An Impromptu Witcher Lets Play - now with the Witcher 2!

[Norrdicus]

A little late to ask, but does it matter where I get it from? Will the Steam version recognize the save filed from GOG?

Should be no problems. It did work the other way around for me (Steam TW1 -> retail TW2) so it's just a matter of copying your completed save file folder to the right location, if you even need to do that, which I assume you won't

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

A little late to ask, but does it matter where I get it from? Will the Steam version recognize the save filed from GOG?

Should be no problems. It did work the other way around for me (Steam TW1 -> retail TW2) so it's just a matter of copying your completed save file folder to the right location, if you even need to do that, which I assume you won't

Okay then.

Download at 33%.

And yes, due to request, I do plan to move directly into the Witcher 2 after I finish the first one (and I will continue posting it).

Here's a question - should I start a new thread, or keep posting in this one? Thoughts?

 

[Norrdicus]

Yay!

Well, I'm for continuing on this thread, but changing the thread title a bit once you start posting Witcher 2 stuff. The edit timers on these forums are exceptionally long.

I'm suddenly getting eager to continue my 4th playthrough on Dark Mode (hardest difficulty without perma-death).

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Just finished installing the Witcher 2.

Quick question. I don't want to start a New Game until after I finish the Witcher 1 (for obvious reasons). However, I booted the game's main menu just to fix the settings and make sure everything works. I was checking for things like difficulty (couldn't find), graphical options (set to Low Spec), and other such things. It all worked fine except for the difficulty setting. Is that in the New Game option?

Anyway, otherwise everything seems A-Okay.

Although I'm sad the sale was on Steam instead of GOG - I would have gotten a free soundtrack at GOG.

Edit: Also, you mentioned I could give them my CD Key at GOG. How? I can't find anywhere to input my CD Key on GOG's site.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Well, I ain't going to spoil anything (unless you ask), but take a friendly recommendation from someone who's played through the whole game 5-6 times and has Geralt as his profile picture. I certainly do advise some stun/blinding resistance potions. The choice, however, is yours.

 

[Norrdicus]

It all worked fine except for the difficulty setting. Is that in the New Game option?

Yeah that's a New Game option.

Although I'm sad the sale was on Steam instead of GOG - I would have gotten a free soundtrack at GOG.

Don't feel too bad, the OST is taking a sort of generic (though competent) fantasy approach in Witcher 2, you're not missing much

Edit: Also, you mentioned I could give them my CD Key at GOG. How? I can't find anywhere to input my CD Key on GOG's site.

Right here, I believe [http://www.gog.com/witcher/backup]

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Right here, I believe [http://www.gog.com/witcher/backup]

**uses it**

Ah! Awesome! Not only does it give me a free GOG copy of the game, should I ever need it, but it also gives me all of the GOG extras! So now I have the soundtrack and comic book! ^^

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Update: The Old Manor

So, I headed into that part of the swamp, and I ended up fighting Count d'Witt, because he's the one who transformed Adda into a Striga. Oh, so satisfying. So very satisfying. Killing him, I mean. I've wanted to stab him pretty much since I met him.

Anyway, I loot his corpse and the game updates my quest with a "you should really see the King" to which I respond "yes, game, I'd fucking love to, but you won't let me leave Old Vizima, so shut up about it already".

So now... bigass swamp. I head through, picking Honeysuckle (rarest of herbs previously) and other alchemical bits and killing the occasional monster that gets too close. Eventually I end up on a far shore near a campfire with some corpses and some dude who attacks me. I kill him for 1 XP and move on. I see that the plot wants me to go up the hill, so instead I attempt to go around the side. I see a wrecked ship, but can't reach it. Sigh.

Okay, up the hill. And - it's tattoo boy. He's the big bad (so far) but I can never remember his name.

Anyway, he's undead-ified the Female Order Knight who several of you slept with instead of (or in addition to) Tourviel. Ew. Do you fight undead Tourviel here if you were with the Order, or does she die either way?

I smite her, loot her, and move on, killing a few more dudes and a fucking armored dog. WTF?!

Up the hill, I take on some more guys guarding a ruined castle - the old Manor, I assume. I'm looting corpses, careful not to agro the remaining guys beyond the gate, when I hear combat. They're fighting... someone. I loot another corpse, then get worried, so I head in and - holy crap! Where to begin?!

Yaevinn and a group of elves and dwarves are fighting giant zombies! Or... not zombies. Frankensteins? They're called "giant mutants" but they look remarkably like Gravers that someone decided to play Operation on first.

