CRITICAL ROLE AMAZON SERIES

It also helps that the animation is strong, the action is well done, and the violence is ratcheted up to 20.

CRITICAL ROLE AMAZON SERIES

Obviously, retaining the voice actors from the original show helps this, and it gives the series a feeling that, even if you don’t know its history, you can be part of it. These characters don’t feel like a punchline despite the presence of humor they feel real. The violence, comedy, and cliche all feel like a natural part of the narrative, not something shoved in. This show was clearly put together by people who care about this story. The passion for this world and its origins really comes through in these first six episodes and is what makes it so addicting. It’s clear that these two were definitely conceived as the “pilot” Kickstarter episodes, and they function exactly like that, giving hints at bigger stories to come. The first two episodes do a perfect job of laying out the show’s dynamic and pulling you into all the characters. While you’re sure to get more out of The Legend of Vox Machina having been a fan of Critical Role or knowledgeable of tabletop gaming, none of that is required. After those two episodes, the series starts rolling into a bigger storyline, focusing on Percy and his past while delving into the other characters more as well. All those voice actors are from Critical Role, and there hasn’t been any recasting.

That team is composed of Pike Trickfoot, the Gnome Cleric (Ashley Johnson) Keyleth, the Half-Elf Druid (Marisha Ray) Percival “Percy” Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, the Human Gunslinger (Taliesin Jaffe) Grog Strongjaw, the Goliath Barbarian (Travis Willingham) Scanlan Shorthalt, the Gnome Bard (Sam Riegel) Vex’ahlia, the Half-Elf Ranger (Laura Bailey) and Vax’ildan, the Half-Elf Rogue (Liam O’Brien). The series kicks off with a two-part story about an evil dragon attacking the kingdom, using this as an intro to the Vox Machina team, all of whom have their own unique fantasy powers. The name Vox Machina means “voice machine” and is a nod to the fact that everyone participating is a voice actor. Their first campaign was a massive success, and they’ve gone on to grow into a sizeable content juggernaut on the internet and are now on their third campaign, all based in the land of Exandria. So first, for those of you who don’t know what Critical Role is and are too lazy to go to their FAQ page, here are the basics: The web series is a live-streamed RPG game put on by a collection of voice actors. However, the reality is probably that the majority of people know little to nothing about tabletop gaming, so I can discuss whether The Legend of Vox Machina is watchable for people like me, who exist outside of a niche fanbase. (That’s a D&D character that Google tells me is blind.) We got screeners for the first six episodes, and I came into it blinder than a balhannoth on a stormy night. That is all to say that I am coming with especially fresh eyes to review Amazon’s new animated series The Legend of Vox Machina, the show based on the first campaign of the wildly popular tabletop gaming series Critical Role. I haven’t, though, so I pretty much know the bare minimum someone who writes for a site like The Escapist should know.

I suppose we all have our own blind spots in nerdom, but I always felt like I should have at least tried out a Dungeons & Dragons campaign once or maybe just watched more than 10 seconds of a game going on at MAGFest one year.

Critical role amazon