Witcher 3: Favorite game of all time

[Shellie]

I recently finished the main story in Witcher 3, working on The hearts of Stone DLC right now. I have never put so much time into a game before. I've never been this invested in the characters or gotten emotional from the ending. I can easily say this is my favorite game of all time.

Yes, I know I'm late to the party on this, such is the life with limited game time.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah it's a great game. Hearts of Stone has one of my favorite stories in a game ever.

[Shellie]

Yeah it's a great game. Hearts of Stone has one of my favorite stories in a game ever.

To take the rose or not take the rose... ouch

[Shrinweck]

I took the rose. Keeping her trapped because of some abusive asshole seemed like a net punishment even if she's grown accustomed to it.

[Julius Seeker]

I am a latecomer to the Witcher 3, playing it off and on for the last year and a bit. But Hearts of Stone made look for a proper Witcher 3 thread. Convenient that everyone here is talking about it!

Something about having the cheeriest quest so far, followed by the saddest, left me feeling extremely weird and empty, like I had just run over someone's family dog.

[Shellie]

I just got a new beast of a machine. Ryzen 5500, geforce 3070. I plan on replaying Witcher 3 when I can. I wish I could play it again for the first time!

[Julius Seeker]

This sword “Iris” is ridiculously overpowered. Because of the double rend and other attributes, it’s over twice as powerful and significantly more useful than my previous steel sword - and somehow seems to be above even that since groups of enemies that used to take me a good 2-3 minutes are going down in under 15 seconds.

I’m currently level 38, and no steel sword I have come across in the game (including Witcher Gear swords) is even remotely close to as good. I am thinking about what I should add to the sword since I believe it has three slots.

The health loss is the cost, but far from the end of the world.

[Julius Seeker]

I've also now completed the main story... more than a year later.

The main world is kinda dead, unfortunately. I think rather than cleaning up the existing quests - witcher totally worth it! - I'll start a New Game Plus and go at it all from scratch.... after I do Blood and Wine which I just began, and WOW I love the look of Toussaint.

[Shellie]

I honestly wasn't a huge fan of Toussaint (I do love saying it in an overexpressed French accent though lol), nor the storyline really. After Hearts of Stone, it just didn't compare for me. It was a nice mood change from the rest of the lands though.

[Julius Seeker]

There are a lot of people who share that opinion about Hearts of Stone; it was definitely tighter in the story department because it didn't veer off the main path, while Blood and Wine is a giant sprawl. Also, Hearts of Stone is intensely emotional, while Blood and Wine is very light-hearted. Also, Hearts of Stone, I am fairly sure, had their best writer do the whole thing from top to bottom, as there is a consistency throughout. It wouldn't surprise me if the writer was the same one who did the Bloody Baron storyline, and the Witch Hunter storylines in Novigrad.

So far, I like the whole feudal society in Toussaint. Geralt playing the role of a wine Baron - but literally a Baron, he has an estate and peasants working for his Manor. I'm a big fan of all the chivalry stuff going on, and the Noble customs, and land seizing schemes (I'm in the middle of a quest dealing with two of my neighbouring Barons now... and jealous that both of their estates are larger than mine, the Baroness owns TWO towns!)

That's not to say I don't like the society of Redania and Temaria. They're much more like 1350s to the 18th century, except without guns. Novigrad has a very Free City of the Holy Roman Empire feeling to it - like Danzig, Hamburg, or Lubeck. The wealthy nobles have a very middle class feel to them, so it's like medieval fantasy tech, but with an early modern feel.

One thing I really like about Toussaint compared to the other areas is how I always know where I am. There are several landmarks that are visible for vast distances; in Velen and Redania, I was often referring to a map to figure out where I was and where I was heading. Even after finishing the game, I am pretty sure I'll get lost after 30 seconds in Velen.

The brighter atmosphere also feels like the summer. Nice during the icy winters of February where I live.

