The Witcher The Witcher IV - The Ciri Saga Begins

[BruceVC]

Ciri becoming a Witcher is simply what they try to fall back on to keep the series going, regardless of how unfaithful to the books it is.

As someone who's unfortunately read all the books there's nothing in the lore stating women can't become witchers. Sapkowski simply never talks about that possibility at all, neither in the affirmative nor in the negative.

Apparently a few years ago a Ciri cosplayer asked him about this at a con and he said "Huh, I've never thought about it". So that's gonna be their loophole.

Plus TW3 is already taking place AFTER the books so the TW4 writers can p. much do whatever they want with the characters. I'll reserve my judgement but so far this whole thing is full of red flags.

Do the Witcher books end after the Wild Hunt for Geralt?

Is that the end of his story in the books?

 

[GrainWetski]

Cyberpunk 2077 is a popamole "press the button to advance cutscene" simulator, one that was borderline unplayable on release, and even on a prestigious forum like this one there's a whole lot of morons who purchased it, never refunded it, and stockholm syndromed themselves into enjoying it.

You might want to actually try the game before writing comments like that, which makes it clear you never played it at all - Cyberpunk is a pure gameplay-fag game, as opposed to RDR2 for example. The ratio of gameplay to cutscenes is probably 50:1.

Cyberjunk is pure negroidtrannyslop. It's fine if you like to eat garbage, just stop pretending it's anything else.

 

[Ryzer]

Cyberpunk 2077 is a popamole "press the button to advance cutscene" simulator, one that was borderline unplayable on release, and even on a prestigious forum like this one there's a whole lot of morons who purchased it, never refunded it, and stockholm syndromed themselves into enjoying it.

You might want to actually try the game before writing comments like that, which makes it clear you never played it at all - Cyberpunk is a pure gameplay-fag game, as opposed to RDR2 for example. The ratio of gameplay to cutscenes is probably 50:1.

Cyberjunk is pure negroidtrannyslop.

I mean it is kinda our future now.

 

[Reinhardt]

future?

 

[Child of Malkav]

But their another loophole is gonna be - Ciri isn't a normal woman.

Ciri has elder blood magic thingy. She's an MCU multiverse character crap power level. She has no need to be a witcher, she can just teleport around the world helping people and thanos snapping bad guys and monsters out of existence.

Cyberjunk is pure negroidtrannyslop. It's fine if you like to eat garbage, just stop pretending it's anything else.

Well, his argument was that that CP2077 is a gameplay focused game over a story one. Although not by much considering just how many cutscenes there are.
If you like the Far Cry gameplay then CP2077 is kinda that but with watch dogs style hacking. With gigs acting like FC outposts. And yeah, it's woke and the story sucks. But if you play it for gameplay, it's pretty fun, as an action adventure shooter thingy.

 

[Yosharian]

I care much less about what stupid shit they will pull to justify Ciri becoming a Witcher, than I do about what them turning Ciri into a Witcher (as well as all the other retarded shit we know about what this studio has become) tells me about how this game is going to turn out

This is just the tip of a giant shit iceberg

Focusing on this actual small issue is really missing the point IMO

 

[cruel]

And yeah, it's woke and the story sucks. But if you play it for gameplay, it's pretty fun, as an action adventure shooter thingy.

The story is one of the very few AAA games when you're NOT saving the world from some ancient evil, which is an accomplishment by itself IMO. Can't comment in full as I still have few hours left to finish.

What elements offended you the most in woke department? Usually I'm pretty sensitive to this stuff in games and was bracing for hell, but it wasn't so bad to be honest. The blacks introduced in the beginning didn't end up in a nice place, very few of them are in positions of power, and I don't remember encountering a straight in your face non-binary or trans person? I think the worst offender is definitely Myers, but this is specific to Phantom Liberty, she is woke as fuck, no discussion here.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-witch...if-the-game-will-honour-your-previous-choices

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

"We're not suddenly making up stuff just because we want to."

The Witcher 4 is real, and it's actually called The Witcher 4. It'll star Ciri as the main protagonist, be another third-person action-RPG just like The Witcher 3, and Doug Cockle returns to voice Geralt of Rivia, who will indeed be present in the game in some form.

Ciri, as we can infer from the trailer, has passed the Trial of the Grasses to become a witcher, and she uses some magical powers that are beyond the signs of standard witchers like Geralt. And that, more or less, is about the sum of what we know for sure about The Witcher 4 so far, aside from some added pieces of context that can be pulled together from our previous CD Projekt Red interviews, about the studio's continuing technical ambition and rough launch timeframes.

