Roleplaying in Witcher 3 is very limited. Far too limited for a 2015 game than needs a GTX970 and a quad core.

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Roleplaying in Witcher 3 is very limited. Far too limited for a 2015 game than needs a GTX970 and a quad core.

CONTAINS SPOILERS

I will be the first to say Witcher 3 is beautiful and exploring and horse riding are superbly done. I wish I could strip all the story, monsters and humans out of the game and just explore .... because as an RPG it is very limited and almost every character I have met in the game is repellent. It just not a place I want to spend my free time in.

To illustrate this I will describe the Royal Griiffin quest as it would be if Witcher 3 actually was a RPG and not an poorly done fixed action story:

Geralt gets the Griffin contract pretty much as it happens currently in the game. Geralt notices that the Black Ones are pretty mean and egotistical, and their commander Captain Peter is even worse. Geralt doesn't like them or the Nilfgaardian Garrison.

Geralt finds the Griffon nest with the slayed female and destroyed eggs and the Nilfgaardian bodies. Geralt puts 2 and 2 together and is ashamed to be human.

Gerault decides craft several hundred bombs and finds a fishing net (both are actually in the game) Geralt then finds the rampaging male Griffin slowly approaches it as only a witcher can, then soothes and charms it. Geralt then crafts a special saddle for the Griffin so that he can mount it and fly.

Geralt mounts the bombs on the Griffin and flies over the Nilfgaardian Garrison an night (and in this imaginary game nights are actually dark) and drops the net with the bombs close to their powder stores. The entire Nilfgaardian Garrison blows up and burns to the ground killing everyone inside and out including the Captain Peter. Geralt lands and toasts marshmallows on the dying blaze.

He then remounts the Griffon and using his night senses and the Griifons claws, picks up and drops every single remaining Nilfguard soldier in White Orchard from great height.

He then lands near the bandit camp climbs on top and the bandits and the rest of white orchard toast his health. Oh yes, and the rest of White Orchard aren't A-holes in this game. And the male royal Griffon comes to his aid when he calls because it had a blast.

Now that would be a game worth my free time..... as it is I will read "Name of the Wind" for the 3rd time. Far more enjoyable than this.
 
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The OP obviously relishes playing a role that Geralt does not.

I wonder if he began to realize the game was not for him when he tried to decapitate the first innkeep he laid eyes on, and she just cowered in fear as Geralt stayed his hand.
 
ok (sigh) the OP fundamentally doesn't like this style of game, well thanks for sharing.
Something that can be remedied only, I suspect, by the OP playing an entirely different game
(though good luck finding one with that impossible breadth of choice)

Methinks we need a Witcher for the troll!

Can you recommend any particular olis or potions to imbibe to deal with the troll in question? :p
 
I believe Call of Grand Theft Postal Gaiden Battlefield Saints Solid VII: The Revengination* will suit the OP's needs. The very first tutorial mission will have you prepping the thousands of bombs you will need to bring your revengination to the next level.

*disclaimer: pulling names out of my arse, not meant as a slight to any alluded-to games except for maybe, well, you know…
 
Iooking at his join date I think he's joking. Hard to tell these days though with some of the absurd stuff being posted about the game lately..

But just for arguments sake.

The Griffin attacked a lone defenseless merchant.
It then went on to attack Geralts "adopted father"
The merchant in thanks helped Geralt by pointing him to his cousin at the Inn.
Who was in turn eternally grateful and offered him free food and drink (So everyone of W.O isn't a piece of shit)
The Black Ones Captain, when approached by Geralt for information ON HIS ADOPTED DAUGHTERS where abouts was being kind and reasonable to a local farmer (Noticing a theme?) before they came to an agreement of.. Kill Griffin and I talk.

Geralt would have never done anything you suggested given the circumstances and if HE DID. He wouldn't have been Geralt and it wouldn't have been any Witcher game.

That's like me Saying FF7 isn't a role playing game because if it wasn't so focused on being a save the world story I could instead be off playing chocobo soccer

Every game has it's own set of rules.

You either like them.
Learn to like them.
Or go elsewhere to find something more to your liking.
 
