Delving into the appeal of revisiting the past, it's like flipping through a book whose ending we already know. Instead of eagerly anticipating what's next, we're retracing steps we've already taken. Imagine watching a movie or playing a game where we're constantly looking backward - it removes the excitement of the unknown. Take the character Witcher George, for instance. We've heard of him, and we know his fate; he's already met his end. So, exploring his past might seem less thrilling because the suspense of what lies ahead is gone. It's like solving a mystery only to find the answers on the first page. In essence, going back in time not only robs us of the excitement of the future but also strips away the mystery that keeps us engaged in the story.
@@ziz18 agreed - an _optional_ online mode would be pretty cool! It would be awesome to go witcher-ing with my husband and friends, just as long as the solo campaign is offline.
Both creating a character or not could fail and work because at the end of the day all depends on how good the world of the Witcher 4 really is going to be and the freedom they are going to give us in the game.
If they make it like they made the Witcher trilogy they will succeed but should they follow the disaster Netflix series path of self sabotaging and alienating the fanbase by disrespecting the source material and inserting personal socio political elements into the story then we all know where that will lead to.
I have an idea I think is kinda neat. Witcher 4 takes places decades after Witcher 3. A 2nd conjunction of spheres has happened and now there’s more monsters than ever. In desperation all remaining Witchers, from every possible school have come together to form one single Witcher school. Teaching the techniques and lessons of each school and letting students specialize (this way players could pick which school they favor). After a lot of research the Trial of Grasses is rediscovered and now we’re looking at a 2nd age of Witchers, with new characters, new monsters, new adventures and a familiar face here and there. There’s some problems with it but I think it’s an interesting idea.
I like the create your own Witcher option personally, though just choosing the school that adopted you wouldn't be bad either. Either way it would be simple enough to have a epilogue where eventually your school falls and all written records that talk about the founder are destroyed and all Witchers vanish/die. You could have this all explained via cutscene to a young Geralt or Ciri with the specifics as a mix and match cutscene like the Expeditions (Conquistador and Vikings) games.
My thought for handling the different skills/equipment of all the schools would be, that the school of the Lynx wasn't created by one single witcher but by multiple from different schools. Like, if it plays at the height of witchers, there were witchers from all schools that were unhappy about the current "system" and just banded together to make their own, or if it plays after Witcher 3 then they are just some of the few remaining witchers that came together to keep them and Witchers at all alive. And then they would just be like an "allrounder" so you have your normal training and then specialize in what suits yourself best.
I think its a FANTASTIC idea. The concept of creating your own witcher & playing as the character. I think it would really cool if geralt was maybe a mentor or a character u come across & get quests from. EPIC.
On the subject of Ciri founding her own Witcher school and Female Witcher's, I think it would make sense if she didn't approach it as simply another Witcher school but instead as something better. Whatever kind of school it is, it 100% would NOT use the same Witcher mutations as Ciri would know that the Trial of the Grasses is a major point of pain and grief for Geralt. Yennifer had her hunchback fixed through magic so there would definitely be a way to modernise Witcher Mutations through magic for both Boys and Girls, this would also work thematically with Ciri essentially taking the best parts from her parents. It could also be not just a Witcher School but also a potential new alternative to Aretuza after it's collapse; which could serve as justification for expanded Witcher Signs and potential Mage Builds.
This is something I suggested in a similar discussion years ago, that they train a new breed of witchers that compensate for their weaker or lack of mutations with a deeper focus on magic for example. Really when it comes down to it, the reason the mages went with mutations in the first place was because they didn’t WANT the witchers to be powerful enough to demand more from life, leaving them to do the only thing they were taught to do, killing monsters. We’ve also seen a number of instances that prove how mages are far deadlier than witchers when they want to be, so a witcher with a proper education in magic could theoretically be far more powerful than any other witcher, even without the mutations.
I think creating your own Witcher is awesome. If they allow a custom look, voiced, with interactions with other "main" companion established but your options on how you treat them can vary. Maybe it will allow more freedom on how your main story evolves. Taking place before the Witcher series can make sense but I'd prefer after it for a load of reasons. I loved Geralt's story 100% but his story is complete. Now it's time to forge our own path through the conflict. Lol.
