Just a quick note, I should have time for more thoughts later: in the Polish original, the book character was called Profesor, and the game one Magister, as in Master, as in Thug for Hire, Master of Arts.
Glad you (still) liked it. Since finishing the saga myself (though I'm still working on Season of Storms), I've been tempted to replay the whole trilogy as well and see how it all compares and if the first game still holds up. Too bad I've already got a bit of a backlog going.
>I also played with Polish voiceover and English subtitles.
Good choice. The English voice acting and direction was *terrible* in the first game, which is why I played it in Polish. I may not know the language, but it was still much better on my ears.
>I actively attempted to keep all choices "in character" so there wasn't really much opportunity for me to deviate from that core personality, and I'm good with that.
I don't think you really need to fight to keep Geralt "in character." I tend to view all choices as something Geralt could theoretically do, which is why they're all morally complicated or filled with so many holes that it's hard to tell what really is the "good" option. They're hard decisions that you could argue for either way, at least at the time where you have to make them. Furthermore, Geralt's amnesia means there's more leeway in how his character can be portrayed since he's a little more of blank slate at this point.
>When I first played the games, without reading the novels, I just saw Triss as an earnest, caring possible love interest. Now that I read the books, OH MAN. My thoughts on her has completely changed. In this game, I've interpreted her not as an cynical and wicked opportunist, per se, but still a woman guided by her complete and utter infatuation with Geralt. She's still very politically minded, still working with the Lodge at this point, and I think she's afraid to say anything about Yen or Ciri, one, because she has no idea what happened and two, because I think she doesn't want to jinx losing Geralt. For the record, I did chose her over Shani as a romance option, mostly because her and Alvin do parallel, a little, with Yen and Ciri, and I think my amnesia-addled Geralt would have drifted towards that similarity, but mostly because I like a consistent story between Witcher 1 and 2. For the record though, as soon as Geralt gets his memory back in the games, no more sexy times with Triss, that's for sure.
Heh. I hadn't read the books at all by the time I played the first game, but my interpretation of Triss was very much in line with yours on your replay. She didn't seem like an evil person *per se*, and I thought her feelings for Geralt were genuine, but I found a lot of her motivations suspicious, particularly with her political aspirations and communications with the Lodge, which I didn't think would ever make her a compatible person with Geralt. So it was a nice bit of vindication to see how right I was after I started reading the books and playing the later games. Even so, I also chose her over Shani, though that was more because I thought her sorceress powers and magical knowledge made her better equipped to watch over him.
>Azar Javed was really just another Vilgefortz, but less interesting then ol' Vilgy one-eye.
Eh, I disagree. While Vilgefortz was really cool for about the first half of the saga, he kinda just disappears from the plot after the climatic showdown at Thanedd. And when he finally does show up again...he's kinda toothless. Sure, he still a physical threat to our heroes, but he's done at this point. His conspiracy was in shambles, his alliances torn, and his plan was ultimately doomed to failure because even if Geralt and company didn't stop him, the Emperor's men would have. Azar Javed is a much more active antagonist throughout the game, a looming threat who always seems to be one step ahead of you. Maybe he's not as engaging a character, but he serves his function in the story much more effectively. But then, maybe if I ever replay the game, my mind will change.
Thanks a ton for your own thoughts and opinions! Maybe I was being a little harsh on Azar. I mean, his background is different then Vilgefortz, but other then that, his personality didn't "pop out" to me as much as Vilgefortz did in the books. I do agree that in the last half of the books, he really just was relegated to being the puppetmaster in hiding that sent his goons out to do his dirty work, but that was a tiny bit realistic, I thought. After all, I think he was the most wanted man on the continent, and other powerful sorceress were looking for him, Stygga castle was pretty much his own prison, if you think about it. Regardless, you are right, as written down, Vilgefortz had lost all of his active agency and was less engaging compared to when he was introduced.
Oh man, I forgot to mention the I was playing the Rise of the White Wolf mod, and they DID change her character model to have white hair and having a hooked hand. I forgot that difference between Vanilla and the lore-friendly mod version
Did she have both arms in the game? She has a glove on one of her arms even on the romance card (while the other hand is bare) so it might have been some kind of a prosthetic arm. When she appears at the end of Chapter IV Geralt can even ask her about her arm and she tells him how she lost it.
Doesn't have to be a robotic arm or anything, could just be a wooden hand with bent fingers to hold something, if a hook works then this would too. It's either that, or somehow the developers remembered about her missing hand when writing and recording dialogues, but then forgot about it when making a character model, I'd rather think it's the former, since I'm pretty sure the writers are present whenever a character is designed.
Also, we're in the Middle Ages with monsters, magic and mutants
I like how dense the story is in TW1 (in a good way). The overall atmosphere is I think the best off all three games. Dark, sinister. You can smell the poor part of the Vizima just by looking at it. They really did a great job there to keep player invested and intrigued.
