Baelin's Route: An Epic NPC Man Adventure

At first, the choice of taking Baelin as the main character in a short seem a bit odd and underwhelming, but at the end, it works. Real fans will remember the depth Baelin has in Epic NPC Man, like when he's stuck on a bucket, he almost got me tearing up, or when he shows skills a fisherman shouldn't have. They had to play with the limitations of a NPC for Baelin's route, and they did well. I'm also happy we got to see Aly for the first time in Honey Wood. Ah, god, yeah, it's fan service at it's best, not gonna lie, but they did it so well, and it's so heartwarming. Now it's working for a short, I don't think I would have been that happy if it was a feature-length movie, who knows. I love Rowan, don't get me wrong, but I so missed Alan; let's hope the next one has the original duo as the main characters!! Now if you never seen Epic NPC Man and wonder if you should watch Baelin's route, I'd advise you to go on YouTube and try to enter the VLDL universe ,first, it won't be wasted time, I guarantee!!

Rowan Bettjeman plays Baelin the Fisherman: a character in a video game who is programmed to say only one sentence. Baelin seems to be locked in a path, destined to forever walk his route around the fictional land of Azerim, until he is forced to overcome his designated programming in order to save a teenage girl from an angry adventurer.

Bettjeman gives a wonderful performance as we see Baelin struggling against to break free of his programming when he is confronted with a cruel adventurer, played by Ben van Lier. Even though Bettjeman only has one sentence, he portrays a plethora of emotions when repeating it in different settings. Hodor and Groot: take notes.

Van Lier embodies the rage gamers feel when they struggle with new quests in video games, with such realism that we can relate to, and yet hate, his experience.

The co-star of the film, Phoenix Cross, is perhaps the perfect choice to play the young damsel in distress: Willow. She draws the audience in with her brilliant acting and expressions, giving us the desire to protect her at all costs.

With a minimal budget, raised through Kickstarter, the directors Adam King and Alan Morrison have managed to bring a top notch Hollywood feel to a 35 minute film: The epic scenery of New Zealand, the excellent music score, the gamer names above other players' names and lots of details makes this unique movie an absolute must-see for most audiences.

And, unlike a lot of large Hollywood productions, this brilliant movie is available free for everyone on YouTube.

An annoying NPC (Rowan Bettjeman) is on his daily walk when an adventurer recruits him and he ends up getting (a bit) self-aware and has to rescue a girl played brilliantly by Phoenix Cross. Also, Ben Van Lier deserves praise for his role as the player who really doesn't like this game anymore.

If you are familiar with Epic npc man you'll love this. If not check out epic npc man by viva la dirt league.

I don't understand some of the reviews that score this badly. This movie is based on what was a one dimensional character, Baelin the fisherman, who is a one line character without a backstop which you see often in games. They take this character ot of his comfort zone of walking the same route every day and throw him into certain danger in which he ends up on a quest replacing an actual playable character.

Rowan manages to pull off some amazing acting in this role, despite his character only having one line that he can repeat over and over you understand and feel what he is conveying every single time.

Then there's Phoenix, the newest addition to VLDL who is just lovable and fantastic. Despite not having many credits to her acting career she absolutely smashes this and carries the whole film from start to finish.

Some of the acting may seem off but its purposely done that way as it is a spoof of video games. For example, Hamish, the one being robbed, plays his part perfectly. Not an actual real reaction to being robbed but the comedic video game type spoof this is. This movie deserves 10/10 and its only letdown is that it was so short, but even then it fitted everything in it needed to.

Again, an amazing movie. Go watch it.

Not really a reviewer, but i had to give my two cents about this movie. I watch VLDL very randomly at YouTube, but more often than not i like their content and Im specially fond of Epic NPC Man. So, when the video popped on my main page and I pressed play thinking it was just another short skit. Man was i wrong.

The acting is great, the production value far above the overall content of the channel, but man, the writing and directing... So well polished, so focused on telling that exactly story, no more, no less. There isnt much to the plot, and the movie dont need it. The movie shine in the small moments where the characters run the edge between free will and whats scripted to then in the game program. You have to bear in mind this is still the VLDL's Epic NPC man's world. If you don't have some background for the world of characters, much will make no sense.

A very pleasant surprise, more from the team than the movie itself. Now I wonder what else they could create with such precise vision.