The Witcher IV – Official Cinematic Reveal Trailer Breakdown

[Alicja.]

Curious about The Witcher IV cinematic trailer? Join Game Director Sebastian Kalemba as he dives deeper into the characters, moments, and themes of the trailer and breaks it all down for you!

The Witcher IV is an upcoming single-player open-world RPG from CD PROJEKT RED, the creators of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Ciri est one of these characters who... you know the sentence, if there is less evil, lesser evil, I rather not choose at all. Ciri will always choose!
Seems great!

 

[Toyen]

I just wanna say I'm so glad it's Ciri. I would hate to have to create some customizable witcher character with zero personality.

And her character model looks great I don't know what people are on about.
10 years have passed, quite literally, so of course she has aged a bit and is now in her 30s.

Here's hoping there's multiple hairstyle options for her like there were for Geralt!

 

[eGhost90]

God knows how much I was waiting for this, Let's Rock on Ciri

 

[SMiki55]

Monster worshipped as god.
Human sacrifices.
Somewhere in the north.

An interesting parallel with certain snippet of lore from Sapkowski's newest book…

Spoiler

‘Strange is this world’ Assumpta of Rivia said after a moment. ‘They mock our goddess, they scoff at our prayers. Superstition, they call them. And in the west and north, some cults are multiplying in the wastelands, some sects. They worship spiders, snakes, dragons, and other monsters. People whisper about atrocities, about human sacrifice. And somehow, no one seems to be fighting against this. Nor do they try to drive away the sectarians.’

Andrzej Sapkowski “Rozdroże kruków” (The Ravens’ Crossing), translated by myself

 

[alceryes]

I just wanna say I'm so glad it's Ciri. I would hate to have to create some customizable witcher character with zero personality.

And her character model looks great I don't know what people are on about.
10 years have passed, quite literally, so of course she has aged a bit and is now in her 30s.

Here's hoping there's multiple hairstyle options for her like there were for Geralt!

I get where people are coming from. I was slightly taken aback at the more rounded face and changed features, but I LIKE the new gritty Ciri. People want Ciri to look like TW3 with all settings maxxed out, but 10 years have passed AND she went through the trial of the grasses. Both those things change people. Then you have the technical standpoint. (advancement in graphics capability, completely different engine, etc.). Ciri looks fine. She doesn't look like she did in TW3, but that's fine!

Edit - I thought I read somewhere that TW4 takes place 10 years after the end of TW3, but maybe that's incorrect. Do we have confirmation anywhere on the amount of time that has lapsed between the end of TW3 and TW4?

 

[Draconifors]

And her character model looks great I don't know what people are on about.
10 years have passed, quite literally, so of course she has aged a bit and is now in her 30s.

I absolutely agree. I think she looks (and sounds) way better than in the previous game.

She's not a girl anymore.

 

[Toyen]

I absolutely agree. I think she looks (and sounds) way better than in the previous game.

She's not a girl anymore.

Exactly. It's still her but 10 years older. The model has been adjusted but the likeness is still there.

Her voice is deeper cause yeah, that's another thing that happens as you age for both men and women - your voice will get deeper with age.

And although you can tell it is a different voice actress, the 'vibe' so to speak is still there in my opinion and to me she sounds like Ciri.

From the few lines we've heard, I think it suits her so well and I'm very confident the voice actress can carry the role.

Personally, I'm very happy with what I'm seeing so far ♥

 

[Riven-Twain]

I think she looks (and sounds) way better than in the previous game.

Her new voice reminds me a bit of the actress who portrayed Queen Meve in Thronebreaker. I'd be happy if they were calling on her talents again.

 

[GrimReaper801]

One thing that stuck with me is that at 3:05 he says he wants us to experience the journey of becoming a witcher. I wonder if we'll actually get to live through her transformation from regular ol' Ciri to full witcher Ciri.

 

[Spockprime]

Monster worshipped as god.
Human sacrifices.
Somewhere in the north.

An interesting parallel with certain snippet of lore from Sapkowski's newest book…

Spoiler

‘Strange is this world’ Assumpta of Rivia said after a moment. ‘They mock our goddess, they scoff at our prayers. Superstition, they call them. And in the west and north, some cults are multiplying in the wastelands, some sects. They worship spiders, snakes, dragons, and other monsters. People whisper about atrocities, about human sacrifice. And somehow, no one seems to be fighting against this. Nor do they try to drive away the sectarians.’

Andrzej Sapkowski “Rozdroże kruków” (The Ravens’ Crossing), translated by myself

Interesting. The video mentions in its discussion of player choices, that there's a way to save Mioni. In this particular case, it seems to be a long tradition with the village. But if there is some sort of cult making progress in the area, and if Ciri deals with them in a certain way, I wonder if that opens up new options for this scene? Maybe figuring out how to deal with those choices is part of her development as a Witcher? Starting to get excited about where the story goes.

