| Title | The Witcher 3: My Geralt. Let me show you him. |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Game diaries |
| When | June 16, 2016 |
Stories are weaker when they have a blank slot where a protagonist should be. MMOs are a worst case example of this, because the developers -- the storytellers -- have no way of knowing what race, class, sex, or morality you're playing..
Read the full articleWitching is not a charity.
You're in for a treat! I just started a second playthrough, but not sure how much I'll play. I'm terrible at replaying content, especially story heavy content.
Great to see you're playing this, I loved it and it's one of just a handful of games I have a platinum trophy for. Watching your stream and reading this makes me want to go back in for those dlc adventures. Looking forward to future diary entries.
If you're interested I'd like to elaborate a bit on the whole amnesia deal . It confused me too since I hadn't played any of the previous games or read the books, and I ended up doing some research to get in to the lore and back story. Skip the next paragraph if you'd rather it remain a mystery, either way I won't spoil anything from this game.
***light spoilers for the first two games and some of the books I guess***
Geralt's amnesia is essentially a plot device used in the first game to explain away his reasons for engaging in an adventure quite unrelated to the things he's been up to in the books, and also allowing him to fool around and perhaps even fall in love with other women. I gather that in the books (of which I've since read a collection of short stories) Yennefer is his on-again off-again lover, while Triss is merely an acquaintance and actually jealous of their relationship. In the first two games however, Triss and Geralt are lovers, and while he has amnesia I don't think they ever elaborate on Triss' reasons for keeping his past a secret.
The Witcher 3 brings together the games and books narratives by having his memory restored, Yennefer back in the story and following up on Ciri who was (once again in the books) basically adopted by Geralt and Yennefer, and raised as their daughter.
***spoilers end***
I hope that cleared things up if you read it, and I wish you a great time with the game.
I prefer games to let me make my character over playing an established one, and having to play as Geralt always made it hard for me to get into the Witcher games.
The strength of video games, for me, is being able to put yourself into the story in a way books and movies don't let you. I can't read a book about any character I want, but a lot of rpgs let me have some control over that. So in that since, I want the game to have as little about my character established as possible.
Yes, in the Witcher you can, to a certain extent, determine Geralt's personality, but for example Geralt 'has' to care about finding Yen and Ciri and Witcher 3, is already established as friends with many people in the world (with you having very little control over the origins/how that friendship played out, etc). Geralt cares about these people, but I don't.
Games like Arcanum did it best, your a character you create, but you care about the story because of what happens at the beginning of the game, and you aren't a spectator, your still the main player.
Dragon Age Origin's did something pretty cool in giving you a choice of 6 seperate hour or so introductory situations to let you better establish yourself in the world. It wasn't perfect, but it was helpful.
Witcher 3 is a great game, no doubt, but what I look for in games is being able to make my own character with as little already established as possible, so I can interact with the world in a way I choose (and not as just a monster hunter who gets laid a lot and has all this baggage form a series of books)
It is when Tom does it. Pfft. Making us all look bad.
I rather disagree. I think it's up to the game designer to make me care about Yen and Ciri, and I think that's clearly the focus of what CDPR does with them early on. I won't get into spoilers, but everything from the opening cut scene to the opening dream sequence to seeing the obvious concern Yen and Geralt have when they see artist's renderings of Ciri as an adult to the first time you interact with Ciri early on in the game, they're making you care about these characters.
In fact, they made me care with an almost paternal pride for Ciri that Geralt's quest became mine. Which is what good writing can and should do.
Tom, one bit of advice that you may think of as cheesing things a bit in the very, very, very early game, but really isn't--and this really isn't a spoiler, either. You get extra skill points to spend by drawing power from Points of Power in the game. CDPR helpfully put a nice little handful of them in White Orchard. There is no shame in your game for turning POI back on, heading to White Orchard, and snagging those to make your Geralt a little more effective.
Correction:
"before you first push him forward with the left stick/[W] key"
