So, I just finished my Witcher 2 replay, and rewatched some of the old W3 trailers. Man, imagine what could have been. 
"He was different from all other elves. There was no shame in his gaze. He had never suffered persecution. he had endured no massacres, humans had not taken his land. This elf was not of this world."
[video=youtube;KsdIaG66r-M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsdIaG66r-M[/video]
We have been here before. We watch your petty world slumbering. You cannot defy the cold from our steel, you can only... surrender.
White Wolf... at last. I come for her, of for the prophecy. Every decision you make will bring devastation. Each choice will lead to a greater evil. -> Great Witcher 1 throwback there.
Eredin almost has more dialogue in the trailers than he does in-game.
This one also mentions 4 Wild Hunt commanders. I believe that was from when Ge'els was going to be one. Here's some other concepts.
"He was different from all other elves. There was no shame in his gaze. He had never suffered persecution. he had endured no massacres, humans had not taken his land. This elf was not of this world."
We have been here before. We watch your petty world slumbering. You cannot defy the cold from our steel, you can only... surrender.
White Wolf... at last. I come for her, of for the prophecy. Every decision you make will bring devastation. Each choice will lead to a greater evil. -> Great Witcher 1 throwback there.
Eredin almost has more dialogue in the trailers than he does in-game.
This one also mentions 4 Wild Hunt commanders. I believe that was from when Ge'els was going to be one. Here's some other concepts.
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It's truly bizarre. They built him up for three games over what...8 years? Not trying to rub it in, but I will never understand what went wrong here. How do you mess up a villain you've known about for that long?
In the first game he was not really a villain, now that the Wild Hunt had to be the main antagonists and there is no mystery around them, the writers just might not have had any really good ideas. But it does not look like the Wild Hunt was a particularly high priority in the development, either.
I disagree with this. I think they had a bunch of reall cool ideas, but most got cut. I think the Hunt's role was originally much more important as seen in this video.. Speculating, but I think when the main plot was changed from hunting the Hunt, to tracking Ciri, that's when a lot of the problems occurred.
They also said, in the 2013 interview with Game Informer, that the Hunt would not be another ancient evil, but that they would have had clear motivations and goals. Geralt would also constantly feel their presence lingering over him. Again, I think that was the orignal plan.
Man, I would kill to read these earlier scripts. The dialogue is fantastic.
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Yeah, the early idea for the plot was way better IMO. So much cut content... It's sad. :cirisad:
Well, the same thing happened to Witcher 2, with this defference that we know a lot what was removed/changed.
But I'm curious about original concept of Burning Village. I know it was supposed to be on Skellige and looks like we could interrupt what Wild Hunt was doing there (according to trailers, screenshots and concept art). Do we know something more?
That is true, although the fact that most of the ideas ended up being cut (even early in the development when time and resources were not a problem yet) in some sense agrees with my previous statement about a lack of really good ideas. That is, assuming that they were cut because they did not work well enough in practice, rather than the Wild Hunt being made a low priority.
They do have clear motivations and goals in the game, but these were made fairly simple, and do not leave much room for making them interesting characters from Geralt's or Ciri's point of view. Thus, even a relatively small amount of screen time was enough to explain what they want, and there is not much reason for them to interact (other than by attacking) with the player's character. In the previous games, the antagonists were more "grey" characters (even temporarily allies at some points), and that allowed for making them more complex and interact more with the protagonist.
@sv3672
I think there's more to this story, then just cut content or unrealsitic ideals. Going from that video, they seemed to have a pretty good idea about where the plot was going.
Here's some more dialogue with Crach about the Hunt. I think this is why he shows up at the end of the game, to fight them.
The entire scene with Dalvik was moved to Velen, and I don't think it's as effective there.
I think there's more to this story, then just cut content or unrealsitic ideals. Going from that video, they seemed to have a pretty good idea about where the plot was going.
Here's some more dialogue with Crach about the Hunt. I think this is why he shows up at the end of the game, to fight them.
The entire scene with Dalvik was moved to Velen, and I don't think it's as effective there.
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Regarding Crach in the final battle, it may be because of cut content in On Thin Ice and Battle Preparations that it is not well explained why he appears there. This part of the game looks somewhat unfinished even compared to the - already cut down - plans from mid-2014. Apparently, there might have been a battle on the sea between the Wild Hunt and Crach's and Emhyr's fleet, with destroyed ships etc., and even in the released version there is an unused part of the scene where Eredin kills Crach (q501_07_gmpl in the w3dialog.txt file). Also, in Battle Preparations there is a scene (q210_06c) where Crach is about to sail to Undvik, although I do not remember seeing it (perhaps because it is only for the case when Svanrige becomes the king ?).
@sv3672
Is this line in the game? It should be, and I recall hearing it, but now that I'm trying to find it, I can't.
"Geralt, have some dignity. You know how this will end."
I thought it was said during Cave of Dreams, but it's not there. Is it a combat line, perhaps?
Is this line in the game? It should be, and I recall hearing it, but now that I'm trying to find it, I can't.
"Geralt, have some dignity. You know how this will end."
I thought it was said during Cave of Dreams, but it's not there. Is it a combat line, perhaps?
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It is in Eredin's voice set (eredin_vset.w2scene), and it does look like a combat line, but I am not sure exactly when it is said.
I'll run through the Cave of Dreams fight a few times to see if I can make it trigger.
The way i see this situation is a bit different. I think Eredin having not many lines and the villains side not being detailed fits well with the story. As i see it in the story, Geralt,Ciri and Yennefer did not care who the villain was. In that sense we do not see a lot of details concerning Eredin or Wild Hunt or any other villainous group. Because they didnt care. I felt like Geralt and Yennefer were ready to face anything to save Ciri. They could be wraiths, ghosts, elves or evil clowns for all they cared. At some point Geralt says something like: ''It just so happens we are willing to do anything for some people''. I think that was it. Less talking more doing. He loved Ciri they were gonna hurt Ciri so he reached back to his sword. For whatever might get in the way. So if Eredin said 12 sentences during the story, to Geralt that was 12 sentences too many.
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If they were going for a vague, mysterious threat not meant to be fully explained, like the reapers in ME1 or the Hunt in TW1, there are far better ways to do it. The cut content along with other difficulties clearly screwed this aspect of the story. I refuse to believe they thought what little Eredin said would be sufficient. The Reapers, incidentally, are a text book example of how to ruin a villain. They were fucking terrifying in the first game, but seeing how Bioware killed their potential is clear in hindsight. The devs didn't plan it through. It feels similar to the Wild Hunt, actually. When I got to Eredin and everything just fell flat I was thinking it's ME3 all over again.
The hunt in TW1 was mysterious Geralt was curious yet not much was known. This here in TW3 is different i think. It s not that he couldnt interact more with the villains because they were unknown. He could. There could be more interaction. But the story i think made it so that Geralt just doesnt wanna interact with them. He s like to heck with who or what they are we gotta look out for one another. I think it would be weird if there was a bunch of interaction between Ciri, Geralt and Yen and Eredin. Eredin wanted Ciri. They werent about to agree.