You’re getting downvoted but I agree, to an extent. If it’s an RPG telling a grand story, and not an individual piece dedicated to a unique individual, then yes.
Every game feels a bit broad. Even if just for the sake of development, I'm okay with story-focused games having pre-built characters. Especially if we're not actually meant to like or agree with the character we're playing as, such as Martin Walker in Spec-Ops: The Line.
Give me one good reason I shouldn't be able to have a customizable PC in Tetris.
Seriously: I think narratives in games should be based on player choice. To me, that's the difference between a game and a book or movie. To choose your own path instead of passively following one.
But clearly I am a minority here. Some of the biggest games are linear set-piece things with no choice in the narrative structure. Even open-world games tend to be linear narratively.
To use your example of Spec Ops: The Line: there is significant player choice that the main dude did not have to be a rigid character. They could have been as customizable as V from Cyberpunk 2077, and the effect would still land.
So did I, but I mean, given the current game development climate, Ciri was an extremely predictable pick.
Not only is Ciri a woman, which modern games seem to be making super majority of main protagonists these days, but she also has market familiarity. Her character is recognizable and therefore has a builtin audience, where a new character does not.
I think that wanting equality over men/women % of MC is not something you would want to focus on I would rather have a quality story and universe whatever of the gender of the MC.
( I will clarify my point , I am an human therefore I am for gender equality obviously but I don't think that this metric is the most interesting )
I completely agree that the quality of the story is kinda the whole point, but I am tired of seeing comments like the one RightHand made; complaining that she is a woman just because she is a woman.
I mean, I agree. But, based on that argument, it's totally fine if 100% of pre-created MCs are women then, since it's only the story and universe that are important (and I would be 100% a-ok with that happening).
Besides, they've already established some of her signature abilities and had people play as her in some of the previous game, kicking the familiarity up an extra notch.
Yep. Ciri isnt the worst choice in the world, I just was hoping I could have played as my own character instead. It will be interesting to see what they do with the story.
Yeah, I'd have preferred making my own character too but, failing that, a great character that's already established in the series and has been a lot of fun playing as so far ain't bad either!
I really hope they don't stick with Ciri gameplay from TW3, I never liked when I was forced to play as Ciri, her abilities was less fun than Geralt signs.
Judging by the video, she'll be behaving more like a witcher, with the two swords, the signs, and the potion quaffing. If they hold to that and also let her keep her "short teleport" move from TW3, I'm looking forward to it 🙂
If they changed the double dodge = roll to double dodge = short teleport, but not as crazy as in TW3 that would be cool, they could also make the whole gameplay more agile than TW3, seems like a good fit for Ciri.
I did. The games already completely shit on the ciri book lore. I was hoping for a fresh slate with new characters, perhaps during a different time period entirely.
I don't know how it would've tied into the "Witcher" arc... because I don't think they were around yet? But I would have loved to had a game set during the "Conjunction of the Spheres".
Huh? What do you mean? I'm saying i would have liked to play as the first witcher, which would have taken place 400 years or so prior to the first game.
Edit: apologies i misunderstood your comment. See my below response. A game based on the conjunction would have been awesome. Too bad.
They meant they wanted a game set during the conjunction of the spheres but didn't know if witchers were a thing yet at that timeframe in the lore. The wording made it seem like they were talking about your first witcher idea but they were talking about a different alternate timeframe setting they'd like to see.
I think you're both asking for the same thing. IIRC my lore correctly, Witcher clans were founded after the Conjunction to deal with the sudden influx of monsters. A game about the first Witcher could be set mere months after the event.
I sound like a huge nerd here but i believe witchers were created 500 years prior when the humans first got to the continent and encountered monsters. Both humans and monsters came from the conjunction. It is never explained what humans were doing for the first 1000 years after the conjunction (conjunction was 1500 years ago) prior to arriving on the continent. I assume they also had to deal with monsters or maybe the monsters were dropped only on the continent? No idea. The author was unfortunately not very consistent or clear on historic lore. Perhaps it was intended. I'm not sure.
Source: I spent way too much time looking at lore explanations and engaging on forums.
How so? One of the endings literally has geralt gift a witcher sword to Ciri. The only thing I'm confused about is how she now seems to have the witcher mutations
One of the early Witcher books mentioned that Ciri was given some witcher drugs while she was training at Kaer Morhen, but didn't undergo the trial of the grasses at Triss' request.
It makes perfect sense with two of the three endings, and could even work with the third depending on how much CDPR wants to explain the cosmology behind the white frost.
Is it really that hard to imagine she eventually undertook the Trial? Yeah Kaer Morhen lost the ability to administer the Trial, but there's like 10 different Witcher "schools." Maybe we'll see Ciri working with the School of the Crane or w/e.
As far as we know it has never been done on a woman or an adult. Also, she already has super powers. Why risk a procedure that only 3 in 10 young boys used to survive?
This is just wrong, School of the Cat managed to successfully get to a point where 1/10 women survived. School of Crane is the later iteration of the School of Cat, which is why I mentioned them specifically. It's reasonable to assume they kept iterating on the original formula for the trial, so maybe they've gotten to a survival rate of 3/10 for women as well by the time of the game?
As for why, it's because Ciri wants to be a proper Witcher like Geralt. She was raised in Kaer Morhen, one of the ending of Witcher 3 is Geralt handing her a Witcher sword. You really can't think why she would take the Trial, even knowing the risk?
Ciri can't be a proper Witcher. She can't do Signs because she is a Source, as Triss discovered. That was at least half the reason her Witcher training was cut short and Triss took over her training before they sent her to Yennifer. The other half being the herbs and mushrooms they were giving her were interfering with her development. She never got the Witcher mutagens at all. Ciri's abilities are completely different from those of a Witcher due to her Elder blood.
School of the Cat managed to successfully get to a point where 1/10 women survived. School of Crane is the later iteration of the School of Cat, which is why I mentioned them specifically.
Where is this info from? I could only find fan fiction so far.
As for why, it's because Ciri wants to be a proper Witcher like Geralt.
Too thin for a 70% death rate when you already have most of what it takes for other reasons.
I guess it depends on what you call fanfiction? It's from Opowieści ze świata Wiedźmin, which is a collection of short stories written by authors other than Andrzej Sapkowski in the Witcher universe. The authors have other published works, so I'd argue it's a bit more official than pure fanfiction, but I can't confirm how canon it's considered. Certainly something CD Projekt Red could rip-off for their non-canon story set like 20 years later though.
Also Ciri has been well established to be a headstrong idiot, so I'm not sure why you're trying to examine her decision through rational logic. I'd bet she'd accept the Trial even with a 0% survival rate if she felt it made her a "proper Witcher."
It's almost definitely a break with the series in that you likely won't be able to import your save file, which always was a core feature of the series. There are also other lore details that don't add up here, which have already been explained. There could've been many ways to progress the story but I don't see how that is possible here. It's most likely a soft reboot.
Some games do allow you to import saves from older games that have swapped the MC. They just take the choices you made in the story arc and use that to create conditions for the world you’re now in. But it’s a rare occasion from what I know.
It could work the same way as the three origin stories in CP77: each ending from The Witcher 3 leading to a separate intro story with a time skip before the main game begins.
I guess that could be possible though I doubt it. The 3 origin stories in Cyberpunk were extremely shallow and didn't add anything to the story. I don't see why they would go for it again when it didn't work out last time.