And even that I am here for because how often do you see a FEMALE lead character having sexual agency and being absolutely unapologetic about it?
Almost never when compared to men.
So yeah, Ciri having the ability to go to brothels and being like give me that hot elf over there is definitely going to ruffle a few feathers and I can't wait.
I will not tolerate Roche and Djikstra slander. Djikstra is one of the most handsome former spymasters in Northern Kingdoms, if he was good enough for Philippa Eilhart, then he is good enough for everyone else too. And Roche I think looks pretty good.
Y'all can make excuses for your ugly men all you want but the fact is, most women in the games are super hot conventionally attractive babes while most men are ugly or average at best
Time to raise the bar for male characters a little bit.
They have buff/muscular bodies of a 25 yo bodybuilders while having a 50yo man's face (basically what all of the wild hunt elves look like!).
And I agree. Emhyr is definitely attractive but that's because of money and power, not looks
Also, Witcher 3 already has objectively the most handsome man in video games and everyone who disagrees with it is wrong:
On side note, i think it's the difference between what women see as beautiful men and what men see as beautiful men. I think it's fair to say that straight guys were the primary audience for the Witcher franchise, in terms of aesthetics at least, so the guys were either not visually appealing at all, or appealing in a sense of what other guys might find appealing - square jaw, huge beard, massive shoulders, etc.
On side note, i think it's the difference between what women see as beautiful men and what men see as beautiful men. I think it's fair to say that straight guys were the primary audience for the Witcher franchise, in terms of aesthetics at least, so the guys were either not visually appealing at all, or appealing in a sense of what other guys might find appealing - square jaw, huge beard, massive shoulders, etc.
He is definitely older than her, but considering they are both adults, I don't really see him as too old! I might be biased because in video games I tend to prefer romances with characters that are either immortal or just straight up older, but I think it's good for there to be some older romance options. To me, if everyone is a hot-20 something it starts to feel weird
Honestly, I would prefer no sexualization or "romance".
Why? Three reasons:
1) Video game "romances" are always shallow, and mostly boil down to having intercourse. Which, in my opinion, is quite uninteresting and pointless.
2) It always seems to cause arguments on topics such as "X is hotter than Y" or "Z is the best love interest". Which gets really tedious and is even more pointless than charactets being intimate on screen.
3) Much more interesting and meaningful content could be done instead.
Hmm, I suppose this is down to personal opinion to some extent but I disagree that all video game romances are always shallow.
Baldur's Gate 3 did a really fantastic job of exploring different kinds of relationships that certainly don't boil down to just sex. Ofc there is a lot of sex in BG3 lol but I think the writers did a good job of engaging with each characters' relationships towards sex and how they view it, which added to the character development in a way that was really cool. (Like, for example, Astarion's entire arc is about him regaining his personal autonomy and how his relationship towards sex reflects this and changes as he goes through that journey.)
I do agree that when romances are just 'insert positive phrase here x5 and then sex scene' it's not particularly interesting, but just because badly written romances exist doesn't mean that good ones can't (or don't) exist. My favourite Dragon Age romance has no sex scenes at all but it gave the romanced character far more depth than they otherwise would have had if the romance hadn't existed.
I personally thought the romance between Geralt and Yennefer was pretty decent in TW3, and while I have some complaints about how CDPR have handled romance in the Witcher games in the past, overall I'd say the writing in TW2/3 has been v good, so I think if they can get the romances to reach the same level of quality as the other quests, it creates the potential to really elevate their future games.
So the tl;dr of this is that I think romances when used well can really add to character development and make characters feel more real, and show you different aspects to their personalities. So I'm hoping that the Witcher 4 will manage this, and it won't just be 'say flirty thing 5 times and then slightly awkward sex scene'.
You could say we didn't have attractive male characters because we didn't need them so far.
Geralt is a straight man so there's no reason to try to make other male characters physically appealing when there's no romance storyline. Okay that's fair.
But now that the protagonist is a bisexual female, I really hope we get some well written, attractive male romance options instead of the average Joes (looking at you Skjall) or the super buff gigachad warriors - a caricature of masculinity designed by men for men
I will not tolerate Roche and Djikstra slander. Djikstra is one of the most handsome former spymasters in Northern Kingdoms, if he was good enough for Philippa Eilhart, then he is good enough for everyone else too. And Roche I think looks pretty good.
Okay, this is just unfair now, how is Hjalmar ugly? He has such a lovable smile.
Also, I object to the absence of the chaddest, handsomest ruler ever put in a video game:
What I'd really like to see is a slow build to a relationship that eventually puts players in a position to lose that person based on gameplay choices. You could wind up together, estranged, or possibly fighting and killing someone you love. That would be potentially powerful stuff if paced effectively over the course of the game.
Not to open a can of worms, but this is exactly what Dragon Age Veilguard does. Internet memes and out-of-context youtube videos aside, the approach it takes to romance is quite mature. It's one of the few games ever in which my character has participated in in-game romance, because it seems "normal".
