Sora

"All my research amounted to nothing compared to that one boy's heart."

- Ansem the Wise

Sora is the hero and main protaganist of the Kingdom Hearts series. Sora is voiced by Haley Joel Osment in the US versions and Miyu Irino in the Japanese versions. He is an upbeat teenager who may seem simple minded at times, but realizes 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 fourteen years old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and 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 lays 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.

The Keyblade, a mystical weapon said to bring both salvation and ruin depending on the wielder is offered to Riku, but he gives in to the darkness and the Keyblade moves to the next person, which is Sora. Sora from there on becomes the one to wield the Keyblade and defeat the Heartless.

Sora is derived from the Japanese word for sky.

Kingdom Hearts
Sora is the main character of Kingdom Hearts . His white gloves, red shorts, and big yellow shoes are designed like the clothes that Mickey Mouse is often seen wearing. Sora was fourteen years old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts. He lived on the destiny islands with his friends Riku, Kairi, Selphie, Tidus and Wakka. Sora and his friends wondered about the outside world, and decided to build a raft to sail to other lands. However, the day before they were set to sail, a storm ravaged the island, along with a strange dark force. His friend Riku succumbed to the force, while Sora remained stoic. Sora was swept off the island and thrown into the Corridor of darkness which ended up in a place called Traverse Town.

There he meets 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 dissapeared in his own quest, Donald and Goofy accompanied Sora and they both started searching for their respective friends. In addition to that, Sora found himself wielding the Keyblade - perhaps 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. Malifecent 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 travels to a huge amount of worlds - including Olympus Coliseum, Halloween Town and 100 Acre Wood - to stop the Heartless.

The Keyblade, a mystical weapon said to bring both salvation and ruin depending on the wielder, is offered to Riku, but he gives in to the darkness and the Keyblade moves to the next person, which is Sora. Sora from there on becomes the one to wield the Keyblade and defeating Heartless and unlocking the doors between the worlds. He also discovers that the Seven Princesses of Heart were needed to unlock the door to the final world - Kingdom Hearts.

Upon reaching Hollow Bastion, Sora discovers that Riku was the actual wielder of the keyblade - it was given to Sora after Riku chose the side of darkness. Donald and Goofy are forced to abandon Sora because of the King's orders, but come back out of pure loyalty. The Keyblade was sent back to Sora after Riku willingly chose Darkness over light. Enraged, Riku fights Sora and loses.

After this, the party encountered Maleficent. She was defeated and was given the power of darkness by Riku who is now possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, who was known as Ansem.

When Kairi is revealed to be one of the Seven Princesses of Heart, Sora discovers that Riku believes that her heart had been stolen by the Heartless. Actually, Kairi's heart was within Sora, as she passed through him at the very beginning of the adventure. In order to return her heart to her and wake her up, Sora uses a dark Keyblade that Riku used to remove his heart and hers, sacrificing his humanity and becoming a Heartless himself for a short period of time. Kairi, however, uses her power to turn him back to normal.

After regrouping in Traverse Town, Kairi gave Sora her lucky charm, since he insisted that she should stay behind while he tried to get Riku back.

Sora and his friends manage to defeat Xehanort's Heartless at End of the World, the ‘heartless’ of all the worlds that fell into darkness. As Sora investigates the door to darkness, Riku and King Mickey appear on the other side of the door and together King Mickey and Sora seal 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 are trapped behind the door, Riku’s last words before it closed being “Take care of her”, refering to Kairi.

As the worlds begin to restore themselves, Kairi and Sora are separated. Sora promises to return to her as soon as he finds Riku and the doorway to light.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
After being separated from his friends, Sora wandered down on a long, meandering path with Donald and Goofy searching for way to find Riku and Mickey, encountering Pluto on the way. When they reach a crossroad and call it a night, a mysterious man in a long black hooded cloak appears and informed Sora that "ahead lies something you need, but to claim it, you must lose something dear." The man disappears and only one path remains. The trio follows 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 begin to lose memories and become more and more uncertain of themselves.

Little do they know, their memories are being manipulated by a mysteriousorganization that seeks to capture and manipulate Sora. To do this, they use Naminé, a young witch who can rearrange the chains of memories and create new links. In order to make Sora forget Kairi, Naminé begins to replace his memories of her with herself. Meanwhile, a conflict between the Organization's members leads to several encounters between Sora and Riku, whose memories of Kairi also have been replaced with ones containing Naminé.

