The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The last expansion got release today. I finally got around to beating the main story today too. I got the best ending (Ciri is a Witcher, Geralt ends up with Triss). Great game, though the Wild Hunt ended up being not that big of a threat. The White Frost was dealt with too easily too, and the conjunction of the spheres should have impacted the world like it did the first time with new monsters and new abilities. Basically every big threat fizzed out.

Ciri and Geralts story was perfect though, and they are the main focus, so I'm cool with it. Looking forward to the expansions too.

I always felt the end of Witcher 3 (after the amazing tour of different worlds) was a big let down. I just felt the main missions revolved around going from point a. to point b. and then the ****ing guy tells me to go to point c. I thought it was a bit boring considering the rest of the missions (including side missions) were stellar.

It's something CD Project Red could learn from Bioware. Creating excellent end sequences that complete an excellent game.

Nah, the ending is actually great if you've read the books. In such a dark world like the Witcher, seeing Ciri AND Geralt survive was unexpected and GREAT. I feared that one of them for sure was going to bite it or that perhaps Ciri would end up becoming evil. But luckily CD Projeckt really made Wither 3 a love letter to the fans and the ending was everything I could hope for.

As far as "best" ending? Well, Geralt and Yennefer are actually lovers in the books; not really Triss. Triss is jealous and wants Geralt for herself and even uses a "date rape drug" magic spell to have him for a night. But in the end He and Yennefer are soul mates. They never did a good job explaining that in the games.

It's not really that part of the ending that let me down. That was great. I loved how things ended for Geralt and Ciri, and I usually love dark endings. Its more the big events that ended up letting me down like the White Frost, the Wild Hunt, and the Conjunction of the Spheres. Those could have been handled more.

We'll have to agree to disagree on Yen vs Triss though. Yenniffer was a controlling, condescending, and abusive b*tch to Geralt ingame, who was also jealous and wanted Geralt to herself. She had no redeeming qualities outside of her love for Ciri. Triss, on the other hand, got along well with him, supported him through and through, also loved Ciri, and ended up living a happy life supporting him financially and healing him as he continued Witcher work. Book characterization notwithstanding, the game made Triss seem like the all around better choice.

Originally posted by CPT Space Bomb
Nah, the ending is actually great if you've read the books. In such a dark world like the Witcher, seeing Ciri AND Geralt survive was unexpected and GREAT. I feared that one of them for sure was going to bite it or that perhaps Ciri would end up becoming evil. But luckily CD Projeckt really made Wither 3 a love letter to the fans and the ending was everything I could hope for.

As far as "best" ending? Well, Geralt and Yennefer are actually lovers in the books; not really Triss. Triss is jealous and wants Geralt for herself and even uses a "date rape drug" magic spell to have him for a night. But in the end He and Yennefer are soul mates. They never did a good job explaining that in the games.

The actual ending was fine. It was the tedious "fetch" quests that get you to the ending area tedious.

Originally posted by Smasandian
The actual ending was fine. It was the tedious "fetch" quests that get you to the ending area tedious.

One aspect they could easily have done was to dig more into the whole alternate dimensions, with the conjectre of Spheres happening right above Ciris head, I was kinda expecting the travel to the tower to be just like that. Constant running into different dimensions, because the Spheres are aligning.

Originally posted by Arachnid1
Book characterization notwithstanding, the game made Triss seem like the all around better choice.

Originally posted by CPT Space Bomb
Well, in the books Yennefer is a handful as well but there is no denying that She and Geralt love each other. They always are there for each other. Triss is a jealous girl; albeit a fairly nice one in the books. But yah, the games really annoy me how much they want you to like Triss. One of my biggest gripes.

It's also easier to like Triss because you have developed a relation to her over the two previous games. Yennefer you knew existed but nothing beyond that, and while I think CDPR did a really good job portraying Yennefer the same way as she act in the books, they could have (Especially in the second installment with the benefit of hindsight) have done more to illustrate how much Yennefer means to Geralt, which would have made the choice more difficult in Witcher 3. I ended up with Yennefer because I know they are meant to be together, but had it been me and not Geralt, I would have gone with Triss every single time.