 

[Riven-Twain]

I wonder if we'll actually get to live through through her transformation for regular ol' Ciri to full witcher Ciri.

That might be interesting. It does make me wonder how much agency players may have in shaping Ciri as a character. How much customisation might they allow. . . ? Hopefully more than just hairstyles.

 

[GrimReaper801]

That might be interesting. It does make me wonder how much agency players may have in shaping Ciri as a character. How much customisation might they allow. . . ? Hopefully more than just hairstyles.

I first read your post and was like "aaaaaaw hell yeah" just imagining the possibilities.

Then I saw my terrible grammar and typos in the quote and went "ew".

That was a real rollercoaster.

 

[Riven-Twain]

Then I saw my terrible grammar and typos in the quote and went "ew".

That was a real rollercoaster.

Indeed. We managed to get through it, though.

Back on topic, if Ciri undergoes unique mutations, I wonder if they could affect her personality, not merely her appearance. . . . That might have potentials.

 

[Toyen]

One thing pretty clear from the trailer is Ciri has clearly lost her teleportation abilities.

That means she cannot teleport during a fight and might not even be able to teleport to different worlds anymore.

I think the best explanation story-wise would be that she lost some of her elder blood abilities at the end of Witcher 3 when she stopped the white frost.

That would make most sense since being able to teleport during combat like in W3 would be just too OP.

 

[GrimReaper801]

Back on topic, if Ciri undergoes unique mutations, I wonder if they could affect her personality, not merely her appearance. . . . That might have potentials.

As far as I know the trial of grasses does not affect the personality of the kids it's been used on. I mean, outside of what changes would be normal for a kid undergoing a ritual that's pretty much torture.

With that said, Ciri is clearly going through a very different process as she' undergoing this as an adult.

But I'd honestly be disappointed if they outright changed Ciri's personality, or made it possible for us to mold her personality into a very different person than she is in TW3, and largely justified it through mutations. I always understood the "traditional" coldness of witchers to be largely due to their upbringing, not due to the trial. Ciri already being an adult woman, I'd rather we get to mold her character through her walking the path of a witcher with everything that entails.

 

[Riven-Twain]

I think the best explanation story-wise would be that she lost some of her elder blood abilities at the end of Witcher 3 when she stopped the white frost.

I'd suspect mutations would affect the Elder Blood in some strange ways. Perhaps they rendered her previous powers even more unstable?

 

[alceryes]

As far as I know the trial of grasses does not affect the personality of the kids it's been used on. I mean, outside of what changes would be normal for a kid undergoing a ritual that's pretty much torture.

With that said, Ciri is clearly going through a very different process as she' undergoing this as an adult.

But I'd honestly be disappointed if they outright changed Ciri's personality, or made it possible for us to mold her personality into a very different person than she is in TW3, and largely justified it through mutations. I always understood the "traditional" coldness of witchers to be largely due to their upbringing, not due to the trial. Ciri already being an adult woman, I'd rather we get to mold her character through her walking the path of a witcher with everything that entails.

I thought the trial of the grasses is supposed to somewhat strip emotion and/or empathy(?)
That alone can change a personality, drastically.

(yes, I realize that whether it does partially, wholly, or none at all is up for debate. It is at lease supposed to, though)

 

[Draconifors]

I thought the trial of the grasses is supposed to somewhat strip emotion and/or empathy(?)
That alone can change a personality, drastically.

Yeah.
Considering how much strong emotion Ciri shows in TW3, stripping her of a even just a third of it ought to change her personality to some extent.

It could also be the the Trial affects females differently than males. Additionally, Ciri doesn't undergo it as a child, which certainly should affect something.

We also don't know if the Trial is the exact same as the one witchers before her went through, since we don't yet know how or where hers took place.

Plus, age by itself can certainly affect personality, too, especially in early adulthood.

PS. I do hope she'll have changed (matured), as I had quite enough of her TW3 personality in that game...

 

[CRASHhorde]

Dear CDProject Red! First of all, I want to say that the Witcher universe is my favorite and I consider the original Witcher trilogy a legendary masterpiece and will always be infinitely grateful to you for these games. But let me express my opinion and give advice regarding the new part of the Witcher series: if you don’t want to fail financially and be disgraced like Netflix - declare the trailer with Ciri "the witcher" a kind of fictional story from the series "What if girls could be witchers too" in order to provoke heated discussions in the community and warm up interest in the series. And calmly make a prequel to the original trilogy about the first witcher in history in the leading role. There will be just enough room for creativity and you can show many monsters that were exterminated long ago by the time of the events with Geralt. Well, or if you really can’t wait to suck up to minorities and the agenda, then at least a spin-off about a witcher from the school of the manticore. The main place of action will take place in Kovir. I am ready to accept a black male witcher in the main role, because it will be logical due to the climate. [...] And please do a full localization of your games into Russian! I hope you will listen at least a little, thank you.