Game Theory - The MISSING Banban Game (Garten of Banban 5)

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

Join Game Theory Host MatPat as he SOLVES the mystery of Garten of Banban 5! Credits: Writers: Matthew Patrick and Tom Robinson Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, Danial "BanditRants" Keristoufi, and JayskiBean Sound Designer: Yosi Berman

Four games in eight months. Just let that sink in a bit. One game every two months. That is insane for any franchise. And yet, despite all the criticisms of rush development, unpolished graphics, and broken gameplay, Gartner Ban Ban, is still standing strong. Fill in my subbox with YouTuber reaction videos to whatever new insanity presents itself. And with it only be in September, that means there's a chance for two more installments before the years out.

However, in an unusual twist, one of these new installments, chapter 4. is being hidden from us. In a series that seems so proud of its constant output, feels weird for them to pretend like one of them just doesn't exist. Is this some sort of a mistake? Or are the Euphoric Brothers playing four-dimensional chess that we don't even know? That, my friends, is what I aim to figure out today. Hello, internet.

Welcome to Game Theory, the show that's truly a glutton for punishment. Because I'm once again talking about the gift that just keeps on giving, Gartin a Ban Ban. There he comes. Hey, dude. Can you give him? Hello. I saw every single one of those keyframes.

Look at this guy. Oh, this game is so brilliant. Thank you for everything you've given to us, Van Dan. And that, my friends, is literally the first minute of gameplay. Recently, Chapter 4 released, and things continued to get more unhinged. You have giant underground castles ruled by purple kangaroos, a toad sheriff, a two-faced jester that only wants people to laugh at his jokes. You and me both, bitter giggles.

You and me both. And from that very traditional setup, things go exactly how you'd expect. A baby bird falls into a vatagu that transforms it into a mutant ostrich At which point they engage in a giant kaiju battle against the T-Rex cat Duh and the giant kangaroo queen laughs at which point it causes a tremendous evil to erupt out of her pouch You know it's just tale as old as time stuff oh and all of this is without me mentioning the surprise cameos I'm so excited for you to see this mess just keep looking forward Yeah, but what kind of animal makes that sound?

Yeah, roughly about there you Help me What? What? I mean real talk this is probably the big the biggest surprise of games given me in the last five years. Now, while I could easily go on and on about the insanity of this franchise, I want to get to the heart of today's mystery,

because despite the game's impossibly large facilities, psychic jellyfish and weird crossovers, the craziest thing wasn't what happened in the game, it was what happened around the game. Right at the end of Garten 4, as usual, there's a promotion for the next installment. Except you'll notice that something isn't quite right here. We just finished playing through Ban Ban 4,

but the next game advertised is Ban Ban 6? What's even stranger though is that chance? though is that chapter 5 exists. If you take a look over on Steam, you can search for Ban Ban 5, and there it is. Clear as day, official, Ban Ban 5. What? Why? What's going on here?

Well, what if I told you that this wasn't a mistake, but rather a cunning and pretty sensible plan by the Euphoric brothers? And that the answers to both what Chapter 5 is and why it's been skipped lie deep in the dark, dark abyss that we call Ban Ban. So, grab your nearest party hat theorists, because Ban Ban Ban has earned itself another theory. Clearly making this the darkest of all possible timelines. So let's start with what little evidence we do have about Chapter 5's existence, the Steam page. Taking one look at this thing, the vibes immediately feel off.

So far, every game Steam page has used a character that we've met before, or at least someone that we've been teased in a prior installment. But nope, not with Chapter 5. Here we get this thing, big old green-teal monster that we've never seen before. Now, you might just expect this to be the kind of chaos that we get from the series at this point, But I suspect that we've actually known what this thing is for a while now, as long as we've been paying attention. As the main story goes, scientists have been experimenting with a substance called gyvanium, mixing it with human DNA in the hopes of bringing kindergarten mascots to life.

But these experiments went far further than that. In our previous theory, I focused heavily on a secret note that you can find in Chapter 3, which tells us that the whole project may have started dabbling in other intentions. Quote, I started doing my own research on the side regarding our decision. We really should have thought this through better. He was never going to be normal. What house would he fit in? What school would accept him? Sometimes life denies you beautiful gifts. We should have accepted that. It's clear that the gift the nameless scientist is talking about here is a child.

