Quest Reason of State - the most disappointing quest in the game and maybe even in the whole series

[Sam2305]

Agree with you @misho8723 , the behaviour of Dijkstra is completely out of character. Furthermore, if you compare with TW2, the politics of this quest are a mess. They tried to summarize all the politics that should have been put throughout the game in one small mission and the result is really bad. Apart from Dijkstra dying like an idiot, for God sake! He is one of the most intelligent man in the books! And the only logical choice was kill Roche rather than convince him?

Everyone knows from TW2 that Roche hates nilfgardians, if Dijkstra would have offer any other option, probably he would have taken it.

Finally, in my opinion, this quest is too simple and it should be longer, at the end the we should have more options to choose and the characters should behave as they always do (Roche plotting with Nilfgaard? What a sh**!)

---------- Updated at 05:20 PM ----------

If you play HoS after completing the main game (assuming you did Reason of State), Shani and Geralt discuss Radovid dying but the war raging on. I understand how complicated it can be to adjust the end world state to reflect who won the war i.e. Nilfgaard banners in Novigrad, more witch hunters around Velen, Redanian flags at former Nilfgaard strongholds.

In fact, they did this in White Orchard for the endings (no matter if you chose Radovid/Dijkstra) so they have already done one area of the game. The palace is a small area so it shouldn't be difficult. The real challenge is Novigrad/Velen considering that Skellige is out of the war.

 

[RC-07]

Dijkstra did everything right. He saw the opportunity and took it. As he said, he's a patiot, and unlike Roache, who is basically a grunt, Sigismund is more of an intellectual and pragmatic type with a decent amount of will.
He's a smart man and that was a smart decision.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Dijkstra did everything right. He saw the opportunity and took it. As he said, he's a patiot, and unlike Roache, who is basically a grunt, Sigismund is more of an intellectual and pragmatic type with a decent amount of will.
He's a smart man and that was a smart decision.

Which one? If to use Roche to wack Radovid, I agree. But the rest of Dijkstra's actions does not make any frigging sense. After Radovid is dead, it is pretty much irrelevant whether Roche and Thaler are dead or alive. Dijkstra should have run like crazy to take over, and to unite people. To challenge Geralt to a fight to the death was just some fancy way of committing suicide, nothing more. The way the conclusion of this plot-line plays out is simply irrational.

It would be so much better if Dijkstra takes over, and then betrays Roche, declaring him Radovid's assassin, and starting a manhunt. Roche would have found himself in roughly the same situation as with Henselt, and needs to do something fast, in order to save himself and his people, and to keep agreement with Emhyr. So he would have to eliminate Dijkstra, as the last part of this plot-line.

 

[RC-07]

I guess there wasn't much space for a fat limping guy to actually make a fine run. As I remember, there are two ways of leaving the area.
I bet he tried to act fast after getting his head straight after a shocking reveal and eliminate dijkstra. Although not much space and being surrounded and heavily outnumbered, well, Roache ain't Rambo.

 

[Pug.]

Dijkstra did everything right. He saw the opportunity and took it. As he said, he's a patiot, and unlike Roache, who is basically a grunt, Sigismund is more of an intellectual and pragmatic type with a decent amount of will.
He's a smart man and that was a smart decision.

I'd say that the decision which Roache made was pretty pragmatic. He basically weighed the long-term gains of Temerian independence against the cost in human life that would be needed to attain it, and decided that pledging loyalty to Nilfgaard in exchange for maintaining Temeria's right of self-governance was more desirable. I think he made the right call. Toussaint has a similar arrangement with Emhyr, and they seem to be doing all right. I suppose it depends on how much importance you place upon complete autonomy.

 

[RC-07]

And I agree with you, considering Roache proved multiple times that he's a patiot to the heart. Not the best choice in my opinion, though.

 

[HarelMor]

Dijkstra is suppose to be a master spy and a very smart and pragmatic person, when when they met at the pasiflora Dijkstra knew that geralt and roche are friends, therefore i assume that he know their history, asking geralt to betray roche in order to help someone that geralt distrust and dislike (himself) is far from logical.
roche would have happily help Dijkstra for a free temeria, but Dijkstra's actions showed that he might be as bad as radovid.

