Kingdom Heartache?

Yeah I am sure it will be back, just they sometimes do things inconsistently. For a series that has a clear defined "end" I am glad they focus on it more like Sunshine, but B - Game could go on virtually forever so you only want to have it here and there.

A lot of those things aren't scraped it seems, just tabled. They can't realistically do like 5 different series a week, as well as QLs, podcasts, and other such things.

To me that's just too noisy and hard to keep track of for me as well, I'd rather have a continuity of some kind (though I do agree I wish they would sliiightly more transparent on what they're doing next, but it doesn't matter that much. When the video goes up, I'll end up watching it at some point if it interests me.) For instance, they're doing Blue Bombing again after it was on hiatus for awhile. I liked that, as I'm not the biggest Mega Man fan but those streams were pleasant - I'd like to see Alex complete this first MM Legacy collection, maybe dip into the second.

There's no need to panic, that being said Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 are sizeable games and it would be nice if they picked up the pace or at least came up with a more formal outline in the next episode other than "see ya next time sometime maybe."

I just started the PS4 compilation and need some advice. Is it Ok to play this with a walkthrough? I tend to do this with old games, RPGs especially. There is no way I am going to replay it so I want to see everything but am I robbing myself of anything by doing this?

That's fine I suppose, there aren't many secrets/weird things but I guess you would want to fight all the secret bosses and get the other cool stuff like the ultimate weapons etc. 2 had more things to get/collect but still not too much, I would rec a guide if its kind of a norm for you.

Ben just tweeted that there's no episode this week "due to technical difficulties" but he's assuring us it's "a very real series". For this week specifically I'll believe it because he was sick and had a lot less time to get a recording done. If this happens again next week though, I'm going to probably lose hope and go along with those here who are saying it's a goof. Especially given the tone of this tweet in addition to the tone of Ben's remarks on the series so far.

@genericbrotagonist: Totally 100% convinced it's a goof now. Going to be some mad KH fans in a week or so when the punchline becomes so blatantly obvious nobody can deny it. Ice cold move here by the GB crew, but let's be real KH fans probably should of saw it coming. This site don't give no shit about that shit. (Even if lots in the community do.)

If it is indeed a goof, it's not a very good one. From the ending of the video and the description I am expecting some weird gimmick like rotating co-hosts or rotating player. If it turns out it's just a single random video for what is probably the worst part of the game I'll be kind of disappointed. A fake out like that is not interesting or funny.

I mean, what punchline? Who thinks this is funny? I'm not a kingdom hearts fan. I never played any of them but I would be interested to see the crew play through the first one at least. Just making one video and guaranteeing you're going to play through the game when you aren't isn't a good joke. It's just a lie. Lies aren't jokes.

@genericbrotagonist: y'all are way too dramatic about a series of videos on the internet about some guys playing a video game where you travel around cartoon space with talking animals in order to save the world

I think you mean Funny Animals, thank you very much.

@teddie said:

I don't care what anyone says, Goofy is a mog; half man, half dog, and his own best friend.

Called it, this was never going to be a serious thing. No way are they going to do a second episode. Or even finish it.

Man, there is an abundance of saltiness in this thread that I don't remotely get.

Kingdom Heartache is the Eva Marie of Let's Play series.

I think it's pretty fucking funny honestly.

In the end the worst thing is a labored GB video or series where they are just fighting the game or grinding through it or whatever so no one should want them to do a real KH series.

It always seemed insane to me they were going to do a KH series. Especially with Brad involved.

@artisanbreads: And here I thought this site never did April's fools jokes because just lying to people isn't funny. Guess it was all a long con leading up to this moment. April's fools jokes in July are way funnier after all.

If this whole thing was a joke, I think it was one in very poor taste.

That's kind of all I have to say on the matter. I'm not particularly upset, I'm not going to throw a fit about it, and I'm not going to leave Giantbomb or anything, but as a paying user I don't really like being jerked around, even if the video isn't a premium feature.

I'm still not convinced that there isn't going to be more, but if so I completely agree with this statement.

If it was a joke then

I agree with.

However, for the time being, I will believe Ben and believe that an actual technical difficulty happened that prevented episode 2 from airing.

Not a KH fan in any sense, but I'll still be bummed if this ends up being nothing and we'll go back to waiting for a new Demo Derby/Ranking of Fighters episode to come out maybe sometime in October, while GBeast starts it's nth series of the year. Not the end of the world, but I really want to see GBWest faces more frequently and listen to Brad swear over some games.

