World

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Destiny Islands, the first World seen in the Kingdom Hearts series.

A World is a location that appears in the Kingdom Hearts series. By going through the Worlds and assisting them with their problems, usually caused by the Heartless, Nobodies, or other enemies, Sora usually stops his enemies from gaining ground by keeping the Worlds from be being manipulated or destroyed. As the Keyblade bearer, Sora was originally told not to meddle in the affairs of other Worlds, but quickly realized he had to take a stand to protect them from the Darkness.

Each World 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 story in that World will be based on its original source. Most Worlds can be visited in the course of the game and are part of the playthrough. However, there are exceptions since some worlds can be seen in cinematics but not actually accessed by Sora's party.

World Characteristics

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Deep Jungle from Tarzan is the area based on the most recent Disney film to appear in the Kingdom Hearts series.

There are over twenty Worlds that have appeared in the Kingdom Hearts series so far. Most of them are based on famous Disney films and contain locations and characters based on those movies. As a result, Worlds are greatly varied in apperance and nature, as their sources range from the oldest cartoons created by Disney to more current films. The oldest Disney source is 1928's "Steamboat Willie", used as a basis for Timeless River, while most recent inspiration for a world is 1999's Tarzan, the source for Deep Jungle.

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

For some Worlds, the name doesn'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.

World Party Members

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Aladdin serves as a playable character in Agrabah in both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.

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 back to his own world. In addition, special attacks were developed for each character that Sora could call on in the heat of battle. The game 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

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Gummi Ships allow travel between most Worlds in the Kingdom Hearts series.

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 the second set of Worlds in Kingdom Hearts. Once open, the party can enter and depart each World through the Save Points scattered throughout each World.

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 in 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

Prior to Kingdom Hearts, the worlds were separated by barriers, making it impossible for different worlds to communicate with each other. The arrival of the Heartless caused the barriers between the worlds to 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.