2nd PLAYABLE character confirmed as Ciri

[OliverDK]

Late to the party I admit but imho I don't like the secondary playable character thing one tiny little bit. It has nothing to do with it's Ciri as any secondary playable character will annoy the hell out of me. It is just tremendously immersion breaking and I know I will be rushing myself through Ciris segments just to get back to Geralt.

Needless to say I want to play as one character alone and that is Geralt in The Witcher and not be pressured in to hours where I am forced to do some linear stuff with Ciri or anyone else for that matter. I know it is done story wise but that I prefer delivered through cut scenes alone and not where I have to guide the story on by myself in that character. It's not truth to RPG in my book where I role play as ONE character - not two or more.

This kind of mechanic to me rank up there in annoyance with those episodes in games where you for the sake of progressing a story is forced in to some stupid shit like walking into a obvious trap or where you suddenly loose control of your character and he/she does something that is just illogical to how you played him/her so far.

Anyway it is just annoying to me.

 

[damascus57]

It's weird, I can't find the answer using the search function.

But: What was the name of the Voice Actress of Ciri?

 

[CostinRaz]

Jo Wyatt

 

[Mohasz]

What was the name of the Voice Actress of Ciri?

Jo Wyatt.:shuriken:

Late to the party I admit but imho I don't like the secondary playable character thing one tiny little bit. It has nothing to do with it's Ciri as any secondary playable character will annoy the hell out of me. It is just tremendously immersion breaking and I know I will be rushing myself through Ciris segments just to get back to Geralt.

This second playable character thingie is a double-edged sword hai indeed: some might love it, some might hate it. I still think it could be beneficial for the story if the segments are sparse and short enough. And I don't mind a slightly different combat style every now and then for a change.

 

[Xtreme-Void]

I like Ciri, love her as playable character or at least companion... most of the time.

 

[mecha_fish]

IMO she's like Leeloo in the Fifth Element film. 'Supreme Being'. Kinda gotta tick all those boxes for the purposes of story. The difference here is you can play as the Object of Desire and experience the adventures the Object of Desire and how the Object of Desire is dealing with being the Object of Desire. I'm interested in those things, since they often aren't really addressed. Traditionally, a princess in distress stories don't tend to show you the princess' distress -- or they do, but they don't show what action the princess would take. Given Ciri's position as a witcherling with magic abilities, I'm glad she isn't pulling a Triss and moping beside Letho. (Venerable Triss putting up with Letho? Give me a break.)

I don't think she's an author insert -- Geralt filled that role perfectly in the short stories and probably still did in the novels, though I didn't notice it as much in the latter.

Also having read the books, we did get sections of story from her perspective anyway. This, to me, is a nodding to the dreams Geralt had of Ciri and Ciri had of Geralt. From my own lore perspective, I'm glad they have this.

As to the recent IGN footage, I don't like how that particular player used the Blink ability. I'm also confused as to why there are so many wolves, though given the title of the presented quest phase, I suppose there's probably a good reason. It was just so weird seeing someone with witcher abilities kill so many wolves. It was like seeing some kind of 'clear out the rats in the cellar' trope but with a total baddass. But obviously this is just a small section and IGN didn't want to reveal any spoilers so there's probably much more cool Ciri shit we'll be seeing. I'll be intersted in seeing how they personify her in dialogue.

 

[Fronko32]

From the footage I've seen (only a small part on IGN) I look forward to it. She's different from Geralt in ways of combat so you would need to use a different kind of strategy.

 

[OliverDK]

This second playable character thingie is a double-edged sword hai indeed: some might love it, some might hate it. I still think it could be beneficial for the story if the segments are sparse and short enough. And I don't mind a slightly different combat style every now and then for a change.

You are right that some will love it and that is of course good for them. I just can't love it or think of it is a good idea or a nice "break" from Geralt as I have seen others describe it.

In my way of playing a RPG I invest time in becoming a character for better or worse and as such I really dislike getting taken out of that character to play another for whatever reason. As such it is the single one thing I dislike the most about the game. I get that Ciri is hugely important to this game, it's story and I know she's a huge part of the universe and lore as a whole. But I would just personally have preferred her segments delivered in cut scenes rather than as playable linear story segments - especially of this magnitude.

