Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)

Ventus (ヴェントゥス), commonly referred to as Ven (ヴェン), is a fictional character from Square Enix's video game franchise Kingdom Hearts. Having first made cameos in Kingdom Hearts II and other related titles, Ventus was introduced in the 2010 prequel Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep as one of the three protagonists. In its story, Ventus is introduced as the youngest apprentice of Master Eraqus who trains him alongside his best friends, Terra and Aqua, to become experienced warriors with the Keyblade. When Terra goes on a mission to find Master Xehanort, Ventus follows him, having also become concerned about his fate. As Ventus journeys through various worlds, he learns about his origins as well as his relation with Xehanort and his apprentice Vanitas.

Ventus was designed by director Tetsuya Nomura who wanted to create a character with an important connection with the series' main character Sora. Ventus bears a strong resemblance to the character of Roxas, both of whom are voiced by Kōki Uchiyama in Japanese and Jesse McCartney in English. After Ventus' first cameo, Nomura had to state that both of them are different characters, and the reason for such connection would be revealed in Birth by Sleep. Video game websites also commented on Ventus' first appearance, initially confusing him for Roxas during the development of Birth by Sleep, but has since been well received.

Appearances
Before being introduced in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Ventus first made cameos in the secret endings of Kingdom Hearts II and its re-release, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, which depicted him and his friends Terra and Aqua battling Master Xehanort and Vanitas. Ventus is also shown in a cameo in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days when Xion, a replica of Sora, appears as Ventus while fighting Xigbar from Organization XIII. Ventus is also constantly referenced by Xigbar in Kingdom Hearts II and 358/2 Days while Xemnas, the Nobody of Xehanort, is in search of him in Castle Oblivion.

Prior to the start of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Ventus was the apprentice of Master Xehanort, who trained him to complete the legendary χ-blade (pronounced as "key blade"). However, due to Ventus' reluctance to use darkness, Xehanort extracted it from his heart, resulting in the creation of Vanitas, but also leaving his heart incomplete and on the verge of collapse. He is brought by Xehanort to Destiny Islands, where his heart merges with that of the newborn Sora to keep it safe. Having lost his memories, Ventus is placed in the care of Master Eraqus as his youngest Keyblade apprentice alongside Terra and Aqua. At the games beginning, Vanitas taunts Ventus into following Terra who is on a quest to find Xehanort. Ventus travels through various worlds, fighting mysterious creatures called the Unversed and meeting various people. Vanitas attacks Ventus during his journey to test his strength, but he is defeated when Ventus is aided by the Keyblade apprentice Mickey. Upon meeting Xehanort, Ventus is forced to remember his purpose as being used to create the χ-blade. Ventus refuses to battle Vanitas to avoid creating the χ-blade, but is forced to after Vanitas threatens to kill Terra and Aqua if he does refuses. They battle within the Keyblade Graveyard, where Vanitas merges with Ventus and obtains the χ-blade. However, this fusion is incomplete, which allows Ventus to destroy Vanitas within his heart and Aqua to destroy the χ-blade. As a result, Ventus loses his heart and his body is placed within Castle Oblivion by Aqua until he awakens. Ventus' wandering heart is able to find its way back to the young Sora, who accepts Ventus' heart into his body. In the game's secret ending, he is seen in the Land of Departure with Terra, and the two utter Sora's name with newfound hope.

Ventus is mentioned in the secret ending of Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, when Mickey reveals he has learned where Ventus' heart is, having searched for his whereabouts for the past ten years. In Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Sora briefly takes the form of Ventus during a dream, and when his heart is wounded, Ventus' armor appears to protect his body. In the ending of the game, Ventus is shown in Castle Oblivion, still in his catatonic state, his face drawn into a smile.

Creation and development
When first designing Ventus, Tetsuya Nomura already decided the character should look like Sora or Roxas, and decided to choose the latter when thinking that Vanitas being revealed to have Sora's appearance would give a big impact to the gamers. Nomura wanted Ventus' personality to more closely resemble Sora's, which led to his outgoing personality, yet at the same time he wanted him to become more serious as the game progressed to make them distinct. Ventus was first shown in the secret endings of Kingdom Hearts II and its rerelease Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix. Ventus' name first appeared as a code in a 2006 Tokyo Game Show promotional video of the games. While making Final Mixs ending, Nomura had only developed the backstory for Terra, Aqua and Ventus and not their appearances, but had to finish their design for the end of game cameo. Nomura did not reveal their identities, and only stated that the three character were from the chronological past of the Kingdom Hearts series. Following their release, Nomura stated that his nickname was Ven. Ventus was first mentioned by the character Lingering Sentiment in Final Mix as Ven, while his full name was still unrevealed. He also mentioned a connection between him and Xemnas but wanted to leave it up to people's imaginations as he still could not reveal his identity.

