Witcher 4!

[Frazod]

Ciri is now the main character.

No release date yet. Hopefully next year.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by Sassy Squatch

Yeah, I really hope whoever needed to learn their lesson learned it after the Cyberpunk fiasco.

To their credit, they did refund the unfinished purchase. I remember being really pissed off when I got it on launch day. I just couldn't believe the same developer that gave us Witcher 3 was capable of such a disaster.

I'll eventually own Witcher 4, but CDPR will never again get my money sight unseen. After a few years, they finally got Cyberpunk straightened out. Hopefully the execs keep their noses out of this one, and let them finish the work.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Wallcrawler

To their credit, they did refund the unfinished purchase. I remember being really pissed off when I got it on launch day. I just couldn't believe the same developer that gave us Witcher 3 was capable of such a disaster.

I'll eventually own Witcher 4, but CDPR will never again get my money sight unseen. After a few years, they finally got Cyberpunk straightened out. Hopefully the execs keep their noses out of this one, and let them finish the work.

I almost never buy games when they first come out and it's served me well. AC Unity was flawless for me, for example.

[htismaqe]

I'm not gonna paste the whole article because I'm on my phone and formatting is a mess but I was waiting for this:

CDPR Claims The Witcher 4 Will Tackle a Woman’s Struggle in a Medieval World

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-witche...evious-choices

What if we don't care about a woman's struggle in a video game? It's supposed to be escapism.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

I'm not gonna paste the whole article because I'm on my phone and formatting is a mess but I was waiting for this:

CDPR Claims The Witcher 4 Will Tackle a Woman’s Struggle in a Medieval World

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-witche...evious-choices

What if we don't care about a woman's struggle in a video game? It's supposed to be escapism.

Yikes.

Witcher 3 had a small touch of it, with the female Blacksmith's assistant at The Bloody Baron's Crow Perch.

It turned out that the female assistant was literally a master, but to that point needed this bumbling clod to pose as the blacksmith in order to sell her wares, because a woman Blacksmith wouldn't be trusted by the fighting men to create armor their lives depended on.

Enter Geralt, going off on a fetch quest for tools and materials, and donning her armor to be tested against the bumbling blacksmiths armor against Nilfgardian crossbows.

Her armor proves superior of course, and she's recognized as a master, and the idiot serves as her assistant from then on.

That's about all I can remember of highlighting "Men good, woman inferior haw haw haw" in the hundred or so hours of that game I played.

I haven't looked, but I'd check to see if sweet baby Inc is involved with this game, they excel at cramming DEI shit into games.

[Indian Chief]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

I'm not gonna paste the whole article because I'm on my phone and formatting is a mess but I was waiting for this:

CDPR Claims The Witcher 4 Will Tackle a Woman’s Struggle in a Medieval World

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-witche...evious-choices

What if we don't care about a woman's struggle in a video game? It's supposed to be escapism.

I just read through the article quickly and maybe I missed it, but I didn't see anything over the top in that regard. There was one question and answer that touched on the subject, but I don't have any issues with it.

Spoiler!

Coming back to Ciri more broadly, there was a sense with The Witcher 3, and I think a lot of Witcher fiction as a whole - the TV series as well as the books - that this is a man's world, and that the experience of a woman is actively quite a significant theme in The Witcher in a lot of different forms. The women of this world are subjected to a lot of violence, they're heavily sexualized in different ways. There's the kind of 'deal with the devil' that sorceresses have to have to make where they lose their fertility and so on. Watching the trailer, it seemed to maybe channel this: there's Ciri, a woman trying and failing to save another woman from more of this universe's violence, right? Is that an intentional theme that you were channeling with the trailer? And also, is it something you're intentionally looking to explore in the game, the experience of a woman in particular through Ciri's eyes in this world?

Weber: I mean, I would say the world of The Witcher is a really dark one that's really inspired by, of course, dark fantasy folklore. But also medieval to early Renaissance history, and that is a world that was tough - tough for many different groups, women among them. As an example, in The Witcher, we also deal a lot with racism when it comes to non-humans, and this is something that we want to keep up with The Witcher 4. I think it's something that has always been really important. We make games for adults, and it also means that we tackle some difficult topics. We tackle them in interesting ways. We tackle them without giving easy answers, but often opening difficult questions that players have to answer. And I think some of those questions might be going in this direction as well, because, yeah, Ciri is a woman, and as a witcher in this world, this is an unusual state. So I don't think it's going to be this story everywhere, but since this is a part of this world, and we want to tackle so many of those different themes, it's definitely also going to appear there as well.

The question was more leading in that direction and the answer was fair in regards to the world of The Witcher.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Indian Chief

I just read through the article quickly and maybe I missed it, but I didn't see anything over the top in that regard. There was one question and answer that touched on the subject, but I don't have any issues with it.

Spoiler!

