Sora

Sora is the main protagonist in the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as a Keyblade wielder. He is an upbeat teenager who may seem simple-minded at times, but is very aware of 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 when defending his friends, but he is always sincere about what he says and does. He lives on Destiny Islands with his best friends Kairi and Riku, where the trio dream to venture away from Destiny Islands to find out what lies beyond. Sora is the original persona of his own Heartless and Roxas, the source of Xion's memories, and the carrier of Ventus's heart.

Sora was 4-years-old during Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, 14-years-old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and 15-years-old during the events of Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts III.

Sora's name is derived from the Japanese word for "sky" (空).

Kingdom Hearts
''A spirited youth. He was cast into an unknown world when a swarm of Heartless raided his island. He battles the Heartless with a mysterious weapon called the Keyblade as he searches for his friends Kairi and Riku..''
 * First entry

''The one who fights the Heartless. Upon reclaiming the Keyblade from his rival, Riku, Sora sacrificed his heart to free Kairi and became a Heartless. Kairi's deep feelings for Sora somehow restored him. After seeling the keyhole in hollow bastion he must now confront Ansem, the seeker of darkness.''
 * Second entry

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A bright and spirited boy chosen by the Keyblade to battle the Heartless.
 * Sora's Story

It was Sora who defeated Ansem, ending his plan to shroud the world in darkness.

However, Sora continued his journey, seeking the friends he lost during the struggle.

Riku's childhood friend, and the hero of light chosen by the Keyblade to stand against the darkness.
 * Reverse/Rebirth

Riku fought Sora while bridled by darkness, but their friendship proved stronger, and they ultimately worked together to close the door to darkness.

Kingdom Hearts II
A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.
 * First entry

Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friend Kairi, who had been spirited away into the darkness.

In the end, they saved the world of all worlds from the darkness that was closing in.

Then, somewhere along the way, Sora fell into a deep slumber.

Now that he is awake, he can't recall why he fell asleep to begin with.

A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.
 * Second entry

Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friend Kairi, who had been spirited away into the darkness.

In the end, they saved the world of all worlds from the darkness that was closing in.

''After that, Sora continued journeying in search of Riku, who was trapped on the other side of the door to darkness. And somewhere along the way, Sora fell into a deep slumber.''

With a new outfit and strengthened resolve, Sora has set out once more on a search for his friend Riku.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
A cheerful, energetic little boy.

He and his friend Riku always play together out on the island.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
''A boy chosen by a strange sword called a "Keyblade." After his island home was lost to the darkness, he joined forces with Donald, Goofy, and Mickey and saved all worlds. All these adventures were carefully recorded in Jiminy's Journals.''

Inside the datascape generated within the computer, a digital version of the real Sora (Data-Sora) quests in our hero's stead.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
''A boy who wields a Keyblade. He has used its power to save the worlds from crisis more than once.''

Now, he has agreed to take the Mark of Mastery examination in order to retrieve a new power.

Kingdom Hearts III
''A boy who wields a Keyblade. Having surmounted countless challenges, he was at last given a chance to complete the Mark of Mastery examination, but the attempt ended in failure. He was overtaken by the darkness, and lost nearly all of his powers and strength in the process.''

Together with Donald and Goofy, he has set forth on a new adventure to reclaim that lost strength and acquire the power of waking in order to prepare for the looming battle with Master Xehanort.

This is the guise Sora assumes when visiting Woody and Buzz's world.
 * Toy Box

This is the guise Sora assumes when visiting Sulley and Mike's world.
 * Monstropolis

This is the guise Sora assumes when visiting Jack's world.
 * The Caribbean

This is Sora wearing the AR device he received in San Fransokyo.
 * San Fransokyo

Development
Although Square Enix originally wanted Mickey Mouse to be the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, and Disney wanted Donald Duck as the protagonist, the role was eventually set as Sora, because Tetsuya Nomura wanted a human protagonist.

Early on, Sora was designed as a young lion/human hybrid, wielding a chainsaw-like weapon with a lion's head keychain. The merging of Sora's design with elements from Square's proposal is referenced by his original costume, which shares many elements with Mickey's.

World of Final Fantasy
Sora appeared as a limited time downloadable summon in the PlayStation 4 game, World of Final Fantasy. He was added to the game to commemorate the release of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and dons his Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance outfit. When summoned, he fires a Blizzard spell at the enemy before shattering the ice crystal, then unleashes a Ragnarok fusillade.

