Critical Role just announced a new Daggerheart series, and it takes us back to Exandria. Matt Mercer will DM Shattered Legends, a new, canon mini-series. While fellow founder Marisha Ray also stars, the rest of the cast are more unexpected. Shattered Legends is made in collaboration with holo-live, a Japan-based virtual talent group. That means the rest of the players are all VTubers.
VTubers are real people who use virtual avatars to appear online. Said avatars often depict anime-style characters, and they can be quite elaborate, often able to recognize and mimic the expressions and movement of the person behind them. VTubing has long been popular with singers and let’s play streamers, but this new collab is by far the most mainstream example in actual play.
A press release from October 12 names the four VTubers involved. Nerissa Ravencroft, a demonic otaku singer with over 1 million YouTube subscribers, plays Siliun “Sil” Faell. Mori Calliope, a singing VTuber/grim reaper apprentice with 2.66m subscribers, plays Kaz Oogood. Shiori Novella and Gig Murin, playing Marchen “March” Rosemyne and Giryn respectively, both have similar success stories – and equally unusual backstories.
VTubers are still fairly rare in the West, but those YouTube subscriptions show just how popular they are in other parts of the globe. Mori Callope has almost as many subscribers as Critical Role alone, and when combined, these VTubers have a following that dwarfs the world’s biggest actual play.
It makes sense, then, why these two teams would partner. Both get to show off their creative work to an audience that might otherwise not have come across them. The series premieres in mid-November on Beacon, as well as on Critical Role’s, Nerissa Ravencroft’s, and hololive’s English YouTube channels. The show will be in English, with Japanese subtitles available on YouTube.
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