Kingdom Heartache: Episode 4.44

@steveurkel: steve what did i say last time stop with these inane opinions i will not stand for this slander

@tebbit: @tebbit:

Not really what I saw. Felt the progression was going fine until they missed the note about the Doorknob...which was in an unmissable cutscene.

Also its like level 5 of an RPG, most games barely vary at all at that point but KH gives you spells, dodges, enemies you can't hurt from the front and flying enemies to keep things fresh while easing you in. The respawn mechanic is also pretty generous for an RPG.

I mean the game ain't perfect just think you are describing something far worse than what I saw.

@xbob42: I think the big divide in comments stems from what people like to watch. Some enjoy listening to the banter and don't give a heck what's on the screen, while others prefer a mix of gameplay and talk. GB East created a series of features that had a defined goal. It was beat Castlevania, beat Contra, defeat Dan in SC, get 100 stars or whatever in Sunshine. Either way there is always an end goal that the crew are earnestly striving towards and that we as the viewers can root for. Genuine moments of excitement when in between the banter the crew get within a hair of their next goal and win or fail.

In stark contrast most of GB West stuff has been very aimless. It's Game Tapes or the Old Game show, or even the bicentennial Ranking of Fighters - all features that have no real goal, just meandering gameplay with the guys loosely talking over it. Sometimes that's good but often time it's very low energy which is why despite liking Jeff's stories and Brads more poignant thoughts on games I've actually fallen off most of those features. Sometimes on Demo Derby they'd be playing a boring, straight up bad game demo for 30 minutes and talking about whatever and while that was amazing to me several years ago when I joined GB, it is no longer that exciting anymore. It's the exact reason why Vinny dropped the B-Game show, because they'd just be stuck playing this not necessarily awful but absolutely unremarkable game for an hour with nothing to say about it and it wasn't especially exciting content. Jeff and the guys don't seem bothered by that same premise, and there is definitely an audience for it judging by some of the comments. Some people just want to turn on GB and play a game on the side while the crew shoot the shit for 90 minutes I guess.

Personally my new job has greatly limited the amount of time I can spend consuming GB content so I rather watch something like the Exquisite Corps where the gang are making progress and it's a tightly packed 45-60 minute thing, rather than put on a UPF archive where they just kinda sit there and talk while some shitty game from the dredges of the Steam store "happens" in the background. Technically UPF used to be for playing cool new releases they didn't have time to get around to during the week - and there are plenty of cool indie games or alpha stuff hanging out there (like Astroneer which they played). Now it's mostly become this dumping ground of whatever crud they were able to find on Steam 10 min prior to the show or it's a multiplayer game played for almost the entirety of the feature.

Either way I don't really think any of these comments will change a thing. The usual answer is "if you don't like it then don't watch it" and it's hard to argue with that logic. I can only speak for myself when I say that I would LIKE to enjoy some of these shows more, but I realize that they're not going to change their whole content creation around what I like and don't like.

My major problem with these games was the endless spawning generic Heartless enemies, all they do is pester you everywhere you want to go and you can't stand still without these guys popping up over and over. The designs aren't even that creative for the enemies, they just come in 3 basic types, small guy, floating magic guy, and brute.

It seems like they're skipping a huge part of game design here. Games usually have enemies placed specifically to play with your expectations and set up different interesting gameplay scenarios. After you defeat the enemies, as a reward you can run around the area without having to worry about them, and search for those collectibles and appreciate the design and artwork of the area. Not so in Kingdom Hearts.

Imagine if all the enemies in Halo (or your favorite game franchise) just kept spawning out of nowhere without stopping, and not only that it was the same 3 guys all the time, that would eliminate a huge part of the fun in the game.

This and the terrible platforming/camera has made it difficult for me to stick with these games. I did play the first two on PS2 and just could not force my way through although I have tons of Disney and Square nostalgia, and wanted to enjoy all the fan service the game had to offer. I was the target audience for this game but did not find the actual gameplay fun. The floaty mashy combat and reliance on AI was kind of the nail in the coffin.

I sincerely hope KH3 improves on all this, but just wanted to hear thoughts about the stupid endless random enemy system in this game. How do you put up with it? Anyone actually enjoy this?

God, Wonderland is such a bad choice to make the first area.

"What should Level 1 be? How about that movie that's about being lost and confused the entire time?"

@girlusocrazy: Never bothered me. They function more or less like random encounters in other rpgs, and you can usually just run away if you don't wanna fight. Also, they do stop spawning for a time after you kill them.

It's interesting reading all the comments; but I totally fall on the side of enjoying this series. Keep it up, guys. (PS Wonderland is terrible, but Tarzan's jungle is almost as bad.)

How could you guys mess up the Disneyland/Disney World differences? The one called "world" is obviously bigger, right? Plus, isn't Orlando the theme park capital of the states? I'm from LA and even though we have a bunch of theme parks around here, none are as gargantuan as Disney World, which I believe is almost the size of San Francisco. No hate towards Disneyland tho, still an amazing place

This is exactly where I stopped playing Kingdom Hearts games forever. The combat isn't good enough to warrant this frequency of mob spawns. Especially when the enemies are always the same. Also, repopulating spawns in rooms you have to repeatedly go back to is hot garbage. That being said, I have just enough patients to watch someone else beat their head against it.

This series is pathetic and I kind of love it.

The rotating co-host seems like a fine bit to start each show, but once Ben starts playing the game it would be nice if they started focusing on that more.

From what I've played so far, the solution to any Kingdom Hearts puzzle is to go to a previous room.