Never watched the Critical Role campaigns myself, just watched most of Vox Mach and now this. (No spoilers for S2 if you've watched the campaign I'm presuming this is based off of, please.)

Overall I'd say that while many of my opinions are mixed I still really enjoyed it. (Keep that in mind as you continue if you loved it, I dig into it a fair bit. But it was a good ride.)

I'd say I liked this more than what I've seen of Vox Machina, the characters had greater nuance. Albeit they had a formulaic feel to them. Each has a specific kind of conflict within themselves and a disadvantage of some type to overcome. (Like a phobia.)

It makes for good characterization but they all have "one of each" which makes them a bit too much of the same for me. I like variation in that regard. Particularly when they're all models of comparison to the others it starts to get a bit obvious and as I said, formulaic. Characters don't need a predetermined conflict for character-development.

As if the GM gave them character notes they had to fill in, rather than making a character themselves.

Animation was at times stellar and gorgeous, but there were some inconsistencies. The sickle moon having stars in its dark portion in one scene, then being portrayed as a full sphere with no stars visible in it in another is a notable example. (Something I've learned to keep an eye out for in general when gauging animated shows. Sort of an easy "litmus test".)

Some of the voice acting, particularly outside the main cast was amazing. I couldn't tell who many of them were. Mark Strong in particular didn't sound like Mark Strong at all to me. Had no clue Felicia Day was in there either until I looked it up.

Nathan Fillion however, was immediately recognizable lol. So was Ming-Na Wen. Felt like a missed opportunity for them to get a bit out-there, oh well.

The party VAs did a pretty good job but there were definitely some, "I am listening to Slightly-Not-Vox-Machina" moments as well. Still, very good voice acting in there. Nott notably.

Speaking of Nott, Nott (no comma) the Brave was my favourite by a considerable margin, really loved her. Great character, phenomenal voice acting. And I liked the duo of Caleb/Bren and Nott's friendship. She was a real highlight of the show for me.

Bren as a character was alright but only alright. His involvement as a bit of a backbone to the story was more interesting than his characterization to me though. Voice acting was good but not great. (Meant literally, it was good. It just didn't hit "greatness" to me like Nott's did. But entirely alright.)

Thought I'd add here that I found his Volstrucker friends/former-lovers Astrid and Eadwulf great secondary antagonists. They did a lot using fairly little. Weren't over-the-top evil, having some shades of grey to them. As an example, I appreciated that they gave a quick shot of Astrid taking Beauregard's flirtatious compliments to heart in the last ep. Their characters could've been considerably shallower.

Fjord, kind of "meh" towards his characterization with his weird squiggly-eyed-Cthulhu providing most of the interest. Didn't have many feelings towards the early Fjord+Jester romance either.

Jester: infectious optimism was nice but a bit too much at times.

Traveler mystery was okay as an idea but I mean, she got her powers from somewhere, no? The "imaginary friend" bit felt a tad forced at times as a result.

Jester's literal "leap of faith" in the last ep was great though.

The Tiefling Circus performer (of apparently many names) Molly, fun character but having no memory felt a bit too "hand-wavy" at times. Nice tool to use for the GM but, eh... not my personal cup of tea in a character.

Still curious to see where it goes.

Liked him as a character though, it should be said. (Aside from the macguffin.)

Beauregard: Eh, not much to say here really. Alright, moved the plot forward a couple times earlier on. Just, pretty basic. Not bad, but not much to say. /shrug

Essek and Orphan Maker, both kinda weak to me.

Essek, mommy issues. Meh. Sad you had to kill her, bit odd you had to in the first place. Hoping for more next season but as it stands, low expectations.

Orphan Maker. More curious about the god/being behind her than the character herself so far.

S1 as a whole, pretty good. Mind, I'm a bit disinterested in the Beacon as this end-all-be-all overpowered contrivance. Hoping there is indeed more to it than seems. Bit of allusion that it could be so, we'll see?

I thought the Beacon was actually a fake in the last ep there. The one in the glass Nott melted I mean. I noticed it was in a glass-housing instead of on that elaborate tri-bar pedestal and got pretty suspicious that Ikithon had made a dupe. (Until he ordered his Volstrucker duo to capture it. Then when Orphan-maker got zapped it seemed pretty obvious it's the real deal.)

Glad there seems to be an S2 slated albeit doesn't seem confirmed yet?

Quite the bloody cliffhanger.

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[–] prismatic@ttrpg.network 2 points 11 hours ago

Never watched the Critical Role campaigns myself, just watched most of Vox Mach and now this. (No spoilers for S2 if you’ve watched the campaign I’m presuming this is based off of, please.)

Having watched the campaign, I'm actually not sure what they're going to do in Season 2. They have made a lot of changes. Some plot threads are happening much faster while others are much slower in weird ways. It's very strange in ways I can't detail without going into spoilers.

Anyway.

I like this a lot more than Vox Machina. That felt like a very unfocused parody and the humour just wasn't landing. A lot of that same humour is still here - but it works much better contained mostly to a comic relief character.

Also while the changes feel weird, the substantial rewrites I think make for a better TV narrative structure overall where as Vox Machina seemed more faithful to it's detriment. I realise I've only talked about the changes that didn't really hit for me below, but I do think overall it's for the better.

The Tiefling Circus performer (of apparently many names) Molly, fun character but having no memory felt a bit too “hand-wavy” at times. Nice tool to use for the GM but, eh… not my personal cup of tea in a character.

Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about Molly either. He's used for really clumsy foreshadowing and broody introspection which just wasn't the case in the campaign. He didn't really care about his past, and that stuff didn't really come up until much, much later. It honestly makes me wonder if they're just going to cut out like 80% of the campaigns middle arcs and try to weld the ends together.

I’m a bit disinterested in the Beacon as this end-all-be-all overpowered contrivance. Hoping there is indeed more to it than seems. Bit of allusion that it could be so, we’ll see?

The beacon seems to be a fumble here. In the campaign, they stumble upon it at about the same point but with little clue of it's significance. When we do learn about it, it's not through the lens of Ikithon, who thinks in terms of power and practical usage which strips it of any intrigue, but as a cosmic mystery and an item of religious significance. You get something like Ikithon's perspective towards the end of the campaign from Essek, but even then it was posing questions, which are currently just absent.

Some of the voice acting, particularly outside the main cast was amazing.

Wow, I just looked up the guest stars for this and it's honestly crazy. Here's just some of them:

• Alan Cumming

• Nathan Fillion

• Jonathan Frakes

• Lucy Liu

• Ming-Na Wen

What the hell are they doing in this?