Was anyone else really, REALLY caught off guard by the ending?

[Sunsibar]

But back to my point, this line...oh boy this line...it seriously pissed me the fuck off and made Ciri an infinitely less likeable character:

What can you know about saving the world, silly? You're but a witcher.

This wasn't a broblem in my game. I didn't like Ciri parts that much anyway (she always sound like bored to death). Don't get this wrong, Ciri's story is important part of a game, but I didn't like the way it was done. When I played as Ciri, it was basically "hack and slash and run forward", don't think, no actual choises, no inventory, no nothing. A cutscene is just fine when you actually can't do anything. Ciri parts was just kinda interrupting my game like "get this blaablaa over with fast and let me continue my actual game with Geralt". Maybe better way to do this is something like TW2 had with choises between Iorveth and Roche? You can choose to play as Ciri and see her side of the story, and NG+/next playthrough you can play with Geralt and see what he was doing in that time when you played as Ciri? That was my favorite choise in TW2 because I just HAD to play it again and see what was going to happen with the other guy.

TW3 is just absolutely fantastic in chapter 1. When I got to the Battle Of Kaer Morhen, something was like left in there. Or maybe it was just sadness of knowing, that the game was now going faster towards the end? The last battle part was so hasty, I didn't had time to enjoy it. I just hate it when you have to hurry in any game. And when I got to the tower and talking with Ciri, I was kinda "out of breath" and just picked some dialogues without actually thinking them properly. What are you supposed to say to a person, who is like a daughter to you, but still feels so distant (because of those short and "meaningless" moments earlier) ? The whole tower episode was so weird (or my mind is just slow ). I got quite a good ending afterall and now I'm aiming different romances, different choises and different ending.

Nevertheless, the game was still awsome! Best game I've ever played. Now I'm going with NG+ (and waiting to get it fixed...) and I hope, that I get more out of Ciri this time.

 

[LadyStoneheart]

didn't like Ciri parts that much anyway (she always sound like bored to death). Don't get this wrong, Ciri's story is important part of a game, but I didn't like the way it was done. When I played as Ciri, it was basically "hack and slash and run forward", don't think, no actual choises, no inventory, no nothing. A cutscene is just fine when you actually can't do anything. Ciri parts was just kinda interrupting my game like "get this blaablaa over with fast and let me continue my actual game with Geralt"

Heh, that is exactly how I felt.. thankfully someone sorted out a mod to enable the Debug Console so I can now replace Ciri with Geralt during the interactive bits. Makes the cut scenes a bit weird as he then lurks around the edges of those, but it also makes it seem like he's picturing events in his head.

I guess "off guard" is a good word for it - my immediate feeling was disappointment that The Wild Hunt were such a letdown, then suddenly Geralt's in a tower and there's this White Frost (which the trip with Avallac'h and some in-game books had made clear as a future rather than imminent threat) and suddenly Ciri goes off and well.. that was it. Didn't see what she did - which made me wonder why I'd had to bother learning to fight as her in the first place - and then the epilogue. Even if I'd got the bad ending, I wouldn't have been that upset at the loss of Ciri because there were indications that maybe she had to sacrifice herself to save the world.

Are there stats on what sort of percentage of people who buy a game like this finish it? Just wonder why it always seems to be the finale that suffers when time/money are an issue - if only 60% of people who start a game finish it, I suppose it makes more sense...

 

[Kourvith]

Hugely caught off guard aswell, but for different reasons.
disclaimer : I slowly fell in love with that game. Been gaming actively since 1986, and I'd shamelessly say that W3 was the most impactful of them all for me. Masterpiece.

So to put it shortly, I got ending 3. (n.b : I absolutely didn't spoil myself about the right choices to do before finishing the game, and all my choices were made as natural as possible.)

- I made thoughtful decisions to turn Ciri into a strong, cheerful, mature person, all while caring without being overprotective.
- After the ending, gathered all possible infos on different endings, and it seems that 90% of my choices & behaviors should have led to a more positive outcome. Except two things ...

- One night, I told her something along the lines of "Take it easy, nobody's perfect. Come on, let's just relax a bit " rather than "Derp. Let's get drunk !"
- One day, I just avoided to say "Hey ! You're suddenly angry ! Let's totally destroy this poor lad's lab and burn the bitch with it !"

Result : Ciri decides to give her life to prevent a *potential* apocalypse, leading Geralt to turn from a legend to a crybaby in a hut.

And what about Yen ? All my choices with other girls led me to come naturally to her, turning it into a simple, perfect romance. We were even supposed to retire far away together. And Geralt end like this ? And Yen doesn't even search for him ?