Either they're unable to have one of their own, or they had one that tragically passed away. Whatever the case, they decided to take advantage of the experiments that were happening down in the kindergarten basement to try and create their own. Clearly, Canada's adoption system is much more complicated than I thought. Now, in that previous episode, I made the case that Jumbo Josh was the newly created child. The note refers to him being large and grotesque and speaks about how he would get angry and throw the other monsters around like toys. It is exactly the sort of behavior that we see Jumbo Josh showing throughout the series, especially in chapter 3 where he literally wants to play with us like dolls. That big green guy keeps checking in on us? I think he believes we're some sort of dolls.

However, I now believe that this was red or I suppose a green herring. The Euphoric brothers got Jumbo Josh to do those things to bait theorists into believing that we had solved everything. But the true reveal was just around the corner. Take a look at this new monster for Chapter 5, a large, grotesque looking head that if you brighten the image, is attached to a small and spindly body. Not only do the arms and legs feel much more human than the gorilla-like Jumbo Josh, but also the face is unique compared to anything that we've seen in the series thus far. It's almost human. Two eye holes, a nose, mouth, feels like a child drew what they thought a human face was supposed to look like. If these scientists are trying to make a kid, they'd be at least trying to make it look human, which Jumbo Josh clearly is not.

Plus, we learn from the anonymous notes in Chapter 2 that these experiments were hidden down in the abyss and not approved by corporate. Quote, I do feel we can turn it back around if the six we proceed with turn out well. In fact, we have to turn it back around if we want our little secret down in the basement to stay a secret. And as we see in the secret room found in the offices of Chapter 2, Jumbo Josh is indeed one of the core six. He is part of Ban Ban's original gang. The higher-ups know about Jumbo Josh, and so it would be weird for him to be the secret that they're talking about down in the basement. Whereas this new creature, we haven't seen this guy advertised anywhere. This is the first time we're catching a glimpse of him.

Even the misfit experiments, like the unfunny bitter giggle, or the derpy half-turtle, half-cameleon Tomitaki that aren't part of Bandman's core crew, they have themselves little wall murals. This thing, though, this thing has no drawings. It has no name, it has no catchphrases, nothing. It is a complete enigma, which is exactly what the scientists wanted. This is our misfit experiment. This is the mutant kid that they created down in the basement using gyvanium.

not Jumbo Josh like I initially assumed. Speaking of misfit experiments, I do think this little guy might be the missing link to understanding the origins of another mysterious character who continues to pop in from time to time. Zulfius, the giant teal-faced worm man who keeps showing up in the background of pretty much every chapter at this point.

In chapter 3, when we got that note from those unnamed parents, we also received tape that, when played, summoned Zulfius from the depths. And that's not all. This encounter led Zulfius to say the only lines that we've ever received from them. I'm sorry. At first I wondered if this was one of those unnamed parents, apologizing for their actions that caused all this trouble for our character, a fellow parent looking for their lost child.

However, that doesn't seem to be the case. One of two notes in Chapter 2's secret room specifically mentioned Zulfius by name. Quote, Zulfius can only stay asleep if nobody goes to investigate. In that line, the parents demonstrate that they're aware of Zulfius and are talking about him. Therefore, they themselves cannot be Zulfius. What then, or who then is he? Well, there's clearly a connection between Zulfius and our mutant kid. I mean, take a look at Zulfius's face.

It's flat, round with large, ragged, and misshapen features, eye sockets, mouth, and even a nose cavity. Now, check out Mutant Kid. Eye socket's mouth and a nose with fully formed nostrils. It's the next stage and evolution of the human face design that they were trying to achieve. The coloring of these two characters is even the same. Both are roughly the same greenish teal of the givanium

that they keep using to try and bring things to life. In short, I suspect that Zulfius was the first. An earlier version of the experiment with more basic skull-like features, flat with no material, used to give shape to the face, only for Zulfius to then pave the way for the creation of our mutant kid here in these new photos. There's a reason Zolpheus is only kind of able to speak. Words show up on screen, sure, but we don't actually hear any of those sounds. Zulfius was a proof of concept, something to prove that their idea of bringing a child to life could be possible. And when it didn't work out quite as they expected, they covered it all up by giving it a mascot design, making their failure into a purposeful design decision.

