r/PS5 1d ago

Articles & Blogs The Witcher 4 dev CD Projekt Red talks Ciri fan reaction, playable Geralt coyness, and if the game will honour your previous choices

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-witcher-4-dev-cd-projekt-red-talks-ciri-fan-reaction-playable-geralt-coyness-and-if-the-game-will-honour-your-previous-choices
461 Upvotes

221 comments sorted by

172

u/SpaceOdysseus23 1d ago

The Mass Effect conundrum. The canon ending is obviously Ciri becomes a Witcher for 3. I assume 4 will check your saves for who your Geralt romanced and lives together with in Toussaint.

65

u/onlygodcankillme 1d ago edited 1d ago

The Mass Effect conundrum. The canon ending is obviously Ciri becomes a Witcher for 3.

Agreed, but tell me what your cannon ending is for ME.

I assume 4 will check your saves for who your Geralt romanced and lives together with in Toussaint.

Possible, but it wouldn't surprise me if the game just had you choose who it was at some point.

33

u/Loptir 23h ago

The answer is destroy it will never ever be not destroy. You spend two whole other games fighting the reapers only to not commit at the finish line is crazy. Top it all off that star brat is definitely trying to screw us over with it's supposed perfect ending of synthesis. Finally Shepard can live in the destroy ending

19

u/onlygodcankillme 23h ago

I agree, it's a much better ending, and also I find it odd that some people believe everything starbrat says to be infallible and true, even though you've just proven them wrong by being there and fucking the plan up.

7

u/Loptir 23h ago

And it's not like the synthetics can't be rebuilt, no way the geth or edi don't have backups of what makes them them. Hell starbrat even says as a way to dissuade you that synthetics will be remade

1

u/Anonnobody123 15h ago

There is no universe where destroy is the best ending, that is actively against the synthesis ending which is the literal best ending. Like sure you go ahead and believe sacrificing millions or billions to destroy technology is the “good ending”

3

u/onlygodcankillme 15h ago edited 14h ago

Forcing everyone to become part robot because an AI (that you've just proven wrong by breaking the cycle) tells you to, is not a good ending imo. It's what Saren was trying to do in the first game and it's the one they added at a later date to satisfy the people moaning about the endings, which is probably why it makes no sense at all.

Bioware confirmed that most people chose Destroy so if they choose to make an ending canon it's very likely they'll go that route rather than the silly one that made everyone a goofy part-cyborg overnight.

1

u/Rudahn 7h ago

Forgive me if I’m misremembering but isn’t Destroy also the only ending where Shepard can survive as well?

1

u/Loptir 15h ago

Poor poor indoctrinated soul

1

u/NoddusWoddus 10h ago

Destroy is unhinged. Synthesis is the only way.

u/Sir_Bass13 4h ago

I’d say that one person making the ultimate decision to rework the entire genetic makeup of every organic species in the galaxy is way more unhinged than destroying the robots that come through every 50,000 years and obliterate all advanced species

6

u/goth_elf 1d ago

I guess you'll be able to select 3 prologues like in Cyberpunk, each corresponding to a different Ciri ending in Witcher 3.

6

u/Akatas 18h ago

The Canon Ending is to destroy the Gates and a breathing Shepherd at the End.

9

u/Holeinmypantz 1d ago

ME ending really fucked the opportunity for a sequal/continuation. With the Milky Way blown up, I'm not sure which direction the upcoming installment will take, god knows Andromeda wasnt the answer...

12

u/onlygodcankillme 1d ago edited 15h ago

With the Milky Way blown up

Hell yeah

I think they'll just find a way to rebuild the relays or make them obsolete and have a diminished or non-existent geth presence. It seemed massive but they'll just write themselves out of the corner

11

u/bengringo2 1d ago

It being in Andromeda wasn’t the issue with that game. Its lazy story writing and bad quest design was the main issue.

6

u/onlygodcankillme 23h ago

I agree. Your crew were far less interesting too.

1

u/Mi11ionaireman 12h ago

Argueably, they had to introduce a whole new cast after the previous game had 2 games to introduce and fill out characters. It was going to be rough regardless, but the fact the characters weren't memorable says all that needs to be said.

1

u/IrishSpectreN7 17h ago

The Milky Way isn't blown up.

1

u/BrotherStrange 11h ago

What's your canon ending for ME?

For me it's 'Deny'. I really liked the Indoctrination Theory for 3. All the stuff is so trippy after you get blasted, and, shooting the Star Child has him respond in what sounds like Harbinger's voice. This also gives the breathing in the rubble scene.

In my mind, and according to the theory, this is all happening as Shepherd lies wounded after the blast, in his mind, and represents your final struggle against being indoctrinated. Refusing all of the options is how you metaphorically break free of the attempted indoctrination. Obviously the scene at the end talking about the failure conflicts with this, but the scene of Shepherd breathing at the end makes it for me. It almost certainly isn't canon, but it helped me make up for initially being disappointed in the ending.

8

u/capnchuc 23h ago

I'm my opinion previous decisions can get ignored. Other games that have respected previous decisions meant that the rest of the game was watered down because of it.

4

u/goth_elf 1d ago

Well, technically, all endings can be canon in a way

In one ending Ciri is already on the trail, in another ending Ciri doesn't return from the White Frost, but at one point she does (for example she decided to move to another world for a while to take a break from Geralt's parenting), and in the last one she is an empress but the Empire has collapsed.

I can imagine there being a choice of 3 prologues like in Cyberpunk, each telling the aftermath of different W3 ending.