I do not want to create my own witcher. I am a narrative person first, and frankly, I don't see how they could reach the same heights of storytelling with a player created character that they did in the witcher 3. Even cyberpunk didn't manage to get me there because the whole thing was first person, and I never saw my character react to anything. Geralt was fully voiced voiced and animated. I fell in love with his character because of that in a way that I never could with a player created character.
Exactly It wont be as impacting with a random created character Games with random created characters are never as connecting/immersive as games with their already made character And yes Geralt is one of the reasons the Witcher 3 is so great
If you want to basically watch a good movie in-between your gameplay there are games for that like The Last of Us, Life is Strange, MGS4, etc. But most RPGs immerse you not by showing you the journey of a character in the world, but by letting you BE a character in the world and go on your own journey. You shouldn't need to see how your character reacts to a situation because you're there and reacting to it yourself.
I prefer playing a well done character as well. Like he said in the video it takes some things away. But I think the world is the most important part of immersion. I hope it's a set character but both styles can be fun
The secretiveness really fits to the lynx. It's really hard to find this animal in nature. So hard that in the past most people only knew about the existence lynx because it sometimes killed their animals. It was seen as a mysterious demon from the woods, there were scary legends about it and people didn't even know what it looks like and what it actually is. Kinda like the Lynx school for us now.
Definitely not online! But I’d like to see a character creation with either your mentor dies and you choose which school to specialise or some new threat and a few old faces and a mixed school with each specialist school
Voiced custom protagonist usually leads to shitty personality customization and limited responses. If they want to make a custom protagonist they would need to make them silent, if they go down the path of an established protagonist, uncustomizable except for basic aesthetic then yes, voiced is the only way to go
The main issue with creating a completely custom protagonist like in cyberpunk is the they would only be able to do male customization options, or risk pissing a crazy amount of fans by retconning lore to allow for female witchers. The safest route imo is to make a completely new protagonist and let you choose which school, and remain unconnected to the Witcher trilogy
The school of the cat already exists and has ben established as a school that trained both male and female witchers. There is no need to have it be male-only or to retcon lore.
@@WillfulVisions where has it ever said that? In all sources I have found and seen, it states plainly that only male children were subjected to the Witcher mutations
@@WillfulVisions my guy, are you taking fanfic sites as canon? If you are referring to Adela, she is from the Hexer tv series which is not part of CDPRs canon. Within CDPRs canon, only twice has anyone ever tried to make a female Witcher, the first time every female subject died without exception. The second time was done by the school of the manticore and the results were inconclusive, thanks to the Manticore Grandmaster’s interference
@@Frenchindochina the witcher wiki is not a fanfic site, and I have no idea who Adela is. One example of a female witcher seems to be a character known as Ważka (Dragonfly) from the Polish Witcher TTRPG, which many claim is at least as canon to the books as anything CDPR has made.
Hmm.. if what you're referring to is a sort if self-insert, then I'm not sure how I feel about it. For 1. Self inserts are usually enjoyed by all genders, and of course, witchers are only male. I'm a woman so I wouldn't be able to take part if it WAS a self insert, but I also would be afraid of them retconning that bit of the lore. Which would be sad because it's a bit of the lore that I actually kind of like, as weird as that may sound. I would actually hate if they retconned that for the sake of convenience. 2. Even if it isn't a self insert, having a witcher game that doesn't follow geralt or another established character from the books and games would be a bit unfortunate. Not because you can't tell a good story that way, but because it would be missing so much. 3. Having ciri found a "school of the lynx", being a witcher school that either uses no mutations OR some form of lesser form of mutations for its' members that allows for females to undergo the process, I think it would be nice. An interesting concept. We know ciri is passionate about being a witcher from the witcheress ending, and we know eskel's feelings on the subject is undecided. It could go a number of ways. But above all, I would not want any compromises in the form of fleshed out storytelling OR established/expressed lore.
