The Witcher IV — Cinematic Reveal Trailer

[rustypup]

Oof. Complete break from both the books and the games.

Ciri *couldn't* become a Witcher.

• No Trial of Grasses because components all gone.
• No way in hell would Geralt let her anywhere near the trial, even if they stillhad the necessary components.
• Her heritage.

That being said, super excited for the next installment.

I can overlook glaring faults in back story as long as the game loop is good.

Replaying W3 just to scratch that itch

Post automatically merged: Dec 13, 2024

We should have gotten make-your-own-character style game with new characters and some returning ones

What in the name of all that is cute and furry is this noise?

You have NEVER been able to roll-your-own in the Witcher games.

 

[Navhkrin]

Oof. Complete break from both the books and the games.

Ciri *couldn't* become a Witcher.

• No Trial of Grasses because components all gone.
• No way in hell would Geralt let her anywhere near the trial, even if they stillhad the necessary components.
• Her heritage.

That being said, super excited for the next installment.

I can overlook glaring faults in back story as long as the game loop is good.

Replaying W3 just to scratch that itch

Post automatically merged: Dec 13, 2024

What in the name of all that is cute and furry is this noise?

You have NEVER been able to roll-your-own in the Witcher games.

First 3 games were a trilogy focused around Geralt. This is a new story, so it makes perfect sense if we were able to roll our own.

 

[WhiteYoghurt]

Hey,
it looks interesting, though I don't like seeing Ciri as a witcher. Perhaps the trailer takes place in an alternate timeline, dimension, dream, hallucination, or whatever?

My impressions, the good:
- the setting and mood look cool
- the monster design looks cool (very much reminds me of the face stealer from ATLA)
- the spells. swords and magic look nicely wild and stylized

The bad:
- the quest looks bad (Ciri saves the girl from the monster, but she gets killed anyway...Compared to the Orianna cinematic for Blood and Wine this looks soulless - I don't see a reason, shades of grey, and some trauma at the end. It's just that she dies...?)
- the chain Ciri used in combat - I hope it's not a permanent generic feature used for combat, navigation (like ducking Indiana Jones with the whip) - similar to e.g. Assassins Creed. If it is and the character is Ciri alright, I suggest remaking it to the short teleporting ability she had in The Witcher 3.
- the story...? - I get that we were probably shown very little, but Ciri possibly being a witcher? I don't think so. We must be missing something. What about all the Witcher 3's endings? Especially the one where she becomes the empress? - happy, educated, possibly finding her place in the world...?
- the trailer says "Witcher 4", just like that? There's no title, like "The Witcher: Polaris"...? It feels cheap. Like "Star Wars 69, the revenge of the fallen"...

I don't know...I think that for the first impression, CDPR could have come up with something much, much greater. Creating a new witcher character would've made some things easier (like e.g. naming the game Witcher ). However, I still want to believe it all turns out great in the end.

(Even now there's still time to rework the game. And It will only become much harder later on...I hope CDPR has a strong vision, great writing, and will prove us all wrong. Fingers crossed )

 

[devivre]

First of all, the trailer looks super awesome and I can‘t wait to play the game!

At the same time, it‘s weird to see Ciri not using her usual powers. Very very curious about all the explanations to make sense of her development. Hopefully Geralt will not get killed in this sequel, as this would be very tempting storywise.

The VA change is sad for me too. Then again, the new one might fit better to this older and darker version of Ciri.

 

[John_Russell]

why Ciri can drink potions if she did in the canon she will be dead.

She is a Child of the Elder Blood, the Lady of Time and Space so she can probably do a lot of things that weren't thought possible because she already could do things that weren't thought possible. And who knows what kind of changes came from when she entered the tower after the fight against the Wild Hunt.

 

[Domhnallaich]

As a long time player of the series (starting back in TW1, my favorite of the three BTW, clunky as it was), this trailer did nothing for me - felt so flat and boring.

Why is Ciri drinking Witcher potions now? She never went through the mutations - she is something else entirely! As someone famous said..."I have a bad feeling about this".

Try to keep yourselves anchored pls. Its a fantasy story yes, but there are still rules to follow. Please don't "RIngs of Power" the witcher.

Just because I LOVE the previous games does not mean I am automatically going to get 'super turbo pumped up excited' just because it has the word "witcher" in it - that's just a word at the end of the day - you still need to make it deserving of the title, so please treat it with the respect it deserves.