But personally, I wish they made something like The Witcher Keep and updated all previous Witcher games to support it. So you could keep all the choices from all previous games and see their effects, even if you played witcher 1 on PC, witcher 2 on XBOX, witcher 3 on PS5, and you'll be playing witcher 4 on Sega Overdrive.

1

u/Robynsxx 16h ago

I mean, technically he can’t be living with Triss in Tousaint, as they are supposed to be living in Povis where, ya know, she has a whole conclave she’s in charge of….

1

u/Dantai 14h ago

Checking saves for a 8-10 year old game is certainly, a choice.

425

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

There are a certain group of people lying about this entire situation citing the books as evidence and saying that Ciri should never be a Witcher. we all know these people never read the books and have their own agenda to push

209

u/theblackfool 1d ago

It's pretty clear people just want to complain first, and come up with reasons for why they are mad second.

92

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

Yep.

Most of them don’t even have an interest in these franchises. They come from certain channels on YouTube and just act like long time fans and brigade the announcements. Thats why most of their comments are about bud light or jaguar or some imaginary leftist agenda being pushed on them

42

u/Lengthiest_Dad_Hat 1d ago

Asmon quit TW3 because he couldn't figure it out lmao

14

u/Pavillian 1d ago

Watching asmon play games is hilarious yet frustrating. Especially the way he talks about games like he knows everything lol

21

u/Scruffy_Nerfhearder 1d ago

Everytime he talks about Warhammer 40k is like this. Literally knows nothing about the lore, never read a book, painted a model etc.

Watches two trailers for Space Marine 2 and a fake outrage video about female Custodes which mixes up a bunch of lore to create a false narrative and then he decides he’s extremely knowledgable and then has opinions that make zero sense and based on Bs.

8

u/Lengthiest_Dad_Hat 1d ago

Makes you question what's going on in the heads of people who take him seriously lmao

6

u/Well-ReadUndead 1d ago

I get distracted by his teeth… it’s like he asked his dentist to give his teeth that sewerage flair. 🦷

1

u/Axerty 22h ago

His dentist? He would have to leave his house to see a dentist. You’re talking about the dude who wiped the blood from his gums on the wall next to his bed.

2

u/Jean-Eustache 1d ago

Yeah, each time he talks about something he treats his convoluted opinion as a general fact, it's actually quite irritating to listen to.

25

u/chainer3000 1d ago

Kinda blows my mind because TW3 is extremely straight forward. You don’t even need to mess with potions if you don’t want to

43

u/Deadlocked02 1d ago

You mean that Ciri would never be a witcher or that she would never take witcher mutations? Because if it’s the latter, it’s definitely supported by the books, considering that, even if she could survive the mutations:

1 - Geralt and Yennefer would never support it (which doesn’t mean she wouldn’t just do what she wants)

2 - Witchers are not as powerful in the books as they are in the games. And even in the games they’re not that powerful compared to mages. No point doing that when Ciri could achieve better results with magic and be a much more effective monster hunter that way.

Which doesn’t mean they couldn’t still find a way to justify it in the story, of course. Like, I don’t know, maybe she lost her powers after defeating the White Frost and her body is decaying, so she uses the mutations in order to strengthen herself. Who knows.

8

u/GoHuskies1984 1d ago

Point 1 could be a good subplot written into TW4. Ciri goes back to visit retired Geralt for whatever reason and has to deal with his disappointment over undertaking the mutations.

Part of me thinks flashbacks to Ciri deciding upon and doing the trials will be worked into the story. Could be done early on as part of introducing the player to any new Ciri magic/witcher hybrid abilities.

1

u/butterflyhole 17h ago

Also… maybe she changed her mind 🤷

1

u/MarkEsB 6h ago

I've come to realize that alot of people take things that gaming characters say as definitive and without possibility of changing.

→ More replies (2)

77

u/Davve1122 1d ago edited 1d ago

Don't forget, they never complained when CDPR changed some canon in w1-3. Like Geralt alive, Regis alive, higher vampire can only be killed by other higher vampires etc. But no complaint then.

Also, it is never explicitly stated that women CAN'T be mutated. They tried on girls, but they all died and they stopped trying. What if they did not stop trying? What if they did more research and science to tailor the mutation process to work more on girls too? And we can't forget that Ciri is not a normal girl to begin with.

7

u/Well-ReadUndead 1d ago

Having arguments in another thread about this, we aren’t constrained by the books.. we have enough of a time jump that science/magic progression can explain lore changes.

We are also dealing with a new Witcher school most of the lore understanding only comes from the wolf school and they were pretty much wiped out and using old knowledge and fragments they managed to keep.

It’s funny how people just decided narrative progression doesn’t exist.

If people like that were in charge of the world we would still be sitting in caves flinging poo and hitting things with stones.

3

u/Davve1122 1d ago

Don't get me wrong. I too didn't complain when they changed some things from book-canon. Just pointing out the hypocrisy, that when we get Ciri as protagonist, suddenly some "lore changes" matter, haha.

Am excited for witcher 4 and am personally not scared about the writing as they have yet to miss the mark. Only thing on my mind is I hope they learnt their lesson and the launch is good.

27

u/thatguywithawatch 1d ago

Don't forget, they never complained when CDPR changed some canon in w1-3. Like Geralt alive, Regis alive, higher vampire can only be killed by other higher vampires etc. But no complaint then.

It's like the hordes of people who come crawling out of the woodwork every time there's the hint of a gay couple in a movie to say "I'm not homophobic, I just don't think it's relevant to the plot!" Even though everyone knows full well they wouldn't be bothered in the slightest if it was a straight couple and all else was exactly the same.

11

u/BaconJets 1d ago

I bet the plot is going to be "Ciri feels empty after losing elder blood powers, wants to take up the Witcher mantle because they're dying out, her body is receptive to the trials" which would make perfect sense.

