I ended up enjoying the expansion more than the main game itself. If I had to choose my 2015 game of the year, I would pick this expansion lol, but seriously it was an incredible joy to play through the ten or so hours that was packed with an amazing storyline that in my opinion hit the right balance of humour and bittersweet moments.
I loved the characters that returned (Shani in particular and O’Dimm) and the new characters (Olgierd and Vladimir), and it was nice to see Shani again, and the more I saw her in the expansion the more I wished she was in the main game and had more scenes and interactions, but personally for me the whole storyline with Olgierd and Iris and the painted house fantasy was amazing, I sort of got a Silent Hill vibe from that quest (just looking at the caretaker for example), and wow it was sad about what happened to Iris and to see how Olgierds life backfired due to making regretful choices, probably my favourite quest, storyline and imo topped the story involving the bloody baron.
As others have pointed out, I would have liked to explore the academy a bit more but that is really to me just a small complaint/what if that doesn’t detract from an epic amount of content. The wedding quest was fun including some of the references such as the one about naturalist and David Attenborough, and Vladimir in Geralt’s body was amusing being able to hear Geralts voice saying all that, and then to go a darker tone with Iris and the two demons was imo a nice shift and very bittersweet to save Olgierd at the end and see him realise how broken/tormented he was about Iris, Vladimir and his past.
The bosses were great and challenging and being honest, coming into this expansion I was really just expecting a few quests here and there, with a monster contract or two and a storyline that was good but not that great – instead what I got was something that made me lose sleep just thinking about it and the choices, so I can’t thank CDPR enough for what they do, I mean this is one of the few games (possibly the only) where some of the fictional characters I see feel real enough to the point where I generally care what happens to them, and to think there is still another expansion coming that is twice as long as this, and I hope that the next expansion matches (or better) the story and the characters In this dlc and gives all Witcher fans more amazing content.
Also yeah I also believe Gaunter O’Dimm was a better villain than any in the main game, probably because he appears to be so powerful that he could just wreak havoc at any moment even if he doesn’t, there is always that feeling that you just don’t want to mess with him or annoy him.