The Witcher IV: Articles and Interviews

+
This thread is intended as an unofficial compendium for articles and interviews, as new information is released regarding The Witcher IV.

It's a bit bare at the moment, but, to open, here is a short IGN interview with executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga and Game director Sebastian Kalemba, about the choice of Ciri as the protagonist:

The Witcher 4 Developer CD Projekt Explains Why It Went With Ciri Over Continuing With Geralt as Protagonist​

"This is the super right choice."​



CD Projekt has explained why it went with Ciri as protagonist for The Witcher 4 instead of continuing with Geralt as the main character.

The Witcher 4, just revealed at The Game Awards 2024 with a debut trailer, is the first in a new trilogy of Witcher games set after the events of The Witcher 3.
Speaking exclusively to IGN ahead of the reveal, executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga said Ciri was “the very organic, logical choice.”
“It was always about her, starting from Saga when you read it in the books. She's an amazing, layered character. And of course, as a protagonist we said goodbye to Geralt previously. So this is a continuation. I guess for all of us it’s like she was meant to be. That was always her.”

Game director Sebastian Kalemba added that because Ciri is younger than Geralt, players will have more freedom to define her character in a way they couldn’t with Geralt. This also affords the developers more space to explore her character.

“She's actually about to become the Witcher,” Kalemba explained. “She's about to actually form her own codex, but on her own terms. The way she actually deals with the monsters, the way she deals with quests, the adventures, it's her own unique way. And also I think that she gives more room to be able to tell different stories here and there. Of course, we want to give the opportunity for the player to explore more nuance because this is what we do. But she deserves that.”

Both Mitręga and Kalemba acknowledged a potential backlash from some corners of the internet at Ciri’s role as protagonist in The Witcher 4, but both insisted Ciri was always going to be the game’s main character.

“There was an intention behind this choice,” Kalemba said. “It was far from roulette. It wasn't random. I remember we had discussions nine years ago, we were talking about who's next? The very, very instant answer was Ciri. There are many reasons behind that. We've already mentioned a few. But she really deserves a stage and we want players to really experience her story because she has so much to tell, so much to prove. The amount of challenges that are in front of her give us so much amazing energy and fuel to create an epic saga that we had no choice but to go with it. We all felt that this is the way. I believe this is the super right choice.”
 

The Witcher 4 dev CD Projekt Red talks Ciri fan reaction, playable Geralt coyness, and if the game will honour your previous choices​



Oh, I love that.

All of these answers show that there is zero substance behind the complaints.

Good on CDPR for addressing this right away.
 
Oh, I love that.

All of these answers show that there is zero substance behind the complaints.

Good on CDPR for addressing this right away.
Yeah, I somewhat like how it's essentially:
- She wasn't a witcher before!
- Yeah, she is now.
- It's against the lore!
- It's not, we work around it.
- What would Sapkowski say?!
- He doesn't care.

In different terms, obviously.
 
All of these answers show that there is zero substance behind the complaints.
Yeah, it's great! A lot of good quotes to past against the complains :D
And my little quote especially for @GrimReaper801 :p
For sure, it's definitely worth remembering [that for this] first time, we created the cinematic, pre-rendered, without post production piece, that we want to [show that we're] simply aspiring to achieve such quality in cinematics as much as possible. That's my opinion: it's a good benchmark.
 
- What would Sapkowski say?!
- He doesn't care.

I'm no writer so I don't claim to have any knowledge of how writers feel about their work but I've worked on projects that originated from me and even though many people had worked on them, the projects ultimately were my babies. If someone had been trying to steer it in a way that I didn't want it going, I would be clearly opposed.

What I mean by that is that I didn't read it as he doesn't care. I read that as if Sapkowski isn't opposed, he's in agreement. I can't imagine he wouldn't be clearly opposed if they were steering his world into a direction he's against.

And my little quote especially for @GrimReaper801 :p

I admit I am confused lol.

I get what you are referencing to but I don't get why. I wasn't disagreeing it was an in-engine cinematic. I'm genuinely confused lol.

Or am I reading too much into this and you're not actually trying to make a point?
 
I admit I am confused lol.

I get what you are referencing to but I don't get why. I wasn't disagreeing it was an in-engine cinematic. I'm genuinely confused lol.

Or am I reading too much into this and you're not actually trying to make a point?
Nope, no point at all, just a reference to our convo in the other thread. it just make me smile when I finished reading the interview on this :D
 
What I mean by that is that I didn't read it as he doesn't care. I read that as if Sapkowski isn't opposed, he's in agreement. I can't imagine he wouldn't be clearly opposed if they were steering his world into a direction he's against.
"If I got paid, Geralt could appear in a toothpaste commercial for all I care" (c) Andrzej Sapkowski
He famously sells the adaptation rights and then complains that they suck. He is a very pricky guy and tough to decipher, so your guess is as good as mine. But him and CDPR seem to mend their relationship, so I assume there is a level of communication between them. In essence, I don't think he would vocally and publicly oppose anything that would hurt his bottom line - but the fact that he dropped the new book a couple of weeks before the release of Witcher 4 trailer tells me that he knows what's going on and doesn't really mind.

