I got lucky with that sword I guess. I had had my previous set of Witcher gear for too long, and random relic swords I was finding on quests were already stronger by that point. And then I did that quest, and the sword I got was stronger than the strongest relic sword I was using at the time. So it really was a great sword for a while.
At least I went looking for the next set of Witcher gear that I was high enough level to wear.
Honestly SlyFrog I would try the Heart of Stone DLC. Probably the single best story arc in the game overall. It’s pretty long though, not just a quest you can burn through in an evening. And if you play your cards right, there are a couple of swords that will carry you through the rest of the game at the end.
See, and that part in Kaher Morhen was one of my favorite parts of the game. The whole interaction with Eskel and Lambert was great. Yes the interactions were fairly minimal and on tight rails, but it was a great character moment.
ANYHOW
My thoughts on mechanics today.
If I were to sum up my total thoughts on the mechanics of Witcher 3 it would be this. Serviceable. Not great, not horrible, just serviceable. Controls were sensible, if a little sloppy at times. The upgrades were neat, if not terribly interesting in effect. Movement felt fine, but jumping could get annoying when trying to get up on a ledge.
In the end there was meaningful changes to how Geralt performed based on my upgrade choices. By the end he was a sign casting badass, who could cast about once every 1.5 seconds. His signs were also exceptionally powerful, having fully committed with 3 full blue mutagen and sign skill blocks, and full Griffin gear. But what I liked in alternate signs and notable feeling upgrades, I was irked by how it constrains you. Having only a limited number of slottable skills seemed like a neat idea at the time, I’m sure, but it does pretty well force you to pick one or two skills at a time to max out, ignoring all others. At the end I had all 12 slots unlocked, but that meant that I could only do the sign skills, no mixing into battle or potions, excepting the poisoning one. The idea of having mutagens get more effective when slotted with skills of the same type is neat, but having only slotted skills take effect just… meant I didn’t experiement. It meant that unlocking other tiers of the red or green trees didn’t happen because putting points into skills I couldn’t slot to get one I wanted was a waste.
And oils. The limited charges probably seemed like a good idea to them at the time, but in reality just creates busywork as you keep having to pop into a menu to reapply during battle. Now I know there is a mod to automatically apply oils, but the game was designed with the system otherwise, and it is fair to critique the game as it was made, not how fans fixed it to be. And the potions and decoctions I rarely used, other than swallow and Raffords Decoction, as those were the big healing items. I started using a few more towards the end of the game, mainly because I could. But I could have easily ignored them to no detriment. My super upgraded Quen was enough to get me through anything.
Then there is gear. As we’ve talked about recently, it wasn’t that interesting. There were a few moments where it was impactful, but by the halfway point I had crafted Witcher gear that made it so I could ignore it for 30 hours, upgrade, then ignore another 20. At the beginning of the game there was a quest to take out a werewolf, the first such encounter in the game. At this point I hadn’t crafted any gear, merely upgraded from a loot drop. I got to this fight, admittedly a few levels above me, and just couldn’t beat him. I’d get halfway through and he would activate his regeneration. I simply could not break through that. I tried about 10 times, nothing.
So I went to the nearest armorer and crafted the Viper school sword. Built in chance to poison. I also maxed the apply poison when using oils skill. then I went back. Cut through him like butter. Got a poison effect to trigger (when you have a 15% chance, and you have to take 30-40 whacks, you tend to approach 100% poison) and was able to break through the regen. That felt good. That was the time where I most felt the importance of gear. A little later I got two separate Tir Torchir blades, one a few levels higher and a bit later. This steel sword had a +20% chance to cause bleeding. Man I loved those swords, kept them a few levels longer than I probably would have otherwise. But after that I crafted the Cat school gear, and it was over from there. I used Cat school full set equipment from probably level 18 to 26. In all that time I never felt pressed to upgrade. By the end the loot drops were getting better in pure damage or armor, but even still the bonuses for Cat were worth slightly lower output. When I got the plans for full upgraded Griffin I finally replaced my armor, and that was it for the game. For the last 50 hours I wound up using only two equipment sets. Now, granted, by the end I did finally replace my swords with relic swords for the final battle.
