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

[Bara_no_Hime]

Grats on beating the Kayran, I found that encounter MADLY frustrating when I first encountered it.

Heh, thanks. I didn't even include the bit where I got too close to the plot before drinking my potions or putting the trap in my pocket and got stomped EVEN WORSE. I had to reload the save I made before talking to the Sorceress.

How are you enjoying the game so far? Getting accustomed to over-the-shoulder?

It's pretty okay. I'd still prefer an isometric view - nekkers just LOVE sneaking up on me.

The medallion scan REALLY helps though. One of the best parts about Isometric is being able to run your mouse over things to quickly and easily search. In this, one medallion scan does that job.

It has its frustrating points, but it certainly isn't damaging my enjoyment of the game any.

Also, one improvement on the combat - I no longer have to click ON an enemy to attack. If Geralt is near an enemy, and I start pounding the left mouse button, Geralt starts sword-dancing. Awesomeness follows.

Oh - did I mention that I spent my two Kraken levels on Whirl level 1 and 2? I did. GROUP STYLE IS BACK BABY!

No, that wasn't Triss in the flashback, that was Yennefer. She was mentioned by name. Exactly how did yo- nevermind.
*scratches his head*

Yes, I know. That was just a typo. My later comments about Yennifer should have made that clear, but I went ahead and edited my post to the correct name.

You getting warmer, but still no. You're getting closer to shaking the status quo of the Act, but it's not the end.
There's still the fistfighting ring questline at the lower floor of the inn, and the night-time shenanigans of Temerian Special Forces in the building just west of the Inn.

Ah, right. I was gonna do fisticuffs before, but got distracted by dicing.

Oh, question - the guy with the Troll head. Can I dice with him more for those traps he offered me? Or was that a one-time thing to get the Troll head?

Actually no, it's not worth it. There'll be a main plot mini-boss soon, and after beating the mini-boss, if you look around carefully in the fighting spot, you should find a silver sword that's almost as good
Even if you don't find that sword after the fight, your steel sword will be more important until the start of next Act, so don't bother if you don't really want to.

Okay. Waiting for main plot miniboss then. The Jagged Sword didn't require anything but monster bits I had tons of anyway (and continue to find more of), so it didn't feel like an "investment" so much as making something cool out of junk.

For the same reason, upon seeing it, I decided that the Kraken armor was not worth it either. It's less good than my Troll armor and requires me to buy or make expensive upgraded cloth and leather, so (aside from bragging rights) I didn't see the benefit.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Random musing on the sex scene.

This isn't an update - old news only - but I am going to take a moment to comment more on the first actual sex scene in the Witcher 2.

I will admit, I've been a bit surprised by the lack of random sex in this game. By this point in the Witcher 1, Geralt had slept with two people and was about to sleep with a third (Abigale). This time, while there have been two scenes of naked Triss, only one actually involved sex (the other was morning cuddling).

I'm not sure if this is meant to be moving Geralt in a more relationship-focused direction, or if the game has sacrificed many random sex scenes for one "plot related" sex scene per... chapter? The prologue wasn't a real chapter, and lacked a real sex scene, so maybe that's how this is going to work? Just guessing here.

The internet spoiled that Geralt and Triss have sex in a fancy bath, but I had no idea (until plaything through it) when or how that scene was going to occur. It actually happened sooner than I expected. And, so far as I know, I have not seen any spoilers of OTHER sex scenes in this game (all the sex screen-shots I've seen from the Witcher 2 were from the two scenes I've already seen).

I would be absolutely shocked if these two scenes were it. Like I said above, I'm assuming one per chapter.

My question is... who will they be with? Triss is far more of an active party member this time rather than an NPC. I can't imagine her just sitting back and letting Geralt screw around considering how their relationship has moved forward. Well, aside from my predicted Yennifer/Triss threeway. But that, I assume, is a late game event (if it happens) because we'd have to find and rescue Yennifer first.

I also assume that my choice to abandon Roach and help Triss find Yennifer will have some effect on how this progresses as well. If Geralt went off with Roach instead of Triss, he'd have ample opportunities to sleep around. However, since I've chosen for Geralt to stick with Triss, I wonder how that's going to change things.