If I had one complaint about Blood and Wine, it's that it dives underground a lot more than the others. While Hearts of Stone does put you underground in one area, it's in a crypt. I find the crypts to be more interesting than the caves and Elven ruins - which to me feel too much like a dungeon crawler. In fact, that's one thing I really enjoy about the Witcher how it doesn't constantly put the user in giant underground dungeons - the game mainly takes place on the surface. Crypts seem to always have ghosts, and ghosts are usually interesting, and in Hearts of Stone, funny! =)

One of the best moments in Witcher 3, IMO


Then there's this moment if Vesemir is dead (which he was in my game):

[Shellie]

9.99 on Steam right now for game+both DLC. Crazy! If you haven't, buy it now! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2920 ... Wild_Hunt/

[Julius Seeker]

If you're ever looking to have something on in the background, The Geralt-Shani story from Hearts of Stone is fairly good.

I'm considering just giving Hearts of Stone a full watch through while doing some house work or something. But anyway, Geralt and Shani in a 2 hour and 14 minute film:

[Julius Seeker]

I'm mostly responding here with some trivia, to put this thread back onto page 1 over all the spam.

But, one thing that's noteworthy about Witcher 3 is that it might be the first RPG since the Wizardry franchise to see big success in Japan... It managed to top Famitsu sales charts the week of its released, and in the most recent "Top 20 RPGs of all time" Famitsu poll, it's the only game developed outside of Japan that made the list...

On the topic of Wizardry, while the games were originally developed in New York City in 1981, the versions most people played were the console versions made in 1987 and later, which were actually Japanese remakes by Tokyo based Game Studio Corporation. They incorporated gameplay mechanics, such as the menu-based battle system, from Dragon Quest. The last Western developed Wizardry game was Wizardry 8, and for the last 20 years has been developed exclusively in Japan by multiple publishers including Atlus, Namco Bandai, Sony, and Starfish - the vast majority of the games are exclusive to Japan.

As another note, Witcher 3 hit 20th on Famitsu's latest list of top games of all time, the highest ranking game developed outside of Japan. There are only three other non-Japanese games Famitsu readers view favourably. In the last Top 100 poll, Wizardry* ranked 66th, GTA Vice City got 76th, and Tetris* 96th.
* The version of Wizardry is the 1987 version, which is actually a remake developed in Japan by Game Studio Corporation, and Tetris is a remake by Gunpei Yokoi at Nintendo.

[Julius Seeker]

I started a new fresh game. It’s just as fun, if not more fun this time around. Mainly because I know what I’m doing and realize not to worry much about loot. In the end, it’s all about getting the Witcher Gear and the materials required.

I’m a little hazy, but I think it’s basically dismantle for all ores that aren’t steel or iron, and any kind of cured leather. Keep all crafting and alchemy items (at first, at least). Sell any food items that fetch good prices - honeycomb for Tomira in White Orchard is a good example. Using the the weaker/cheaper stuff, like water, instead.

I also got all the Tamarian gear and the Viper swords at White Orchard, and am going to ignore all other gear until I get to the Witcher armours.

Another thing, no need to stress over maximizing profits - I did that in early game and found it annoying. Instead, I’m just going to sell to whoever’s convenient. It won’t be as efficient, but the early game is WAY more fun this way. Lots of money, just having fun.

It also helps knowing what all the character dev stuff is about this time around, what I want and where I’m going with skills. My first game I just went all in on melee combat, this time it’s magic. I already have a level 3 fire stream and I’m focusing on getting my delusion skill up to level 3 as well. My character level is 5 so I can only junction 3 skills and one mutagen.

Anyway, bam! This game is indeed one of the greatest games of all time. My one big hope is Tetsuya Takahashi is looking at this game and that there’s a Xenoblade game that does it as well. While Xenoblade does the open world stuff and map design better than Witcher 3, story delivery and side quests are not on the same level. It’s not that the worlds aren’t rich with characters, it’s that Witcher 3 puts heavy production values into its side quests, and Xenoblade only really did that with Xenoblade Chronicles X, and even then, not all of them.


