Characters Kingdom Hearts features a mixture of Disney and Square Enix characters, as well as several new characters designed and created by Nomura. In addition to original locations, the
Kingdom Hearts series features many worlds from Disney films. Sora must visit these worlds and interact with various Disney characters to protect them from enemies. Often, his actions in these worlds closely follow the storylines of their respective Disney films. The main characters try not to interfere with the affairs of other worlds, as it could negatively affect the universe's order. Various
Final Fantasy characters also make appearances within several worlds throughout the series. This includes
Moogles, small creatures who are another common element in the games. They provide the player with a synthesis shop to create and purchase items used in the game. The main cast from
The World Ends with You - Neku Sakuraba, Joshua, Beat, Rhyme, and Shiki - appear in
Dream Drop Distance, and
Kingdom Hearts III features characters from
Pixar films such as the
Toy Story series and
Monsters, Inc., as well as Schwarzgeist, one of the bosses from
Einhänder. Nevertheless, the usage of Disney characters is not without restrictions. For example, Nomura had requested the use of
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in
Kingdom Hearts III, but the response from Disney was that the character would be "too difficult" to use, with no further clarification or details from Disney. Common enemies in the series include the , creatures who are born from the darkness of people's hearts, lack a soul, and seek to consume others' hearts. When Heartless are created, the body left behind becomes a . Nobodies typically have monstrous appearances, but the members of Organization XIII retain their human forms due to possessing strong hearts as humans and remembering their original selves. If both a Heartless and their Nobody counterpart are killed, then the original person is resurrected. The are creatures that are introduced and predominantly appear in
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. Described by Nomura as being "those who are not well-versed in their own existences", they are Vanitas' emotions given form and feed on negativity. Vanitas pits these creatures against Ventus to strengthen him as part of Xehanort's plan to obtain the χ-blade. Upon defeat, the Unversed's negativity reintegrates with Vanitas, allowing him to recreate them no matter how many times they are destroyed. are primarily featured in
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Like the Heartless, they are beings of darkness that inhabit the Sleeping worlds isolated from the realm of light and are compelled to find the worlds' keyholes. Dream Eaters manifest in two kinds: hostile "Nightmares", which devour good dreams and create bad ones and serve as the game's enemies; and benevolent "Spirits", which the player can create to serve as party members and combat the Nightmares. Additionally, cat-like Dream Eaters called Chirithy appears in
Kingdom Hearts χ and
Kingdom Hearts III as NPCs.
Heartless The are creatures born from the darkness of people's hearts, and lack a body or soul. They are the most common type of enemy the player encounters in the
Kingdom Hearts series, acting as forces of darkness who seek to consume more hearts, including those of worlds. Their name derives from their lack of a heart, despite originating from people's hearts after darkness consumes them. Initially, the Heartless existed within an all-encompassing variety, the "Pureblood", and, prior to the events of the first
Kingdom Hearts, they were typically only encountered in the realm of darkness, although people with a strong will may summon them to the realm of light. While studying the Pureblood Heartless, as a side effect of their research to control the mind through the heart, Xehanort and Ansem's other apprentices found a way to create artificial "Emblem" Heartless via the corruption of living hearts, which are differentiated from Purebloods by an insignia on their bodies. Unlike Purebloods, Emblem Heartless release hearts once defeated. However, unless the Keyblade is used to defeat the Heartless, the stolen hearts go to the realm of darkness and turn into Heartless again. This, combined with Maleficent's quest to gather the seven Princesses of Heart by using the forces of darkness, make the Heartless a common sight within the realm of light by the time of the first
Kingdom Hearts. Ordinarily, the Heartless are mindless and function on instinct, but obey those with a strong will. However, in worlds closer to darkness, the Heartless are more powerful and uncontrollable. They invade worlds through corridors of darkness, which are unpredictable pathways that interlink the worlds.
