Kingdom Heartache: Episode 01

Hyped for this.

Time to Ben singing Simple and Clean?

I stared playing the first Kingdom Hearts few years ago. I only made it an hour in. Maybe this will rekindle my desire to go back and try again.

I wanna ride Dumbo.

ENDURANCE RUN IS BACK BABY

If this game didn't have a re-release with trophies for Brad, I guarantee this series wouldn't be taking place.

KH HAS COME TO

what

I can't watch this right now. Can anyone fill me in on what they're doing with the playthrough?

my god yes

it begins.

@odinsmana: Playing through KH. Ben said they probably won't play every game on the PS4 collection but they are at least playing through KH1.

Hell yeah Staff and Sword!

So far so good.

It's the PS4 collection they're playing through. Good thing they are, too. Just look at those frames! All 60 of 'em.

oh boy

@axersia: Yeah I realized that just after I posted. I didn't know it also released on PS4. So many god damn KH releases, doing my head in.

As someone who likes *some* of those games (KH1, 2 and BBS). I hope it's not just them bashing it the whole time.

Yes, these games are *ridiculous* but they can be geniuinly fun and heartfelt (esspecially the early games, apart from BBS, it falls off a cliff after 2).

*presses play*

EDIT: they are 100% not going to finish this.

@boonsong: Wait, so it' just a normal playthrough? The way they have been talking about I assumed they had some sort of Dan style gimmick planned.Thanks you!

04:45

what's up with the quality?

Should someone get the story excel sheet ready in case they need it? Wakka's accent in this game is fucking hilarious. Good thing Brad didn't do an expression as it wouldnt be half as "good."

Edit: Good thing Brad noticed it. Ben, dont worry about the race. It is really stupid and i only won on my succeeding playthroughs.

@odinsmana: I'm only 10 minutes in but this appears to be a simple, clean playthrough of the game

@ohhhboyyy: Ha! I see what you did there.

So apparently I've played exactly the same amount of Kingdom Hearts as Brad. This should be interesting

ANIME IS REAL

OMG yes!

Honestly the story is absolute crap but the first two KH games are pretty damn good action RPGs.

As a fan of Kingdom Hearts I am happy with this series.

Kingdom Headache more like it.

oh man Simple and Clean remix. I cringe now, but in College I dug it

What the...............yessssssss!

Why would you do this to yourselves!?

This is an odd thing to see at 4:30 AM on a Sunday and in 320p no less. Brad looks so pained

I remember spending hours doing nothing but grinding out levels on the beach by hitting the ball back on Wakka.

"From what I understand those other ones (spin offs) aren't important or canon" -Ben, Basically

Hooooooly shit good luck dude.

Yo. Who ever is doing the audio mixing for this, Ben/Brad combo sounds like you should cut low frequencies a bit. In this video lows cause sound to be muddled.

Also Kingdom Hearts ER? Is this some kind of suicide pack? Get some proper treatment for these poor people.

This is so good,everyweek?

In the words of George Takei, "Oh my"

This will be a nightmare.

@benpack@unastrike This probably doesn't need UPF style Couch-cam. Could we bring the Metal Gear Scanlon side-bar back?

This is art.

Why

@boonsong: that and the end section of Destiny Island when all the basic heartless run around are easy time sinks for some early game grinding.

They shouldn't have gone with the facecams for this one. It's just Brad and Ben playing a video game, talking.

And jesus christ, I can't stand Kingdom Hearts. Which is why I probably need to see mroe of it.

kept the Staff threw away the Sheild Off to a great start hey at least he got the fast pace route for lvl ups

As a KH fan it hurts me so much how bad the beginning of KH and tbh KH2 is. like they start sooooo slow I wouldnt be surprised if alot of people bounced off of these games cuz of the destiny island fetch quests.

@odinsmana: They very forcefully hint that Brad won't be there for the next video, but they haven't outright said what's up yet. Probably gonna be rotating the cohost or something.

oh boy they're leaving at Dusk (slow exp gain until lv40 then fast exp gain until lv100)

This was great, and it's alright Ben. Nobody gets that race on the first try.
Also how frequent are these episodes going to be, because I feel like 50 minutes is not enough even for a weekly schedule. I was expecting 1h30m-2h for runtime. Maybe I've just been spoiled with GBEast playthroughs.

