Idle Thumbs 285: Candor, Expertise, and Candor

[Jolly0451]

The Witcher 3 is a game where entirely of the main plot is actually concerned with Ciri's "chosen one" plotline. By the end of the game its clear that Geralt wasn't the protagonist of the story. Of course, it is also told as an epistolary frame story of Geralt's journey as written by a side character and poet Dandelion who is also in the plot which he wrote. Essentially the Witcher 3 involves hypo-diagetic flashbacks told to Geralt in the diagetic level of narrative based on his choices but then told to you the player through the Extra-Diegetic level by a narrator who has included himself in the story. Unfortunately, CD project Red never uses the diegetic layers they have except to justify the journal in the pause menu as being written by Dandelion which makes the entire narrative structure feel pointless.  

 

Additionally the main critical path story-line is non-linear in that you can go to each area whenever you feel like it but then the flashback sequences which are linear missions inside of the non linear structure of the main plot. Because the main game is open ended that means the playable flashbacks are linear segments of the story which you can get in any order which is interesting because the game's narrative accepts that it is linear but not deterministic.