Witcher 3 + Simple Follower System?
I've been playing a LOT of Witcher 3 since it has come out. Actually to be honest it's the only game I've been picking up to play since it has been released. I play on Deathmarch and recently had been constantly thinking on random occasions about how nice it would have been for the Witcher 3 to have had a follower system. Whether there have been moments where I was surrounded by enemies in the Wild or even ran into a monster that completely out leveled me these and many other moments left me wondering what would be like to be able to ask an NPC or Hire a mercenary. In Skyrim this was one of the features I liked. While a lot of times you were not able to bring the along on major quests it was nice to have them along when you went dungeon diving or just explored. A lot of times you go from place to place appreciating the fact you have someone fighting along beside you and entertaining you with random banter. I felt the Witcher 3 could have used this feature and have been able to do it well.
There are several missions in the game where you have someone follow/lead you in the game. Even right at the beginning you have Uncle Vesemir with you. I immediately wanted to go and check out all the different points of interest around White Orchard instead of going to where the quest wanted me. Of course this wasn't possible because he was rushing towards town in order to continue the story. As you progress through the game you see this mechanic used several times. There are even a couple times in which you are on a boat controlled by an NPC that you are doing a quest with. showing that each boat is capable of carrying two people. It left me wondering why you couldn't have someone with you when you were exploring at all times.
None of the characters that you fight with throughout the game really ever do much damage or change the tide of the battle in your favor at an extreme level. Witch only makes it more of a possibility to be able to introduce a follower system to this game without breaking the combat system. What having a follower does do is add someone who will pull aggro off of some enemies. There are many moments in the game where you simply just get surrounded and smacked around by enemies and it becomes impossible to recover because you get stun locked. There have been times when I was fighting a large monster and backed into a horde of enemies because I was too busy dodging to pay attention to my surroundings. Having a follower would do well to serve as a way of lessening the occurrence of these moments, and make a lot of battles more exciting. Each follower could have their own specialty. Yennefir, Triss, and Keira often stun enemies with their magic. The game could have built off of this and made each character you could ask to follow you have one unique thing that helps you. Maybe someone that uses a bow and helps you out whenever there are three archers firing at you while you're trying to kill four other bandits who have surrounded you.
(Spoiler)
Even Trollolo a funny singing troll you ended up helping would have been a funny character to have roam around with you. While he would have to wait outside town and not be able to enter. Or even sit in a boat with you limiting the area he would travel with you could fix this. If certain NPC's could only go to certain areas they would be able to introduce this without breaking the story line or making the game to easy. Having a humanoid follower on a boat with you while diving for treasure could be done by simply having them say "I'll wait here for you," whenever you get off the boat and hop into the water. Whenever you whistle for you horse they could use the same mechanic for the follower and have them whistle for their horse as well allowing for it to be possible to ride on horseback at any point in the game without having to worry about leaving your follower behind.
Obviously there would have to be certain quests in the game that you wouldn't be able to have a follower. Witcher Contracts I think should always be done alone so if you were to start the quest line Geralt should definitely say something like, "I should probably make sure I'm alone before I start this contract." then you simply turn to your follower and dismiss them with a small exchange of dialogue then proceed to do the Witcher Contract. Main quest lines would be the same. Geralt could say something like "I can't drag them into this," and require you to dismiss your follower before proceeding with the quest line. I know there are a lot of complications that could come with adding a system like this but there are so many follower mechanics that are apparently in game and work very well when they're following Geralt around that it's a shame they didn't add one.
I could go on for days about this but what do you guys think? Am I the only one who found themselves wishing they could bring along Vesemir, Lambert, Triss, or Yennefir , even Zoltan when spending hours running around looking for gear and killing monsters? I felt the potential for good banter between Geralt and these characters was lost.
There are several missions in the game where you have someone follow/lead you in the game. Even right at the beginning you have Uncle Vesemir with you. I immediately wanted to go and check out all the different points of interest around White Orchard instead of going to where the quest wanted me. Of course this wasn't possible because he was rushing towards town in order to continue the story. As you progress through the game you see this mechanic used several times. There are even a couple times in which you are on a boat controlled by an NPC that you are doing a quest with. showing that each boat is capable of carrying two people. It left me wondering why you couldn't have someone with you when you were exploring at all times.
None of the characters that you fight with throughout the game really ever do much damage or change the tide of the battle in your favor at an extreme level. Witch only makes it more of a possibility to be able to introduce a follower system to this game without breaking the combat system. What having a follower does do is add someone who will pull aggro off of some enemies. There are many moments in the game where you simply just get surrounded and smacked around by enemies and it becomes impossible to recover because you get stun locked. There have been times when I was fighting a large monster and backed into a horde of enemies because I was too busy dodging to pay attention to my surroundings. Having a follower would do well to serve as a way of lessening the occurrence of these moments, and make a lot of battles more exciting. Each follower could have their own specialty. Yennefir, Triss, and Keira often stun enemies with their magic. The game could have built off of this and made each character you could ask to follow you have one unique thing that helps you. Maybe someone that uses a bow and helps you out whenever there are three archers firing at you while you're trying to kill four other bandits who have surrounded you.
(Spoiler)
Even Trollolo a funny singing troll you ended up helping would have been a funny character to have roam around with you. While he would have to wait outside town and not be able to enter. Or even sit in a boat with you limiting the area he would travel with you could fix this. If certain NPC's could only go to certain areas they would be able to introduce this without breaking the story line or making the game to easy. Having a humanoid follower on a boat with you while diving for treasure could be done by simply having them say "I'll wait here for you," whenever you get off the boat and hop into the water. Whenever you whistle for you horse they could use the same mechanic for the follower and have them whistle for their horse as well allowing for it to be possible to ride on horseback at any point in the game without having to worry about leaving your follower behind.
Obviously there would have to be certain quests in the game that you wouldn't be able to have a follower. Witcher Contracts I think should always be done alone so if you were to start the quest line Geralt should definitely say something like, "I should probably make sure I'm alone before I start this contract." then you simply turn to your follower and dismiss them with a small exchange of dialogue then proceed to do the Witcher Contract. Main quest lines would be the same. Geralt could say something like "I can't drag them into this," and require you to dismiss your follower before proceeding with the quest line. I know there are a lot of complications that could come with adding a system like this but there are so many follower mechanics that are apparently in game and work very well when they're following Geralt around that it's a shame they didn't add one.
I could go on for days about this but what do you guys think? Am I the only one who found themselves wishing they could bring along Vesemir, Lambert, Triss, or Yennefir , even Zoltan when spending hours running around looking for gear and killing monsters? I felt the potential for good banter between Geralt and these characters was lost.