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If nonhumans and mages wanted to live they should have had a close personal relationship with Geralt, and, additionally, have run into him during the inquisition and asked him for help.
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Jul 10, 2023 05:44
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B-b-b-but White Orchard is Temerian clay!
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Jul 10, 2023 05:46
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Parallelwoody posted:It's funny that's the better option for Dykstra because otherwise he reaps the motherfucking whirlwind (because there is only once choice at the end of Reason of State). Right, you side against Roche, just like you were supposed to do in Witcher 2.
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Jul 10, 2023 05:58
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I finished Witcher 2 and I have to say it definitely grew on me despite the awkward combat, a host of bizarre design decisions and general jankiness. It's ambition in offering genuinely impactful choices is perhaps even more impressive in hindsight and stands alone as a pretty unique achievement, though it probably also shows why ultimately no one else has really tried to pull it off since; depending on the choices you make the narrative can really start to break down due to all the branching paths. It has so many flaws as a game but I think when it occasionally shines ultimately you can tell that the people making it cared about trying to portray a coherent and believable world which is what probably carries it. A good example of that I think is the voice acting, there were some great performances with maybe a tendency to overact sometimes (Iorveth and Dethmold stood out on both counts for me I think), and I liked the decision to give the Aedirnians and Kaedwinians(?) Welsh and Northern Irish accents respectively, made the world feel a little more coherent. The other accents seemed to be doled out with a little less intention though as far as I could tell, and there were some truly bad performances too. Notably Letho, who I couldn't decide whether he was supposed to have an American accent like Geralt, because he so clearly seemed to be a Scottish guy sort of trying sometimes to do an American accent that I couldn't tell if that was intentional or not lol. Also I was (perhaps mistakenly) under the impression that this series was primarily influenced by Polish/Eastern European folklore, but more than anything it seems to be heavily British inspired, even more so than typical generic fantasy. Obviously there's stock Tolkien Celtic themed elves and Scottish dwarves, but also almost over the top Arthurian references. I'm sure not being familiar with Polish folk legends I probably missed a lot of stuff, but that's what stood out to me so far. Anyway sorry for the ramble. Is it worth picking up the two main DLCs for Witcher 3 before I start that?
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Jul 10, 2023 06:09
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Ouroboros posted:Is it worth picking up the two main DLCs for Witcher 3 before I start that? IMO they're the gold standard for post-release material. Each is a nicely-sized game until itself. Blood and Wine is basically the perfect swan song for Geralt They aren't strictly necessary to pick up beforehand. However, Hearts of Stone unlocks Runecrafting, which is a supplemental and impactful gearing path. May as well pick it up isk fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Jul 10, 2023 |
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Jul 10, 2023 06:12
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Ouroboros posted:Also I was (perhaps mistakenly) under the impression that this series was primarily influenced by Polish/Eastern European folklore, but more than anything it seems to be heavily British inspired, even more so than typical generic fantasy. Obviously there's stock Tolkien Celtic themed elves and Scottish dwarves, but also almost over the top Arthurian references. I'm sure not being familiar with Polish folk legends I probably missed a lot of stuff, but that's what stood out to me so far. Many monsters come from Slavic folklore. If you played W1 then Chapter 4 has a lot of references to Polish 19th century poetry and literature. In W3 there are some quests which directly reference old Polish customs and Hearts of Stone is also chock full of minor and major references like that But as far as I can tell Sapkowski himself is a big fan of Arthurian legends so there's a lot of that in both books and the games. Aaand IIRC W2 specifically was made with the intention of popularising the series in the West so they eased up on many Polish/EE elements
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Jul 10, 2023 08:42
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Ouroboros posted:Notably Letho, who I couldn't decide whether he was supposed to have an American accent like Geralt, because he so clearly seemed to be a Scottish guy sort of trying sometimes to do an American accent that I couldn't tell if that was intentional or not lol. Welsh actor, doing an odd accent, personally I love it. He's supposed to be from very far away, so I like how he doesn't sound like anybody else. He's alsso in a few episodes of GoT, and he does a similar accent there.