Post automatically merged: Dec 13, 2024

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say what many are thinking but are too afraid to say:

My worst fears have come to pass with this sequel. I was hoping for a dual/protagonist option, or the option to change the gender of the MC for TW4. It seems the devs have allowed identity politics to affect their creative decisions here. I guess I can't blame them for making this decision since it was made years ago, when everyone was idealistic about woke culture and thought it would make them a tonne of money. That's not the case anymore.

Why do I think all this? Well, from a narrative perspective Ciri becoming a Witcher makes zero sense, if it did, Sapowski would have made her one in the books - but he didn't. Why would Ciri, with all her immense powers, ever need to go through the Witcher trials and risk her life to attain powers that are lesser than what she already has? It makes absolutely no sense.

There is only one logical explanation for their decision to make Ciri the protagonist this time around: identity politics, i.e. they needed a "badass" female protagonist that can mirror Geralt, and since there are none in the books, they decided to go with the apparent "fan" favourite, Ciri, without realising that she's only a fan favourite because she was uniquely NOT a witcher and was her own character. All that goes out the window now since they've turned her into female Geralt - just another generic tokenised character to carry a political message rather furthering the plot or world building.

The game series has taken far too many liberties here, and whilst I was ok with the changes made in TW3, this decision is taking it too far. They should've done a community check on this idea before going forward with it.

You are 100% correct here. I also just read an interview in IGN where the game director stated this makes sense because the witcher was ALWAYS about Ciri. You hear that sort of mentality in every badly retconned show because the priority is more about delivering on the political ideology, than just making something that is good. I hope we are both wrong ofc, I guess we'll see, but curb your enthusiasm folks. If you want a great game, be critical.

 

[kertitorpe]

I expected Geralt or a character creator. My expectations are now lowered, especially since Ciri as a Witcher makes no sense. At least they seem to have gotten rid of her OP powers, but then why not give us a fresh new character instead of trampling the lore?

 

[Merterbod]

Oh come ooon.... Ciri is NOT a witcher. She cannot use witcher-potions, she cannot use witcher-signs (or better, not have to), she never had any witcher-mutations. In no Book is any reference to female Witchers (but ok, thats the point I could ignore), mutations are only possible in child-age (which is long gone for ciri)?! And even if, it is explicitly stated in one of Sapkowskis books that the knowledge of how to mutate humans into witchers is long lost. Did they even read any of the books?!

I mean, yes, some "artistic freedem" sure (the Witcher-games 1-3 also differ from the books), but a game contradicting basically the complete lore of the world where it is placed and based on?

I bet they will "explain" all this lore-onctradictions with some cookie-cutter explanatione like "but she is ciri and ciri can do everything due to... eh... elder blood!".

 

[Navhkrin]

Also I think trailer was bland. At first, I didn't give it much thought but comparing it to Witcher 3 debut trailer, whose mere thought still gives me chills, this trailer really felt boring.

 

[John_Russell]

I love how people spout "canon but canon" and then go on to romance Triss instead of Yennifer which is definitely not canon in the books. Romancing Yennifer is canon, romancing Triss is not.

Can't wait to hear all the lame excuses as to why romancing Triss is OK ........

 

[Svitzz]

Bring back Jo Wyatt please !!

 

[John_Russell]

Looks to me like the trailer has the typical Witcher choices ..... and neither choice is a good one. If you kill the monster the girl dies and if you don't kill the monster something even worse happens to everyone. It looks to be laid out a lot like the Bald Mountain quest where Ciri kills two of the witches and the third one flees and then later the villagers complain about who is going to help them now and Geralt more or less replies that they'll have to learn to do it on their own.

 

[Bhxy]

Ciri's design in the trailer appears unappealing. Please avoid repeating mistakes like Lawan in Dying Light 2.

 

[John_Russell]

I like her design for instance now she has Witcher eyes and a more mature face, she's not a teenage girl anymore but a hardened warrior/Witcher. I also like her clothing which look legit Witcher and not some silly looking out of place costume that show off her breasts. I didn't really like any of the DLC costumes in Witcher 3 because they just look out of place while the originals looks closer to the time period and not something out of a Victoria's Secret catalog. Who runs around Skellige with their belly showing in the snow?

 

[Toyen]

Okay so I am super excited to play as Ciri!

