[SPOILERS] The lack of Witcher 2 decisions and content in The Witcher 3.

[FarrySquall]

When i play the Wicher 2, one thing i never like:
-Roche path: we know Nilfgaard take Triss to Loc Muine, but Roche said they can't leave because Henselt won't allow them to depart (OK, fair enough)
-Ioverth path: we even know more about Triss fate, compressed in a statue and sail to Loc Muine, but ... OK just come back, find for Saskia force and wait for the right time to depart
Sorry, but witcher don't care about that, i just want to go save my friend, your idea is cool but i choose NEUTRAL )

The Witcher 3, the only thing i find annoy is what happen to Aryan Lavalette, i keep him alive and meet him in Loc Muine. Meet his mother in Wild Hunt and she didn't mention a damn thing...

 

[Yeiiow]

Agree, quoting myself from another thread:

I am also a bit dissapointed, one of the things that bugger me the most is the fact that you can get Thaler killed on The WItcher 1, but for some reason the devs insisted on having him alive no matter what on The WItcher 2 and 3 :/

Other characters that were left out:

*Shani: Reduced to one letter in the Witcher 2, and 2 mentions in the Witcher 3 regardless of if she was your romance choise on the witcher 1 or not.

*Yaevinn: Reduced to 1 mention while talking with Iorveth in The WItcher 2, and completely absent in the WItcher 3.

*Siegfried: only visible in The Witcher 2 if you followed 1 path out of 3 in The Witcher 1, and completely absent in The Witcher 3

*Iorveth and Saskia: both are pretty much completly ignored in The WItcher 3 regardless of the choises we made in The Witcher 2

*Aryan: Completely ignored, not even his mother mentions him.

*Stennis: Completely ignored

*Anais: Completely ignored.

*John Natalis: Reduced to only one mention during a secondary quest, his whereabouts after the battle are unknown and unexplained.

 

[whiplash27]

Can't believe that Aryan isn't in the game. What's the point of them even asking about him in the palace?

 

[LukanTW]

What about Dethmold? Roche has/had a burning vendetta against the sorcerer from the events in The Witcher 2 - it's obviously too much to ask for some fan service and have a mission following Roche's revenge through a war-torn nation.

I just can't fathom how or why you'd leave out so many important characters from the Witcher 2 - yet add so many more characters in W3. Are the Skellige Islands really more important than Vergen? Are these newly created Sorceresses really more important than Saskia or Iorveth? It would be more exciting to revisit old locations and old characters rather than be forced to forget them.

I don't want DLC that makes new content, I want DLC that rewards us, the fans, and shows us characters of old.

 

[Cipher-Six]

The only characters I'm seriously disappointed were not in the game are Saskia, Iorveth and Siegfried. They just felt like they were too important of characters to be completely omitted without a single reference or cameo.

Not seeing Iorveth or Siegfried wasn't really weird. Seeing Phillipa for extended time and being able to talk with her, but not being able to ask her "HEY WHAT ABOUT THE DRAGON?!" was really an awkward and glaringly obvious omission. Its one thing not to include or animate or hire Saskia's voice actor for a small cameo, its another to have Phillipa right in front of me and not even be able to ask about a major unresolved plot point that happens 6 months prior in-game time.

That was really weird. Phillipa should at least have something to say about Saskia.

 

[whiplash27]

Well Dethmold only survives in 1 of the 4 different paths you can take. So it makes sense that he probably wouldn't be in the game.

Roche -> Anais = Dead by Roche's hand
Iorveth -> Saskia = Dead by beheading in Vergen
Iorveth -> Triss = Dead by beheading in Vergen

Also, even if you go after Triss on Roche's path, odds are that Roche killed Dethmold in order to open the magic wall that imprisoned Anais. So I would say that pretty much in all four paths, Dethmold is likely dead.

 

[LukanTW]

The only characters I'm seriously disappointed were not in the game are Saskia, Iorveth and Siegfried. They just felt like they were too important of characters to be completely omitted without a single reference or cameo.

...That was really weird. Phillipa should at least have something to say about Saskia.

Exactly! Some people are getting up-in-arms that we'd be bothered by something like that - but I see it as a glaring problem. It's not about changing the entire story, but CDP should have put more effort into at least telling us what happened to the major characters/locations/decisions from the W2. Because as it is right now, I'm left wondering what the point of even playing the Witcher 2 so much was if literally none of it matters.

 

[Skirlasvoud]

What about Dethmold? Roche has/had a burning vendetta against the sorcerer from the events in The Witcher 2 - it's obviously too much to ask for some fan service and have a mission following Roche's revenge through a war-torn nation.

