Chronicling my way through F***HUEG... I mean, Witcher 3

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Also, here's a pro tip: When you're the auction, buy everything that's offered. It's your only chance to get those items.

to add on to this, there is a sword you can only get when doing the final "mission", it sucks, but it's worth looking up a guide when you get to the end of hearts of stone if you want that sword, I accidentally ran right by the damn thing.

OT: Glad you're enjoying master mirror, I had my jaw dropped multiple times with him from how amazingly well written and acted he was, *but* blood and wine was still my favorite expansion (and possibly favorite expansion to anything ever), so I'm looking forward to hearing how you enjoy that whole thing.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

He's absolutely amazing. If you love the writing in the main story you're going to adore Hearts of Stone. It's even better. It's a smaller and more focused story with fewer characters, but everything about it just clicks perfectly. The pacing is incredible. The stakes increase with each passing quest and you can feel the tension rising and the atmosphere getting darker and darker until the grand finale.

I don't know how far you are into the story so I'll ask in a spoiler tag. It's about what happens after you kill the frog.

Spoiler

When you returned to Olgierd to collect the reward for the frog, did you fight him? I know that a lot of players avoided that fight by being nice to those two executioners. But if you take an aggressive tone with them you get to duel Olgierd and it's an absolutely spectacular sword battle.

Oooh, nice to hear, can't wait. No, I didn't duel Olgierd, since the bandits were executing one of their own, and they were all bastards anyway. And seeing how he took a sword straight through the heart no problem, I see it was a wise choice. The scene with the dialogue alone was just incredible. The fact that I returned to the manor during a rainstorm at night (or was it scripted that way? The weather in cutscenes has seemed entirely procedural) took the dramatic tension up to 11. I couldn't have imagined weather more fitting of the circumistances. It was something straight out of the best episodes of Game of Thrones. The light of the fire on the characters, the glisten of rain on their clothes... ohh, it was glorious to look at.

And the way the first quest played out was another case of what I've grown to love about this game in particular, and that's repeatedly pulling the rug from underneath the player. At first it seems to be a run of the mill monster contract for rather sketchy folks, nothing that special. Then you run into Shani, hey, it's a nice callback, and it seems you're going to do stuff with her instead. Then it takes another turn when Geralt is captured and for a moment I thought the DLC had a unique area to it after all, like Blood and Wine, which would be unlocked through the ship voyage. Then Master Mirror shows up, and the road twists yet again with the shipwreck. And returning to the manor is yet another twist when it's revealed that Olgierd, and possibly his band of assholes, are more than what they seem. It's storytelling like that that creates a genuine sense of wonder and adventure, something that's all too rare these days.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Well this took a turn. Yet again. After such a grim, dirty and violent start, I definitely wasn't expecting this. Vlodimir in Geralt's body is freaking hilarious. God I love this game!

 

[Zombie Proof]

Dude, I'm happy that you're still enjoying yourself. Those DLC's have some of my favorite characters ever. O'Dimm gives me genuine chills

Spoiler

and no...I did NOT fuck with that ninja after all was said and done. I took my reward and bounced like a smart witcher lol

. His vibe is similar to what I got from Jaqhen Hagar during my first read through of A Clash of Kings/A Storm of Swords, but creepier. I can't wait till you get to that Blood and Wine.

Spoiler

Regis

is brilliantly written and you'll also realize the full context of this trailer finally. It's some pretty mind blowing stuff.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

This is the sword fight with Olgierd that you could have had. It even has its own unique musical score:

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I'm holding off the story for a while and just doing the typical sandbox stuff: cleaning up the quest log, visiting areas yet unseen, and absolutely fleecing the merchants bare. Though considering how expensive the Mastercrafted Witcher gear sets are (and I've only been upgrading the Feline set), I'm going to need all that dough. This game is a completionist's worst nightmare.

In my session today I ran into both the Mad Max and Game of Thrones references. When the soldiers of the Flaming Rose shouted "Witness me, brothers!" I thought that perhaps it was just some in-universe zealotry. But when another one shouted "What a lovely day! WHAT A LOVELY DAY!!" I just burst out laughing. The exact same thing happened when I found the sky cells in that one castle on Skellige. The cells being that way made perfect sense for the context, and then I noticed a suspiciously familiar looking dwarf on the floor. It deserves extra applause, since they could have easily just put a random NPC character model there, but they actually went whole hog and modeled Peter Dinklage, right down to the clothes and haircut. What's so good about these references is that they make perfect sense within the world: the soldiers are high as a kite on fisstech, and well, I already explained the sky cells. Things like Borderlands use the wacky presentation and style as a get out of jail free card when adding pop culture references, but in this game they don't feel jarring at all.

