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The Witcher 3: What Geralt Wants

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This game fixes so many things open world games are prone to fail on, within that i include:

 

 

NPC's that automatically match the speed you want to move at? tick

This is huge for me, in so many games ive ended up running circles around npc's as they dawdle along a route.

 

A mount that actually has some personality: tick

 

I love what they have done with roach, the fact that i frequently find him/them has moved to the nearest hay tough of patch of grass from the point i left him is a tiny thing but just give him far more personality than otherwise. I may be wrong but i thinhk he also is resistant to wistling when hes at these poits, if he's got he snout in a big tough of hay your gonna have to run up to him and drag him away (or just be a boring git & run until hes out of sight)

 

A Romance that I don't want to happen!

Ok so i've always felt Triss was more a close friend to Geralt that a women he loves and so it's frustrating as all heck to get to a point where it's obvious i have to choose between either Triss leaving Geralts life completely or (at the very least verbally) committing to her, but I think that frustration is actually kinda great.

I really like that the game doesn't give me that option because a just a friendship is clearly not what Triss wants, it's really refreshing that a a character other than the protagonist actually gets to define their relationship

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A Romance that I don't want to happen!

Ok so i've always felt Triss was more a close friend to Geralt that a women he loves and so it's frustrating as all heck to get to a point where it's obvious i have to choose between either Triss leaving Geralts life completely or (at the very least verbally) committing to her, but I think that frustration is actually kinda great.

I really like that the game doesn't give me that option because a just a friendship is clearly not what Triss wants, it's really refreshing that a a character other than the protagonist actually gets to define their relationship

 

You managed to sum up something I felt but didn't really know how to articulate, in regards to relationships in TW3.

 

The last RPG I threw myself into was Dragon Age: Inquisition. And while I liked it a lot, it handled relationships/friendships in the typical video game way: the player is mostly in control of the dynamic. If you decide not to pursue a romance, your relationship with the character just defaults to friendship. The characters feel a little hollow, because they don't have their own desires/needs when it comes to their direct interactions with the player character. Now, I understand why that's easier to do, but it's something that's always stood out to me.
 
The Witcher 3 handles it a little differently:
 

Geralt, as an extension of the player, obviously still has some degree of control over his relationships. You can decide who to romance/reject, and that makes sense, given that it's a role-playing game. But the characters don't feel like their ultimately there for Geralt's (or the player's) pleasure. Triss doesn't exist solely to be a potential romance options, or otherwise a close platonic friend. She has feelings. She gets visibly frustrated when Geralt reinforces that he's over their relationship, or if he doesn't try to pursue things further. Which, by extension, was frustrating to me.
 
I mean, in real world relationships, I'd love it if I could be good platonic friends with people I wasn't interested in, and have satisfying relationships with people I am interested in. But that's not how it works. Sometimes someone wants romantic relationship and the other wants a platonic one. You don't see that type of interaction modeled often in games, especially in ones where the player does have a degree of agency. 
 
So the interactions between Triss and Geralt have so much more substance. It was actually memorable, which is a first for me when it comes to RPG's and romantic sub-plots.

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PC's that automatically match the speed you want to move at? tick

This is huge for me, in so many games ive ended up running circles around npc's as they dawdle along a route.

 

I like this, but the lack of analog movement undermines it and generally bums me out, since I'm inclined to not behave in an immersion-breaking way in this sort of open-world game. I'm either walking along at a snail's pace so the dialogue still feels natural, or running full speed while the characters converse like they're standing still.

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I love what they have done with roach, the fact that i frequently find him/them has moved to the nearest hay tough of patch of grass from the point i left him is a tiny thing but just give him far more personality than otherwise. I may be wrong but i thinhk he also is resistant to wistling when hes at these poits, if he's got he snout in a big tough of hay your gonna have to run up to him and drag him away (or just be a boring git & run until hes out of sight)

I love this. I adore this. It's one of the little touches that make the world so real.

 

I heartell that Roach might be a ladyhorse? I don't think that matters particularly, but I have come to think of Roach as her. I also like Geralt's explanation on the name.

