They're speeding up the series. Rorie coming August 13.

I thought this was fun and I think all they need to make it work is to focus more energy into responding to the game (even if all of their thoughts are negative) than trying bits that force them to ignore it. It's pretty great when they make jokes about the game (that Keyblade... reaction from Episode 2 was amazing) but it's frustrating when they aren't responding to it - especially during cut-scenes. They don't even have to understand what's going on, it would just be nice for them to stay in the moment.

I guess making good content is not something he thinks is important enough to take seriously... I am obviously being too harsh, but man with the introduction of this series and the Department of New business podcast I think me and Ben just have competently different senses of humor. Which is a bummer because since I don`t care about DOTA Kingdom Heartache was kinda the only interesting thing GBWest had going on and the first episode showed a lot of promise for a good regular playthrough of the game with a good mixture of giving the game a chance and riffing on it (and just actually paying attention to the game at all).

I wonder what will happen when Ben is out of guests. Because it seemed like part of the bit was that both Brad and Jeff got roped into it but would not want to come back for another episode.

Maybe Ben will get other people from the industry/friends of the site on as guests. That would be cool and interesting. Or maybe it's just a rotating chair. In any case I think it is a good idea to change up the people in each episode.

The second episode was amazing. I do wonder though how it go on from here. That's a trick that only works once.

I had to bite the crow because I thought the initial video to this series was one big joke. But honestly now I think everyone is overreacting saying that this is some harsh playthrough of the game where they pay zero attention to it.

I didn't get that vibe from video two at all. Jeff didn't pretend he had any more "affection" for the game than it had earned or that he has previously displayed. But the only time he outright "ignored" the game was when they were doing their little bits. There was tons of stretches in that video where him and Ben got to talking about the game, what was happening on screen, and felt like a normal playthrough. On top of rotating guests, and Ben jokingly explaining the plot to the next in line, they will also showcase some of the game. This seems fine, and not in any way somehow not showing the game.

There was literally a moment in Ep 2 where Jeff asks Ben if the combat and playing of the game is any good, and Ben earnestly responds that it is. Any KH fan will probably know that other than the Disney/Square mash up if that is what your into, there can be some really good combat moments in the game. The plodding through bullshit and grinding and fetch quests and experimental gummi stuff can earnestly be a sludge to get through. But there are some creative boss battles, and the story goes just enough anime bullshit MGS style crazy that the payoffs are okay if just for saying you had experienced it. I see no reason that type of stuff wouldn't get showcased in a playthrough of this style. If these guys were laughing at how silly "keyblade keyblade keyblade" was on the screen, I'm pretty sure they'll be paying attention when a lot more dumb bullshit happens too. And Ben only seemed to be dilly dallying around and getting lost during non combat moments. Once we have spells and abilities and some of the interesting bosses, all that will still play too.

Seems to me that this will just be a 5-6 episode joke series where Ben gets each of the GB West staff on once and until he's left doing an episode alone and then it ends.

@bladededge: it's not an endurance run unless it's every weekday, and they've always given everything else a kitchy name, like Beast in the East. They've never used walkthroughs for any type of game, story based or not. That would have made Shenmue a lot easier for them. An hour once a week is ridiculous though, if Ben doesn't pick up the pace he will actually be playing for a year.

@axersia said:

They're speeding up the series. Rorie coming August 13.

Oh wow, that is going to be good.

I don't know if this means much but on the Fire TV app (which is seeded via the GB API) Kingdom Heartache now has its own section (Vinnyvania, Steal My Sunshine, Blue Bombin', etc have their own sections too).

Oh man, Rorie! I'm expecting out of the blue shocking jokes and asking whatever just happened on the screen five minutes ago.

It would be pretty cool, if the rotating chair extended outside of GB. I want Austin, Drew and Danny to come by and potentially be confused by the game.

I think people are expecting too much of the rotating guest thing. If it keeps going, it's likely just going to keep cycling through the GBWest guys.