It makes for a nice setup for our chat this week with The Witcher 4's game director, Sebastian Kalemba, and narrative director, Philipp Weber - albeit one with some quite tight restrictions on what exactly is on the table. There are all kinds of questions still hanging for fans. How long is this after the events of The Witcher 3, given Ciri's seemingly more mature status in the trailer? Which ending was canon? How do you drop such a powerful character like Ciri into the early steps of an RPG? And can our current gen consoles run that trailer, given it was pre-rendered on a mysterious, "unannounced Nvidia GeForce RTX" graphics card still "using assets and models from the game itself"?

We were warned ahead of time that specific story, region, and gameplay details aren't going to be talked about yet - but between the coyness and the careful wording, there are still a few new things we managed to learn. Below is a full transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for clarity.

So the first thing for me is: is there a single, canon ending to The Witcher 3 that you're working from now? Obviously, there's quite dramatically different endings available for Ciri in particular there…

Philipp Weber: So we can't say yet how exactly we're going to handle it. This is something that we want to reveal later. What I can say is that we really want to respect everything that came before, that being the books by Andrzej Sapkowski and all three Witcher games, and that of course, should also include some of the most important choices the player made there. But exactly how we, you know, reveal how we handle all of these things, this will be part of the story that we tell in Polaris so I think that we have to talk about how we do it a little bit later.

Can you talk about how many years after The Witcher 3 we are here? Obviously, Ciri looks a little bit older, so we can assume it's a fair bit afterwards - can you say exactly how long?

Sebastian Kalemba: We cannot say exactly how long, but we can say 'a few' [years], that's for sure. And yeah, I would keep it at that.

Weber: Yeah, a few years, basically.

Kalemba: A few years. [laughs]

A few years, okay. You mentioned Andrzej Sapkowski - what does his involvement look like with The Witcher 4? Do you speak with him directly, do you run things by him, or is it totally hands off?

Kalemba: Actually, he's hands off. But, you know, he's not [involved] in the form of a consultant or whatever, but we have a great relationship with him. So we meet with Andrzej Sapkowski from time to time, discuss things. But generally, there is a great trust between us when it comes to dealing with this world. And I believe we are perfectly calibrated when it comes to the framing.

Weber: Yeah, and but I can also say, I think, as someone who joined the company as a Witcher fan, when Andrzej visited us some time ago in the studio, and we got to actually show him some of the things that we do, I can say that was a very happy day. I think for everyone.

Kalemba: Yeah, he simply enjoyed [seeing what CDPR was making].

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.

Sticking with Ciri for a bit, there's been I think what you might call some 'pushback' from some people already on her being the main protagonist, for a range of reasons, right? Some of them because maybe they didn't enjoy the gameplay of the Ciri sections of The Witcher 3 as much as the other parts. Or they believe that she's not a real witcher, even though like you say it's in the books; or they want to make their own character; or they don't like her appearance in the trailer. What do you make of that response so far? Do you feel like that was inevitable?

Weber: I think there's many very valid worries and responses, because I think a lot of them come out of passion, and I think a lot of those questions are also questions that we asked ourselves. So we really, again, say that we are beholden to the lore, the canon of the books by Andrzej Sapkowski, the three previous Witcher games, and we'd want to take that seriously, and we really want to respect that. So all the answers we basically want to give in The Witcher 4 are in line with this attitude.We're not suddenly making up stuff just because we want to. We really want to take these things seriously.

So I can really understand if some people, you know, might have wished to play another game with Geralt - like I can say myself, I could make games about Geralt until the day I die, and I would probably die happy. But I think for me, and I think for all of us [at CDPR], it's also just really exciting to see all the opportunities that Ciri brings us, both with her character, and also by just virtue of who she is, what we can do with her in terms of the gameplay as well. So I think the best answer for us, for those people that really are worried right now, is basically to show them, when we are ready, that we really do this well and with care. And I think - I hope - we can then convince them with the game itself. Because I think actions speak louder than words.

Kalemba: Yeah, well said. And on top of that, just please remember that we are also not only developers, but we are also gamers, right? And, you know, we've started with the second protagonist already in The Wild Hunt. And so there was already a tease. So we really [are] all about making sure such calls are very educated calls. And we really believe, as Philip already said, that we also have so much of a great story to tell with Ciri, and she deserves that.

Could we assume that Ciri's style of gameplay has evolved, from what we've played with her in The Witcher 3, and how so?