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Jul 10, 2023 08:52
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:Welsh actor, doing an odd accent, personally I love it. He's supposed to be from very far away, so I like how he doesn't sound like anybody else. I thought (based on admittedly a fan-made map I glanced at) he was from like one town over from where Yennefer is from? And iirc doesn't sound anything like her. I know its stupid but I do find American accents just stick out for me in this type of fantasy fare, especially when everything else seems so old world European. At least they stopped doing the Witcher 1 thing of having 1 in every 5 west country accented peasants inexplicably have a deep texan drawl, but there still doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the ones in the Witcher 2. Though that said I don't think I've heard anyone else from Rivia speak and while I assume Triss is from Temeria I'm not actually sure. EDIT: to add another thought that just came to me, in hindsight you would never guess this game came out essentially concurrently with the TV debut of Game of Thrones, it feels so heavily indebted to everything about it and unless you looked at the release dates you would assume it was trying to capitalise on it's success, especially given how the Witcher 1 doesn't really feel that way. Ouroboros fucked around with this message at 11:29 on Jul 10, 2023 |
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Jul 10, 2023 11:24
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Ouroboros posted:I thought (based on admittedly a fan-made map I glanced at) he was from like one town over from where Yennefer is from? And iirc doesn't sound anything like her. I think Yennifer speaks like she does because she was educated on proper enunciation at Aretuza, and her peasant drawl hass been carefully stripped away. Likewise, Letho isn't "from" Gulet, at least, probably not. Witchers are trained from early childhood and, as a Viper school graduate, he'd have grown up in seclusion pretty far from any of the other established characters in W2 (or 3). While we're at it, the same is true of Geralt and the other witchers. He's not *from* Rivia, that's just an appellation he's adopted. We never meet any other characters from Maribor, to my knowledge, besides Triss. All that said, I think the accent work in W3 is really far far superior to how it's done in W3, as much as I love Letho'ss impossible-to-place accent. In w3, Shani similarly has an... odd accent- but it works for her character too, given her backstory. IMO
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Jul 10, 2023 12:17
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Ouroboros posted:
Worth noting as well that there are linguists who argue that american accents (specifically appalacian) are actually remnants of a much older english accent that would have been widespread in ye olden days. And of course, RP is *extremely* modern.
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Jul 10, 2023 12:21
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isk posted:IMO they're the gold standard for post-release material. Each is a nicely-sized game until itself. Blood and Wine is basically the perfect swan song for Geralt Yeah you don’t need them asap since you won’t be playing them until towards the end (B&W in particular is best played after everything else imo) but you should absolutely play them, they’re wonderful
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Jul 10, 2023 13:55
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having the wtichers use american accents was great and really helped them stand out as being othered in their society.Ouroboros posted:Anyway sorry for the ramble. Is it worth picking up the two main DLCs for Witcher 3 before I start that? Yes, unless cost is an issue, then you can wait. But if you are playing on PC its the steam summer sale so id bet they are cheap. Hearts of Stone is the best stand alone story and presented in W3, and Blood and Wine is drat near an entire game all on its own and its story is only overshadowed by the aforementioned DLC. Both work best played after the main story so you can focus on their events and such. B&W is explicitly intended to be the last thing you do. WoodrowSkillson fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Jul 10, 2023 |
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Jul 10, 2023 14:46
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Mark Lewis Jones sounding like he swallowed a handful of gravel before recording his Letho voiceover certainly makes him memorable. Also a really neat actor when you suddenly start noticing him everywhere.
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Jul 10, 2023 14:56
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Both the DLCs are really good but you'll probably want to play them after the main story (esp blood and wine)
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Jul 10, 2023 15:55
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My main problem with Letho's accent isn't that it's unusual or hard to place (as I said, I think it clearly sounds like a Scottish person trying to affect an American accent), but that it's inconsistent. Some words are not always pronounced the same way when the actor forgets or makes a mistake, that's not something someone with a real accent does. But yeah obviously accent choices are basically completely arbitrary, western fantasy isn't meant to depict any kind of realistic historical society and if it did try to do that everyone would have completely unfamiliar accents and incomprehensible dialects that have long since died out. My personal aversion to American accents is entirely arbitrary and vibes based, I don't expect anyone else to agree :p For anyone with books knowledge, is the penchant for mustache-twirling cartoon villains present in the original text? I don't remember this from what I played of Witcher 3, but characters like the Professor and Dethmold really stuck out in my playthroughs of the first two games. Like during a discussion about the war crime spell that caused the battlefield curse in W2 Dethmold has a line where he pretty much literally says something like 'death, destruction, ANNIHILATION! Mwahahahaha!' just at the thought of it lol, just came off as so ridiculous. Another similarly incongruous detail in the first game was where suddenly I'm fighting armies of super mutants out of nowhere and the enemies look like they came straight out of Quake 2 or System Shock. Thanks for the recs everyone, I think I will grab the DLCs before the summer sale is over 
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Jul 10, 2023 21:43
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One upside to getting the DLCs from the start is that one of them (not sure which) adds a lot of additional general skills, including one that greatly increases the duration of healing food or drink items and is extremely handy in the early game.
