I hope they only play Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 if they complete any of them...the rest of the series is...suspect in comparison to say the least.

I hope they discover the charm and fun of the game, it takes a while for all the mechanics to come together (in both games, but in different ways.) Once you have a somewhat developed character and a grasp on the way stuff operates it's fun and strange exploration of this ridiculous Disney meta-verse when it doesn't hang on it's own bullshit over and over.

I thought Birth By Sleep was the better game in the series so I hope they play them all.

@dan_citi: If they're doing it in preparation for KH3, I don't think that would be the way to go. KH3 is going to end up more of a sequel to Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance than KH2 at this point. I wouldn't mind terribly if they skipped the others, although in a perfect world I would like to see it since every game contributes something to the overall story, even if it's just a little bit.

I feel like this only works if at least one of them has an interest in actually giving the game a chance. If it's just the two of them shitting on the game and Disney in general that sounds like a miserable video series.

Im confused, isnt 12pm midnight? Shouldnt this be up now?

@stevevice: Another 12 hours. Don't know where you are, but for EST it says 6:00 am. 12pm is noon, I've always thought it was a bit confusing as well.

@stevevice: 12AM would be midnight, 12PM is morning. Or noon I guess.

A Kingdom Hearts thread with a minor tangent of earnest confusion over time: seems fitting.

I am unreasonably excited for this, whatever the hell it is

Fits my opinion of Kingdom Hearts in general!

I love how so many are already making doomsaying assumptions about how this series will go, lol.

I've been hoping Ben would spearhead a video series; it's kind of something that's helped me become a fan of each member of the team that I didn't previously "get". I also want to figure out why the heck people like Kingdom Hearts so much, because I couldn't play it myself but have been intrigued.

I just hope the commentary is energetic, engaging and somewhat positive; the title of the series kind of suggests that some members of the team are ready to shit on the games.

@ripelivejam: Right? Why would they be doing this if they all hated it? If it was anyone else I would at least get the hesitation, as their mocking and dismissal of the series whenever it comes up makes it hard to see them changing their minds. Ben, however, has never said anything bad about the series. I expect him to give it a completely fair shake considering he is known to like shonen anime, which is pretty much what the series is.

Hey, I welcome a new premium series on the West side of GB. I know Brad seems to have limited knowledge on Disney (all I know is that he likes the 1st Pirates movie), but I wonder how much Ben cares for classic Disney films. For the longest time I thought I never played a KH game, but then I remembered that I played Chain of Memories on the GBA, which was okay. Curious as to how this play through goes.

Color me interested at least. I have a vestigial fondness of the first two games from my youth. I replayed the first one 2 years ago as part of the hd collection and still enjoyed it well enough. My older eyes saw the cracks more easily, but I still had fun with all the disney nostalgia and anime bullshit. Hopefully this isn't just a trek through (whoever is playing it)'s misery.

I just want Brad to get deep into the lore. That's all.

Really looking forward to this! I've been tossing around the idea of going back to Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2. Maybe this will be enough so I don't have to do it before KH3 comes out. It would be kind of nice to just go into Kingdom Hearts 3 nice and fresh, not having played any KH in over a decade.

My memory of Kingdom Hearts was liking the first game way way back when, but never finishing it..and dropping off from there. I have no idea what to expect from this, but I think I will enjoy it whatever it produces.

That said, my money (since its a few hours away and its all speculation right now I think?) is that its gonna be something that is gonna disappoint anyone who could recite by name 2 or more of any of the games in the series (besides 1 and 2).

A full play-through of even one game? I can't imagine. 20+ videos..? Brad and Ben already have an on-going weekly series (that's not premium for that matter), I'd be suprised if they seriously mean to start another.

That said, maybe one of them really likes the battle system in some of the older games. We could be looking at something like "Hey you think Darksouls is hard Brad? Try wraping your head around all these games systems and beat Sephy /Cloud/whatever optional bosses exist across the series. Like if this is "Ben likes Kingdom Hearts, knows Brad doesn't, lets inflict the combat system on Brad in a limited series" I could see that.

Could also see the two of them being "We are totally clueless to this whole thing, but here are some videos explaining the entire story. Why don't we watch them together and try to understand the insanity!

Then again...Ben did beat Persona 5. So he has at least has got to have some stomach for anime-tropes and visuals. Maybe this will surprise us all. Whatever it is, just putting it up and not telling anyone what it is is a pretty good hype build up.

I realize that you posted this before the actual video went up, but with the amount of progress they made in 45 minutes, it's gonna be a bit more than 20 videos haha.

Ben's earlier tweet, the fact that this wasn't premium, and the weird outro to this video kind of makes me a little suspicious that this isn't getting a part 2. It probably will and the outro was likely just Ben and brad realizing the oncoming pain of committing to a Kingdom Hearts playthrough but part of me thinks this is a fake out in some way.