At level 36, and no longer gaining levels by the truckload from the main quest, I've noticed a curious effect the enemy upscaling has on the difficulty: the most dangerous enemies in the game aren't cyclops, monstrosities the size of buildings, or roaming bands of bandits, but wild dogs, wolves and local village tough guys. I failed one quest where I was supposed to defeat one such guy, since I could only take 3 hits, couldn't use signs or healing items, and defeating the enemy would've taken at least 15 hits. Same thing with the fistfights: Geralt, who's battled interplanetary horrors perceived as the personification of death, hardened in the bloodiest of battles, now has to be extra careful to not get beaten up by a couple of out of shape, Magnum P.I. mustache wielding town guards. It's rather comical.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Finished Hearts of Stone, now well into Blood & Wine

Thoughts on Hearts of Stone:

The story ended a bit quicker than I expected. While it was fantastically written and incredibly intriguing, it lacked a climax. The way I went about it (not helping Olgierd, and not accepting anything from Gaunter) the story kind of sped to its conclusion without a grand finale. I felt the pacing of the story was a bit weird: all excitement in the beginning, heist and intrigue in the middle, and borderline surreal character study at the end. Apparently you can get a climax with Gaunter, but it requires you to intervene when he's about to take Olgierd's soul. And tough as the choice was, Olgierd was still a hedonistic, cruel, inhuman psychopath who I ultimately considered more of a burden on the world.

Above all I would call Hearts of Stone a character study. Olgierd's a brilliantly written and incredibly layered character. There's many moments when he comes across as sincere, sympathetic, honest, even honorable. But then that's undercut by him leading a gang of vile thugs. But then that's undercut in turn by his backstory and desire to hold on to his humanity. The way his backstory was revealed was nothing short of phenomenal.

The way the player's sympathy towards Gaunter is inverted step by step was really good as well. You know from the start he's up to no good, but at the time he seems more like a trickster than a cruel, capricious demon. When he forces Vlodimir to leave, it does unsettle a bit, but not that much since Vlodimir is a crass prick. Only when that eye scream [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EyeScream] moment happens, and when you go to the professor's laboratory do you realize he may be the most evil character in the entire game, bar perhaps Eredin.

Not that much to be said about the sidequests, save that getting the Ofieri armor set gave me a really fitting outfit for Blood and Wine.

Thoughts on Blood and Wine so far:

After getting both the aforementioned armor set and the professor's glasses, it's fun to think of Geralt's trip to Toussaint as his holiday, sunglasses and all. But fuck me if the controls aren't suited for the tournament! I failed both the horse racing and the fighting tournament, because the fucking horseback sword strikes simply didn't register, despite my sword going clearly straight through the hay soldiers. In the fighting tournament the fucking auto targeting switched at the exact wrong moment between thought and pressing a button, and I ended up dodging straight into a halberd. And Jesus Christ almighty, the horseback combat section against the one knight was like a showcase of everything wrong with the goddamn horse controls! Which, let's be honest, are only suited for galloping on roads, and nothing else. Where Roach decides to steer and when to stop seems to operate on a random number generator, and thank God the game never forces horseback combat. [/rant]

I'm not that far into the story (I think), so there's not much to say about it other than the lighter tone is a welcome contrast to the grimness of the main story. The setting is gorgeous, and reminds me of Oblivion's aesthetic in a good way, with bright sunlight and colors, clear, clean beaches and beautiful meadows. Which gets a bit jarring, since the new enemy designs seem to be aiming for extra grotesqueness. Meeting Regis again (thanks for the spoiler, dick!) is cool, since his death in the books seemed about as final as you can get. The sidequest with the cursed woman and the knight who had a crush on her was actually really sweet, and especially touching in a series where turning traditional fairy tales into horror stories is par for the course.

 

[Zombie Proof]

Fuck dude! I'm soooooo sorry I spoiled Regis for you! Goddamn it

Jensen gave me the heads up so I tried to spoiler tag it before you saw it but...

damn...

