Witcher 4 Trailer, A Few Musings

[Paul Farquhar]

This is the equivalent of Witcher 1, where Geralt is relatively green!

Witcher 1 starts with Geralt's memories wiped, so very green! I would imagine they would have to do something similar with Ciri, since she is a bit overpowered as a starting protagonist in an RPG!

 

[Horwath]

Witcher 1 starts with Geralt's memories wiped, so very green! I would imagine they would have to do something similar with Ciri, since she is a bit overpowered as a starting protagonist in an RPG!

maybe her Elder blood makes possible that she can survive witcher trials even if she is a woman, but the alchemy trashes her elder blood so bad that there is almost no power left in it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

maybe her Elder blood makes possible that she can survive witcher trials even if she is a woman, but the alchemy trashes her elder blood so bad that there is almost no power left in it.

This is the scenario most people are expecting them to go with, I think, because it allows them to get rid of a lot of really troublesome and overpowered powers, and make things about Witcher-ing rather than teleporting or dimensional travel or the like.

I suspect the general "no female witchers because only men can survive the Trial of Grasses due to having 'stronger bodies'" thing will be got rid of in general though, because it's an outdated idea, not just in that it's sexist, but it's scientifically/medically illiterate if the idea is, as it seems to be, that the Trial of Grasses is a powerful mutagen that's a lot like being really badly poisoned. In virtually every scenario that could relate to this women have equally strong or in some cases stronger bodies than men. It's not bloody weightlifting. But given Sapkowski's age and being educated in communist Poland it's perhaps not surprising that whilst he loves to chuck modern medical terms around in the Witcher books, his ideas are slightly stone-age. Probably CDPR will just have some wizard tweak the formula or something.

 

[MGibster]

I suspect the general "no female witchers because only men can survive the Trial of Grasses due to having 'stronger bodies'" thing will be got rid of in general though, because it's an outdated idea, not just in that it's sexist, but it's scientifically/medically illiterate if the idea is, as it seems to be, that the Trial of Grasses is a powerful mutagen that's a lot like being really badly poisoned

I once read an essay from a physician in the 19th century arguing women should not ride trains for fear of the high speed causing their uterus (uteruses?) to, I don't know, fall out of their bodies, turn inside out, or something else just as bizarre. A few decades later in the 19th century, I read another essay where someone argued women shouldn't go to medical school. As women had already attended and graduated medical school by this time in the United States, the author couldn't argue they were incapable, so he argued that by expending all that intellectual efforts it would deprive their reproductive parts of much needed energy, they would shrivel up, and be unable to have children. (Sometimes you read the words someone wrote and ask yourself, "Did he really believe that?")

My vote would be that people believed women couldn't survive the Trail of Grasses because of their own sexist beliefs but, well, obviously it isn't true. Though some people, even those remaining Witchers, might continue to think women should be among them.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

The earliest rumors or hints about Witcher 4 suggested it might make Ciri the main character, but I have also heard that they might give us a self-made Witcher. However, if you look at the Witcher and Cyberpunk game by CD Projekt Red, it seems they prefer a reasonably well-defined protagonist and build their story around them. So the self-made Witcher might never have been a likely scenario.
Ciri totally works for me.

Some details suggest that she has some new tricks up her sleeve that aren't Witcher standard. Like that chain weapon and the lightning power. Is it due to her choice of school, or is it due to her Elder Blood? Or both? Maybe she will unlock some more of her "old" powers, a bit of teleportation is always fun. It's definitely an interesting way to provide some new gameplay options.

I wonder if they are going to establish some new long-term companion, friends, rivals and romantic relationships?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So the self-made Witcher might never have been a likely scenario.

Apparently it wasn't - CDPR did some interviews recently and said they'd decided to go with Ciri basically before they even said they were working on TW4, which was a very long time ago. The Lynx medallion threw a lot of people off because I think people always assumed Ciri would be Wolf like Geralt.

I wonder if they are going to establish some new long-term companion, friends, rivals and romantic relationships?

Given they're planning it as the first in a new trilogy, one suspects so, though also because it's a new trilogy with a character who doesn't have those as well-established, it may well be that we actually meet those people for the first time here.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Apparently it wasn't - CDPR did some interviews recently and said they'd decided to go with Ciri basically before they even said they were working on TW4, which was a very long time ago. The Lynx medallion threw a lot of people off because I think people always assumed Ciri would be Wolf like Geralt.

Given they're planning it as the first in a new trilogy, one suspects so, though also because it's a new trilogy with a character who doesn't have those as well-established, it may well be that we actually meet those people for the first time here.

That might be the biggest challenge, crafting new characters that we'll be as fond off as the ones we know from the past. That said, in Cyberpunk they pulled that off pretty well. The difference really is that more players have already expectations and favorites and might need some more convincing than on a first franchise entry.