Coming back to Ciri more broadly, there was a sense with The Witcher 3, and I think a lot of Witcher fiction as a whole - the TV series as well as the books - that this is a man's world, and that the experience of a woman is actively quite a significant theme in The Witcher in a lot of different forms. The women of this world are subjected to a lot of violence, they're heavily sexualized in different ways. There's the kind of 'deal with the devil' that sorceresses have to have to make where they lose their fertility and so on. Watching the trailer, it seemed to maybe channel this: there's Ciri, a woman trying and failing to save another woman from more of this universe's violence, right? Is that an intentional theme that you were channeling with the trailer? And also, is it something you're intentionally looking to explore in the game, the experience of a woman in particular through Ciri's eyes in this world?

Weber: I mean, I would say the world of The Witcher is a really dark one that's really inspired by, of course, dark fantasy folklore. But also medieval to early Renaissance history, and that is a world that was tough - tough for many different groups, women among them. As an example, in The Witcher, we also deal a lot with racism when it comes to non-humans, and this is something that we want to keep up with The Witcher 4. I think it's something that has always been really important. We make games for adults, and it also means that we tackle some difficult topics. We tackle them in interesting ways. We tackle them without giving easy answers, but often opening difficult questions that players have to answer. And I think some of those questions might be going in this direction as well, because, yeah, Ciri is a woman, and as a witcher in this world, this is an unusual state. So I don't think it's going to be this story everywhere, but since this is a part of this world, and we want to tackle so many of those different themes, it's definitely also going to appear there as well.

The question was more leading in that direction and the answer was fair in regards to the world of The Witcher.

It's not that it's egregious or anything. I just don't enjoy it.

I don't play RPGs to have the entire story dictated to me ostensibly because of the devs' choice of main character.

It's not about DEI for me. Baldurs Gate has plenty of DEI. It also has a shit ton of player agency. This just seems like CDPR doubling down on telling the story as strictly as possible, this making choice an illusion.

I mean, they're invalidating some of the possible outcomes of 3 to make Ciri the protagonist in 4. I guess for me it comes down to if I wanted to play this much story force fed to me, I'd just play the Last of Us.

[Sassy Squatch]

The only ending they invalidated is the one where Geralt is a terrible father figure and Ciri pays the price for it.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Sassy Squatch

The only ending they invalidated is the one where Geralt is a terrible father figure and Ciri pays the price for it.

It's still a choice that was invalidated.

Maybe the Witcher series just isn't for me anymore. I have to admit, it took me a while to finish the game. I wasn't all that interested in Geralt by the end. And I've never watched the shows. Like I said, if I wanted a strongly curated story, I'd watch TV. I play RPGs to carve a little escapist fantasy for myself.

[Frazod]

Well, shit. I don't really know what to think about this, but I do know that I'll probably wait until I hear some positive feedback and not buy this one immediately sight unseen.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

It's still a choice that was invalidated.

Maybe the Witcher series just isn't for me anymore. I have to admit, it took me a while to finish the game. I wasn't all that interested in Geralt by the end. And I've never watched the shows. Like I said, if I wanted a strongly curated story, I'd watch TV. I play RPGs to carve a little escapist fantasy for myself.

First off, never watch the show. The 5 alarm fire that is the Witcher series is textbook reason why you don't disrespect source material.

I'm sure we'll get the screech and squee from those who pound the drum for artistic license, but when your lead actor quits because this is not the character he agreed to play, you've ****ed up.

Second, a lot of games that have follow ups have this "invalidating of a choice", and lean toward their canon ending being the "best" or "good" ending.

The devs give you the opportunity to see how things would play out differently, which is cool, but you cant honestly expect a game like say, Mass Effect 3 to follow the same path where you elected to get your entire team and yourself killed during the suicide mission.


I'd argue that the well crafted story, as well as all of the side quest story threads are what make Witcher 3 so good.

I guess I've also really never regarded Witcher 3 as a true RPG though either. Geralt kind of is what he is. You can tinker with how you choose to defeat enemies, what fancy moves you can do, but in the end no real skill tree decisions that you spend points on change what Geralt is.

It isn't a situation where one playthrough can be vastly different from the previous one based on the character you've designed. Geralt is heavily pre-made with a few style options for the player based on light or heavy attacks, signs, or proficiency with alchemy.

Fallout is probably the best example I could use, where how you approach the game, decisions you make, and gameplay itself vary widely. One character I have has points put into sneaking, picking locks, hacking terminals, and relies heavily on VATS attacks with small arms like a pistol. Combat has to be approached with emphasis on stealth, and landing critical hits, because in a straight up fight they're squished.

Another one I have can't pass a single speech check, has the lowest amount of skill points due to an intelligence of 1, but is built like a brick shithouse and can wade into a Supermutant nest with a Super Sledge and lay waste to anything that moves.

Geralt on the other hand, he's always going to be this well rounded monster slayer, and decisions the player makes in skill trees is not going to really move the needle one way or another on what he can or cannot do in the game.

I'd like the agency to be able to to Ard Triss and Yennefer's annoying asses out into the ocean and abscond with Rosa Var Attra and her twin sister instead, but this just isn't that type of game.

Witcher 3 to me is more action fantasy hack and slash than true rpg.

[htismaqe]

Your last sentence says it all - it's really just an action game at its core.