Interestingly, Miyu Irino reprises his role via archived voice clips in the Japanese version, but Haley Joel Osment does not.

Personality
Sora has a typical brave and heroic personality, meaning he'll willingly risk his life for people he doesn't even know yet, as shown when he tries to save Ansem the Wise from the explosion, to no avail. He's extremely loyal to his friends, and has been shown to be extremely forgiving to Riku, even forgiving him for the times he has tried to kill him, and very protective of Kairi.

Sora is highly optimistic person, choosing to think positively throughout his journeys. He is an upbeat and brash person, and although he is simple minded at times, he has a strong sense of justice. He is also very soft spoken and sensitive as over time, he had grown to care deeply about all of his friends and desires to maintain a strong relationship with all of them even when some of them act in a bad manner towards him. Sora has matured over a year's time, for instance, when battling enemies in the game, he seems to have a more serious expression on his face. Sora is more confident than before and takes charge of his group. He is also quite caring and reassuring to his other-world friends such as when Beast quits after Xaldin steals his rose. Sora reassured him that they would get it back.

Sora seems to have a remarkable capacity to forgive, even to his sworn enemies; when Maleficent loses control of the Heartless to Organization XIII and is overwhelmed by Dusks in order to allow Sora's group to escape, Sora is clearly concerned for her and is only stopped from helping her by being restrained by Donald.

Another prominent example is when he forgives Naminé for rewriting the majority of his memories, despite the severity of her doings. More examples would be when he shows gratefulness towards Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, despite all the harm he had caused, for saving Kairi's life, unaware that he is actually a disguised Riku, and when he forgives Axel for kidnapping Kairi and even remains by his side as he fades from existence. Sora quickly forgave Neku who was going to hand him over to Young Xehanort as part of their agreement.

Sora seems to have a strong impact on those around him. When Ansem the Wise said a nobody can not have feelings, Roxas cannot hate Sora. Riku stated that if Roxas had met Sora, maybe it would be different. He has strongly impacted the lifes of even his enemies. After Axel had an encounter with Sora, there was a difference in him. Axel seemed to have had gained the ability to feel emotions again after he met Sora. His love is what restored him to being whole again without having to kill Roxas, according to Ansem The Wise. Sora seems to make a new attachment with everyone and sees the good before the bad in them. Sora's bright personality cheers everyone up even in the worst of times. Even Master Xehanort himself, upon hearing the reasons of Sora's disapproval of his goals to create a better world, couldn't help but admire the boy's similarity to his old friend Master Eraqus and praised him for his magnificent performance.



In Kingdom Hearts he puts Kairi above all his other friends; his main quest in both games is finding her and ensuring her safety, even clashing with Riku over her rescue when he believes Riku's method of helping her is incorrect. This causes Sora's relationship with Riku to be heavily strained as this strain is apparent when Riku confiscates Sora's Keyblade in Hallow Bastion, calls him " The Delivery Boy" and tells him to "go play hero" with a wooden sword, which upsets Sora and makes him lose his will to rescue Kairi until he sees Beast's ambition to rescue Belle. He does still care about Riku and values Riku as a friend, trying to help him see the error of his ways; but Riku's plunge into darkness makes him more concerned with Kairi, as he knows she is still on the side of light.

Sora continues to show this in Chain of Memories, when he gets frustrated by and yells at Donald and Goofy for not helping him find Naminé (who was Kairi in Sora's heart) fast enough. His obsession with finding her causes him to throw his two allies aside, which causes his relationship with them to be strained and is again the main reason for his conflict with Riku (even if it turns out that this is not the real Riku in the end). By the end of the game, however, Sora seems to have recognized his mistakes and begins to value all of his friends equally.

This is proven in Kingdom Hearts II, as he puts all his friends on an equal level, despite no longer remembering the events in Castle Oblivion. A prominent example of this is when Goofy is apparently fatally injured after getting hit in the head by a rock during the Battle of Hollow Bastion; Sora is clearly traumatized by Goofy's apparent death, and utters, "This is not happening. It can't be happening. It can't". It is shown that, by Kingdom Hearts II, Sora views all friends equally, no longer holding Kairi above the others. This can be seen when he hesitates to locate Kairi, and instead chooses to help Leon and the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee, against King Mickey's wishes. Additionally, he refuses to return to Destiny Islands and rejoin Kairi without finding Riku first.