Will there be more scenes with Triss? Not that I'd mind, but I wonder how many more scenarios they'll be able to come up with. The Elven Bath was a nice twist - it would be difficult for them to top that one.

Oh - in case it isn't obvious, I'm liking the sex in this game much more than the last one. No cards - Big plus. Actual cut scenes with the woman involved rather than a "generic woman" scene - big plus. I'd like to see more proper nudity - for being European, the creators seem rather afraid to show Wang - but so far so good.

Note: I'm not counting the cartoon flashbacks as a sex scene. Yes, there was a picture of naked Yennifer at one point, but only briefly, and again - little more than cuddling.

 

[DementedSheep]

Random musing on the sex scene.

This isn't an update - old news only - but I am going to take a moment to comment more on the first actual sex scene in the Witcher 2.

I will admit, I've been a bit surprised by the lack of random sex in this game. By this point in the Witcher 1, Geralt had slept with two people and was about to sleep with a third (Abigale). This time, while there have been two scenes of naked Triss, only one actually involved sex (the other was morning cuddling).

I'm not sure if this is meant to be moving Geralt in a more relationship-focused direction, or if the game has sacrificed many random sex scenes for one "plot related" sex scene per... chapter? The prologue wasn't a real chapter, and lacked a real sex scene, so maybe that's how this is going to work? Just guessing here.
The internet spoiled that Geralt and Triss have sex in a fancy bath, but I had no idea (until plaything through it) when or how that scene was going to occur. It actually happened sooner than I expected. And, so far as I know, I have not seen any spoilers of OTHER sex scenes in this game (all the sex screen-shots I've seen from the Witcher 2 were from the two scenes I've already seen).
I would be absolutely shocked if these two scenes were it. Like I said above, I'm assuming one per chapter.

My question is... who will they be with? Triss is far more of an active party member this time rather than an NPC. I can't imagine her just sitting back and letting Geralt screw around considering how their relationship has moved forward. Well, aside from my predicted Yennifer/Triss threeway. But that, I assume, is a late game event (if it happens) because we'd have to find and rescue Yennifer first.

I also assume that my choice to abandon Roach and help Triss find Yennifer will have some effect on how this progresses as well. If Geralt went off with Roach instead of Triss, he'd have ample opportunities to sleep around. However, since I've chosen for Geralt to stick with Triss, I wonder how that's going to change things.

Will there be more scenes with Triss? Not that I'd mind, but I wonder how many more scenarios they'll be able to come up with. The Elven Bath was a nice twist - it would be difficult for them to top that one.

Oh - in case it isn't obvious, I'm liking the sex in this game much more than the last one. No cards - Big plus. Actual cut scenes with the woman involved rather than a "generic woman" scene - big plus. I'd like to see more proper nudity - for being European, the creators seem rather afraid to show Wang - but so far so good.

Note: I'm not counting the cartoon flashbacks as a sex scene. Yes, there was a picture of naked Yennifer at one point, but only briefly, and again - little more than cuddling.

There is considerably less sex in this game. Maybe they figured making almost every female you can talk to want to fuck you wasn't the best idea. Off the top of my head there are around 4 named npc you can sleep with + prostitutes. If you side with the elves which it sounds like your going to do there is lots of fanservive from characters you can't sleep with because they have to milk the fact that a certain female npc likes woman for all its worth.
Someone made a nude patch for Geralt using the model they use for sex scenes. He is ken doll lol.

I never bothered making weapons and armour (aside form on unique ones on dark mode). You find better anyway.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

There is considerably less sex in this game. Maybe they figured making almost every female you can talk to want to fuck you wasn't the best idea. Off the top of my head there are around 4 named npc you can sleep with + prostitutes. If you side with the elves which it sounds like your going to do there is lots of fanservive from characters you can't sleep with because they have to milk the fact that a certain female npc likes woman for all its worth.

An in-canon lesbian? I am intrigued.

Someone made a nude patch for Geralt using the model they use for sex scenes.

Really?! It's Mod time! Sign me --

He is ken doll lol.

....