Nobody When Heartless are created, the body and soul of those with strong hearts that have lost their hearts to darkness become another type of creature called a . Despite this, Nobodies can gain new hearts of their own over time, separate from their original selves. Nobodies typically assume malformed, inhuman shapes, but the members of
Organization XIII keep their human forms because they possessed strong hearts as humans and thus remember their original self. Most members of the Organization control one type of Nobody suited to their fighting style, each corresponding to a
job in
Final Fantasy. Like the Emblem Heartless, the Nobodies have an insignia—an upside-down, incomplete heart—which was designed to resemble a splintered heart as a complement to the Heartless emblem. Upon being defeated, a Nobody fades into a state of non-existence until its Heartless counterpart is destroyed with the captive heart released, recreating the original being. Within the series, two Nobodies, Roxas and Naminé are considered "special cases" regarding the circumstances of their births. Both were created when Sora used Xehanort's Keyblade of heart to release his and Kairi's hearts, respectively, but coexist alongside their original selves, rather than in lieu of them. Unlike most of Organization XIII's members, who resemble their original selves with their memories and personalities intact, Roxas resembles Ventus rather than Sora due to holding the former's heart within himself, and lacks Sora's memories due to the short duration of Sora's Heartless state. Meanwhile, Naminé was born of Kairi's heart through Sora's body and, in addition to not having Kairi's memories, has the ability to alter the memories of Sora and those close to him.
Unversed The are creatures that are introduced and predominantly appear in
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. Described by Nomura as being "those who are not well-versed in their own existences", Villains and boss-level Heartless make use of the bugs to assist them in fighting Data-Sora. It is later revealed that the recording of Sora's Heartless had gained sentience and is responsible for the journal being blank even after Sora's memories were restored, because the book revolved around him. It seeks to devour the rest of the digital Heartless for power and escape into the real world to sate its hunger for hearts. While its most basic form is the weak and common "Shadow" variety of Heartless, it grows increasingly powerful and gains the ability to take other forms, such as an entirely black lookalike of Sora with yellow eyes or an enormous variety of Heartless called "Darkside". The bugs cease to be after Data-Sora destroys the original bug and resets the entire datascape.
Dream Eater are primarily featured in
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Like the Heartless, they are beings of darkness that inhabit the Sleeping worlds isolated from the realm of light and are compelled to find the worlds' keyholes. Dream Eaters manifest in two kinds: hostile "Nightmares", which devour good dreams and create bad ones and serve as the game's enemies; and benevolent "Spirits", which the player can create to serve as party members and combat the Nightmares. Several boss enemy Nightmares appear under the control of Young Xehanort and various Disney villains throughout the game. Riku temporarily turns into a Dream Eater by subconsciously entering Sora's dreams upon sensing Xehanort's interference within the Mark of Mastery exam. Additionally, a type of Dream Eater called Chirithy appears in
Kingdom Hearts χ and
Kingdom Hearts III as NPCs.
Objects Keyblade are
key-shaped melee weapons created to combat darkness and are the only thing that can free hearts from a Heartless form, thus allowing the restoration of complete beings. Keyblades are also capable of locking and unlocking doors and keyholes. Initially, Keyblades were crafted in the image of the original "χ-blade" by those who wanted the light within Kingdom Hearts for themselves and those who sought the opposite. Wielders acknowledged as "Keyblade Masters" can bequeath the power to wield a Keyblade to one they deem worthy by letting them touch the handle of the blade or connecting their heart to another. There are also Keyblades like Xehanort's, which are passed down from different owners through generations. Keyblades change in both appearance and strength with different keychains, which augment its wielder's fighting capabilities; some are obtained as a result of in-game events, while others can be obtained by completing mini-games. A driving element in the first game is the ability to seal the "heart" of a world by locking the keyhole to the door leading to it, preventing it from being destroyed by Heartless. In
Kingdom Hearts II, the player uses the Keyblade to unlock pathways between worlds that were closed after the events of the first game. While Sora is the only one who uses the Keyblade in the first game, later games reveal more characters who wield Keyblades. In
Birth by Sleep, Keyblades can be transformed into hovercraft called Keyblade Gliders, which can be used to travel from world to world, making Keyblade wielders the only people with the means of transportation between worlds before Gummi Ships are used. The "gates" Sora would open later are known as the Lanes Between, which can be accessed by any Keyblade wielder.