Oh, and half of the elves/dwarves are already dead, because they've been fighting without me because I didn't realize there was a battle already in progress going on.

I fire and sword them until they stop moving. Yaevinn and ONE dwarf survive the battle. ... eh. I loot the dead Squirrels (because the mutants have no loot) and then talk to Yaevinn. We chat about the battle in the city first, and then (because it is clearly the "advance the plot" dialog option) I take a moment to loot a nearby trunk and explore the rest of the island. I find a place of power near that wrecked boat.

Also, my inventory is REALLY full. I sit down and make some potions, concentrating on Willow potions since I was advised to make some. I also restock a few other useful potions (thanks to alcohol bought from the Druids and found in the aforementioned chest). That done, I rest one hour, and SAVE, and then go talk to Yaevinn.

He takes me to a "well"... which is back down the hillside near all those random critters. Lovely.

Inside, I save in a new slot, because I assume that was officially the point of No Return. I also take a cat potion because it's fucking dark, and use a Argentia oil on my Silver sword. And then I start murdering mutants. I kill my way through a group, and then arrive at a branch in the path. One goes towards the plot, the other doesn't, so I take the branch that doesn't and explore it first. I find some undead of various sorts and kill them all. I've had to reequip the anti-wraith amulet because of limited inventory space, so they're push-overs, but the vampire dudes with the saliva are slightly more trouble.

After that, I dead-end, so I head back to the branch and go the other way. I enter the Lab... and Big Boss appears and ... chats. I clicked on him, hoping I could attack him, but he just talks instead. Turns out he's got a Giant Fucking Spider, that looks suspiciously like the Queen Spider that fucking ONE HIT KILLED ME a few chapters ago. Yeah, that's not good.

Since I saved before entering the room, I run up and attack it. And... it hits me, and I only take a moderate amount of damage. Okay then, battle on. It stuns me, though, so I open my inventory and take a Willow potion. My strong Rubido Cat potion isn't really tanking this damage the way I'd like, so I down a Swallow potion as well. And then a White Raffard's Decoction. Damn this thing has a lot of fucking HP. I switch between Fast and Strong style - Fast to inflict Pain to give me some breathing room, and Strong to do damage and inflict Bleed. Oh, and I throw in some Fire whenever it stops burning to keep Incinerate on.

And, finally, if fucking DIES. I loot its body and find a special substance. Now... I could run all the way back to that fireplace at the beginning... or I could press on.

... press on it is.

I continue on, killing more mutants and mutant dogs on the way. I am also hallucinating pretty red flickers because my toxicity is rather high at the moment (even though I made the Willow potions strong on Albedo). In short order, I reach the final fight. Once again, Tattoo appears to taunt me, once again I try to stab him and instead talk, and once again he teleports away. Mother fucker. I kill two minions and THEN he teleports me to the boss fight room for the final showdown.

But first, he claims that he's captured Triss and is going to torture her. Um... I explored the whole dungeon, side rooms and all, and she ain't here. So... yeah, no. I don't actually have the option to tell him to fuck off since Geralt just does it. He also claims that the Triss comment is likely bullshit anyway. Oh good.

So battle on.

After that fucking spider, this guy is easy. He spams a Blindness spell that is a bit annoying, but whenever he does that, I just cast Fire spells over and over again until I can see to attack again. Eventually he stops blinding me constantly (he probably got tired of being set on fire) and I attack him with Strong style. This... doesn't work every well, so I switch to Fast style and inflict Pain, keeping him effectively stun-locked the rest of the battle. With my swallow potion, strong rubido, and Fast style, I end the battle at full HP. Fuck you, guy, and your dead spider too.

I loot his body for more random crap, including a book on how to harvest stuff from those mutants I was just killing. A little late, game, but whatever. And then I click on a mirror.

And learn that the Rose Knights leader is behind the whole thing! Which makes sense, since d'Witt was the one who turned Adda into a Striga. Well played, assholes.

I assume that the big bad is Yaevinn or some Squirrel leader above him if you sided with the Order? Or is it always this douche?

Anyway, Geralt smashes the mirror and... just sorta teleports out of the dungeon. Kay. What was the point of that exit near the crypts then?

Yaevinn offers to take me back to see the King. I agree, follow him to the dock, and then rest at the fire. I make the special potion (and a few other potions as well to restock), rest, take the potion, and then rest again to spend my Gold talent. I spend it on the final level of Group Silver since I bought Group Steel last level thinking I'd be fighting human Salamanders rather than mutants that dislike silver. Now all my styles in both swords are fully upgraded. Yay!