Anyway, I take it as it is, and kinda appreciate how it made me question all my choices and create a mix of sadness, hope, and fate, but it's quite a shortcut, isn't it ?
(btw I immediately purchased the expansion pass. Loving it.)

 

[shishimaru1000]

I totally agree with you people. I in fact wrote something more in the thread that comes right after this one. There's inconsistency here and there in the game. I also still love it of course.

 

[frivolousam]

I'm amazed this line actually bothered anyone. The delivery of the line was absolutely fine and there's no reason to believe that she was criticizing Geralt at all. There was no hint of anger in her voice, just sorrow. She just said it to calm Geralt down and tell him "I need to deal with this shit and this is the only way". Even if you ignore the delivery of the line and just read the line, the usage of "silly" should immediately point to the fact that Ciri is not attacking him or his profession.

She insults him and me by proxy, period. Geralt's but a witcher? Who saved "the savior of the world" more than once. Turned tides of battles, decided fates of kingdoms and all that other crap... he's even been knighted by the queen of lyria : p And in the following line she says something like "This is my story, not yours, you have to let me tell it". Spoiled little bitch : p Just yesterday everyone was trying for you to get a grip on your situation when you were like "I wanna fight also", when have you mastered it all? Oh right, she saw a light in the tower. Would have appreciated a dialogue option telling: "Go on, finish telling your story. People are eager for yet another saving the world cliche." then.

Other than that, after the battle of kaer morhen, one of disappointments was the crones/imlerith fights. Geralt should have fought the crones and Ciri, Imlerith. Back then Geralt's either dialogue options told the Crones that he will be back for them and yeah Vesemir was important for Ciri and Geralt both but it would have made the same sense for Ciri fighting Imlerith, much more sense while geralt and crones were also there.

 

[Scryar]

I thought the line was somehow sweet.

 

[SDZald]

Geralt is just a simple Witcher. That's a source of his strength. That's why he doesn't resent being a Witcher as much as some of the other guys.

I see it totally different. My feeling is that Geralt H A T E S being stuck as a Witcher but understood their was nothing else for him. In the books I get this distinct feeling that he might have even been on the verge of suicide because he felt so trapped and Useless. Then Ciri came into his life and now he had a real purpose, one that transcended being a Witcher.

For me the entire game was near perfect, until the very end. It is like the Wild Hunt and the White Frost were tied together, which they are not. They should have ended the game when the Wild Hunt was dealt with and left the White Frost for another game.

 

[balparmak]

Well I was also a bit baffled by the White Frost striking so suddenly, but when you consider the minor lore of game (books and folk beliefs) and the books, it fits very well to the finale. What I'm confused about is though, I also thought White Frost was inevitable and what Ciri was doing only would delay it. And if the Avallac'h himself opened the portal, hence summoned&brought the white frost closer, well it's all a bit needless innit? But it is hinted by Avallac'h, and if the threat was not imminent, well what would be motivation of him to go through all that for Ciri?It is just that CDPR should have introduced a few dialogue about that.

On the issue of Geralt, I think he was neutral, as always, towards whole being Witcher stuff. Let's put some Nietzsche here, Geralt lives like he should and is content with it, not happy but not sad. So he answers to the calling within himself, which is weakly put into a framework of "the Path", but that does not really mean much. Until Ciri, that is. With Ciri he feels genuine affection, and with affect and ties, comes happiness and sadness, which turns the master Geralt into a kind of a slave-ish fatherly figure The only ending I have problems with is the one where Ciri becomes the empress, the other two fits perfectly to character developments (both in books&games).

 

[Badonkadonkadonk]

I think for one to truly get the gist of what's going on, is to read all books plus play the entire trilogy. I never got around to finishing TW1 or TW2 and jumped in at TW3. When it came to that point with the save simulator in Vizima, I just picked any random choice because I didn't really know what they were talking about.

So yeah, there's a lot of stuff I missed. I'm reading through the books now (while playing TW3) and I'm starting to pick up on all the references.

 

[uzurper]

There's this

http://strawpoll.me/4536523

 

[jimmywon34]

the ending was incredibly stupid, such a letdown. the other two games had better endings. and the lack of post MQ content....the hell? and if you got ciri as empress ending well then it gets even dumber and some things make even less sense. like Geralt and Ciri saying goodbye 'forever'...uh yea she can travel through time and drop in and see him any time she wants even if it's just 5 minutes and they are like father and daughter as well, no way they are saying goodbye to eachother forever after all that. seems like it was written just to jerk a few tears from the audience but it made for a dumb ending instead. and I thought I was the only one that thought that line Ciri said was annoying as fuck....she doesn't even know how the hell to control her powers how the hell is she the scholar on defeating the white frost all of the sudden, did I miss something? and at least in the first two games you got to confront the 'main threat' of those games head on....we don't even see what happens between Ciri and the white frost at all let alone play through it after all 3 games talking about it so much and the prophecy being repeated ad nauseam throughout the games.