You did that to be cruel, didn't you. ~_~

Okay, why on earth would they make a nude mod for Geralt and not give him a penis? What is the point of that?

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

You know, regarding mods, there is one I used and will always use again that makes Geralt's hair more milky-white like in the first game. It's a nitpick, but I couldn't stand the grayer hair they used for the second game (or the ponytail, though thankfully you can change hairstyles).

Regarding the sex, yeah, it's done much better in the second game. However, I actually liked the sex cards. I thought they were a neat little comedic piece in an otherwise serious and rather grim game. Still to this day I can't understand why they caused so much controversy. Just people going out of their way to be offended over stupid shit, I suppose.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Update: End of Chapter 1

Choosing not to craft anything, I head to the Inn and fight some guys. I actually quite enjoy the new boxing system - it isn't just "spam left click" anymore. True, it's just QTEs, but this is use of QTEs that work well.

Anyway, I agree to join Fight Club, and King whats-his-face takes me to Lorendo's house. Oh my. I once again leave all weapons outside (sigh) and head in.

More boxing ensues. I notice that these opponents are tougher than the ones in the inn (they require more buttons presses to defeat). I take them all and then Lorendo tells me to throw the last fight. Ha. Ha ha. No.

I not only beat the final dude, I beat him FLAWLESSLY. Suck on that, asshat.

It is wonderfully satisfying to make him pay me after I told him to get fucked.

Outside, I pick up my equipment, reequip it, and then get attacked by thugs. Normally I can't draw my sword in town, so I attempt to fight with spells-only, but Geralt draws anyway, and the nearby guard doesn't seem to give a shit. Um, okay. I murder them and loot their corpses. The guard saunters past and I guilty put away my sword.

That was a thing. Anyway, on my way back, there are a bunch of people upset about the incense shop. Oh, right, selling drugs. Wait, they just now noticed? I go and yell at the guy and he closes up shop. I get some XP, so that's all right then.

I talk to Zoltan in the Inn, and he says he can hook me up with the Squirrel leader, I... something. Iorveth, according to Google. Ahem, anyway, we go to meet him and get attacked by Nekkers. And then talk to elves. And then go to a different meeting spot. With a giant spider in it. Lovely. Also, why couldn't I get down her earlier? Never mind.

I kill the spider thing and Igor shows up (I'm not gonna type Iorveth every time - yikes) and I tell him about the betrayal from the Kingslayer. After convincing him, he agrees to test the kingslayer and asks me to accompany him. I wanna loot that spider, so I say I'll meet him there.

I loot the spider and find... a new silver sword! Yeah, I see why you guys told me not to upgrade. Nice.

Anyway, Zoltan is heading back to town, so I head back to the Elven Baths to meet Oden.

... get it? Oden only has one eye. Iorveth only has one eye. LAUGH DAMMIT!

Ah meta humor. The best kind of humor.

Ahem. Anyway, so, we head in and I pump the Kingslayer for information. I avoid being mean until I've got as many answers as I think I can get, then tell him I'm gonna make him pay. This leads to a sword battle.

I rip into him and get really REALLY lucky - I pin him against a wall and he is unable to respond. As his HP reaches critical (just a sliver left) I back off so I can hear the rest of his dialog. He starts casting a spell, so I head back in -

- and, with me at full HP, him at 0 HP, I gently tap him. And a cut scene starts where he kicks my ass, disarms me, and holds a sword to my neck.

FUCKING RAILROADING!!!

I'm feeling a little cheated as the cut-scene of "this guy is really awesome" plays. I totally fucking owned him (yes, due to a lucky pin, but I made it count and tore him apart!). Between that and my swallow potion, I was at full HP when that cut-scene started. If it wasn't necessary to the plot that he lived, I'd have cut off his head and carried it back to town with me. Grrr.

Anyway, it is a game, so he goes off to find Triss. And Iodine shows up (I gave him his sword during the fucking timed response) and shoots the shit with me in a massively unnecessary fashion. I question him, grab my sword and some... loot that I guess he dropped? So I did kill him, technically?

And no, I don't mean the chest - I accidentally found this room earlier before the sex scene and looted it then. This is new loot.