On the other hand, Sora shows little tolerance for cowardice and selfishness, criticizing both Hades and Iago for being cowardly and selfish, though ultimately forgiving the latter when he proved genuinely sorry for his actions. However, Sora did show some degree of selfishness himself as evident in the first game mostly due to his youth. For example, he made it his primary objective to find Kairi in the first game and put others under lesser value but this changed over time. Sora has become less selfish and more mature over time.

Like most children his age, Sora shows a highly competitive streak, as he often competes with Riku over numerous things. When he asks to fight Hercules alone in the Hercules Cup, Donald calls him a show-off, and Goofy says in Chain of Memories, "Whenever there's a contest, you're always rarin' to sign up". He doesn't like to be called a kid, but prefers to be called Sora.

Though he is far from stupid, Sora has often seen to be highly gullible and oblivious to what should be obvious. For example, he fell for Mulan's attempt at passing for a man; proceeding this, Mushu stated that Sora "could fall for anything". Ironically, he doesn't let his enemies fool him as easily. An example would be when he didn't fall for Xemnas's attempt to play on Sora's sympathetic side, which was far more convincing than Mulan's attempt to appear as a man.

Sora is often quick to anger whenever he's confused, and is quite childish and silly at times. He can also be seen as quite impulsive, as he tends to jump into things without thinking them through beforehand. While simple-minded and naive at times, he has a strong sense of justice, like when he proves Alice's innocence by finding pieces of evidence around Wonderland.

Sora also shows somewhat of an admiration of sea pirates during their first visit to Port Royal, wherein he is excited to meet Captain Jack Sparrow and even states that he hopes that they would be able to "take a pirate ship out for a spin" (though he tells Donald and Goofy that he was merely joking about it). Of course, he likely gets over this after Captain Barbossa double-crosses them.

Strangely enough, he doesn't show this admiration for Captain Hook or his pirate ship, probably due to the fact that Hook was holding both Kairi and Wendy captive on the ship. He was also eager to meet Santa Claus during their first visit to Halloween Town in Kingdom Hearts II (and he also shows lots of disappointment when Santa told him about the time he announced to everybody that he did not believe in Santa Claus, apparently at the urging of Riku). He also shows an interest of being king when he went to the Pride Lands, showing dismay when he was told that he didn't have the right qualities, and when he was leaving Pride Rock with Nala.

Also, Sora does not seem to have experience with computers, as evidenced in the episodes in Radiant Garden and Space Paranoids—he hits the computer keyboard hard while in Radiant Garden, and whilst he was in Space Paranoids, he did not understand a single word Tron said, as it all appeared to be tech jargon. However, he does at least seem to know how to use a computer, but with very little skill, as a journal page of the story calls him "hardly computer-savvy", this is shown more when he hits the keyboard with his fists, expecting it to do what he wants. This is most likely because he lived on Destiny Islands all his life and probably didn't have access to computers there.

On occasion in Kingdom Hearts II, Sora seems to unintentionally show somewhat of a disrespect towards people of higher authority than himself upon meeting them. For example, when meeting Yen Sid, Donald and Goofy respectfully bow to him, while Sora greets him by simply saying, "Hey there!". Goofy is clearly shocked by this, and Donald shouts at him to show some respect. When meeting Queen Minnie, Sora simply asks, "Where's the King?". This leads to Donald grabbing him by the ear and asking Minnie to excuse him.

When Sora and King Mickey were disputing about Ansem's identity, Sora, thinking that he has forgotten who Ansem is, drags King Mickey by the arm in order to show him the portrait of Xehanort in Ansem's study. However, when meeting Princess Jasmine again in Kingdom Hearts II, he actually does bow to her, along with Donald and Goofy. He, Donald, and Goofy also bow in respect to Simba as the new king during their second visit to the Pride Lands.

Sora is extremely kind hearted. His kindness is noted by many characters in the series, and some see it as a weakness of his, as it will sometimes allow villains and evil doers to easily take advantage of him. As DiZ told Roxas, "Perhaps you should share some of that hatred with Sora. He's far too nice for his own good."

However his personality may have been affected by Ventus' Heart of pure light being inside his Heart for most of his life. For most of the time their Hearts were connected Sora was an upbeat person, always looking on the bright side of things. An example of this is when Yen Sid reminded him of how he failed to get his Mark of Mastery, nearly becoming a vessel of Xehanort in the process, to which Sora responds "happens all the time". However when Ventus left Sora's Heart his personality noticeably changed. He suddenly treated things more seriously, even breaking down crying when he believed they had lost. When Xemnas was defeated he claimed that it was okay for him to be lonely as "Pain is being human" and he scolded Xehanort, saying his plans whould never work because he was never fit to rule as "A real leader knows that destiny is beyond his control and excepts that".