To the OP's point: I couldn't care less about the males in the game. I'm almost 100% certain that in the canon Ciri is Bi, and if I have to tolerate some sort of romance element in the game, since I'm a straight guy and too stuck in old world ways to romance a guy even when playing a female character, I'd like to have a good female romance option.
Whatever the options are, I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up playing Ciri like I did Aloy, and somewhere around the midpoint of the game, start screaming at the on-screen characters that I'm not interested in any of them, stop hitting on me because it's getting creepy, and let me try to save the freaking world.
Good example! Male characters that are clearly conventionally handsome in an idealized way that's pleasing to the eye without being a gigachad caricature.
Someone needs to send this to CDPR via mail for reference
Soooooooo as a bisexual woman I have to say I am not massively impressed with the looks of any of these dudes. They are kinda boring to me.
In a video game romance, I've got to admit, I'm mostly interested in the personality of a character. Like, Mass Effect made me fall in love with Garrus who is a bird-dinosaur dude. But damn that Turian was weirdly sexy.
And then you have Dragon Age, where they made a bald elf hobo super attractive to me. I love that egg man.
I think Baldur's Gate 3 is the only game where they made a beautiful man (Astarion) and also gave him a freak personality. I'd be okay with that in Witcher games too (I mean Iorveth is hot for sure but his personality is what makes him attractive).
Soooooooo as a bisexual woman I have to say I am not massively impressed with the looks of any of these dudes. They are kinda boring to me.
In a video game romance, I've got to admit, I'm mostly interested in the personality of a character. Like, Mass Effect made me fall in love with Garrus who is a bird-dinosaur dude. But damn that Turian was weirdly sexy.
And then you have Dragon Age, where they made a bald elf hobo super attractive to me. I love that egg man.
I think Baldur's Gate 3 is the only game where they made a beautiful man (Astarion) and also gave him a freak personality. I'd be okay with that in Witcher games too (I mean Iorveth is hot for sure but his personality is what makes him attractive).
A weird man with half of his face deformed without an eye. Okay..... that's your personal exotic taste.
I don't want weird guys, I want guys with attractive designs like they did with the girls (Yennefer, Triss, Keira, Priscilla, Ciri etc..) That would be fair.
Give me guys like Cullen, I can't believe I forgot to add him.
My one hope in terms of the inevitable romance subplot/s (really tired of these at this point, but sex sells - who knew) is that they don't make the same mistakes they did in TW1, TW3 and Cyberpunk, and that other RPG studios also make all the time. That is - don't have me follow the same kind of quest chain when meeting "bangable" characters.
It was so predictable and inelegant in Cyberpunk in particular, where there was 4 of them, with the same quest chain structure copy-pasted 4 times in a misguided effort to ensure romance options get the same amount of attention so that fans don't get upset (spoilers: they still get upset).
What CDPR did with the Triss romance in TW2 was infinitely better in comparison, in my opinion. More of that, please - romance that's integrated deeply into the plot, where it naturally flows in and out of the story beats. I don't want a glorified dating sim inside my story-driven RPG.
I must go now, before they have managed to grab their (surprisingly suggestively-shaped) pitchforks.
What CDPR did with the Triss romance in TW2 was infinitely better in comparison, in my opinion. More of that, please - romance that's integrated deeply into the plot, where it naturally flows in and out of the story beats. I don't want a glorified dating sim inside my story-driven RPG.
Ah, yes, the glorious Triss romance from TW2.
Sex - escape from prison - sex in the pool - Triss disappears for the rest of the game. Gripping stuff, not to mention roleplay opportunities for the two people who chose Shani in TW1 and still got Triss.
Ah, yes, the glorious Triss romance from TW2.
Sex - escape from prison - sex in the pool - Triss disappears for the rest of the game. Gripping stuff, not to mention roleplay opportunities for the two people who chose Shani in TW1 and still got Triss.
No interest in debating the merits of the writing there, but I do want to-- *ducks a thrown pitchfork* reiterate that my point is about the Triss romance being directly integrated into the main plot rather than being a weird dating sim offshoot, with another few similar options with the same predictable overall beats available for the player to follow.
No interest in debating the merits of the writing there, but I do want to-- *ducks a thrown pitchfork* reiterate that my point is about the Triss romance being directly integrated into the main plot rather than being a weird dating sim offshoot, with another few similar options with the same predictable overall beats available for the player to follow.
Integrating romance plot into an RPG storyline directly contradicts the purpose of the RPG does it not?
Besides, both romance options in Witcher 3 and Panam in Cyberpunk 2077 were heavily involved in the main plot, with a lot of scenes appearing within the context of some big story event.
Not necessarily, the way I see it. There's plenty of room for role-playing when navigating a romance that's part of the main quest. Does Geralt forgive Triss her involvement with the Lodge, does he believe her story or not? Does Geralt help Iorveth's/Roche's "higher cause" or does he redecorate the Nilfgaardian camp with the soldier's innards in order to help Triss escape torture and imprisonment?
