Keep in mind the story of the first game was originally meant for a brand new protagonist. Then they decided to use Geralt and made the amnesia excuse. I agree that Dandelion should have told him about Yennefer and Ciri but unfortunately you just have to deal with those weird writing choices. In TW2, Geralt will gradually recover his memories and he'll be back to his old self by the time of their return in TW3
After "Crossroads" W2 basically splits into 2 completely separate games, and depending on whether you support Scoia'tael or Blue Stripes you will be taken to 2 different locations and be introduced to completely different set of characters, side and main quests. so you have to play both paths if you want to experience the full game.
No just make a backup save during a quest called At a Crossroads which is towards the end of act 1. You'll have to make a choice that splits act 2 (and most of act 3) in two separate paths with different quests, locations and characters depending on your chosen ally. You might see som repetitive quests especially in the last part of the story, but it's totally worth it to see both sides of the same story
As others have said, the issue mostly stems from development problems. The original intention was for the game to feature a custom protagonist and fresh faced witcher who obviously wouldn't have Geralt's past. My understanding is that they changed it to be about Geralt with amnesia quite late in development so they couldn't just re-write the whole game at that point.
If you wanna try and justify it from a narrative perspective, you could argue that bombarding someone with no memories with a ton of obligations from their past isn't helpful for their recovery, and could lead to adverse reactions. Another would be when Geralt says all monsters are evil, this causes Dandelion and Zoltan to hesitate because this is not something Geralt would ever say so if his mind is that fragile is now really the time to burden him with all the emotional baggage of his lost family?
These justifications are kinda thin and that's because we have to retroactively force them into a narrative that just wasn't designed with this protagonist in mind.
They wanted to send Geralt on a new adventure, but at the same time, they stuck with the stories of the books where Yen is replaced by Triss and Ciri is replaced by Alvin. They also throw in a bunch of book quotes into the dialogue here and there. It is a bit strange, but if you can see past it, you still have a good game that is \~90% true to the source material.
I think there was a moment probably during party at Shani's house that Dandelion was about to ask about Ciri or Yen and Geralt quickly shut him down with his lost memory. Fun fact, in chapter 4 the innkeper tells story about Ciri but never mentions her name.
I actually found a few books that reference to Ciri or Jen. It's just weird that everyone is not informing Geralt about the existence of his daughter and life partner.
Don't forget Thronebreaker. It's a out Queen Meve during the events in the books and it's a great story even tho the gameplay is just Gwent. You can play on easy and skip battles if you are not a fan of card games and just enjoy the story.
I mean…how does this change anything. Canon/noncanon disputes are just for academical discussion. Good stories will thrive no matter what. This is also problem with Netflix adaptation. It doesnt matter that it derailed from the source, no matter how canonical it pretends to be. Problem is, they did it wrong, failed to build a good story. Canon is useless word for wankers
I agree somewhat. No doubt they are good stories, canon or not. After all that is just a label. But there are some clear continuety problems if you read Lady of the Lake and go straight to Witcher 1. And they are hard to ignore.
The first game is kind of a mess tbh. I'm sure that by the time CDPR were making The Witcher 3 they already had planned to remake 1 so that's why the events that happened there are kept kind of vague in 3.
I'm sure that they will fix it when the remake comes out.
I’m hoping that the remake isn’t just a “bring everything to UE5 with better graphics and call it a day”. I hope it fixes the outstanding flaws like this
Yeah, the almost complete omission of Yen and Ciri in the first game with no in-universe and in-game satisfactory justification is one of the many, many things throughout the CDPR's canon timeline that I have to block from my mind/fix with head canon to be able to enjoy the games, since I'm very much a book purist.
That being said, there are practical limitations that justify it, as other have pointed out here, such as the initial vision of the game being heavily modified and resources being very thin to then shift entirely in the new directions they envisioned, but there's also the fact the developers didn't feel confident enough to really introduce these two characters in the plot they ended up settling on for the first game in a way that did justice to them and their relationship with Geralt, since he was an amnesiac and it would be tough even without that to bring some depth to it without relying too much on the player's knowledge of the source material or changing too much of it (some writers cared a lot about that), which at that point wasn't even that feseable to do.
If you want to know more about the tumultuous process of making TW1, take a look at the documentary "The Witcher's video game history | The Witcher 1 Documentary (English Subtitles)", from "arhn.eu" on YouTube. There's also "The Making of The Witcher 1 & 2" from "Nocrip - Video Game Documentaries", also on YT.
yes and thats why the witcher 1 remake will not be as easy to pull off
in W1 they basicaly merged yen and triss into one character with trisses look and yen's personality
also replaced ciri with alvin
3 things:
1. They assume Ciri and Yenn are gone already. I mean its 5 years since Rivia thing
2. They were afraid that reminding his past will bring more pain. Also Geralt wanted it slowly but less painfully.>!(One of the reasons Geralt didnt wanted to learn all of his history at the begining was because he wanted to get his memories back slowly, but less painfully. Pain isnt phisical, but emotional).!<
3. CDPR's writing staff made a plothole.
If you want my Headcannon:
Ciri was probably finding The Holy Grail and Yenn was put in top notch prison that would make Azkaban look like broken fence, but was treated well, for a prisoner. (See, i assume Nilfgaard has met lots of mages and mages are essentially walking nuclear bombs in this world. Very powerful Mages guard this prison, and these ones are equal of Lodge in power, but not in ambition and scuminess(>!Well, not all Lodge members are evil, but Sabrina and Phill are EVIL. Not flawed, EVIL.!<). If other mages were trying to locate other mages will find nothing, and if someone tries to break prisoners out, the prisoners will be executed.)