Please don't mention "The Name of the Wind" in relation with your weird personal dreams of Geralt and his pet griffon. This insults the awesome world Patrick Rothfuss has created, and it doesn't suit Sapkowski's world and how CDPR has delivered it to us.
 
I think this is putting two and two together and making five.

The Griffon was "murdered" 2 weeks ago. There are "several months" worth of human, dog, horse skeletons near the nesting site...

That the attempt to remove the Griffon threat failed is a given... and the interference made things worse in the recent days.... the threat from this pair was real, and immediate and some solution was needed.


Personally I think Elsa has it right. Nilfgaard isn't good, it isn't bad, but it is here now. The new reality and you just have to deal with that fact.
Peter isn't bad, having to cope with limited resources in a hostile environment and with the threat of starvation and disease for both his own garrison and the population of his protectorate. I wouldn't expect any different behaviour in the circumstances. He at least is trying to make something from his responsibilities and duties.

The alternative is petty gossip and racism from the local populace, and troops declaring that it is too late to help Temeria and time to "help ourselves"... more money for less risk than following Natalis's orders. This isn't "duty" or "freedom fighters", but pure unadulterated banditry. It will do more harm to the Temerian population than to the army of Nilfgaard.
 
From the OP.
I recognize your right to kill every single being in the game ..... down to the very last bunny.

Sadly This game doesn't respect my right to choose to not kill or to choose at all. I felt like shit after being forced to kill the Griffon. How hard would it be to offer me a choice not to kill the Griffon and let it eat as many Nilfguardians as it likes or to ride the Griffon and rain fiery death upon an occupying army. That is what RPG is all about. Can you honestly say you had a smile of satisfaction after completing the Griffon quest , being Captain Peter's toady and the only empowerment you get is refusing his coin. There was no smile of satisfaction my face for being a good little sheep and rolling over for him like a good dog.

Witcher 3 is using a page right out of Skyrim 101 book of game design. Make both sides of the conflict so repellent that you don't really want to side with either .... then the gamer doesn't realize that the game flow doesn't change much no matter which side you are forced to choose.

Up to the "Fake Pass" quest there are far too many forced choices with consequences I hate. I get enough of that in real life.

Witcher 3 is a pretty world and I love Geralts Character and dialog ..... but the world is not someplace I want to spend any time in.

In the second chapter the Concierge scene is actually quite amusing and it liked it and the player is given a choice to wear 3 near identical outfits. If we can have a choice of which outfit to wear, why can't we have choice on whether or not to kill the Griffon?

Up to the Fake Pass quest every single quest result made me feel shit about myself and sorry for Geralt. The only quest I liked was the noonwraith in the well. It would have been even better I Geralt could use his witcher sense to track down the Lord that murdered and probably raped her ... maybe in that order. The ideal completion to that quest would be for Geralt to pick up her body and her bracelet and bring it to the well in the Lords hold and let the noonnwriath tear the whole place apart and then Geralt would release the spirit.

This game is unsatisfying and makes you feel like shit, I certainly will not play it in its current form.

PS If you had the choice to tame the Griffon, ride it and use it to drop 100 bombs in a fishing net to destroy the Nilfguard Encampment and watch it burn to the ground ...... Tell me you wouldn't do it in at least one of your playthroughs. It is imaginative choice in response to a nasty situation.
 
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It's a story-focused RPG, not a sandbox. The goal is not to present you with as many choices as possible, but to let you role-play as Geralt and he has an established character. Sounds like it's simply not the game for you. CDPR's next RPG - Cyberpunk 2077 - should allow for more freedom, so keep an eye on that.
 
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You know there are 2 definitions of "Role Playing Game".

1. You play a game where you take on a Role of your Choice and make free decisions without restrictions. (like Skyrim for example)
2. You play a game where you take on the Role of a predefined Character and make decisions within the limits of what is plausible in this world and for the particular character (i.e. The Witcher)

The Witcher is based on books with Geralt being a predefined character in a predefined world with certain rules. You roleplay within those boundaries. That is what the Witcher was always about. The motto is not "be who you want" but "be a Witcher", more specifically "be Geralt of Rivia" and the developer never said anything else.

