Who Is Yozora?: 6 Things We Know About Yozora

Yozora is the kind of guy who can show up out of nowhere, beat the daylights out of Sora for no apparent reason, and still have plenty of fans. People don’t seem all that concerned that he might have iced the main character. KINGDOM HEARTS fans are still interested in him and want to know more about him. Yet, despite his popularity, we really don’t know much about him at all.

Yozora’s backstory might be a mystery, but there are still some concrete details we know about him. Who is Yozora really? What does he want? Why does he beat the daylights out of Sora? Will he ever get his comeuppance? Here are six things we know for sure.

1. Yozora knows or has heard of someone with the name Sora.

When Yozora first meets Sora, he’s shocked to find out that he is indeed named Sora, but he doesn’t believe that’s his true name. He accuses Sora of “using Sora’s name,” like he knows someone else with the same name.

Eventually Yozora is somewhat convinced that Sora is actually named Sora, saying, “If you are who you say, then my path is clear.” If? He still doesn’t completely believe that Sora is really Sora. There’s still some doubt. Yozora’s idea of what “Sora” should look like is so different from our Sora that he thinks Sora could be lying about his identity.

But if Sora is really who he says he is, then he deserves to get the daylights kicked out of him.

2. Yozora has just finished going through some trials for reasons we don’t know.

Yozora claims he “accidentally wandered into this place and went though some trials.” He doesn’t explain what “this place” is and he doesn’t explain what the trials were, but I get the feeling even he doesn’t know. It sounds like he’s just going with the flow. Who told him to go through these trials? Was it a person? A mysterious voice? We don’t know.

What we do know is that right before his battle with Sora, Yozora says, “Time to end this.” For whatever reason, he believes that defeating Sora is the final challenge in this series of trials.

3. Yozora was told to “save Sora.”

“Then,” Yozora says, “I was told to ‘save Sora,’” which is kind of a weird thing to say while you’re threatening a guy named Sora with your multiple weapons.

Another thing that’s weird to me is the way Yozora talks about the Sora he knows—it’s inconsistent. Sometimes it sounds like he doesn’t personally know his Sora. Other times it sounds like he would die for them.

When he says, “I was told to ‘save Sora,’” it doesn’t sound all that personal for him. He’s only trying to save this person because he was told to. Then, after beating the daylights out of Sora and turning him into an ice statue, it changes to, “I will save you.” He’s determined to save this person not just because he was told to, but because he desperately wants to save them.

Earlier, I questioned whether or not Yozora believes that Sora is truly Sora. We now have our answer: somewhere in the middle of their battle, Yozora not only decides that Sora really is Sora, but that he’s the Sora he’s meant to save. Otherwise I don’t understand why he would touch the Sora statue so tenderly, stare up at it and say, “I will save you,” like he’s talking to Sora.

He’s alone in this moment (if you don’t count statue Sora) so I assume these are his genuine emotions. Maybe Sora reminds him of the Sora he knows, or maybe Sora really is the Sora he’s meant to save.

4. Yozora is the main character of the game VERUM REX in the Toy Box World.

At first I thought VERUM REX was a joke. I thought SQUARE ENIX was making fun of itself, and I thought Yozora was a parody of all the super edgy, super serious FINAL FANTASY heroes who came before him. The guy has a giant sword AND a gun, a crossbowgun, no less. That thing almost puts the Gunblade to shame.

It turns out VERUM REX is more than just a SQUARE ENIX parody on the Toy Box world.  Yozora is a real person who exists in the KINGDOM HEARTS universe, and he has a key role to play in the series moving forward.

How he ended up as a video game character on a random world remains a mystery.

5. Yozora looks like Riku.

“Say, Riku would make a great action figure!” Goofy says, and I weep because how could you do this to us, KINGDOM HEARTS III? You can’t just put the thought of Riku being a toy into our heads and then never bring it up again. Is it foreshadowing? Are you teasing us with the idea of Riku being a toy only to never follow through? Why?

But I digress. Goofy says this while Sora is desperately trying to convince everyone that he looks like Yozora on the cover of VERUM REX, but the others don’t really buy it. Just like us the audience, the characters have noticed that Yozora looks a lot like Riku. Unfortunately, this is the last time they bring it up, although Sora does mention their resemblance in one of his social media posts between the worlds.

It’s weird to me that the characters aren’t more shocked by Yozora’s uncanny resemblance to Riku. In fact, they don’t seem that shocked at all. You’d think Sora would immediately call Riku up on the phone he carries around in his pocket and be like, “Dude, there’s this video game character who looks just like you. Like, exactly like you. Check it out.”

If even the characters notice that Yozora looks like Riku, there must be some deeper connection between them.

6. Yozora isn’t the silver-haired guy on the cover of VERUM REX.

This whole time, I’ve been talking about Yozora like he’s this guy:

But according to Yozora himself, that’s not what he really looks like. This raises a lot of questions, the least of which is, “What does Yozora really look like?” My main question is, “Who the heck is this guy?” If he’s not Yozora, then what’s his true name? Will Sora and friends ever meet him? Why is his likeness being used for a random video game character on a random world? Why is that character named Yozora?

Most perplexing of all, how did the developers of VERUM REX seemingly predict that a guy named Yozora would end up in this body? Do they know something we don’t?

The answer to that question is yes. If you look at the in-game poster for VERUM REX, it says it’s being developed by SQUARE ENIX. If Yozora wants an answer to the question, “How’d you recognize me as Yozora?” he’ll have to go to the Toy Box world, break down the door to the SQUARE ENIX headquarters, and ask the creators himself. Would SQUARE ENIX make a game in which one of the characters tracks down his creators and demands answers? I hope so. I really, really hope so.

I wrote this before KINGDOM HEARTS IV got announced, and there are some things I might have written differently if I’d written it after. In the intro I say people aren’t all that worried that Yozora may have iced Sora, but that’s not really an issue anymore since we know now that he’s okay in Quadratum, although I guess being in the “afterworld” doesn’t really count as okay. I’m sure he’ll get out of it.

Apparently Nomura had to decide whether to make KINGDOM HEARTS IV or a VERUM REX game, and he went with KH4 because he thought people would be worried about Sora. I appreciate that because I was one of the people who was really worried about Sora!

Since he had to choose between making these two games, does that mean he’ll eventually come back to VERUM REX once KINGDOM HEARTS IV is finished? As you can probably guess by this article, I think Yozora is a really interesting character with a lot of potential. I wouldn’t mind seeing him star in his own game.

Fortunately we won’t have to wait that long for Yozora’s return. In the KINGDOM HEARTS III secret ending, we see him perched on a Quadratum skyscraper, gazing down at Riku with unknown intentions.

He has a role to play in KINGDOM HEARTS IV, though it remains to be seen what that role is. For now, these six things are everything we know about Yozora.

Who do you think Yozora is? Are you excited to know more about him or do you not care who he is?

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