Of Sora and Kingdom Hearts

It’s been years since I've played any video games.  I remember back then where I used to play them with my siblings over the weekends.  Oh, how I miss playing those games!  On that note, one of the most memorable game I've played was the ‘Kingdom Hearts’.  This game could easily be listed as one of my most favorite games ever.

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Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games (RPG) developed and published by Square Enix. It is the result of a collaboration between Square and Disney Interactive Studios and is directed by Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square character designer.

Hercules, Donald Duck and Goofy (Disney) with Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII)

Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various classic Disney films characters and settings.  Characters from Square Enix's Final Fantasy series also make appearances and made to interact with the player and Disney characters.  How awesome is that?

Organization XIII (Original Characters of Kingdom Hearts)

Besides featuring a mixture of familiar Disney and Final Fantasy characters, multiple of new characters are designed and created by Nomura.

Sora is the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series. He lives on the Destiny Islands with his best friends Riku and Kairi.  The three of them dream of venturing out of Destiny Islands to find out what lies beyond.  But their home are consumed by darkness, they are separated by creatures known as Heartless.  

Kairi(left), Sora and Riku(right) spend their free time gazing out over the ocean from the shores of their island

Sora battling it all out on the Heartless!

Sora drifts to a world known as Traverse Town where he learns the Keyblade chose him to eliminate the Heartless.  Fighting the Heartless, Sora obtains a weapon called the Keyblade and became a Keyblade wielder.  Soon after that Sora met Donald Duck and Goofy, who join forces in search of his friends while Sora helps Donald and Goofy look for King Mickey (their King). They travel across worlds by their Gummi Ship, a space ship for transportation between worlds.

Sora fighting against Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII

In the meantime, the trio also protect the worlds they visit from various villains and Heartless.  Sora then, seals the Keyholes of worlds using the Keyblade so as to protect the worlds and its people from being consumed by the darkness of the Heartless.  In spite all the challenges he is facing, Sora never gave up to find his friends and tries his best to search for them in every worlds he visited.

Based on the storyline, you can see that Sora is the kind of character who may seem very bright and simple-minded at times, but he is very aware of the importance of his quest.  Sora is an eternal optimist, always looking on the bright side of the situation at hand.  He possesses a strong sense of justice and an unrelenting heart. He cherishes his friendships and even states in the game that thanks to them, he gains his strength. 

"I don't need a weapon! My friends are my power!"
— Sora

Due to his strong sense of loyalty towards his friends, several of his enemies made use of his friends as a bait to use the Keyblade for their purposes.  During these events, it is often seen that his actions are impulsive and quick to anger when defending his friends, but he is always sincere about what he says and does. 

He would go to any extend in helping others in any way he can, he would willingly risks his life to protect, even for someone he doesn't know. Sora has a way of connecting to people's heart, letting them share a bond of friendship with him at ease.  His kindness to reach out towards other people who are in despair is so great that once, he even let a person named Ventus to resides in his heart as a place for that person to heal his damaged heart with the help of Sora's.

Sora invites Ventus's heart to stay with him while it heals

The particular reason of why I love playing this game is because of Sora's character.  I really am amazed by how bright and sincere Sora is portrayed in the game.  I also like the way the game's plot goes on as it depicted on how the hearts of a human never grows evil to the roots.  Even at hope's end, there is still some light deep down inside all of us. Just like Sora said,

"The heart may be weak, and sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!"