Do we know if it will remain 3rd person view or they switch to 1PV like in Cyberpunk? For Cyberpunk, first person view was used really effectively IMO. There are always people that want 3PV, but I never felt as immersed into a character and the scene than as V. Their way of having you lock eyes with people (or not, depending on where you look, too), seeing their facial expressions the way you would if you were really there... That was really another level I hadn't seen before.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That might be the biggest challenge, crafting new characters that we'll be as fond off as the ones we know from the past.

I don't know if it really will be. Most of the pre-conceived cast of the Witcher games were abrasive wankers, most of them without much depth even, and they weren't even able to make them change or grow much beyond what Sapkowski had specified (and Sapkowski doesn't really seem to do "character growth"!). I don't think many people actually like-like game Yennefer, Dandelion, Emhyr and so on. They're just used to them.

That said, in Cyberpunk they pulled that off pretty well.

Yeah - with Jackie they made me care more, in a very short period of time, about him than literally anyone in the Witcher games. And a lot of the characters really have some arcs in those games in a way that characters in Witcher 1-3 just don't have (at least outside the DLC, I still haven't got to play that). The character writing in Phantom Liberty alone is just insanely better than TW3's character writing (or that of most games, including BG3!) - there are four huge characters in that who you are almost guaranteed to feel some kind of way about - and a lot of it is because they can actually write the characters and give them movement, rather than having to return repeatedly to certain predefined people in Geralt's orbit who have these preset personalities.

In general I'd say Cyberpunk has some of the most intensely memorable characters (I think the first-person perspective helps here too) of any RPG or even any game in the last 10-20 years.

Do we know if it will remain 3rd person view or they switch to 1PV like in Cyberpunk? For Cyberpunk, first person view was used really effectively IMO. There are always people that want 3PV, but I never felt as immersed into a character and the scene than as V.

Yeah I wonder that too! I have never seen first-person used as well as it was in Cyberpunk (dead right re: "never felt as immersed"), it like took me back to the early days of 1st person, and how immersive that was (more then because it was so new rather than so well-used), and I think a Witcher game in first person would be vastly more intense.

And before Cyberpunk, I'd have said "Well melee will always be trash in a first-person game, and Witcher is about melee...", but Cyberpunk especially post PL-update, has great melee combat - better than TW3 by some distance. So maybe they could?

I strongly suspect they'll stick with 3PV just because of tradition, but I think that'd be a mistake - also, if VR ever does "go off" rather than steadily failing to grow at about 2% Steam users, having built the game first-person is going to seem like a genius move, given they're planning a trilogy so likely will be spending the next 12+ years making these.

Their way of having you lock eyes with people (or not, depending on where you look, too), seeing their facial expressions the way you would if you were really there... That was really another level I hadn't seen before.

It's truly something else, and I just absolutely did not expect that when it was being developed, or even released.

Cyberpunk is the first game where like, almost none of my friends have played it, for various reasons, and I genuinely feel bad that they haven't, or in some cases practically couldn't because I know it would blow so many of them away if they did. Elden Ring is the second game like this! Though I know a couple of them are just terminally scared of Soulslikes because of their reputation for difficulty - but it's like guys, I finished Elden Ring - how hard can it be?

 

[briggart]

I heard something about The Witcher 4, but didn't know a lot about it. It not being about Geralt is disappointing.

I discovered The Witcher with Assassin of Kings, and loved that game. Wild Hunt was great as well, but not having read the novels it felt I was playing a different character: who's Ciri? Why should I care for her? Yennifer? Where's Triss?

And now we have a completely different protagonist. I understand the marketing opportunity, and after learning more about the novels, I get that Geralt's story is actually Geralt's and Ciri's and Yennefer's story. But to me Geralt remains the one from the second game and I want The Witcher to be that Geralt's story.

I don't have a lot of time to play videogames anymore. I thought Witcher 4 was the one that would draw me back in, but now it looks I'm back to "maybe one day".

 

[GreyLord]

I heard something about The Witcher 4, but didn't know a lot about it. It not being about Geralt is disappointing.

I discovered The Witcher with Assassin of Kings, and loved that game. Wild Hunt was great as well, but not having read the novels it felt I was playing a different character: who's Ciri? Why should I care for her? Yennifer? Where's Triss?

And now we have a completely different protagonist. I understand the marketing opportunity, and after learning more about the novels, I get that Geralt's story is actually Geralt's and Ciri's and Yennefer's story. But to me Geralt remains the one from the second game and I want The Witcher to be that Geralt's story.

I don't have a lot of time to play videogames anymore. I thought Witcher 4 was the one that would draw me back in, but now it looks I'm back to "maybe one day".

Never Fear!

You don't have to worry about playing it for another decade or more!

They seem to take forever to release their games! Cyberpunk took how long...like 8-10 years between when the first trailer came out and the game was released!

In fact, you might not be able to play it until you reach retirement or almost close to death it could take so long..so...your...'maybe one day' actually sounds very realistic in regards to their development times.

(actually, seriously, no idea how long it will be. It could be as soon as in 2026, could be later...no idea).