A couple of good points here. It does annoy me no end that the game still pushes you towards Yen rather than treating Triss as an equally valid romance.
As far as I can tell, there are actually no changes in the patch that conditionally
remove scenes or dialogues that push the player towards Yennefer even after a choice has been made. That is why I suggested the idea of fixing them with mods (as it is easier than adding new content, so it should be realistically possible eventually as community made tools improve). Kind of like the unofficial patches for Bethesda games.
i. The number of people who are actually requesting fixes is relatively small. I know it may not appear that way when you frequent the forums or visit threads like these, but it's important to take into account that forum members comprise a teeny tiny percentage of CDPR's customers. We're talking something like less than 1%. And of that 1%, the fraction of people who actually romanced Triss and have expressed dissatisfaction with her portrayal in-game is even more minuscule.
Not that I think more changes are planned, but the actual number of people not satisfied, while overall a minority, is actually much higher than those who complained on the forums, as only a small percentage of players post on the forums at all. Although this also applies to a number of other shortcomings of the game. Not having an account at that time yet, I did not even vote in
this thread myself.
ii. It would probably be cost prohibitive to do a complete rewrite and isn't very realistic. Every time that CDPR makes substantial alterations they have to call in the writers, voice actors, programmers, Q & A teams, bug testers. It's a whole production.
I do not think anyone asked for a complete rewrite, but a few times more than what is in the patch (that is, something comparable to the amount of content in a quest), and I do not only mean romance content, would have been realistically possible.
iii. Given what Wild Hunt set out to accomplish, I think it's entirely reasonable that Yennefer has a larger role within the game. The main quest is about Geralt's search for his adoptive daughter and the familial bond which he, Yennefer, and Ciri share. It's also the first and probably only time that Yennefer is going to make an appearance within the franchise, so it should come as no surprise that the developers had to accord her more screen time for exposition and things of that nature.
It is not only a matter of overall screen time. Yennefer has about 1.5 times more dialogue over the entire game (I counted 1173 vs. 788 lines, only 20 / 26 of those is from patch 1.10), so that may not seem like a huge difference at first, but on a closer look one can see the problems with Triss in TW3:
- very little content - again, it is not just romance related stuff, but in general - in the second act (only 32 lines total) and in much of the third one except Final Preparations; compared to the quality of the Novigrad quest line up to and including Now or Never, it looks like she turns into a character from Skyrim
- lack of reaction to the player's choice made in Now or Never, especially in the first two acts. The only notable scene where it makes a difference before Final Preparations is the brief dialogue when Geralt returns from the Isle of Mists with Ciri before the battle of Kaer Morhen, and that is with the patch. In particular, it is completely ignored during the Skellige and Ugly Baby quest lines, both normally played after Now or Never when following the recommended quest levels, and during these quests there are several opportunities to talk about Geralt's relationships, or more precisely just one of them
- the "stay vs. leave" choice makes no difference at all, she disappears anyway and is not in Kaer Morhen during Ugly Baby, contradicting the dialogue in the lighthouse, and no explanation is given to this in the game
- a worse version of not reacting to the player's choice, the game sometimes behaves as if Yennefer was romanced instead. Perhaps the developers implemented that as the "default" path, and then lazily tacked on the alternatives, with only some of the scenes getting modified. It is a similar kind of problem the TW2 save import system suffers from (speaking of that, there is no reaction whatsoever to it in Geralt-Triss dialogues)
- in some cases, bad quality of content (writing, voice acting, etc.) that ends up feeling rushed
- although not a high priority, for completeness I mention that sex content is rather lacking compared to Yennefer's and to the previous games. I hope that is not a way of selling Yennefer as the preferred choice to new players
Frankly, I'm amazed and grateful that CDPR even went to the trouble of including Triss as a romance option in this third and final game. Geralt recovering his memories provided them with a convenient means to end Triss and Geralt's relationship, and they could have just as easily focused entirely on Yennefer.
They could have done that, but removing choice would have made the game worse, although that is a matter of another discussion. It is already plenty dumbed down in other aspects. In any case, they did add the choice, so why not actually do a competent job of implementing it ? The Witcher 1 is a low budget indie game in comparison, yet it did the Shani/Triss choice better, in terms of how it reacts to it in dialogues etc., and also with a more equal treatment of the choices.
The additions which they implemented with patch 1.10 were also more than I was expecting. When CDPR said "small tweaks," I was expecting a few extra lines of dialogue inserted here and there, not whole new cut scenes.
Well, technically they are small tweaks, 130 lines total vs. up to ~40000 in the game (DLC not included). And some of that was actually used to add more Yennefer content, and also a few dialogues for Hearts of Stone.
I do hope that there are a few more opportunities to interact with Yennefer, Triss, and Ciri in the upcoming expansion Blood & Wine.
I doubt that, I think patch 1.10 could very well have added their last lines.
Again, I respectfully disagree.
Triss had three games. Yennefer one. Shani, now, two.
Sorry, but that kind of reasoning makes no sense. Just because a main character is present in previous game(s), it is not a reason to have half-assed content in the third one. Should Geralt have been removed from the game after Velen (playing as Ciri for the rest of it) since he already had enough time in TW1 and TW2 ?