 

He names every horse he has Roach. They're just animals to him. The connection I have is me making it and not Geralt. The horse is just a tool.

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It's amazing how well the game actually seems to tie everything together: everything is still consistent with the first Witcher game, the world and the characters still look somewhat of the same style, even if it's now from a slightly different perspective and level of detail. And then the way it introduces characters and things from the books so seamlessly, it makes one think that they had the whole trilogy planned out even when they were working on the first game. It just all fits too well. But on the other hand it's hard to believe that they had it exactly scoped like that, putting Geralts story in The Witcher 1 and 2 just at the right time so he could get his memory back when the whole world known from the books is opening up to him.

 

[edit] I guess what makes the consistency kind of astonishing to me is just how differently each game works, while still maintaining this very high coherence. But they must have just been doing each game with what was available and in reach technology and budget wise.

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It's amazing how well the game actually seems to tie everything together: everything is still consistent with the first Witcher game, the world and the characters still look somewhat of the same style, even if it's now from a slightly different perspective and level of detail. And then the way it introduces characters and things from the books so seamlessly, it makes one think that they had the whole trilogy planned out even when they were working on the first game. It just all fits too well. But on the other hand it's hard to believe that they had it exactly scoped like that, putting Geralts story in The Witcher 1 and 2 just at the right time so he could get his memory back when the whole world known from the books is opening up to him.

 

[edit] I guess what makes the consistency kind of astonishing to me is just how differently each game works, while still maintaining this very high coherence. But they must have just been doing each game with what was available and in reach technology and budget wise.

 

There's also a lot of written material that exists outside the game for them to build around and having read everything thats come out in english so far i can confirm they have done a great job of keeping the relationship dynamics from that in tact. Infact (spoiler for books and game below 

 

Geralts relationship with Yenneffer has always been centred on both of their doubts that they can truly love anyone. That their unusual natures (witchers and mages are both almost always sterile and both age very little and live very long, additionally witchers undergo psychological training to try and make them less emotional) mean its hard for them to replicate "love" in the same way as they have seen in those around them, and have throughout their relationship caused them to push back against each other at different times but in particular yen to push back against geralt.

 

Forgive me. There are gifts which one may not accept, and there is nothing in me i could repay you with.

 

 So the whole quest line on skelig centred around reversing the titular "last wish" really worked well, with Yen clearly worried they might be falling in love again but terrified that the capacity to return that love might be a illusion, & with Geralt (at least with how i played him) not wanting to to have on his conscience that he forced Yen to love him through a wish.

 

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I'm curious about others' conclusion to the questline with the goofy knight who wants to fight you to honor Maid Bilberry. I encountered him twice, and sparing him both times. The third time was

in Novigrad, and he brought two dudes to help him fight me with the same silly excuse. So, I start fighting them, right in the middle of town. I was planning to spare him again because that's the narratively interesting thing to do, but some guards immediately attacked all three of them and killed them all before I even had a chance to hit anyone.

Definitely an amusing way for that guy to go out, but have I reached the end of the quest line? Was there a different way for things to go?

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I'm curious about others' conclusion to the questline with the goofy knight who wants to fight you to honor Maid Bilberry. I encountered him twice, and sparing him both times. The third time was

in Novigrad, and he brought two dudes to help him fight me with the same silly excuse. So, I start fighting them, right in the middle of town. I was planning to spare him again because that's the narratively interesting thing to do, but some guards immediately attacked all three of them and killed them all before I even had a chance to hit anyone.

Definitely an amusing way for that guy to go out, but have I reached the end of the quest line? Was there a different way for things to go?

I've only got up to the incident you describe there, but made a different choice.

I used the Jedi mind trick sign to tell them to go home, just because I didn't want to kill the two people that this idiot had somehow drafted into service.

. Haven't seen any continuation past that yet.