I take the boat with Yaevinn and talk to the King. I give him the info and he offers me 8k gold to kill the guy I was going to kill anyway (Geralt asks for 11k, the King haggles down to 8). I like Geralt's comment here "I'm not an Assassin... er, I mean I'll do it for 11 thousand." Well played, Geralt.

Dandelion was around a moment ago... does he have my storage? There stuff in there I want.

Also, I found a TON of yellow meteorite in the dungeon. Is it too late to go to a blacksmith and buy a new sword? And, if not, will it be better than the two unique swords I'm carting around?

Anyway, this is the Epilogue, and I had other things I need to get done, so... that's it for today. See you next time for the exciting Epilogue! And possibly forging a new sword, we'll see.

 

[Fuhrlock]

I assume that the big bad is Yaevinn or some Squirrel leader above him if you sided with the Order? Or is it always this douche?

It doesn't change in the order or neutral routes it is just some cirmstances that change... it will make sense why as you progress through the epilogue.

 

[Norrdicus]

So, I headed into that part of the swamp, and I ended up fighting Count d'Witt, because he's the one who transformed Adda into a Striga. Oh, so satisfying. So very satisfying. Killing him, I mean. I've wanted to stab him pretty much since I met him.

Same here, it was a delight to rid Count Twit of his head

Anyway, he's undead-ified the Female Order Knight who several of you slept with instead of (or in addition to) Tourviel. Ew. Do you fight undead Tourviel here if you were with the Order, or does she die either way?

You fight undead Rayla either way

I also take a cat potion because it's fucking dark, and use a Argentia oil on my Silver sword. And then I start murdering mutants.

Actually, the mutants are weak to steel weapons. You might have picked up "Experiment Notes" at some point in Chapter 5, which should have added their info in your bestiary

I assume that the big bad is Yaevinn or some Squirrel leader above him if you sided with the Order? Or is it always this douche?

It's always Jacques de Aldersberg. Siegfried and many of the knights turn against their scheming master rather quickly if you've sided with The Order

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Actually, the mutants are weak to steel weapons. You might have picked up "Experiment Notes" at some point in Chapter 5, which should have added their info in your bestiary

Really?! I thought if my medallion was twitching, it meant to use Silver. Well crap.

Then again, since Excalibur has +60% damage, and the oil gave me +60% damage on top of that, I was probably making up the difference anyway.

The mutants weren't dropping any alchemical loot, so maybe I didn't read it? I just added several kinds of mutant to my journal after killing the boss dude.

Also, I'm kinda shocked that the head of the Order is the big bad either way. Actually, that makes me feel like I chose the "right" side.

Finally - Rayla dies even if you're her ally and have sex with her? That's gotta be a downer. Does Geralt react at all in that case?

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

The Epilogue

I talked to Dandelion and accessed my storage. FINALLY. I moved some crap over there, moved some other things over to my inventory. At the time, I hoped that the fact that they kept giving me Yellow Meteorite in the final dungeon (and money) meant that I'd be able to USE that meteorite and money to, you know, have a blacksmith make me a new sword with it. Apparently not.

Never mind.

Okay, so onward. To... Siegfried! Who is evil now, apparently. I kill him and loot his body because... it's an RPG, damn it. Looting is instinct.

I head through a house, meet some NPCs from earlier, all of whom I chat with. Then onward, through a monster filled basement, onto the street again, and into another house, and on through the sewer. There I..

... I fight a fucking KRAKEN.

What the hell?! Did someone buy a baby Kraken and, when it got to big, flushed it down the toilet? Why is there a gods dammed Kraken in the sewer?!

Whatever. It's tentacles are hallariously weak to fire, so I just Igni once to clear them, and then strong style its face until it dies.

It should be noted that, in preparation for the fight I downed a Cat with Rubido (for sight and healing) and a Wolverene with Albedo (for awesomeness and to keep my potion toxin down). Add on a Swallow mid-battle, and I was well prepared for this fucker. The battle certainly wasn't easy - it was a long haul - but I never felt very in danger due to massive regen.

I collected its loot, and a nearby corpse contained a scroll of "making this monster into Gold talents" so I do so at the nearby fire, resting one hour to make the potion (and to restock the potions I just used) and then another hour after I take it to distribute the talents.