I love the lore and characters because these personalities make the witcher, and it is ideal to have characters you know as a conduit to introduce new ones, if you have to, the game would be missing out a bit if they didn't have some known personalities around, I do very much like the ciri idea as long as it is done well :), I remember from somewhere the school of the cat at one point allowed elven women but that is very hazy and not sure if it has any truth as it was probably brushed over in a tabletop rulebook somewhere ages ago, but they still didn't undergo any form of mutations. Retconning is never good, I feel we would all dislike it. It's nice to see so many fans of the witcher having sweet takes :)
Self insert characters totally work as long as you're from the school of the cat (or a new school), since they've established in the lore that the school of the cat had female witchers. Before we knew anything about Witcher 4 I was hoping it would be a game about the school of the cat so we could create our own character.
Yes! As said in the video I do not want some retcon and if they really decide to go that route I want them to make a lore-friendly reason to add it to the lore, such as having mages develop slightly different mutations or using magic to enhance females' strength/suppress the incompatible side of certain hormones during the trial.
Havin a character like in Skyrim opens more possibilities when it comes to side quests. Sometimes the dragonborn is a ruthless assassin, other times a master thief and so on. I mean a Witcher is always a witcher but it could open more possibilities other than "Kill Monster/Evil guy or let him life". Maybe we even play as a "bad" witcher in one sidequest
A character creation can co-exist with a set character. Take Mass Effect for example, or Dragon Age 2. You can customize your character, they're fully voiced, and they have an actual story. It's like, if they allowed us to completely customize Geralt's appearance, gender, fighting style, etc. He'd still have his character arc and personality. Maybe, like Mass Effect and other Witcher games, you do get to make a bunch of choices and feel as though you are your own unique character, just not to the extent of Elder Scrolls...a hybrid if you will. I think that's perfectly doable.
I'm all for it. After proving they can do Geralt justice and make him iconic, any attempt at trying to continue with him or trying to match him with original character (topping is even less likely), the only reasonable thing to do is to let the player make their own witcher. And as a character creator addict, I say 'bring it on!' XD
i actually agree with this, baldurs gate and dragon age origins made it where you can pick your race, standing, where you lived and stuff like that. i bet if the witcher 4 done it, they could possibly expand on it even more
That being said, I still don't agree with your view that having your own character makes that big a difference. We still had Geralt make pretty big decisions so ANY game in the future has to dance around that same issue (and that's with a established character). It's sort of the nature of RPGs (or western ones at least).
Since Witcher 1 was originally conceived as a player created Witcher in the universe of the books rather than an adaption/continuation of the books, I think that angle would be fascinating and a great evolution of the direction already taken with Cyberpunk. It would be nice if it leaned more into different Witcher schools playing different classes like in D&D.
Honestly , I’d prefer it’d be Geralt because in the games up until now he’s always reactionary, he always goes to move after someone has moved. I want a game where GERALT is the moving force of the narrative.
But that's one of the most beautiful things in the witcher books and games. Geralt is not the main moving force, he's just a witcher. Also it's time to finally make him rest, we've had plenty of time with his character and using him once again would feel pointless. It would be like using Nathan drake for uncharted 5's protagonist
I think this create your own witcher thing would be great for a standalone game. Where different schools offer different armors, skills, tools and maybe even school specific quests. CDPR is working on 4 witcher related projects so perhaps 1 will be this. However for this Lynx trilogy. I think it's better to have a set in stone premade character like Geralt. Just for continuation if nothing else.
I've been skeptical on The Witcher 4 for a long while now. What made the first three games so great was Geralt and the interactions he had with new and existing characters. That's at least for me, the very heart of the video games and really the franchise as a whole. Reading about these characters and then getting to see them in the video games and be all "Oh shit I know him!!!" Was always such a rush of joy. So to see one of the best things taken out and replaced by the whole make a blank slate of a character thing most RPGs do is a little concerning.
I feel the same. But CDPROJEKTRED have made really interesting original characters, like say Letho. That's why I really want a game following someone like that.
I’m really gonna miss playing as Geralt. I don’t have any doubts that it’ll be great, but Geralt is just one of those iconic protagonists that will be hard to let go of. It’s like playing God of War without Kratos. They gave Geralt a great sendoff and I understand why he won’t be the focus anymore but still.
They could do it like Fallout 3, where you create the adult version of your character and it derives a younger version of your character that they can use for the tutorial/training section of the game.