So yah, I waited ALL this time (for both expansions to be released) and MY GOD.

Hearts of Stone was f**king BRILLIANT. The story was amazing and engrossing; it had some great set pieces/boss fights and the ending was perfect. 10/10

And as far as Blood and Wine? It's not so much an expansion as it is HALF A F**king game! The new region is gorgeous and it's about as big as Skellige but on land. There are TONS and TONS of new quests, contracts, witcher gear diagrams, weapons and armors. And the story is great too. I'm in love with The Witcher all over again here a year after its' release. I'm probably going to finally do a NG+ after I beat Blood and Wine too. Simply the best RPG ever made in my opinion....and it's not really close either.

So, starting new game plus takes away ALL YOUR GWENT CARDS 🙁

Oh well, it's still fun earning them all over again.

Finished playing new game + and getting all the grandmaster armour sets fully loaded with level 3 enchantments and greater glyphs on blood and broken bones making all different choices to get different outcomes. Now to do it all again on death March and get all the other endings (keira getting burnt at the stake and ciri dying in the white frost)

Fackin love this game

Best game of the generation I think. You play the expansions, Jaden?

Yeah both. Preferred the story of Heart of Stone but the setting of Blood and Wine. Really liked the characters of Olgierd and Gaunter O'dimm as well as Regis more than most of the characters in the main game. 1st play through of B&W I chose to meet the unseen elder and so missed out on the land of a thousand fables which was a really awesome surprise on the second play.

I agree with you on HoS and BaW. I need to replay BaW, I also met the unseen elder, so didn't do the land of fables.

I did do a death march playthrough of the core game a while back, prepare yourself, it's really tough for the first 10 or so hours. After that as you level up and get stronger it gets a lot easier, but those first few hours are at times painful.

I'm at level 100 now anyway so it won't scale anymore.

Originally posted by BackFire
I agree with you on HoS and BaW. I need to replay BaW, I also met the unseen elder, so didn't do the land of fables.

I did do a death march playthrough of the core game a while back, prepare yourself, it's really tough for the first 10 or so hours. After that as you level up and get stronger it gets a lot easier, but those first few hours are at times painful.

https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/03/witcher-author-demands-16m-royalties-cd-projekt-red/

Gotta say that's mighty scummy. Basically "your game's gonna be crap, I don't want your shares. Nobody's gonna want Witcher. Oh, it did well? Uh, hey, can I have some money? I'll sue if you don't gimme." I get this douche canoe created Witcher but he sold the rights. This shouldn't even be a debate.

I agree.

I'm pretty disappointed in the books, too. I enjoyed the two short story books a lot, but the first full length novel was pretty bleh. Both Witcher 2 and 3 were much better.

Originally posted by Nemesis X
https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/03/witcher-author-demands-16m-royalties-cd-projekt-red/

Gotta say that's mighty scummy. Basically "your game's gonna be crap, I don't want your shares. Nobody's gonna want Witcher. Oh, it did well? Uh, hey, can I have some money? I'll sue if you don't gimme." I get this douche canoe created Witcher but he sold the rights. This shouldn't even be a debate.

Funny thing is, CDPR said the exact same thing. Basically their response amounted to, "Tough nuts, you sold us the rights and agreed to the $9,500USD amount we came to after you refused to accept a percentage of the game and future game's profits. It's in black and white on the contract, deal with it."

Funnier thing, the author/creator even admitted how badly he screwed up because he had no faith in the game and wanted some quick cash, but still wants the money now.

I didn't even know about the Witcher books before the games, which makes his rantings seem even more delusional as he said a much higher majority of peoples played the games because of the books success(which was much higher than the game), not vice versa.

I lost most if not all the respect I had for him. At least Geralt's in great hands now.