Interview Monster Hunting In The Witcher 3: Returning to the Roots of the Witcher Concept

[Carrion]

TW2 already had a console UI.

Anyway, I'm really liking this piece of news.

That's a nice way of saying "we'll implement trash MMO quests to fill up the vast amount of empty space in our open world"

Actually it sounds like the exact opposite of that. Monster hunting's going to be in the game no matter what, but it's nice if there's going to be a greater focus on investigation than combat.

 

[Shadenuat]

Sounds nice, I just hope monster tracking won't turn out to be a repeating minigame (pick out red hair from white hair to track beast with red hair!).

 

[Metro]

The murder investigation quest was one of the few bright spots of original Witcher so hopefully they can replicate that. However, the monster hunting in the original just boiled down to a bunch of MMO style quests posted on a board.

 

[Akarnir]

Have they say anything about quick time events? Like replacing those useless Events by improved Physics instead?
Mechanism that allows you to jump on the monster, cut's its legs...

 

[Aeschylus]

Sounds... promising. It would have to be done in a very specific sort of way though, kind of like hunting the black troll in Gothic 2. If it feels very integrated into the world, and like a big deal, then monster hunting can be pretty cool. If it's just standard MMO "Kill X purple people eaters" bullshit (which it happily doesn't really sound like) then no sale.

 

[Infinitron]

Have they say anything about quick time events? Like replacing those useless Events by improved Physics instead?
Mechanism that allows you to jump on the monster, cut's its legs...

They've said no QTEs.

 

[Crooked Bee]

[*]The game will feature detective-style investigation of monster "crime scenes". Geralt will need to discover which monster from his bestiary is responsible for murdering townsfolk, before he can track it down to its lair and slay it.

In before Assassin's Creed III style clue "investigation."

 

[Shadenuat]

[*]The game will feature detective-style investigation of monster "crime scenes". Geralt will need to discover which monster from his bestiary is responsible for murdering townsfolk, before he can track it down to its lair and slay it.

In before Assassin's Creed III style clue "investigation."

Is it a shitty minigame?

 

[Metro]

It would be great if they had non-combat proficiency/talent areas like tracking, research, etc. you could develop but that's probably too much to ask... or it'll be as shallow as just dump one point into it to unlock.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Is it a shitty minigame?

In AC III, whenever you had to track down an animal (a "monster") to kill it, the game would have you "investigate" a middle-sized area, marked as a green circle on your minimap, for "clues" as to the monster's whereabouts. You didn't really have to investigate anything in any meaningful way though. You just had to find a "clue" (conveniently marked with a magnifying glass icon) and the game would then direct you, via the minimap/quest marker, to the next "investigation" area where you had to repeat the same "exciting" procedure - and so on. Eventually it would lead you to the cave/bush/whatever where the monster was hiding.

If Witcher 3 goes for quantity over quality ("20% more filler quests than in Skyrim!"), I fully expect these monster investigation quests to be similarly meaningful and exciting.

 

[Jaesun]

Follow the "quest compass" clue. Holy fuck.

 

[Shadenuat]

You just had to find a "clue" (conveniently marked with a magnifying glass icon) and the game would then direct you, via the minimap/quest marker, to the next "investigation" area

Wow, it's minigame merged with quest compass. Like a shit on a turd.

 

[~RAGING BONER~]

Man, fuck this...I want to be a Dragon.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Look I don't trust cd project too much when it comes to creating interesting gameplay mechanics, but assassin s creed is pretty much the biggest casual popamole dreck imaginable...I'm not sure it's fair to simply assume that other games will handle stuff the same way

 

[Kem0sabe]

Dunno who said it before on this thread, but TW games should have had turned based combat, would have complemented the game beautifully.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Look I don't trust cd project too much when it comes to creating interesting gameplay mechanics, but assassin s creed is pretty much the biggest casual popamole dreck imaginable...I'm not sure it's fair to simply assume that other games will handle stuff the same way

But do you really think they will be able to design even a dozen meaningful monster investigation quests? I don't. Especially when their point of reference is Skyrim, which isn't that far removed from Assassin's Creed when it comes to dumbing down.

 

[Infinitron]

Look I don't trust cd project too much when it comes to creating interesting gameplay mechanics, but assassin s creed is pretty much the biggest casual popamole dreck imaginable...I'm not sure it's fair to simply assume that other games will handle stuff the same way

But do you really think they will be able to design even a dozen meaningful monster investigation quests? I don't. Especially when their point of reference is Skyrim, which isn't that far removed from Assassin's Creed when it comes to dumbing down.

Well, in a previous interview, the Potato Brothers specifically said that Witcher 3's sidequests would be "less generic" than AC3's. I imagine that includes monster investigation quests.

 

[Gerrard]

Dunno who said it before on this thread, but TW games should have had turned based combat, would have complemented the game beautifully.

Kill yourself.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Well, in a previous interview, the Potato Brothers specifically said that Witcher 3's sidequests would be "less generic" than AC3's.

That's what they all say.

Actually, I'd love Witcher 3 to be non-generic because I often wish for a new good open world ARPG (you can only play Gothic 2 NotR so many times). It's CDP's track record that leaves me pessimistic - I found Witcher 2 unbelievably dull, just like Skyrim that CDP devs so enjoy referencing. (Witcher 1 was an okay adventure though, with better atmosphere even if an annoying amount of fetch quests and running back and forth.)

 

[Kem0sabe]

Dunno who said it before on this thread, but TW games should have had turned based combat, would have complemented the game beautifully.

Kill yourself.

 

[tuluse]

Roguey & the anyone else who believes the same thing:

The Kayran was fine, as much in spite of the QTE(s) as because of it/them.

To simulate an actual fight against something as large as the kayran without the QTE that would be more than your tiny character running in and hacking away at the monster (which allmost always looks ridiculous), for those large set-piece fights you need to do something different. The alternative is either a set of contextual fighting animations and moves for your character that are only possible in that fight (which would be a ridicuilous thing to implement for a one off setpiece), or a QTE.

Note: I do believe Dark Souls did a good job of the large boss fights, for example the hydra, but sans-QTEs the Witcher was much the same (whacking tentacles) and could be completed without the QTEs (the QTEs just made the fight more visually pleasing and expedited some of the tedious hack and slash gameplay).

I preferred the mini-game style of some of the bosses in Witcher 1, like the golem.

Also, Shadow of the Colossus.

 

[Kahlis]

You just had to find a "clue" (conveniently marked with a magnifying glass icon)

 

[Cool name]

To simulate an actual fight against something as large as the kayran without the QTE that would be more than your tiny character running in and hacking away at the monster (which allmost always looks ridiculous), for those large set-piece fights you need to do something different. The alternative is either a set of contextual fighting animations and moves for your character that are only possible in that fight (which would be a ridicuilous thing to implement for a one off setpiece), or a QTE.

Spoiler

 

[Infinitron]

A WILD BLACK CAT APPEARS

 

[Metro]