The Witcher The Witcher IV - The Ciri Saga Begins

[Ryzer]

 

[moon knight]

Damn, didn't know they had such cougars at the studio.

 

[Dark Souls II]

The one on the right is the woman they've modelled the Witcher IV Ciri after, right?

 

[Elttharion]

Would for both

 

[Elttharion]

Would for both

 

[Bakir]

It would be hilarious if the final boss of Gwent tournament was Geralt with an unbeatable OP deck.

 

[The Nameless One]

That diploma looks heavy, must be the burden all that non-gender biased meritocracy!

 

[Preacherboy]

Nah. It's lost much of the 'cool factor'. The primary target audience for medieval fantasy RPG's is men. Of those, a significant portion prefer to play as a cool guy rather than a woman.

Oh, so that's why all those Tomb Raider games failed spectacularly...

Add in the complete mess the company is in due to doubling down on ESG/DEI and that further erodes interest.

Unless it actually influences game's story or design, few people will care about the inner workings of a corporation. Most CDPR audience is not composed of chronically online clients of rage-baiters.

The game will sell decently but of those who do buy it, a lot will openly mock it if it has anything even remotely similar to Taash from Dragon Age: Veilguard.

All DAV marketing materials posted online were ratioed into oblivion. This is not the case with previevs for the Witcher 4. There's totally different energy around this title. Outside of some youtube rage merchants who need next fodder, because their 107th video about Veilguard doesn't get as many views as the previous ones and nobody (including Obsidian, it seems) cares about Avowed.

Given that they've already confirmed that Ciri will be able to partake of 'non-traditional romances' then that is highly likely.

literally nobody who knows the source material was surprised by this announcement. You're grasping now.

The company is currently in full on damage control. Putting out panicked statements about not working with Sweet Baby Inc

there was no official statement, simlly a responce to a comment on X:
https://x.com/michalnowakow/status/1877352249199894610?s=19

Fake news like the ones about CDPR working with SBI need to be quickly addressed since there is not fact-checking on this portal

or even knowing what the consultancy company is until recently. Naturally the comments were brutal, proving that it was a lie by linking the company's own creepy videos expressing their commitment to DEI/ESG as well as pointing out that one of their more controversial employees has strong ties to SBI and Kotaku.

CDPR hires what, 1000+ employees and also works with thousands of contractors. There will always be some bad apples. However the question is the degree they can influence the project.

Given that this was a company that had amassed a significant amount of good will over the years it is unlikely they will reach that point again. They've chosen to double down rather than reverse course and the market and consumers will react accordingly.

We shall see. If CDPR assures the launch of their next game isn't a buggy mess of Cyberpunk proportions, I don't see them failing, but only the future will tell.

Now I don't really recall reading more deranged opinion than this one lol, straight up r/witcher level of copium and an absolute pinnacle of ignorance.

What the fuck does knowing the source material have to do with understanding the lore breaking, DEI induced retarded decision? What are you even trying to say? Soyboy degenerates might be happy about an !adult woman! being strong enough to undergo the trials but if you know anything at all about the lore, you know this is just not at all plausible.

What I do have to agree with that I cannot seem to see them failing either, sadly, because most of the fans are normies now thanks to Witcher 3's success and the pisspoor Netflix adaptation.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Take lessons from KCD2 when thinking of Witcher 4. The age of geh is upon us, you better get through your 5 stages of grief quickly. It gives me no pleasure at all to say it, but it is what it is.

 

[BruceVC]

Yeah, cause that's how CDPR has written their games so far

I and many others can look at the evidence, read signs and recognize patterns, its not an out of the blue opinion. Ofc CDPR is or was better than most about being subtle when it comes to preaching but I don't believe that's staying that way when they do shit like hiring a woke game journo(who hates the audience) and make him their lore master + all the ridiculous Ciri decisions.

I am replaying the entire Witcher series at the moment and its definitely not true that these games are full of comments about toxic males

So there is ZERO evidence to believe W4 writing will be about that

Yes Im also not happy with playing a women because I believe the Witcher world is a mans world but I am going to give W4 a chance and then comment objectively

But lets try not to drag culture war garbage assumptions into every discussion just because there is a female character. Of course you can have a women main character without it being about some sort of toxicity narrative about men

 

[Quillon]

Yeah, cause that's how CDPR has written their games so far

I and many others can look at the evidence, read signs and recognize patterns, its not an out of the blue opinion. Ofc CDPR is or was better than most about being subtle when it comes to preaching but I don't believe that's staying that way when they do shit like hiring a woke game journo(who hates the audience) and make him their lore master + all the ridiculous Ciri decisions.