Kalemba: Absolutely. I mean, like with every game we create here at Red, we try to evolve all aspects of them. So meaning, you can tell like by, let's say, analyzing the gameplay aspects in Cyberpunk 2077, and then Phantom Liberty. And then you can even look at The Wild Hunt through the prism of [expansions] Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. The creatures were a bit different, right? This is our approach for the development with every next installment, we want to evolve, and definitely it is going to happen in the new Witcher 4 with Ciri.

We talked very briefly about this idea of making your own character. Is there a specific reason you feel that it was always better to go with a known, single character, rather than building your own, RPG- or Cyberpunk-style from scratch? What was behind that decision to stick with a known character here that you're playing as?

Weber: I think, honestly, this character-driven storytelling has been always in the DNA of our Witcher games, first with Geralt, and then, of course, we started setting up Ciri as a second protagonist in The Witcher 3, and now we want to continue with her as well. But as an example, one thing I can also say, one of the things that makes Ciri into an interesting new protagonist for us is, of course, also that she is at the beginning of her journey as a witcher.

So as an example, Geralt was very, very experienced already. He went through so many things. And, you know, he created his own code, his value of neutrality, he created through so many experiences. And Ciri still has to make many of those experiences. She has to go through so many of these things. So in a way, even though Ciri is, of course, a defined character, with her, players will have the opportunity to still define her quite a bit more, specifically define the path that she will take on her way to becoming a witcher, and basically also what kind of person that will make her.

You mentioned Geralt. Obviously, we know he's alive and in the game, in some form. Will he be playable at any point, like Ciri was in The Witcher 3?

Kalemba: Well, actually, currently, he's having the best time of his life Touissant in Henrietta's mansion [laughs]. And, you know, playing with some wine, and dealing with vineyards. This is where we left him last time. But obviously we can promise that Geralt will appear, but we cannot tell you if it's going to be playable or not right now. But yeah, he will appear. He's going to be present in The Witcher 4.

Coming back to Ciri more broadly, there was a sense with The Witcher 3, and I think a lot of Witcher fiction as a whole - the TV series as well as the books - that this is a man's world, and that the experience of a woman is actively quite a significant theme in The Witcher in a lot of different forms. The women of this world are subjected to a lot of violence, they're heavily sexualized in different ways. There's the kind of 'deal with the devil' that sorceresses have to have to make where they lose their fertility and so on. Watching the trailer, it seemed to maybe channel this: there's Ciri, a woman trying and failing to save another woman from more of this universe's violence, right? Is that an intentional theme that you were channeling with the trailer? And also, is it something you're intentionally looking to explore in the game, the experience of a woman in particular through Ciri's eyes in this world?

Weber: I mean, I would say the world of The Witcher is a really dark one that's really inspired by, of course, dark fantasy folklore. But also medieval to early Renaissance history, and that is a world that was tough - tough for many different groups, women among them. As an example, in The Witcher, we also deal a lot with racism when it comes to non-humans, and this is something that we want to keep up with The Witcher 4. I think it's something that has always been really important. We make games for adults, and it also means that we tackle some difficult topics. We tackle them in interesting ways. We tackle them without giving easy answers, but often opening difficult questions that players have to answer. And I think some of those questions might be going in this direction as well, because, yeah, Ciri is a woman, and as a witcher in this world, this is an unusual state. So I don't think it's going to be this story everywhere, but since this is a part of this world, and we want to tackle so many of those different themes, it's definitely also going to appear there as well.

One interesting part of featuring Ciri here is that there's now maybe some concern, or more like speculation, that you might need to kind of 'nerf' her in some way, right? That she has to go back to 'power level one' at the beginning of an RPG - and obviously she finished The Witcher 3 as pretty powerful, right? Like she's one of the more powerful entities in the world at that time. How are you trying to handle that? Can we expect a low power Ciri at the start of this?

Kalemba: No, we cannot tell you exactly how. But we can tell you just, like, believe us: that was one of the things, or first things, that we were solving, to make sure - the way we develop here, we do not leave anything without a clear answer. And the answer we'll provide for sure, as soon as we let you experience the game.

More broadly, it's been roughly a decade or so since The Witcher 3, and open world games have evolved quite a lot since then. Now some of the leading ones maybe have more immersive sim elements, or they're a bit more systemic, a bit more interactive, and so on. Have you felt a need to evolve your approach to open worlds with The Witcher? Have you looked to certain games for any inspiration or thought, we need to bring more of these 'modern' open world elements in? Or are you sticking with: 'this is what we believe it should be'.