Everything Ben was going through at the end there with the race against Riku is why KH2 is a thousand times better of a game. The platforming in the first game is unacceptably bad, even in 2002 it was trash.

If that not-so-subtle ending of the video is of any real indication, it'll be a normal playthrough but with Brad/Jeff/Jason switching around. I think a few people already suggested this in the thread. I kinda hope it's that and with Ben recapping the story so far each time for them. Or if they go the extra mile, it'll also be GBeast calling in for this. Maybe that'd get too much, but I'd still be all for it.

I always assumed KH was a turn-based game. Never had any love for that, so the real-time gameplay of this might even be alright with me. Though now that they're doing a series of it, I think I'll just watch them struggle through.

...as for the video itself, it was a good one! No shitting on the series so far, as assumed by a lot of people. That race in the end gave some good laughs. I hope this one will be a GBWEST series with at least one episode each week.

@benpack Ben! Your friend was wrong about the only essential Kingdom Hearts games being 1&2! They are all canon and all add something to the story, although some much more than others. I would say Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to end up being more of a sequel to some of the later games than to Kingdom Hearts 2 at this point.

In release order:

KH1-ESSENTIAL

Re: Chain of Memories - Skippable BUT you will be confused at the beginning of KH2 as it shows how the characters got where they are at the beginning of the game. It also introduces a few characters who become series regulars but get re-introductions in 2, as well as several who are bit players going forward.

KH2- ESSENTIAL

358/2 Days - Skippable but you'll miss out on the backstory of one of the series' main characters, as well as the introduction of a character who comes up again later and I will be shocked if they're not at least mentioned in KH3. It’s only a cutscene collection on the HD collection though so you might as well.

Birth by Sleep - ESSENTIAL - Introduces many characters and concepts integral to KH3, you will have no idea who half the people in 3 are if you don't play this

Re: Coded - Pretty much completely skippable, maybe 2 minutes of importance happen and they’re reiterated later. It's just a cutscene collection on the HD collection though, so why not?

And you’re not done yet! You MUST play the 2.8 collection as well, also on PS4:

Dream Drop Distance - ESSENTIAL - Sets the stage for 3 completely, you will have no idea what’s going on in 3 if you don’t play this.

Birth by Sleep 0.2 ~A Fragmentary Passage~ - Skippable, but it’s like two hours long and in the KH3 engine so you might as well to get a taste of 3.

Chi: Back Cover - Skippable? Completely unrelated to anything that has happened before and based on a mobile game, but something from it was recently mentioned in a KH3 trailer. I have to imagine the important bits will be reiterated in 3, but who knows? It's a pretty short original movie made in the KH3 engine, so you might as well.

A few extras notes:

358/2 Days is before KH2 in the collection but should be watched after as it spoils the heck out of it. In the original ps3 releases they wanted an equal 3 games on each so 358/2 days went on 1.5, and for some reason in this release they didn't fix how they were ordered.

Chain of Memories and Birth by Sleep require multiple playthroughs. CoM is just one right after the other, but you might want to look up how to unlock the final one in BbS. If you don't know it exists, and you don't happen to meet the requirements along the way, it's easy to think you're done. There's not that many requirements and they're not difficult in the slightest, but some are extremely missable.

Finally, it would probably be a good idea to look up the secret endings for KH1, KH2, BbS, and DDD after you finish them. Unlocking them yourself would probably take dozens of extra hours, but it's worth seeing them to get the full experience.

Also, just want to say I'm loving this series. Can't wait to see you play through this!

I've heard so much about this series, both incredible and terrible. I have zero interest in playing it, so I'm excited to see what it's all about through the lens of the duders. So far so good! (the video, not the game)

ah it's only 47 min, maybe I should just wait for the playthrough to be done and then binge watch it.

@odinsmana: seems to be a normal playthrough of the first Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, Ben is playing.