To start off 2023, I finished Vox Machina; Critical Role’s first campaign. It was a bittersweet moment since it took me two years to watch every single episode. I felt I needed a solid break from Critical Role, so I could absorb the ending of Vox Machina. I watched a few of the one-shots at that time and focused on watching other TV shows that I fell behind on. I decided that I was finally ready to start on Mighty Nein which is Critical Role’s second campaign. I watched the first episode a few days ago and wanted to share some first impressions of the show.

As far as the characters, I think the two characters that I felt drawn to right away were Fjord (played by Travis Willingham) and Yasha (played by Ashley Johnson). Fjord has this cowboy persona with the voice that Travis chose for the character. Fjord seems to be one of the more intelligent characters within the group and it’s fun to see Travis play someone that’s vastly different from Grog. With Yasha, I liked how she is the bodyguard of sorts and she has these one-liners that are delivered with no enthusiasm which makes the whole group laugh. Also, I like how Yasha and Beau start flirting right away. I’m curious to see if that develops into something later.

The first episode primarily took place at a circus when someone from the audience turns into a zombie-like creature. I like how there’s a certain level of darkness that’s been introduced right away. Vox Machina felt like a group of adventurers goofing off in a tavern, while Mighty Nein might have more gothic undertones which is usually what I gravitate towards.

After finishing episode #1, I’m definitely invested in the campaign. Out of curiosity, I did a quick search to see how many hours the Mighty Nein campaign is. It’s only 550 hours, no big deal. Now, I have only 547 hours of content to watch, wish me luck!