Weber: I would say both. So as an example, we want to stick with the things that we know we do well. So we don't want to break what really works. But at the same time, we want to improve and evolve our games with every game. And I think we take inspiration basically from everywhere. So we really also want to make sure that, you know, open worlds don't just get bigger, that they also get a bit deeper. And I think that's what we want to do.

And finally, it's been discussed a fair bit now, but you folks have been stung in the past with announcing things early, and with pre-rendered footage. I know after Cyberpunk 2077's launch you've now changed development practice, to where you develop games on the lowest spec hardware at the same time as the highest end ones. So can players be confident that even though this trailer is on, as you've mentioned, some super secret next gen graphics card, the game could also run on current gen consoles - say an Xbox Series S - at the same time?

Kalemba: You know, first of all, this is good to say: this is not a kind of 'beginning of marketing' campaign. We firstly wanted to showcase and share with the entire world that Ciri is the main protagonist; it's The Witcher 4; and she's mutated; and she's on The Path, definitely, right?

The second thing is that, yes, we are working on a new engine right now, together with Epic's engineers, and there is a great synergy and a great collaboration between us. And currently we're working on Unreal Engine 5 and our custom build. And obviously we want to support all the platforms - meaning PC, Xbox and Sony, right? - but I cannot, right now, tell you more specifics regarding that.

For sure, it's definitely worth remembering [that for this] first time, we created the cinematic, pre-rendered, without post production piece, that we want to [show that we're] simply aspiring to achieve such quality in cinematics as much as possible. That's my opinion: it's a good benchmark.

 

[Skinwalker]

Do the Witcher books end after the Wild Hunt for Geralt?

I think all the Witcher games take place after the book canon, whatever is the chronological ending for Geralt in the books (possibly being left on a magical island with Yennefer and/or Ciri, if I remember Geralt's reminiscing in W3 correctly), the W1 intro where he wakes up as an amnesiac in Kaer Mournhold is AFTER that, and then W2 and W3.

 

[Harthwain]

As someone who's unfortunately read all the books there's nothing in the lore stating women can't become witchers. Sapkowski simply never talks about that possibility at all, neither in the affirmative nor in the negative.

I wasn't even going as far as to say that women can't be witchers. I meant that Ciri - specifically - didn't get any of the necessary elements (aside from physical training) needed to undergo the trial to become a witcher:

The green eyes of the little witcher-girl betrayed no signs of mutation, and the touch of her little hand did not produce the slight, pleasant tingling sensation so characteristic of witchers. Although she ran the Killer path with a sword slung across her back, the ashen-haired girl had not been subjected to the Trial of Grasses or to Changes. Of that, Triss was certain.

No, you listen. You haven’t subjected Ciri to violent mutations, haven’t touched her hormones, haven’t tried any elixirs or Grasses on her. And that’s to be praised. That was sensible, responsible and humane. You haven’t harmed her with any of your poisons – all the more so you must not cripple her now.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The mushrooms whose secrets you guard so carefully,” she explained, “do, indeed, keep the girl wonderfully fit and strengthen her muscles. The herbs guarantee an ideal metabolic rate and hasten her development. All this taken together and helped along by gruelling training causes certain changes in her build, in her adipose tissue. She’s a woman, and as you haven’t crippled her hormonal system, do not cripple her physically now. She might hold it against you later if you so ruthlessly deprive her of her womanly… attributes. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

This is the second: Ciri must not be allowed to grow wild. She has to have contact with the world. With her peers. She has to be decently educated and prepared for a normal life. Let her wave her sword about for the time being. You won’t turn her into a witcher without mutation anyway, but having a witcher’s training won’t harm her. Times are hard and dangerous; she’ll be able to defend herself when necessary. Like an elf. But you must not bury her alive here, in the middle of nowhere. She has to enter normal life.

So, again, Ciri becoming a witcher is unfaithful to the books as written. There is simply no going around that.

And suddenly there is a whole new SECRET school dedicated training of female witchers NOBODY ever knew about? It's like making the Warrior from Diablo I into the son of the king in Diablo III, because technically nobody really said that he couldn't be the one. Except it doesn't make sense with how the villagers act towards the player's chosen class, and how the Warrior himself adresses the defeated king Leoric ("Rest well, Leoric. I will find your son").

Do the Witcher books end after the Wild Hunt for Geralt?

Is that the end of his story in the books?