Edit: I also know that he implemented some stuff from the games in his new books even before he settled his feud with CDPR, like double swords on Geralt's back and Viper medallion in his new book - I would guess that this is the highest form of acknowledgement he'll show.
 
The fact that Philipp Weber is answering questions -- as the narrative director, no less -- also completely throws out the window the persistent and unfounded argument that "no TW3 story devs are working on TW4", as he was a quest designer for (at least) TW3.

Of course, the argument won't vanish that easily.
 
"If I got paid, Geralt could appear in a toothpaste commercial for all I care" (c) Andrzej Sapkowski
He famously sells the adaptation rights and then complains that they suck.

Yeah he sounds like a bitter old man with a foul attitude so I hope he gets nowhere near TW4.

He should consider himself lucky, collect his passive income check and leave the studio and the games alone.

I understand that CDPR wants to have good relationship with the author because having bad relationship with the author is simply bad PR but man, do I not like this guy at all.
 
Yeah he sounds like a bitter old man with a foul attitude so I hope he gets nowhere near TW4.
...
I understand that CDPR wants to have good relationship with the author because having bad relationship with the author is simply bad PR but man, do I not like this guy at all.
Yeah, I don't really hate the man, but I've heard that he has quite a rep in Polish geek circles - and not a good one. They say that he acts like an ass on conventions and is basically more of a meme than a beloved author.
He should consider himself lucky, collect his passive income check and leave the studio and the games alone.
Funny, this is pretty much word-for-word what Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author of the Metro 2033 book series, told him several years ago, calling him "an arrogant motherf****r". Dmitry is also very involved in the development of Metro video games and very grateful for the exposure he received from them, he is also extremely based politically and seems like a fine dude in person.

The duality of Easter European writers, I guess :)
 
Nope, no point at all, just a reference to our convo in the other thread. it just make me smile when I finished reading the interview on this :D

Ah! I was reading too much into this. There I was scratching my head about what I may have forgotten.... And too lazy to go check.

"If I got paid, Geralt could appear in a toothpaste commercial for all I care" (c) Andrzej Sapkowski

Yeah, I remember him and CDPR had a falling out at some point over money. If I recall correctly it was because he wasn't happy with the deal he got because he never expected the games to grow so much. Something about him refusing a percentage of the sales because he never thought the games would be profitable.

Then he was mad at it.

He sounds like a lovely bitter old man.
 

I don't get why this question of raising the bar even comes up anymore.

I wish, just once, that a studio would say "nope, we want the bar to stay exactly where it is so we know exactly what to aim for."

Just once.

Just to justify this question's existence lol.

Otherwise, it's an interesting read.
 
I don't get why this question of raising the bar even comes up anymore.

I wish, just once, that a studio would say "nope, we want the bar to stay exactly where it is so we know exactly what to aim for."

Just once.

Just to justify this question's existence lol.
Or to go "Nah, we set the bar a bit too high, probably going to lower it a little bit".
 
I don't get why this question of raising the bar even comes up anymore.
I think it's more a question to get the answer that everyone expect directly from the devs mouth. A bit like during comptetions, journalists asking athletes "Are you here to win?" Of course they here to win... like if it could be otherwise :D
 

CD Projekt Red says Ciri is "faster, more agile" in The Witcher 4, but she won't be OP like she is at the end of The Witcher 3: "Something totally happened in between"​

Given how powerful the White Wolf's adopted daughter is by the end of the game regardless, CD Projekt Red is quick to assure us that she won't be overwhelmingly so in The Witcher 4.
 
...I think we're also aware that if some people you know, would think right now, that they would still prefer to be Geralt. I do think that's legitimate concern. So I think if this is where that concern is coming from, I think that valid and I think the best thing that we can do and I think this really our goal is to prove that with Ciri we can do a lot of interesting things so can really make it worth it. Because this decision to have Ciri as a protagonist it wasn't made yesterday. We started making this a very long time ago. Ciri was already being set up as a second protagonist in sapkowski's novel. We already set her up as a second playable character in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, so for us, this really was a natural evolution of what we already been making for so long...
 
I think I can get used to Ciri as a protagonist, although I'm not sure if it's the best solution...
I'm much more concerned about what the open world of the game will be like. How interactive and big will the world be? How interesting and long will it be to explore this world? Will there be any qualitative development of the scenarios and gameplay compared to "The Witcher 3"?
 
Top Bottom