The Witcher III Discussion

Don't know if anyone else is currently playing this, but I think I need a place to come in and babble about this every now and then.

Note that everything I am saying is from someone who has very little to compare this to!

So I am level 5. I am currently working on the Bloody Baron quest. The combat is only okay in my view. I also think compared to the Bioware RPGs I have played, this game doesn't handle leveling as well. You level up and upgrade your skills so seldom, it doesn't feel very rewarding from a progression standpoint. As someone who doesn't play RPGs it is sort of overwhelming with all the loot and everything you can create too. I imagine for RPG fans this may be very fun. The deeper the better perhaps, but I again thought the Bioware games were more my speed as it was easier to sort my gear and abilities.

I like the story so far. The world is very well-realized and fun to explore. I thought it was cool when I got to play as Ciri briefly as a change of pace. My favorite bits so far were the two monster contracts I did. They had some pre-battle prep and were fun to take on. Gwent is a pretty cool game inside the game too.

I don't have much else to play until some new releases at the end of August, so I will be chipping away at this for a while and see how it goes.

I said my piece in my review. Feel this is a good game, but nowhere near the ultimate RPG it's being made out to be. Agree on the leveling too, missed out on that in my review but Bioware and Bethesda games have much more satisfying level ups.

Interested to see what you think of Bloody Baron. Some people have called it the best RPG quest ever which just baffles me. It had some awesome ideas, but it's really lacking gameplay wise towards the end, especially with its atrocious checkpoint and no saving.

Man some of these quests are super long. I still haven't finished the Bloody Baron, but I keep fucking off and doing other shit. I finally crafted a new set of armor, boots, and gauntlets which is pretty cool.

Wait until you get to the city. Had a story quest that took me 8 hours with no side quests in the way.

I have wrapped up my search for Ciri in Velen so am going to move onto Novigrad, but have a few secondary quests I haven't finished. Can I come back to them later? Or is there some sort of expiration for them?

I did think the Bloody Baron quest was cool. I liked that it and another quest sort of weaved together. Botchlings are pretty messed up. Again, I don't have much to compare it to as far as these types of games go. While saving/checkpoints is an issue, it feels like a game-wide issue. I just save after every fight pretty much in general.

I'm enjoying the game more because I'm better at the combat now and have generally been leveled up to my quests lately (I was taking on ones a few above me before because I had perhaps moved through the game's first area too fast). I must say I don't really get the appeal of having enemies way above my level that I can't fight just because I haven't leveled up. Like my skill isn't what is holding me back, just my level (and I suppose the gear I have which is level dependent). Probably another reason I never got into RPGs.

You can come back to a quest whenever. But I do agree that Botchlings are an amazing idea, just had an unsavable section I had trouble with which really irritated me.
Did you fight the Botchling or escort the Baron by the way?

I escorted the Baron though I fucked up a few times first trying to do it. I think the first time it turned on me midway and I died. The next time I just attacked it because I thought it turned either way and I died again. Then I took a day off from playing, did another little quest in between. Tried again and escorted him fine without much problem. I suppose I missed them telling me to use my power to calm him the first time, but I was basically just a mess on that first try... haha. Didn't understand what I did wrong, but figured it out later. Anyway, eventually I got it!

I'm in Novigrad now. I ended up bumping into Griffin Witcher armor beforehand today. So I went after that first. I have everything except the gauntlets which I need another part for. It was pretty fun trying to get all of it though.

Running around Novigrad isn't nearly as fun as exploring Velen on horseback for me. I appreciate them making this big medieval city, but I'm just not having as much fun here.

That part dragged for me too. I probably put 12 hours into that city and I'm finally to a point where I'm all done... but I kinda put the game aside and when I jump back into it I need to find a new area to explore. I agree though, cruising around the world is much better than the city stuff.

The city stuff alone knocked off half a star off my review.

Nothing to do today, so I sunk a bunch of time into this. Managed to finish up the main part of Novigrad and headed off the Skellige which is pretty cool so far. I have a bunch of side quests I need to go back for, but I need a break from the city. Along with what I said before the city seems to lack that sense of discovery the rest of the game had so far. And I recall you mentioning this in your review, but fighting indoors is a mess. I am generally overleveled at this point, so I don't ever die, but it is still annoying. The camera freaks out. Novigrad wasn't without its moments, but I am glad to be out in the wilderness again.