Anyway, I head to town, but OF COURSE I'm too late. Triss has been kidnapped. Interestingly, I get to play as Triss briefly as Margot explains what happened. It's actually a very interesting way to handle the data dump - putting the player in control of it.

Anyway, Cedric was with Triss, and he was bleeding, so time to follow a blood trail. Using a cat potion.

Due to some false trails, I end up running out of potion in the middle of the woods. I take a second one - and find Cedric about five feet away (not really, but what I thought was a guard corpse I looted earlier was actually Cedric - I could SEE him without the potion, I just didn't know it was him).

Cedric dies after telling me that the Kingslayer forced Triss through a portal. Okay... time to follow. And fuck this guy up. Again. Harder.

I talk to Dandelion and Zoltan, and decide to go see Mr. Friday. And yes, that is a VERY obscure reference, and no I'm not going to explain it. If you laughed, then awesome. If not, then you need to read more Neil Gaimen novels.

He is, of course, back in the elven ruins. I hate climbing up there yet again, but fine, I do so. He wants to steal the barge and use it to chase the Kingslayer. Sounds good to me. I don't check Roach's plan because A) I want to side with the Squirrels and B) he attacked the Squirrels and helped the Kingslayer escape, so FUCK HIM. If Roach hadn't attacked then, the Squirrels would have filled the Kingslayer with arrows and I'd have my gods damned memory back.

Anyway, together we head to the harbor, splitting up to take the more difficult route around. The barge is heavily guarded for some reason and I try to warn Icarus, but he's already gone in, so I rush to join him. Which is made difficult by the game being very pick about exactly where I'm standing to activate the "jump down" option.

I learn that grenades do NOT have friendly fire by tossing several into the mass of guards ahead of us. They also don't deal much damage. Ah well. Relying on the Jagged Sword and my fully upgraded Group Style, I wade in, murdering tons of guards. We take the ship - there's a particularly cool moment when I take on some sort of mini-boss and we end up fighting our way down the stairs into the ship's hold. It isn't scripted, just an accident of positioning - and it is FUCKING AWESOME.

After killing him (and never getting a chance to loot him or the other dozen guards dammit!) I head back up and finish off the last couple guards on deck. And then -

Cut scene. Loredo has an elven prostitute on a building an sets said building on fire. Ivo says that the women are martyrs. I say "fuck that" and go save them (letting Loredo escape). Those women didn't sign up to be Squirrels or martyrs.

Anyway, that done, we sail off into Chapter 2.

More on that in the next update (which I'm going to make pretty much immediately - I want to make it easier for readers to use the front index to jump where they want to).

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Chapter 2: Begins

Dandelion does a little recap/time skip... thing, with strange 3D stills. Not sure what's up with that, but then again it's Dandelion.

Things get playable and I'm... playing a random prince. For some reason. Okay then. He's accompanied by a woman who appears to be Jeanne d'Arc. Fucking sweet. So I guess that means I'm playing the Dauphin? Okay then - that bit of historic reference will now help me portray him. Well played, Game.

We get to a negotiation table. Good King Asshole is trying to annex northern France - er, Alu.. Aled... the one that starts with an A, the king of which got killed during the opening cut scene. I'm not quite sure which of the four kings King Asshole is, but that's beside the point since I'm playing the Dauphin. And I'm playing him like a strong medieval Frenchman (rather than the modern, post WW2 stereotype) so I tell King Asshole that no one has ever taken my capital and that the only compensation I'm planning to give him are the lives of his men.

I note that the game makes handing over Jeanne an option. Well, while that would be historically accurate, it doesn't fit with my (rose tinted, historical fiction influenced) vision of how the Dauphin should behave, so instead I tell King Asshole to go fuck himself.

And the fucker draws on me! At first, I think that it's going to be a duel between King Asshole and Jeanne, but the game puts me back in control of the Dauphin. Fair enough. I try to kill King Asshole myself, but the auto-target selects the Sorceress next to him. I kill her in two hits (although I think she ignored the second hit and teleported away?) and, with her gone, I can concentrate on King Asshole, who I duel until I eliminate his HP.

And ONCE AGAIN the game steals my victory and I get to watch the character who just won the battle get his ass kicked. Damn it, Witcher 2, what are you - a JRPG?!