 

[darkgenie96]

I agree with you generally. I just don't understand how its a farewell. I mean as you said, Ciri can travel through time and space. The only reason I could possibly think of is that Ciri will not know where Geralt is that's why its a farewell. But other than that... like... what the hell? Its depressing to watch the ending tho... And after that, we cannot find anyone in the game after the main quest. I mean at least place Yen and Triss in Kaer Morhaen or someone like Zoltan at least. I miss them after the end game tbh. IT feels like after all the effort fighting to find Ciri, I'm rewarded with CIri being a witcher, and never seen again or Ciri becomes Empress and never seen again or Ciri dies. like Come on, none of these are good ending. not to mention my lover. Triss ok... she went to Kovir to work, but what about Yen? she is also retired, don't you think Yen should be in Kaer Morhaen or Toussaint for that matter? Depressed after playing the end game tbh.

 

[aozgolo]

In a way it's hard to truly appreciate any kind of epilogue after the amazing journey we went through to get it. In any other game I would almost consider the epilogue to be far grander than what you could hope for (seriously I am having a hard time thinking of many games that had one) although in The Witcher 3 when we compare the epilogue to the game itself, to the story itself, it is found lacking. The lack of a post-ending world also saddens a lot of players and it's completely understandable, we want to follow up with everyone as Geralt, we want to talk to every important side character and get some sense of closure, even if it's just a short line or two.

It's very difficult then as a game designer when faced with this task though to really be able to truly deliver upon every conceivable angle. The Witcher 3 is already a massive game made by a studio with little experience doing something of this scale, and adding multiple world states to what is already there to accommodate all possible outcomes is quite daunting.

Novigrad alone would be radically different depending on which faction won and you'd have to change out all the banners, the set pieces, the guards, the NPC chatter, all for a relatively minor portion of the game (comparatively speaking), You'd have to do this for Oxenfurt as well, you'd have to move all the army encampments around, Nilfgaard wouldn't be camped down south of the swamps anymore in a post-ending world, that camp would be gone and the army would be up in Novigrad or Oxenfurt, or most likely even further beyond both, unless Radovid won in which case they'd be back in Nilfgaard. These are huge and impressive game changes required just for the sake of adding further closure to the game. I am sure it was considered, maybe even intended at some point, but there's a reason they went with the smallest of maps to showcase the end, because it was realistically what was achievable.

We can all dream big but I don't think the time nor resources were there to truly deliver an epilogue worthy of the monumental story the game told. I don't think it's fair to blame CDPR, they certainly tried and it does show, but we still must acknowledge that such a grand story makes us want for more. In a literary novel or film an epilogue can be given it's just dues and expanded to the lengths the author feels necessary however in a game the amount of assets and resources required for such closure jump upwards monumentally.

 

[saltyB]

Sure, we want answers, we want big changes and everything. We want everything to be right and nice in our Games, but it just isn't like that!
As many of you already said CDPR did all they could do, i mean do you even imagine? They had to basically make 3 Witcher games out of a lot of Fan Fiction actually and of course the books!

But same problem as always you can't take everything from a Book and convert it into a Movie, or a Game. That doesn't work due to the facts of:

Time
Money budges
And they can't put every detail from the Books into the Game!
You also need to make a Game dramatic!

So it is easy to write a Book, you can write everything, every Detail because you have the time and you don't need a Team of over 100 people to make a Book!

But it is also not the Purpose of the Games to finish the Books in my Opinion. They made kinda their own Witcher story based on the books!
Well okay...to be fair they kinda finished the Story from the Books with the Witcher 3, as good as they could! But that was just to make the Book readers happy!
And do you really think they didn't knew about the ending? They did, but they didn't indent to keep the immersion after the End game!

Now they want to concentrate on Cyberpunk, and that's absolutely okay. I am asking myself if maybe Cyberpunk will even Top the Witcher, but that's just a thought!

Well but now it is on us, to continue the Witcher Story! Trough Fan Fiction or whatever...same as CDPR did!
After the Story of the Books is now basically finished we can continue the Adventures based on the Witcher 3!

Try to write a Story about Ciri or Geralt! What will they do after the main quest? Will Ciri finally find a new lover now (haha)? Idk...now it depends on US people to continue it! And trust me, if you can't deal with the Ending of the Witcher 3, just write an Story for yourself or other Witcher fans! It helps!

As far as we know Ciri, or Yen stay with Geralt at the real End of Blood and Wine! So what will happen after that? Will they be a family again?

Write your own Story about them!