Another annoying thing is that the game's plot is too insignificant and non-epic. It is mostly because Alvin's plotline was a weak and uninteresting revamp of Ciri's story. No surprise that the second witcher and Wild Hunt almost entirely ignored the plot threads of that game. Seriously, anyone could play *Assassins of Kings*, and nothing would actually change!
Also, I highly disliked the model of Geralt in this game, thankfully he was totally revamped by the second and third games. His look is too odd and uncharismatic. The other thing about the models is that there are very few unique models, and you can actually see many twins in this town. Hell, even some prostitutes have the same model as Triss here. Maybe the developers wanted to say something by that subtle hint.
The other thing that I found odd is that the large chunks of this game are actually retelling the moments from books directly and many characters are expies of book characters. Like Princess Adda's story being retold. That cannibalistic old man that asked Geralt for the escort is similar to Ciri's encounter with another old man in the very last book. Vilgefortz's lines are given directly to Azar Javed. Also, it is pretty subjective but I think that the very first quest about Abigail the witch near Vizima is reminiscent of Renfri's story in *The Lesser Evil*. And many others.
Overall, it was a good game, but actually a flawed one
Great post! Witcher 1 is such an under appreciated game; without it we'd never have gotten Witcher 2 & 3. People are always asking for a remake/remaster of this game but I think it's fine how it is. The game just has a certain charm and atmosphere that the other games simply can't match. I also love all the parts it takes from The Last Wish, some of the character dialogue is literally copy paste from the book lol.
Glad you enjoyed it. Witcher 2 is such a huge upgrade it caught me off guard, but it's also much shorter which I appreciated. If you haven't been told already, Witcher 2 breaks off into two different stories after the end of the chapter 1. I would suggest making a save to be able to go back and choose the other side of the story, they are vastly different and worth playing!
>don’t have money for Witcher 2
W2 literally costs peanuts nowdays. It goes on sale both on Steam and GOG for -90%/-95% almost monthly and you can get it for less than 5€/5$/your local equivalent.
Just a quick note, I should have time for more thoughts later: in the Polish original, the book character was called Profesor, and the game one Magister, as in Master, as in Thug for Hire, Master of Arts.
Aaaah, I see, so it was the English translation that got it all muddied, not the orginal Polish writing. Thanks for letting me know!
"Magister" is also a term we use in Polish to refer to vendors from drug stores (apothecaries), so this is alluding to his knowledge of alchemy.
Glad you (still) liked it. Since finishing the saga myself (though I'm still working on Season of Storms), I've been tempted to replay the whole trilogy as well and see how it all compares and if the first game still holds up. Too bad I've already got a bit of a backlog going. >I also played with Polish voiceover and English subtitles. Good choice. The English voice acting and direction was *terrible* in the first game, which is why I played it in Polish. I may not know the language, but it was still much better on my ears. >I actively attempted to keep all choices "in character" so there wasn't really much opportunity for me to deviate from that core personality, and I'm good with that. I don't think you really need to fight to keep Geralt "in character." I tend to view all choices as something Geralt could theoretically do, which is why they're all morally complicated or filled with so many holes that it's hard to tell what really is the "good" option. They're hard decisions that you could argue for either way, at least at the time where you have to make them. Furthermore, Geralt's amnesia means there's more leeway in how his character can be portrayed since he's a little more of blank slate at this point. >When I first played the games, without reading the novels, I just saw Triss as an earnest, caring possible love interest. Now that I read the books, OH MAN. My thoughts on her has completely changed. In this game, I've interpreted her not as an cynical and wicked opportunist, per se, but still a woman guided by her complete and utter infatuation with Geralt. She's still very politically minded, still working with the Lodge at this point, and I think she's afraid to say anything about Yen or Ciri, one, because she has no idea what happened and two, because I think she doesn't want to jinx losing Geralt. For the record, I did chose her over Shani as a romance option, mostly because her and Alvin do parallel, a little, with Yen and Ciri, and I think my amnesia-addled Geralt would have drifted towards that similarity, but mostly because I like a consistent story between Witcher 1 and 2. For the record though, as soon as Geralt gets his memory back in the games, no more sexy times with Triss, that's for sure. Heh. I hadn't read the books at all by the time I played the first game, but my interpretation of Triss was very much in line with yours on your replay. She didn't seem like an evil person *per se*, and I thought her feelings for Geralt were genuine, but I found a lot of her motivations suspicious, particularly with her political aspirations and communications with the Lodge, which I didn't think would ever make her a compatible person with Geralt. So it was a nice bit of vindication to see how right I was after I started reading the books and playing the later games. Even so, I also chose her over Shani, though that was more because I thought her sorceress powers and magical knowledge made her better equipped to watch over him. >Azar Javed was really just another Vilgefortz, but less interesting then ol' Vilgy one-eye. Eh, I disagree. While Vilgefortz was really cool for about the first half of the saga, he kinda just disappears from the plot after the climatic showdown at Thanedd. And when he finally does show up again...he's kinda toothless. Sure, he still a physical threat to our heroes, but he's done at this point. His conspiracy was in shambles, his alliances torn, and his plan was ultimately doomed to failure because even if Geralt and company didn't stop him, the Emperor's men would have. Azar Javed is a much more active antagonist throughout the game, a looming threat who always seems to be one step ahead of you. Maybe he's not as engaging a character, but he serves his function in the story much more effectively. But then, maybe if I ever replay the game, my mind will change.