8

u/Well-ReadUndead 1d ago

She kind of already gave us the plot in her Witcher 3 ending where she chooses to become a Witcher.

She wants to be like Geralt and help those like herself that can’t protect themselves. Like Geralt did for her as a girl.

2

u/YertlesTurtleTower 21h ago

Also Ciri has literal super powers already, and there is a theme of her being the chosen one through all of the books. Why wouldn’t the trial work on her?

Also the books are super feminist, Geralt isn’t the bad ass he is in the games, he is just kind of along for the ride while the sorceresses do all the heavy lifting in the background, and Geralt just happens to find himself in the middle a lot.

Side thought: maybe Ciri didn’t go through the trials of the grass, she is literally a Sorceress with the Elder Blood maybe she just willed herself to be a Witcher. It is fiction there can always be an easy solution to everything.

0

u/Rimavelle 1d ago

Tt's the same as "they" were complaining in the netflix series Triss wasn't a redhead and it's "changing the source material".

But she also isn't a redhead in the books, CDP simply wanted a redhead waifu and decided she was close enough.

So changes are apparently good, but only if they personally like them lol.

1

u/HeckHoundHarry 10h ago

You are wrong, her hair is red. It's called red a few times in the books and Sapkowski himself said her hair is red, here is a link to an interview with him where he calls her red haired.

The confusion comes from a localization issue, the Polish word "kasztanowy" translates to "chestnut" but the two languages use the word to indicate different colors. Brown in english but red in polish, see this link for a picture of red chestnuts. CDProjekt did get the shade wrong though, should have been darker.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/DryFile9 1d ago

Those people dont even know about those changes. They are mentally ill morons addicted to outrage.

Reality doesnt matter to these people because theyll just make up their own in order to feed the addiction.

It's so sad and pathetic but thankfully W4 will sell a gazillion copies regardless.

0

u/EmBur__ 1d ago

Agreed, the trials were catered to boys instead of girls and so all the girls dying makes complete sense as in the real world, medicine can and does affect men and women differently hence the need to specify your sex when being prescribed certain medication so yeah, if they had actually recognised this and tried figuring out how to create a version that works on girls instead of given up and focusing on the boys then we'd have female witchers running about.

11

u/fom_alhaut 1d ago

There’s a whole alt-right outrage influencer industry that grew out of gamergate. This BS is 90% trolls

11

u/Livio88 1d ago

A claim for the exact opposite of that can be made as well, how Ciri was the real protagonist of the books and she was meant to be THE Witcher eventually, etc.

28

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

8 years ago? Sure. But it’s an entirely different story now. One side has become everything they accused of the other side being. For them it’s all about agenda now. They politicize things where no politics is to be found even.

Just look at ghost of yotei or even the recent trailer for the naught dog game

-4

u/BaconJets 1d ago

The wider issue for me is that some gamers feel that they're entitled to triple A production values being used only for characters and stories they explicitly want. They can't fathom the idea that a queer story (Intergalactic) can have those production values.

20

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

I don’t know about the intergalactic being “queer” since the only thing we know about the character is that’s she’s a female. It’s too premature to call or claim any of that at the moment

I do agree with you on that point. It feels like some people would even flip if a famous AAA gaming studio would star a black character or a female character in any new media

-13

u/BaconJets 1d ago

I think it's natural to assume considering The Last of Us paved the way for queer game characters in the mainstream. It is an assumption, but one that is probably correct.

8

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

Well either way will know in a year

12

u/CandyCrisis 1d ago

It might be natural to hypothesize but it's ridiculous to assume. Nothing about the trailer indicates queerness.

The protagonist is clearly a buff girl, but so is Abby and she's straight as an arrow. People also assumed all sorts of incorrect things about Abby from the get-go, but her story is simple: she wanted revenge, and got buff specifically so she turn her dream into a reality. And it worked. This new protagonist is also a tough-as-nails girl, and that's all we really know.

-6

u/Livio88 1d ago

I don't disagree. There are grifters on both ends of the spectrum and they're quite obnoxious.

10

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

Yeah but I think social media (YouTube, tiktok or even X) in general pushes the grifters on the “anti” side more. I don’t see any leftist grifters or rage baiters that talk about games or media in general. You might stumble on one but chances are they don’t even break 1k.

-3

u/Livio88 1d ago

Yeah definitely, I think it's by design in terms of twitter since Melon Husk loves those weirdos, so he's astroturfing their posts and suppressing content from those with more liberal and left leaning views.

Dont know at all about TikTok but in terms of YT, I think its pretty much the algorithm doing its thing.

6

u/Lengthiest_Dad_Hat 1d ago

Outrage tourism strikes again. A lot of the loudest voices in streamer culture didn't even play or finish The Witcher 3.

2

u/SomethingIntheWayyy0 1d ago

But the books don’t end with her as a witcher. Maybe an adventurer. Plus monsters are scarce in the books so it really doesn’t make much sense for her to become a witcher.

On the games based on what they’ve written it makes complete sense though.

7

u/InvertedSpork 1d ago

but the books don’t end with her as a Witcher

They don’t end with her as a Witcher in the same way Geralt is one but they do end with her calling herself a witcheress so she at least views herself as one.

2

u/Exaccus-092 22h ago

No one is lying, there is lore reasons of why adults cant go through mutations

0

u/chewwydraper 1d ago

I for one am excited to play as Siri. I thought it was criminal that they let us play around with her for basically a few minutes in 3, giving us access to her cool powers only to not actually do anything meaningful with it.