χ-blade The is an ancient weapon of unknown origin introduced in
Birth by Sleep that is capable of directly unlocking Kingdom Hearts. It is a double-handed weapon that takes the shape of two "Kingdom Key" Keyblades that intersect in an "X" shape, with additional features that give it the shape of an actual sword. It has the power to open the heart of all worlds, and exists alongside Kingdom Hearts as its guardian. It led to "Keyblades" being crafted in its image by those seeking Kingdom Hearts' power, those who sought to extinguish the light, and those who sought to protect it. This resulted in the Keyblade War, which ended in a world known as the Keyblade Graveyard; the aftermath led the χ-blade to shatter into seven pieces of light and thirteen pieces of darkness. These seven lights, which are said to be the source of all light in the World, later became the hearts of the Princesses of Heart, who are targeted by Organization XIII as a result. In
Birth by Sleep,
Master Xehanort's over-eagerness to obtain the weapon causes him to seek two hearts of equal strength—one of pure light and one of pure darkness—to fight each other. He finds such a means through his former apprentice
Ventus and his personified darkness
Vanitas, who Xehanort created and enlisted to ensure his plans succeeded. Though Ventus and Vanitas fuse back into one being with the χ-blade in hand, the unstable χ-blade explodes due to Vanitas' destruction within Ventus.
Dream Drop Distance reveals that, as a contingency to his previous plan, Xehanort arranged the formation of his thirteen "Seekers of Darkness", the new Organization XIII composing of his various incarnations and vessels, to fight the Keyblade users, who would form seven "Guardians of Light".
Kingdom Hearts The titular is the "heart of all worlds" and the source of hearts. It is an object of immense power, which caused conflict as its light drove many to fight over it in what became the Keyblade War. In the end, Kingdom Hearts was consumed in the darkness caused by the conflict, and the worlds became separate from each other. During
Birth by Sleep, Master Xehanort seeks the return of Kingdom Hearts, and while it does appear over the Keyblade Graveyard, the flawed reunion of Ventus and Vanitas causes the unstable χ-blade to explode and Kingdom Hearts to vanish. After splitting himself into a Heartless and a Nobody, Ansem seeks out the Door to Darkness to gain access to an artificial Kingdom Hearts created from the hearts of worlds, while Xemnas seeks to create his own artificial Kingdom Hearts from the hearts of people. These artificial constructs, however, are only small-scale versions of the "true" Kingdom Hearts, which can only be accessed with its counterpart, the χ-blade. Each Kingdom Hearts takes different shapes depending on from which hearts they are created. The first game's Kingdom Hearts, artificially created from the hearts of worlds, has the appearance of a sphere of light beyond a white door. The Kingdom Hearts made by Organization XIII, on the other hand, takes the form of a yellow heart-shaped moon. The authentic Kingdom Hearts called upon by the χ-blade is depicted as a blue heart-shaped moon in
Birth by Sleep and yellow in
Kingdom Hearts III.