Austin lives in New York. Drew and Danny are both either globe hopping or deep in production on documentaries. Organizing them to come in for a one hour funny video is a lot of effort and stars aligning. Maybe you get Will Smith in and Peter Brown. Maybe someone else in Gamespot (though honestly I couldn't name another single person there anymore).

But I think the joke (which I dont think is that good of a joke) is going to be Ben wants to play this series and the rest of the crew reluctantly sit in with him for an hour.

Also for Ben's sake I hope this is actually a series now. People have disliked him from the word go. I like Ben, I think he's a great addition to the West Coast and is slowly starting to fill the void that Jeff needs to bounce dumb jokes off of. But other people haven't been so warm to him. If this isn't a long running series people are going to bring it up between now and whenever Ben leaves or the site shutters.

That's kinda been the reason for GBW's downward trend as of late. No one is left to be a pop-in guest to liven things up any more. Dave, Ian, Alexis, Mary, Danny etc.

I think Encyclopedia Bombastica should be a Jeff only thing, and he seems to be doing a variant of it on his personal streams. The early ones were great because Jeff was giving some insight/history into the games he played. The series took a shit when Patrick/Alex/Dan started doing them, and they just turned into "Hey remember this old game? Sure doesn't hold up very well by todays standards!" The most egregious was Patrick's Independence Day video.

Generally speaking, it's a shame people get so upset about video games they like. I loved Kingdom Hearts as a kid but couldn't be sussed to care how they treat the series or this series going forward. If it's a whole thing, great. If not, they'll do something else I enjoy. Sometimes I'm very glad to have a moderate opinion on most things related to the fun I have with a controller in my hand or a stream on my screen. For what it's worth, I thought the first episode was fine and the second episode was hilarious, I could've watched Ben wander around the island looking for fish on land and coconuts in caves for another five episodes if the riffs kept coming.

It took me a moment to adapt to his voice, which I get isn't something anybody can control, but your last point is the most important thing about his arrival for me. Dan is a very funny guy, but his style of humor often led to funny but heated discussions with Jeff and Brad about things. Ben is summoning some of the old riffing Jeff used to do in the Ryan days much more frequently than Jeff has in years, and when Jeff's in that mode and on a roll there isn't much GB content can do to get better than that.

I just don't get the meltality where absolutely everything has to be for you. For the record, I played KH when it first came out, and I liked it, more for running around in Disney worlds than for actually playing the game. Don't remember anything about the story whatsoever, but I remember running around in the worlds and enjoying it. That said, watching it now, it really doesn't seem like that "good" of a game, and there is only so much to talk about without making fun of it. I may not need to watch every episode, but what ive watched has been funny to me so far. I love the Metal Gear games, but I also appreciated in MGScanlon when they weren't afraid to just say "well, that's really fucking stupid" when the games deserved it.

Just don't get the need to get up in arms when they do something you don't like. Personally, I would be totally fine with them never putting out another Ranking of Fighters video, imo the most boring and soulless content they've ever produced. But its not made for me, and its a lot easier to just not press play when a new one comes out than to go onto a message board and rage

Even people that like the series say the first game is a bit dated and even when it came out the first areas were NEVER fun.

I like the series very much so far. I never really knew what the hell Kingdom Hearts was about, so I'm honestly learning something new about the games, probably in the goofiest way possible. Can't wait for the next episode!

They used a guide for Bioforge and that was just fine.

I'll probably play the video in x2.0 when they reach the tarzan world cause that level sucks.

Eh, there's little things sprinkled around this game where I wouldn't mind them pulling up GameFAQs or some PDF guide so they can get past it in less than 3 episodes or find some of the cool side stuff.

Next episode is coming up, hope it's gonna be better than the last few.

It was a little less entertaining than the last three, but the first three episodes set a very high bar for this show that would be impossible to maintain from episode to episode. Can't wait for the next one!

I really dug Jason's presence. Even if he's not a KH fan, he wasn't just trashing it the whole time. It was a good balance to Ben's increasing frustration with the game haha.

It would be hard to top Jeff's unknowing participation and disdain, and Rorie's emails, but it was right up there. This is a fascinating series and I am wondering where it could go from here.