I think the problem is that I hadn't read the books so mentioning him didn't register as a spoiler. Ahhhh fuck.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Fuck dude! I'm soooooo sorry I spoiled Regis for you! Goddamn it

Jensen gave me the heads up so I tried to spoiler tag it before you saw it but...

damn...

I think the problem is that I hadn't read the books so mentioning him didn't register as a spoiler. Ahhhh fuck.

Don't beat yourself over it too much. While I didn't know it was Regis specifically, I had followed Escapist's stream once, and seen a scene of Geralt talking at a campfire with a friendly higher vampire. Given how rare higher vampires are in the Witcher universe to begin with, not to mention ones Geralt would be on friendly terms with, it wouldn't have taken that much to figure out it was Regis. I was expecting the vampire to be a different one entirely, a replacement Regis, but that would probably have just reminded me of how much I liked him in the books. I'm glad he's back either way!

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

And tough as the choice was, Olgierd was still a hedonistic, cruel, inhuman psychopath who I ultimately considered more of a burden on the world.

That was just a side effect of his wish. He wasn't perfect even before that, being hedonistic and proud. But he wasn't an inhumane and cruel psychopath. That's ultimately why I decided to save his soul. O'Dimm is the most evil character in the game. Also the most powerful being in The Witcher universe. Remember when O'Dimm said that Olgierd was a monster in human skin who feeds on the pain and suffering of others? I'm pretty sure that he was talking about himself.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Finished Hearts of Stone, now well into Blood & Wine

Thoughts on Hearts of Stone:

Only when that eye scream [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EyeScream] moment happens,

yeah this part definitely got my jaw to drop, I was not expecting that, they did that scene amazingly which really heightened my "don't fuck with this guy" 6th sense.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

And tough as the choice was, Olgierd was still a hedonistic, cruel, inhuman psychopath who I ultimately considered more of a burden on the world.

That was just a side effect of his wish. He wasn't perfect even before that, being hedonistic and proud. But he wasn't an inhumane and cruel psychopath. That's ultimately why I decided to save his soul. O'Dimm is the most evil character in the game. Also the most powerful being in The Witcher universe. Remember when O'Dimm said that Olgierd was a monster in human skin who feeds on the pain and suffering of others? I'm pretty sure that he was talking about himself.

To be fair, I can't imagine many people who I think deserves having their soul taken by a malevolent entity with the implicit understanding that an eternity of torment awaits. Olgierd was never a nice person and became outright evil due to the conditions of his deal with O'Dimm, but does being a proud dick merit an eternity of hell?

From my perspective, you'd have to play in the leagues of Pol Pot or Hitler for me not to try and intervene if O'Dimm was about to take your soul. Something Olgierd arguably didn't, despite all his shortcomings.

 

[Zombie Proof]

And tough as the choice was, Olgierd was still a hedonistic, cruel, inhuman psychopath who I ultimately considered more of a burden on the world.

That was just a side effect of his wish. He wasn't perfect even before that, being hedonistic and proud. But he wasn't an inhumane and cruel psychopath. That's ultimately why I decided to save his soul. O'Dimm is the most evil character in the game. Also the most powerful being in The Witcher universe. Remember when O'Dimm said that Olgierd was a monster in human skin who feeds on the pain and suffering of others? I'm pretty sure that he was talking about himself.

To be fair, I can't imagine many people who I think deserves having their soul taken by a malevolent entity with the implicit understanding that an eternity of torment awaits. Olgierd was never a nice person and became outright evil due to the conditions of his deal with O'Dimm, but does being a proud dick merit an eternity of hell?

From my perspective, you'd have to play in the leagues of Pol Pot or Hitler for me not to try and intervene if O'Dimm was about to take your soul. Something Olgierd arguably didn't, despite all his shortcomings.

I get where you're coming from. From my perspective, Geralt is a monster hunter. Most of what I chose to get mixed up with during my Witcher 3 playthrough were terms that I felt I could confidently get through with my monster hunting and continue on to get my daughter. O'Dimm was obviously something more. I'd be damned if I'm going to go up against the functional equivalent of Satan for some guy who not only had full knowledge of what he was getting into, but sucked me into his situation as well.