Skellige rocks so far. I really love some of the game's side quests. This is probably par for the course for RPGs to have in-depth side content like this, but I'm so used to the typical copy-paste side missions in other sandbox games I play I can't help but be impressed here.

Are you playing it on PS4 trip? How you finding it? I don't think I'll buy it while it's full price but i"ll keep an eye on it for the price to drop if that version's good.

Not all RPGs actually are. Witcher, Deus Ex, Dragon Age, and Bethesda all give great side quests. Mass Effect's can get kind of samey though, with a few exceptions in 1 while 2 gets hazy there since half the quests are arguably side quests (makes sense if you've played it). Outside the big names (and about half of Dragon Age Inquisition's) though, side quests can get very....Ubisofty would be a good word for it.

I mean the PS4 version seems fine. I'm sure it could run smoother, but I'm not too critical of that sort of thing unless the genre warrants it (like a character action game or something). Some slow texture loads and stuff like that here and there. I have run into some really weird glitches, but I think that is to be expected with big open world titles like this one. Other than the glitches I haven't been frustrated for technical reasons yet.

That is interesting about the side missions. When I finish this game, I plan to try some more RPGs. I think I am less annoyed with the yapping now (don't know why), so they will go better for me now. Though this game is good in that I can just quit a quest and go do something else if one it is a little slow. Or just take on a contract/gear hunt for something slightly more game-y. I will either try Mass Effect again and not worry about talking to every person so much (I sort of killed the pacing in that game of my own free will) or maybe look into the Dragon Age games.

If you do go with Dragon Age, I'd recommend jumping straight into Inquisition. 1 is your thing story wise, but combat exhausts even me and I love combat like that (even on casual it gets brutal). And 2.....just no. But Inquisition kind of makes it feel more like an action game, if you really, really love it then maybe give 1 a go but even then it gets overwhelming. You really have to know how to level up, plan your party, and configure their AI to stand a chance in combat, it's a lot of micromanaging and shifting through menus and submenus, as well as having kind of a poor console interface.

I think you getting less annoyed with conversations has something to do with Life is Strange also. Mass Effect definitely has people get through the shooting portions so you can get to the conversations, but LiS I'm pretty sure everyone is doing that.

I don't know greenie...Dragon Age Inquisition kind of gets a bit MMORPG-y...

I don't even know if I have seen a video of Dragon Age before (maybe at a conference I was watching or something). So I will definitely take a peek at it before just trying it and even then it will be a rental. I figured it was something like the other Bioware games I tried (which I have enjoyed despite not finishing), but maybe not. I appreciate the advice. Perhaps it isn't for me, but I would have said the same thing about The Witcher which I pretty much tried because I wanted something like the fantasy books I was reading (there aren't many medieval fantasy games in the genres I play). Its combat is pretty straight forward though, so that helps.

Anyway, I still have to finish this game to start! So I probably wouldn't try another one until next year.

Interested to see your thoughts in a full review

Been chugging along on this. I just (I guess this is a spoiler):

Spoiler:

Any idea about how far I am % wise? Just curious how far along I am. I ended up keeping this game. I had been renting it for two months... haha. I figured I should be using that slot to rent other stuff. I think I will probably end up wanting the expansions too, so it would be worth keeping.

Also I have been pretty overleveled for a while. Again I don't have much to compare this too, but it seems like it'd be tough to play through this game keeping your level in a spot for an appropriate challenge especially if you try and do most of the important side quests. Obviously I am playing on default difficulty, but being an RPG newbie I can't imagine why I'd pick anything else.

I finished it! The longest game I've ever completed I think. I was really worried about getting a bad ending, but I was really happy with mine!

Ending Spoilers:

I really enjoyed the game. Such a memorable experience overall. There were things about it that I think could have been handled much better (like all the leveling stuff I mentioned before), but it feels like one of those games that is greater than the sum of its parts. I will write more on here or the blog eventually.