Note: don’t read this part unless you’re familiar with the FF6, FFT, FF8, and FFX - because otherwise it’ll sound like nonsense, and maybe it will anyway
For character development, Witcher 3 has kind of a smoothed out FF8 style system, complete with the crafting the junctioning, and all that jazz. With these types of systems, it’s all about learning what skills you like and then developing them. The major difference is in FF8 you have multiple GFs learning skills while in Witcher 3 there’s only Geralt, and he’s got more options than an individual GF - also, with Witcher 3 you manually spend AP, while FF8 is closer to FFT and FF6, where you select your skill and the AP you gain automatically collects on it. I like Witcher 3’s system better. It’s like all the good parts from FF8 and FFX rolled into one.

[Julius Seeker]

I’ve also started re-reading the books—I’ve read the first three already, but now I am doing it again, and a bit more slowly this time.

I’m on the second book, currently. And am reading it with a bit of a comparative eye from the games.

Before I read them the first time, I was under the impression from Reddit and YouTube, I that the books were more like the games and not anything like the Netflix series. They have it backwards. The Netflix series is much closer to the books than the games are, and is mostly based on the books.

In terms of characters, on my re-read, come across three that are in the game—Jaskier/Dandelion, Yennefer, and (of course), Geralt.

Jaskier, firstly, doesn’t remind me too much of either the Netflix or game version entirely. The Netflix series version is more interesting, but feels like a different character. What the Netflix series does get right is that Jaskier is an egotistical character who is highly impulsive—in the game, both these elements are missing. What the game gets right and the Netflix series doesn’t is that Jaskier/dandelion is an airhead. Another thing is the music, Jaskier is a bard who performs songs, ballads, and poetry - for whatever reason, I feel like this is more said than shown in the games, while the Netflix series shows it. The Netflix version is more screen friendly, as Jaskier is sharp, witty, and sarcastic, and this has made him a fan favourite—he’s not really any of these things in the books, at least so far.

Geralt, both Witcher 3 and Netflix have a much cooler character than the books. The book Geralt is much darker, more disturbed, and more easily offended. He also comes off as an older and uglier character in the books. I suppose it’s kind of like Aragorn in Lord of the Rings who’s supposed to be more leathery-skinned, darker, and unpleasant than Viggo. So Geralt of the game and Netflix Geralt don’t particularly remind me of the book Geralt other than he’s crazy good with swords—at least with personality. In terms of actions and motives, the Netflix Geralt is more like the book than the game. But, IMO, if Geralt of the game acted the way he did in the books, sparing human lives, being in much more danger from certain enemy types, wounds effecting him a lot more, then I don’t think the game would be nearly as good.

And Yen, this is a character I saw a lot of complaints about, saying the Netflix character was too young and too foul mouthed. But the thing is, that’s accurate to the books. While she’s old of age, the book Yen’s appearance is that of a woman in her very early twenties, while the game version she looks closer to 35. In the books she’s also got a mouth like a sailor, is very hot headed/high strung, whiny, and unscrupulous. The game version just feels like a different character than the book, while the Netflix Yen seems like the same character.

Of all the adaptations of Main characters, Netflix Yen is the one I find most accurate. Not that I don’t like the portrayals of the other characters. Dandelion of the books, for example, would get annoying quickly on screen—but he works in the books.

[Julius Seeker]

I hate to be the guy with multiple responses in a row, but damn I forgot how much Witcher 3 has to do in it.

Also, “Witcher 4” has been announced. Speculation is strong that it won’t star Geralt - most suggest a Create a Character or Ciri as the starring role.

IMO, jumping to the future and doing Ciri’s daughter might be interesting. The story goes that Ciri is the 9th generation of Lara Dorren. Her child will be the 10th generation, the weapon planned by the Aen Elle.

[Oracle]

Have never played Witcher 3, so I'm looking forward to the remaster upgrade for next gen (either PS5 or PC, depends on how my RTX 2070 stacks up).

Delayed again, curious when in will actually release.

So many titles getting the 'next gen' makeover treatment.

[Julius Seeker]

I’d say it’s definitely worth getting the game now. The remaster was basically cancelled (because of Russian sanctions) and reinitiated by the in-house studio, which means they have to get the resources together.

It’s a very long game, but one with a ton of value playing it multiple times. I’m on my second run, and I know I’ll be playing again within a couple years.