shocked by this, and Donald shouts at him to show some respect. When meeting Queen Minnie, Sora simply asks, "Where's the King?". This leads to Donald grabbing him by the ear and asking Minnie to excuse him. When Sora and King Mickey were disputing about Ansem's identity, Sora, thinking that he has forgotten who Ansem is, drags King Mickey by the arm in order to show him the portrait of Xehanort in Ansem's study. However, when meeting Princess Jasmine again in Kingdom Hearts II, he actually does bow to her, along with Donald and Goofy. He, Donald, and Goofy also bow in respect to Simba as the new king during their second visit to the Pride Lands.

Sora also appears to have confidence in his abilities to the point of slight arrogance. In the trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, he initially objects to taking the Mark of Mastery exam under Yen Sid, claiming that he is unbeatable even without becoming a Keyblade Master, although it is unknown if he has been told at this point about Master Xehanort's coming return.

Appearance
Sora first starts off appearing tanner and somewhat lankier than his rival Riku. He seems to portray more of a typical teenage boy's looks. Sora has spiky brown hair (although in Kingdom Hearts II his hair does change from a dark brown to a more caramel color) along with blue eyes. Sora's appearance does not change that much throughout the series besides growing taller, a slightly different hair style, tanner skin, a slightly deeper voice, and having more matured looks. Sora goes through many costume changes throughout the series.

His original outfit consisted of a Mickey Mouse style outfit, containing large yellow shoes, a white and black overjacket as well as a red jumpsuit and a pair of white with yellow gloves with his signature crown necklace and crown chain. This outfit is the main outfit in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Interestingly, after Sora uses the Keyblade of People's Hearts to free Kairi's heart, his hair appears to be lighter. Using Donald's magic, his appearance is changed to that of Vampire Form and Merman Form in certain worlds.

His outfit considerably changes in Kingdom Hearts II as it turns into a black and silver outfit that, while remaining baggy, is like his original outfit. It contains a darker style using many zippers and extra leggings but still retains his crown necklace. For a short while in Twilight Town, he does wear his first outfit. With the institution of Drive Forms, his outfit can turn into different appearances for Valor Form, Limit Form, Anti Form, Wisdom Form, Master Form, and Final Form.

While he retains his typical appearance in most worlds, in certain worlds Sora's appearance is altered, either by Donald's magic or his magical Kingdom Hearts II outfit, in order to allow himself to blend in with the inhabitants of those worlds. His appearance alterations are listed here:


 * In Halloween Town, Sora takes on the appearance of a vampire with a pumpkin-like mask over one side of his face, complete with fangs and bat-like wings. This form has no special abilities. When in Drive Form, his mask changes rather than his clothes (a devilish Onion Knight-like Heartless for Valor Form, a Black Mage-like Heartless hat for Wisdom Form, a splicing of both for Master Form, a gold-and-silver crown for Final Form, a heart for Limit Form, and a Shadow Heartless for Anti Form). In this form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade also changes to grey-ish tones to match the surroundings of Halloween Town.


 * In Christmas Town in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, his attire changes from a vampire to a black Santa Claus outfit. When in Drive Form, aside from his aura, movement and manner of Keyblade wielding, the color of the hat will slightly tint to match the corresponding Form. Additionally, the symbols of the corresponding Form will appear on the hat: a red fleur-de-lis for Valor, a blue flame for Wisdom, a gold cross for Master, a silver N-shaped rune for Final, a whitish crown for Limit, and a Heartless emblem for Anti Form.


 * In Atlantica, Sora takes on the appearance of a merman with a blue dolphin tail rather than a fish tail. While in this form, Sora can breathe underwater and swim much faster than he can in his human form. Sora cannot Drive in this form; in Kingdom Hearts II, he is unable to attack at all, seeing as the world has been altered to progressing the story through musical numbers.


 * In the Timeless River, Sora's appearance changes to mirror the style of 1920s-era Disney cartoons. His skin and clothing are black-and-white, his arms and legs are long and scrawny, and he, like all other characters in this world, has taken on his very first appearance design (from the original Kingdom Hearts). He has no special abilities in this form, and when Driving, the icon of Sora by the HP Bar tints color slightly on the outline to reflect the Form transformed into, apart from the aura, manner of movement and Keyblade wielding that each Form displays; red for Valor, blue for Wisdom, yellow for Master, and white for Final. For Anti Form, however, he merely turns into a black cartoonish shadow of himself. For Limit Form in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, his icon is tinted purple.


