Anime Witcher 2: one of the best storyfag RPGs ever made?

[Skinwalker]

Apparently, a lot of people don't seem to realize that Witcher 2 was a fantastic video game with a marvelous story featuring a complex medieval political drama, with plenty of interesting characters, elaborate backstories, and more choices & consequences than 99% of decline-era RPGs. The entire middle section of the game is completely different, depending on the choice you made at the end of the first chapter, and the ending can shake out in a multitude of different ways, including having a drink and a heart-to-heart conversation with the final boss, instead of a battle.

Witcher 2 is a rare example of a fantasy RPG that FULLY avoids trite save-the-world muh-chosen-one "epicness" that is so pervasive in medieval fantasy, and thoroughly infests its sequel Witcher 3. Instead, it puts the protagonist in the middle of a rapidly devolving power-struggle between several factions, using espionage, assassinations, toppling rulers of kingdoms, rulers of other kingdoms striking back, a cabal of witches, and a powerful empire waiting for a moment to strike and take everything under its control.

Of course, Witcher 2 is not a walking simulator, and has a fairly decent combat system (better than Witcher 3, afair), but that's not the strong suite of the game. If you're a combatfag/systemsfag - don't bother, there's plenty of better ones out there. But if you like to play your way through an engaging story... you might want to check out the Asses of Kings.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Agreed. And it surprised me to see quite a few 'dexers mentioning TW2 in that 5 worst RPGs thread.

 

[Daemongar]

Story good gameplay bad. I barely made it past the dragon attack in the beginning of the game, and the first "boss fight" kinda just does the game in for me. If I wanted to play God of War, I would.

 

[Old Hans]

I did not enjoy the branching story chapters. I SHANT play it again

 

[DeepOcean]

Witcher 2 is a much better game than Witcher 3, both have crap gameplay but Witcher 2 story and decisions are miles ahead of Witcher 3.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Witcher 2 is a much better game than Witcher 3, both have crap gameplay but Witcher 2 story and decisions are miles ahead of Witcher 3.

And unlike TW2, TW3 suffers from unfinished narrative content (particularly when it comes to the Wild Hunt which leaves the antagonists quite unidimensional, but also with other stuff such as that plague subplot which would've featured Iorveth; not to mention questionable design choices, like in the case of the Radovid 'path' being a fail state rather than its own quest).

 

[DeepOcean]

Witcher 2 is a much better game than Witcher 3, both have crap gameplay but Witcher 2 story and decisions are miles ahead of Witcher 3.

particularly when it comes to the Wild Hunt which leaves the antagonists quite unidimensional.

Supposedly CDPR got the feedback that normies were confused by the political intrigue, so we got interdimensional elves on edgy boi armor for Witcher 3.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Witcher 2 is a much better game than Witcher 3, both have crap gameplay but Witcher 2 story and decisions are miles ahead of Witcher 3.

particularly when it comes to the Wild Hunt which leaves the antagonists quite unidimensional.

Supposedly CDPR got the feedback that normies were confused by the political intrigue, so we got interdimensional elves on edgy boi armor for Witcher 3.

Normies ruin everything.

 

[KateMicucci]

I did not enjoy the branching story chapters. I SHANT play it again

The branching 2nd act was a bad design decision.

 

[luj1]

idk, witcher 1 had the best aesthetic and combat system

which are the things that matter

 

[KateMicucci]

The only thing that I appreciated about TW2 was the historically grounded armor and costume designs at a time when it seemed everything was WoW and Dragon Age aesthetic shit.

 

[KateMicucci]

idk, witcher 1 had the best aesthetic and combat system

which are the things that matter

I don't agree with that but Witcher 1 was the only game where the potion system was good.

 

[Starwars]

When the Witcher 2 is good, it's pretty great. I'd agree that it's the best story of the bunch, with great characters and seemingly lots of story consequences (even beyond just the major Act 2 choice which gets the most attention).

But I also feel like the gameplay aspect of it is a huge slog. The actual explorative aspect of the game with the combat encounters just kinda suck. The Floatsam forest is a slog, the combat areas of both Act II areas are big slogs... The prologue kinda stinks as well.

For most great story-focused games I can forgive the combat being not great but in the Witcher 2 it actually gets in the way of my enjoyment of the game sadly enough.

EDIT: I also can't stand the way the game controls. It feels so goddamn sluggish.

 

[curds]

The Witcher 2 is an amazing cinematic popamole casual RPG. I loved it, but grognards need not apply.

The Witcher 3 kept the cinematic popamole gameplay, but chucked out the interesting, low-key political story for a generic-as-it-comes plot and padded out the game with 100 of the same quest (find x with your Witcher senses) and an open world.

 

[Reinhardt]

After playing this shit for a few hours i decided to never touch cdproject games again.

 

[Skinwalker]

The Witcher 3 kept the cinematic popamole gameplay, but chucked out the interesting, low-key political story for a generic-as-it-comes plot and padded out the game with 100 of the same quest (find x with your Witcher senses) and an open world.

You forgot the "humans are the real monsters" moral of every monster-hunting sidequest ever.

 

[Falksi]

Couldn't agree more. In an era of pure decline, TW2's C&C was a fantastic breath of fresh air.

Sure the gameplay wasn't great, but I can forgive that for just offering what so many so-called RPGs fail massively at - a good story which involves and engages the player.

Somewhere between The Witcher 1 and The Witcher 2 is the game I wanted for The Witcher 3. Instead they served up cat-AIDS with shit sauce.

 

[Hace El Oso]

Taken for what they are, I’d have to say that The Witcher 2 was my favorite of the series. The art direction, atmosphere, soundtrack were all top quality and the character writing was very novelesque.

Iorveth was one of my favorite game characters of all time, and embarking on a desperate and grand comradely adventure as a couple of guerillas in the forest was great fun.

Judging from this deliciously eurotrash music video I’m not the only one:

 

[Berengar]

Easily the best worst playing game I've played.

 

[Gerrard]

has a fairly decent combat system (better than Witcher 3, afair),

lol no
Not even before they made you take damage through blocking in a stroke of retardation brought to you by the guy who made the FCR mod.

 

[Storyfag]

TW2 was a grand experiment. It got a lot right, it got a lot wrong. Some of the devs' extremely ambitious plans did not work out. Still, it is a real gem. And its English translation is easily the best in the series.

 

[pomenitul]

It's got the best main storyline of the trilogy, hands down. W3 tops it in the side quests department, however, and Hearts of Stone is better than any other entry in the series.

 

[vortex]

W2 is really good only I didn't like in Flotsam you can visit certain places but if you don't have the quest, places are empty otherwise full of monsters or mercenaries. I wish they remake Witcher 2 and fix encounters and quests.

 

[curds]

You forgot the "humans are the real monsters" moral of every monster-hunting sidequest ever.

To be fair, that's basically the whole point of the entire Witcher IP isn't it?

 

[curds]

W3 tops it in the side quests department

As in, W3 has a greater amount of side quests? Can't imagine what else you mean.