The depth and breadth of the world-building in New World Sonata has not even begun to be explored. They drop you in, expecting you to follow, there is no handholding or information dump - some people might find this offputting, but I found it enchanting. And the sound design really takes off at a certain point (you'll know). I love this story.

Think depth of Lord of the Rings/Name of the Wind with a pinch of Mass Effect, all wrapped up in a series of Bioshock audio logs. The voice acting is very believable and excellent, the characters are unique and feel real, and that sound design/foley art! My favorite, but it's all great stuff, and it sounds like a professional production. I could close my eyes and be transported to that New World Sonata universe, and 20 minutes would go by in a flash (I really like the length of the episodes too). Kudos to the writing which gave just enough detail and sound cues to give me an idea of the surroundings, but left a good deal to my imagination like what Faye's Togo (Toga?) looks like. Thinking Korra's polar bear dog meets the dragon from Neverending Story. What I also really like is that there's a whole lot of lore, but it's not all outright explained to you, so as a result, it feels like the listener's choice on how far they want to dive in. Like Star Wars or the aforementioned above, you can really get into the details if you wanted to via some New Sonata-pedia that I'm sure some group of fans will make some day or even other media that could be made like books, a tv series, movies, videogames...I could see it! On the flipside, you can also forgo getting into the nitty gritty and just listen to a good story that slowly builds over time, and I don't think you'd lose anything. I just think you'd get more out of the world the New World Sonata team created the more you immerse yourself into it. My only quips were with the pacing of the beginning of the first episode where I felt pretty thrown into the deep end with New World Sonata terms and the talkiness and lack of prevalent sound design of the fifth episode. That said, for anyone looking to get lost in a new, fantasy/sci-fi world with some interesting characters, look no further. This is my first story podcast series that I've listened to, and wow, this series made me realize it's another great medium for storytelling, and I'm looking forward to new episodes.