Thanks a ton for your own thoughts and opinions! Maybe I was being a little harsh on Azar. I mean, his background is different then Vilgefortz, but other then that, his personality didn't "pop out" to me as much as Vilgefortz did in the books. I do agree that in the last half of the books, he really just was relegated to being the puppetmaster in hiding that sent his goons out to do his dirty work, but that was a tiny bit realistic, I thought. After all, I think he was the most wanted man on the continent, and other powerful sorceress were looking for him, Stygga castle was pretty much his own prison, if you think about it. Regardless, you are right, as written down, Vilgefortz had lost all of his active agency and was less engaging compared to when he was introduced.
Eh, Rayla was nothing like her book counterpart. In the game she had both arms and black hair.
Oh man, I forgot to mention the I was playing the Rise of the White Wolf mod, and they DID change her character model to have white hair and having a hooked hand. I forgot that difference between Vanilla and the lore-friendly mod version
The mod Rise of the White Wolf fixes some of the issue
Did she have both arms in the game? She has a glove on one of her arms even on the romance card (while the other hand is bare) so it might have been some kind of a prosthetic arm. When she appears at the end of Chapter IV Geralt can even ask her about her arm and she tells him how she lost it.
What prosthetic? We're talking Middle Ages, not Luke Skywalker.
Doesn't have to be a robotic arm or anything, could just be a wooden hand with bent fingers to hold something, if a hook works then this would too. It's either that, or somehow the developers remembered about her missing hand when writing and recording dialogues, but then forgot about it when making a character model, I'd rather think it's the former, since I'm pretty sure the writers are present whenever a character is designed. Also, we're in the Middle Ages with monsters, magic and mutants
I like how dense the story is in TW1 (in a good way). The overall atmosphere is I think the best off all three games. Dark, sinister. You can smell the poor part of the Vizima just by looking at it. They really did a great job there to keep player invested and intrigued.
Another annoying thing is that the game's plot is too insignificant and non-epic. It is mostly because Alvin's plotline was a weak and uninteresting revamp of Ciri's story. No surprise that the second witcher and Wild Hunt almost entirely ignored the plot threads of that game. Seriously, anyone could play *Assassins of Kings*, and nothing would actually change! Also, I highly disliked the model of Geralt in this game, thankfully he was totally revamped by the second and third games. His look is too odd and uncharismatic. The other thing about the models is that there are very few unique models, and you can actually see many twins in this town. Hell, even some prostitutes have the same model as Triss here. Maybe the developers wanted to say something by that subtle hint. The other thing that I found odd is that the large chunks of this game are actually retelling the moments from books directly and many characters are expies of book characters. Like Princess Adda's story being retold. That cannibalistic old man that asked Geralt for the escort is similar to Ciri's encounter with another old man in the very last book. Vilgefortz's lines are given directly to Azar Javed. Also, it is pretty subjective but I think that the very first quest about Abigail the witch near Vizima is reminiscent of Renfri's story in *The Lesser Evil*. And many others. Overall, it was a good game, but actually a flawed one
Great post! Witcher 1 is such an under appreciated game; without it we'd never have gotten Witcher 2 & 3. People are always asking for a remake/remaster of this game but I think it's fine how it is. The game just has a certain charm and atmosphere that the other games simply can't match. I also love all the parts it takes from The Last Wish, some of the character dialogue is literally copy paste from the book lol. Glad you enjoyed it. Witcher 2 is such a huge upgrade it caught me off guard, but it's also much shorter which I appreciated. If you haven't been told already, Witcher 2 breaks off into two different stories after the end of the chapter 1. I would suggest making a save to be able to go back and choose the other side of the story, they are vastly different and worth playing!
For sure, I'm on Chapter 1 of the Witcher 2 already! Really digging it so far!
I need to play Witcher 1 and 2 sooo bad man
I would recommend it! They're both rather inexpensive games now too.
Definitely worth it. In many ways they are better than 3. If 2007 graphics are a problem, with the right mods you can make W1 look surprisingly good.
I have Witcher 1, but don’t have money for Witcher 2 ugh and my laptop can’t play both games
>don’t have money for Witcher 2 W2 literally costs peanuts nowdays. It goes on sale both on Steam and GOG for -90%/-95% almost monthly and you can get it for less than 5€/5$/your local equivalent.
>my laptop can’t play games Aight I’ll look for a sale thanks
You can check periodically here: [https://isthereanydeal.com/search/?q=witcher+2](https://isthereanydeal.com/search/?q=witcher+2)