What are you talking about? As far as I am aware Geralt gets gravely wounded and goes to Avalon (or its equivalent) in the books. Something like that. Then the series get some additional book (Season of Storm) in 2013, after Sapkowsky's attempt at writing some modern story about the Cold War era soldiers has failed in gaining popularity. Guess who is the protagonist? Yes, it is Geralt. So, yes, the books do end with Geralt. Just as the game (The Witcher) starts with... Geralt. Ciri only gets dragged into it, because everything that concerns Geralt is pulled into it. But let's not be disingenuous and try to sell lies that "Ciri was always going to be the game's main character". Or a witcher.

 

[Tehdagah]

CIRI CAN'T STOP WINNING

 

[Skinwalker]

CIRI CAN'T STOP WINNING

Mods will fix it.

 

[Child of Malkav]

What elements offended you the most in woke department? Usually I'm pretty sensitive to this stuff in games and was bracing for hell, but it wasn't so bad to be honest. The blacks introduced in the beginning didn't end up in a nice place, very few of them are in positions of power, and I don't remember encountering a straight in your face non-binary or trans person? I think the worst offender is definitely Myers, but this is specific to Phantom Liberty, she is woke as fuck, no discussion here.

It didn't offend me, as in stop playing the game. Just noticing stuff.
Myers, the trans in the bar Claire I think was his name, Judy and the other one (the chick you go after and kills herself, can't remember her name).....hm, I really can't remember the names of some characters. The voodoo boys being the best hackers or something, but at the same time being btfo by one netwatch agent (but I don't think CDPR intended it to come out that way considering their ESG commitment).
I just dislike pretty much every character in this game for one reason or another. Except Takemura.

 

[Old Hans]

I read somewhere they expect to make a trilogy out of this Ciri shit. That ought to be interesting lol.

I am so tired of this crappy trend, where every game has to end on a cliff hanger, because OMG! trilogy!! and lets face it, game developers cannot do coherent trilogies

 

[Average Manatee]

CIRI CAN'T STOP WINNING

Mods will fix it.

I mean mods will definitely give Ciri a dick if she fucks women. Unless CDPR beats them to it

 

[Skinwalker]

I meant more along the lines of rapelacing Ciri with... Giri, a new (male) Witcher.

 

[Justicar]

The voodoo boys being the best hackers or something, but at the same time being btfo by one netwatch agent (but I don't think CDPR intended it to come out that way considering their ESG commitment).

Yeah the niggas got ESGed hard pure DEI

I just dislike pretty much every character in this game for one reason or another. Except Takemura.

So they only character you like is a buck broken cuck who simps for people that put a death notice on his head you should love the nigga played by Idris Elba too then it's the same character.

 

[BruceVC]

Do the Witcher books end after the Wild Hunt for Geralt?

Is that the end of his story in the books?

What are you talking about? As far as I am aware Geralt gets gravely wounded and goes to Avalon (or its equivalent) in the books. Something like that. Then the series get some additional book (Season of Storm) in 2013, after Sapkowsky's attempt at writing some modern story about the Cold War era soldiers has failed in gaining popularity. Guess who is the protagonist? Yes, it is Geralt. So, yes, the books do end with Geralt. Just as the game (The Witcher) starts with... Geralt. Ciri only gets dragged into it, because everything that concerns Geralt is pulled into it. But let's not be disingenuous and try to sell lies that "Ciri was always going to be the game's main character". Or a witcher.

I havent read the books so I dont know which is why Im asking

And the reason Im asking is someone was saying Geralt story is exhausted which is why they decided on a new main character but I want to know was his story really ended?

 

[Lyric Suite]

From what i gathered everything ended. Every story line, Geralt or Ciri etc.

 

[Ascetic]

Trannypunk 2069 is a game where you can set your body type, genitals, and pronouns separately, while romantic options ignore genital type. You know, the thing that actually determines sexual orientation. It's fully in line with modern "men can get pregnant" clown world ideology.

 

[Green]

The story is one of the very few AAA games when you're NOT saving the world from some ancient evil, which is an accomplishment by itself IMO. Can't comment in full as I still have few hours left to finish.

Yeah, but it still sucks. They boggled everything down with a fake sense of urgency which trickled down to one of the worst gameplay/story segregations i've seen in gaming, where every moment i'm slaughtering people left and right in NC (cardboard city that it is) i'm somehow supposed to believe that my corpo guy went from white collar paper pusher to legendary merc status in the course of, what, one month?