 * In Space Paranoids, Sora is converted into a data form, wearing robot-like armor with blue circuit patterns all over his body. In this form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade is also changed to have glowing blue circuit lines as well. Sora has no special abilities in this form, and when Driving, Sora's circuit lines change color to reflect the Form transformed into (i.e. red for Valor Form, blue for Wisdom Form, yellow for Master form, white for Final Form and black with dark purple circuits for Anti Form. For Limit form, the circuits use Limit Form's colors and, unlike the other forms, are arranged as such, i.e. silver torso, red pants and yellow shoes).


 * In the Pride Lands, Sora is transformed into a brown-furred lion cub. His spiky hairstyle is now present as a mane, though he retains his crown-shaped necklace. He wields the Keyblade in his mouth. While Sora is unable to Drive or perform Summons in this form, he can move with greatly increased speed and agility. The Dash ability in this form is identical to the Mermaid Kick in Atlantica.

In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and certain scenes in Kingdom Hearts, a younger version of Sora appears. As a child, Sora's hair was lighter than it was in Kingdom Hearts, more closely resembling his hair color in Kingdom Hearts II, and it was not as spiky. Clothing-wise, Sora wore what looks like a white polo shirt with blue lining, albeit without the collar present on most polo shirts. He also wore red shorts with a maroon pocket on each leg, as well as brown sandals with yellow straps.

Keyblade
Sora gained the ability to wield the Keyblade he reached out and accepted Ven's heart. He also earned the ability to dual wield, as he carried not just his own heart, but also Ven's heart. Sora receives the Keyblade instead of Riku, who did not receive it because he had fallen into darkness.

Sora's Keyblade is a Keyblade from the Realm of Light, and it appears before him as his home world, Destiny Islands, is consumed by the Heartless. Its default form is the Kingdom Key, which uses a Hidden Mickey as its token.

Sora is sometimes able to use other wielders' Keyblades; for example, when fighting Roxas he is able to steal Roxas's Oathkeeper and Oblivion, for a total of three Keyblades, and at one point during their final battle with Xemnas, Riku lends his Way to the Dawn to Sora.

With his Synch Blade ability, Sora can also wield two Keyblades at once, though he has yet to do so outside of his Drive Forms. Sora's Synch Blade ability stems from his possession of Ventus's heart within his own. As Sora's Nobody, Roxas also possesses Synch Blade.

Magic
Sora is also very skilled in various basic magic spells (such as Fire, Blizzard, or Thunder), even more so after training with Merlin. These spells allow him to weaken Heartless that are more vulnerable to certain elements. He can also use Cure to heal himself and his allies from injuries as well as restore HP and revive a fallen party member. In Kingdom Hearts II, his basic combo is much stronger and he gains the Drive Form ability after obtaining new clothes, which give him more mastery over his strengths, speed, magic, and Keyblade. In addition to the abilities that each form grants him, Sora's speed and strength are also increased.

In Kingdom Hearts II, he learns to use Limits with party members to form a strong, special type of attack.

With a summon gem, card or charm in hand, Sora learns to the ability to summon a specific character and temporarily aid him in combat. Each character has a special power that makes them helpful. He first learns summon in Kingdom Hearts when he finds Simba's gem after his world was destroyed and brings it to the Fairy Godmother, who helps restore his spirit form; and then, he gathers five other summons, two of which did not start as summon gems. He loses all of the summon gems when their true forms are restored. In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, he learns to summon using cards instead of gems. In this game, he can use all previous summons, with one addition: Cloud. In Kingdom Hearts II, Merlin gives him a summon charm that allows him to call for a specific character to aid him. Then, he locates three other summon charms that allow him to summon more powerful characters.

