The main complaints in this thread seem to involve several subjects:
- 1. Some people are upset at the fact that they are required to play gwent in order to 100% their game
- 2. Some people feel like they shouldn't be required to play gwent due to it being a "tacked on mini-game" and request that all of the cards be able to be purchased from vendors
- 3. Some people are upset at the fact that gwent cards are easily missable which requires them to start a new game or reload a save worth tens of hours of content
- 4. Some people view that missable gwent cards are okay because "no one 100% completes the game on their first run through" and view it as an added challenge
So let me address my opinion on each one:
- 1. I understand why you feel upset because gwent can be an extremely hard game if you don't know what you're doing, don't have a good deck, or don't have a good strategy. Also, gwent is extremely luck based by the hand that you get, but this can be supplemented with spy cards to allow you to potentially draw better cards and a better ratio of unit cards to special cards to hero cards. However, the random number generator can still screw you over in these situations as well. I think that this is where a lot of people are having trouble. Many people also just don't like card games and bought the Witcher 3 in order to play an RPG that allows them to run around and hunt monsters - not to be the next Yugi Muto to try to claim the title as the next King of Games. However, CD Projekt Red put a lot of time and effort into making this card game, so you probably won't be able to skirt around that to 100% your game.
- 2. I do not agree with this. You should still be required to play the NPCs in order to gain the cards to complete the collection. That's what makes it a challenge. For the first ten to twenty hours of my 100+ hour run through, my deck was terrible, but I stopped at every inn keeper and fought every person that played gwent along the way to build it up into what it is now. It was rewarding when I finally saw my hard work pay off when I was able to take it to the Novigrad tournament and beat everyone. Despite that, I still haven't been able to collect all the cards, and I'm still searching for them. I don't feel like someone should be able to just buy them all since that would ruin the whole point of collecting the cards and earning the trophy the right way. I'm sorry if you don't like gwent, but it looks like you're going to have to learn to like it if you want that trophy.
- 3. This I can share empathy with. I missed the tournament at the masquerade ball because I didn't have a good deck that was able to beat them. Now, after completing the game and becoming the new gwent master of Novigrad, I still can't collect all the cards because I didn't complete that one tournament. I figured that I would find the NPCs in the city later on, but it wasn't until about ten or so hours later into the game that I discovered on reddit that they were, in fact, missable. I just couldn't make myself reload ten hours, and I know some people would have had to have reloaded twenty, thirty, forty, or even more hours that they played beyond that. I don't find that fair. Some people consider it a good thing since it makes the trophy more challenging to get, but I don't like being forced to replay the game from the beginning, level all they way up to fifteen, and go do the quest again. Not only have I lost all my cards and my good deck from the previous save, but now I have to go around and collect all of the cards that I had before again - a task that took ten hours to do. It's a very easy fix: just add in the NPCs in Novigrad and make another quest similar to "Battling Inn Keepers" where you go around to each one and try to beat them. Simple, easy, fixed. CD Projekt Red fixed the missable cards from the inn keeper in White Orchard, so it's safe to say that they hold similar sentiments.
- 4. Reread my rebuttal on number three. It answers this one as well.
I feel your pain. I also missed at least one card as I have said from the inn at in White Orchard. No, I cannot get that card anywhere else yet. It has only been fixed for PC players so far and I am on console.
As for another quest in case you mess up... I don't think a losers round to win the same thing as the winners got quite fits the bill. You win, you win, you lose, you don't also win.
I understand your frustration but look on the brightside, when you replay it, you are going to make absolutely certain you have a decent deck when you go to that party next
