Thoughts? Kinda disappointed that Ciri is, apparently, the protagonist i thought we were getting a fresh set of characters but oh well.
Thoughts? Kinda disappointed that Ciri is, apparently, the protagonist i thought we were getting a fresh set of characters but oh well.
Yeah I think a prequel was probably the way to go. The world of the Witcher had a lot of interesting history that wasn't fully fleshed out. A prequel set in that where you can choose what school you're from (or just set at school of the cat) and can choose your character's gender and such would have been really interesting and could have given them a chance to explore more of the world and expand on it beyond the northern realms.
spoiler
It's kind of hard to see how making her the central character can work while maintaining player choices and consequences from the series given the major choices of 3 impact most directly Ciri and whether she's empress, dead, or a witcher. I could see the rationale for retconning the ability for her to die (presumed anyways AFAIK) I suppose but empress and Witcher both seemed equally valid but different paths. (Though I always chose witcher as it seemed sad for her to get rail-roaded into being a monarch when she seemed to enjoy a life outside that and being a monarch is bad and soul-destroying actually). I guess they could do a having it both ways thing where there are two backstories, one where she became empress but for reasons that are explained somewhat had to leave or chose to leave the throne and become a witcher or she skipped that ever happening. That actually might be the best way to square that circle of a problem with player choices being reflected.
I think given Ciri's incredible elder blood powers just doing "Witcher 3 but with Ciri and different story" would be a mistake from a mechanics point of view and a story point of view. Any game centering her should have the ability for her to teleport places, make some use at least of her uniquely powerful magic beyond the normal witcher signs. I half think they should change the tone too given how over-powered she would be. Most of all though and maybe I'm weird, I hope they preserve a sense of a large, huge even living world to explore, lots of side quests, not some rush to the finish. Given the lack of customization compared to say Bioware RPGS and the lack of branching paths to account for this is really a must. I would honestly be interested in a side-campaign (not part of the regular one) that would allow players to experience Ciri's flight before/during Witcher 3 through the different worlds, wouldn't be that long or intense but I think it would be interesting and they could re-use some cyberpunk assets for at least one of the places she visits.
As I see it Witcher 3 has a kind of Tolkien-ish vibe in that the old world is dying, the witchers are dying out, a new one is taking its place, a less magical one, it's the last gasp of another time and place and this old guard and the events of it so trying to build off that is kind of tough and I hope if they do anything more than this that it's a prequel.