King Asshole lives up to his name by... beating a random priest to death... for some reason? ... on a Mysterious And Evil Altar Thingy (TM). Well, as everyone knows, bleeding on the Evil Artifact is never a good idea.

Meanwhile, in an entirely different game, Geralt et al have shown up and are chatting with some Dwarf. I noticed earlier that the Dwarves appear to be honor-guarding the Dauphin, so things appear to be less sucky for the non-humans around here. Or for the dwarves anyway.

No sooner that introductions are finished, the sky clouds over and EVIL is present. Time to hurry to check on the Dauphin.

We get there in time to see King Asshole and... the Sorceress from the previous chapter?! - bail into a portal. The same kind of portal Triss liked using. Dammit.

Oh, and a hoard of undead has just arrived. The game tells me to protect... someone? It doesn't mark who it means, and I don't know people's names yet, so... yeah, not very helpful.

Having no idea who I'm supposed to protect, I kill some armor wraiths - very cool - and then some Draugin - also very cool. I manage to loot one. And then... an Owl shows up.

...?

...?!

Okay, apparently the Owl is a Biotic.

And a better Biotic than Jack, Miranda, OR Samara/Moirith. All of them could shield you from the Collector Swarm, but none of them could ALSO shoot lightning bolts at the undead. That would have made things a LOT easier during that Suicide mission, let me tell you.

Geralt's auto-targeting gets a little annoying here, leading him outside the protective bubble. And... FUCK! his HP starts falling really fucking fast. Apparently that dark fog is pure fucking death.

I get back in with hardly any health left... just in time for another Draugir to appear. And it fucking kills me. Fuck.

Back to the beginning of the battle. This time, I take things slow and isolate enemies, killing them and looting their corpses while my NPC allies keep the others busy. Then, when the Owl shows up, I just stick with the group and occasionally kill-steal an armor wraith that the owl has just lightning bolted.

I save my HP for the Draugir, kill it, and then loot the body while ignoring the wraiths that are apparently preventing the Owl from moving. Then I kill one wraith, loot it, then the next - etc.

The owl gets moving again. The pattern repeats a few more times. Things get a little sticky when we move through a really massive battlefield and the game starts to lose some frame rate. Also, Geralt's auto-target gets confused and instead of Geralt attacking the armor wraith I want him to, he will leap towards the inky dark DEATH and try to kill one there instead. And I take half a HP bar of damage before I can get him back by the owl.

Eventually we make it out. The owl... transforms into that Sorceress that Triss was talking to. Phillipa, I believe. So... Phillipa is an owl then?

So... no one has seen Triss or the Kingslayer, there's an evil altar spitting out the undead, and the other Sorceress (or a fourth sorceress) is working for King Asshole.

Fucking lovely.

And this is where I saved, exhausted and... four levels higher! Okay, level up first, then save.

In case anyone is curious, I use these four talents to get Bleeding, and then the top three Sword options. Yes, I just got the (lower level versions of) the top three abilities in Sword.

And, as it happens, all three of them are mutateable.

I spend to mutagins immediately - a Greater Vitality and a Critical Effect. I have one slot left, a ton of "lesser" mutagins... and a "Madness mutagen" that provides +2 armor and several other VERY desirable effects.

My question here is... the "madness" in Madness Mutagen sounds bad. Does it have any negative effects? Or is it just a cool name? Should I use the Madness mutagen on my highest level sword ability? (And does it actually matter what skill I use them on? It hasn't seemed to so far.)

So that's where I left off - I've just arrived in the new quest area.

Oh, something I keep forgetting to mention. I very much appreciate that, unlike the previous game, the plot markers in this game MOVE. If an NPC moves, their plot marker moves with them. This means that, if the plot is available, it has a plot marker. If it's not, it doesn't. VERY helpful, and much better than the last game.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

So that's where I left off - I've just arrived in the new quest area.

This is where The Witcher 2 does the bulk of it's "choice" bragging. Your Act 2 will be ENTIRELY different than it would've been had you gone with Roche.

