Spoilers ► Ending of KH1

[tayqualls92]

So I'm coming back to the first game on PS4 years later, and I'm finding the ending to be a bit more convoluted than I had remembered. I've managed to work most things out after reading several forums ad wikis, but the thing I don't get is how Sora and Co. followed Ansem/Xeonort to the End of the World. If the whole purpose of the gathering the Prinesses of Heart was to open the Final Keyhole, which led to the End of the World in order to access the realm of Darkness and get to Kingdom Hearts (is that all correct?), doesn't it make Ansem's entire plan completely unnecessary if Sora could just fly there in the Gummi Ship after sealing the Final Keyhole.
There may be things I am misunderstanding in there, so please feel free to correct me.
Thanks!

 

[DarkosOverlord]

My take was that the Princesses were needed to open the path, so once Sora completed the Keyhole, the path was open for everybody.
Also because at that point, the barriers were basically gone and Heartless were everywhere.

I never went and checked if it was correct or if another explanation was provided though.

 

[KaitoXIII]

I always just took as they didn't want to lock you out of the other worlds in case you needed to grind or wanted to finish the bonus stuff first, but i admit it does detract from the impact a little.

 

[Zero Sora]

The Final Keyhole opens the way to the DtD. Think of it like the pathways Sora opens in KH2. All the world's hearts that went into making Kingdom Hearts also took pieces of their worlds with them. Eventually all of those pieces of worlds made End of the World.

You might be able to make it to End of the World without the Final Keyhole, but you would be unable to reach the DtD. Perhaps you can't even reach End of the World without the Final Keyhole. Either way, the Final Keyhole makes the DtD available to access.