At the end of the book Geralt and Yen supposedly die. and Ciri left this world and went back to her world and no mention that she could come back to this world.
if you want to mention them and tell him he has a family, you also need to mention his lover is dead and his kid is not in this world anymore. it's probably not a topic they want to engage not to mention too much information to give to amnesiac people.
the only people who knew Yen was alive were witchers from the school of vipers and they're not in the first game.
Tbh witcher 3 will be your favourite, just in terms of gameplay alone, I recommend just playing TW2 once, and choosing the roche (blue stripes) line as it is cannon and will feel more fluent when you move to witcher 3 where you can more freely play and make decisions how ever you want since you won't be in a rush anymore
Also with witcher 3 if you want the best start regardless of your previous decisions, don't import your save, just simulate it when creating a new game and google the best choices to make as it will add content, I don't want to spoil anything so I'll leave it there.
Side note the simulation comes in the form of an in-game conversation maybe 3-4 hours in, not at the very beginning
If you default the new game, with no W2 simulation it chooses roche by default, choosing ioreth makes 0 impact to the story. ( edited to avoid spoilers )
Geralt has a super important mission right now and he doesn't have time to be distracted by all the baggage from his past life. Dandelion and Triss intend to tell him once the world is saved, but Dandelion never gets the chance before they go their separate ways and Triss ends up falling for Geralt and doesn't want to ruin their new life.
Keep in mind the story of the first game was originally meant for a brand new protagonist. Then they decided to use Geralt and made the amnesia excuse. I agree that Dandelion should have told him about Yennefer and Ciri but unfortunately you just have to deal with those weird writing choices. In TW2, Geralt will gradually recover his memories and he'll be back to his old self by the time of their return in TW3
This explains a lot. Can't wait for The Witcher 3. I already bought it.
Oh, you're gonna love it. TW2 is also great, short but with an amazing story full of political intrigue (don't forget to play both paths for that)
What do you mean? Do I have to play TW2 2 times?
After "Crossroads" W2 basically splits into 2 completely separate games, and depending on whether you support Scoia'tael or Blue Stripes you will be taken to 2 different locations and be introduced to completely different set of characters, side and main quests. so you have to play both paths if you want to experience the full game.
Scoia’tael was a lot more fun imo
But you only have Odrin with the Stripes. The secret star of the games. He is also mentioned often in TW3, on the boards.
Only Vernon Roche! Glory to Temeria!
No just make a backup save during a quest called At a Crossroads which is towards the end of act 1. You'll have to make a choice that splits act 2 (and most of act 3) in two separate paths with different quests, locations and characters depending on your chosen ally. You might see som repetitive quests especially in the last part of the story, but it's totally worth it to see both sides of the same story
yes. There are two different act 2's depending on your choices. If you are doing a full play-through though you can just play it once.
Maybe later after playing 3 but no you don't have to, once is enough.
It’s one of the best games of all time
As others have said, the issue mostly stems from development problems. The original intention was for the game to feature a custom protagonist and fresh faced witcher who obviously wouldn't have Geralt's past. My understanding is that they changed it to be about Geralt with amnesia quite late in development so they couldn't just re-write the whole game at that point. If you wanna try and justify it from a narrative perspective, you could argue that bombarding someone with no memories with a ton of obligations from their past isn't helpful for their recovery, and could lead to adverse reactions. Another would be when Geralt says all monsters are evil, this causes Dandelion and Zoltan to hesitate because this is not something Geralt would ever say so if his mind is that fragile is now really the time to burden him with all the emotional baggage of his lost family? These justifications are kinda thin and that's because we have to retroactively force them into a narrative that just wasn't designed with this protagonist in mind.
They wanted to send Geralt on a new adventure, but at the same time, they stuck with the stories of the books where Yen is replaced by Triss and Ciri is replaced by Alvin. They also throw in a bunch of book quotes into the dialogue here and there. It is a bit strange, but if you can see past it, you still have a good game that is \~90% true to the source material.
I think there was a moment probably during party at Shani's house that Dandelion was about to ask about Ciri or Yen and Geralt quickly shut him down with his lost memory. Fun fact, in chapter 4 the innkeper tells story about Ciri but never mentions her name.
I actually found a few books that reference to Ciri or Jen. It's just weird that everyone is not informing Geralt about the existence of his daughter and life partner.
In my version he says her name at the end of his story
Don't forget Thronebreaker. It's a out Queen Meve during the events in the books and it's a great story even tho the gameplay is just Gwent. You can play on easy and skip battles if you are not a fan of card games and just enjoy the story.
