[Spoilers] What's your Opinion on Blood and Wine?

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When's the best time to start Blood and Wine and/or Hearts of Stone? During main game's plot, or after?

hearts of stone during or after main quest is the same, it's goo both ways
blood and wine it's way better to start after you completed the main story ;)

(i prefer both expansions after the main story)
 
When's the best time to start Blood and Wine and/or Hearts of Stone? During main game's plot, or after?

You get few extra dialogues if you start HoS before Isle Of Mists. Nothing that huge though, so it's up to you if you start HoS during main game or not. BAW definitely after completing main game.
 
Felt some disappointment comparing the HOS.B&W really forced the Witcher's standarts about cliches and maturity,elves shoud have been there i think not vampires.
Mixing vampires with fairytale atmosphere works as good as fasttravelling without a horse.
Anyway here's my choice of better ending much more old witcher style.
 
All the way through playing B&W for the 1st time I felt the light touch of the developers, like they were saying goodbye to the game. This did depress me a bit because obviously I want more... Even if B&W is the final Witcher outing, I'd have preferred it to continue at the same level of intensity as TW3 and HoS.
 
My opinion? A little bit of a let down overall...

The game still lacked a lot of closure, the whole Corvo Bianco interaction and ending was restrictive and disappointing to say the least.

The story overall felt way inferior in quality compared to that of Heart of Stones or even the Main game at points, lots of small "plot holes" and inconsistencies regarding book lore, underdeveloped main characters/antagonist, cheesy/cliche motivations, etc.

The story also felt completly disconected with the Main Game timeframe(on purpose). I would have prefered it as an stand alone story, in the likes of those from The Witcher 1. Hearts of Stone at least was plausible thanks to its "short" length and to it being located on the same map as the main game, Blood and Wine however felt way too disconected, and as result detracted greatly from the inmmersion of the Main Story.

So all in all, i would have prefered the time and money dedicated to creating BaW, to have been put into a proper Enhanced Edition for the main game with story revisions, recurring characters(Iorveth, Saskia, etc), and/or an smaller yet more cohesive and focused short story disconected from the Main game.
 
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Loved it!wish I could redo my mistake of doing these quests before finishing the main quest :(. Got a shitty ending in BW and I seem to have missed a lot of cool cutscenes that's supposed to play if you've finished the main story.

i became so upset about getting such awful ending in BW that I almost lost my will to play on..

but it it came back. I'm completing the main story in Ng+ death march, and I'm planning a third playthrough in a distant future cause I've spent several hundred hours on just my second playthrough. I saved a lot of sidequests in BW for me to do next time I start a new playthrough(fresh or maybe Ng+ again). I just need to let his game rest for a while when I've finished it later today..need to play other games...from my backlog.

 
I finished TW3 with all expansions today hence why I joined forums (since TW3 release I was avoiding spoilers like crazy!).

I love all content in BW but it felt like a separate game and not in a good way. Reason being that all characters from main game were absent till last moment when Triss showed up. Gosh I was glad to see her but a bit disappointed as well cos she didn't move around my estate. Say was it so hard to move her to guest room during the night and leave her outside during the day? Oh well at least final dialogue was great and gave me so desired closure. Lines were even better than expected and voice acting flawless as well. Top class CDPR, top class!
 
nage83;n7445580 said:
Say was it so hard to move her to guest room during the night and leave her outside during the day?

Did you visit your master bedroom downstairs during the night? ;)

And welcome to the forums :)

 
I was very disappointed in the main story. I was told not to expect anything gobsmacking from the story of Blood & Wine, but nevertheless, after all the atmospheric build up and the intrigue the quests brought, I was expecting more from the final act of the expansion. I couldn't help it. The beginning and middle were so good that the end fell very far short. There were so many characters and elements in the narrative that could have been used - but weren't. Instead they choose to focus on a stagnant character who we are constantly told is complex and interesting and genuinely worthy of compassion and respect - and only shows the bare minimum of that description. Then they introduce a discount version of Renfri, simply thrown in to add a twist that could not have been anticipated by anyone sound of mind. At the very least, there should have been some hint about a secret sister early on to subdue the effects of Annarietta's "Oh! It must be my long lost sister!" On top of this, Oriana was superb and seemed to have so much more going for her as a villain. And she's just... wait... she's just fan service because of the cinematic from a year ago? I don't know how this happened, especially after Hearts of Stone and the known shortcomings of the third act of the base game.