Story In the first
Kingdom Hearts, the story begins with a boy named Sora who is separated from his friends,
Riku and
Kairi, when their home
Destiny Islands is consumed by dark beings called Heartless. During the encounter, Sora gains a
Keyblade weapon that allows him to defeat the creatures. However, a storm of darkness transports Sora to a new world, Traverse Town, where he meets
Donald Duck and
Goofy, two Disney Castle emissaries seeking their missing king and the Keyblade wielder. The three band together to search for their companions and travel to various worlds defeating Heartless. During their travels, they encounter a group of Disney villains led by
Maleficent, who enlists Riku's aid in seeking seven
Princesses of Heart whose power can open the titular Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds. After the trio defeat Maleficent, Sora sacrifices himself to revive Kairi, whose heart was separated from her body and had resided inside him. Sora is transformed into a Shadow Heartless, but Kairi is able to restore him to his human form, and they learn that a sentient Heartless,
Ansem, has possessed Riku and attempts to open Kingdom Hearts. Though Sora defeats Ansem, he is forced to trap Riku and King Mickey in the Realm of Darkness, but resolves to find them. In
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora's search for Riku and Mickey leads his group to Castle Oblivion, a fortress controlled by a mysterious group of
Nobodies called
Organization XIII. One member of the group,
Marluxia, forces
Naminé to alter the group's memories for his agenda. After Marluxia's defeat, Naminé places the three in a year-long sleep to restore their memories and forget their experience in Castle Oblivion. While Sora ventures through Castle Oblivion, Riku ends up in the castle's basement and ascends the levels with Mickey's aid while dealing with a Replica of himself. Finding Sora comatose, Riku joins the mysterious
DiZ to help Naminé keep Sora safe. In
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, unexpected events forces Riku to capture
Roxas—Sora's Nobody and a member of Organization XIII —after he was forced to defeat and absorb
Xion, a Replica of Sora in Kairi's image. In
Kingdom Hearts II, Roxas fuses with Sora, enabling him to awaken and resume his search for Riku and Mickey. The King's mentor,
Yen Sid, familiarize the trio with the Nobodies and Organization XIII's remaining members. The three reunite with Mickey and encounter Organization XIII's leader
Xemnas, who they learn is the Nobody of the real Ansem's apprentice, Xehanort. The Organization's plan is also revealed: regaining their lost hearts by using Keyblade users to create an artificial Kingdom Hearts from slain Emblem Heartless.
Axel, a rogue Organization member who is Roxas' friend and first encountered Sora in Castle Oblivion, abducts Kairi in an attempt to see Roxas. Axel's action give
Saïx, his former friend and Xemnas' enforcer, leverage to force Sora into finishing what Roxas and Xion began. Axel sacrifices himself to help Sora's group reach Organization XIII's headquarters and reunite with Riku and Kairi. DiZ, revealed to be the real Ansem, attempts to dissipate the artificial Kingdom Hearts before being engulfed in an explosion when his extraction device self-destructs and is sent to the Realm of Darkness. Sora and his friends then battle Xemnas. After Sora and Riku defeat Xemnas, they become trapped in the Realm of Darkness, but a letter from Kairi summons a gateway and the two are reunited with their friends at their home. Sometime after his first adventure in Disney Castle, Sora discovers a portal at Disney Castle leading to a mysterious armour referred to as the Lingering Will. During their exchange, the Lingering Will mistakes Sora for Xehanort, after which Sora fights it and wins. During
Kingdom Hearts Coded, Mickey writes a letter to Sora, Riku, and Kairi about parts of their past that Naminé learned while restoring Sora's memory. After receiving the letter, they learn that
Xehanort is a Keyblade Master who sought the secrets of the Keyblade War that shaped the fates of his friend's,
Eraqus, apprentices during the events of
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
Terra became possessed by Xehanort, with his heart being transferred to a Heartless known as the Dark Figure that serves Ansem.
