Will this game have an ending?

[Vigilance.492]

Yeah that's most likely gonna be the case.

Though, in that case, I hope that RED will adopt a Dark Souls approach to weapons and armour progression. In TW2, you could get the end game armour but then you could only use it for like 15 minutes. Then the game was over. That's fucking lame as shit. So I was hoping that we could continue playing after the end in TW3, just so I could savour and appreciate the end game armour there.

But, since there won't be any "metagame", I hope that RED will balance the game accordingly. The availability of equipment, outfits, etc should be easy enough to acquire early on AND that they will give us a way to ensure that they stay relevant throughout the game. Preferably through some kind of upgrade system. I wanna look badass god damnit, and I don't want to switch to a "better" armour set if the aesthetics don't appeal to me. Or vice versa and then have the game just abruptly end.

I'd say this will work in tandem with the whole 'Zero level scaling'.

If you decide you are up for a little challenge, you'll be able to go to an area that you really are much too low for & if skilled enough defeat much higher level Monsters & thus receive some reward (Quest Reward/Items for Crafting/Pattern or Item drop). This will probably be the main way of acquiring stuff before you should have it & make it so you can use something really bad-ass for a much longer period of the game.

Merely speculation, but it seems likely to me.

Also I will point out, that even though the game has "100 Hours" of Content, I doubt the game is going to stop you from just roaming about & doing whatever you want. I remember in the E3 interviews them talking about some kind of time based stuff where you will lose access to quests or events will automatically occur if you take too long to do stuff.. They haven't really brought that up again since, so I think it perhaps might not be something they're focusing on doing. I'd say you'll have your "100 Hours of Content" & then if at anytime you just want to take a break from the Plot & ride from one side of the world to the other, doing random stuff along the way, nothing is going to stop you. Which really makes a 'free-roam state' after the game ends relatively pointless, it just means you have to hold off actually finishing the game.

 

[colibrie]

... it just means you have to hold off actually finishing the game.

This is what I see somewhat outdated. Sure it's common way for many games but the next step should be something different. I don't like if we're pushed to the situation "Ciri is in grave danger but if you want, you can deal with those 10 monster contracts before saving her because after that the game ends". For me it's bad writing.
I'd love if we could, "after saving Ciri" resume to some places, do some guest that are still relevant (maybe things have changed a bit and not every quest of those 10 is there waiting for you anymore).
Something about 15h of post-climax/epilogue game would be really nice. And not even too hard to implement.

 

[shawn_kh]

I always finish all the side missions, level up my character as much as I can, roam until I get tired, and then go to the final mission.
I'm all down for the real closure, when the story ends the game ends. If you know you can free roam, you know your main character is not going die which takes away from the experience. I'm also not a big fan of what Red Dead Redemption did.

 

[Vigilance.492]

This is what I see somewhat outdated. Sure it's common way for many games but the next step should be something different. I don't like if we're pushed to the situation "Ciri is in grave danger but if you want, you can deal with those 10 monster contracts before saving her because after that the game ends". For me it's bad writing.
I'd love if we could, "after saving Ciri" resume to some places, do some guest that are still relevant (maybe things have changed a bit and not every quest of those 10 is there waiting for you anymore).
Something about 15h of post-climax/epilogue game would be really nice. And not even too hard to implement.

Eh different strokes for different folks... Personally I've played enough RPG's that run this similar style that even when I'm completely engaged in a main storyline, I can just de-attach for a few Hours, go off roaming & then jump back in. However I can understand your point of view, I guess this is where (Hopefully) The Witcher 3 will differ (Previous games were also like this) where that if you're super engaged in the storyline on your first playthrough, you might miss some free-roaming activities... But you'll happily lunge into a second playthrough & use that as an opportunity to do a few more side-activities. This one you'll have a general idea of how the game ends & hence won't mind just holding off on that ending for awhile.

 

[colibrie]

Eh different strokes for different folks... Personally I've played enough RPG's that run this similar style that even when I'm completely engaged in a main storyline, I can just de-attach for a few Hours, go off roaming & then jump back in. However I can understand your point of view, I guess this is where (Hopefully) The Witcher 3 will differ (Previous games were also like this) where that if you're super engaged in the storyline on your first playthrough, you might miss some free-roaming activities... But you'll happily lunge into a second playthrough & use that as an opportunity to do a few more side-activities. This one you'll have a general idea of how the game ends & hence won't mind just holding off on that ending for awhile.

De-attaching is also what I do but I feel it's not flawless enough. I prefer it over just "running through the game" though. But the perfect way of handling this (in my opinion) would be of having many fast-paced parts and many slow-paced parts in the story. During the slow-pace you could do other things without it being unimmersive while in the fast-pace you follow the story. This is usually handled pretty well (resulting you not having the feeling of running through the game). But somehow it's forgotten just before the climax: you're forced to de-attach from the story in a unnatural way or end the game too early for you. This would be easily fixed for having a proper (slow-paced) playable epilogue. + that epilogue would have it's own athomsphere as the world could be in a different state than it was before.

I trust CDPRED and have high hopes they will handle this aspect smoothly.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

Yup. I'm prepared to accept that I could be wrong, but I think we need to see the source.

WTF!? no NG+ /> That really sucks.
Dragon's Dogma did that one thing right lol.
It's fun to start over with cool armor and swords at a higher level each time until we reach 60.
We earned the right to be a little more bad ass each time we start over.
It's like life and I would be more inclined to play all 36 ways to end the game if I had the ng+ option.

