World

A World is a location that appears in the Kingdom Hearts series. Serving as the "levels" for the games, Sora and other characters are charged with visiting and protecting them through the course of the series. By defending the worlds from the Heartless, Nobodies, or other enemies, Sora keeps the Darkness from spreading and the worlds from be being manipulated or destroyed.

Each world that appears in the Kingdom Hearts series has its own distinct look, and for the most part hold true to the movies and cartoons they are based off of. Often the plot of the game in that world will be based on its original source. Almost all worlds can be visited in the course of the game and are part of the playthrough; there are exceptions, though, since some places can be seen in cinematics but not actually accessed by Sora's party.

It should be noted in this context, that "world" is not as we know now, synonymous with "planet".

World Characteristics
There are over twenty worlds that have appeared in the Kingdom Hearts series so far. Most of them are based on Disney's animated features and contain locations and characters from or inspired by the films. As a result, worlds are greatly varied in apperance, style, and nature, as their sources range from the oldest cartoons created by Disney to more current movies in the Disney canon. The oldest source is the 1928 cartoon "Steamboat Willie", used as a basis for Timeless River, while the most recent inspiration for a world from Disney's animated features is 1999's Tarzan, the source for Deep Jungle. In Kingdom Hearts II, two live-action films, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Tron served as the foundation for the worlds Port Royal and Space Paranoids.

In addition to the Disney-based worlds, eight worlds are exclusives that were created by game developers Square-Enix just for the Kingdom Hearts series. They are not part of the Disney film canon, nor Square-Enix's games canon, but do tend to be populated with Square-Enix characters, especially from the Final Fantasy series, as well as the occasional Disney character or original characters created just for Kingdom Hearts.

Some worlds have names that don't seem to accurately reflect what is found there. A famous example is Neverland in Kingdom Hearts; Sora and company get to go through Captain Hook's ship and fly around the Clock Tower, but never actually reach the island Neverland where Peter Pan and Tinker Bell live. To further confuse things, some worlds in Kingdom Hearts II contain what could almost be considered sublevels or second worlds within them, such as the Underworld at Olympus Coliseum or Christmas Town in Halloween Town.

World Party Members
In certain worlds, a lead character from that area will be avaliable to fight, and can replace Donald or Goofy in the party. Kingdom Hearts had six such areas with characters.


 * Deep Jungle's playable character is Tarzan.
 * Agrabah's playable character is Aladdin.
 * Halloween Town's playable character is Jack Skellington.
 * Atlantica's playable character is Ariel.
 * Neverland's playable character is Peter Pan.
 * Hollow Bastion's playable character is Beast.

Kingdom Hearts II increased the number of worlds with party characters to nine, putting a playable party member in almost every Disney-based world. Three characters from Kingdom Hearts returned for battle: Aladdin, Jack Skellington, and Beast, although Beast was moved from Hollow Bastion to his own world. Ariel reappeared in Atlantica, but no longer as a party character, and Peter Pan became a Summon. To make the world-based party members more useful, special attacks were developed for each character that Sora could call on in the heat of battle. Kingdom Hearts II also included the first Final Fantasy party character, Auron, and allowed Sora to fight alongside his best friend, Riku.


 * The Land of Dragons's playable character is Ping/Mulan.
 * Beast's Castle's playable character is Beast.
 * Olympus Coliseum's playable character is Auron.
 * Port Royal's playable character is Jack Sparrow.
 * Halloween Town's playable character is Jack Skellington.
 * Agrabah's playable character is Aladdin.
 * Pride Lands' playable character is Simba.
 * Space Paranoids' playable character is Tron.
 * The World That Never Was' playable character is Riku.

Travel
In Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, Sora, Donald, and Goofy use the Gummi Ship to travel between worlds on the World Map, an event that serves as a mini-game between areas. Some worlds require certain special Gummi Blocks to access; for example, a special Navi Gummi must be created by Cid to unlock a second set of worlds in Kingdom Hearts. Once open, the party can enter and depart each world through its Save Points.

Three worlds can only be accessed by entering through other worlds and do not directly require use of a Gummi Ship:
 * 100 Acre Wood via Pooh's book in Traverse Town (Kingdom Hearts) and Hollow Bastion (Kingdom Hearts II).
 * Timeless River via the Hall of the Cornerstone at Disney Castle.
 * Space Paranoids via Ansem's computer in Hollow Bastion.

It should be noted in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, there are no Gummis; the worlds Sora visits are recreations from his memories from the first game brought to life on each level of Castle Oblivion.

History
According to the old lady that talked to Kairi in Hollow Bastion's Library, long ago there was one single world, probably like the one we know now. When people began to fight over the Light within their world, Darkness was able to invade this world. It completely engulfed this world and buried it. However, light remained within the hearts of children. From this light, children were able to salvage small pieces of their world from the darkness and create smaller and littler worlds. Barriers were formed around these worlds to help protect them from the darkness that destroyed their previous, single world.

Prior to Kingdom Hearts, the worlds were separated by these barriers, making it impossible for different worlds to communicate with each other. The arrival of the Heartless caused the barriers between the worlds to crumble and disappear, and some worlds were even consumed by the Heartless. Gummi Blocks are actually pieces of these broken barriers. The metaphysics of this prior to Kingdom Hearts is unknown, but will probably be revealed in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.

It should be noted as the Keyblade bearer, Sora was originally told by Donald not to meddle in the affairs of other worlds; however, he quickly realized he had to take a stand to protect them.