Outside the sewer, I talk to some nurses. One wants a healing potion, so I give her a Swallow and she... teaches me about monsters I already know about. Lame. Another one asks for two alchemical items I don't have on me, and haven't seen for a while. I check around the area, but there's nowhere to get any, so she's shit outta luck.

At this point, I'll mention, I've seen a sex card for the nurses. Does Geralt really stop mid-final dungeon to boink the nurses if I have those alchemical items, or did I miss that earlier in the game?

Anyway, onward. Yaevinn gets PWNed by some minions outside the Order HQ, so he taps out and I have to go in alone.

There are a pair of fairly friendly guards who don't try to kill me until after I talk to them. I save (and there's a fireplace in case I want to make potions) and then head inside.

And the Leader of the Order talks about stuff for a while. Prophesy, the end of the world, various nasty shit. And then he takes me on a magical mystery tour to SHOW me. Apparently we're in Game of Thrones now, and Winter is Coming.

And yes, I realize that this predates Game of Thrones, and that GoT is probably ripping off the Witcher.

Geralt kills some critters and asks (eventually) asks the big question: what does this have to do with the plot of the game, stealing Witcher secrets, and all that crap? And the answer is... ...?

The guy wants to move people south. Okay. What does that have to do with his plan? He wants to make... Witchers without emotions... so they can survive on the ice... which he's planning to avoid....

Huh?

I understand his plan. I fail to see his logic. If he moves south, won't he AVOID the ice age? Why does he need to have Witchers who can keep doing their job in the ice age if he's going to dodge it.

Also, aren't there people ALREADY living in the warmer southern lands? Sure, he wants to preserve HIS culture, but don't they trade with those people already? Couldn't he just, you know, take a bunch of loyal followers and just move now? Maybe take a big ol Library with him to preserve northern culture?

For that matter, when things start getting cold, won't everyone ELSE go "hey, let's move south" ? Or is this going to be a Super Fast Ice Age? And even if it is... couldn't people pack up some food and flee south even after it starts snowing? They do have Winters here. People could escape after things started getting sucky. They aren't going to degenerate overnight.

Anyway, crazy-McCrazy teleports to the top of a mountain and Geralt has to walk there, killing minons on the way. And, incidentally, chatting with old friends. The Triss in Geralt's Mind shows up to help him with support spells and lightning bolts. Abigale shows up and tells Geralt that the monsters he's killing are the future humans. Her "great grandchildren". Um, Abigale. They are harry APEs. It would take far more than four or five generations to actually TRANSFORM into ape men. I could see angry cave men, but they'd still LOOK human, even if they were crazy. This appears to be hundreds of thousands of years in the future if we have full on Ape People.

Anyway, Abigale is happy I didn't murder her earlier, so she gives me some potions. So do several other NPCs, like Toruviel, whose name I've been mispelling for ages. Some of them give me random buffs, like flaming swords. Siegfried appears and is a mini boss fight - apparently with the same stats from the last time I killed him.

Finally, we bump into Adda. She agrees to join the party, and just as I'm jokingly thinking she'd be hilarious as a Stirga, she turns into the fucking Stirga. OKAY. I was kidding, but apparently Geralt has the same sense of humor I do and this is his idea of funny.

A bridge collapses, we fight some dudes, and then Triss is like "that as far as we can go".

... WTF?! We just got Adda! She only got to help for one damn fight! Oh well, never mind.

I don't bother resting. I do, sadly, notice that all my potions have expired. So I reup Willow, Swallow, and Wolverene and then head in.

Much of the above data dump actually happens along the trip and here, but I did it earlier to save time.

Anyway, I tell him to surrender. He refuses. Battle.

He summons a TON of little fire elementals. Which sucks for two reasons.

1) I can't just set them on fire.

2) They slow my frame rate down because there's a lot of them and they're on fire, and fire is the bane of speedy gameplay.

I swear a lot, and go Group Silver style, and ignore the boss who is really hurting me to concentrate on killing these fuckers. And, a White Ranford Decoction later, I do so. I switch to Strong (leaving it on silver because I noticed that with my +60% potion, I do better with it than the Steel sword even on people) and I wade into him. I have to take another healing potion before the end, leaving me with red floaters as I poison myself, but with great effort and timing (and fire, now that I'm no longer fighting fire elementals) I take the fucker down.

And the Wild Fucking Hunt appears. And he wants the guy. Um... no? My prey.