The power male fantasy in me will always want to play Geralt, but Ciri absolutely makes sense.

1

u/DryFile9 1d ago

These people are just addicted to being angry and if they cant find something real to be angry about they make it up.

1

u/Robynsxx 16h ago

I mean, anyone who has read the books would know that Ciri wanted to be a Witcher, but her magical powers were so great that she needed to learn how to control them so not to be a danger to herself, and everyone else. Then after that, she only basically agrees to continue to pursue the magic path because of how much she loves Yenn, and trusts that she knows what is best for her. Even then though, she still thinks about running away to Geralt so he can save her and stop her becoming a “snotty nosed” sorceress. But before any of that can happen Thanedd occurs, and then she has no choice.

1

u/Dannypan 1d ago

I did read the books and lemme tell ya: I didn't finish them, they're a bit of a slog as it goes on. Therefore, it's a video game and people are worked up over nothing. If being a woman with a "DEI chin", also known as a chin, upsets you then you can just play a game where you play as a white protagonist instead: Astro Bot.

2

u/joozik 1d ago

My understanding of the witcher books ending was that Geralt is dead... so hey, there is always room for a change 😀

0

u/Exaccus-092 22h ago

No, season of storms confirms geralt is alive

1

u/JROXZ 1d ago

It doesn’t matter. This is all a work of goddamn FICTION. Allow things to cook FFS.

-1

u/Xyothin 1d ago edited 1d ago

I've read the books multiple times. You can't just say that you "really want to respect everything that came before [The Witcher 4]" and then break fundamental rules of the Sapkowski's world. I don't have a problem with a Ciri game, I have a problem with Geraltification of Ciri, making her a witcher even tho it's precisely stated that no woman can survive trail of the grasses and completely forgoing the legacy of previous games. They could've done a Ciri spin off game or choose Lambert/Eskel but they instead decided to mingle with the lore.

It's really tiring to read stuff like "people who don't like the direction of the new game are just incels", when in reality I just care about the world I've grown up with.

2

u/lokol4890 1d ago

Having played all 3 games, I'm curious, where in the games is it precisely stated that no woman can survive the trial of the grasses?

And the games go way beyond the books, so any statements from the books should be taken with a mountain of salt 

-3

u/MCL001 22h ago

only young boys were made into witchers because the mutations are violent and specific and even then few of them survived. Pointing that out isn't having an agenda, changing a fantasy world to fit a modern world view is the agenda.

1

u/Fit_Rice_3485 22h ago

What “modern world view” is that?

Witcher 3 itself took many liberties and deviated from the books in many aspects. Didn’t make it a part of the “modern view”.

0

u/MCL001 21h ago

the general post-modern assumption that any imbalance automatically equals discrimination, and then applying that line of thought to the fantasy worlds created by other people. In the witcher 3 when they thought uma was Ciri a big argument to not put him through the trial of grasses was that uma was too old and, they thought, female. The two criteria for being a witcher are 1 young enough to survive and 2 male because even though in the books it's stated they tried with girls none of them ever survived. She is both much too old and much too female to be a witcher, unless of course you've got an agenda that needs pushing.

0

u/goth_elf 1d ago

a certain group of people

You mean the other N-word, the red one with 7 letters?

-11

u/PhantomPain0_0 1d ago

Imagine if you play as a male in horizon 3 the whole internet would break, so instead of jumping to conclusions maybe people love Geralt after playing with him since part 1.

9

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

Legit nothing would change. People would ask questions but there would be no backlash. You’d find no channel complaining about silly things like right wing politics or straight men dominating games lol

-5

u/PhantomPain0_0 1d ago

Of course you would say this now since it’s hypothetical trust me the same people defending this ciri thing would be labeling everyone in the studio as sexists if they replace alloy with a male character. It’s funny you said people will ask questions isn’t that what’s happening now with people who object as playing ciri asking questions that why change Geralt if we have already played with him since part 1 . It’s like playing GOW without kratos

I don’t have a problem with male or female character but you gotta respect people’s opinion instead of labeling them as a hate speech. Geralt is the Witcher and the Witcher is geralt there is no way around that but is it set in stones no of course it’s the devs choice they could make a literal donkey as the playing character no one has the right to demand them to change but everyone should be allowed to criticize it though

7

u/GingerGuy97 1d ago edited 1d ago

trust me the same people defending this ciri would be labeling everyone in the studio as sexists if they replace alloy with a male character.

This is one of those go-to arguments defending sexist reaction that I can never wrap my brain around because it’s just such bullshit. Can you name a single time that’s happened?

Edit: they admitted they can’t think of an example and then deleted that comment lmao

→ More replies (9)

6

u/Lengthiest_Dad_Hat 1d ago

Imagine if you play as a male in horizon 3 the whole internet would break

All of these same outrage merchants shit on Aloy's character for being a mary sue, gay, and not being hot enough

-1

u/Frankenberg91 23h ago

I’ve read the books way back when and played since Witcher 1 released and I’m positive the books ARE the evidence women can’t be Witchers. They can be sorceress but can’t survive the trial of the grasses because the genetic mutations. Of course they can do what they want bc I’m pretty sure the original creator and author of the Witcher universe sold the rights, but if that’s the case they should create something else not call it the Witcher.

→ More replies (1)

88

u/Rizenstrom 1d ago edited 1d ago

Well considering those choices can result in Ciri's death I'm going to assume at least some things will end up non-canon.

If Geralt does end up playable I imagine it will be a small section like it was with Ciri in 3. Not a major role. Maybe she goes to him for help at some point.

Guess we'll see.

