Title: The Guild Season Four
Published by: Siren Visual (Australia / New Zealand)
Based on: An original live action (web) series produced by Felicia Day
Genre: Comedy
Audio: English Dub
Subtitles: English
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Runtime: 81 minutes + Extras
Cost: $19.95
Classification: This title is classified M for Sexual References and Coarse Language
Special Thanks: Special thanks goes to the Siren Visual PR Team for providing me with a review sample of this title.
After a hiatus of a few days, finally a new review! With Season 3 of The Guild being released last month and Season 1-2 released in October, Siren Visual have released the next season in the series which is currently finishing up Season Five as this review was posted. As with the previous seasons, there is a much heavier focus on the characters real life exploits than actual “in-game” footage, which for the first time will be shown. Has Felicia Day and her team of cast and writers provided another interesting story or does the plot descend into yawndom? Only one way to find out.. read on to find out!
Am I the only one who seriously wants a hat like that?
Hot off the cliffhanger to Season 3, Codex scrambles to justify her impetuous encounter with Rival Guild Leader Fawkes to herself and her Guild. In game it’s Guildie vs Guildie when Vork announces a fundraising competition for design rights to the new Guild Hall. Meanwhile, Zaboo and Vork deal with a real-world house guest, Tink and Clara pair up to make some quick cash and Codex’s computer problems force her to work a real job (OMG) with Bladezz (OMFG!).
Following on from the final few seconds of Season 3, Codex ended up “having a random sexual encounter” with rival guild leader Fawkes. Her mentioning this spawns off further complications with the guild as Codex is wrapped around the finger of Fawkes who decides to play along with her “fake romance” in order to get some kicks out of doing so. While this is what may be conceived as the main plot point, there are many plots that intermingle with each other in the 81 minutes of this season. What will Codex do when her only means of getting a new computer (As her old one had literally exploded) is to get a real job? Will the guild be torn apart again when they have disagreements over a custom guild hall? What happens when Clara and Tink decide to run a real life company together? and how will Zaboo react when his mother decides to get back into touch with him after the joyous events of Season One? Many questions that will be answered upon watching.
While I perhaps found Codex (Felicia Day) slightly on the annoying side in Season 3, she actually played a much better role when partnered with Fawkes (Will Wheaton) who had that perfect compilation of protagonistic and antagonistic traits that resulted in personality clashes between the two. These two were no doubt the highlight of the series, as only few other characters really met a high point with me. Zaboo (Sandeep Parikh) for me has always been that character who has kept an annoying personality for the reason of maintaining that creepy but “controlled by others” personality that has worked rather well for him the last three seasons – but I found it tiring and forced throughout this season, even if it was plot related. Clara and Tink have more or less been the more background characters of the guild, but I found them more enjoyable to watch with their eccentric albeit different personalities leading them to work together with a comedic effect… especially their mechanism for selling random ingame equips for high gold profits. Not much to comment on Bladezz and Vork who each have remained pretty standard in their contribution to the comedy through the entire series.
If I were to compare it to the previous seasons, I think it does a solid job at delivering the intended storyline, and the plot has improved – perhaps due to once not being primarily targeted on guild disunity. The jokes aren’t as hit or miss as previously and it is evident to see how this series remains to be popular as the series progresses.
Finally… Four Seasons in and we finally get a look at “The Game”
In terms of both design and sound quality, there is no real massive improvements but instead have had minor improvements made around the place. The video quality is clearer than previous DVD releases, however after watching on both my computer monitor and 32″ LCD television, the computer monitor is still the way to go. They also chose to include a brief episode within “The Game” world itself which was a welcome change from the realistic world we are used to – and do a pretty good job with both the design and getting everyone into character. There isn’t much in terms of sound quality improvements, but does still does an acceptable job considering the original source for the series.
Unlike the Season Three release, the content is spread over two DVD discs with the first containing the episodes and the second containing all the bonus content. Most noticeable to followers of the series will be the music video for “Game On” a Bollywood-inspired song which while it might not be as memorable as “Do You Wanna Date my Avatar”, it is still pretty good – and the complementary “Making of” video is also interesting. Also included are Season Recaps of the other seasons which are narrated, Avinashi Returns and Cheesybeards featurettes, “Cheesybeards” commercial which features as a brief plot element in the show, Episode One table read, obligatory gag reel and the entire script stored as a PDF file on the disc. Once again, it is a nice compilation of extras which should appeal to fans of the series.
The Guild has once again shown why it has been successful so far and will hopefully be continuing on for at least a few more seasons as both a webisode series and DVD release. While it is possible to watch this show for free through the official website for the show, the increase in quality for the DVD release, the bonus extras which are not included in the web release and the joy of knowing you are supporting The Guild with your purchase should give some value to this very cheap $19.95 release. It is a creative and fun series which I could recommend to anyone who either loves spending hours and hours playing World of Warcraft… or even someone who wants some laughs at the expense of a group of people who are overly addicted to a similar game – I am not judging anyone here.
Storyline / Character Development: B+
Sound/Music: C
Extras: A-
Personal Preference: B
Overall Score: B-
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