[SPOILERS] The lack of Witcher 2 decisions and content in The Witcher 3.

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On that regard dissapointing yes, also if we talk about consistency I'm quite puzzled with Triss approach towards Philippa. Is she THAT naive or is she planing a sadistic and secret revenge plot that will take years, or something else but (spoilers! err... old spoilers =P) as you know Triss' little statue were inside Philipa's damn drawer while we were searching for her like a mad man. (face palm situation really, remembering everytime Geralt passing near her desk, and her madallion shakes and geralt says "hmmmm... what could it be...") pass that Triss ended up tortured and almost died because of Philippa, hell, thinking that she was one of the prime responsibels for all that pain in our asses at Witcher 2, why in earth she is so willing to help Philippa is beyond me... Wait... Does she have amnesia now?

If I remember correctly, Phillipa had nothing to do with Triss's disapearance, she didn't even had the time to meet her in Vergen. It was her girlfriend: Cyntia, a nilfgaardian spy, who turned Triss into a doll when she arrived and send her to the ambassador later. Phillipa didn't even knew of the real allegiances of Cyntia so... Wait, I remember the Rose of rememberance trick now... Damn it.
 
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What everyone seems to forget is that you are not playing someone that you made up, you are playing a pre-made character that has his own back story etc and if your decision is different then what it implies that it is an alternate version of reality not the reality of the game/story.

thus, it is like playing a Harry Potter game based on the first movie/story, making Potter do different things then what he would have done, then complaining that the next game based on the next movie/story doesn't take into account what you did in the first game
 
What everyone seems to forget is that you are not playing someone that you made up, you are playing a pre-made character that has his own back story etc and if your decision is different then what it implies that it is an alternate version of reality not the reality of the game/story.

thus, it is like playing a Harry Potter game based on the first movie/story, making Potter do different things then what he would have done, then complaining that the next game based on the next movie/story doesn't take into account what you did in the first game

Choices having consequences in a RPG game has no relation with whether the character is pre-made or not.

If there is a Harry Potter RPG that allows you to make choices that impact the world and is then followed up by a sequel than I have every right to believe that my choices in the previous should have some form of impact in the sequel whether big or small.

Witcher 3 does it to a small degree but is clearly favored Roche's path over Iorevth.
 
It made me sad when I found out yesterday that the witch hunt ensues no matter what...

What's the point of loading the savegame when, 1st) you don't get your items back, 2nd)outcome stays the same?
And I thought CDPR couldn't hurt me more.
 
...Phillipa didn't even knew of the real allegiances of Cyntia so... Wait, I remember the Rose of rememberance trick now... Damn it.

Y'up... Bitch with a capital B...
Also she wasn't her girlfriend, Cyntia i mean, she was her 'leashed' apprentice.. *wink wink* Like mage's familiar, but sexier. Also Nilfgaard spy though yes. But Nilfgaard wasn't directly responsible with what was happening in Witcher 2, it was guddamn Sorcereresses Lodge (spoiler!) who end up played like a fine tune by Nilfgaard via Letho. (And as a fun fact, that only happened because as Letho said '...I'm looking like a goddamn stupid brute, and I can't help about how I look.', heh)
So Cynthia was at the observe and wait the opportunity mode. I think you even converse with her about this at Act 3, at retrive the magicial spying device quest.


Also yes, Savber is correct. Capability to choices and how these impact to story is what defines a rpg, we call 'rpg's with that is impossible and simply playing trough a static story with heavy combat oriancy 'action rpgs'. (kinda like 'special' childrens xD) Such as diablo.
And though witcher 3 has flaws that I wouldn't label this beautiful game as 'Action RPG' it doesnt deserve to called that.

But perhaps as a theory, this 'dark fantasy' concept is Witcher games' strong point and the Achilles' heel at the same time. Games like witcher, that pass in worlds that aint 'pink tinted', games that doesn't afraid to emotionally hit to players are rare. And quite 'IN' these days... I mean anyone remember old rpg games that usualy (specialy with adnd basics) with somewhat 'goofy' mediavel theme? Like a god damn mediavel theme park... Humanity's leaps in story telling suprises me really... I gues writers and readers gained more insight trough constant empathy with fiction. It is kinda nice. (also shows that our future lies in cyberspace that hardware maintanbed by robots, so we could play rpgs in virtual reality envoirment constantly... DUNN DUNN DUNNNNN!)
But because witcher and its "...and every decision you made will bring greater devastation...' theme, it might be forgetting some small details like these. (spoiler) like ladies of the wood quest, the moment i saw those three ladies' mural, I said "shit, this quest will end badly no matter what i do..." Or no matter the witcher 2 ending what you'll get 'burn da witch! what we burn with witches? MORE WITCHEEEEAAAS!' result, because it is simply more screwed up situation... I'm not kinda digging that to be honest.
 
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That is the core problem with choices carrying over from game to game. From a developers perspective it is just a HUGE waste to create tons of content, that only very few players will ever see. What would you rather have? One large and elaborated quest or three small quests, just to give a choice from the previous game more meaning, that a lot of players of the new game probably either haven't played at all or completely forgotten, because they played it 4 years ago?

Bioware copped out of this dilemma by simply making a lot of decisions from ME1 and 2 just billboards and points in ME3. Oh, you took decision 1 in that big event in ME1? Well, in ME3 you get like 4 lines of flavor text and slightly more points that count towards the ending of the game.

Yes, in an ideal world, decisions from TW1 and 2 would have more meaning in TW3, but in an ideal world CDPR would also have infinite money to spend on developing TW3.
 