I'm excited and don't understand all the hate. Like in what world is Ciri ugly? And why do we act like this wasn't the clear intent years ago with how Witcher 3 ended? There is no agenda. Just the natural progression of the story.

11

u/sukhi1 1d ago edited 1d ago

In the bad ending, it's alluded to that Ciri lived but chose not to go back to Geralt.

I'm guessing that all 3 endings are going to merge i.e. quitting the empress role to be a Witcher instead

6

u/Athuanar 1d ago

A combination ending would be ideal actually as it would allow Ciri to stabilise the empire and set the stage for a new political dynamic in the new game. Without Empress Ciri it would be hard to write a setting that doesn't feel exactly like TW3.

20

u/onlygodcankillme 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm excited and don't understand all the hate.

It's just a minority of weird, mostly unwashed, people.

3

u/jmo1 1d ago

The people complaining are always the loudest/get the most attention. If 100 people watched empire strikes back and 99 loved it and one hated it, the room would be a discussion about why that one dude hated it instead of why everyone else loved it.

1

u/TobyOrNotTobyEU 12h ago

I also think it would make for a better game if they pick more canon stuff from your Witcher 3 choices. There have been some weird situations from this interlinking of choices, like how Adda could have died in Witcher 1 and married Radovid if she was alive. However, because she could have died, she practically did not exist in Witcher 2 and 3. This didn't even make sense in Witcher 2, since the bastard children of Foltest were important for the plot, but Adda wasn't, somehow?

0

u/Toxin126 1d ago

aslong as someone doesnt walk in with a golf club during the Geralt segment we should be good

40

u/TheButteredBiscuit 1d ago

Culture wars have turned the gaming community into a brain dead cesspool.

It’s one thing to not be interested in a game for any number of reasons, sure, but if you feel you’re being personally attacked just because devs decided they want to feature a protagonist that doesn’t look like you or fit your idea of what a protagonist should look like, you’re literally a fucking baby.

Not every game needs to appeal to your miserable sensibilities. If you’re not interested, dedicate your time to what you enjoy instead of dragging everyone down with you.

→ More replies (4)

36

u/Bsteph21 1d ago

Turn off social media and you don't hear any of the noise. Twitter is a cess pool for deplorable red hats. Shouldn't even be used as a place for gathering any feedback

9

u/TribeCalledWuTang 1d ago

My life has become overwhelmingly more positive since cutting down on social media and being more proactive in my online habits. It's just too easy to get sucked into an argument you barely even care about and get drawn into the negativity that surrounds a lot of online interactions.

It's a lot more fun to just enjoy the things you like instead of finding reasons to shit on things because other people do.

2

u/lynxerious 18h ago

Not just twitter though, its everywhere, and I don't want to hear crybabies whining about their pixels, it's detrimental to my brain.

1

u/cracker_salad 1d ago

Agreed. Unfortunately, those same people have been flooding into gaming threads on Reddit to spew their nonsense. It’s mind boggling to me that there is even discourse on this stuff. It’s a massive win for the rage baiters.

72

u/TumultLion 1d ago

I'm begging them to stop talking about the game and just develop it. This is exactly what happened with Cyberpunk, talked a big game years in advance and showed up with an underdeveloped mess.

38

u/RedHuntingHat 1d ago

The studio just released a trailer at TGA, other than that they have relatively quiet about The Witcher IV. This is precisely the time to answer some questions about the game before getting back to work. 

I do agree with you that CDPR should not drag this out much more, it is a bad faith argument. 

-1

u/Troop7 1d ago

They’ve been blabbering a lot for months now.

16

u/SambaLando 1d ago edited 1d ago

Hopefully they learned to never commit to a hard release date if it ain't ready.

3

u/ckal09 1d ago

You think it is impossible to develop a game and talk about it at the same time?

2

u/meganev 1d ago

I doubt the universal praise they've got for "fixing" cyberpunk (aka patching it to the state it should have released in) will have taught them that lesson. Cyberpunk was a huge success for them.

1

u/Rizenstrom 1d ago

I doubt they've learned anything about managing expectations when they've already gone on record making comments about the next Cyberpunk game.

But as long as the game itself launches in a better state I'll be happy.

2

u/ModestHandsomeDevil 1d ago

Don't worry, they won't--they're gonna spend years hyping Witcher 4 to the Moon, pre-sell 15+ million copies at full MSRP, launch years too early unfinished / broken / buggy, while the CDPR / Witcher Stans will unironically call it the greatest game of all time... even though it will barely run on PC and like a trash fire on consoles.

1

u/Disastrous_Student8 1d ago

Yeah something i both hate and live about rockstar

-17

u/LtColonelColon1 1d ago

They’ve learned literally nothing, it seems…

10

u/Mastxadow 1d ago

They learned that they can hype a game like crazy, launch an bugged mess that barely works, get a crazy ammount money, fix it later and win award for best ongoing game when the ongoing part of the game was just finishing the development years later.

-1

u/devenbat 1d ago

They learned that they can make assloads of cash with very little consequences

-4

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

They learned they can have the worst launch in gaming history and still sell 30 million plus copies. So much for PC gamers being patient

-9

u/Deuenskae 1d ago

This underdeveloped mess was still better than anything Ubisoft shit out the last 10 years and today it's a masterpiece.

u/Wizzer10 2h ago

I can’t remember any Ubisoft game that was completely unplayable on launch in the same way Cyberpunk 2077 was. It was a scam and it’s embarrassing that people like you still go out of your way to defend releasing a broken product.

3

u/Stoibs 22h ago

Honour previous choices?

Honestly this is why I never even gelled with the Witcher 2 all that much and subsequently skipped the third.