Can't wait to see them fight Riku

No episode this week? I hope their comments about running out of people to play with doesn't mark the end of the series.

It's been up on their youtube channel for more than a day already. Really strange that it shows no sign of actually appearing on the site.

Wha? That video is right here.

Wouldn't be surprised if they just straight up forgot to make an episode, with people in and out of the office all last week.

Really missing KH this week. It's currently my top GB show!

@kvel2d

This! It's some of the best content they got going so far.

@nodima: @creepingdeath0: That's the video from last week. It even says on the giant bomb page that it was posted on the 20th. Don't know why they took an extra week to put it up on youtube though.

Whoops. I'll be honest, I rarely visit the frontpage of this site anymore. I guess this slipped me by somehow.

@genericbrotagonist: yeah guys 4.44 came out like a week ago

Who is this man and does he enjoy Kingdom Hearts? The smile on his face maybe says yes? I honestly don't know who he is. Gamespot, engineer, someone from the games industry? Did Ben just pull some dude from the CBS building to participate in this hellscape? Also looks like he's at the Tarzan world. Oh boy. Time for some sweet vine surfing.

EDIT: Oh shit, I didn't even realize its the dude from the Coke review video.

Welp, good thing this trash fire's over and done with, huh?

@axersia:

Is it? These videos had their moments, but yeah, the joke kinda played itself out.

I dunno, it's been 3 weeks, and Ben's frustration on the last couple of vids seemed to indicate he might not want to come back, so I just assumed it was done. GB features never get officially canceled, they just stop getting uploaded.

Overall, this was one of the less enjoyable features on GB for me. And yes, I still kept coming back because I was hoping the game would eventually click with Ben, that there was more to the gimmick, or that the series would be retooled after realizing it wasn't working out in its current state.

The jokes weren't funny, and watching Ben play KH is kinda like watching Dean Takahashi play Cuphead (no offense Ben -- I like you, the personality, just not you, the KH player). So if it's done I'm OK with that. Just disappointed the series has now been squandered and is unlikely to ever return to the site, when it could've been a glorious GB East feature.

Yeah, I'm assuming it's over as well. Which is a shame, as Deep Jungle is the last of the truly bullshit level designs until near the end of the game.

Christ it's been over a month already since the last episode? Time flies.

It's in the cryo chamber next to weekly dota.

Was just going to make a post asking if this was dead. Guess so.

Destiny happened

@kblosnack: Does that mean its dead for real because so much time has passed or that the break was just extended?

when is kingdom heartache coming back?

Maybe this one should just stay dead...

Like with watching someone new to Dark Souls play Dark Souls, I wasn't completely on board with the idea of watching someone fumble their way through Kingdom Hearts for an hour a week over the course of 35 to 40 hours. The initial novelty of it all was fun at first given the relatively negative opinion of KH around here, but the idea of keeping it going for just under a year, nope. I'm good.

This could have been an alright series but the rotating co-host meant Ben was never able to build a rapport with anyone and the game went largely ignored, which kind of defeats the whole point of doing a playthrough of something. If it does come back I hope Ben puts some thought into how to restructure the show into something that makes for more entertaining content and doesn't leave a lot of the viewers upset.

I know it's hard to believe, but maintaining a meme video series probably takes a psychological toll on you after a while.

Also even if Ben and rotating guest chair were more engaged in the game, I really don't Kingdom Hearts is a very good Let's Play game. There's like 8000 filler battles, and I think the platforming is pretty uninteresting to watch.

I can’t help but think at this point that people still wanting more Kingdom Heartache missed the joke. There was never any intention to provide an endurance run of Kingdom Hearts that fans of the game would enjoy. It was meant to be funny at the expense of the game, but the joke ran thin real fast.

This series just became too negative to really justify continuing it. Ben wasn't enjoying it, his co-hosts could never be engaged in the game and actually just led to the same conversations and questions (some intentionally, others less so), and the comments soon devolved into mostly criticism (and even just hate) for every element involved. The feature wasn't mean-spirited like I thought it would be, but it still led to the same outcome where everything about it was a bad time.

That first episode showed a lot of promise.