I am replaying the entire Witcher series at the moment and its definitely not true that these games are full of comments about toxic males

So there is ZERO evidence to believe W4 writing will be about that

Yes Im also not happy with playing a women because I believe the Witcher world is a mans world but I am going to give W4 a chance and then comment objectively

But lets try not to drag culture war garbage assumptions into every discussion just because there is a female character. Of course you can have a women main character without it being about some sort of toxicity narrative about men

Their "wokeness" doesn't even come from outside, its their CEO's rotting brain over the years. Their writing talent not being heavy handed with preaching etc so far won't be enough this time; cos you can't just be subtle anymore if your premise, your starting point is playing with a powerful woman in a masculine role in a medieval world before even going into them bending the lore or new hirings.

If you want literal evidence look at Panam, just cos they let you fuck her everyone turns a blind eye lol

Spoiler

Panam storyline is trash, typical Stronk Female M-Rey Sue bullshit.

-Panam is kicked out of Nomads for being too reckless and not a team player
-Proceeds to get numerous Nomads killed for being reckless and not a team player
-Learns nothing of this, blames everyone but herself, and inexplicably earns loyalty of more Nomads
-Player forced to continually validate her, never call her out or put her in her place
-Gets the Nomads in more trouble with the gangs and pisses off a major corp.
-Never learns any lessons or shows any self-reflection on her behavior
-Saul does complete 180 for no reason, decides she's the best Nomad ever, puts her in charge and literally no one disagrees.
-Universally loved by everyone.

If you liked her character or found her romance engaging you should consider getting your T-levels checked. Srsly.

She is Veronica from NV but way stronKer

Veronica is way more insufferable.

Too many parallels with how both of them are outcasts wanting to change the clan going forward etc, whilst Panam is leader-alternative Veronica is just some low rank officer something I don't remember and stays that way.

Finally, there's no on the nose woman stronk stuff. She's competent and that's the end of story.

I don't mind these stuff anymore in games/movies whatever but she's competing to lead a masculine clan without even being the daughter of late last leader or whatever, that's enough stronkness. But I haven't even thought about comparing their characters, just the narrative they are in are too similar.

I haven't yet beaten the game, but -- Panam is the kind of personality that doesn't try to dominate or demand obedience. So no "submit to the matriarchy" shit.

Yeah, that's good but imagine in Sons of Anarchy(if you know), you have a random girl joined the MC like any other member competing with Clay instead of late-last leader's son, that girl would be Panam, that's how stronk by default she is.

 

[Harthwain]

Take lessons from KCD2 when thinking of Witcher 4.

I don't think this is a good comparison. CDPR is much more woke compared to Warhorse Studios, so I expect The Witcher 4 to be much, MUCH worse than Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

So there is ZERO evidence to believe W4 writing will be about that

Yes Im also not happy with playing a women because I believe the Witcher world is a mans world but I am going to give W4 a chance and then comment objectively

But lets try not to drag culture war garbage assumptions into every discussion just because there is a female character. Of course you can have a women main character without it being about some sort of toxicity narrative about men

I don't have an issue with female MCs but I do have an issue with women who are written like men. Ciri falls clearly into the 'man with tits' trope.

There's basically two reasons to write women MCs for a male audience: fetishism (e.g. Lara Croft, Stellar Blade) or good boy points with the usual suspects. Unless you are writing an emotional story about drama, fashion, and relationships (which 100% of female novels fall into), a woman is a poor choice of hero for your adventure story. Somehow I don't think CDPR is going to make Witcher 4 a softcore porno. (And don't try to tell me Witcher games have a significant female fanbase).

CDPR rescued Geralt from a literal trash pile when they licensed the books, making him the focus after the original author killed him off. Ciri wasn't shown nor even mentioned for two whole games; CDPR clearly knew who the 'money' character was. Presumably Ciri was pushed into W3 as part of the trend of 'Dad games' where the player takes a fatherly role, to good effect, though personally I found her character annoying, her gameplay sections boring, and her final plot twists insufferable. Sidelining the coolest man in the world in his own story? Way to ruin your entire game.

It's a common mistake to take a series and think it's the story that brings in the audience. INCORRECT. People play these games to be Geralt. The fact he deals with dramatic and dangerous events, horrific monsters, evil sorcerers, feuding kings, etc, is because he's an awesome guy. No one really cares which lord whoever takes the throne of the kingdom of fuck all, or how horrible it is that some peasants are sacrificing girls to a monster. It's just cool that Geralt gets to be a part of all this crazy stuff going on.