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I'm curious about others' conclusion to the questline with the goofy knight who wants to fight you to honor Maid Bilberry. I encountered him twice, and sparing him both times. The third time was

in Novigrad, and he brought two dudes to help him fight me with the same silly excuse. So, I start fighting them, right in the middle of town. I was planning to spare him again because that's the narratively interesting thing to do, but some guards immediately attacked all three of them and killed them all before I even had a chance to hit anyone.

Definitely an amusing way for that guy to go out, but have I reached the end of the quest line? Was there a different way for things to go?

 

I had a similar result but:

 

I fought him, figuring that he'd eventually yield. He didn't. He's dead.

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Without getting into spoilers, god this game made so many smart decisions.

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I haven't played this game for 2 days, not because i don't want to but because I still cant decide what i want to do about a choice the games given me because having read the books etc, I have a distinct feeling for what Geralt as a character would do but it conflicts with what i as a person want to do >_<

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Without getting into spoilers, god this game made so many smart decisions.

I agree.

 

I mean, in the course of the story...

 

You literally put on a play. You choose the name of the play. You choose the tone of the play. You cast the play. You act in the play and deliver lines. There is no fighting. You are putting on a play. It is amazing.

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I agree.

 

I mean, in the course of the story...

 

You literally put on a play. You choose the name of the play. You choose the tone of the play. You cast the play. You act in the play and deliver lines. There is no fighting. You are putting on a play. It is amazing.

 

So... (spoilers for that quest)

There can be fighting.  If you choose to make the tone of the play dramatic, it riles up the bigots in the crowd and incites a small riot, and then you and your hired security have to put down the rioters.  I found out from talking to someone after that and found out that if you choose comedic instead, the light tone doesn't rile people up, giving you the chance for everything to be pulled off cleanly, which is what I imagine happened with you.

 

Also, I don't want to say too much, because it'll give away the thing I love so much about it, but I'll just say that I really enjoyed the quest called "Little Red".

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Where do you guys stash your stuff? I dumped a bunch of stuff in that main market square, and was surprised and dismayed to discover that it'd disappeared by the time I returned after a long series of quests. :(

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Where do you guys stash your stuff? I dumped a bunch of stuff in that main market square, and was surprised and dismayed to discover that it'd disappeared by the time I returned after a long series of quests. :(

 

I have saddlebags that can hold 160 Witcher Weight Units. It's been a while since I've hit the limit without finding a vendor to throw shitty axes at for cash.

 

Even if these kinds of minigamges aren't your thing, I recommend people do the horse racing quests. It is a big quality of life enhancement.

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I've been carrying everything as well, selling stuff for gold every so often.  I have been looking to find a dump spot though.  I think I know where I can now, but I haven't tried this out to make sure things stick around.

 

Don't want to spoil a story location, but it's about midway through the Ugly Baby quest:

I'm assuming Kaer Morhen will work for this.

 

I really mostly mean to dump all my books, because they make my consumables tab a nightmare.

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It really sucks that there isn't a better way to manage the inventory, and I don't just mean weight. You can't filter anything, or change the item ordering. There's no way to stash things you want, but don't want cluttering up the impossible to manage active inventory. Even just having separate Geralt and Roach inventories would have help a lot. You can't one-click mark everything seen. You can only have two consumables active at once, and you can't consume anything from the inventory. It's a nightmare, and probably my biggest complaint against the game.

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It's bad but I think you can consume things from the inventory. It doesn't tell you your toxicity though.

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It's bad but I think you can consume things from the inventory. It doesn't tell you your toxicity though.

 

How?

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You can consume things from the inventory. It won't work in battle, but outside of battle, it's X on the 360 controller I'm playing with. Consult the legend at the bottom of the screen, it's down there.

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I use the abandoned village in White Orchard as my crap storage location. So far nothing has disappeared!

The inventory interface is definitely bad on both controller and mouse/keyboard. Ultimately, the icons are all samey and not distinct enough for how it's displayed.

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Yeah, you can consume potions and decoctions from the inventory, and can change the quick select items too I believe. One thing you cannot do is use oils - those are a pre-fight preparation item only.

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