No he's not.  He's connected to Sora, but definitely not Sora.  I won't spoil why, but you find out wo he is in KH2.

So is it better for me to understand who he is going into this game, or should I play this in the dark and read up or play KH2 after?

If you don't want to buy a PS2, your best bet is to watch a walkthrough of both games.

OnyxMeth: the game is made that way
you can play it without reading up anything...it's not made to force you to play the other games in the series

the story just wants to stay mysterious...

these questions you have a great ones, they will all be answered upon finishing the game actually
so keep on playing...you as player should have questions and should get alot answered at the end

for the few remaining ones the other games are left...

actually at the end of the game more questions arise, BUT those will be answered in the next series..

etc
etc
etc


don't listen to the sony fanboys...
play 358/2 days and dont spoil yourself to the other games stories untill you are ready to pick the games up or something...
alright?

good

yea like other guys have said you gotta know the story line of the other games

Kingdom Heats Story has gotton a hell uva alot weird after 2, did you play atleast 1 by chance?

Nope. It's ok though. I'm enjoying the game regardless. I'm playing it on Proud Mode though, so it's freaking hard at times. I had to leave an optional mission behind so I could get on with the game. I'll come back to it in the Holo Missions section when I'm stronger.

Does anyone understand the idea behind synthesizing panels? I have all these items I can't do anything with in my inventory that are for this task. I'm on day 16 right now.

I gonna get the game tommorow but I have no idea about the story. Something about heartless and nobodies?

(Slight spoilers ahead)

Pretty much. The game is very structured in nature. Days will begin with a black screen announcing the day's change. You begin most days in the same room and need to accept mission to other worlds. Inside the worlds, Organization XIII will block off unnecessary passages to keep you on track with a big fat electric X over entrances.

Overall, I'm really loving the game. I'm not sure how the story is in other Kingdom Hearts games, but I'm enjoying this story of loneliness, friendship, and basically trying to get on with daily work life feeling incomplete. Square did a lot with the limitations of the DS. A lot of silent moments up on the station tower in twilight town tell more about the story than the entirety of the CGI movies do.

I think at this point I'm slightly past the events in Chain of Memories, because Axel is back from Castle Oblivion, and he alluded to Roxas that he can thank himself that Axel is still alive, which I assume he means Sora when he says that.

So I got the game and I'm about 4 hours in. So far it's a really fun game!