I'm more interested to see if Kingdom hearts ever takes a turn.
Because as someone used to a whole bunch of japanese nonsense everything I've seen so far, even acknowledging that Ben isn't necessarily playing that well, looks like a whole bunch of nonsense.
It is interesting to have a look at a series I've never really seen before though.
1 is an average game. The gameplay at the time it released was this weird blend of real-time gameplay with the menu of a turn-based RPG and some elements of it don't quite work (especially most level designs which are not Hollow Bastion). 2 is where the series hits the next level, although the opening is slow and it has been criticized for being too easy (critical mode is the way to play the game, tbh)
TBF while I kinda like Heartache in varying degrees depending on the guest, and the rotating guest gimmick helps in a way, what's missing from it compared to the other "giantbomb playing through an old game they don't like" series is that there's at least one evangelist to balance out the dislike they have for that game.
Which usually means it's a series about Dan forcing the other crew members to play a game he liked (Sunshine, shemnue, mario party,
MGS kinda
)
Which is why when Kiwami BitE comes around it should still be Dan playing. BitE is actually kinda funny because it's that dynamic reversed.
Oh also, Ben's response to Abby not hearing audio being "You're probably better off" was upsetting to me. One of the best parts of Kingdom Hearts is the fantastic soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura.
I haven't touched the Kingdom Hearts series since I originally played the first one on release, but I remember enjoying it a lot. Though at that point it wasn't so self-serious and consumed by Nomura-isms. I think I didn't have the cash to get 2 on release and then the series just lost me, especially with all its wacky handheld releases.
I did a lot of driving this weekend, and between being pretty into Destiny 2, experiencing something of a Persona 5 renaissance, and the fantastic Polygon Show triggering a change in my gaming podcast routine (usually restricted to the Beastcast, 8-4 Play, and the occasional Bombcast), I ended up listening to gaming stuff almost the entire time. A few thoughts:
1). Started with the DNB episode with Allegra Frank and Patrick Gill, since I enjoy them (although "producer Pat" rarely says anything) on the Polygon Show. Out of all the episodes I've listened to, this one was the best. The thing that stood out most to me here was how good Ben was. I'm still chuckling at his "Ben likey!" nonsense. Most importantly, I listened to the Persona 5 spoilercast directly after, and once again Ben was really good. I experienced a lot of Ben over the course of 10+ hours of driving, and he made it a much, much better trip. Also, we need more Ben + Alex content. Top notch combination.
2). That spoilercast was a great discussion. Alex is just so good at looking at things from an angle that feels critical, sympathetic, and deeply felt all at once. As an example, his unpacking of Ryuji was on point, although he forgot to add that Ryuji probably has the most adorable model in the game (seriously, I never tired looking at the little shit's face). Where Alex went wildly wrong was with his critique of the Yusuke boat scene, which had to be one of the most charming moments in the entire game. Luckily, he made up for this with his choice to date Ohya, who I've seen get a disproportionate amount of hate, but who I immediately felt fond of thanks to her resemblance to my non-Persona 5 girlfriend.
3). Also listened to the Destiny 2 spoilercast, and I have to say that I agree with Brad's take on the story there pretty much 100%. The thing about Destiny 2's campaign is that it feels like one drawn-out vignette, like something that's almost auxiliary to the larger story unfolding in the game's universe, except in how it feeds into contextualizing the state of things in-game. It felt like an in-between point, and even more so after watching the campaign's ending.
As that, though, it did a decent job. The main problem I had with it is how it took up so much of the oxygen in the room; the non-Cabal races were regulated to a much less interesting place, with the biggest sin being how the
Fallen were basically streamlined out into one big collective of characterless bug creatures (although with some neat animations)
. I'm interested in following Brad's suggestion, and starting up a new character where I do all the adventure missions while they're still level appropriate and properly contextualized, instead of focusing so much on the campaign.
4). Unrelated to all this, but It was so good. Something about the Pennywise character resonated with me, and I decided to pick up the book since it apparently goes more into his backstory. Next step will be to get into PennywisexBabadook fanfiction.
So instead of playing a game before sleeping I was feeling anxious about some stuff I have to do tomorrow and that led me to try and fix my desk chair that I assembled on Friday.