What really annoyed me, in all honesty, was that the main quest was structured in such a way, that something very sinister and interesting was at the foot of all this. If the main quest seemed bland, perhaps I wouldn't have minded the grating predictability of Detlaff's disappointing personality.

Other than that, the rest of the expansion was amazing. Fan service was comfortable, the depth and scope of quests, random encounters and other functionality was interesting and made up a lot that the main quest lacked. Very pleased with everything else the developers aimed to accomplish. Toussaint breathes.
 
Sunsibar;n7448270 said:
Did you visit your master bedroom downstairs during the night? ;)

And welcome to the forums :)

Thank you and yes indeed Triss moves around the house! Amazing, I am so happy CDPR did this! Small details like this turn a great game into a masterpiece!

You know what I disliked about the main game the most? That when you finish it, almost all characters you love disappear. Glad it's not the case with Blood and Wine. After main quest you get the girl you romanced, there's Marlene in the kitchen, you can even go and talk with Anna Henrietta and Damien or them two love birds.

At the moment I am finishing up side quests and contracts. Meanwhile Triss will have enough time to enjoy her vacation in our summer residence and after we will move to Kovir. Perfect ending, thanks to CDPR and choices I've made :)
 
I finished the game with all expansions a few days ago. Here are my impressions of B&W (in spoiler tags because of, well, spoilers):

Toussaint has a refreshing change of mood after the gloomy and dark Northern Realms, but for the same reason I'm not sure I'm motivated to play it again: it is a fairy-tale setting, so the mood feels a bit off. The story is not really great but good enough to enjoy, mainly because the presentation is mostly done as well as in the main game.

The main NPCs were not as compelling as those from the main game, as opposed to some minor NPCs which were done really well. I couldn't get a good connection - adversarial or otherwise - to Anarietta, her captain of the guard, her sister, Regis or the knights, not like I could with, say, Ciri, Triss, Cerys and Hjalmar, the Bloody Baron, Priscilla, Keira Metz or even Philippa Eilhart, to say nothing of Yennefer who has such a presence in every scene where she appears that you almost expect her to step out of the screen. I'm not sure why that was, maybe it's just a personal preference, but B&W characters felt less real to me. Still, again this was enjoyable enough not to be disappointed in the whole.

There's a great deal of stuff to do and this expansion is really big overall, that's a big plus and almost enough for a recommendation on its own.

Having your own estate is nice, but I was disappointed with the extension options. I thought at first, maybe this is a place where I could imagine Geralt retiring to (I played B&W before I finished the main game's plot), but in the end the house was too cramped. This was minor, too.

I had a problem with certain enemies. I got really sick of the archespores and the centipede-analogues toward the end, which made me jump around madly like on speed for several minutes. They weren't exactly *hard* to kill, it was just more time-consuming than I liked and not much fun, and of the archespores in particular there were far too many. Still, not as bad as golems, which I hate with a passion since there's rarely a fight without a point where I don't quite manage to dodge their charge, killing me instantly. What really bugs me, though, is Detlaff, who I experienced as an overpowered cheat. The second phase of the battle is particulary unforgiving with its unceasing demand for split-second perfect attack *and* dodge timing, similar to the demands of the fight with the Wicked Witch but extended to the defense. These two enemies I found to be in a difficulty class of their own and thoroughly frustrating to fight.

Which brings me to the endings. I had the happy ending, which feels off, not because it's happy and against the prevailing mood of the game - Toussaint is a fairy-tale setting after all - but because it's unconvincingly presented. It's not believeable that and how the sisters suddenly make peace. A more reserved outcome, like a truce with the possibility of true reconciliation in time - would've been more appropriate. As it is, the bad ending with both Syanna and Detlaff dead is likely more appropriate, even if it puts you in jail.

Summary:
B&W was a nice experience and with its size and the general quality of presentation in writing, scene design and general aesthetic appeal (which echoes the main game) definitely worth its money. If its main plot's storytelling and characters don't achieve the appeal of the main game's, that's regrettable but not really crippling, especially since the main game is so utterly fantastic in many aspects. My only real problem - again, echoing the main game - was that certain enemies were too difficult to fight even on the easiest setting. While I can now defeat most of them on the B&BB setting, some stand out as almost impossible.
 
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Blood and Wine expansion of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is near perfection for me (9.5). It has a huge brand new zone, full of content, great characters, a story that catches you, much better colors and improved graphics, new enemies and mechanics, solved TW3 original faults (better aesthetics on camera shots, UI, NPC variety...).