And with magnitude I mean the scale of which we will be playing her. If we take the poll of this topic around 55% say it will be ok playing her for a short period of time. I think they are in for a surprise. AFAIK the game will have around 10 hours as Ciri - I believe it was Gamespot that mentioned that. That is to say if you play the main story only it means you will be playing Ciri for 20% of that time as we have been told the main story is 50 hours long - counted of course that Ciri doesn't take up any of the side quests stories but I highly doubt that. Anyway 20%of the main story can hardly be counted as short in my book.

 

[Vigilance.492]

Anyway 20%of the main story can hardly be counted as short in my book.

Well the initial comment was 5-10 hours, and recently I recall Damien saying "A few hours".
So I think it entirely depends on what kind of pace you take her segments, and I said this before somewhere (Maybe even this thread), even prior to Damien's recent few hours statement, but I think the average person will probably only take 3-5 hours, which is about 10% of the Story and I don't think it's that drastic.

That said, I completely understand where you are coming from, and I don't blame you for thinking that way. For your sake I hope they end up being at the very least more enjoyable than anticipated.

 

[Guest 3782876]

These powers of Ciri are so OP, very nice

 

[azrael.1289]

These powers of Ciri are so OP, very nice

I don't think all these skills will be available from the start. They said different Cirilla segments will feature her having different abilities.

 

[White_Wolf77]

I don't want to play 2nd character apart from Geralt as it breaks the immersion level in my opinion. I think Ciri's part could have been done through various cinematic scenes that players can watch, which continues the story while not breaking the immersion part with Geralt.

 

[Guest 3782876]

But will be fun :/

 

[dragonbird]

I don't want to play 2nd character apart from Geralt as it breaks the immersion level in my opinion. I think Ciri's part could have been done through various cinematic scenes that players can watch, which continues the story while not breaking the immersion part with Geralt.

That's fair enough, but I think that if Ciri had been depicted as cut-scenes, there would have been at awful lot of people complaining about having so many cut-scenes in the game. I can understand that, given a choice between making it cinematic and game, they chose game.

I didn't like the idea, but after seeing her in combat, I'm a lot happier about it.

 

[shawn_kh]

I'm also not happy with playing as Ciri.

The most important thing in an RPG is immersion, and the immersion comes from freely roaming the open world, developing your character in order to create your own approach to combat, and finding and using new weapons and armors that aesthetically and strategically fit you. Being cut out of the open world and having a character that you have developed to suit your playstyle getting swapped with another character that you have no control over as far as development goes, is going to have a really negative effect. Players are going in for the ultimate RPG experience, but then they are denied all the good and important RPG elements and the open world for 10-20% of the game. There is no need to create an action game within an RPG game, and this unnecessary choice is only going to detract from the RPG experience.

If they wanted to use Ciri as a story device, then they could have easily done that through short cinematic experiences and given the players dialogue options. I would have liked to see Ciri sections done the way Telltale games are done, which is minimal gameplay with a more cinematic story telling approach where the player chooses the dialogues.

And 3-5 hours is just too long considering that the main story is about 50 hours long, and I expected something like 30 minutes to 1 hour at the most.

After all this is Geralt's final adventure, why couldn't they have just let him have it all to himself ?
He doesn't need Ciri to carry the game for him, and he is the main attraction of the lore for many including me. I think the Witcher 3 should have been dedicated to Geralt 100% as his last adventure.

 

[White_Wolf77]

That's fair enough, but I think that if Ciri had been depicted as cut-scenes, there would have been at awful lot of people complaining about having so many cut-scenes in the game. I can understand that, given a choice between making it cinematic and game, they chose game.

I didn't like the idea, but after seeing her in combat, I'm a lot happier about it.

CDPR definitely not wrong for making a decision to have Ciri as 2nd playable character and I fully respect that

I'm also not happy with playing as Ciri.

The most important thing in an RPG is immersion, and the immersion comes from freely roaming the open world, developing your character in order to create your own approach to combat, and finding and using new weapons and armors that aesthetically and strategically fit you. Being cut out of the open world and having a character that you have developed to suit your playstyle getting swapped with another character that you have no control over as far as development goes, is going to have a really negative effect. Players are going in for the ultimate RPG experience, but then they are denied all the good and important RPG elements and the open world for 10-20% of the game. There is no need to create an action game within an RPG game, and this unnecessary choice is only going to detract from the RPG experience.