Which would be a shame because this was good and I'd love to see the whole playthrough as a KH fan. Like it's not like KH fans as a whole are some bonkers group who think the games are perfect. Ben and Brad were shitting on the parts of the opening that don't hold up that a decent portion of the fanbase would likely also shit on.

Their commentary was about the things happening on screen instead of ignoring whats happening. They seem to be giving the game a fair chance which is all anyone would want.

@thephantomstranger: My speculation (i.e. wild-ass guessing) regarding the weirdness of the outro and Ben's comments is that the gimmick it they're going to switch up who's in Brad's chair every episode so the sidekick is perpetually confused about what's going on.

Either that or there's going to be a surprise new episode tomorrow that's not on the schedule and this turns out to be a stealth Endurance Run, hence the "DEFINITELY A NORMAL PLAYTHROUGH NOTHING TO SEE HERE" branding and non-premium. But who knows.

@banefirelord: Eh the series doesn't need help being confusing though. Adding an artificial element of confusion would unintentionally take the blame off the game itself and possibly make confusion jokes feel less earned. Also wouldn't that just mean they rotate between Brad and Jeff? Jeff wouldn't need the help of not knowing what the fuck is going on to make comments about how batshit crazy the series is. Would it just be to spread out the burden of having to sit through the game?

@thephantomstranger: That last question was kind of my thinking. I just feel like there's something up with personnel, based on how deliberate and seemingly ironic Ben and Brad's language at the end of the episode was about "the two of us sitting through this". Maybe they're just messing with people. Guess we'll find out whenever Episode 2 rolls around.

I enjoyed the first episode of this and would like to see a part 2, but I also would ask that they use a guide or something and, if they start getting too lost or confused, just use the guide. If the first 45 minutes are anything to go by, they're going to spend forever on that Tarzan level. Or the Alice in Wonderland level. Really, the first few hours of this game are kind of a slog.

That's fair...I just...hated the combat in Birth by Sleep so much compared to 1/2, the load out system was needlessly complicated and the bosses and so many enemies were just not fun to fight and did so much damage in comparison to what you could do to them, etc. I spent more time being frustrated than anything.

It was a small thing but changing use/unlock chest/etc. to X instead of triangle just put me off to the game early on...it was such a severe muscle memory thing from the other two games I just constantly pressed triangle and accidentally used a skill and oh it was cure so I better let it recharge before I get into another encounter...ugh.

As well being limited to the PSP's capabilities the worlds while neat felt just like small playsets in comparison to almost anything in 2. That being said the over-arching story stuff in it is important for sure, so if they really like 1 & 2 I can recommend playing BSS on easy for the fun bits of Disney and the "serious" (lol) story stuff that sets up 3 and the world. I didn't play enough of 3DS to be honest, but I might pick up that HD version at some point before 3 comes out to actually get what happens first hand.

I thought Chain of Memories was pretty good but really, what's important to the plot can be summed up in a paragraph of text. The actual act of going thru the game (either playable character) really isn't all that at the end of the day. I'm all for neat, bizzaro amnesiac fever dream versions of stuff you've encounter already in a previous game/part of a game but that game just feels almost redundant now.

Anyway that first video was a lot better than I expected, and was actually pretty funny. So far they have a good, positive approach and am excited for the series to come.

I'm all up for some oddity and hope it's the rotating chair for the second person they've planned up, but if this ends up being a fake out, that would be a real bummer. Couldn't really see any viewers getting a kick out of new GBWest content ending up being just a one-time joke.

I look forward to this series dying 6 episodes in.

I enjoyed it, looking forward to more.

for both games really. But I think once it gets going its fun and has a good pace.

I do think Ben will like 2 more if they ever get to it. A lot of the technical issues are fixed there and the combat system is more streamlined

@banefirelord: Or it's a one off troll which I think is the most likely. Probably why it wasn't premium as well.

@devise22: If that's the case, Giant Bomb's really lowered their standards for trolling video content. Playing something straight for 45 minutes and then doing nothing with it ever again is a far cry from, say, the Black Mesa QL or the Giant Bomb Is The New Wikipedia.

@banefirelord: I don't know if it's exactly the case but it could be. The way their sarcastic tone was going I could very much see them continually responding jokingly if asked about the series. As in saying that it's still ongoing and a completely normal playthrough, but never actually do an episode 2 or any more.

The fact that it's either that or it's probably a stealth endurance run out of nowhere, now that I think about it more is probably a bit hilarious and in tone with this site. But the number of times Ben mentioned sit with Brad for 40+ hours and then their tone at the end, combined with lack of premium I wouldn't be shocked to also see it just randomly go up in tons as an ER with multiple episodes per week.