Miscellaneous
Sora has become very powerful over the length of the series, becoming able to slay over a thousand Heartless in one sitting, and to defeat almost all of the members of the powerful Organization XIII. Sora is also able to go head-to-head against legendary swordsmen such as Cloud, Leon, and even Sephiroth (although, in their encounter in the second game, Sephiroth seems uninjured after the battle, even though he supposedly lost and admits that Sora is "very skilled"), and fight and defeat the countless Disney villains that have faced him (even gods like Hades and Chernabog). In the manga, Sora defeats Guard Armor and Cerberus in a single blow (though the latter had already been worn down by Hercules before Sora entered the fight). The Trick Master also faces the same fate in Wonderland. He becomes even more powerful if he uses his Drive Forms, which unlock some of his hidden power, though he requires the power of his party members to do this. After he defeats Roxas, he unlocks Final Form, gaining his full power as the Keyblade master of the Realm of Light, also Roxas's awakening from his slumber inside Sora, which also awakens the other half of his power.

However, Sora is nearly helpless without his Keyblade. Even Shadow Heartless take a huge number of hits before they are destroyed without it. However, before he left Destiny Islands, he could not even damage the Heartless without the Keyblade. His supposed weakness may be caused by the weapon he wields. When Sora is not in possession of his Keyblade, his only available weapons are the sparring weapons, Wooden Sword and Struggle Bat. If he is given proper "normal" weapons (for example, a normal sword made of steel), he can probably still fight well, although he might not be able to fight as well as when he uses the Keyblade. However, he is not utterly useless in real combat without it; he is still able to cast magic with no major decrease in power, whether he has the Keyblade or not (as long as he knows how).

While not a necessary talent for battle, Sora, as seen during the Kingdom Hearts II visit to Atlantica, is shown to be a talented singer, as he is frequently paired up with Ariel, who is widely renowned in Atlantica for her singing voice, in Sebastian's musical numbers. However, Sora is only heard singing in two songs, namely "Under the Sea" and "A New Day is Dawning", and even then, he only has a few lines for both. He also sings a few lines with Donald and Goofy after opening the Gate in Atlantica.

On many occasions, Sora demonstrates physical abilities that could be considered superhuman. In the Deep Jungle, he has shown great durability when he falls a great distance and crashes headfirst through the roof of the treehouse, emerging alive and uninjured, but slightly dazed. Similarly, when Sabor slashes him with her claws and knocks him back into a wall, he quickly gets up and fights back. Sora can either glide or actually fly, the latter of which only in the End of the World, and the final battle with Ansem. He is capable of leaping incredible distances, such as jumping up to the ceiling of the ballroom in Beast's Castle and between buildings and Xemnas's two cannons in the final battle with him in Kingdom Hearts II. Sora is able to cut through solid concrete and other durable forms of matter, even whole buildings. He can either teleport or move at speeds too fast to be seen when he uses the "Warp Snipe" Reaction Command, the Teleport Sleight, or Final Form's Final Arts.

Sora also seems to be capable of bending the universe's laws of nature to an extent. After coming into contact with Axel, the Nobody appears to have more emotion. Sora's memories seem to bind every character in the story, connecting them to himself in some way.

Quotes

 * "No! This huge, black THING swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't... ow!"
 * "It wasn't a dream! Or was it? I don't know. What was that place... so bizarre..."
 * "Okay, why not? I'll go with you, guys."
 * "The darkness may destroy my body, but it can't touch my heart."
 * "Although my heart may be weak, it's not alone."
 * "That's not true! The heart may be weak, and sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!"
 * "You're wrong. I know now, without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts is light!"
 * "Roxas... I wish I could meet him too..."
 * "I don't get it, why has everyone been calling me Roxas?"
 * "C'mon, Riku! You've been hanging out in darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive!"

Trivia

 * Although none of the parents of the characters on the Destiny Islands are shown on screen, Sora's mother can be heard calling him for dinner during the calamity in the first game. Also, in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora mentions both his mother and father while reminiscing about Naminé, and Riku mentions Sora's father to Terra in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
 * In Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, during every cutscene involving a Keyblade, Sora wields the Keyblade the player has equipped. The only cutscenes where this doesn't apply are the scenes when Sora and King Mickey seal away Kingdom Hearts, when Riku temporarily takes the Keyblade from Sora in Hollow Bastion, and before the Battle of 1000 Heartless in which he has the Kingdom Key. In the scenes with Riku, the Keyblade retains Sora's Keychain while in Sora's possession but reverts to the Kingdom Key while in Riku's hands.