Ventus sacrificed his heart to prevent Xehanort from recreating the
χ-blade, which allows the user to control Kingdom Hearts; separated from his body, Ventus' heart was absorbed into Sora's, while
Aqua placed his comatose body in Castle Oblivion. Aqua later became trapped within the Realm of Darkness, while an amnesiac Xehanort became Ansem's apprentice alongside
Braig. Mickey also discovers that the destruction of "Ansem" and Xemnas has led to Xehanort's restoration. To combat the new threat Xehanort poses, Sora and Riku take the Mark of Mastery exam to become Keyblade Masters. During the test in
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Sora and Riku encounter a young version of Xehanort who can travel through time. The two Keyblade wielders learn how Xehanort has manipulated events since
Birth by Sleep with Organization XIII's true purpose to provide thirteen vessels for him to use against seven hearts of pure light in a battle to recreate the χ-blade. Sora's interference forces Xehanort to retrieve his alternate selves,
Marluxia,
Larxene,
Demyx,
Luxord,
Vanitas, and Xion from across time in Replica bodies to form his ideal Organization XIII with
Xigbar, Saïx, and
Vexen. Sora is narrowly saved from being Xehanort's final vessel, and Riku learns about Ansem the Wise's secret plan to save those connected to Sora. At the end of the exam, Riku is declared a Keyblade Master; in
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, Sora embarks on a journey to regain his "Power of Waking" while Riku helps Mickey find Aqua. Yen Sid begins training Kairi and
Lea so they can help battle against Xehanort. In
Kingdom Hearts III, Sora regains his "Power of Waking" in his group's travels while Riku and Mickey retrace Aqua's steps. Sora later discovers Eraqus's Keyblade and uses it to open a door to the Realm of Darkness, finding Aqua who has been consumed by darkness after Ansem was abducted by Xehanort's Heartless. Once Sora and Riku purify Aqua, she leads them to Castle Oblivion, which she restores to its true form as the Land of Departure to revive Ventus despite Vanitas' interference. Kairi and Lea join the group as they face Xehanort, his followers, and a
Riku Replica at the Keyblade Graveyard. After initially losing, Sora once again uses the "Power of Waking" to restore the guardians and call the "Lingering Will" armor, to assist. Afterward it is revealed that Saïx and Vexen sabotaged the Organization's plan by restoring Roxas in a replica body. Sora's group manages to defeat Xehanort's remaining selves while freeing Xion and Terra from his control. Xehanort kills Kairi to force Sora to manifest the χ-blade, revealing his plan is to use the true Kingdom Hearts to wipe reality before finally being defeated. Xehanort departs with Eraqus's spirit into the light as Sora closes Kingdom Hearts. Sora also sacrifices himself by using the Power of Waking to revive Kairi. Afterward, the guardians as well as their close friends and allies, celebrate at Destiny Islands. Xigbar, revealed to be the current incarnation of the ancient Keyblade Master
Luxu, summons the Foretellers, his fellow Keyblade Masters, to the present for the next phase of his mission. A year later, Riku and Kairi, with the help of the
Fairy Godmother, find clues that lead them to believe that Sora has been transported outside of their reality. Riku embarks on a search for him after opening a portal to another reality in the Final World. Elsewhere, Sora meets
Yozora, a fictional character from a video game. During their exchange Yozora claims that he is tasked to "save Sora" and the world is transported into
Shibuya. Sora is challenged to a fight by Yozora, whom he defeats. Yozora fades away as Sora returns to the Final World.
Gameplay The
Kingdom Hearts games contain elements of
action role-playing games with
hack-and-slash elements. The games are driven by a linear progression from one story event to the next, usually shown in the form of a
cutscene, though there are numerous
side quests available that provide bonus benefits to the characters. In most games, the player primarily controls the principal protagonist of the series,
Sora. Sora is usually accompanied by Donald Duck and Goofy, who are
artificial intelligence-controlled non-playable characters that aid Sora in battle. In the first and third game, their behavior can be altered to suit different combat objectives. The games feature real-time combat that incorporates physical attacks, magic, and summonings, though each game handles battles differently. The game also allows for items to be used on the field of battle to heal oneself or one's party members.
Gummi Ships are another common element of the series, which serve as the main mode of transportation between worlds in the games. The gameplay for the Gummi Ship sections is more akin to a
rail shooter. Because it received negative criticism in the first game, it was modified in the third game. Most games also feature a journal which is accessible from the main menu. This journal keeps track of information regarding the story, characters, enemies, and locations. In
Kingdom Hearts,
Chain of Memories,
Kingdom Hearts II, and
Kingdom Hearts III, the journal is kept by
Jiminy Cricket, who was appointed by
Queen Minnie as the royal chronicler. In
358/2 Days,
Birth by Sleep, and
Dream Drop Distance, the main characters write their own journal entries. The games are influenced by their parent franchise,
Final Fantasy, and carry its gameplay elements over into their own action-based,
hack-and-slash system. Like many traditional role-playing games,
Kingdom Hearts features an
experience point system which determines character development. As enemies are defeated, the player gains experience which culminates in a "level-up", where the characters grow stronger and gain access to new
abilities. The amount of experience is shared with all party members and each character grows stronger as experience is gained.
