Kingdom Hearts Primer - Kingdom Hearts 2 - Episode 11 - Underworld Supervisor

The priming continues as we explore the ramifications of Winnie the Pooh, and then travel to the depths of the underworld.

Even during my first playthrough of Kingdom Hearts 2, despite how cool Auron is, I was checked out for most of the story parts of Olympus Colosseum. Frankly, I just didn't care.

It's also hard to get invested in the plot when the characters make decisions that I can only describe as nonsensical. As I said in the episode, when Sora volunteers to help Meg by going to speak with Hades, how did he think that was going to go down? Hades was the villain for this world in the previous game, and Sora should know he'd be up to no good. It just seems kinda pointless.

Nothing that went on here seemed to really matter, even to my younger self. Little did I know, right?

Kingdom Hearts Primer - Kingdom Hearts 2 - Episode 10 - You Missed A Chest!

Welcome to the Beast's Castle, home of old friends and missed treasure chests.



In lieu of making any meaningful commentary on Beast's Castle, I'm going to instead talk about a problem I have with RPGs.

Many times in an RPGs, players will see treasure chests in the level while watching cutscenes. This is good because it gives them something to pay attention to while the characters are busy talking about things not relevant to the main plot.

On the other hand, if the scene changes or they end up behind a point of no return, then it feels like the game is teasing them about the chest they missed.

Remember the player's feelings when placing chests in your game.

Kingdom Hearts Primer - Kingdom Heart 2 - Episode 9 - Objectively Better

We finish Mulan's world and go back to faffing about for a bit.



Not much to say. Frankly, any criticism we could levy towards this section would only be criticism of the original movie.

Next time, other worlds!

Hitman (2016) - Episode 41 - Rube Goldberg's Revenge

Welcome once more to sunny Sapienza, where we take on Landslide.

The more I play both these Bonus Episodes and Elusive Targets, the more impressed I am with how effortlessly IO Interactive re-contextualizes the same maps from the story missions in ways that still feel fresh, new, and interesting. Even though I played the Sapienza map countless times since it's initial release in Episode 2, Landslide adds enough new/remixed content that it feels almost like a new map.

Out of all the bonus episodes, I'd say this one is easily my favorite of them. The target for Landslide speaks to me in a "I want to murder you so badly" kind of way that the targets in the Summer Bonus Episodes just didn't. I almost felt bad for those sad saps, but the mafioso deserves no sympathy.

It also feels like this bonus episode comes with many more interesting opportunities than the other two. Not only is Priest 47 just a delight to see, but there are many more hilarious and/or karmic opportunities just in the plaza (and even more if players take the time to explore the town).

Episodes like these make me all the more excited to see what can be cooked up once it's time to release the second season of Hitman.

Kingdom Hearts Primer - Kingdom Heart 2 - Episode 8 - Your Army Sucks!

We start the Disney worlds... and the parts not really relevant to the primer.

First things first, I said that Eddie Murphy did the voice of Mushu here. That was completely wrong. It's a soundalike.

Sam and I have talked for a very long time about how we're going to tackle these Disney worlds. In a series where our goal is to comment on and explain the main story of Kingdom Hearts, these Disney worlds, especially in Kingdom Hearts 2, are mostly filler.

I'm also really annoyed that the world scenarios are, more often than not, straight up rehashes of the movies they are "inspired" by. The only real difference is that Sora, Donald, and Goofy are added to it in ways that read like bad fan-fiction.

Bottom line, these worlds just weren't fun to comment on, and not much happens that pertains to the main story.