In terms of referring to a create ur own character in the future you could have it be that when mentioned people have different recollections of the character so it’s like oh all of them in a way work because people have multiple different accounts of them.
I agree that if they have a character creation system that includes women, it should be an addition and not a retcon. As a woman, a retcon would feel like pandering. But given that Witchers are basically an endangered species in Geralt's time, having to broaden their recruitment makes sense to the lore.
If you had Ciri found a new school she could start training witchers without the trials at all, leaning into her sorcery training and not mutations, then you could make female Witchers and elf Witchers and my preference dwarven Witchers
Including women is fine by me... just... none of that degrading "Body Type A/B" nonsense though. Male/Female There's nothing else. Besides.. anyone deviating from that would be lynched in the Witcher universe. It's not exactly a progressive world.
I personally want: - Start as a child doing normal child things like AC3 - Get taken by a witcher - Spend time in kaer morhen or similar places - survive the trail - become a Witcher.
I love that you made your own school! I did that too, the school of the Siren. And since the trial of the grasses determines each schools powers I was researching a list of what alchemical ingredients they’d use from the sea for specific powers for their school, and even armor that would be useful but resistant to sea salted conditions.
Not sure how a narrative story would work without establishing a core protagonist with cut scene dialogue and character interaction. I prefer to have a new witcher character.
Personally, I would want the game to occur shortly after the initial development of witchers as a class of being. Instead of directly choosing what School you join, have character creation be a developmental thing. You start by choosing why you are a witcher candidate (did your family sell you to mages for experimentation? were you kidnapped? If it's after the establishment of the Law of Surprise as a common practice, were you given over due to that Law? Etc.) What is your family.background (nobility, peasant, bandit, clergy, etc) Then you go through some roleplay-heavy training exercises and dialogue scenes and those choices influence what skills your proficiencies that are heightened after the Trials of the Grasses, resulting in your induction into a particular School (with a pop-up allowing you to change the School you end up in so you aren't type-cast as a particular 'class') That's what I'd like to see but I know that's probably not everyone's cup of tea. I'm particularity fond of the Dragon Age Origins system for character starts in that way.
1. If the Lynx School is really going to be a new schol some years after W3, I could imagine one of the mages (Keira?) helping to pave a way for female witchers. Probably still with even lesser chance to succeed than already slim chances of young boys, but doable. Depending of how CDPR would like to go about it, we could even have people react from time to time, how amazing it is that our gal survived the Trials. No pandering, no ret-conning, just experiments and piles of bodies - as usual with every witcher-related "progress". 2. Imagine, JUST IMAGINE being able to slowly carve our legend, like Geralt before us, when he's become a White Wolf. We could have a few combinations of factors, like the big quests and major decisions in the world, which would lead to eventually getting our own sobriquet. That way we could easily maintain the sens of identity, even if we give our characters custom names. No pre-destined "role" would be necessary with it.
I'd love for the next game to follow a witcher and a sorceress with the ability to customize and play as both. It would offer tons of replay value by allowing you to do quests as the other character.
If i had to make Witcher 4. I'd say it should have the character style similar to Fear and Hunger, where you choose one of 4 characters, decide which preset backstory is true or not and then you do your own thing. Lets say you chosen Griffin school, You are a boy, who's trials focused on Stealing Eggs(You're sneakier and faster) or Learning entire book(Knowledge of monsters is bigger and get more XP), your first interaction with humans was Getting into fights(You'll be deadlier) or got along(Has better communication skills), and sort of like that. Even if you can change the name of your character, you'll still be called by your nickname on your school, such as "Fangs", "Wolf", "Bite", "Claw" or "Feather".
It could be a mix of the two. You could have a character like V who already exists in the world, but their appearance could be fully customizable. If CDPR went this route, the character could benefit from being a bit more fleshed out than V was, with a set backstory and relationships.
me and my brothers when we played a game of D&D I made a character that was part of a fan made Witcher school (school of the fox) I used a warlock as the main class so I made school of the fox use metal staves that has a mechanism built in the weapon that twists making silver spikes come out both ends of the staff
i WOULD LOVE to have the possibility to play the next game coop. Like you can play solo 100%. but you could find your 'friends' somewhere and just roam together. would be sick. + I love the idea of creating your own character and your own school and everything.