Music The music for the series has been primarily composed by
Yoko Shimomura.
Kaoru Wada works as the arranger for orchestral music, including orchestral renditions of the main vocal themes and the ending themes. The orchestral music was performed by the
New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and the
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. While the themes for some of the Disney-based worlds are taken directly from their Disney film counterparts, "
Passion", from
Kingdom Hearts II, and "Oath" from
Kingdom Hearts III. Each song has an English counterpart, "
Simple and Clean", "
Sanctuary", and "Don't Think Twice" respectively, for the North American and European releases. Utada was the only singer Tetsuya Nomura had in mind for the first
Kingdom Hearts theme song. This marked the first time Utada had produced a song for a video game. Both of the first two theme songs reached notable popularity; on weekly
Oricon charts, "Hikari" reached No. 1 in 2002 and "Passion" reached No. 4 in 2005.
Universe ''. The heart-shaped moon is an attempt to create an imitation of "Kingdom Hearts", a central plot point throughout the series. The
Kingdom Hearts universe is divided into planes of existence called "realms". Most of the series takes place in the "Realm of Light". Opposite the Realm of Light is the "Realm of Darkness", where Kingdom Hearts resides and where Heartless are born. The "Realm Between" is a plane where Nobodies come into existence. When the heart of a world is opened, the shell breaks apart, appearing as a meteor shower. Fragments from the wall are called "Gummi blocks" and are used to make spaceships called "Gummi Ships", which can be shaped into any structure, and the origin of the material used to build them allows travel to other worlds. Gummi blocks serve different functions, from navigation to offense and defense. Other methods to travel between worlds are the "corridors of darkness" and the "lanes between"—interdimensional pathways through which frequent travel eventually erodes unprotected users' hearts with darkness. For this reason, the main characters change their appearance in certain worlds to avoid standing out. In the worlds based on
The Little Mermaid and
The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sora, Donald, and Goofy transform into undersea creatures and Halloween monsters, respectively. For
The Lion King, they transform into savannah animals because Nomura felt that it would be odd to have them appear in their standard forms when no humans appear in the film. Nomura had wanted to include a world based on
The Lion King in the first game, but was unable to since the engine could not process quadrupedal character models properly, a feature included in
Kingdom Hearts II. When questioned on the possibility of including worlds based on Disney-purchased properties such as
Pixar,
Marvel Entertainment and
Lucasfilm, co-director Tai Yasue said, "We have to come up with a world that has a lot of originality. We want variety... so we don't want too many of one sort of world, that would look the same. For each world there has to be some meaning for it, in the plot... Also, gameplay-wise, is that world something that would make gameplay fun?" The game does not feature any worlds based on
Final Fantasy. In addition to the
Gummi Ship mini-game, mini-games feature prominently in certain worlds. While
Atlantica is an ordinary world in
Kingdom Hearts, albeit with a unique "underwater" control scheme, it becomes an
interactive rhythm game in
Kingdom Hearts II which is unrelated to the overall story and serves as filler. The world is portrayed in black and white, which Nomura had intended from the beginning of development. The world has many throwback effects, including intentionally poor sound quality to imitate old cartoons that Disney produced in the 1920s and 1930s. In this world, Sora's character model is simplified to the style of early cartoons, while Goofy and Donald Duck revert to their original designs from when they first appeared in Disney cartoons. The second sub-world is a sleeping world known as the
Country of the Musketeers. • Mysterious Tower: The residence of Yen Sid, which includes the sub-world
Symphony of Sorcery that depicts the tower as it appeared in the past, when Mickey had become Yen Sid's apprentice. •
100 Acre Wood: The residence of Winnie the Pooh and friends, which is accessed via a book and consists of mini-games based on classic
Winnie the Pooh shorts, with Sora taking on the role of
Christopher Robin. •
Olympus Coliseum: The homeworld of Hercules, which serves as a place for optional fighting tournaments. Due to
Hades' popularity, the Underworld was added in
Kingdom Hearts II, where he has opened a tournament.