The trio's uncertainty builds to a point where they end up in Twilight Town, a place that Sora is fairly certain that he has never been in, 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, 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 believes was right. She revealed to Sora that she never existed in his memory and that she has been replacing the person most important to him. Riku appears to them again and is defeated by Sora. When Sora tries to help the injured Riku, he attacks Sora. Naminé uses her power to break Riku's memory, 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.

Sora defeats Larxene and 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 when Marluxia uses Naminé as a human shield. Sora steps in and defeats Axel. Once Marluxia is defeated, Naminé asks that they step into machines 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 sleep as their memories are slowly restored. While they know that they will forget Naminé, Sora promises her that while she is forgotten, she will remain in his heart, never lost.

Kingdom Hearts II
One year after the events of Chain of Memories, Sora, Donald and Goofy awake in Twilight Town with their memories restored, although they cannot remember what happened in Castle Oblivion. Continuing their journey to find Riku and King Mickey, they set out travel across new worlds, meeting old friends and enemies from the original Kingdom Hearts game, battling the Heartless and a new threat, the remaining members of the Organization they encountered in Chain of Memories.

Soon after exploring Twilight Town, Sora and company head off to the Tower and Sora obtains new attire—on the advice of master sorcerer Yen Sid—from Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. In a nod to their film, the three fairies at first all want Sora's new outfit to be their respective color, until finally Sora convinces them to stop fooling around. The new outfit enables Sora to transform into new forms and attain special powers for each of them. The source of the clothing's magic is linked to Sora's heart, which is connected to everyone Sora had befriended including Donald and Goofy. Sora was refered to as the "key that connects everything" by Yen Sid which is how Naminé's memory manipulation works.

Throughout the game, Sora expresses his determination to bring Riku back home with him to Destiny Islands, where Kairi is patiently waiting for them. The quest gets more complicated when Kairi herself is kidnapped by Axel. Pete (who works for the resurrected Maleficent) and Organization XIII are causing trouble in the other worlds, and King Mickey refuses to give information regarding Riku. Sora must also discover why some of the members of Organization XIII address him as Roxas even after he clearly states his name is Sora. Also throughout the game Sora becomes rather intruiged and interested in the romances between some of his friends, such as Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner; hinting(unconfirmed) romantic feelings for Kairi, which Donald and Goofy smugly joke about (especially Donald, whom says "I know who you're thinking about!"). Kairi is also hinted to have similar feelings for Sora.

Eventually, Sora, with the help of the Twilight Town kids (three friends of Roxas in DiZ's simulated Twilight Town) and Axel, manages to find the route to "The World That Never Was": the stronghold of the Organization, where a copy of Kingdom Hearts, created by gathering many hearts from theheartless, resides. Soon after entering the world however, in the area of Memory Skyscraper, Sora's group is ambushed by Nobodies and Sora is forced into a showdown with an Organization member, who turns out to be Roxas (disguised in his former Organization XIII cloak) on a platform of Dive to the Heart, finally awakening after witnessing Axel's death through Sora. Afterwards, Sora, Donald, Goofy and King Mickey storm the castle in search of their friends. There, Sora finds Kairi and Riku (having Xehanort's appearance) and the mysteries of Roxas' identity and King Mickey's secrets are finally solved. Riku's appearance then reverts to the way it should and he and the others attempt to stop Xemnas, the leader of the Organization. After they seemingly defeat Xemnas, Roxas emerges from Sora's body to speak with Namine before she fuses with Kairi complete herself while Roxas returns to Sora's body.

Sora and Riku are separated from King Mickey, Goofy, Kairi and Donald. They fight Xemnas again on their own and defeat him, though they remain stranded in the dark side of The World That Never Was with Riku slightly injured. As Sora and Riku share their thoughts about their adventure and friendship, they come to the conclusion that "if worlds were made of light and darkness, [they'll] be the darkness" since the light realm is safe. As they listen to the waves, a bottle containing Kairi’s letter washes onto the shore. The door to light appears, and both Sora and Riku use it to return to their homeworld: Destiny Islands.

Having brought Riku back home and reunited at last with all his friends in one piece, Sora returns Kairi's lucky charm with Kairi saying "You're home." During the credits, 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. He sees that Kairi drew the other half of a paopu fruit, and smiles to himself.

At the end of the credits, another FMV shows Sora asking 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 and give them a bottle she found, containing a letter from King Mickey. The trio reads the letter, its contents a mystery to the player.

