The whole "juvanile approach" is baffling. As a bloke in his mid-30's who's lived a fair bit in villages in the middle of England, TW2 is a fair reflection of the mentalities and lives I'd say.
What is it that people see as "juvanile"? The attitude to sex is pretty much bang on in terms of realism, as is all the cursing, drinking, fighting, racism and rowdy behaviour. Reminds me of late local mining villages in the 80's & 90's where you were bought up to go out on a Friday night for a "fuck or a fight"
Jake Martinez said:
Finally, I really enjoy the relationship with Triss and Geralt. It's obviously flawed and they both know it, in fact I think on Triss' part it's very tragic. It's not often in media other than books that you see a relationship between protagonists that aren't what I would consider impractically perfect, or riddled with tropes, so I enjoy the fact that sometimes, you actually really dislike Geralt for... well basically being Geralt, but you also get to see (through the options you are presented with in the game, depending on how you play it) that although he is cool emotionally, he's also suffering. Not very many players have been very perceptive about this, but part of what appears to attract Triss to Geralt is that it's in her own nature to be drawn to the suffering of other people.
Although this should be obvious I would think considering the actions she undertakes and the causes she supports and fights for, they don't seem to apply this to her personal relationships despite this being primarily what her interactions with Geralt are based around.
In fact, one of the things that really bothers me about some of the criticism leveled at this game, or Triss's portrayal in particular, is that most people leveling it are very shallow in their assessment. They don't seem to understand that Triss is fully self aware of her own tragedy and unhappiness in loving Geralt. It feels to me that in their rush to find something to disapprove of, or cry "sexist" about, they basically take a complex and self aware character and turn her into a two dimensional caricature to try and make their points. Frankly, I think it's an overall sign of immaturity of general criticism that people have turned concepts such as unrequited love into jokes like "friend zoning" (complete with replacing the tragic aspect of it with a bizarre shaming narrative) or the concept of a doomed love into "sexism", if the one who is doomed is a woman (particularly ironic since this is a constant theme in womens literature going back to Jane Austin)
That is so bang on and I hope that CDKPR have the balls to not comprimize this in the 3rd installment.
I've been seeing a girl on and off for 15 years now. She's stunning looking (technically out my league), very independant (earns £40k+) and we tend to drift in and out of each others lives between relationships with other people and depending where life takes us a the time. We both know we'll never settle down together, but where always there for each other when needed (including to satisfy those more primal urges). That's very much how I see Geralt & Triss's relationship, and to have such and adult POV on relationships in the game is something which I think is fantastic and REALLY adds to the realism. Triss & Geralt are there for each other when needed and as the days & urges take them. They have their own paths to walk, can care abundantly about each other, but feel no need to tie the other down and respect each others paths may take them to different places. It's superb. Absolutely superbly realistic adult storytelling refreshingly detached from the Hollywood-esq "perfect couple" malarky we usually see, and I for one hope they stick with that approach.
But if you ripped out modern trappings, ignore magic & fantasy races and you could easily mistake my village for Flotsam.