 

[Sam2305]

Dijkstra is suppose to be a master spy and a very smart and pragmatic person, when when they met at the pasiflora Dijkstra knew that geralt and roche are friends, therefore i assume that he know their history, asking geralt to betray roche in order to help someone that geralt distrust and dislike (himself) is far from logical.
roche would have happily help Dijkstra for a free temeria, but Dijkstra's actions showed that he might be as bad as radovid.

Thank you, I thought that I was the only one who thinks this way

 

[whitewoof]

In defense of Sigi, i think he really expected Geralt not to interfere. Geralt himself shows he's quite disgusted with Roche's idea of surrendering to Nilfgaard after everything that's happened. Sigi's plans post-Radovid wouldn't have succeeded with the Temerian guerrilla army still strong and teaming up with Nilfgaard under Roche's stewardship, so for a better Redania there really was no choice but to get rid of Roche. I do agree that plotting that move against Roche right after Radovid's assassination with Geralt still there was extremely poor timing. FFS he's Mr Master Spy/Criminal Underworld Kingpin, he could have done it more gracefully i.e. poison their wine. Roche was a million miles away from his stronghold and men, extremely vulnerable in Djikstra's main area of operations, Sigi could have sent assassins any time. Maybe he was banking on his own newly formed bro-ship with Geralt and Geralt being against Roche's plan. Whatever it is, I love that scene where he recites that play, and Ves goes WTF

 

[Mad-E-Fact]

Radowid becoming a lunatic I can somewhat understand given that he's quite young and the events of the past few years certainly took a toll on him, although him ordering Geralt killed out of the blue because "reasons" was really stretching it. But having then Dijkstra pull his sword and charge at Geralt + Roche in a completely suicidal break of character was really a let-down. I suppose the director wanted a plot twist/betrayal at all cost but the implementation felt totally lazy and rushed.

I'm willing to forgive that the quest doesn't have far-reaching ramifications given that it's a semi open world game of huge scope, but the characterization - always one of CDPR's big strengths - should at least be consistent.

 

[PillarBiter]

I liked reason of state, right up until that point.

Dijkstra is a smart man. He knows Geralt and his abilities, his views ont he world. He knows he's not going to just let him murder a bunch of people.
The only Geralt that would let Dijkstra do his thing is one who did not side with roach, and who is completely averse to helping people in need.

I get that they wanted different northern territiories outcomes, but they could've gone differently. Like an additional quest afterwards with poison or an assault on the treaty signing or something like that. Anyway, it happened. And I split dijkstra in half with a Rend, so it's all good. He was a douche anyways.

 

[RageGT]

I liked reason of state, right up until that point.

Dijkstra is a smart man. He knows Geralt and his abilities, his views ont he world. He knows he's not going to just let him murder a bunch of people.
The only Geralt that would let Dijkstra do his thing is one who did not side with roach, and who is completely averse to helping people in need.

I get that they wanted different northern territiories outcomes, but they could've gone differently. Like an additional quest afterwards with poison or an assault on the treaty signing or something like that. Anyway, it happened. And I split dijkstra in half with a Rend, so it's all good. He was a douche anyways.

Totally agree with you. Loved the quest, even liked Dijkstra until that totally OOC possession-like he had to incarnate due to some quest writer delusion. The guy was probably high on Fisstech!

 

[Yeiiow]

I sure hope CDPR comes around and decides to release an EE for Witcher 3 anyways, and fixes this and the many other story inconcistencies that plage the game. This quest is deffinetly one of the major offenders.

 

[sv3672]

This list of the endings from 2013 does not even include Dijkstra, so it is quite possible that the choice between Dijkstra or Nilfgaard winning is something that was tacked on late during the development of the game, and that is why it ended up being so awkward.

 

[Zyvik]

Though it's not the most disappointing quest in the series for me (The Great Escape and On Thin Ice take the cake), it's definitely one of the stupidest.

 

[Boromir2015]

This list of the endings from 2013 does not even include Dijkstra, so it is quite possible that the choice between Dijkstra or Nilfgaard winning is something that was tacked on late during the development of the game, and that is why it ended up being so awkward.

That quest should be part of the list of necessery changes and improvements in an enhanced edition.