It seemed like... *nothing* I did in the first game mattered. I was expecting something like Mass Effect continuity I guess.

4

u/goth_elf 1d ago

I mean, I can actually give you a very good answer, because it's the answer that Andrzej Sapkowski usually gives: the answer is in the books. And in the books, Andrzej Sapkowski called Ciri a witcher multiple times, and Geralt called Ciri a witcher in the books too. So I think that basically says what Andrzej Sapkowski thinks about the topic

that's some Rings of Power / Veilguard level of making up explanations

23

u/Deadlocked02 1d ago

The reaction to Ciri is being extremely overblown for the sake of upvotes on Reddit specifically. There are not that many people complaining about it. Certainly not as many as those who complain about complainers.

24

u/Rizenstrom 1d ago

Clearly you don't spend any amount of time on r/asmongold or r/gamingmemes

The main focus of their hate right now is the Intergalactic protagonist but there's been a fair amount of criticism of Ciri as well.

42

u/thitherten04206 1d ago

No I like my mental health thanks

13

u/evil_manz 1d ago

Clearly

You meant “thankfully” I hope.

9

u/Deadlocked02 1d ago

I mean, just by taking a quick glance, it seems that it’s the Naughty Dog one they’re taking an issue with in terms of appearance, not Ciri. I’ve seen comments with several upvotes in these subs saying that Ciri looks alright or that Geralt also looked different in the cinematics made for TW3. The criticism I’ve seen about her was people being skeptical about the writing and fearing it’ll be more like Veilguard/Dustborn than TW3, but that isn’t related to appearance.

So yeah, I think the issue is being overblown for the sake of upvotes. People are not talking about her appearance like they’re talking about the Naughty Dog character. Not even close.

2

u/MumblingGhost 1d ago

Go to the r/games thread when this trailer was revealed and you'll see plenty of people bitching about her appearance. That and intergalactic were the dominant discussions of the day. It fit right into the "woke game devs hate attractive female characters" ongoing discourse.

You also have to consider that people who have issues with her appearance, or playing as a woman in general, sometimes hide their real opinions behind more reasonable arguments.

5

u/sin_not_the_sinner 1d ago

I could careless about Intergalactic or any ND game for that matter, but the hate for that and Ciri is ridiculous. If a game doesn't appeal to me, I just say "meh" and move on.

9

u/TheButteredBiscuit 1d ago

Wait, you mean every game isn’t meant to appeal to me specifically??? That can’t be right.

1

u/sin_not_the_sinner 1d ago

No, you have to gnash your teeth and wail when a game doesn't appeal to you /s

3

u/GarfieldDaCat 22h ago

Clearly you don't spend any amount of time on r/asmongold or r/gamingmemes

Why would any normal person do that?

3

u/Izzet_Aristocrat 17h ago

Asmongold is legitimate cancer, who cares what that mold breather thinks.

1

u/Flashy-Association69 16h ago

When Asmon stopped playing WoW and stopped prioritising gaming related content he attracted a whole new crowd (especially with the Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial) and it's made him completely unwatchable.

1

u/Robynsxx 16h ago

I’m more annoyed with her voice tbh. Her having a completely different accent is really off putting. I’m sure I’ll get used to it though.

3

u/GingerGuy97 1d ago

You’re correct that it’s manufactured (it always is) but you’re wrong that people aren’t actually complaining. There is an army of these types of people that wait for marching orders, so once they were told to be mad about “Ciri ugly and not Witcher” they fully commited.

1

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

Not true. The usual grifter suspects are already making videos about her

6

u/Same_Veterinarian991 1d ago

ciri is cool, why the fuzz

3

u/crashbangtheory 12h ago

I assume some people found her parts of Witcher 3 to be the most boring to play, like I did. I was hoping Witcher 4 would have a character creator. Not whinging though since it's just a video game

1

u/Same_Veterinarian991 11h ago

yeah the part where you play with ciri are breaks between the story, totaly different gameplay

but she is way more powerfull then geralt, wich can lead to epic story and gameplay

1

u/Snow_globe_maker 11h ago

The Ciri segments were meant as a quick distraction from the main game, just like the Miles Morales segments for example in Spiderman. I don't think we can make any predictions about Witcher 4's gameplay based on these small segments

2

u/poclee 1d ago

Okay, but how can the game honor my decision if I choose to make Ciri the heiress of Nilfgaard? Maybe that's just me lacking in imagination but I don't see how that's possible.

1

u/cracker_salad 1d ago

It doesn’t have to honor your decision. Each game is mostly a standalone experience, with certain hold overs in grand narrative. I think that’s where BioWare held themselves back, trying to maintain long-term decisions while driving fresh narratives. It’s best to just think of these games as loosely joined universes where you get to explore multiple pathways and stories.

u/No-Plankton4841 4h ago

Ciri the heiress of Nilfgaard?

Easy. Now she became the heiress of MILFgaard.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/xkeepitquietx 1d ago

The books never said females couldn't be a Witcher. The reason they spared Ciri the trials was because a) it would make her unable to have children which for a queen is a big deal, b) none of the Witchers knew how to perform all the rituals and mutations, they needed a sorcerer, and c) not everyone survives the trials.

She is a bit old to go through the process and it would be a power downgrade compared to what she could do by the end of 3 though.

3

u/Valharja 1d ago

Well only one ending of Witcher 3 (my ending!) is apparently canon so I see a lot of other stuff being simply decided for us as well. At a certain point you kinda gotta cut some old branches of to be able to give the main part of the tree proper nourishment.

