@monkeyking1969: I recommend they play Super Mario World instead, so Ben can just tune out, run from left to right, and doesn't keep getting distracted from this podcast he's doing.
You might be misremembering the series, but the FF connection is very superficial. They all had their identities changed (some more than others) so as to fit the KH universe, and could easily be replaced with original characters.
I mean, are Tidus, Selphie and Wakka even referred to by name? Not to mention they've recycled their character models for random NPCs, with brown-haired Tidus in Traverse Town (or maybe that's just Shuyin...), and Arabic Wakka in Agrabah (not many people know of him, but he exists).
Now the characters from The World Ends with You in Dream Drop Distance... Those are the same characters as the game they came from, and they're very invasive. I was personally not a fan of how they were handled.
So no, I'd never say you need to be familiar with FF to play KH.
At this point i can't tell if people are genuinely thinking this looks terrible or are just having some fun riling up the KH fanboys.
Having to trigger the right cutscenes was the only thing that truly looked bad to me in this video. Apart from that, this 15 year old game generally does what Ben wants it to do. And didn't punish him for not saving.
I mentioned a few pages ago how he didn't even need to trigger any cutscenes. He just needed to kill 5 Heartless, and go back to Cid. Of course, that's not something the average player would know, so they'd make a trip around Traverse Town, come back to save, and boom, Squall fight.
Unfortunately because Ben only read about the triggers and not what those triggers are, he was under the impression he had to collect all the Donald/Goofy scenes to progress, which are completely optional. He also got hung up on the Gizmo Shop. Look, if there's no targeting marker, you can't do anything with it (yet). Move on.
Obviously the game has aged (I mean, it doesn't even give you a minimap *gasp*), but Ben is definitely making things look worse than they actually are.
Ben has this really annoying habit of wandering around aimlessly while trying to keep a conversation going and it makes this series gimmick really painful. I'm glad they're doing something to make the boring parts interesting until this game finally gets going, but please keep playing!
I think he was wandering around to find what would trigger the Donald and Goofy scenes so he could continue.
Looking up a guide may have done him more harm than good in that instance, because he read about there being triggers he needed to hit, but didn't actually read what those triggers were.
All you need to do is enter District 2, walk two steps to spawn and kill five Heartless, and head back to the item shop. All those scenes of him missing Donald and Goofy were optional. This video could've literally been 50 mins shorter.
Wonderland's also not a good area to tune out of. Imagine playing a Zelda game and just walking in circles expecting the dungeon to solve itself. Tough times ahead.
@jacksukeru: Ah, my bad. I forgot Riku had two voiceless scenes in this. The only scene I remember is the one before the cloaked man optional boss fight, which was voiced using splicing. Guess they couldn't get the right voice samples for Riku.
The cutscenes that are animated but lack voice acting are ones that were new in the "Final Mix" version of Kingdom Hearts. I've never really touched those versions so I forgot what their deal was. If it was a Japan only, extra release thing or not.
Ben was referring to the typical RPG dialog boxes. They're present in both KH1 and KH2, but they stopped doing them in BBS and DDD which were fully voiced.
The scenes you're thinking of are in KH2 Final Mix. They had voice overs in Japanese but not English.
Speaking of which, it's kind of a bummer how Western voice actors are significantly less dedicated to the cause than their Japanese counterparts. I fully expect the Japanese voice track to KH3 to consist of people reprising their roles and Disney movie voice actors, whereas the English voice track will just be a lot of stand-ins.
Honest question: if you're going to go out of your way to ignore everything going on in the game, why do this feature? Is that comedy? Am I old? Is it a practical joke to make me feel bad for supporting the site? Because it sure is working if that's the case. And I don't even care about KH but this is a bit much guys.
It's not funny, but it also isn't any different from what the East is doing with Mega Man. Alex just plays the game, and the rest of the staff talks about something completely unrelated. But those games are all incredibly similar and repetitive as hell. It's hard to stay invested for so long. With KH, there's tons of stuff to comment on. I really wish this wasn't a series of people looking away just as there's something important on screen.
Also, they'll be running out of staff soon, and with Ben saying he's not sure if he'll play through the entire thing, I think the future of this series is looking very grim. Perhaps that's for the best.
@rethla: Problem is that the camera's inverted, like all games on PS2 and GameCube (can't speak for the Xbox). Apparently none of the GB staff aside from Vinny played games during that era, thus they never picked up the skill.
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