...alright, I guess there's DOTA. Really not my cup of tea, but I suppose you can't like everything they put out.

This is mostly my thoughts but I'll elaborate my specific reasons for being disappointed if this does turn into a joke: This was a series I looked forward to sharing with my sister. She has a passing interest in Giant Bomb but often they don't cover games she's interested in. This was a series that we could both enjoy. My sister and I both have a fondness for Kingdom Hearts while still having frustrations with it which meant the tone of the first Kingdom Heartache video was very appealing. Just as I had got my hopes up that: "fantastic, I have a Giant Bomb series to riff off of while spending time with my sister this summer!" it looks like it may just be an elaborate joke.

This thread reminds me of people freaking out after Dan's "loser leaves town" match, as if I recall correctly many were convinced that was just a dumb prank that wouldn't lead to anything and were angry about it too.

@glots: I agree. I hope some series gets going regularly from the West. This just couldn't be it. I also would like Brad at the center of some series.

@giantmidget999:

I still think it's a real feature, because if GB is going to do a prank they'd do a better job of it. Just lying to your audience isn't a funny prank, it's just lying. It'd just make me lose trust in the crew in the future.

Granted I am biased because I was pretty interested in the feature, it was one of the more interesting things West had done for a while and I was excited to see Ben able to really spread his wings on a feature.

@pyromagnestir: Well that was also Dan messing with the GB audience, so it was warranted then too. Just like now he was intentionally vague about it to stir things up, and he even went so far as making secret messages.

I've never had any doubt that this was a real feature. I'm sure Episode 2 will be out any day now. I really just want to know what's so "perfectly normal" about it all...

I'll say this though. If Ben, a man who is getting a lot of unwarranted hate and is having a hard time winning some people over, decided that trolling a very vocal chunk of the audience was the way to go, well i just don't think that is well thought out at all.

I wasn't 100% invested in watching future episodes, but it was good to see Brad in a series again. Ben won't be winning anyone over if this was a gag though.

I don't think it's a joke. I think it's a rotating chair of guests. I think the reason there was no episode this week is because Jeff was sick and he was the next guest to be on. Ben doesn't want to spoil the surprise so he made up some bullshit on Twitter which also serves as a slight tease to people who are still confused whether this is a real play through or not.

I'm telling you, it will come eventually. They are not just going to troll the shit out of everyone like that. That's not how GB works.

I mean, is a rotating guest aspect to a video something to keep secret? Like, who cares?

@corwag: Maybe it's not so much a rotating set of guests as it is Ben having every possible person from the office on as a guest until there is nobody left wanting to sit through the hell that is KH and Ben is left alone. I don't think Brad is going to be on the next one in any case. There is some aspect to this feature that Ben wants to keep a surprise.

The twist is Ben will rotate himself out of the feature and leave Brad with the controller all by his fearful lonesome.

I hope it isn't a full feature because that'd be hilarious.

Honestly though it's probably people are sick and things got delayed.

Have y'all dudes ever been to Giant Bomb before? The only thing they have ever been consistent about over the years is how inconsistent they are in putting out videos.

Demo Derby: Three episodes this year.

Old Games Show: Basically cancelled, transformed into Jeff randomly streaming old games.

Ranking of Fighters: One episode in the year.

This is the Run: Last run completed over three months ago.

Game Tapes: One episode in 2017, two in the last year.

It doesn't help the optics of the KH community for this to be the time everyone starts getting melodramatic about how GB is just being mean and working their audience for some unknown reason.

Plus whatever that thursday night throwdown clone was that Ben started a month or two ago.

@ericsmith: Normally I wouldn't even entertain the idea, but Ben is obviously up to something. "a completely normal playthrough of Kingdom Hearts" "Brad will be here will me the whole time" "it's a very real series" at least some of which are definitely tinged with sarcasm. He wanted us to be speculating, at least for the first week.

Yeah, that's what I'm assuming. Though it would be even better if both the host and the guest rotate, like have episode 2 with Jeff on the sticks and Ben as the guest, with no acknowledgement of the change, then Brad playing the next time, etc. It would be a beautiful mess of a run through a beautiful mess of a series.

I think the long term future of this series is as bright as those of Bring Your B Game and Encyclopedia Bombastica.