O'Dimm scared the shit out of me. The sooner I could be done with him and get his damn brand off the better. Some things you just don't fuck with. Also, there are several people in Geralt's world that he cares about and O'Dimm showed that he had ZERO problem fucking with your loved ones if he so chose. That level of malevolent evil is best left alone

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I get where you're coming from. From my perspective, Geralt is a monster hunter. Most of what I chose to get mixed up with during my Witcher 3 playthrough were terms that I felt I could confidently get through with my monster hunting and continue on to get my daughter. O'Dimm was obviously something more. I'd be damned if I'm going to go up against the functional equivalent of Satan for some guy who not only had full knowledge of what he was getting into, but sucked me into his situation as well.

O'Dimm scared the shit out of me. The sooner I could be done with him and get his damn brand off the better. Some things you just don't fuck with. Also, there are several people in Geralt's world that he cares about and O'Dimm showed that he had ZERO problem fucking with your loved ones if he so chose. That level of malevolent evil is best left alone

I get that and think it is a very valid line of reasoning. Once I had gotten that far I wanted to get back on O'Dimm, making Olgierd's plight somewhat less important then sucker punching (proverbially anyway) the arrogant dude who lives to trick people and toy with them. Which I guess makes me just about as arrogant... shut up!

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Well, it's supposedly finally over. 103 hours. Finished Blood and Wine today. And then spent at least 2,5 hours replaying the final sections to try to get a good ending. And will continue tomorrow.

What can I say? This is one of the greatest DLCs ever made. Right up there with Artorias of the Abyss, The Old Hunters and Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep. At first it was a fun, lighthearted romp and reprieve from the grimness of the main story. Then it became a series of increasingly funny hijinks. Then it was just flat out hilarious. With the final act the story got better and better. When the storybook world was introduced... well, since I'm now complete in terms of the Witcher franchise, I thought I'd close the book with this transformative paragraph from my first Witcher rant:

I don't think I've ever said this unironically, so The Witcher 3 truly is a milestone for me: this game is genuinely magical. Great combat, amazing questing, incredibly improved and customizable UI, mindblowing visuals and a phenomenal final chapter (in this case meaning Blood and Wine) that highlights all the best qualities in the game with 50 ft neon pink letters. I honestly, truly, genuinely, cannot compare this game to anything I've ever played. Its ratio of redeeming qualities to faults is so overwhelmingly in the green it's almost white. It's massively more fun than... well fuck me, I don't even have a good point of comparison. Maybe experiencing the greatest moments of Dark Souls 1 for the first time all over again? To think a game this gargantuan, with so much passion and love clearly put into it, and with such a pedigree behind it, can still repeatedly overwhelm, surprise, impress and amaze so spectacularly has got to be some sort of world record.

And with the post credits final-final-final-actually-final epilogue quest, the game became truly phenomenal. If there was ever a story that actually managed to sell "happily ever after", it's this one. The moment when the quest tracking finally didn't automatically revert to the next story quest felt amazing.

But about that storybook section. I've never seen anything like it in games, and least of all expected it in this game. First the dwarf on the bridge with a poisoned apple. Then the Wicked Witch boss fight. Then the unicorns showed up When the frrrrrench Big Bad Wolf showed up I knew I was in for something entirely different. And then Geralt said "A Witcher should never turn down poultry in distress". And then the girl who sold flint turned a drug dealer. Every moment like that made my jaw drop further and further, and now it must have bored a hole into the ground halfway to China. Then I discovered the Dark Souls easter egg, and tomorrow I must replay the final section in a way so I get both the Infinity +1 swords. It was, as I said, utterly magical.


[HEADING=2]BUT[/HEADING]

Two flaws.

The first one is a minor disappointment, nothing huge: they had the emperor of Nilfgaard stand in for the Emperor without clothes, and he wasn't voiced by Charles Dance. As much as I'd have loved to hear Tywin Lannister prance around spouting nonsense, I'm sure they had a good reason.

The other one is something utterly unforgivable. Something that retroactively ruined everything for me. The DLC, the one before it, the base game, the game before it, and the books before that game, and the short story collections before them. I say this with the heaviest of hearts, but it must be said.

You had a medieval fantasy adventure, set in an amalgamation of France and Italy, with a lighthearted, often comedic tone, with easter eggs and references to other similar items.