Physical appearance
Sora first starts off appearing tanner and somewhat lankier than his rival, Riku. He seems to portray more of a typical teenage boy's looks. Sora has spiky brown hair (although in Kingdom Hearts II, his hair does change from brown to more blond) along with blue eyes. Sora's appearance does not change that much throughout the series besides growing taller, a slightly different hairstyle, tanned skin, a slightly deeper voice, and having more matured looks. Sora goes through many costume changes throughout the series.

His original outfit consisted of a Mickey Mouse style outfit, containing large yellow shoes, a white and black jacket as well as a red jumpsuit and a pair of white with yellow gloves with his signature crown necklace and crown chain. This outfit is the main outfit in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Interestingly, after Sora uses the Keyblade of People's Hearts to free Kairi's heart, his hair appears to be lighter. Using Donald's magic, his appearance is changed to that of Vampire Form and Merman Form in certain worlds.

In certain scenes in both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, a younger version of Sora appears. As a child, Sora's hair was lighter than it was in Kingdom Hearts, more closely resembling his hair color in Kingdom Hearts II, and it was not as spiky. Clothing-wise, Sora wore what looks like a white T-shirt with blue lining and red shorts with a maroon pocket on each leg, as well as brown sandals with yellow straps.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora wears a black revision of his Kingdom Hearts clothing. The hoodie is colored black, with silver pauldron-like additions to his sleeves and white lining. His undershirt is a navy blue with a red patch in the center. His pants, similar to chaps, are colored black on the outside, and a navy blue on the inside, lined with silver-white edging. Yellow straps crisscross around his pants, held together with a black belt. The pants feature red pockets with a black cross over them. His gloves are colored black on the outside and white on the inside with a yellow line running around them. He also wears large black-yellow shoes with silver soles, a zipper running across the top, and black straps holding them together with buckles here and there. Sora's crown pendant is present in this attire. With the institution of Drive Forms, his outfit can turn into different appearances for each form.
 * Valor Form: Sora's clothes become primarily red and black. he gains designs reminiscent of Fleur De Lis on his legs and arms.
 * Limit Form: Sora's clothes become the same colors of his original outfit, black and white jacket, red shirt and shorts, yellow shoes and white gloves. He gains crown shaped designs on his sleeves and the legs of his shorts.
 * Anti Form: Sora becomes entirely black with indigo lining on his clothes and yellow eyes. while difficult to see, he also has batwing designs on his shorts legs and an emblem similar to the Heartless emblem on his sleeves. This form causes Sora to resemble Shadow Soras from the original game.
 * Wisdom Form: Sora's clothes take on a primarily blue color scheme. Flame designs can be seen on his sleeves and legs.
 * Master Form: Sora's outfit becomes yellow and black. He gains three crosses on each sleeve and leg, two black, and one white
 * Final Form: Sora's outfit becomes mainly silver and white. on his sleeves, he gains black stylized lines, whereas his shorts get different white lines.

While he retains his typical appearance in most worlds, in certain worlds Sora's appearance is altered, either by Donald's magic or his magical Kingdom Hearts II outfit, in order to allow himself to blend in with the inhabitants of those worlds.