I remember really liking the first Kingdom Hearts and played up until I think the Tarzan portion of the game, then dropping off. I always meant to go back to it, but I felt the series got way too far up its own ass after 2, that I don't know if I can. Still, looking forward to watching this. BenPack's sarcastic sense of humor mixed with easily one of the most baitable fandoms in videogames should make for an explosive mix.

@hippie_genocide: Err you played about 5-8 hours of the first game and determined the whole series was too up its own ass? It is.... but how exactly would you know? Trailers....?

@johntunoku: Well, it was probably the whole "We're gonna put this series on multiple consoles and say that all of those games are canon" thing, [Dream Drop Distance spoiler]Xehanort being a time lord, or just getting away from Disney nostalgia and becoming its own thing, or, being "anime" as people like to say around here.

He's not wrong. I'm a dedicated and reluctant fan of the series since 04 and I still can't get over [Dream Drop Distance spoiler]Xehanort being a time lord as if I didn't need a cork board and some string to figure some things out beyond Kairi's head and feet being so fucking huge in the first game. But hey! Kingdom Hearts 3! A reason for why I wanted a PlayStation 3 is coming out on PlayStation 4 sometime next year! Yaay!

As someone who has basically played the start of the first KH (like, a demo-worth) and swore off never playing the rest of the series, I actually want to see them finish at least one of the games. The verbiage Ben has been throwing around about the video series makes me think they're still "up to something" with regards to how they will be moving forward, or what is going to change episode to episode.

Looking forward to whatever this becomes, gents.

I get this weird feeling that they will not finish this game.

After the first episode I would love for them to never do a second episode and never talk about this episode again and avoid any questions on it.

Consensus seems like they either hate the series, or hate 3/4 of the GB staff, or both? This community feels like it's losing what I came to it for.

Maybe this will get updated as frequently as my favorite Giant Bomb feature Ranking the Fighters :(

It's "of", and I just realized this is a pun!

I hope there's at least one more ep where they could explain the plan (or clearly say it won't be a series). Jerking the audience around is only ok in small doses

@quantris: If Jeff and Jason did Ranking of Fighters more often I wouldn't have forgotten the name.

This one video made me order the ps4 collection. I already own them on ps3. I now have bought these games 3 times.

help.

I keep refreshing but still no more episodes!

@quantris: GBEast does a good job holding a schedule or letting their audience know how often they will do a feature while GBWest is really inconsistent. Like when will we get another Old Games Show, Demo Derby, Game Tapes or Ranking of Fighters? Maybe that is a deliberate, I know for one Jeff has mentioned that he likes to release stuff more spontaneously but a lot of these videos are being released months and months apart from each other.

@boonsong: Is GBEast really any better? Choose our own Adventure, Bring our B Game, This is the Run and a few others just vanished. Aside from Beast in the East, we pretty much never have any idea what's going on until a day or two before it happens. Even Steal Your Sunshine they've never explicitly said is weekly. I keep watching the schedule expecting it not to show up one week.

I will soon do this as well as get the thing that has 3D on it for PS4, once I get various other things I really want bought and out of the way.

ugh. money.

@genericbrotagonist: You're totally right, I forgot about some of those features like Bring Your B-Game and This Is The Run. I realize now GBEast is not much more consistent. I guess it comes down to the fact that some of the infrequent features from GBWest is some of my favorite content on this site. Like Demo Derby and Game Tapes, and those get put out like what, once every 2-3 months at this point? And it's been like almost 5 months or something since the last Ranking of Fighters which is another one I really like.

I just don't get why the videos that seem to be really popular on this site are not released more often.

Choose our own adventure and Bring your B game are shows I think they have scrapped. CooA is something they haven`t done for so long that I think it`s safe to assume they will no longer do it and Bring your B game got such a poor reception from the viewers and they have talked about it not working out, so I think they are either scrapping it or retooling it. Otherwise they are pretty consistent. Once they start a playthrough like Blue bombin and Vinnyvania they do one episode a week until they finish the game except when someone is out of the office. This is the run is something they do when they find something cool to do a this is the run series with. Once they have started a series of This is the run they release episodes on a set schedule until they are finished. GBeast does more full playthroughs which are probably easier to schedule, but they are more consistent than GBwest.

@odinsmana: Really they scrapped Bring your B Game? They mined some comedy gold out of Force Unleashed. :P

I always got the impression that these features just weren't weekly, the only time it was kind of regular was when they got deep into one and made it it's own thing.

I don`t think they have said anything official, so it`s just me guessing. I feel like they did do Bring your B game somewhat regularly for a bit there, but then they stopped and a bit after they started up Steal my sunshine. It`s just the time since last episode combined with the poor reception to the series and some stuff they said about internal feedback on the last Beastcast that makes me think they have either scrapped it or are retooling it.