Original worlds The worlds created specifically for the series predominantly feature original and Square Enix characters and are more integral to the series' overarching plot. The first world of each game serves as a tutorial to introduce new gameplay elements and frame the story. Both they and the Disney worlds are fragments of the original world, which is identified in
Kingdom Hearts III as Scala Ad Caelum, the seat of power for the ancient Keyblade masters that serves as the game's final dungeon. • Destiny Islands: The homeworld of
Sora,
Riku, and Xehanort. • Traverse Town: A world formed from the remains of worlds destroyed by the Heartless. It serves as a hub world in
Kingdom Hearts and a sleeping world in
Dream Drop Distance. The main cast from
The World Ends with You appears in the latter game, where the world was used to host the Reaper's Game. • Radiant Garden: The homeworld of Ansem the Wise and his apprentices as well as various
Final Fantasy characters, and
Kairi's birthplace. Because of Xehanort's machinations, Ansem's study of the darkness in people's hearts enables Terra-Xehanort to bring Radiant Garden to ruin. Throughout
Kingdom Hearts and most of
Kingdom Hearts II, Radiant Garden is known as Hollow Bastion.
Maleficent uses it as her base during the first game, while Squall and his group rebuilds the world, as shown in
Kingdom Hearts II. • The End of the World: A land created from the worlds that lost their hearts to the Heartless, which serves as the final world in
Kingdom Hearts. • The Realm of Darkness: The world of the Pureblood Heartless, where Riku and Mickey appear at the end of
Kingdom Hearts and help Sora seal the door linking it to the End of the World. Sora and Riku briefly visit the realm at the end of
Kingdom Hearts II, while Aqua spends years trapped in it following the events of
Birth by Sleep. • The Land of Departure: The homeworld of Eraqus and his apprentices, which acted on the will of Eraqus before he passed his title to his apprentice Aqua. Following the end of
Birth by Sleep, Aqua uses her power to transform the main castle of the Land of Departure into Castle Oblivion. Castle Oblivion serves as the main setting of
Chain of Memories, with its multiple floors holding memory-based reconstructions of other worlds created via unique
cards. Aqua later restores the world to its original state in
Kingdom Hearts III. • Twilight Town: The homeworld of Hayner, Pence, and Olette, where Ansem the Wise takes refuge as DiZ. It serves as both a tutorial world and the penultimate world in
Kingdom Hearts II. It returns as a main hub in
Kingdom Hearts III. • The World That Never Was: A world in the in-between realm that
Organization XIII uses as their base of operations while working on their artificial Kingdom Hearts. It serves as the final world in
Kingdom Hearts II and
Dream Drop Distance. This conception of Kingdom Hearts was designed to appear as the heart-shaped moon from the first
Kingdom Hearts game cover. When the scenario writer,
Kazushige Nojima, created the scenario, he described it as a moon floating in the World That Never Was. Upon reading this, Nomura thought of using the visuals from the first game to create a connection. • The Keyblade Graveyard: A world that was the site of the final battle of the Keyblade War, and is the setting of the climax in
Birth by Sleep and
Kingdom Hearts III. • Scala ad Caelum: A vast city that was the seat of power for the ancient Keyblade masters and where Eraqus and Xehanort trained in their youth, as seen in
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road. It later serves as the site of Sora's final battle with Xehanort in
Kingdom Hearts III. Scala ad Caelum was set to return as the main world of
Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link prior to the game's cancellation. • Daybreak Town: The homeworld of the Foretellers and their Unions, which serves as the hub world in
Kingdom Hearts χ. It is left in ruins following the Keyblade War, and Scala ad Caelum was built upon its remains. • Final World: A realm on the edge of reality inhabited by faded remnants of those unable to move on due to their hearts' strong attachments. Sora unknowingly appeared in the Final World during his dreams before ending up in the realm during his group's battle with Terra-Xehanort. Though Sora is able to return, he ends up back in the Final World after sacrificing himself to revive Kairi. • Quadratum - A "fictional" world that resembles real life Shibuya. Ansem the Wise believes that Quadratum exists in a realm of fiction outside of the main universe. == Development and history ==