His appearance alterations are listed here:
 * In Atlantica, Sora takes on the appearance of a merman with a blue dolphin tail rather than a fishtail and a dorsal fin. While in this form, Sora can breathe underwater and swim much faster than he can in his human form, and also move up and down. Sora cannot Drive or Summon in this form; in Kingdom Hearts II, he is unable to attack at all, seeing as the world has been altered to progressing the story through musical numbers.
 * In Halloween Town, Sora takes on the appearance of a vampire with a pumpkin-like mask over one side of his face, complete with fangs and bat-like wings. This form has no special abilities. When in Drive Form, his mask changes rather than his clothes (a devil-mask slightly reminiscent of a Bomb for Valor Form, a Black Mage-like mask for Wisdom Form, a splicing of both for Master Form, a gold crown for Final Form, a heart for Limit Form, and a Shadow Heartless for Anti Form). In this form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade also changes to greyish tones to match the surroundings of Halloween Town.
 * In Christmas Town in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, his attire changes from a vampire to a black Santa Claus outfit. When in Drive Form, aside from his aura, movement and manner of Keyblade wielding, the color of the hat will slightly tint to match the corresponding Form. Additionally, the symbols of the corresponding Form will appear on the hat: a red Fleur-de-lis for Valor, a blue flame for Wisdom, a gold cross for Master, a silver N-shaped rune for Final, a whitish crown for Limit, and a Heartless emblem for Anti Form.
 * In the Timeless River, Sora's appearance changes to mirror the style of 1920s-era Disney cartoons. His skin and clothing are black-and-white, his arms and legs are long and scrawny, and he, like all other characters in this world, has taken on his very first appearance design (from the original Kingdom Hearts). He has no special abilities in this form, and when Driving, the icon of Sora by the HP Bar tints color slightly on the outline to reflect the Form transformed into, apart from the aura, manner of movement and Keyblade wielding that each Form displays; red for Valor, blue for Wisdom, yellow for Master, and white for Final. For Anti Form, however, he merely turns into a black cartoonish shadow of himself. For Limit Form in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, his icon is tinted purple.
 * In the Pride Lands, Sora is transformed into a brown-furred lion cub. His spiky hairstyle is now present as a mane, though he retains his crown-shaped necklace. He wields the Keyblade in his mouth. While Sora is unable to Drive or perform Summons in this form, he can move with greatly increased speed and agility. The Dash ability in this form is identical to the Mermaid Kick in Atlantica.
 * In Space Paranoids, Sora is converted into a data form, wearing robot-like armor with blue circuit patterns all over his body. In this form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade also is changed to have glowing blue circuit lines as well. Sora has no special abilities in this form, and when Driving, Sora's circuit lines change color to reflect the Form transformed into (i.e. red for Valor Form, dark blue for Wisdom Form, yellow for Master form, white for Final Form and black with dark purple circuits for Anti Form. For Limit form, the circuits use Limit Form's colors and, unlike the other forms, are arranged as such, i.e. silver torso, red pants, and yellow shoes).

In Dream Drop Distance, Sora's appearance in the Sleeping Worlds is younger with a mainly black and red attire. His hair is also colored a blend of his hairs in the two numbered titles. His hoodie is mainly grey, with black lining with the hood being red. His sleeves are grey with white lines separating them from the red edging. His shirt is also black and bears a Recusant's Sigil, the X on his shirt, placed there without Sora's knowledge by the real Organization XIII. His gloves take a similar approach to those of his Kingdom Hearts II, with them being black and yellow and having a grey shape on the center. Sora's pants are red, with a dark blue belt that is held together by a silver belt buckle. His pockets are red with white edging. His shoes take a similar design to his Kingdom Hearts shoes, but the straps are white and the tongue is colored yellow. Sora's crown pendant is present on this form as well.

In The Grid, Sora appears similar to how he does in Space Paranoids, though his armor is now completely black with white circuitry, with the patterns on his chest and back different from before. He lacks his prongs and a visor is now attached to his helmet, which is smaller than it was in Space Paranoids. Sora's crown necklace disappears, now incorporated into his form's design as it appears both on his chest and in the space of his Identity Disk. Sora's Keyblade takes on a similar appearance as well, this time black with white circuitry.

Unlike in Space Paranoids, Sora's skin tone and hair color are the same as in his normal form.

In Kingdom Hearts III, Sora is seen wearing a new outfit, which appears to be a modified version of his attire from Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. He wears a black jacket having grey pockets and a stripe of the same color on each sleeve. The hood, sleeves and jacket have a red lining and six buttons can be seen on the front. Underneath he wears a black shirt with a V-neck style collar and a white lining. His gloves are replaced with gauntlets that are designed like his jacket with the exception of a grey circle on the backs. The palms of his hands are exposed. His shorts are roughly the same length as they are in the outfit which he wears in Kingdom Hearts II with armored sidings that appear to be attached by red straps that wrap around his legs. His shoes also resemble those of his Kingdom Hearts II outfit, with the blue straps and zipper now removed. As usual, he wears his crown necklace. His hair is less spiky then it was in previous games. This outfit is also sleeker than any of Sora's other outfits in the series. The shorts have lost the baggy look, and the shoes are considerably smaller. With the institution of Formchanges, his outfit can turn into different appearances for each form.
 * Strike Form: Sora's clothes gain an inverse color scheme, becoming deep red in most areas, while also obtaining camouflage-like patterns.
 * Second Form: Sora's attire stays the same with the exception of the color scheme changing to match his clothing in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * Rage Form: When in Rage Form, Sora's clothes, skin, hair, and Keyblade become ink black, with glowing red eyes, an aura of darkness, and a fluorescent white swirling pattern on his pants.
 * Element Form: Sora's clothes becomes dark blue with star patterns.
 * Guardian Form: Sora's clothes becomes yellow with diamond patterns.
 * Blitz Form: Sora's clothes become green with indigo flame patterns.
 * Ultimate Form: Sora's clothes changes to a design very similar to Final Form: He gains 3 crown insignias on each sleeve, stripes on the leggings and the outfit itself turns mostly white.