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Jul 10, 2023 23:31
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Ouroboros posted:For anyone with books knowledge, is the penchant for mustache-twirling cartoon villains present in the original text? Kinda, yeah. A lot of the villains in the later books are obscenely reprehensible, and Ciri's chief antagonist is a witcher-killing sadist who puts her through various torturous experiences for little to no reason (and that's not even getting into all the people who want to rip out her womb for magical reasons)
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Jul 10, 2023 23:49
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Ciri goes through a lot of poo poo and also lets loose the Bubonic plague into the Witcherverse killing a lot of people by mistake, which isn't great. She did this after worldhopping into what I believe is *our* world for a little bit, sadly it was inside a very dead city full of corpses so that's fun???
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Jul 11, 2023 00:07
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Koorisch posted:She did this after worldhopping into what I believe is *our* world for a little bit, sadly it was inside a very dead city full of corpses so that's fun??? Should have brought back something cool from Night City instead, like monowire. 
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Jul 11, 2023 00:35
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WoodrowSkillson posted:Both work best played after the main story so you can focus on their events and such. B&W is explicitly intended to be the last thing you do. Hearts of Stone can easily be weaved into the main game, there are even some dialogues and scenes that play out differently depending if you finished the main quest first. You should be around lvl 35ish though and I think a good point in the main story to launch into it is before the "Isle of Mist" point of no return, which can't be be missed as the game explicitly tells you. As others have pointed out, Blood and Wine definitely is a capstone to the saga and should be played last.
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Jul 11, 2023 01:31
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Ouroboros posted:For anyone with books knowledge, is the penchant for mustache-twirling cartoon villains present in the original text? I don't remember this from what I played of Witcher 3, but characters like the Professor and Dethmold really stuck out in my playthroughs of the first two games. Like during a discussion about the war crime spell that caused the battlefield curse in W2 Dethmold has a line where he pretty much literally says something like 'death, destruction, ANNIHILATION! Mwahahahaha!' just at the thought of it lol, just came off as so ridiculous. For a series that's mostly pretty good about giving its characters depth and emphasizing shades-of-gray morality, the books do have some one-dimensional comic book villains. Namely, the two major antagonists. Leo Bonhart and Vilgefortz really have no character beyond "is cartoonishly evil." As I recall, Vilgefortz' ultimate goal is to use Ciri's powers to travel around to different universes and be a dick. All of the other parties are interested in her for political and ideological reasons; Vilgefortz is just an rear end in a top hat.
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Jul 11, 2023 03:44
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imagine some dude with a name like Vilgefortz and he's not an rear end in a top hat You can't
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Jul 11, 2023 04:04
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Okay but what if his power was making a sword appear. Not like a flying sword, just a normal one.
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Jul 11, 2023 07:48
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mcbexx posted:Hearts of Stone can easily be weaved into the main game, there are even some dialogues and scenes that play out differently depending if you finished the main quest first. Blood and Wine is such a cool "Witcher goes on Vacation" vibe and is truly the best capstone to Geralt's story I can imagine. So good from bottom to top.
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Jul 11, 2023 13:12
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mcbexx posted:Hearts of Stone can easily be weaved into the main game, there are even some dialogues and scenes that play out differently depending if you finished the main quest first. Yes, one can weave it in but in general by the time someone is of appropriate level to do HS, they are already near the end of the game. Completing it first means you will be way over leveled for the end of the game and it will be pretty trivial, not to mention ignoring the main storyline during some of the faster moving portions of it. There are those neat dialogue options but the coolest one requires you to do nearly half of the DLC before the final third of the main story, which again is unlikely on a first playthrough. Its way easier to do that stuff in NG+
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Jul 11, 2023 15:18
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The main story ending kinda sucks anyway so it's fine to go in over leveled and just breeze through it.
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Jul 11, 2023 15:26
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Tunicate posted:Okay but what if his power was making a sword appear. Not like a flying sword, just a normal one. Geralt already solved that problem. "Why does he carry two swords? Does he lose them often?"
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Jul 11, 2023 15:35
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Mike the TV posted:The main story ending kinda sucks anyway so it's fine to go in over leveled and just breeze through it. hard disagree
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Jul 11, 2023 15:42
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Mike the TV posted:The main story ending kinda sucks anyway so it's fine to go in over leveled and just breeze through it. Was about to post exactly this. There's some good stuff if you do HoS before finishing the main quest, and I think simply fewer dialogue options if you do it later? Still no problem, well worth doing post game though.