I just can't fathom how or why you'd leave out so many important characters from the Witcher 2 - yet add so many more characters in W3. Are the Skellige Islands really more important than Vergen? Are these newly created Sorceresses really more important than Saskia or Iorveth? It would be more exciting to revisit old locations and old characters rather than be forced to forget them.

I'm with you. I'd love an expansion, even a paid one dealing with the old characters. That Vergen and it's memorable characters have slipped into non-existance is a tragic mistake.

That said, Dethmold however already has a very high chance of dying during the Witcher 2. He's either executed after Vergen liberates itself, killed if you choose to rescue Anais with Roche, and even if you choose to rescue Triss after siding with Roche, the Blue Stripe still manages to obtain Anais wich doesn't imply a happy ending for the pimple ridden mage. I'd say that out of all the old characters, Dethmold is the most forgivable to have already died before Witcher 3 even starts.

Lemme also just reorganize that last sentence:

" I don't want DLC that makes new content, I want DLC that rewards us, the fans, and shows us characters of old. "

CD project already has a history of being very kind towards its fans. I'm not quite sure if we need "rewarding" after the bounty already given, but I agree it would be nice of them to keep players of the Witcher 2 in mind.

 

[LukanTW]

Well Dethmold only survives in 1 of the 4 different paths you can take. So it makes sense that he probably wouldn't be in the game.

Roche -> Anais = Dead by Roche's hand
Iorveth -> Saskia = Dead by beheading in Vergen
Iorveth -> Triss = Dead by beheading in Vergen

Also, even if you go after Triss on Roche's path, odds are that Roche killed Dethmold in order to open the magic wall that imprisoned Anais. So I would say that pretty much in all four paths, Dethmold is likely dead.

Actually, I just replayed The W2 and on that specific path Roche states how Dethmold got away.

I wouldn't ask for Dethmold to be a main antagonist by any means, but to have him be a part of a side quest would be amazing. Already we have Letho and Sile confirmed cameos - and they both have a 50/50 chance of dying. Again, and I apologize for repeating myself, but it would be great to have returning characters/locations as dlc/side quests. Especially from a developer who prided themselves on creating a game with hard decisions and massive replay value.

 

[sarkocreme]

I think the problem with fans of the previous Witcher games is that we are to assume at least some of are choices are meaningful because the game not only allows you to import a save but to create a world state as well. CDPR might not have promised that previous game decisions were going to impact TW3, but they've strongly insinuated it.

Story spoilers below...

And most fans are sensible and realize that the can't be greatly altered. But we want to be shown that there's some impact, and it's not even that hard. For example, the witch hunt by Radovid has to happen. OK, fine. If we chose Triss in TW2, explain the process with a few more lines of dialogue from various characters. All we have now is a muddled attempt. Then make it so something like Margarita dies instead of being placed in the dungeon because the witch hunts started immediately rather than delaying a few months. Then you don't get the quest to rescue her, and in her one relevant scene the battle is harder. That doesn't really impact the story, rewards the player, and costs CDPR a relatively small number of resources.

With Roche...if you chose Iorveth path, he could refuse to help at Kaer Morhen, not ask for help with Ves, and complain he has to work with you on the Radovid questline. Then the Scoia'tel outside of Novigrad could say "I'm friends with Iorveth. Haven't seen him for a few months, but I know what you did for him. Here's some discounts on my goods." Again, this changes so little but rewards the player so much more than completely ignoring their decisions.

I feel that TW2 did a much better job of recognizing the player's actions in TW1 (though TW2 did have more impact overall and thus more than would've ideally been included).

 

[Brockxz]

They have never promised that choices will be big impact on next installment. At least they didn't say that as Bioware did with Mass Effect series and later did almost nothing.
They have always said that imported choices will bring only small touches here and there so that those who have been playing through out all 2 previous games had something a little bit more than those who are new to the series.

 

[lumisohjo]

They have always said that imported choices will bring only small touches here and there so that those who have been playing through out all 2 previous games had something a little bit more than those who are new to the series.

And that's the problem. I don't see small touches from the Iorveth Path. Would it have been that difficult to just mention somewhere (in books, dialogues, whatever) what happened there in the last 6 months? What happened to the Scoiatel, who played a big role in TW1 und 2, and now are almost nonexistent? Zoltan and Dandelion could have been at least a little bit concerned what happened to their friends (Sheldon, Yarpen etc.).

It is not that I expected a huge difference in the story when I imported the game save. But there isn't even a small hint/note what happened with my decisions.

