to another via a Gummi Ship. Some worlds featured in the previous games reappear, but with new and expanded areas. There are also new worlds that are introduced, including the Land of Dragons (based on Mulan), Beast's Castle (Beauty and the Beast), Timeless River (Steamboat Willie), Port Royal (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl), Pride Lands (The Lion King), and Space Paranoids (Tron). Twilight Town, an original world first seen in Chain of Memories, has a greater role as the introductory world. The World That Never Was is a new world that serves as the headquarters of Organization XIII. Characters The three protagonists of the game are Sora, a 15-year-old boy chosen as a wielder of the Keyblade, a mystical key-shaped weapon that can combat darkness; Donald Duck, the court magician of Disney Castle; and Goofy, the captain of the Disney Castle guards. Both Donald and Goofy are under orders from their missing king, Mickey Mouse, to accompany Sora and his Keyblade. Other original characters include Riku, who is briefly playable at the game's climax, and Kairi, Sora's friends from his home world of Destiny Islands; Roxas, a boy who can also wield the Keyblade and is playable in the game's beginning sequence; Naminé, a girl with the power to manipulate memories; and DiZ, a man in red robes with a vendetta against Organization XIII, who is later revealed to be Ansem the Wise, the mentor of Xehanort. As in the previous games, there are numerous appearances of characters from both Disney and Square Enix works. While some make a return from Kingdom Hearts, new characters from Disney fiction are also introduced, such as Scar from The Lion King and Scrooge McDuck. Pete appears as a persistent enemy who works with the resurrected Maleficent. Nearly twenty characters from Final Fantasy games appear, notably Auron of Final Fantasy X, Tifa from Final Fantasy VII, and the return of Squall Leonhart, Cloud, and Sephiroth. It was stated that although the first game strictly stuck to characters Tetsuya Nomura designed, this time around they were going to "take some risks", implying that characters not directly designed by Nomura might make an appearance. Other new characters to series are Vivi of Final Fantasy IX, Seifer Almasy of Final Fantasy VIII and Setzer of Final Fantasy VI. The various worlds that Sora explores often have an optional party character from the