W4 is already off to a bad start because it shows CDPR has lost focus on what made these games good, who their audience is, and what the main appeal of the IP is. Ciriwitcher will still probably sell well because W3 is still a loved game, but it's the theoretical Witcher 5 that will 'miss sales expectations.'

In any case, feel free to judge the game on its own merits, but it's silly to say there's "no evidence" of bad writing when the mere existence of the game is solid evidence.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Take lessons from KCD2 when thinking of Witcher 4.

I don't think this is a good comparison. CDPR is much more woke compared to Warhorse Studios, so I expect The Witcher 4 to be much, MUCH worse than Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

I honestly don't care what they push. A man who is scared of some women preaching isn't a real man.

 

[moon knight]

Ciri falls clearly into the 'man with tits' trope.

She's a tomboy in the books. Are you suggesting that they need to break the lore and write her with a completely different personality?

Ciri wasn't shown nor even mentioned for two whole games

Not true

is because he's an awesome guy.

Geralt is a cuck

 

[Quillon]

She's a tomboy in the books. Are you suggesting that they need to break the lore and write her with a completely different personality?

Tomboys grow out it around mid-teens. They usually don't grow up to be man And I use "usually" very generously. So yeah it would be very in-character for her to have grown out of it, especially at her age now that she is... what? They are saying a few years have passed since W3 which should make her like mid 20s? but she is looking around 40 idk.

Also apart from being a swordfighter, she didn't act boyishly at all in W3 so she must have had already grown out of it, offscreen

 

[Justicar]

Tomboys grow out it around mid-teens. They usually don't grow up to be man And I use "usually" very generously. So yeah it would be very in-character for her to have grown out of it, especially at her age now that she is... what? They are saying a few years have passed since W3 which should make her like mid 20s? but she is looking around 40 idk.

Also apart from being a swordfighter, she didn't act boyishly at all in W3 so she must have had already grown out of it, offscreen

Nigger she does witcher investigation exactly the same way as geraldo would do even talks to herself like geraldo.

 

[moon knight]

she didn't act boyishly at all in W3

 

[The Nameless One]

Take lessons from KCD2 when thinking of Witcher 4.

I don't think this is a good comparison. CDPR is much more woke compared to Warhorse Studios, so I expect The Witcher 4 to be much, MUCH worse than Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Observation: This must a meatbag's poor attempt at trying to troll.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

She's a tomboy in the books. Are you suggesting that they need to break the lore and write her with a completely different personality?

Yeah I know. Sapkowski is an idiot, killing off his good character in favor of a worse one. But he's hardly the first author to do so; e.g. Sherlock Holmes.

I don't think they need to break the lore, I think they need to understand that people play Witcher games to be Geralt, not Geralt's plot device daughter. My suggestion is to do what made their games sell, and not what makes games not sell.

Personally I hoped a new Witcher game would feature a custom character and involve building a new Witcher school, with Geralt as a minor side character at best. Pass the torch as it were. Let me play a character with similar abilities to Geralt, but a clean slate storywise. I guess this is half of that idea. Ciri is so overpowered and boring her game can't possibly by interesting. The only problem female MCs are allowed to have is 'lack of validation,' which is lame. If they really wanted men to show up for the game they would give her a bunch of skimpy outfits and sell it based on sex appeal, but we know that's not going to happen. So Mary Sue's Validation Adventure is all they have left.

The instant where Witcher went from niche game for dorks to mainstream success was the scene of Geralt in the tub like a total gigachad.

What does Ciri have? Being an angry dyke scold? That's been done.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

It's a common mistake to take a series and think it's the story that brings in the audience. INCORRECT. People play these games to be Geralt. The fact he deals with dramatic and dangerous events, horrific monsters, evil sorcerers, feuding kings, etc, is because he's an awesome guy. No one really cares which lord whoever takes the throne of the kingdom of fuck all, or how horrible it is that some peasants are sacrificing girls to a monster. It's just cool that Geralt gets to be a part of all this crazy stuff going on.

This is the main problem with The Witcher series, that it not only saddles the player with a predetermined character but also forces the player to watch hour after hour of cutscenes featuring that character, though these games certainly sold well enough (as have many other games with this same fundamental design flaw over the course of the last two decades or so). The Witcher IV could have altered the direction of the series by shifting to a customized player-character, while substantially reducing the cutscene-mania of the second and third Witcher games, but instead CDPR is simply switching to a different, less popular, less thematically appropriate predetermined character.