Both sides are really strong, although the benefit of your choice is you won't have to listen to people screaming for Odrin until you want to crack your speakers open and piss on the innards.

 

[The Madman]

You can't really go wrong with either Roche or Iorveth, having played both sides both characters are about equally interesting. Roche's crew is also a lot of fun with awesome characters like Ves, but then Iorveth gets to hang out with Dwarves, awesome dwarves, plus Saskia as well so again it's all about even really.

You never did do the quest where you got to hang out with Roche's crew by the way. You missed the chance to get Geralt drunk and have an embarrassing tattoo done.

And out of curiosity what difficulty are you playing on? I ask because the fight with the Kingslayer is a challenging one both times I've played. Then again I played on Hard and Dark Mode, so I've no clue how tough he might be on normal or easy.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Lol, King Asshole is King Henselt of Kaedwen, and he's one of my favourite characters in the Witcher 2, right next to Geralt. A very well written character that seems heavily flawed at first, but the more you look into him, the more positives you can find. Unfortunately, you won't be seeing too much of him in Iorveth's path. It's worth a 2nd playthrough though, he is a truly magnificent character.

Edit: Also, Letho's cutscene where he kicks your arse is there because for 99% of people, including myself, that fight is tough as nails and results in many deaths and reloads, so it kind of makes sense. Seems you were rather lucky with the fight.

 

[The Madman]

Lol, King Asshole is King Henselt of Kaedwen, and he's one of my favourite characters in the Witcher 2, right next to Geralt. A very well written character that seems heavily flawed at first, but the more you look into him, the more positives you can find. Unfortunately, you won't be seeing too much of him in Iorveth's path. It's worth a 2nd playthrough though, he is a truly magnificent character.

He *is* heavily flawed, the guys an asshole and I have only minor regrets letting Roche cut him down mercilessly. That said like most realistic people he's got some good to him as well as bad. He's a cruel, merciless, and racist bastard whose lust for violence is only matched by his arrogance. That said he's also honourable in his own sort of way, takes the time to care about those who serve under him and treats his men and people well. He's also deceptively clever and isn't nearly as much of an idiot as he might like to let people think he is.

Great character, but definitely someone I'm glad is fictional.

Roche on the other hand is thoroughly awesome, I actually prefer him over Iorveth. He's the closest the Witcher universe has to a Garrus, a steadfast and loyal companion who once you've earned his trust, would fight through hell itself in your defence.

Of course he's also a violent murderer that has little qualms about killing innocents if it means completing his objective, but in that respect Iorveth is no different.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

plus Saskia as well so again it's all about even really.

Who is Saskia? Too many names thrown at me all at once.

And out of curiosity what difficulty are you playing on? I ask because the fight with the Kingslayer is a challenging one both times I've played. Then again I played on Hard and Dark Mode, so I've no clue how tough he might be on normal or easy.

Normal. I don't play on Hard unless I've played through a game more than once.

Edit: Also, Letho's cutscene where he kicks your arse is there because for 99% of people, including myself, that fight is tough as nails and results in many deaths and reloads, so it kind of makes sense. Seems you were rather lucky with the fight.

Like I said, I caught him in a corner. He'd start to do something and I'd Fast-Style him in the face, shoving him back and interrupting him.

I doubt I could catch him like that again if I tried.

Lol, King Asshole is King Henselt of Kaedwen,

So noted. I will attempt to remember that later. No promises though.

 

[The Madman]

plus Saskia as well so again it's all about even really.

Who is Saskia? Too many names thrown at me all at once.

Saskia is the 'Joan of Arc' you met earlier.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Saskia is the 'Joan of Arc' you met earlier.

Ah. Jeanne.

And yes, I always (and only) refer to her as Jeanne d'Arc. You wouldn't want someone calling you by the french equivalent of your name. Unless you're French, obviously. Thus why would you (or anyone else) refer to someone from France as if they were English?

 

[The Madman]

Saskia is the 'Joan of Arc' you met earlier.

Ah. Jeanne.

And yes, I always (and only) refer to her as Jeanne d'Arc. You wouldn't want someone calling you by the french equivalent of your name. Unless you're French, obviously. Thus why would you (or anyone else) refer to someone from France as if they were English?