Turns out the reason the seat felt like it was leaning forwards instead of backwards was that it was literally on backwards. There were arrows showing which side was the front when screwing it on, and I looked at them, so I have no idea how I ended up putting it on wrong. I was looking at Amazon review pictures trying to see if they had the seat leaning the same way but didn't see that the handle on the bottom was on the opposite side.
Oh also, Ben's response to Abby not hearing audio being "You're probably better off" was upsetting to me. One of the best parts of Kingdom Hearts is the fantastic soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura.
I like the music well enough, but most of it suffers from being on fairly short loops that really grate on you particularly if you're stuck and don't know where to go next. Almost all of them end up wearing out their welcome.
This is pretty much my opinion on the whole thing. I can accept that people dislike Kingdom Hearts because it is dated in a lot of ways. But it meant too much to me as a kid for me to write the game off. And replaying it recently wasn't a terrible experience, it was just okay. I still think people saying the game is "shit" or "horrible" are exaggerating heavily.
I like the music well enough, but most of it suffers from being on fairly short loops that really grate on you particularly if you're stuck and don't know where to go next. Almost all of them end up wearing out their welcome.
Yeah, that's kind of true. Although honestly I could listen to the Traverse Town song and the Hollow Bastion music for hours (never underestimate the power of nostalgia)
I haven't touched the Kingdom Hearts series since I originally played the first one on release, but I remember enjoying it a lot. Though at that point it wasn't so self-serious and consumed by Nomura-isms. I think I didn't have the cash to get 2 on release and then the series just lost me, especially with all its wacky handheld releases.
I think it's worth going back and playing 2. Don't know much about the handheld games since I haven't touched the 365 days and the Dream one, but I can say without any reservations that if you liked KH1 at all, you will enjoy 2.
Oh also, Ben's response to Abby not hearing audio being "You're probably better off" was upsetting to me. One of the best parts of Kingdom Hearts is the fantastic soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura.
This is pretty much my opinion on the whole thing. I can accept that people dislike Kingdom Hearts because it is dated in a lot of ways. But it meant too much to me as a kid for me to write the game off. And replaying it recently wasn't a terrible experience, it was just okay. I still think people saying the game is "shit" or "horrible" are exaggerating heavily.
Yeah, that's kind of true. Although honestly I could listen to the Traverse Town song and the Hollow Bastion music for hours (never underestimate the power of nostalgia)
I think it's worth going back and playing 2. Don't know much about the handheld games since I haven't touched the 365 days and the Dream one, but I can say without any reservations that if you liked KH1 at all, you will enjoy 2.
Days is kinda whatever; I'm guessing the cutscene compilation in the collections will be fine for it. My understanding is Dreams is very important (I've seen a clip that's like... surely not even a big plot thing and it was wild) but I only got an hour in when it came out and haven't gotten 2.8 yet, though I will at some point before 3 comes out.
BBS is my favorite but I admittedly only played them as they came out. I never finished CoM/Re:CoM despite multiple attempts (and I even liked them; just never finished) and never played Re:Coded. I've played some of Ux and constantly get phone/watch notifications for it so I should probably get back to it, particularly as I abused a boss event when I last played like a year ago so I'm incredibly overleveled and could probably decimate the story missions for a bit.
Which is kinda why I find the rotating guest thing ok but also detrimental to the series. In a way you'd want to guide the new hire, but Jeff and Brad seemingly just left him to try to find his own way?
Like you see GBEast, they do everything together, but you barely see that for GBWest outside of UPF.
The "tries too hard" criticism people sometimes direct at Ben has always seemed kind of vague to me, but...are you implying it somehow takes effort to not enjoy KH?
Which is kinda why I find the rotating guest thing ok but also detrimental to the series. In a way you'd want to guide the new hire, but Jeff and Brad seemingly just left him to try to find his own way?
Like you see GBEast, they do everything together, but you barely see that for GBWest outside of UPF.
That's a good point. The funny thing is that I'd like to see GBEast do a little more of GBWest's "randomized pairing" thing, too. I think it helps build chemistry and keeps things varied when two members of the crew occasionally split off to carry a feature, and now that we have Abby around, there are more opportunities to do that on the GBEast side of things, too. (Basically, I want to see a Metal Gear Scanlon type thing with Abby playing, Dan guiding, and Vinny producing. )
Kingdom Heartache reminds me of Betting the FarmVille. Maybe in concept it could work. But execution and people (person?) involved? Not really. And, it fairs incredibly poorly to other series currently ongoing, mainly a betting game of Super Mario Sunshine an single-played co-operative X-Com.