 

[BruceVC]

She's a tomboy in the books. Are you suggesting that they need to break the lore and write her with a completely different personality?

Yeah I know. Sapkowski is an idiot, killing off his good character in favor of a worse one. But he's hardly the first author to do so; e.g. Sherlock Holmes.

I don't think they need to break the lore, I think they need to understand that people play Witcher games to be Geralt, not Geralt's plot device daughter. My suggestion is to do what made their games sell, and not what makes games not sell.

Personally I hoped a new Witcher game would feature a custom character and involve building a new Witcher school, with Geralt as a minor side character at best. Pass the torch as it were. Let me play a character with similar abilities to Geralt, but a clean slate storywise. I guess this is half of that idea. Ciri is so overpowered and boring her game can't possibly by interesting. The only problem female MCs are allowed to have is 'lack of validation,' which is lame. If they really wanted men to show up for the game they would give her a bunch of skimpy outfits and sell it based on sex appeal, but we know that's not going to happen. So Mary Sue's Validation Adventure is all they have left.

The instant where Witcher went from niche game for dorks to mainstream success was the scene of Geralt in the tub like a total gigachad.

What does Ciri have? Being an angry dyke scold? That's been done.

It's a common mistake to take a series and think it's the story that brings in the audience. INCORRECT. People play these games to be Geralt. The fact he deals with dramatic and dangerous events, horrific monsters, evil sorcerers, feuding kings, etc, is because he's an awesome guy. No one really cares which lord whoever takes the throne of the kingdom of fuck all, or how horrible it is that some peasants are sacrificing girls to a monster. It's just cool that Geralt gets to be a part of all this crazy stuff going on.

This is the main problem with The Witcher series, that it not only saddles the player with a predetermined character but also forces the player to watch hour after hour of cutscenes featuring that character, though these games certainly sold well enough (as have many other games with this same fundamental design flaw over the course of the last two decades or so). The Witcher IV could have altered the direction of the series by shifting to a customized player-character, while substantially reducing the cutscene-mania of the second and third Witcher games, but instead CDPR is simply switching to a different, less popular, less thematically appropriate predetermined character.

Both of you are making a similar point that is reasonable, W4 could have been about a customized character but you can only select a man for reasons of lore and realism around the Trial of Grasses

That could have worked especially if the objective over the 3 games is something like the resurrection of one of the Witcher schools and then you can tie in another grand narrative plot

But the problem with that is the first 3 Witcher games are about a specific character and the overall narrative has lots of references to the books around people Geralt knows or things he did

And Ciri is part of that irrespective whether she is an appropriate main protagonist. She has an established history with Geralt and CDPR can and will build on that and this is similar to how the narrative in the 3 Witcher games was created. Its a new narrative after the books but with lots of alignment to established history

If you create a custom character you lose all that

Im not saying it couldnt have worked but I can see why its not an obvious direction for W4?

 

[Quillon]

she didn't act boyishly at all in W3

wow she punched that guy while her daddy standing watch next to her! and she had the power to kill each of those men in like 5 secs! slay kween!

Tomboys grow out it around mid-teens. They usually don't grow up to be man And I use "usually" very generously. So yeah it would be very in-character for her to have grown out of it, especially at her age now that she is... what? They are saying a few years have passed since W3 which should make her like mid 20s? but she is looking around 40 idk.

Also apart from being a swordfighter, she didn't act boyishly at all in W3 so she must have had already grown out of it, offscreen

Nigger she does witcher investigation exactly the same way as geraldo would do even talks to herself like geraldo.

so? that's the formula they used for investigations in that game, a lot of other games even have funny references to it, even some youtubers made fun of it. its cdpr's laziness to not giving her a particular investigation behavior or rather their intention to make the audience see the similarities so we'd say "like father like daughter" etc. what's particularly "boyish/manly" about Ciri doing it? the bigger issue is her replacing Geralt of course but that's not what we are talking about here

just try to swap her out with a boy in your head and imagine the scenes in W3 like that, he woulda been called a fag(at least) and not only in here, by eveyone

 

[Inec0rn]

I played the games because i liked Geralt, and his neutral cynical view of all the things that happen around him. I didn't care for Ciri or Yenefer really, i have no interest in this game, making my own insert hurr durr character (which is a lazy way of avoiding writing a good character), or the remake they will heavily tone down and make an action game.

 

[Donald Gordon Lord]

Ciri was lame and annoying in 3, forces you to look at grandma titties, and destroys the world if you don't let her steal a horse for a pack of filthy gypsies, so I'm pretty lukewarm on her as the mc in this one tbh guys