I think the issue with a lot of GB series is that they don't stick to the formula. I actually really liked the format of EB. Jeff and Alex did some excellent videos. Then Dan came around and was asked "So why is this an EB contender?" "I dunno, it was just something I played when I worked at GameStop and wanted to play again."

Yes, alright, thanks Dan. Sounds like a real classic that you are highly knowledgeable about.

In the end, it all just melds together and turns into a regular-ass Quick Look. If Ben has some sort of gimmick in store for this, I hope he's adamant about sticking with it. If there's a script, then stick to the script.

Giant Bomb's always pretty much been death to great video series, unfortunately. I'd also beware of teased future updates to the site. They're as mythical as leprechauns flogging unicorns over Atlantis. Consistency in video releases would be awesome, but if it hasn't happened by now, honestly, it's just not going to.

As much as I'd like to see actual GB West content, I am not holding my breath because of this right here.

You guys should listen to one of the more recent beastcasts, Vinny talked about how some features "die" and others need some time in the fridge.

And if I would guess, the GBWest guys are always busy with E3, PAX and such (and they are in need of a new video guy).

fwiw, I think GB (specifically GB West) has intentionally cultivated a stable of video series that come and go at random intervals, with the only mainstays being Quick Looks and UPF and the Bombcast. They return to those series when they feel like they can put some good energy into it or have a particular game they want to highlight, but they don't force it. When Brad feels up for a challenge he does a Breaking Brad, but he doesn't force it if there's no good game for it. If Jeff/Jason think of a fighting game they want to perform the sweet science on, they do a Ranking of Fighters. Also, speaking for myself, I certainly wouldn't really want 2-4 episodes of Demo Derby a month, because my appetite for old-ass demos isn't really that high. Or doing a Mario Party Party every month would've burned through the series too fast while also destroying morale. Some of those series definitely have been infrequent as of late, and also I lament the loss of Encyclopedia Bombastica.

I do agree if the overall point people are making is that GB West and GB East have contrasting styles of video series, but I don't think GB West is strictly worse at doing video series. GB East has definitely set more of a precedent of weekly series with Kerbal: Project B.E.A.S.T., Beast in the East, Steal My Sunshine, etc., since Vinny and his coworkers just seem more willing to do Endurance Runs/Let's Plays of a game. GB West's series seem to be more about showing different games each episode, with the only time in recent memory that they've really hammered through entire games being Brad's Devil May Cry playthrough and Metal Gear Scanlon. People are complaining about Kingdom Heartache, but it looks like they're going to try to put them out regularly since it is more of a weird Let's Play.

I honestly don't know why they are still doing once-a-week playthrough of story heavy games. In all of them, they always forget what happened in the previous week. Hell, in Shenmue ER they forgot what happened in the previous day (although i have no idea how often they record that).

@forteexe21: I totally agree with you. It's frustrating when they can't remember what they were doing and/or forget how to play. BUT! I think the whole point of Kingdom Heartache is to parody that very aspect of the other features, especially with the rotating cast of bewildered guests Ben has.

i want more game tapes.

Its a gimmick and a joke. If anyone thinks they are seriously committed to playing through all of Kingdom Hearts 1 1 video per week for the next 1-2 years, they are kidding themselves.

We might get a more serious test of this down the road, I'm open to believing Ben is actually wanting to get into Kingdom Hearts 3. But its called heart-ache, not "Endurance Run" or "Let's Play" or anything of the 'this is a serious play-through.'.

For all the reasons people think, story heavy games once a week are a silly idea, especially not following any kind of walk through or etc. This is just something Ben and co think is fun to do and funny, his sense of humor does seem to be a bit 'play up the goofy aspect of my personality, make people unsure if I am high 24/7, be super serious when important, but I'm the only one who tells me what is and isn't "Important enough i have to take seriously"

Based on that, this is likely to be a running gag, for awhile. Maybe it turns into a legit play-through at some point, maybe we never get another video. Maybe KH1 is just an excuse for Ben to have random guests on every episode to do bits and gags with, with the "What the heck is going on, man this game is bad" as the over-arching theme tieing the encounters together. I.e. if your hoping for a legit KH1 playthrough, your missing the point. Or..who knows.

I think the fact that, as far as I know, they have not addressed WTF they are doing with this series in any forth-right way speaks volumes. Community confusion and a bit of "what no your doing it wrong!" is part of the pathos they are trying to tap into and/or create.

I reckon they leave it for a while and randomly dump an entire playthrough again in one go. Then East could play the second game!