Nomura commented that, despite how similar they are, Roxas and Ventus are not the same character. Additionally, he stated that by playing Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, players will be able to distinguish Roxas from Ventus and that the game explores his true personality. In another interview, Nomura implied both characters are related, specifically to Sora, but he wanted fans to imagine reasons for such connection. The guidebook Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Ultimania clarified the connection, stating that Roxas and Ventus look alike because Ventus' heart entered Sora's body and Roxas' birth allowed Ventus' heart to reside in Roxas. In early versions of development, Nomura planned to have Ventus' broken heart be healed by the heart of Sora before he was born, but after negative feedback from overseas coworkers it was abandoned. Like Roxas, Ventus has been voiced Kōki Uchiyama in Japanese and Jesse McCartney in English.

Ventus' name means "wind" in Latin; both it and his Keyblade are called Wayward Wind, known in Japan as Fresh Breeze (フレッシュブリーズ), and have a "sky" theme similar to that of Sora's. During development of Birth by Sleep, the Osaka team in charge of developing the game suggested that Ventus should be related with Vanitas, something which Nomura liked as he wanted to add more connections within the story, so Vanitas' name was made to sound similar to Ventus' name. Nomura had trouble designing the armor for Ventus, Terra and Aqua since the gameplay mechanism for activating their armor had not been fleshed out. Therefore, an "X" was added to their clothes as a way to activate the armors as well as due to the fact it was one of the game's keywords. Ever since development of Birth by Sleep started, the staff already decided that Ventus', Aqua's and Terra's stories would be told in separate scenarios, with Ventus' story being the second one written. They also wanted emphasize the lack of coincidences in the series, leading to the interaction between the three scenarios. In gameplay perspective, Ventus was designed to be the easiest character to play with in Birth by Sleep, although Nomura recommended to players that Ventus should be the second character to play with in order to understand the story better. Additionally, the way Ventus handles his Keyblade backwards is meant to show the gameplay differences between his and Terra's and Aqua's scenarios. Nomura also remarked Ventus' encounter with the characters Lea and Isa as an important event from the game, hoping both newcomers and older gamers will also find it important from Ventus' perspective.

Reception
Due to his resemblance with Roxas, video game publications initially thought that Roxas would be one of the protagonists from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep when seeing one of Ventus' mages. However, when it was revealed that the two were different, publications continued to discuss how similar they were and if there was a connection between them. GamesRadar particularly thought that there would be an eventual connection between the two of them and Sora. Amanda L. Kondolojy from Cheat Code Central also commented on speculations regarding the similarities between both of them, but mentioned that due to the existence of Nobodies in series, it is hard to find them as coincidences. When Jesse McCartney confirmed he was working on the English localization of Birth by Sleep, sites thought that he would voice Ventus, as he also voiced Roxas in previous titles. The character's story and actions shown in the demonstrations were praised for being the "most original take on Kingdom Hearts" and yet "frustratingly traditional". Upon Ventus' introduction in Birth by Sleep, X-Play found the character to be very similar to Sora's due to his friendly attitude. Kevin VanOrd from the same site gave praise to Ventus' character for his "well-meaning" and yet not "annoying" personality. The site also said that the time players spend playing with Ventus would be "rewarding" and commented on the English voice acting. PlayStation LifeStyle's Thomas Williams found the trio of Ventus, Terra and Aqua as welcome additions to the franchise, finding their stories enjoyable even though the three travel to the same worlds. On the other hand, PALGN found the three characters unappealing, labelling Ventus as "just a Roxas clone, but without his personality." In contrast to 1UP's comments towards Ventus' actions in Cinderella's world, VanOrd commented that such interactions to be "more bothersome than boisterous." Writing for GamesRadar, Chris Antistaer called Ventus a "Roxas-clone", and did not understand why he was briefly featured in Kingdom Hearts II.