I think it will be somewhere in between Geralt and V. The preset characters have some set personalities, maybe the appearance can be customized, but there's still only one name/title. I hope the players can affect the main characters' personalities in some ways. Let's say we did something ruthless, then the dub of the character will reflect that. Just some unrealistic wishes.
Interesting idea: what if geralt and one of the sorceresses have a child since there is hints and lore regarding the solving fertility crisis on both sides however we as the player dont know our heritige and part of our story is discovering it, where something happened to geralt and said sorsereces where ciri took us in to care for us so the child could be boy or girl since that part of the lore isnt fully explored (also we could potentialy en inherit both witcher mutations and magical powers)
One idea that I think could work really well is that it is set back in time during the "golden age" of witchers. The School of the Lynx is a small, upstart guild made up of drop outs or "lesser" witchers from other schools that are forced to take on the contracts that no one wants. If you think about a time with lots of witcher schools then there would undoubtedly be some kind of economic competition for contracts in certain hub areas. The School of the Lynx, not well known at all and without any "famous" witchers to take on important contracts from rich people, would have to dig their way up from the bottom to try and make a better living.
I feel like the best approach to this would be to base the game around the school of the cat. And how potentially a group could've splintered from Stygga Castle due to a difference in ideology. Hear me out: One group wants to uphold the "Witcher Code" and maintain neutrality, while the other becomes the school of the Cat, which everyone knows. Thus forming the school of the Lynx, a type of cat. Lore-wise, this would open up a lot. Those who left the order believed they could improve the mutation process. They also "apparently" trained women to become Witchers. So thematically, this "could" make sense and allow for character creation of both genders. The lore explanation is that the school was indeed able to improve the mutation process, allowing for female Witchers. This would also place the time period in the "heyday" of the Witchers, or at least at the beginning of their decline.
for me, it's more about the builds - the witcher games have some cool skills, but it feels like you're still kinda a jack of all trades - and i get that's kinda the point of witchers - but having different schools means we might get a bit more different possible playstyles, like a 'mostly uses bombs' witcher style that has extra bomb skills, maybe their gear allows for carrying more bombs and could get more bomb crafting potential.
In my Opinion they could add both the Set character as the mentor to the Create a Character Witcher helping him or her depending on how they add the female Witchers into the lore making it more compelling & they could find a way to make the Create a Character Witcher important to the story & lore maybe by making them related before they became a Witcher to a important character or even what made them want to be a Witcher in the first place that could impact the story and lore
My dream.. one day I hope. I really want a game covering the events of his life. The fall of the viper school, getting found by Geralt, hunting the hunt etc. You could play what he does in the witcher 2, that would be so cool.
I think the reason why the idea of picking an initial school falls is because it would feel bad for the players. The part where we would leave the school couldn't be spoiled in a good way at the boot up of the game, so... Imagine you get into the character creation screen, you see options to pick your school and you get your hopes up like "Ohhh yeaa I can be from that school, nice!" and then the game pulls a 180 and makes you leave your chosen school for whatever reason. It could work, if it would already be communicated in some way that you'd be playing as an outcast or rough Witcher, and I can imagine this choice to be a "Choose your origin" instead of "Choose your school" option, although I feel like it would be quite a gamble I guess, having the need to put a "negative shade" on a school you choose / feel closest to.
My guesses: - Polaris (Witcher 4) will have a set character like the previous trilogy. It makes more sense on a narrative point also it will make it easier for them to have the same protagonist since they plan to make it a trilogy. - Sirius (multiplayer Witcher game by molasses flood) will have character creation.
I rlly don’t think they’d have a problem doing the same thing they do V in cyberpunk which is one of my favorite games. I’d honestly prefer that over a set character because then nobody will have the same experience as me at all.