Kingdom Heartache reminds me of Betting the FarmVille. Maybe in concept it could work. But execution and people (person?) involved? Not really. And, it fairs incredibly poorly to other series currently ongoing, mainly a betting game of Super Mario Sunshine an single-played co-operative X-Com.
It's not creative, it's not fun and the game itself is pretty bad so far. That's the main problem here. They need to make in entertaining at the beginning because the game isn't. This needs to be a "I'm not watching for the game but for them" kinda deal. And Ben fails incredibly hard at that. I really believe this feature would be the same if Ben just streamed KH from his home without a guest. It's way too complicated (rotating guests, acting as if he tricked them, same jokes) and it just doesn't work. At all.
I'm more interested to see if Kingdom hearts ever takes a turn.
Because as someone used to a whole bunch of japanese nonsense everything I've seen so far, even acknowledging that Ben isn't necessarily playing that well, looks like a whole bunch of nonsense.
It is interesting to have a look at a series I've never really seen before though.
It's not creative, it's not fun and the game itself is pretty bad so far. That's the main problem here. They need to make in entertaining at the beginning because the game isn't. This needs to be a "I'm not watching for the game but for them" kinda deal. And Ben fails incredibly hard at that. I really believe this feature would be the same if Ben just streamed KH from his home without a guest. It's way too complicated (rotating guests, acting as if he tricked them, same jokes) and it just doesn't work. At all.
I guess I was trying to be more tactful since in the past Ive been scolded for thinking an idiotic jackass was self evident and not a person in perpetual character heel or whatever by the community. Yeah, I think its a bad series.
I guess I was trying to be more tactful since in the past Ive been scolded for thinking an idiotic jackass was self evident and not a person in perpetual character heel or whatever by the community. Yeah, I think its a bad series.
Eh, I'm pretty direct when it comes to this stuff. Ben made it way harder for himself than what it needed to be. When Dan started his 30 days of WoW feature it was pretty simple and yet effective. Kingdom Heartache is just a mess of ideas that don't work together.
They should take the next step and just play the same section of Kingdom Hearts over and over in addition to telling the same stories/jokes over and over
Yeah, I was actually really interested in seeing KH when the feature was first announced. After an episode or two, it just felt like Ben's heart (heh) wasn't in it. The feature would've been great in the hands of a few members rather than just one. The Brad+Ben thing could've worked out well.
Kingdom Heartache really needed a straightman to guide ben.
The failure isn't the game, nor Bens disinterest
It's the lack of someone who will guide ben.
That's why MGScanlon worked. Dan and Drew played it straight-Drew as someone who never played it, Dan as a guiding hand and sort of audience stand in for the excitement of what was gonna happen next.
It was a balance though-there were times Drew wanted to quit, but Dan was there to sort of soothe him through it. Likewise, Dan was able to see the flaws of the older games and be honest about it when they happened.
There is no balance in Kingdom Heartache. A must needed balance. In order to make a play through work, it's one of two things-
A continued, earnest interest of seeing it through to the end.
Or
A guiding hand.
Ben gives off an air of disinterest when he plays it. It's an old archaic game, I don't blame him. It is the proto action-RPG that the Final Fantasies eventually evolved into. And without that hand, the sentiment portrayed by the player is well..not fun to watch?
I feel the episodes with David and with Abby were interesting, because atleast they were discussing the game and talking about how ridiculous it was. The gimmick of 'Let's talk about everything but the game and the time I went to disneyland' from the first few episodes was interesting, but well...it was fucking weird. It didn't work at all. That isn't to say they can't go off topic, but it was a bit they were doing, that kinda..was off putting to the whole thing? Like, if it was a 3 person set up, you have the newbie, the straight man, and the guy who doesn't give a fuck, it would work. It would be funny. The straight man would balance out the guy who doesn't care, all whilst the newbie tries to go through the game.
Right now, it's just the newbie and the rotating chair who doesn't care. And that just doesn't work. There is no balance.
)