Actually the reverse W3, where the best parts of the game were the ones when i wasn't playing the main character. Even the final mission, bunch of suicidal assholes throwing themselves at the biggest megacorp because the new guy kinda chill vs Silverhand and his crew taking the place by storm the same way they had decades prior, with a lowkey hype theme on the background (also, Smasher had nothing to do with V, because V wasn't a character, and everything to do with Johnny). Wasn't even a serious choice between V and Silverhand, even Silverhand's one damn epilogue slaps all of V's put together.

Do the Witcher books end after the Wild Hunt for Geralt?

Is that the end of his story in the books?

What are you talking about? As far as I am aware Geralt gets gravely wounded and goes to Avalon (or its equivalent) in the books. Something like that. Then the series get some additional book (Season of Storm) in 2013, after Sapkowsky's attempt at writing some modern story about the Cold War era soldiers has failed in gaining popularity. Guess who is the protagonist? Yes, it is Geralt. So, yes, the books do end with Geralt. Just as the game (The Witcher) starts with... Geralt. Ciri only gets dragged into it, because everything that concerns Geralt is pulled into it. But let's not be disingenuous and try to sell lies that "Ciri was always going to be the game's main character". Or a witcher.

I havent read the books so I dont know which is why Im asking

And the reason Im asking is someone was saying Geralt story is exhausted which is why they decided on a new main character but I want to know was his story really ended?

The books happen prior to the games, and pretty much everyone's backstory for the games but Ciri's (in the books she's fucked up, also Emhyr wants to dick her - but gives up on it and marries a lookalike instead - plus her one gay experience was getting raped and getting stockholm, at like fourteen) come from there. Basically all leads up to Geralt ending up in the isle he was in with Yennefer, which is the stuff he remembers about in Witcher 2, but then the games pick up from there and the whole Wild Hunt kidnapping Yennefer and messing with Geralt in their effort to track down Ciri begins.

 

[Child of Malkav]

So they only character you like is a buck broken cuck who simps for people that put a death notice on his head you should love the nigga played by Idris Elba too then it's the same character.

In that mission where you have to infiltrate the Arasaka hangar, you talk with Takemura and in that conversation about the companies providing security, stability and opportunity for disadvantaged people like himself as well as how it brings some amount of order in that dystopian chaos, was reasonable, at least had some good reasoning behind his choice to "simp" for them. And in one of the endings he does get back in their graces. I barely remember any of it.
Whereas the Idris guy just came across as some soulless glowie that was loyal to the government. I don't remember his sob story but all his interactions and decisions and everything were made through those lenses. Doing his job, duty, loyalty, the government has the answers to everything, they're the only ones who can cure you etc. no matter what.
Even that retard Johnny congratulates you when you refuse to take the oath in front of Myers in that abandoned building where you meet with those two other guys.

 

[Lord_Potato]

" Both Mitręga and Kalemba acknowledged a potential backlash from some corners of the internet at Ciri’s role as protagonist in The Witcher 4, but both insisted Ciri was always going to be the game’s main character."

Bullshit. Geralt was the series main character (he is THE literal Witcher). Ciri becoming a Witcher is simply what they try to fall back on to keep the series going, regardless of how unfaithful to the books it is.

I'd say if they weren't comfortable with a player-generated Witcher, Ciri does seem a natural choice.

Even though the main 5 novel series is called "Saga of the Witcher" Ciri becomes more and more significant from book to book.

Book 4, "Tower of the Swallow" basically belongs to her, she gets much more screentime and gets to do more significant shit than Geralt and his party of misfits. In book 5, "Lady of the Lake" they get a similar amount of space, but while Geralt mostly fucks around (literally) in Toussaint, until he receives a critical tip that allows him to move towards the 'endgame', Ciri travels between worlds, unveils many secrets of the multiverse (including the mystery of the Wild Hunt) and rapidly levels up for the final battle. During which they both get to kill an important baddie. Actually, Ciri kills her nemesis all by herself, while Geralt succeeds only with the help of Yennefer and Regis.

She's of course absent from CDPR Witcher 1 & 2 and only plays a supporting role in Witcher 3, but at the end of the second Expansion, it was evident that Geralt's only hoping for a retirement. I didn't want to play him in Witcher 4 and feel like the sentiment was shared by many fans. Forcing Geralt to go on another adventure once he managed to find solace in Corvo Bianco, preferably with his love interest, would be too cruel.

So it was either character creation, or Ciri. CDPR made they choice and I'm willing to let them cook and get a taste before passing judgement.