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Jul 11, 2023 16:03
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UP AND ADAM posted:Was about to post exactly this. There's some good stuff if you do HoS before finishing the main quest, and I think simply fewer dialogue options if you do it later? Still no problem, well worth doing post game though. there is not much there at all. what are you guys so hyped about? You can ask Yen and Triss about the mark on Geralt's face, and if Vesemir is still alive you can speak to his former lover and give him her best wishes. The largest bit of content is you can have Gaunter tell you how to get the best ending, but for the vast majority of players they will have already passed most of the decision points before hitting level 30 and thinking its a good time to play the DLC. Its also not like someone will automatically pick that option from him since most people save Olgierd anyway. Thus negating the point of doing the DLC early. In general, the extra dialogue options are minor and are also conditional on the players starting HofS before advancing the story too much. If certain quests have already been completed, there are only a couple little references in there and the exchange is plowing through a multiple hour DLC that ends with the player way overleveled for the remaining content after spending 20+ hours doing a stand alone story.
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Jul 11, 2023 16:22
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Yeah but completing Hearts of Stone early may give you more time with HELLROACH  Also the final quest & main game ending are vastly improved by arse ears Hobo Clown fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Jul 11, 2023 |
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Jul 11, 2023 16:31
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WoodrowSkillson posted:there is not much there at all. what are you guys so hyped about? Those are something though, compared to the hypothetical danger of over levelling the remaining main quest. I think you can upscale everything now anyway? And I guess not everything after the isle is bad gameplay wise, but the final battle set piece sure doesn't demand anything from you so I wouldn't worry about over levelling that. The big mismatch is how much harder the bosses will be in HoS compared to whatever you fight in the main story, regardless of the level difference. I guess that would be good to leave for later, but I also think it's interesting to have HoS as another side adventure along the way, then leave BnW as the sole epilogue. Also by starting it earlier than endgame you become aware of the long withheld upgrade systems from that dlc.
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Jul 11, 2023 17:21
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Part of the reason I was grumpy about Heart of Stone was because after I blundered into starting it, I was saddled with a dumbass tattoo that I would need to finish the thing or else look like a dork in all the dramatic endgame scenes.
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Jul 11, 2023 18:39
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I thought that looking like a dork in all dramatic scenes is the point?????????
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Jul 11, 2023 18:42
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IMO the only good reason to start Hearts of Stone during the main storyline is to help fill up with extra content during Act 3, which feels pretty sparse despite having some banger quests.
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Jul 11, 2023 18:56
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One final gripe on Witcher 2 before I head into W3 (I promise): The alchemy system. Everything about the way its presented both visually and narratively suggest a high degree of importance is places on it as a central thematic tenet of the lore of the witchers and the play fantasy, but the end result almost completely fails to achieve this as I basically ended up almost completely ignoring the feature. The idea of making it this important ritual the player goes through before a fight is a good one, but the combination of it being incredibly slow as you have to go through two sets of menus and an unskippable sequence to brew and drink you potions, plus not being able to do so in combat along with the short durations and rather anemic effects of the buffs end up meaning that it's just more trouble than it is worth to engage with the mechanic. Perhaps the most egregious oversight is that potion buff timers actually count down during cutscenes, so if you do infer that a big story fight is imminent and decide to prepare accordingly, you're still likely to lost a good chunk of the buff duration watching the pre-fight cutscene. Madness. In spite of my litany of problems with this game, ultimately I'm still playing and enjoying it near the end of my second playthrough so there you go. Game good (I think? lol).
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Jul 13, 2023 00:38
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Is anybody else no longer capable of stepping outside on a windy day and thinking anything other than "wind's howling"
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Jul 16, 2023 15:39
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Ainsley McTree posted:Is anybody else no longer capable of stepping outside on a windy day and thinking anything other than "wind's howling" In fact no, which I get a lot during hurricane season.
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Jul 16, 2023 17:51
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Ainsley McTree posted:Is anybody else no longer capable of stepping outside on a windy day and thinking anything other than "wind's howling" literally just did it today while hiking also i have witcher 3 music saved to my phone and will listen to it while backpacking in the mountains.
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Jul 17, 2023 02:19
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Ainsley McTree posted:Is anybody else no longer capable of stepping outside on a windy day and thinking anything other than "wind's howling"
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Jul 17, 2023 03:26
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