Keyblade
Sora gained the ability to wield the Keyblade when he reached out his heart to Ventus after sensing Ventus's shattered heart. By joining his heart with Ventus's he gained the ability to wield his own Keyblade, as well as Ventus's.

Sora's Keyblade is a Keyblade from the Realm of Light, and it appears before him as his home world, Destiny Islands, is consumed by the Heartless. Its default form is the Kingdom Key, which uses a Hidden Mickey as its token. It then appeared to Sora in a time of need, when darkness took him and Riku. The Keyblade chose Sora because he is pure of heart and was able to adopt Master King Mickey's Kingdom Key from the Realm of Light. It can be assumed that Master King Mickey had chosen Sora as an apprentice by the purity of his heart. As opposed to Riku who allowed darkness at the time. However, Riku is able to wield a Keyblade because of Terra. The Kingdom Key is characterized as Master King Mickey's Keyblade because of it's Keychain. Mastery of ones Keyblade brings forth a keychain. King Mickey was under Yen Sid's instruction and passed the Mark of Mastery. Yen Sid passed down the Star Seeker Keyblade to King Mickey. Upon the Mark of Mastery, the Keyblade Master adopts an apprentice(s) and protects a realm and or travels to other worlds to explore his/her horizons. King Mickey traveled to many worlds, most of his voyages were accidental because he could not control the star shard he "borrowed". It can be deducted that at some point in his voyages Master King Mickey gained the Kingdom Key of the Realm of Light and Mastered it, hence the Hidden Mickey Keychain. Further on, When the worlds first started to disappear, King Mickey realized that Kingdom Hearts was going to be opened, and went to the Realm of Darkness to find its Keyblade, the Kingdom Key-D, with which he could seal the door. However, he would also need someone to use a Keyblade from the Realm of Light in concert with him, so he left a letter for Donald Duck and Goofy, asking them to find the chosen wielder of that Keyblade and assist him in saving the worlds. The Keyblade of Realm of Light, the Kingdom Key in it's default form, presented/chose Sora by his pure heart while in darkness. Sora is able to wield a Keyblade because he sheltered Ventus' shattered heart while only a boy, preserving Ventus' life. Riku later gains a Keychain for his Way to Dawn Keyblade by Master King Mickey's assisted voice in the dark. It can be suggested that both Sora and Riku are Master King Mickey's apprentices' from which both had to learn of light and dark in reverse complimentary orders of gain and loss of the heart and saving friends in need, as well as themselves. In the E3 2015 trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3, it is revealed that at some point, Sora gains the ability to manipulate and transform his Keyblade into other weapons and contraptions depending on the Keyblade he is using. Such weapon transformations include dual pistols, a large bazooka, and a chariot with a horse resembling Pegasus as its steed.

Sora's most notable Keychains are the Hidden Mickey attached to the Kingdom Key of the Realm of Light, Kairi's Wayfinder attached to the Oathkeeper Keyblade, and a Crown on the Oblivion Keyblade which symbolizes Riku's darkness, or the darkness that Sora learned through Riku's attempt at channeling it. Although Yen Sid declared Riku as the "New True Keyblade Master" after the Mark of Mastery exams, there is a hidden undertone. It does not mean that Sora is not already a Keyblade Master. After all, the Keyblade "chose" him, as an extension of pure heart. A Keyblade Master is capable of awakening worlds and individuals hearts from prisons of slumber. Sora has already done so for every character and world in the series. It is clear that Sora is finally at peace within the inner corridors of his "memories". Sora's character/personality alone only see's good and immediately celebrates Riku's accomplishment, without thought. This only further proves his Mark of Mastery, for which is called great responsibility and wisdom. After all, it is Yen Sid who evaluates. The Mark of Mastery exams were set up to introduce Riku as a Keyblade Master. He mastered himself within and can save, on par with Sora. Sora is sometimes able to use other wielders' Keyblades; for example, when fighting Roxas he is able to steal Roxas's Oathkeeper and Oblivion, for a total of three Keyblades, and at one point during their final battle with Xemnas, Riku lends his Way to the Dawn to Sora.