Powers and Abilities
Sora appears to be a natural swordsman, most likely from all his training against his friends on Destiny Islands. His skill with the Keyblade increased greatly over his journey, and he has become a master with the weapon. Sora's skill is so great that he has even be able to defeat other legendary swordsmen such as Cloud, Leon, and even Sephiroth. He becomes even more skilled after learning various techniques such as Ars Arcanum and Ragnarok. He also became skilled with various magic spells after training with Merlin. In Kingdom Hearts II, he gains the Drive ability after obtaining new clothes, which give him even more mastery over his strengths.

World transformations
When Sora enters certain worlds in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, his appearance changes to make him able to travel in that particular land.



Dolphin Sora
In Atlantica, Donald Duck transforms Sora into a merboy, though with a dolphin tail instead of a fish's.  This version of Sora has unique swimming abilities, and is able to breathe underwater.

The controls for Dolphin Sora are slightly different than the normal controls, and in addition are different depending on the game. Much like the controls for flying, the changed controls in Kingdom Hearts are: In Kingdom Hearts II, the controls are changed to:
 * Circle Button: Swim up
 * Square Button: Dive down
 * Right Analog Stick
 * Up: Swim up
 * Down: Dive down

In merboy form, Sora is unable to use any Drive form (in fact, in Kingdom Hearts II, his abilities are very limited). Also, some abilities such as Sonic Blade and Dodge Roll cannot be used. Dolphin Sora's Mermaid Kick ability is also enhanced. By pressing either the Circle or Square button twice (or pressing one right after the other), Sora will lunge like a dolphin and move very fast. This ability is kept in Kingdom Hearts II (though it has no true use).

Dolphin Sora is one of Sora's fastest forms (especially when Mermaid Kick is used). This form is one of the two drastic changes that actually alter gameplay.

Abilities

 * Mermaid Kick (unique in Kingdom Hearts II only)

Vampire Sora & Santa Sora
In Halloween Town, Donald Duck turns Sora into a vampire (it is not certain whether this is simply a costume or not). If not for his fearsome appearance, the macabre inhabitants of the town would not receive him. Sora has no special abilities in this form. When in Drive form, his mask changes rather than his clothes (for example, it changes to look like a Blue Rhapsody when in Wisdom Form). In vampire form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade also changes to grey-ish tones to match the surroundings of Halloween Town.

However, in KH2: Final Mix+, whenever he appears in Christmas Town, Sora's attire changes to resemble a Santa Claus outfit.

Program Sora
In Space Paranoids, Sora appears in robot-like armor, gray in color with glowing cyan circuit lines; essentially the appearance of nearly all non-evil human being or program in the computer world. Sora has no special abilities in this form. When Driving, Sora's circuit lines change color to reflect the Form transformed into (i.e. red for Valor Form, blue for Wisdom Form, etc.). In this form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade also is changed to have glowing blue circuit lines as well.

Retro Sora
In the Timeless River, Sora's clothes and his appearance turn black and white, and his face, arms, and figure take on characteristics of 1920's cartoon characters. Also, like everyone else at the Timeless River, he is in his first appearance design (from Kingdom Hearts). He has no special abilities in this form. When Driving, the icon of Sora by the HP Bar tints color slightly on the outline to reflect the Form transformed into.

Lion Sora
In the Pride Lands, Sora's clothes magically change him into a lion. He becomes a brown lion cub, and his hairdo is replaced by a mane; the crown-shaped pendant around his neck is still present, and he runs around with the Keyblade in his mouth. Sora cannot Drive in this form or perform Summons, although he is able to move with increased agility.

Lion Sora's abilities are different than those in other forms. The Dash ability works very much like the Mermaid Kick ability; the speed gained is pretty much equal to Dolphin Sora's version.

Abilities

 * Combo Upper
 * Aerial Impulse
 * Finishing Blast
 * Retaliating Smash
 * Running Tackle
 * Dash
 * Combo Plus (x2)
 * Air Combo Plus (x2)

Certain Support Abilities stay, such as Scan.

Other Transformations

 * In Hollow Bastion during Kingdom Hearts, Sora is turned into a Shadow after giving up his heart to free Kairi from her comatose state. While in this form, Sora is unable to do anything except jump and move around.  Luckily, there are no enemy encounters while he is in this state.  Sora is returned to normal upon arriving in the Entrance Hall.
 * Gamblers and Luxord have attacks that change Sora into either a die or a card. Sora can still attack both forms, but cannot jump and has very limited speed.