Because she's been dead for for over 500 years now, I hardly think I'm hurting her feelings by calling her Joan instead of Jeanne. Alexander the Great also wouldn't have been called Alexander, nor would any number of other historic figures have been called in their time what we call them now.

Hell, nevermind dead people, half the people I know get my name wrong. Doesn't matter. You know who I was referring to so obviously the name did its purpose.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

snip

Spoilers! Bara, do not read this.

Spoiler

Well yeah, but you see, he is a strong, ruthless king. A very strong king. Who the hell would you want to lead the war against Nilfgaard? A pansy on the throne, or a cold, hard bastard? Remember, this is a war the North have almost no chance of winning, you NEED a man like Henselt to lead the North, especially after Foltest's demise. Without Henselt and his armies (remember, Keadwen enters civil war on his death) the North is doomed. I personally think the choice to let Roche kill Henselt is a test. A test for the player to see whether they are blinded by emotion, rather than common sense. Most players will think of Ves and Roche's unit and let Roche kill him. What they don't think of, is the inevitable war that is to come, and the chaos that Kaedwen will descend to if he dies. Redania and the few remaining kingdoms alone can't do shit to Nilfgaard. Henselt and Keadwen need to lead the North in the war, no other way to stand against Nilfgaard from my understanding.

 

[DementedSheep]

snip

Spoilers! Bara, do not read this.

Spoiler

Well yeah, but you see, he is a strong, ruthless king. A very strong king. Who the hell would you want to lead the war against Nilfgaard? A pansy on the throne, or a cold, hard bastard? Remember, this is a war the North have almost no chance of winning, you NEED a man like Henselt to lead the North, especially after Foltest's demise. Without Henselt and his armies (remember, Keadwen enters civil war on his death) the North is doomed. I personally think the choice to let Roche kill Henselt is a test. A test for the player to see whether they are blinded by emotion, rather than common sense. Most players will think of Ves and Roche's unit and let Roche kill him. What they don't think of, is the inevitable war that is to come, and the chaos that Kaedwen will descend to if he dies. Redania and the few remaining kingdoms alone can't do shit to Nilfgaard. Henselt and Keadwen need to lead the North in the war, no other way to stand against Nilfgaard from my understanding.

Spoiler

Yeah that's why I didn't kill him on my Roche play-through though I very much wanted too especially since he started pulling the "You can't do shit cause I'm a king" card...which unfortunately was correct in this case. Argh!

 

[The Madman]

snip

Spoilers! Bara, do not read this.

Spoiler

Well yeah, but you see, he is a strong, ruthless king. A very strong king. Who the hell would you want to lead the war against Nilfgaard? A pansy on the throne, or a cold, hard bastard? Remember, this is a war the North have almost no chance of winning, you NEED a man like Henselt to lead the North, especially after Foltest's demise. Without Henselt and his armies (remember, Keadwen enters civil war on his death) the North is doomed. I personally think the choice to let Roche kill Henselt is a test. A test for the player to see whether they are blinded by emotion, rather than common sense. Most players will think of Ves and Roche's unit and let Roche kill him. What they don't think of, is the inevitable war that is to come, and the chaos that Kaedwen will descend to if he dies. Redania and the few remaining kingdoms alone can't do shit to Nilfgaard. Henselt and Keadwen need to lead the North in the war, no other way to stand against Nilfgaard from my understanding.

Oh I know, that's where the regrets come in. In the long term it's almost certainly a selfish decision what I let Roche do, but at the same time what an asshole.

Besides with The Witcher I've come to the conclusion that ultimately everything is shades of grey, the best Geralt can do is try to do right by himself and his friends, politics be damned. We'll see how everything turns out soon enough in Witcher 3.

 

[Norrdicus]

- and, with me at full HP, him at 0 HP, I gently tap him. And a cut scene starts where he kicks my ass, disarms me, and holds a sword to my neck.

FUCKING RAILROADING!!!

I'm feeling a little cheated as the cut-scene of "this guy is really awesome" plays. I totally fucking owned him (yes, due to a lucky pin, but I made it count and tore him apart!). Between that and my swallow potion, I was at full HP when that cut-scene started. If it wasn't necessary to the plot that he lived, I'd have cut off his head and carried it back to town with me. Grrr.

