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

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That's a shame, really. I hoped they would make it better than the Mass Effect series, not worse.

Recurring characters are all well and good, but those were quite big political decisions/outcomes and yet, they barely mattered.

Mass Effect has been, so far, the gold standard of carrying over decisions from one game into another. It was unreasonable to expect that this game would match or exceed it. That being said, the developers did not succeed at all when it comes to continuity. The utter lack of caring about decisions made in the first Witcher is even more egregious.
 
It wasn't awful but they could have handled some things better.

For example, here's how I would have done it.

* In an Iorveth path, Henselt would have made an alliance with Radovid and they're in a strong alliance together. The war situation is identical, though, to dead Henselt.
* In a Free-Saskia path, she's running a guerilla resistance.
* In an enslaved Saskia path, she's become a Duchess of Nilfgaard (due to Phillipa's influence)
* Iorveth should have had his own spot in the game and Saskia too, either to be freed or to do some bashing of Nilfgaard.

Oh well.
 
I purchased The Witcher 3's official strategy guide and quickly looked for my favorite characters from The Witcher 2.

I could only find a small handful: Triss, Dandelion, Zoltan, Philippa, Sile, Roche, Ves, and Letho. Furthermore the strategy guide states what impact the decisions of your Witcher 2 saved import (or your simulated save w/ Voorihs after the prologue) has on the game:

-Saving or Killing Aryan LaValette: Your interaction with an npc named Molly is different during the Main Quest: Broken Flowers.

-The path of Roche or Iorveth: This only effects a very small conversation choice during Main Quest: Get Junior when you visit Roche's camp for the fist time. (A guard will accuse you of working with the Scoia'tael and will get into a fist fight with you).

- Sile de Tansarville: If you allowed her to die, she does not appear during Main Quest: The Great Escape.

- The Witcher Letho: If Letho is alive the Secondary Quest "Ghosts of the Past, Becomes active later.

That's it.

Meanwhile, the decision to save Triss at Loc Muinne and avoid a witch-hunt or helping out your companion (Roche or Iorveth) is rendered completely irrelevant because The Witcher 3 forces the "witch hunt" result as canon. In addition Anais and Saskia are completely absent from the game - as is any mention of you helping to bring Temeria back together with Anais (Roche's path) or Saving Saskia and Vergen (Iorveth's Path).

Killing or Saving Henselt is rendered irrelevant because the game has it canon that Radovid conquers Henselt's army no matter what.

Saving or allowing Stennis to be lynched is irrelevant because he never shows up and all of Aedirn is conquered by Nilfgaard.

Killing Loredo or saving those elf girls is irrelevant because they never show up and Flotsam gets conquered by Nilfgaard.

Roche and Ves are available for everyone - while Iorveth is missing all-together from the game. Other missing characters are Aryan LaValette, John Natalis (although he's mentioned), Shilard, Dethmold, and Siegfried (as well as any minor characters on top of those).

You don't even get anything special for importing a save, unlike in The Witcher 2 where a Witcher import would grant you different starting swords and a bonus in orens.

All of this has left me wondering, what was the point of The Witcher 2 and all of those big decisions leading up to The Witcher 3 were if practically everything was going to be ignored? Why not reward fans by revisiting locations or having returning characters? I have to say, I'm very disappointed to find out there was no point in playing the Witcher 2.
look it this way, that is because Geralt returned his memory but downside is that his frends have some sort of amnesia, zoltan and dandelion dont remember that they fight for vergen with saskia and iorveth, roche dont remember anais, phillipa dont remember that saskia is free from speli and marry louisa la valette dont remmember that she had a son
 
Eh, as much as I hate that's not mentioned, Saskia's rebellion is kind of immaterial either way.

She was Queen for a Day until Nilfgaard conquered it.
 
Eh, as much as I hate that's not mentioned, Saskia's rebellion is kind of immaterial either way.

She was Queen for a Day until Nilfgaard conquered it.

Probably true. But I don't like this uncertainty. Did she die during the fightings or is missing? Did Iorveth die? If not he probably didn't stay in an occupied Aedirn because he was sentenced to death by Nilfgaard. Just a little book about the whereabouts would be totally fine for me. Or a dialogue option where Roche speaks about loosing Anais. Both wouldn't change the story and canon decisions but it would conclude this path.
 