 

[Jou05]

What about Dethmold? Roche has/had a burning vendetta against the sorcerer from the events in The Witcher 2 - it's obviously too much to ask for some fan service and have a mission following Roche's revenge through a war-torn nation.

I just can't fathom how or why you'd leave out so many important characters from the Witcher 2 - yet add so many more characters in W3. Are the Skellige Islands really more important than Vergen? Are these newly created Sorceresses really more important than Saskia or Iorveth? It would be more exciting to revisit old locations and old characters rather than be forced to forget them.

I don't want DLC that makes new content, I want DLC that rewards us, the fans, and shows us characters of old.

Agreed
Honestly I didn't like Skellige Isles at all soo many new and unecessary characters, it felt really tacked on just so we have the "skyrim feel"
I would rather have Iorveth and Saskia back

 

[whiplash27]

Skellige does feel like a break just for the sake of having one. Skellige seems to be in the books though, so it's not like they pulled it out of their asses just to "be like Skyrim." That said, I would have rather had the time to go somewhere that was inhabited by dwarves and elves than viking-like people.

 

[sarkocreme]

Skellige does feel like a break just for the sake of having one. Skellige seems to be in the books though, so it's not like they pulled it out of their asses just to "be like Skyrim." That said, I would have rather had the time to go somewhere that was inhabited by dwarves and elves than viking-like people.

Definitely. Skellige is so different than everything we've been doing for the entire series that I never felt as invested there as the mainland. The main story part there really doesn't seem to effect too much on the mainland either, which was disappointing.

 

[Jou05]

Definitely. Skellige is so different than everything we've been doing for the entire series that I never felt as invested there as the mainland. The main story part there really doesn't seem to effect too much on the mainland either, which was disappointing.

Yep I agree it doesn't feel witcher-like at all (talking about the games)
Felt like a waste of time to me and all the resources for Skellige would have been better spent on making TW2 choices matter more imho

---------- Updated at 07:23 PM ----------

Skellige does feel like a break just for the sake of having one. Skellige seems to be in the books though, so it's not like they pulled it out of their asses just to "be like Skyrim." That said, I would have rather had the time to go somewhere that was inhabited by dwarves and elves than viking-like people.

Yeah there is a very strange lack of elves and dwarves in this game
Scoiatel seem to be gone completely

 

[Goodmongo]

You guys do realize this isn't Aderin but a whole different area. We are many many miles east of Flotsam and Flotsam was near the western area of W2.

I for one want new areas. I hope someday to see Kovir. But I better not see Roche there, now even Iorveth.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

I get it, people want to see impact of Iorveth path. I do not mind to get a new expansion with Upper Aedirn for example, to see more Saskia.

BUT: I really don't see any room for Iorveth except for being an antagonist. Squirrels were racist radicals who fought for extermination of humans. They allied with dwarves only after human immigration into this world, but before that they massacred dwarves and other original inhabitants just fine. Iorveth is realist, so he allied with Saskia because in that situation it was the most the elves could hope for. Equality was sure better than what they had, but it was less than they desired.

The Wild Hunt elves, who invaded the worlds and exterminated humans, were exactly what squirrels would have . Iorveth would have allied with them in a heartbeat, and his only goal would be to catch Ciri and kill anyone who interferes, Geralt included. This part of the witcher saga is not ASOIAF for sure, there isn't any good reasons to support this elven endeavor because it aims at a global genocide. Some people are pretty unhappy what CDPR did to Radovid even though he was not a main character. I can imagine how unhappy Iorveth's fans would be if he is in TW3, but it just the way things are.

 

[sydrek]

Just passing by to state my disappointment also.

To be clear NO, i did not expect complete quests lines for each choice that i had made.

But a small reference or cutscne or sidequest would had been nice, heck wouldn't even need a quest but just coming across a npc and having dialogue would had been a start. (f.ex iorveth helping non-humans in novigrad)

My biggest issue is the witch hunt happening no matter what, something THAT important being done by the SAME INDIVIDUAL no matter what is disgusting.

F.ex if on Roche's path you decided to save Triss and hence avoid the witchunt, they could had slightly changed the story into that Radovid has no influence on the church and witch hunters in Novigrad and is not the cause of it, instead make it so that the church of eternal fire where the ones who started the witch hunt since Radovid is too busy with the war....

Clearly, i'm no writer but damn it there's plenty of possible solutions.

 

[Jacb547]

Really disappointed by the lack of impact the choices had. I played both paths on TW2 but decided to import Iorverth's one in the end, not even sure if it really happened because there's been no consequence whatsoever. CDPR could have at least put a dialogue line about Vergen and that situation. Not to mention information we get about other events is vague as hell.