Sora's battle style primarily consists of strong, two-handed strikes.

With his Synch Blade ability, Sora can also wield two Keyblades at once, though he has yet to do so outside of his Drive Forms. Sora's Synch Blade ability stems from his possession of Ventus's heart within his own. As Sora's Nobody, Roxas also possesses Synch Blade.

Magic
Sora is very skilled in various basic magic spells (such as Fire, Blizzard, or Thunder), even more so after training with Merlin. These spells allow him to weaken or outright destroy Heartless that are more vulnerable to certain elements or resistant to physical attacks. He can also use Cure to heal himself and his allies from injuries as well as restore HP and revive fallen party members.

In Kingdom Hearts II, his basic combo is much stronger and he gains the Drive Form ability after obtaining new clothes, which give him more mastery over his strengths, speed, magic, and Keyblade. In addition to the abilities that each form grants him, Sora's speed and strength are also increased.

In Kingdom Hearts II, he learns to use Limits with party members to form a strong, special type of attack which takes all of his MP.

With a summon gem, card or charm in hand, Sora learns to the ability to summon a specific character and temporarily aid him in combat. Each character has a special power that makes them helpful. He first learns summon in Kingdom Hearts when he finds Simba's gem after his world was destroyed and brings it to the Fairy Godmother, who helps restore his spirit form; and then, he gathers five other summons, two of which did not start as summon gems.

He loses all of the summon gems when their true forms are restored. In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, he learns to summon using cards instead of gems. In this game, he can use all previous summons, with one addition: Cloud. In Kingdom Hearts II, Merlin gives him a summon charm that allows him to call for a specific character to aid him. Then, he locates three other summon charms that allow him to summon more powerful characters. In Kingdom Hearts III, Yen Sid gives Sora a Heartbinder, that enhances his gift for connecting with others. Throughout his journey, he acquires four more Heartbinders.

Miscellaneous
Sora has become an extremely powerful and skilled individual over the length of the series, with him almost always triumphing over the powerful enemies he faced, such as the countless Disney Villains he faced, including the likes of Maleficent and even the godly Hades and Chernabog, the extremely powerful Heartless Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and all the powerful members of the Organization XIII he faced, even at times where he didn't have his full power, such as Axel, Marluxia, Demyx and Larxene, whereas at full power he defeated not only Xigbar and Saïx as well as Luxord but even defeated Xemnas himself; although he was not able to finish off the Superior of the Organization in their first fight, with Xemnas seemingly recovering with no lasting injuries at all, and needed the aid of Goofy, Donald and Riku to best the armored Xemnas, although he later managed to accomplish it again with only Riku, as well as his victory over Xemnas's final form being due to him having Riku's Keyblade and his own, he later managed to wound Xemnas enough for him to flee despite having already been subjected and weakened by the Nightmare. Sora also proves capable of coming out victorious over not only his legendary friends such as Cloud, Leon and Yuffie when he faced them in the Olympus Championship but he even managed to seemingly best Sephiroth himself, although while he apparently did defeat him, in both encounters, while in the first he did kneel compared to the second time they fought where he wasn't even fazed, calmly wiping off his shirt, Sephiroth sustained little to no injuries but admits that Sora is "very skilled". He also has displayed to be constantly superior to Riku, not only repeatedly defeating him in his Dark Mode, even when he was greatly empowered by Ansem but while Riku was overpowered by Roxas at full power when they both used one Keyblade, Sora was able to stand toe-to-toe with his Heartless alone using only a single keyblade and eventually come out on top.

In the manga, Sora defeats Guard Armor and Cerberus in a single blow (though the latter had already been worn down by Hercules before Sora entered the fight). The Trick Master also faces the same fate in Wonderland. He becomes even more powerful if he uses his Drive Forms, which unlock some of his hidden power, though he requires the power of his party members to do this. After he defeats Roxas, he unlocks Final Form, gaining his full power as the Keyblade Master of the Realm of Light as well as Roxas's awakening from his slumber inside Sora, which also awakens the other half of his power.