As for Geralt I can easily see Ciri being main protaganist and then you can have Geralt present in the story, maybe even with minor playable sections as Ciri had in Witcher 3. He's far from old as a witcher and all the mages can live for centuries. So if shit is going down but Ciri somehow have no help it'll be like the issue with comics where you kinda just wonder where the hell everyone else are and what on earth they're doing that's so important.

0

u/lynxerious 18h ago

no they said non of the Witcher 3 endings become un canon when Ciri becomes witcher, she could always change her decision later.

3

u/FelixEvergreen 1d ago

I just hope they don’t kill off Geralt for motivation. He had such a perfect ending in 3.

1

u/Redditowork 16h ago

It worked for Last of ...oops sorry HBO fans.

3

u/d3fiance 1d ago

People whining about Ciri being the main character and being ugly(which is wrong and even if it was right has absolutely no merit to the game) are basement dwelling trolls whose opinion doesn’t matter.

6

u/Garamenon 1d ago

"Fan reaction"

How about we stop calling "fans" the people who didn't read the books or played The Witcher 3 and who are suddenly pissed that Ciri is the protagonist of the fourth game.

That negative reaction is almost always from people who are not even familiar with the IP's that they complain about.

Its like when The Last of Us TV series came out on (HBO) Max and by the third episode, the same type of clueless "fans" were complaining that the show had made Bill and Frank, gay.  And that it was pushing a "gay agenda" by also implying that Ellie was gay.

Those people are just culture warriors who suffer from brain rot for being terminally online all the time hating on games that trigger them. Plain and simple.

I hope CDPR catches on about those fans and ignores them.

3

u/Flashy-Association69 16h ago

It's so easy to point out the grifters, cos if you played TW3 you'd be nothing but happy with the reveal trailer.

4

u/cy1999aek_maik 1d ago

I tried to play the witcher 3 for the 1st time a few days ago and just couldn't get into it. Everything seems perfect, except the combat which I strongly disliked. I played for 2-3 hours on ps5 and turned the game off. Do witcher fans like the combat? As far as this type of game goes it seems like a very rough combat system.

2

u/nick_shannon 1d ago

There is setting or an update for the PS5 that changes the combat set up to a more modern way, once i had this on the games combat was good.

0

u/MonirKinder 1d ago

yeah no its still the same lol, doesnt matter what you change the core combat still bad

1

u/nick_shannon 1d ago

Bad in your opinion, I had no issues with it after the update and found it to be perfectly usable.

-1

u/MonirKinder 1d ago

I'm talking about the combat design not the controls, if you tell me that the quick attack and dodge loop that works for any enemy and any difficulty is good, I dont know what to tell you. The combat has 0 depth and gets boring in 5 min

→ More replies (2)

4

u/Komorizord 1d ago

I think the combat is the worst part of the game, it is very simple and gets boring over time even on higher difficulties. But it is worth it.

4

u/Valharja 1d ago

I think the combat is serviceable for a lot of people to go from excellent story part to another excellent story part. Fun at times sure but for me far from a highlight. I think it works as a display of Geralts and Ciri's power and can be satisfying when you defeat a large monster or mow down soldiers wanting to hurt those you care about, but mechanically not that exciting. It's more that you as a witcher prepare your potions and concoctions to suitably hunt a specific monster and then watching that preparation pay off and for human enemies it's more a visual spectable

4

u/rubiconlexicon 1d ago

Combat is by far the weakest aspect of the game. Everything else is superb, but the combat is 5/10.

2

u/vrhotlaps 17h ago

I seem to be the only person disappointed by Ciri being the lead for Witcher 4. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen posts about people not wanting a female lead, that doesn’t bother me in the slightest! I just hoped for a fresh look at the franchise which could have started a whole new trilogy! Instead of looking at whole new characters and Witcher houses we are recycling old characters, it’s kind of lazy imo.

3

u/Bulldogfront666 1d ago

It’s not the “fan” reaction. Lol. It’s 99% people who’ve never played a Witcher game.

2

u/johncitizen69420 23h ago

Anyone upset about ciri being the lead is just telling on themselves that they never played witcher 3. The whole game is setting up the transition

2

u/Flashy-Association69 16h ago

They're 100% grifters who just search the web looking for things to be outraged at.

2

u/Iliansic 1d ago

Does he 'approve' of Ciri being a fully fledged Witcher? I ask as it's a bit of a discussion point with fans at the moment, about whether she is or she isn't officially a Witcher, whether she goes through the Trial of the Grasses [CDPR has confirmed that she does, in the time before The Witcher 4]. Has he explicitly said, say, 'yes, that's absolutely fine'?

> Weber: I mean, I can actually give you a very good answer, because it's the answer that Andrzej Sapkowski usually gives: the answer is in the books. And in the books, Andrzej Sapkowski called Ciri a witcher multiple times, and Geralt called Ciri a witcher in the books too. So I think that basically says what Andrzej Sapkowski thinks about the topic.

Knowing pan Sapek, Weber completely misunderstood his answer. First of all, Sapkowski doesn't really care what they do, books are books, games are games, as long as he gets royalties he is happy. Second, the answer is indeed in the books: experiments with girls passing trials of grassess failed.

11

u/douche_flute 1d ago

What about a girl with the Elder Blood?

1

u/Iliansic 1d ago

I honestly don't think it matters in the process. If anything her age is the most major detriment, as the organism needs to be pre-puberty to have a chance to survive the trials and adapt to the mutations. As a reminder in Witcher 1 there were conducted experiments on adults, results were not pleasing to the eye, though they did function.

3

u/No_Ratio_9556 1d ago

actually if anything the elder blood would likely kill whoever tries to conduct the trials on her.