What I find most strange is that Aryan La Valette's life or death doesn't matter beyond his mother saying "I don't want to talk to you". This was a decision that was specifically referenced in the "world state" scene.

Welcome to Witcher 3, the game where everything's made up and the points don't matter.
 
What I find most strange is that Aryan La Valette's life or death doesn't matter beyond his mother saying "I don't want to talk to you". This was a decision that was specifically referenced in the "world state" scene.

Welcome to Witcher 3, the game where everything's made up and the points don't matter.

Yeah TW3 is a great game as a standalone (or for book fans) but damm it really fails as a sequel to TW2
 
Yeah TW3 is a great game as a standalone (or for book fans) but damm it really fails as a sequel to TW2

Pretty much this. The game was made more friendly to newcomers, and as the result we have Telltale-style characters like Sheala. Letho was handled very nice though.
 
The paths really don't matter unfortunately. I went with Iorveth and didn't kill Letho... so I essentially did the opposite of what Roche wanted in the second game. I was hesitant when we met for the first time, since I was expecting an explosive falling out of sorts. Nope. He's just happy to see you, doesn't even mention "bygones be bygones" and essentially ignored everything that happened. It's unfortunate.
 
Yeah TW3 is a great game as a standalone (or for book fans) but damm it really fails as a sequel to TW2

Sums it up perfectly. It's one of those things where if you've never played TW1 & TW2 the game is near perfection. If you've played the first two games there's so much wrong that it's angering. CDPR really went too far out of their way to make sure that anyone could just jump into TW3 without having to play the first two.
 
Did TW2 ignoring alot of the first game make you stop playing the first Witcher? Yes, TW3 handled importing bad, just like TW>2 but I don't see how that can kill the game for you. Sure importing is nice(DAI did a good job in that regard) HOWEVER, DAI is also not even close to TW3s level., Importing is not a deciding factor on quality and really, I would not be surprised if CDP fixes this in EE or expansions.

I've said this before and I'll say it again for Triss, at least you can continue to romance her, Shani fans are still burned thanks to how CDP handled it in TW2.
 
Did TW2 ignoring alot of the first game make you stop playing the first Witcher? Yes, TW3 handled importing bad, just like TW>2 but I don't see how that can kill the game for you. Sure importing is nice(DAI did a good job in that regard) HOWEVER, DAI is also not even close to TW3s level., Importing is not a deciding factor on quality and really, I would not be surprised if CDP fixes this in EE or expansions.

I've said this before and I'll say it again for Triss, at least you can continue to romance her, Shani fans are still burned thanks to how CDP handled it in TW2.

Its different though in TW1 you didn't decide the fates of entire countries
I do agree that they could have handled the Shani romance better
 
Its different though in TW1 you didn't decide the fates of entire countries
I do agree that they could have handled the Shani romance better

It's more to do with expectations. CDP has TW>TW2 importing under their belt, also with the promise of a personal story with TW3. This is why I was not surprised that the importing was just as bad. Now could CDP have done a better job and made the game more for the gamers then focusing on book fans? Yes, and I hope CDP DOES fix this later because there does seem to be a divide forming here now because of the focus CDP did in TW3 (and both sides have valid points)
 
Its different though in TW1 you didn't decide the fates of entire countries
I do agree that they could have handled the Shani romance better

That's it. In TW2 there were such huge implications of everything that happened especially with the two different story branches.
The two things that TW2 should have done was include Yaevinn and Shani in some capacity. Other than that, there's only so much that could have been included. Even the short conversation with Siegfried was decent enough. Plus I think that Iorveth and Roche were much more resonating characters than Yaevinn and Siegfried.
 
I agree with the statement that TW3 is a great stand alone game, but a failure as a sequel.

I understand that many would not mind, and that many new players are attracted. But as someone who loves TW2 deeply (it is in fact my favorite game), I am very displeased.
 
Really hate the fact that most of TW2 events have become literally non-existed.
Well, I guess making choices matter for an open-world game is not easy, but the inconsistencies is unforgiveable. I remember Letho saying that Yen has amnesia just like Geralt, but somehow she doesn't have one in TW3.
 
When I start game i think that Geralt and Triss are together, because of saving Triss in TW2...but I was disappointed when i understand that it's no matter.
Now I see just 2 consequences: 1)killing Arian 2)killing Letho
 
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