BUT

How are they going to handle the Empress ending story-wise?

Ciri is a Witcher -> nothing to see here.

Ciri 'died' -> she didn't really die and goes on to become a witcher. Okay great.

But the empress ending?

- Did somebody usurp the throne from her?
- Who is ruling Nilfgaard now that Ciri is not an empress? Moovran? The Fake Ciri? Or is it still Emhyr?|

The reason I decided to go with the Empress ending was that it should have pretty wide political implications on the post-war Northern Kingdoms if Ciri becomes Empress and Nilfgaard wins the war.

And I would hate for that to be all in vain now that she's a witcher anyway.

I really hope the in-game world will reflect that decision somehow beyond a few custom dialogue options.

Of course I did not expect to play as Empress Ciri but I really hope there is a solid explanation for this other than 'she simply changed her mind 5 minutes before the coronation'.

It would be great if there were like 2 paths-> the personal / witcher path and the empress / political / greater good path in the game.

Like she went to Nilfgaard and they actually tried to assassinate her or something cause they knew they wouldn't be able to control her when she takes the throne and now she has to get the throne back.

vs lets say 'the Witcher path' which is more focused on personal story and character development.

Anyways her model looks amazing I don't know what all these 'she's ugly' comments are on about.

Also finally bring Iorveth back. Thank you.

 

[Gwentlique]

What in the name of all that is cute and furry is this noise?

You have NEVER been able to roll-your-own in the Witcher games.

This! Why are people demanding that CDPR move away from a winning formula that has helped make all their other games huge successes? There are many RPGs out there where you can roll your own character, but CDPR has always specialized in telling stories about specific characters. Even V in Cyberpunk is like that.

There is a huge upside to making a game about a specific character, you can design the entire game around that person's perspective. You can present them with meaningful choices because both the developer and the player know the character's background. When you get a "roll-your-own" type of protagonist, the result is usually more generic and less emotionally charged. The stories have to fit your guy, no matter who he or she is, no matter what they did before, so it will be light on specifics and narratively speaking way more bland. Typically roll-your-own stories need some kind of hokey plot device that can compel the character forward, like the ilithid tadpoles in Baldur's Gate 3, and the stakes are often more about "saving the world" than about helping someone that is important to your character.

Incidentally, in a game like Baldur's Gate they get around this problem by having specific party members with well defined personalities and back stories that you can bring along, while your own character is usually the least interesting of the bunch.

 

[TeamLucy]

This. This right here. THIS is exactly the Witcher 4 I wanted. Female Witcher. Ciri as the main character. Hell yes.

 

[devivre]

But the empress ending?

- Did somebody usurp the throne from her?
- Who is ruling Nilfgaard now that Ciri is not an empress? Moovran? The Fake Ciri? Or is it still Emhyr?|

It seems like years have passed since TW3 so that part is probably much easier to explain. So yeah, I guess either she left the throne on her terms after some time or the power in Nilfgaard has shifted in some way. Or both.

I doubt there will be two paths as there would not have been enough time for Ciri to undergo the trial of the grasses as Empress.

But no matter what explanation and ending, chances are that Nilfgaard is going to be looking for her (and probably not in a friendly way).

 

[Navhkrin]

Ciri's design in the trailer appears unappealing. Please avoid repeating mistakes like Lawan in Dying Light 2.

Man Lawan was possibly the worst character I have encountered in recent years. So bland and boring. Like how climbing tower is supposed to be a huge deal and you get in elevator with team of soldiers and only you end up surviving but Lawan magically appears at top of tower because she knows a shortcut lol. She was as mary sue as mary sue goes.

 

[Merterbod]

This. This right here. THIS is exactly the Witcher 4 I wanted. Female Witcher. Ciri as the main character. Hell yes.

Then you can surely explain me your version how that even works. How a grown-up woman can undergo the trials-of-grasses-mutations (which have to be done in child-age, are lethal for roughly 70% of the boys, and are, acording to a well known sorceress, not really compatible with females which would increase the lethalitiy even more). And all that in a world where the knowledge how to even do this mutations is already gone?

Beside some half-baked excuses like "its ciri, and ciri can do everything because she is soo great and can do everything"...

I mean, sure, Ciri is a interesting character but how, just how, you want to explain all this contradictions in an authentic and believable way without breaking the complete lore of the witcher-world.