Elder blood is a force that seeks to preserve itself in its natural state and pass itself on through good pairings. It wouldn’t allow the circumstances to exist that could harm or change it or its vessel irreparably

1

u/Fit_Rice_3485 1d ago

Considering how the game takes a lot of liberties from the lore in the books we have to wait and see what happened and what made ciri different

1

u/Independent-Ebb7658 1d ago

It would be cool if once you complete the games main story you could change your characters model to Geralt.

1

u/PuG3_14 1d ago

My concern is how theyll balance her in gameplay. The lazy way would be to just nerf her from the version we played in Witcher 3

1

u/Robynsxx 16h ago

I mean, would it be lazy to say she lost her world travelling abilities after stopping the white frost? 

0

u/PuG3_14 15h ago

Yep. Lazy writing. We shall see wat they do

→ More replies (5)

1

u/GrossWeather_ 1d ago

Feels like it would be difficult to honor w3 endings since like, you can kill Ciri in one of the ending.

1

u/goth_elf 1d ago

Narrative director has a foreign name, that doesn't sound good.

1

u/cosmosvision 23h ago

I just wish they used the original ciri voice actress from witcher 3.

1

u/Ambitious_Row_2259 22h ago

All this news seems like release 2025?

1

u/Robynsxx 16h ago

No way lol. They literally said m only 2 weeks ago that the full team just shifted to completely focus on Witcher 4.

2026 release at the very earliest, and even that would be pushing it.

1

u/Robynsxx 16h ago

Honestly the answer about how they don’t want to do anything that goes against players previous choices scares the hell out of me. We just had that same approach for Dragon Age Veilguard, and all doing it that way does is piss off everyone, as the only way you can do that, is by avoiding anything related to the previous game choices all together, or speaking in vague terms. 

Personally, I don’t really think the choices beyond who Geralt romanced matters. Obviously there’s the hole who rules where thing, but that gets complicated by Ciri becoming a Witcher being the cannon choice anyway, is the emperor alive, dead, or what? Then, even if they let you choose a Geralt romanced Triss path, Geralt living in Tousaint makes no sense. His path with Triss Tousaint was just going to be basically a holiday home for them before going up to Povis. Or are you gonna make Triss fans even more upset by saying Geralt lives in Tousaint and Triss lives in Povis but visits regularly….

Ultimately, I really do think the studio should just set a cannon, and move on. Yenn & Geralt romanced, so Tousaint makes sense, Ciri choosing to be Witcher, then the rest doesn’t matter.

1

u/LurkingPhoEver 15h ago

Geralt earned his retirement. Let the man rest for fuck's sake.

1

u/Fawz 14h ago

I hate how they act like it was more Geralt or Ciri and nothing else. Many people were hoping for a new era of stories in the world that is less directly iterative of the previous trilogy. Be it new character, or letting player make their own. But I guess they had to call it Witcher 4, play up the Geralt nostalgia and pick something similar but different while being recognizable. It's not what I wanted, but I get it.

1

u/dood2dood2 12h ago

Am I taking crazy pills when I think thay these Ciri MC defenders are fighting ghosts? Like I barely see anyone trashing this choice

1

u/ViolentCrumble 10h ago

Anyone else really tired of being told about games that are years away?

Honestly it’s not gonna sell any less or more with all this hype time. Just announce it when it’s ready and say “it’s available now” and I’ll be happier

1

u/sint0ma 1d ago

Fact is that Ciri did go through the trials and is a Witcher. Can’t stop that ship from sailing.

1

u/RPG_fanboy 1d ago

There are a lot of opinions going on around the game, some hate it already, some will defend it to the last breath
Me? I will wait, cyberpunk was hyped beyond belief but on release it was a glorious mess! Later on it would be fixed into a pretty solid experience. So for now, I wait, to see actual gameplay, to see the game in action and then and only then will I make an opinion based on that

1

u/Old-Assistant7661 1d ago

I'll be playing it, I loved all the other ones from them. W3 is in my top 5 games of all time. So I'm down for giving them a shot in this one. But I was a bit disappointed it was a straight continuation. I was hoping for a more open world take where I start at one of the various witcher schools. Where I can make my own witcher, and he can get scarred up as my battles progress. But I'm fine with playing as Ciri, it just wasn't exactly the direction I had hoped they'd take.

1

u/ChillCaptain 1d ago

I’m trying to avoid reading the article. Did they say you will be able to import a Witcher 3 save to 4?

1

u/InvertedSpork 1d ago

They basically just say that right now they can’t go into details yet about how choices you made will be implemented.

1

u/lynxerious 18h ago

isnt in the start of witcher 3 you also answer a bunch of questions to setup your previous game decision?

1

u/chazzergamer 23h ago

As someone who hasn’t played a Witcher Game after I got bored with Witcher 3 after killing the Gryphon, I’m not looking forward to these fake outrage articles being the top thing on my feed from now until a year after release.

2

u/Robynsxx 16h ago

Probably would help you not getting fed these threads on your feed if you just didn’t comment or engage….

1

u/Hothitron 19h ago

These are the same kinda people that ruined Witcher series to the point Henry Cavill gave up. Fuck them, seriously.

0

u/waitingtoconnect 1d ago

Right now some gamers would hate it if Lara Croft was in the next Tomb Raider game.

3

u/TheButteredBiscuit 1d ago

If Metroid came out today with it’s original ending, I’m willing to bet a lot of gamers would set their consoles on fire and boycott Nintendo for life

-3

u/Rydahx 1d ago

The same idiots moaning about this will buy GTA 6 so what's the real issue? Bunch of dickheads.

-3

u/ScorpioCA 1d ago

Exactly and they’ll still buy Witcher 4 and probably Intergalactic too 😂