Now all of this probably sounds pretty critical, and it is, but it is a criticism tempered by the importance. Personally the loot chase is one of the least interesting parts of any RPG to me. As long as it is tolerable, and not actively annoying me, I don’t really care that much. The story, tone, dialogue, and characters are fare more critical to me. It’s why Mass Effect 1 is the best in the series, IMO. The tone and world are just at their best. Mordin is a compelling argument for 2, as are the better in general companions, but the violence to the worldbuilding is enough to give 1 the edge. This may seem an odd place to put such a digression, but it really hammers home my interests and priorities I think. Objectively 2 is better mechanically, and as a game. But those are less important to me. so it is with the Witcher 3. The mechanics are not transcendant, they’re not even particularly good. But they are unobtrusive, and functional. That is enough for me if the writing and story are good enough.
Witcher 3 is more than good enough at them.
And that’s really the core of it. What I want, what I enjoy, from RPGs is what this game does well. What it doesn’t excel at are things I generally don’t care about. Which, good job I guess.
I more or less ignored crafting, and, even shopping really. Just like i ignored Gwent. These “side games” might take dozens of hours to min-max, but i never really felt the urge to figure them out. Went looking for Cat School gear and simply couldn’t find the marker on the edge of the cliff somewhere. Shrugs. I never even really bothered with light/medium/heavy armor. I still compulsively went through crates but honestly it was all pointless busywork.
I love the game and I fully agree with this, just so you know.
I wonder if a signs build would be the best way to play. I was in a melee combat craze so I mostly used a sword, but I loved signs in my second playthrough of TW2. Knocking people over with aard never got old.
whynotboth.jpg
I always go full into whirl/rend and with all the signs and alternative ones and use and combine all, with some light alchemy sprinkled on top.
Regarding the mechanics, while loot and XP distro could use work, the mechanics of movement/combat themselves I found genuinely great - after I enabled alternative movement response, disabled fish eye effects and made sure I had 60fps. The fact that the combat didn’t start boring me even after 500+ hours is huge for me, even if it is still “busywork” and not the main reason why I play (that would be narrative, exploration, characters)
The alternative movement response does make a massive improvement, and thank you for that suggestion earlier.
You are welcome, I have no idea why CDP never made it default. In fact that are some really dumb design decisions set by default (this one, that fish eye effect, those question marks that make it look like Ubi game, overbearing UI…). Fortunately it is very modifiable.
There was probably internal resistance to the alternate movement. They said at the time they wanted Geralt to feel like he had weight as a real person. But there are better ways to do that. Just let us turn on a dime if we want to!
Oh well, no biggie.
Well, I’m basically hate playing this now just to finish it off.
Unfortunately, the story has fallen apart for me completely at the end. I’m rescuing Phillipa, and suddenly I’m telling Diekstra stuff about the Emperor’s plans that I have no knowledge of, because I did not take Ciri to the Emperor. A bunch of other similar messed up story stuff has also occurred.
Just learned that refusing to steal horses makes you a bad person.
That was one of a few very questionable choices the dev team made.
That’s weird, I didn’t take Ciri to the emperor and never noticed such inconsistencies.
A friend has a copy of the base Witcher game I might borrow and see if I like it. Does anyone know if I start the game on the base version that came out a couple of years ago, and I get the complete game disc if the saves transfer over?
You’re on console? On PC I’m sure it would work fine, but consoles may be a different thing altogether.
Yeah. Ps4
I know that on Xbox One, saves between the original Wild Hunt game and the later Game of the Year edition with both expansions will not transfer. That may not be true of any other platform, I just don’t know.
Yeah, what Mr Dive x 3 mahone said.
There are two versions of the game, and the saves aren’t compatible.
So, if you have the main base game and add the season pass expansion to it, that’s one set of saves.
If you end up with the GOTY edition, that creates a different save structure that only works with the GOTY version.
Ok. Thanks.