PLEASE GIVE US NG+

 

[Vigilance.492]

De-attaching is also what I do but I feel it's not flawless enough. I prefer it over just "running through the game" though. But the perfect way of handling this (in my opinion) would be of having many fast-paced parts and many slow-paced parts in the story. During the slow-pace you could do other things without it being unimmersive while in the fast-pace you follow the story. This is usually handled pretty well (resulting you not having the feeling of running through the game). But somehow it's forgotten just before the climax: you're forced to de-attach from the story in a unnatural way or end the game too early for you. This would be easily fixed for having a proper playable epilogue. + that epilogue would have it's own athomsphere as the world could be in a different state than it was before. />/>

I trust CDPRED and have high hopes they will handle this aspect smoothly. />/>

Well they pulled it off tremendously before. I think really in both The Witcher 1 & 2, the only time they kinda screwed up the pacing in terms of you not feeling like you had time to complete all the side-content was in Loc Muinne. However there was barely any side-quests anyway because it was expected that you would go straight for the Main Story stuff in this intense finale section. The Enhanced Edition added extra stuff, but it was only because players really were craving more in that chapter, I think that also was a good learning experience for them.

It's one of those aspects that I'm really not worried about when it comes to TW3. Solid chance they'll pull it off. In the rare case they don't you can go to option B of just de-attaching & re-attaching yourself to the Main Story & go off free-roaming.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

I'd too like to roam freely after the story.

What would stop you from roaming anywhere before ending the story?

 

[colibrie]

Well they pulled it off tremendously before. I think really in both The Witcher 1 & 2, the only time they kinda screwed up the pacing in terms of you not feeling like you had time to complete all the side-content was in Loc Muinne. However there was barely any side-quests anyway because it was expected that you would go straight for the Main Story stuff in this intense finale section. The Enhanced Edition added extra stuff, but it was only because players really were craving more in that chapter, I think that also was a good learning experience for them.

It's one of those aspects that I'm really not worried about when it comes to TW3. Solid chance they'll pull it off. In the rare case they don't you can go to option B of just de-attaching & re-attaching yourself to the Main Story & go off free-roaming.

You're right. And in TW1 the pacing was slower (and therefore better in my opinion). Both games though ended in fast-paced part (which is common..) which does not work that well in my opinion. But as you said I'm sure I'll enjoy the game even if going to the option B. But a slow-paced epilogue... that would be my dream come true. It's the thing I treasure more than the climax itself.. And The Witcher would be the right type to deliver such an ending.

What would stop you from roaming anywhere before ending the story?

As I've stated before:
I don't like if we're pushed to the situation "Ciri is in grave danger but if you want, you can deal with those 10 monster contracts before saving her because after that the game ends". For me it's bad writing that could be easily fixed.
If the story is handled in a slow-pace in the end then it's perfeclty okay to roam freely.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

I remember that, too. Can't find the source right now, though, and don't have the time to look for it now.

I dont want to free rome.
I just want to play the story again saving my level, armor, wepons, orens and abilities />/>

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

I got an idea.
Last I heard TW3 ties 1 and 2 all togather in this new game.
So in order to do new game plus, Geralt will have to die,
then ressurect again with his shitty memory.
Ta-da!!
We in turn have a neverending ending story.

 

[alextyc1]

There wont be ng+ cuz cdpr dont want to scale enemies.

And you really need ng+ in a 100 hours long game?
(I dont mind if they deside to do so)

 

[volsung]

There IS new game plus: after your first playthrough, you press "New Game" and start again, carrying over foreknowledge of some game events. Remember: knowledge is power.

 

[alextyc1]

There IS new game plus: after your first playthrough, you press "New Game" and start again, carrying over foreknowledge of some game events. Remember: knowledge is power.

This

 

[Villentretanmerth]

I'd say this will work in tandem with the whole 'Zero level scaling'.

If you decide you are up for a little challenge, you'll be able to go to an area that you really are much too low for & if skilled enough defeat much higher level Monsters & thus receive some reward (Quest Reward/Items for Crafting/Pattern or Item drop). This will probably be the main way of acquiring stuff before you should have it & make it so you can use something really bad-ass for a much longer period of the game.

Merely speculation, but it seems likely to me.

This is like one of my all time favorite thing to do in RPG's. To try and see if I can gain some awesome powerful items ahead of time. Many games are purposely designed to prevent this and want you to only obtain a certain item exactly when they want you to have it. I love, love, love the idea that you can gain some truly impressive items ahead of time if you work hard for them and/or have the skill to acquire them early with your lower-leveled character.

I remember in Oblivion, you could gain a very powerful bow for a level 1 character called the frostwyrm bow, but you had to defeat an extremely powerful troll type enemy that was invisible and hidden remotely at the top of a mountain.

The things I did in Final Fantasy 8 were nuts. I had things like Squalls's punishment sword(his 2nd best sword in the game) and powerful spells to junction such as 100 holy and triple spells. All this at his starting level and before going to Dollet for the 1st time.

Good times... good times lol

Also, I pretty much agree with everything CiriusWhite has said.

 

[gregski]

Remember: knowledge is power.

Guard it well

 

[KingHochmeister]

Guard it well

/>

Words spoken by the Emperor's finest is like divine words spoken from the Emperor himself.

 

[Nekrypt]

Let's say Geralt dies in the end.
How exactly would one continue playing?

As Casper of Rivia?...

He could die or move to another "place".
Te ones who read all Sapkowski's books can understand this.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

There wont be ng+ cuz cdpr dont want to scale enemies.

And you really need ng+ in a 100 hours long game?
(I dont mind if they deside to do say)

Yeah at least for us console players out west.
It should be an option. I just want to carry my loot etc.. into a new game.
Or I won't play it more than once that's just how I role.
/>
They don't have to scale the enmies.
Maybe just add a Free DLC hard mode like dragon's dogma did
after game sales. That would be fucking awesome!

 

[KnightofPhoenix]

Guard it well

/>

Because an open mind is like a fortress with its gates opened and unguarded