Memory

Memory is a key element of the Heart in the Kingdom Hearts universe, and form a strong part of the heart's existence. If a person's memory collapses, their heart collapses as well, as with happened to the Riku Replica. Memories are also contained within the heart, and while they can be concealed or forgotten, memories can never truly fade, and the heart will recognize things the mind may not, a sort of "déjà vu" feeling. For example, Leon does not consciously remember Sora and his friends in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, but does know Sora's name and feels as if they were friends.

The Nobody Naminé has the unique talent to alter the "links" in a person's memories, allowing her to create new memories, alter existing memories, or erase memories completely. When Sora has most of his memories "un-linked", Naminé must have him sleep so they can be reconnected properly. The false memories Naminé has created will be forgotten in the process, but Sora claims that "even if the links are broken, they're still there". This is never shown to be true, as Sora never shows any knowledge of the events of Chain of Memories in Kingdom Hearts II, implying he has indeed lost the false memories Naminé gave him.

Memories are particularly important to Nobodies and Organization XIII. As Nobodies do not have hearts, they do not truly exist, and memories are all that allow them to maintain their fragile existences. The Nobodies of Organization XIII also use memories of when they had hearts to fake emotion and give the appearance that they have hearts. The fortress Castle Oblivion was used by the Organization to conduct experiments on memories, and in the castle memories could be used to create entire worlds using cards formed from memories.

The memory of Xehanort is expected to be a key plot element in the upcoming game Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. According to Ansem the Wise, when he found Xehanort he had no memories but for his name, and the phrase "memory of Xehanort" appears in "The Gathering", the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts II that is related to Birth by Sleep. It is also known that Xehanort's Nobody Xemnas was searching for the "Room of Awakening" in Castle Oblivion, which was connected to the "Room of Sleep" in Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion. As Sora had to sleep for Naminé to re-link his memories, this seems to imply there is a connection between sleep and memories, though what that connection is is unknown.

Memories may also have some sort of connection to the Keyblade. Roxas dual-wields the Oathkeeper and Oblivion Keyblades, which represent Sora's memories of Kairi and Riku. Furthermore, once Roxas recovers his memories of his time as an Organization member, he is able to manifest these two Keyblades as will, while previously before remembering he could only conjure the Kingdom Key. It has been speculated that the keychains Sora uses to augment his Keyblade are formed from his memories. As keychains usually represent a world or a specific person, it could be that the keychains are formed from Sora's memories of that world/person. This would also explain why Riku is unable to use Sora's keychains for his Keyblade, as they are not formed from his memories.