[HEADING=3]SO WHERE IN GOD'S BLACK ASSHOLE WAS MY FRENCH TAUNTER EASTER EGG YOU ROTTEN BASTARDS!!?!??!?!?!?[/HEADING]

And for that reason I must r8 this game a -500/10. Awful. Appalling. Atrocious. Hideous. Worse than Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot put together. Worst thing evar. Ruined mt life.

But it ain't over, oh no. First order of business is New Game+, where I do every choice differently. Then is replaying Witcher 2 where I do everything differently. Then is playing Witcher 3 again, with an imported save from the aforementioned Witcher 2 playthrough.

Peace!

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I wonder how many unmarked side quests you didn't even discover. You should look it up. There's quite a few of them.

For instance, did you find the quest about talking Roach in Toussaint, or the sleeping Vampire in Novigrad sewers, or the man sentenced to death in Skellige and chained to a giant rock? Or the atheist in Skellige? Or the brother looking for his sister also in Skellige. There's also one where you stumble upon a place that was clearly attacked by a monster and you can investigate to see what kind of monster it was and then it will appear and attack you. But it's unmarked, there's no quest giver and no reward like for standard witcher contracts. There's also a troll in Velen somewhere that you can save from some attackers and he'll give you his delicacy as a reward - elf's head. There's also a high point in Skellige somewhere that at a certain time of the day drops a shadow to where the loot is buried in the forest somewhere below.

Crap, I can't even remember all of the hidden quests and hidden little secrets but I think most of them are in Skellige. A mere 100h isn't nearly enough to see everything that this game has to offer.

 

[Zombie Proof]

Play on playa. Glad you loved it. Truly an amazing experience.

 

[Zombie Proof]

I wonder how many unmarked side quests you didn't even discover. You should look it up. There's quite a few of them.

For instance, did you find the quest about talking Roach in Toussaint, or the sleeping Vampire in Novigrad sewers, or the man sentenced to death in Skellige and chained to a giant rock? Or the atheist in Skellige? Or the brother looking for his sister also in Skellige. There's also one where you stumble upon a place that was clearly attacked by a monster and you can investigate to see what kind of monster it was and then it will appear and attack you. But it's unmarked, there's no quest giver and no reward like for standard witcher contracts. There's also a troll in Velen somewhere that you can save from some attackers and he'll give you his delicacy as a reward - elf's head. There's also a high point in Skellige somewhere that at a certain time of the day drops a shadow to where the loot is buried in the forest somewhere below.

Crap, I can't even remember all of the hidden quests and hidden little secrets but I think most of them are in Skellige. A mere 100h isn't nearly enough to see everything that this game has to offer.

Jesus Jenson. The only one of those I came across was the troll/elfs head.

Looks like I got quite a bit of work to do in new game plus

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Well, it's supposedly finally over. 103 hours. Finished Blood and Wine today. And then spent at least 2,5 hours replaying the final sections to try to get a good ending. And will continue tomorrow.

Glad you had such a good experience. I recently had opportunity to (finally) play through Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone and I was taken aback at just how good the game was. I'd remembered it as being absolutely fantastic, but it was even sharper than I'd remembered. Some of the gameplay elements are a bit wobbly, but the writing, direction and general story telling and overall amount of sheer love poured into almost every aspect of its creation is kind of staggering.

And it cost me $35, when it was brand new, due to CDPR's loyalty rebate.

And Mass Effect Andromeda was $90.

Yeah.

:\

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Jesus Jenson. The only one of those I came across was the troll/elfs head.

Looks like I got quite a bit of work to do in new game plus

Most of these unmarked quests are really small. Just filler content that makes the world feel even more alive. But you absolutely must do the talking Roach quest. Out of all the unmarked quests that one is the most fleshed out and the most important one. It's a full side quest/witcher contract with unique cutscenes, unique monster, unique reward and voice actors unique to the quest. There's actually a good reason why it's unmarked. The quest giver is a hermit that doesn't like people so you have to stumble upon her place while you're exploring in order to trigger it. The fact that so many players didn't even find this quest speaks volumes about the quality of video games today. We've been conditioned not to explore as much as we used to in games and to rely almost exclusively on hand-holding. And then CDPR goes and hides one of their biggest and most unique side-quests behind pure exploration and player curiosity.