At the moment, Roche's path looks closer to "canon" , while Iorveth's seems like a cool "what-if" scenario like the Star Wars Infinities comics or something like that :/
 
Im really dissapointed with this to be honest :/

Iorveth and Saskia and everybody from Vergen are essentially forgotten and they are far more important than Letho for example.
 
I too would like to voice my dissapointment in the choices surrounding Stennis, Henselt, Anais and especially Saskia not showing up at all in the Witcher 3. I MASSIVELY enjoyed making these choices and trying to imagine how these things would carry over towards Witcher 3, but now being made irrelevant.

I basically hoped for the same during the Mass Effect triology and Bioware earned my lasting hatred and bile for not doing so for Mass Effect 3. That said however, CDPred doesn't earn the same Ire, simply because they didn't advertise our choices mattering in the same way Bioware did. Bioware heavily implied that everything would change according to our previous decisions, but nothing did, they gave us only one ending basically and they only gave us a half-hearted extended cut after mass uproar. All CDPR promised was a massive open world driven by story and this is what I've gotten. Witcher 2 was given a pretty satisfying extended cut edition for the love of it. They got my hopes up with "Import save games", but that's just my fault.

So yeah, dissapointed in CDPR for a lack of our previous choices mattering, but with the sheer love they've already put in, I'm not upset or feeling dissillusioned at all. To be honest, after Mass Effect 3 blew up, I had a stiff talk with myself about expectations, thought about the Witcher series, followed the PR leading up to Witcher 3 and continuously forced myself to remain sober and call upon everyone else doing the same. CDPR did almost nothing to make us believe that the Witcher 2 would matter and they've already done more than enough. This is a non-issue.

I will say this though: I didn't buy the expension pass. If CDPR is planning on releasing further expansion/DLC/Extended cuts, I would pay a VERY pretty penny indeed for Stennis/Henselt/Anais being involved. I'd pay the same price all over again for Saskia.

So just letting you know CDProject Red... you know where the money is... *Cough* Saskia *Cough*

/Waves 50 pounds around
 
It is really weird and sad that none of these decsisions really matter and when I loaded my savegame and still had to work with Roach instead of Iorveth I was really disapointed.

Iorveth was the one character I was hoping too see back and kept my hopes up that he would show up .... BUT NO.
 
One would think CDPR would include Iorveth and Saskia in the game, especially considering they were heavily mentioned as characters people would want to see return in one of the big threads that was around prior to Witcher 3's announcements. Odd that two such pivotal characters to the second game are nowhere to be found in Witcher 3 (especially Iorveth, who was equally pivotal to the story as Roche was).

I really, really hope CDPR plans to bring them into the game somehow, either through one of the 16 Free DLCs or through the Expansions that are coming out later in the year.

If not, I hope they release mod tools that are flexible enough to allow content creators to make a deep side story involving them to give people who played Witcher 2 proper closure. Have hardly played the game myself, but I am beyond disappointed to hear that Iorveth isn't in the game at all.
 
It is a little bit strange. Playing Witcher 3 feels like I never played Iorveth's Path in Witcher 2. I get it that one path must be canon but it seems that the persons Iorveth and Saskia never existed.

I am not that far in the game. Does even Zoltan say nothing at all about the situation in Vergen? I mean he lived and had friends there.
 
Given how Iorveth is a complete no show in 3, what was the point of giving him plot armor in 2? There was a perfect opportunity at the end of act 2 on Roche path to have killed him. :(
 
Cant get the reply button to work:(

Nope Zoltan doesnt say a thing, not that I have heard anyway. Which I find strange, if they decided to just cut Saskia and Iorveth all together, at least Zoltan could have mentioned them. But its completely glossed over. Its either a poor choice on CDprojects part, completly ignoring anyone who chose Iorveths path, or they have decided to put them in the expansions. I am hoping for the latter. After all they brought so many other characters back, including Letho who could be dead. So why not one of the biggest characters of TW2. It makes no sense.
 
I'm sure that Iorveth will find his way back to the game in one way or another. His voice actor is in the game afterall: looking at the "F*ck off!" vampire just to name the most memorable one. I have a feeling that we will meet his character in either one of the 16 DLCs or in one of the expansion packs.
 
Someone mentioned being disappointed Shilard didn't make an appearance, well I'd like to point out that he was executed offscreen, likely by Renauld aep Matsen, if Geralt rescued Anais or Saskia. Remember when Renauld cites "orders from the capitol" as his reason for shooting Shilard on the Triss rescue mission? Well those orders still stand if Geralt accidentally incited a witch hunt. Shilard likely got himself thrown off the walls of Loc Muinne by his guards 5 minutes after presenting Letho to Radovid.
 
Wow.
During my playthrough, I already realized it was pretty bad. But THAT bad in terms of impact of Witcher 2 decisions? Wow.
While I love the game, aside from the way too enormous scope (my gf almost broke up with me because of my hardcore-nerding the game within 6 days :D), the continuation problem was clearly the biggest let-down beside the Triss romance-follow up (or rather almost complete lack thereof).
 
Everything in relation to the prior games was really poorly done. They really went out of their way to make sure that anyone who didn't play TW1 or TW2 can jump into TW3. They did so at the expense of the fans who played the prior two games. There are some things that I hope CDPR fixes up within the next few months, this is definitely a big one for me.

Even with Aryan Lavalette, I do this quest in Novigrad with Baroness Lavalette and I don't even ask her something like "hey, how's Aryan doing these days?" Nothing.
 
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