But what outstands for me is the well driven story with multiple endings and branches (I still have to play Orianna's path) and Land of a Thousand Fables that leaves me open-mouthed, that sense of humor and edge of the "alternative" versions from classic tales.

What was a little disappointing for me was that it wasn't a final mission including Ciri (because I love her so much from the books) like there is in The Witcher 3 original story. Then I realized that her plot line ended in TW3...
 
Best Game so far I played . It got me dug deeper into the Lore and story line (books and witchers 2) .

BLOOD and WINE : my gripe is Beauclair such a beautifully made landscape . , just sad to say I want those related character ( whoever YEN /TRISS) roam around the location ( Beauclair / Fairytale land Unicorns ) with Geralt before or after the storyline or Dinner with a Vampire perhaps :)

Invested so much money on CORVO BLANCO and Offieri Merchants at least get some Florents out of it :)
IF theres mods/ DLC for this .. i am totally sold out.

WELL DONE CDPR .. you made me want SOMETHING MORE .


 
As much has having a home that you can furnish is such a great idea, there are a few silly things that do not make sense ...

1. You have stands for 5 sets of armour. Given that there are 6 Witcher sets (Cat, Wolf, Griffin, Bear, Manticore and Viper) you can display 5 and wear 1. However you only have the ability to display 4 sets of swords, so one set misses out ... why?
2. If you romance Yennifer and you get the Unicorn in the bedroom, why can't you interact with it? It is not as if the cut scene has not already been created ...
3, There is an area above the hallway to the kitchen in your house that you cannot get to ... why?
 
I loved it. It's such a difference from the grim and dark main game. Although I loved that about the main game. I loved that the name blood and wine is about the story, but it can also be a hint to both the humans and vampires living there(The whole place is dedicated to making wine for the humans, but to vampires- blood is like wine to them.blood and wine~). I was also pleasantly suprised with the size of the dlc(although I should call it an expansion). Most 10 or 20 euro dlcs these days give you less than 5 hours of extra play time, this almost seemed like a whole new game. Hell, I think that blood and wine is bigger in size and gameplay than some full priced games out there atm.

I agree with some of the posters here that the difference in difficulty was a bit weird, especially the last boss. The last boss on easy was harder than any other boss on deathmarch, except maybe the frog prince. But maybe that is a good thing, since even on deathmarch after a while everything becomes easy if you level up right and use the right potions etc.

I also love the fact that, even after playing the whole game trough more than 5x atm I still find new things that surprise me. For instance, on my 7th playtrough I found the(spoiler) ,mushroom' quest where you can talk to roach and other animals. I really loved that quest, and it actually made me laugh.

I am still impressed with how the makers of this game take different countries/cultures and mix them together( for example, skellige being norse viking mixed with scottish culture). Blood and wine was obviously french and italian, and the sunny countryside together with much friendlier people(and knights sometimes rhyming lol) made for a really nice change in pace.

The blood and wine expansion also has my absolute favourite quest in the whole game. The quest where you choose to either visit the vampire elder or visit Syanna. The first time I visited the elder, which was absolutely awesome. The lore behind the vampires, or any lore in the witcher for that matter always interested me. I wish there was more info and lore on the vampires, like there was in Tesham Mutna(my 2nd fav place in the game). I had no idea though that the other choice would give me a whole other story and quest to follow if I chose to visit Syanna. When I did that quest and entered the magical fairytale forest, I was in awe. There were so many stories and characters that I knew from my childhood, and it was like I was 6 years old again. The first time there, I spent hours in the fairytale land. It is my absolute fav. place in the game, especially since I did not expect such a world in a game like the witcher.

The vineyard that you get from the dutchess was also a really nice touch, but I wished we has something like that in the main game. An upgradeable home, with armor stands and weapon holders to show off your armor and swords, pantings shields and trophies to mount... It was awesome, but I felt it was a little bit too far in the game to really enjoy those things to the fullest.

The expansion overall gets a 9/10 from me, but I may be a bit biased since the witcher is my all time fav. game. Seriously, it is so good that I find it hard to enjoy other games that I enjoyed before, because I compare everything to the witcher now. Until I played the witcher, red dead redemption had been my fav. game for years. I did not expect any game to push red dead from my nr. 1 spot, but the witcher did.

To summarize, the expansion had a few - points like every game but I hardly noticed them because everything else was so damn good and detailed.
 
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