The Wild Hunt doesn't take kindly to that and challenges me to a duel.

I'm buffed up on potions, still in Strong Silver, and have both Swallow and Rubido tanking my HP. And my anti-wraith salt is still equipped. I set him on fire and rip him up so fast, his summoned minions don't even have time to do mroe than stand around ineffectually.

THAT was for walking away from me earlier when I tried to boss fight you! Jerk! Haha!

After that, I turn around and stab the Big Bad. He blows away my steel sword, so I use my silver sword. He protests that the silver sword is only for monsters. Which is HILARIOUS since, in game, I used the silver sword on him the ENTIRE BATTLE.

After killing him, I appear back in the cloister of the Rose Knight HQ. Dandelion shows up to tell me I've been in a coma, and just came out of it. Yaevinn was watching me, but he just left to go into hiding.

I thank Dandelion and loot the Rose Knight commander. I get back the Witcher Secrets... and a medallion. Weird.

I go talk to Dandelion some more, and Geralt says it's the same sort of medallion he gave to Alvin. Almost identical, in fact, but far older. Geralt seems to think this is an odd coincidence.

....

......

So Alvin traveled back in time, joined the Rose Knights, had a vision about the Winter coming, and was the Big Bad?

And, when I joked about Alvin being the final boss, I was RIGHT? Pfft! Hahahahaa!

Although that still doesn't explain why Triss went all OOC on me. There was never any indication in game that Alvin was mind controlling anyone. Or the Big Bad, for that matter. So I maintain my WTF for Triss's OOC behavior earlier. Even if Alvin really was the final boss.

There's a little graphic-and-text epilogue thing where apparently nothing I did mattered. The King dicked over the Elves later, and the Squirrels got pissy again, and everything ended up back where it started. Great - way to make the player feel like they accomplished something. Ah well, I guess they wanted to a Status Quo to revert to for the Witcher 2.

And then, in a weirdly different art style, Geralt goes to the King to get his cash. And an assassin murders everyone until Geralt stops him by cutting off his arm. The King and Geralt peer at the assassin... who has Witcher eyes.

Dun dun DUNNNN!

To Be Continued...

Roll Credits.

....

Title screen.

....

Wasn't I supposed to be able to save my final data to upload into The Witcher 2? Or will the game just know?

A "final thoughts" post will follow.

 

[The Madman]

One of the neat things about 'future Alvin' is that his rational for doing everything is a twisted version of the lessons and talks you've given him throughout the game leading up to that point.

Here's a snippet of what's to come in Witcher 2:


It's going to be interesting to see which path you end up going down. Judging by your love of elves so far I can hazard a guess, but even so should be interesting. Witcher 2 is both more character focused while also being a bit wider in scope, you don't stay in just Temeria this time, so watching this might help as well just to give you an idea of what kingdoms are where:

Spoiler

Hope you enjoy. And yes, you can import your save from the first Witcher game. I can't remember if it's automatic or not though.

 

[Ryotknife]

If Geralt and Triss never tried to make a family, that would create a time paradox.

-Alvin would have never used the lessons learned from Geralt as motivation to become the Big Bad
-Big Bad Alvin would never send his henchmen to attack the witchers in the beginning.
-With no attack, Geralt would never meet Alvin.

end result, Witcher 1 would have never happened.

Unless of course this is the Bioshock Infinite version of timetravel where anything goes.

P.S. Witcher 2 is harder. Learn to make sweet love with the shield sign. Also the game melted my computer.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I do like how the game drills into you from the beginning, the importance of using the right sword for each occasion, and then completely disregards that in the final blow of the final boss.

Well, I assume it's supposed to be a metaphor - this guy was the "real" monster and thus the Silver Sword was appropriate.

However, I learned back in Chapter 2 that, when faced with groups of mixed enemies (some human, some monster), that going with the Silver Sword is ALWAYS the correct answer. Monsters typically do more damage than human enemies, and are harder to "stun lock" than human enemies, so when swarmed by, say, two Salamanders and three spiders (like in the Swamp) attempting to take the Salamanders first with the Steel sword, and then switch AGONIZINGLY slowly to the Silver sword to finish the spiders amounts to suicide. Whereas, going Silver Sword (particularly Silver Sword with +120% damage) will take out the monsters MUCH faster, and still do okay damage to the human opponents. Clear the monsters first, take a potion, and then switch style (but not sword, takes too long) to finish the human enemies.