However, Sora is nearly helpless without his Keyblade. Even Shadow Heartless take a huge number of hits for him to kill without it. Comparatively so, before he left Destiny Islands, he could not even damage the Heartless without the Keyblade. His supposed weakness may be caused by the weapon he wields. When Sora is not in possession of his Keyblade, his only available weapons are the sparring weapons, Wooden Sword and Struggle Bat.

If he is given proper "normal" weapons (for example, a normal sword made of steel), he can probably still fight well, although he might not be able to fight as well as when he uses the Keyblade. However, he is not utterly useless in real combat without it; he is still able to cast magic with no major decrease in power, whether he has the Keyblade or not (as long as he knows how).

While not a necessary talent for battle, Sora, as seen during the Kingdom Hearts II visit to Atlantica, is shown to be a talented singer, as he is frequently paired up with Ariel, who is widely renowned in Atlantica for her singing voice, in Sebastian's musical numbers. However, Sora is only heard singing in two songs, namely "Under the Sea" and "A New Day is Dawning", and even then, he only has a few lines for both. He also sings a few lines with Donald and Goofy after opening the Gate in Atlantica. Sora is also shown to share Roxas's ability with a skateboard, demonstrated in worlds including, but not limited to, Twilight Town and Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden.

On many occasions, Sora demonstrates physical abilities that could be considered superhuman. This is probably the result of possessing the Keyblade. A few examples of his superhuman abilities are listed here:
 * In the Deep Jungle, he has shown great durability when he falls a great distance and crashes headfirst through the roof of the treehouse, emerging alive and uninjured, but slightly dazed. Similarly, when Sabor slashes him with his claws and knocks him back into a wall, he quickly gets up and fights back.
 * In the Olympus Coliseum, he has shown to have incredible strength when he is able to lift up crates and barrels without showing any limits due to the possession of the Keyblade. Sora also often overpowers opponents much larger than himself.
 * He can either glide or actually fly, the latter of which only in Neverland, the End of the World, and the final battle with Ansem.
 * He is capable of leaping incredible distances, such as jumping up to the ceiling of the ballroom in Beast's Castle, between buildings, and for a large majority of the final battle with Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * He can cut through solid concrete and other durable forms of matter, even whole buildings.
 * He can either teleport or move too fast to be seen when using the "Warp Snipe" and "Quick Blade" reaction commands, the Teleport Sleight, or Final Form's Final Arts.

Sora also seems to be capable of bending the universe's laws of nature to an extent:
 * His memories seem to bind every character in the story, connecting them to himself in some way.
 * He is able to pour almost all of his power into his Nobody, Roxas and Roxas's imperfect Replica, Xion, at the same time.

Trivia

 * Although none of the parents of the characters on the Destiny Islands are shown on screen, Sora's mother can be heard calling him for dinner during the calamity in the first game. Also, in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora mentions both his mother and father while reminiscing about Naminé, and Riku mentions Sora's father to Terra in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
 * In Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Heart 3D: Dream Drop Distance, during every cutscene involving Sora's Keyblade, the Keyblade assumes the appearance of whatever Keychain the player has equipped. The only cutscenes where this doesn't apply are the scenes when Sora meets up with Riku during the 2nd visit to Traverse Town, Sora and King Mickey seal away Kingdom Hearts, when Riku temporarily takes the Keyblade from Sora in Hollow Bastion, and before the Battle of 1000 Heartless in which he has the Kingdom Key. In the scenes with Riku, the Keyblade retains Sora's Keychain while in Sora's possession but reverts to the Kingdom Key while in Riku's hands.
 * Sora is mistakenly believed to have appeared in the Disney movie Wreck-It Ralph as one of the patrons of Tapper's in the 8-bit view. The character in question is actually a cowboy.
 * Though the player can have Sora pick any of the Dream Weapons in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 3D confirms that Sora canonically picked the Dream Sword, as he is seen wielding it in a memory. The sword also appears as his Zero Gear weapon in 358/2 Days.
 * In the Olympus Coliseum level of Kingdom Hearts Sora's victory poses are based off of some characters from the Final Fantasy series:
 * ​In the first victory pose, Sora spins his Keyblade in his hand before resting it on his shoulder; this is similar to Cloud's victory pose in Final Fantasy VII.
 * Sora's second pose consists of him slashing his Keyblade twice before turning around and once again resting it on his shoulder. This is identical to Squall's (aka Leon's) victory pose in Final Fantasy VIII.
 * Sora's two favourite video games are 'Verum Rex' and 'Mickey Cuts Up'