Ciri founding the school of the Lynx as Empress of Nilfgaard makes the most sense to me. That way, we have an established creator of the school, it would reason any gender could be a Witcher of that school, and if we get to create our own Witcher we could have a set name and the lore wouldn’t be too askew. Tie in a new Conjunction of Spheres and we have a reason for why Witchers are still needed. If I had to make a comparison it’d be like having a Hawke (Dragon Age 2) player character vs. a Warden (Dragon Age: Origins) player character. You can keep the lore more rigid and it’s easier to import said character & their choices into future games. I’d also respectfully counter the point about our shared connection to Geralt as well. In my mind, Geralt helps fellow non humans & outcasts as much as he can. He’d never aid the Flaming Rose in the Witcher 1. Helping Ivoreth in the Witcher 2 also fits his character in my versions of him. And these kind of choices have consequences. We aren’t ever going to have a perfect character everyone feels connected to in the same way when you have games with different choices.
Imo it would obviously be founded by Eskel. He's talked about it in Witcher 3. I could imagine him trying to get together remaining Witchers of various schools to make a new hybrid.
I think they will be doing a mass effect/cyberpunk A witcher that would be known as a title or the town he came from, like the "Raven" or something like the "Witcher from Cintra" And of course he'd have a kind of a set personality like V or Shepard
The Witcher 4 Should be like Red Dead Redemption 2. The main Story with Geralt (Maybe a young Vessemir, or with one of the first Witchers, in a world still full of monsters) and the online mode, where you can create your own witcher, and where your character background really doesnt matter. A game where you can create your own character, lacks of the same conection than the games where are an establish Main character. When the Main character is almost the same for everyone, ussually doesnt work, like happen with V in Cyberpunk 2077, or in Howarts Legacy. If the main character is the same for everyone, with a good backstory, like Geralt of Rivia or Arthur Morgan, the game is so much better. We as players really love that type of characters.
Fuck I’d love that a new to the setting covers why concepts would be explained to new players while rewarding veterans with knowing a deeper understanding already. Brown haired Griffin Witcher ❤ id live playing this game for a decade.
I like character creations but not in the witcher, They should go with existing character that people know and love, not some generic new character that no one know or care about. The witcher is a good game because it have great narrative, and the protagonist is a big part of it, in this case Geralt, I know they're done with Geralt, but that it doesn't mean just come up with completely new character, im not a fan of that idea, better off of they pick a character that already exist, Like Ciri or Letho or Lambert or Eskel. They can do so much with those characters, It's such a generic approach to just make character creations and say Okay boys create you own witcher, no thanks.
For me, no Geralt as protagonist, no The Witcher RPG game with a real implication of the player since we are attached to Geralt, his personality, his sense of humour, and all his relationships. For me The Witcher 3 is the best game of all time and if Geralt does not come back as a protagonist, I am not even sure I would play the next game. I know I am far from being the only one feeling that way and I know many people do not feel that way too but that's it. The truth is that without Geralt, The Witcher is not really The Witcher
I have 3 ways they could make more Witcher 1. They say that garolt or some other Witcher finds a Jin and wishes to undo the sterilization caused by the Witcher trials 2.they just have human witchers like Ciri that have all the Witcher training but they just can’t take Witcher potions or they heavily dilute there potential like 99% water 1% potion 🧪 3. In the Netflix mini series blood of the wolf vesimirs mentor is revealed to be experimenting with fusing and creating more monster due to his fears of Witcher becoming not as needed anymore due to there not being many monsters around anymore they could say someone found his notes and tried to use them to create monster hybrid witchers
I think if they went with a create your own witcher then they should do it like dragon age origins where like the tutorial is your backstory and there's different backstories dependant on race, gender, social status etc and then that unlocks a set amount of missions to do with your backstory but it isn't the main story.
I'm more keen on haw you're witcher could be incredibly unique. Like you could have elder blood ore a very powerful curse placed on you by a witch which could even be the foundation of the story. The same condition could also grant you abilities different from your already existing abilities introducing a whole new gameplay mechanic of sorts.
Yennefer would do anything for Ciri, push any boundary, break any law. If Ciri wanted to find a way to make girl witchers, I think Yennefer would move mountains to help her; she's had experience of one part at least of the Trial of the Grasses, so she'd know where to start. I always thought she'd get bored growing grapes in Beauclair anyway. I don't think Beauclair has a native Witcher School, either, does it? Maybe the Duchess Anna Henrietta would be grateful enough to gift one of the many ruined old castles in her realm; she's just had a sharp lesson in the dangers of monsters, after all. It would be difficult to squeeze another School into the existing lore, but there's plenty of room in the future with the old Schools dying out. Maybe it's up and running just in time for a new Conjunction, and the protagonist is among the first wave of new young witchers sent out, fresh from rushed training, to combat them.