In any case, it seemed weirdly appropriate that I killed the guy with the Silver Sword (particularly after beating him with it), even if the guy only just noticed which sword I was using.

It's also funny because Geralt was carrying two steel Witcher swords at the time, because I hoped that any swords equipped to me - particularly unique ones - might make the transition to the Witcher 2 along with my awesome armor. Probably a vain hope, but it doesn't really matter.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

P.S. Witcher 2 is harder. Learn to make sweet love with the shield sign. Also the game melted my computer.

Melted?

As in... destroyed via overheating?

I have an under-laptop fan pad to help cool it. It got me through Mass Effect (the first one), and it worked fine on this one. That should be enough... right?

Also - never used any signs in this game other than Force/Wind and Fire. I only bothered leveling them at all because I had a ton of Bronze talents and nothing better to spend them on.

 

[Norrdicus]

Geralt kills some critters and asks (eventually) asks the big question: what does this have to do with the plot of the game, stealing Witcher secrets, and all that crap? And the answer is... ...?

The guy wants to move people south. Okay. What does that have to do with his plan? He wants to make... Witchers without emotions... so they can survive on the ice... which he's planning to avoid....

Huh?

I understand his plan. I fail to see his logic. If he moves south, won't he AVOID the ice age? Why does he need to have Witchers who can keep doing their job in the ice age if he's going to dodge it.

Also, aren't there people ALREADY living in the warmer southern lands? Sure, he wants to preserve HIS culture, but don't they trade with those people already? Couldn't he just, you know, take a bunch of loyal followers and just move now? Maybe take a big ol Library with him to preserve northern culture?

For that matter, when things start getting cold, won't everyone ELSE go "hey, let's move south" ? Or is this going to be a Super Fast Ice Age? And even if it is... couldn't people pack up some food and flee south even after it starts snowing? They do have Winters here. People could escape after things started getting sucky. They aren't going to degenerate overnight.

No, it's going to be a world-wide, civilization-ruining ice age that is going to last so long that people won't know what a "plant" is. Moving South is going to alleviate things, not fix everyone's problems. Aldersberg is not going to use his mutants just for the mass migration, but also for keeping order when he aims to preserve humanity in the best possible (a.k.a. still super-sucky) conditions.

Aen Ithlinnespeath, Ithlinne Aegli aep Aevenien's prophecy

"Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and axe is nigh, the era of the wolf's blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt: Tedd Deireádh, the Time of End. The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of Elder Blood, of Hen Ichaer, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout but burst into flame.

Ess'tuath esse! Thus it shall be! Watch for the signs! What signs these shall be, I say unto you: first the earth will flow with the blood of Aen Seidhe, the Blood of Elves... "

Anyway, Abigale is happy I didn't murder her earlier, so she gives me some potions. So do several other NPCs, like Toruviel, whose name I've been mispelling for ages. Some of them give me random buffs, like flaming swords. Siegfried appears and is a mini boss fight - apparently with the same stats from the last time I killed him.

Finally, we bump into Adda. She agrees to join the party, and just as I'm jokingly thinking she'd be hilarious as a Stirga, she turns into the fucking Stirga.

I find this a tad funny. It's "Striga"

So Alvin traveled back in time, joined the Rose Knights, had a vision about the Winter coming, and was the Big Bad?

No, he created The Order of the Flaming Rose.

Also, the game does a few things to fore-shadow this twist. He says stuff you you said to his kid version back at you, during your first meetings Aldersberg speaks as if you two have met and he owed you, he calls Geralt preachy while for most people except Alvin, Geralt is anything but preachy.

There's a little graphic-and-text epilogue thing where apparently nothing I did mattered. The King dicked over the Elves later, and the Squirrels got pissy again, and everything ended up back where it started. Great - way to make the player feel like they accomplished something. Ah well, I guess they wanted to a Status Quo to revert to for the Witcher 2.

The things do end up being different, it's just that it's not going to be a "good" ending ever. Scoia'tael were not going to end things peacefully in Vizima no matter how strongly you'd hope that. They are, and always will be, a guerrilla terrorist group, and nothing short of a non-human haven will make them stop.

"Yet the king's mercy was short-lived, and it could not quell disdain and hatred" really says nothing about King foltest dicking them over, honestly. The wording is very vague, but I'd almost bet money on the Temerian citizens themselves, or the Scoia'tael, re-ingiting the flames.

And then, in a weirdly different art style, Geralt goes to the King to get his cash.

It's only as weirdly different as the Striga cinematic.