That's why it had its own cutesy wall design. Zulfius is a known entity, whereas this big-headed kid is still, and will forever be a secret down in the basement. Okay, but then why is this super secret child experiment now wandering the hallways of the kindergarten and the screenshots for Chapter 5? Did this child figure out a way to escape? Not so sure about that. These screenshots might seem like they're just repeats at Chapter 1 with a red filter applied, but the closer you look, the more details you find. In the final screenshot, there's actually a picture of the classroom, just like you have in Chapter 1, but there's one glaring difference here.

The Whiteboard. During chapter 1, the whiteboard reads, The End is Here. But in the screenshot for chapter 5, it says, Meet a Friend Day. Meet a Friend Day was the day that everything fell apart in the kindergarten, where all the mascots were supposed to be introduced to the children, their parents, and their friends. Obviously, though, based on the lore clues we have, things did not go as planned. Opeeler Bird and Ban Ban went full rage mode and attacked the kindergarten, which led to the ballpick collapsing and all the children and staff going missing. As our child tells us here, quote,

I alone, I want to play with the whole bird, But everyone left me. Everyone have party without me. I am scared because hole is loud and my friends scream. The fact that the whiteboard has Meet a Friend Day written on it tells us that this game is going to take place on that day. Meaning Gartner Ban Ban 5 isn't a continuation. It's a prequel. That is why this child monster is up on the surface.

The main concern of the unnamed parents is that their new child won't be accepted by the outside world. That is, unless they're present at a prestigious kindergarten that's willing to host an event to introduce life-sized mascots. If the children are surrounded by large, colorful, slightly misshapen creatures, this child doesn't stand out as odd. That's what Meet a Friend Day was for. It wasn't about bringing friends of the students. It was about finding a way to integrate this child experiment, our mutant head kid into the regular school environment without people questioning it. It was for him to meet a friend.

But as I just mentioned, things didn't work out as intended. And I actually wonder whether this child creation might be the one to blame. Its parents do make a point of how it, quote, plays with the other mascots like their toys, throwing and commanding them around and everything. This creature likes to mess with the other mascots, riling them up, making them angry, which might explain why Ban-Ban went Beast mode during Meet a Friend Day.

Up until now, Ban Ban's needed something to trigger that Beast-Mode state. A small child monster bossing him around, manipulating him for fun? You can understand why that might make him a little angry. In fact, as my last big swing of the video, I actually suspect that we'll play as Ban Ban as a part of this prequel. All the screenshots are from a first-person perspective, just like the regular game, but they're covered in a red filter. Red is obviously Ban Ban's signature color.

And if I'm right, and this child is toying with him, you could say that he got so angry that he saw red. So blinded by rage that he transformed into a monster, thereby causing the destruction that led everyone to hide in the ball pit, and that place collapsing under their collective weight. So there you have it. Garten of Ban Ban 5 is a prequel, taken place on Meet a Friend Day from the perspective of Ban Ban,

as we're finally introduced to the child that the scientists planned to create all along. With all that mind, it actually makes a lot of sense why Ban Ban 4 doesn't directly promote Ban Ban 5. Chapter 5 isn't directly affecting the story that we've been playing through in the previous chapters. It's going to be setting the scene for us hardcore lore hunters. The teasers for Chapter 6 show Bounsela lying on the ground after her pouch released the naughty ones, meaning that Chapter 6 is a direct continuation of the main story, that this is the chapter that'll follow our parent character as they try to stop bitter giggle and the naughty ones. Promoting that chapter actually makes more sense, especially to the casual fans.

So the Euphoric Brothers, are helping those fans navigate through their complicated story, telling them that the next installment that they need to follow that will directly impact the story is Chapter 6, leaving us lore lovers to dig deep and find Chapter 5 hidden on Steam, trying to figure out what it all means, getting us to talk about the mystery and promote the game in the process. You know what, Gart and a Ban Ban?

You might just be smarter than you look. But hey, that's just a theory. A game theory! Thanks for watching!