Oh man, I wonder if you can play ME3 without foaming at the mouth if this gets you upset. At least Letho has the courtesy of not rubbing your nose in it.

By the way, depending on whether you helped Iorveth or Roche, the town will be either in flames OR holding a giant feast, Loredo celebrating the capture of Iorveth

He is, of course, back in the elven ruins. I hate climbing up there yet again, but fine, I do so. He wants to steal the barge and use it to chase the Kingslayer. Sounds good to me. I don't check Roach's plan because A) I want to side with the Squirrels and B) he attacked the Squirrels and helped the Kingslayer escape, so FUCK HIM. If Roach hadn't attacked then, the Squirrels would have filled the Kingslayer with arrows and I'd have my gods damned memory back.

Yet, did Roche have any reason to know that the Scoia'tael weren't on Letho's side?

I learn that grenades do NOT have friendly fire by tossing several into the mass of guards ahead of us. They also don't deal much damage. Ah well.

Grapeshot bombs are a lot more effective against monsters because they tend to have be far more glasscannon-y

Meanwhile, in an entirely different game, Geralt et al have shown up and are chatting with some Dwarf. I noticed earlier that the Dwarves appear to be honor-guarding the Dauphin, so things appear to be less sucky for the non-humans around here. Or for the dwarves anyway.

Things are less sucky for dwarves pretty much everywhere. Out of the 2 non-human races, they almost always act more diplomatic than elves in the Witcher games. Heck, you'll hear them commenting on that exact thing if you listen to the street banter.

And a better Biotic than Jack, Miranda, OR Samara/Moirith. All of them could shield you from the Collector Swarm, but none of them could ALSO shoot lightning bolts at the undead. That would have made things a LOT easier during that Suicide mission, let me tell you.

FUCK YOU MIRANDA! YOUR BIOTICS SUCK!

*cough*

Sorry, needed to get it out of my system. She really did not win me over during the suicide mission

My question here is... the "madness" in Madness Mutagen sounds bad. Does it have any negative effects? Or is it just a cool name? Should I use the Madness mutagen on my highest level sword ability? (And does it actually matter what skill I use them on? It hasn't seemed to so far.)

Naah, the Madness name is mainly fluff, no plot or mechanic relevance.

And out of curiosity what difficulty are you playing on? I ask because the fight with the Kingslayer is a challenging one both times I've played. Then again I played on Hard and Dark Mode, so I've no clue how tough he might be on normal or easy.

I think Letho acts fairly similar so the fight is still hard on Normal, but on Easy enemies don't block so I assume he's only truly *easy* on the lowest difficulty.

My first fight ever, which was on Normal, Letho kicked my ass so flawlessly that I thought this was an unwinnable fight. Now I almost wish losing to him WAS a viable option given what he does next in a cutscene

Roche on the other hand is thoroughly awesome, I actually prefer him over Iorveth. He's the closest the Witcher universe has to a Garrus, a steadfast and loyal companion who once you've earned his trust, would fight through hell itself in your defence.

Of course he's also a violent murderer that has little qualms about killing innocents if it means completing his objective, but in that respect Iorveth is no different.

Yeah, I prefer Roche over Iorveth as well. No doubt, Iorveth is still cool and snarky and you can make him more self-aware regarding his almost life-long slaughter of humans in Act 2 through some random discussions, but Roche not only helps you out a lot during the game, he's also funny as fuck.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Hell, nevermind dead people, half the people I know get my name wrong. Doesn't matter. You know who I was referring to so obviously the name did its purpose.

Yes yes, but it is a personal pet peeve of mine. Jeanne d'Arc was one of the most brilliant women in history.

And, in case you're wondering, I'm one of the many people who subscribe to the current theory that Jeanne was a smart girl who faked having visions because she was a born tactician. It actually explains her a lot better than the previous theory that she was insane. Insane people don't come up with brand new tactics on the fly and win every battle they command.

Jeanne is a bit of a historic hero to me.

**snip**

Thanks for the info! ^^ As always.