Witcher 2 is both more character focused while also being a bit wider in scope, you don't stay in just Temeria this time, so watching this might help as well just to give you an idea of what kingdoms are where:

Spoiler

Yeah, I'll recommend watching this video as well until you know the countries and their rulers even vaguely. Even after playing Witcher 1, I was a bit lost in 2 because it revolves so much around politics of the established universe.

I do like how the game drills into you from the beginning, the importance of using the right sword for each occasion, and then completely disregards that in the final blow of the final boss.

That was honestly the best final boss death scene I've personally seen in RPGs

P.S. Witcher 2 is harder. Learn to make sweet love with the shield sign. Also the game melted my computer.

Yeah, Witcher 2 has inverse difficulty curve, and things are way more difficult in the beginning due to how squishy you are, and how often you get attacked by multiple opponents. Geralt really can't handle groups early game except when he has bombs handy

EDIT: Oh yeah, about the save importing, any save file made in the icy illusion or the garden after Aldersberg's death will be accepted in Witcher 2

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

If Geralt and Triss never tried to make a family, that would create a time paradox.
-Alvin would have never used the lessons learned from Geralt as motivation to become the Big Bad
-Big Bad Alvin would never send his henchmen to attack the witchers in the beginning.
-With no attack, Geralt would never meet Alvin.
end result, Witcher 1 would have never happened.

I just realized... was this supposed to be a defense of Triss being out of character? Since I just commented that, while awesome, the ending didn't justify that?

Here's the thing. "Because we had this cool ending in mind where the big bad is actually Alvin" is not an excuse for making a character behave out of character unless they also establish that Mind Control was involved.

A good ending is all well and good - great even. But they "foreshadowed" it by making an established character behave strangely for no other purpose than to shoe-horn in that twist. Good writing at the end doesn't make the earlier issue any less sloppy.

I can now see why they did it - but they still did it badly. That section remains the most painfully out of character, forced, and stereotypical aspect of the whole game. That moment is the weakest link in an otherwise good plot.

Or, to put it another way, I see now why they shot themselves in the foot, but it doesn't make it any less painful.

Considering how much attention and craft was put into the rest of the game, the out-of-no-where Triss character shift just feels sloppy and badly handled. It's like they had an outline, and they put a team of writers on each of the other sections... and wrote out the Triss bit on a piece of napkin. Looking back, it seems even worse now by comparison to all the good character development around it. Like a box of chocolates with one cat turd in it.

Okay, that last comment was a bit of hyperbole. I wouldn't want to eat a box of chocolates with a cat turd in it. On the other hand, while I still choke on the Triss section, the other items in the proverbial box are still edible. But, like the cat turd metaphor, they are also harmed by its presence.

I know. It's like a good meal served with clam chowder.

Of course to understand that, you have to know about my issues with clam chowder. I like clams. I like corn chowder. But if you mix clams and chowder, the smell makes me want to vomit. I don't know why. If you serve clam chowder with a meal, even if I don't eat the clam chowder, it harms the rest of the meal because the smell is still there, making me slightly sickened.

I've rambled a good bit about this, both before and now. Suffice it to say, I see why they did it, but I still think they did it badly. Just... better writing in that section could have helped. Triss instantly transforming into a shrewish mother just isn't believable. Becoming a parent takes time. That is NOT a natural response to sudden parenthood.

To have the attitudes about raising children that Triss has, including her fear of spoiling him, requires that she has raised children or been part of a family. She hasn't - according to others defending this scene, she was taken from her family at a young age and raised as a Sorceress. She knows nothing at all about how to raise children, so her instant transformation into the stereotypical "motherly" character makes no sense. Being bitchy about giving a kid sweets isn't genetically ingrained - it's a learned response. Believing that Geralt would make a good father when he's a professional monster hunter and woman seducer is just... not reasonable. Triss is a smart girl - she previously accepted that Geralt risks his life and fucks around. Now, because she wants to raise a child (fair enough), she expects Geralt to immediately conform to society's image of being a father? Even if she loves him and wants to be with him, that makes little sense, particularly since she doesn't want to give up being a Sorceress. It's just bad - it shows no understanding about WHY parents behave the way they do. Which is absurd - some of the writers must have had kids, had close family members with kids, something.