If they wanted to use Ciri as a story device, then they could have easily done that through short cinematic experiences and given the players dialogue options. I would have liked to see Ciri sections done the way Telltale games are done, which is minimal gameplay with a more cinematic story telling approach where the player chooses the dialogues.

And 3-5 hours is just too long considering that the main story is about 50 hours long, and I expected something like 30 minutes to 1 hour at the most.

After all this is Geralt's final adventure, why couldn't they have just let him have it all to himself ?
He doesn't need Ciri to carry the game for him, and he is the main attraction of the lore for many including me. I think the Witcher 3 should have been dedicated to Geralt 100% as his last adventure.

My sentiment exactly and I couldn't explain it better than you did. However, the decision has been done and implemented. I'm just hoping that CDPR would remember and re-consider focusing only 1 playable character in the next Witcher series :thumbup:

 

[riandor79]

I'm also not happy with playing as Ciri.

The most important thing in an RPG is immersion, and the immersion comes from freely roaming the open world, developing your character in order to create your own approach to combat, and finding and using new weapons and armors that aesthetically and strategically fit you. Being cut out of the open world and having a character that you have developed to suit your playstyle getting swapped with another character that you have no control over as far as development goes, is going to have a really negative effect. Players are going in for the ultimate RPG experience, but then they are denied all the good and important RPG elements and the open world for 10-20% of the game. There is no need to create an action game within an RPG game, and this unnecessary choice is only going to detract from the RPG experience.

If they wanted to use Ciri as a story device, then they could have easily done that through short cinematic experiences and given the players dialogue options. I would have liked to see Ciri sections done the way Telltale games are done, which is minimal gameplay with a more cinematic story telling approach where the player chooses the dialogues.

And 3-5 hours is just too long considering that the main story is about 50 hours long, and I expected something like 30 minutes to 1 hour at the most.

After all this is Geralt's final adventure, why couldn't they have just let him have it all to himself ?
He doesn't need Ciri to carry the game for him, and he is the main attraction of the lore for many including me. I think the Witcher 3 should have been dedicated to Geralt 100% as his last adventure.

I see where you are coming from but I respectfully disagree.
The Witcher for me has always been about the story and less so the character progression, because progression of a notable character such as Geralt always made little sense other than as a game mechanic and that's fine... But my immersion is not ruined by asking me to occasionally play as Citi and feel first hand what she is running from. It helps me understand what it is I am fighting against and in fact makes me as Geralt feel more urgency. I know I am going to have a hard time forcing myself away from the main quest to experience the side stuff as a result and that's a good thing.

were re this an RPG where the character was my own creation and my own story, then I would be more inclined to agree.

 

[moonknightgog]

I'm also not happy with playing as Ciri.

The most important thing in an RPG is immersion, and the immersion comes from freely roaming the open world, developing your character in order to create your own approach to combat, and finding and using new weapons and armors that aesthetically and strategically fit you.

Absolutely not. And nope, the most important thing in an RPG is not the immersion.
The most important thing is quest design/dialogues tree/C&C system. In other words, the toolset which allow you to play a role.
But it doesn't mean that you have to play one role. Ciri parts are defined "back story". It's something very common in RPGs (KOTOR 2 can be taken as an example) and it doesn't break the immersion. And it doesn't break the immersion because you are not "yourself in Geralt's shoes". You are just interpreting a character, and when it comes to play with Ciri, you will interpret her. If you enter in this "state of mind" it will be easier to play as Ciri.
Just like KOTOR 2.

 

[White_Wolf77]

Absolutely not. And nope, the most important thing in an RPG is not the immersion.
The most important thing is quest design/dialogues tree/C&C system. In other words, the toolset which allow you to play a role.
But it doesn't mean that you have to play one role. Ciri parts are defined "back story". It's something very common in RPGs (KOTOR 2 can be taken as an example) and it doesn't break the immersion. And it doesn't break the immersion because you are not "yourself in Geralt's shoes". You are just interpreting a character, and when it comes to play with Ciri, you will interpret her. If you enter in this "state of mind" it will be easier to play as Ciri.
Just like KOTOR 2.

Well, he's not wrong and neither do you. The bottom line is we all have our own definition and flavor that make us enjoy the game

 

[moonknightgog]

Well, he's not wrong and neither do you. The bottom line is we all have our own definition and flavor that make us enjoy the game

Yeah, of course. What I tried to explain is...how to get comfortable in order to play as a different character without the immersion breaking.