Oh and another thing: You can't tame a Griffin, how stupid is that?

As for "not killing the Griffin". The Griffin might be moderately intelligent, but it is not a sentient being, meaning you can not reason with it. It's like a dog or a wolf forced into a corner or beaten until it bleeds. Humans left a negative impression on it, caused it pain, emotionally and physically. Once such an impression is build it is hard to get it out of the animal. So unless Geralt wants to spend several years and probably hundreds of human lives before the Griffin is "nice" again to humans he can't do anything else than to kill it. It does hurt humans, not only when they come close but also actively seeks and attacks anyone it can find it seems. It might "cool down" and change that behavior after a time, but in the meantime people (including innocent people) die and solving the problem is the only solution for Geralt to get the information he desperately needs to save the world and those he loves. So the choice is actually no choice at all in this particular case. If the circumstances were different I am sure there might have been an option to let the Griffon live. I remember more than 1 quest in TW1 or 2 where you could let a monster live and kill a human and call it justified as Geralt. This is just not such as case....
 
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I hope you're kidding. I think the big issue you have is that you're Geralt and not a made up Witcher with his own moral code. For the most part Geralt's moral demeanor is the same with most dialogue choices. That's probably where you're having the problem. I highly recommend Dragon Age for you. Dragon Age and Witcher were always games compete ting with eachother. Dragon age you simply are you're own iquisitor, which still limits you.

Or if you want to the most open ended and non restrictive rpg play a table top. You can slay babies and rape monsters that way.
 
If you could tame griffins then everyone would be flying around on tame griffins. It'd put highwaymen right out of business. You can't ambush a caravan if everyone in the caravan just loaded up a pack griffin and flew right over your head!

Now a Witcher well-versed in Axii might be able to convince a griffin to let him mount,, but there's a certain limit as to how many bombs that griffin will permit on the flight. And of course, half-way through, the Witcher is going to get an itch up his nostril due to all the griffin feathers floating about. When he tries to tend to said itch, he will lose his concentration on Axii, the griffin will do a barrel roll of defiance, and the Witcher will be regretting (a) riding a griffin without the appropriate tack, and (b) neglecting to invent or otherwise commandeer a good parachute.

On the other hand, the view will be incredible…
 
From the OP

Lets clarify exactly how I feel about thew Witcher 3. Does it have some great aspects? Certainly yes

The Witcher himself is modelled superbly as are most of the other characters. His character is interesting, well portrayed, voice acted and emoted.
The world itself is beautiful and Geralts movement and interaction with fences and embankments are top notch. Right now dodging a rolling is borked on my system with 1.03 but it did work in the tutorial and no doubt that will be fixed. The entire horse implementation was superb. Combat actually works well in my hands except it takes way to many hits to kill creatures even with the right oils and hit from behind. There is no excuse for position scaling of damage in a game that needs 4 cores. The Griffon model was a world of art with Hairworks on which is another reason I hated killing it ....

The witcher sense thing shows some potential and Geralts investigation of situations and comments are great but not nearly developed enough.

Unfortunately the world itself is a $hiity place I have no desire to spend time in. Geralt isn't even given 1/10 the choices he should have both in dialog and action. The game also lacks imagination in terms of what Geralt can do and the same monsters are overused. Characters on both sides of conflict are repellent and only one Quest I did in the game up to the Fake Pass didn't make me feel like crap. You may like that but I am not spending my free time feeling like that. Geralt is either being forced to do things or lead around by his testicles.

I don't particularly regret paying for the game. Actually I paid twice, one pre-order, one with the graphics card I bought. It is not nearly as bad as most other games.

But it is not revolutionary like Baldur's Gate was in its time. Sadly it could have been and it was my best hope for a playable RPG for me. PC gaming needed something revolutionary .... W3 only 1/2 delivered.

I wish Project CD would let some other developer make a game based on the W3 assets that has deep monster hunting mechanics and RPG choices. I hate political crap, war and monarchy and ProjectCD just keeps shoving it in my face and then doesn't let my character avoid it or deal with it in a satisfying way.

But they won't ..... Bethesda learned that lesson when Obsidian made a far better role playing game in New Vegas than they did.
 
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