Yes, I've had more time to think about this and figure out exactly why it is that section of the plot so annoyed me. Geralt has character growth - he examines himself and decides that he'd like a family. Triss, meanwhile, has a child delivered to her home and INSTANTLY her "Mom Hormones" turn on and her character changes for no reason. Now, even if she wanted a kid (which she made no previous indication of), she'd still need time to, you know, GET TO KNOW HIM. To learn to be a parent. To learn that giving a kid candy all the time is a bad idea. To develop, as we see Geralt develop. Instead, we get Instant Harpy Mom.

Fun fact - I always refused to give Alvin candy (since I always stored or sold it, so never had any) and I always refused to train him with my sword (because swords aren't toys) and Alvin always said "I hate you and Triss!" afterwards. Triss, meanwhile, always said "You're so good with Alvin" afterwards.

Meanwhile, when Alvin asked for a Dog, I always promised that, someday, I'd get him one. Because dogs make good GUARDS, not to mention good Monster Detectors, and thus are a very practical pet for a Witcher's son. Alvin would be pleased... and Triss would scold me for spoiling Alvin. Because I promised him a practical gift some undetermined time in the near future.

In the Prologue, Triss tried to fuck Geralt's memories back from beyond the grave. In Chapter 3, she turns into a grouchy mom reminiscent of Marge Simpson. In Chapter 5, she talks about loving Alvin... she's known him for a few weeks, at best.

Lisa Cuddy, of the TV series House MD., took months to attach to her adopted daughter - after spending two whole seasons trying and failing to get pregnant, mind - and had an entire episode dedicated to the fact that she felt like a failure for not loving her child sooner. She has a long running character arc about this - and the process is well developed, so that when she does come to love her child, it is natural and believable.

Triss knows this fairly annoying kid for less than a month, after he gets dropped on her out of the blue (she doesn't even know he exists until after Geralt places the sensors at the beginning of chapter 3), and she loves him like her very own.

IF Alvin was mind-controlling her, then I could see that. He was certainly creepy enough. But, Future Alvin never has those powers. Other powers, yes, but not those powers. The game seems to think that Female Hormones are enough to entirely change a woman's personality and make her instantly love a child. Yeah, no.

....

Wow. Not sure how that got so long. When I said "suffice it to say" I really meant to finish there. Huh.

....

I think I'll just post this now before I write any more. ^^;;

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

No, it's going to be a world-wide, civilization-ruining ice age that is going to last so long that people won't know what a "plant" is. Moving South is going to alleviate things, not fix everyone's problems. Aldersberg is not going to use his mutants just for the mass migration, but also for keeping order when he aims to preserve humanity in the best possible (a.k.a. still super-sucky) conditions.

Quoting the prophesy didn't really help - it says nothing about the scale of the ice age.

Furthermore... how does he know it will be the whole world? We only see future Vizima. Even during Earth's more recent ice ages, the equator was pretty viable. I realize this is a fantasy world, but it's low fantasy - they typically try to keep semi-real.

Also, I will admit, I'm looking to Game of Thrones and their Winter for inspiration for the situation. Moving south does actually work in that world (as it would in this world) so I made an assumption.

Then again, if you grew up in England, lived all your life in England, etc - then the destruction of England would be like the end of the world, even if you could just move to Morocco.

It's only as weirdly different as the Striga cinematic.

No, the cut scene is in an entirely different engine that all of the others ones.

I'm guessing this is because it was made in the Witcher 2 engine. It looks like the clips from cut scenes I've seen from that game.

Note - you may have an older version of the game. This felt like something inserted later to "tie" the games together. The Epilogue stills were in the earlier art style from the Striga scene. This final cut scene was in an entirely different engine than any cut scene anywhere else in the game.

EDIT: Oh yeah, about the save importing, any save file made in the icy illusion or the garden after Aldersberg's death will be accepted in Witcher 2

Oh good. I was expecting a "post credits" save point, but there was none. I saved in the icy area right before going in to fight him, so that will likely do. I didn't think to save in the garden afterwards, but there might be an auto-save there.

 

[porous_shield]

I do like how the game drills into you from the beginning, the importance of using the right sword for each occasion, and then completely disregards that in the final blow of the final boss.

Well, I assume it's supposed to be a metaphor - this guy was the "real" monster and thus the Silver Sword was appropriate.

I really enjoyed running him through with a silver sword after giving him that lesson on witcher swords when he was a kid. They're both for monsters, it's just that steel/silver are more appropriate for different kids of monsters. The silver sword adds insult to injury, also death, but insult before he dies.

----

I picked Shani so I never noticed the OOCness of Triss and after reading your posts on the matter I'm glad I did.