Looked everywhere for people with my same thoughts and here we are. I am a great fan of the Witcher series and was so impatient to see the sequel to Geralt’s story that I bought the game and the season pass as soon as it was available. I was very pleased but also very disappointed for different reasons. The game itself is amazing, the artwork spectacular, the vistas breath taking (I fell in love with Skellige, with its Nordic soul, and didn’t mind to just walk around to appreciate the work gone into it). The open world has been a great addition to the game and is probably the most important feature it has to offer the gamers, but the Witcher is not only about roaming and killing beasts. It was also about taking the story in your own hands and moulding it as you wanted, whether good or bad you felt that all the decisions mattered in the shaping of Geralt’s character/personality and how he was perceived in the world he’s in. It was so pleasant and I felt fully immersed in his world and thought that I counted for something. Here instead the story is different. It feels already flattened out for you, on the main story and on the romantic line, and although certain action can trigger different outcomes, it is not comparable with its previous title. It seems to me that CDPR decided to spend more time on the actual open world system than on the rest. Since it was said that this would have been the last title with Geralt of Rivia I expected more, especially to feel the need in completing the game different times in different ways to find the perfect ending or beginning of a new life for the character you so hardly fought for. Instead when completing the game I felt only emptiness in a world not changed by my decisions/actions, a castle colder than Eredin, friends and partner never to be seen again (nothing I would ever have expected from this game).
Coming back to the topic of this thread as you can see I am a Triss fan (the charm of a redhead always captures my attention). Since Yen has not been as present as Triss in the previous titles I do think they made her justice, probably they went too far. Weaving Yen’s love story with the main storyline (which is fine if the game strictly followed the books and not our choices) while keeping Triss as a backup not giving her the importance she deserved, especially for us who had the ideas straight from the beginning, taking from us that sense of control. It felt to me that I was tied to Yen till the end even though I did not want to. I wished there was more interaction with Triss or Yen, and actually I felt sad when I found myself alone in the castle after completing the game.
Where are my BATHS?!?BALMS?!?BODY MASSAGES?!?
The only thing I can hope for now, since there cannot be important changes for the main storyline, is for a DLC adding more interactions, on a secondary level, with both the mages, depending on your choices. This is not a request for more sex scenes but a way to have a reason to continue with Geralt’s life even when the game is finished.