I think you can have best of the both worlds. It could be similar to like a Bioware's games. Mass Effect for example, you do create a character, but you are essentially "Commander Shepard" no matter what you do. So in Witcher 4 you could have a set role in the world, people already could know you as "that witcher" through new trilogy. Also in Dragon age, if you don't have a save game in Dragon age 2, but you play a 3rd one, the character from the second game still shows up in the story. He has a set default look, so similar thing could be used here, where you have a default look, or completely custom one in some capacity.
I mean, if Bioware could pull it off fairly well in 2014, where character decisions from two previous games matter, I am certain CDPR could do so even better (Dragon Age Inquisition, for people who didn't know what game I was talking about)
Personally I think BioWare’s Dragon Age and Mass Effect do lots of what you’re thinking to a point. Maybe they could take ideas from how they do it, with choices and effect and making your own character.
I really want this; Geralt just never really grabbed me but the world of Witcher is the type of dark fantasy shit I love like Dragons Dogma and I would kill to have my own witcher in it.
If they make character creator and the storytelling around said character kind of the same as they do in the Dragon Age trilogy, then I would be fine with it. Impactful choices, in the first one a history you can choose yourself. Can choose appearance, name and what not. It would be really nice. But I also agree, it can make the WItcher games on an edge that it can fall off of, should it not go well or be implemented well. All hangs on the setting of the timeline for me as well. Will it happen right after the conjunction? Will it happen a hundred? five hundred? years after it? I am intrigued by whatever it'll be nonetheless and I shall be on board. The world will never stop to amaze me, that's for sure.
I could see a custom Witcher character if the Witcher 4 is a standalone game series outside of the original games. If the game is one then I can see a created character interacting with the world and possibly interacting with Ciri and others but not directly interfering with them in their lives within the world. As for the save data extraction BioWare has been able to do that for decades with Mass Effect and Dragon Age. As any important decisions made are transferred to the next game. However, if the game is not a standalone title then a premade character is better suited. That’s my two cents on the matter.
I won't mind a Witcher 4 with character customization but semi-set story like Cyberpunk with Ciri in a Vesimir kind of role and Geralt as a cameo. I also hope they FINALLY get the save importing right, in W1-2 we just carried over some supposedly legendary weapons that got obsolete in the first hours and barely anything story worthy, in W2-3 we got a few missions, no equipment and half the characters (making half your choices from the previous game almost pointless) so I really hope they nail the save importing this time between W3-4. I won't mind a dual choice of character either cause was there an actual reason why Witcher schools had no girls? I thought it was just by chance /tradition in universe and Ciri broke this if you go with the Witcheress ending (I own only the first two books so I can't tell about those). I mean biologically, women can naturally stand more pain, so unless the problem goes down to the atom level then I don't see why we can't have female Witcher schools or mixed post Ciri (the original 2002 Witcher series already attempted this before the Witcher games)
Why not do what they did with Cyberpunk? V is a specific character with more or less their own personality, you just customize their appearances and major choices.
i feel like they need to give us a set character as a blank slate, we should get a new main character with a bit of creation like facial hair and hairstyles like geralt in the witcher 3, that way with this new witcher as a blank slate we have the freedom as a community to define this new main character. the triss and yen choice might be up to us as the player but we are playing as geralt so it just feels like its geralts choice to choose yennefer, where as with a new witcher main character we could be given a similar issue with 2 new love interests for this Witcher and without a set background like geralt we have more freedom to define this characters path making him more relatable to the player. i think this is the better choice because of 2077, we have so much creative freedom with v there are thousands of different interpretations of him or her that in my opinion dosent make v as in depth as some one like geralt. so having minimal character creation but a blank slate has everyone on the same page about this new witcher but still free to play him as they wish without having to appeal to the choices the character himself would make (like geralt). but if cd project red is gonna give us massive character creation they should save it for the multiplayer witcher they are developing so that the entire player base there can have their own unique designs
