The castle sora remembers in the deep jungle

[Venx]

While speedrunning KH last saturday, I saw a scene I totally forgot about. When you watch tarzans DIAs in the deep jungle, a castle appears between all these apes. Sora says he remembers it, but how? It didn't look like something from hollow bastion/radiant garden, the castle of dreams or castle oblivion. With a lot of imagination maybe like the clocktower from twilight town, but roxas wasn't born at this point so it wouldn't make sense. Has someone any idea or know the answer? Would be great, thanks.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

It is meant to be Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden's castle or at least to resemble it.
It's one of the subtle foreshadowings that Sora is carrying Kairi's heart.

It's Kairi's heart that remembers, or rather, associates the dia of the castle with Radiant Garden, but due to it being inside Sora his heart is affected too and has access to the memory.

 

[Venx]

Ah okay, makes sense. Vens heart would be fitting, too but kairi makes the most sense in the game, thanks!

Did you figure it out by yourselfe or could you read it anywhere?

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Ah okay, makes sense. Vens heart would be fitting, too but kairi makes the most sense in the game, thanks!

Did you figure it out by yourselfe or could you read it anywhere?

Heh, you would be not the first one to bring up Ventus' heart, but there are two definite reasons, one in-universe and one out of it that make this notion impossible:

1. in-universe: While Ventus' heart is indeed in Sora too, it is inactive and asleep due to being horribly wounded from the final battle in BBS, Ven's heart didn't show any true activity until stirred awake in Dream Drop Distance. Roxas did unlock/unseal Ven's Keyblade during Days, but it didn't result in any noticeable activity of Ventus himself. Kairi's heart on the other hand is active, awake and healthy, that's also why Sora keeps seeing phantoms of Kairi throughout KH 1.

2. out-of-universe: The character Ventus was not even created as a concept when KH 1 was made. Nomura thought up the characters of BBS while KH 2 was in development, so any hints regarding the BBS characters in games before KH 2 are retrospective.


I did figure that out myself, although I do believe that it was also confirmed somewhere in one of the Nomura-interviews either in the KH 1 Ultimanias or with Famitsu.

 

[Venx]

Thanks for the great explination! I know that a lot of things weren't there when KH was made, I mean it looks until the ending like a standalone game. Never thought of kairis heart, the castle confused me to much.

Pretty good to be here.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Thanks for the great explination! I know that a lot of things weren't there when KH was made, I mean it looks until the ending like a standalone game. Never thought of kairis heart, the castle confused me to much.

Pretty good to be here.

No problem.
You might laugh, but the first KH game in 2002 was originally planned as a standalone game because both Disney and Square were unsure of its potential success.
Every open-ended "hint" in the first game was just placed in case the game might be successful, otherwise, any of these would have been left like it was and any concepts Nomura had thought of for continuation would have remained in his drawer.

It wasn't until the resounding success of the game that they decided to definitely expand it into a full series that, unlike Final Fantasy, has an ongoing overaching story.
Even then though, Nomura isn't planning the entire story ahead, only some vague framework concepts exist for the "Xehanort Saga" as a whole.
Actual detailed story-planning is done on a game-by-game basis, meaning that while one entry of the KH series is in development, Nomura starts to plan for the next title.
I.e. when Chain of Memories was in development, Nomura planned for KH 2, when that was in development, he planned for BBS etc.

If you're looking for wellfounded information on the series in- as well as out-of universe you're certainly in the right place. We have quite some knowledgeable individuals around here.

 

[Venx]

I never actually got my standalone-theory confirmed until now, thanks but KH just got to many mistakes for the following story, so it was kinda obvious. I'm just happy they continued and made some great games.

Well, my questions is answered, thanks for everything! Thread can be closed.