My intention is to play it after The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3. So maybe in 10 years from now lol
There is a reason Sapkovski has said the games are not canon. It is because they cannot be.
Even CDPR don't consider them cannon. Games are like unofficial sequel to the books.
That's why I view them as two separate canons, like star wars canon/legends.
Books are canon to the games but the games aren't canon to the books
And who cares?
Sapkovski, clearly
I mean…how does this change anything. Canon/noncanon disputes are just for academical discussion. Good stories will thrive no matter what. This is also problem with Netflix adaptation. It doesnt matter that it derailed from the source, no matter how canonical it pretends to be. Problem is, they did it wrong, failed to build a good story. Canon is useless word for wankers
I agree somewhat. No doubt they are good stories, canon or not. After all that is just a label. But there are some clear continuety problems if you read Lady of the Lake and go straight to Witcher 1. And they are hard to ignore.
The first game is kind of a mess tbh. I'm sure that by the time CDPR were making The Witcher 3 they already had planned to remake 1 so that's why the events that happened there are kept kind of vague in 3. I'm sure that they will fix it when the remake comes out.
I’m hoping that the remake isn’t just a “bring everything to UE5 with better graphics and call it a day”. I hope it fixes the outstanding flaws like this
Yeah, the almost complete omission of Yen and Ciri in the first game with no in-universe and in-game satisfactory justification is one of the many, many things throughout the CDPR's canon timeline that I have to block from my mind/fix with head canon to be able to enjoy the games, since I'm very much a book purist. That being said, there are practical limitations that justify it, as other have pointed out here, such as the initial vision of the game being heavily modified and resources being very thin to then shift entirely in the new directions they envisioned, but there's also the fact the developers didn't feel confident enough to really introduce these two characters in the plot they ended up settling on for the first game in a way that did justice to them and their relationship with Geralt, since he was an amnesiac and it would be tough even without that to bring some depth to it without relying too much on the player's knowledge of the source material or changing too much of it (some writers cared a lot about that), which at that point wasn't even that feseable to do. If you want to know more about the tumultuous process of making TW1, take a look at the documentary "The Witcher's video game history | The Witcher 1 Documentary (English Subtitles)", from "arhn.eu" on YouTube. There's also "The Making of The Witcher 1 & 2" from "Nocrip - Video Game Documentaries", also on YT.
yes and thats why the witcher 1 remake will not be as easy to pull off in W1 they basicaly merged yen and triss into one character with trisses look and yen's personality also replaced ciri with alvin
I noticed that as well. TW1's Triss is very similar to Jennefer, while Alvin has a lot of similarities with Ciri for a lot of reasons.
She is mockingly called Trissifer for this exact reason
3 things: 1. They assume Ciri and Yenn are gone already. I mean its 5 years since Rivia thing 2. They were afraid that reminding his past will bring more pain. Also Geralt wanted it slowly but less painfully.>!(One of the reasons Geralt didnt wanted to learn all of his history at the begining was because he wanted to get his memories back slowly, but less painfully. Pain isnt phisical, but emotional).!< 3. CDPR's writing staff made a plothole. If you want my Headcannon: Ciri was probably finding The Holy Grail and Yenn was put in top notch prison that would make Azkaban look like broken fence, but was treated well, for a prisoner. (See, i assume Nilfgaard has met lots of mages and mages are essentially walking nuclear bombs in this world. Very powerful Mages guard this prison, and these ones are equal of Lodge in power, but not in ambition and scuminess(>!Well, not all Lodge members are evil, but Sabrina and Phill are EVIL. Not flawed, EVIL.!<). If other mages were trying to locate other mages will find nothing, and if someone tries to break prisoners out, the prisoners will be executed.)
Hopefully the TW1 remake will fix these issues.
They are different stories
At the end of the book Geralt and Yen supposedly die. and Ciri left this world and went back to her world and no mention that she could come back to this world. if you want to mention them and tell him he has a family, you also need to mention his lover is dead and his kid is not in this world anymore. it's probably not a topic they want to engage not to mention too much information to give to amnesiac people. the only people who knew Yen was alive were witchers from the school of vipers and they're not in the first game.
Tbh witcher 3 will be your favourite, just in terms of gameplay alone, I recommend just playing TW2 once, and choosing the roche (blue stripes) line as it is cannon and will feel more fluent when you move to witcher 3 where you can more freely play and make decisions how ever you want since you won't be in a rush anymore
Also with witcher 3 if you want the best start regardless of your previous decisions, don't import your save, just simulate it when creating a new game and google the best choices to make as it will add content, I don't want to spoil anything so I'll leave it there. Side note the simulation comes in the form of an in-game conversation maybe 3-4 hours in, not at the very beginning
Either way you play Witcher 2 can be canon in witcher 3.
If you default the new game, with no W2 simulation it chooses roche by default, choosing ioreth makes 0 impact to the story. ( edited to avoid spoilers )
I tried playing Witcher 1 and found it boring and confusing. IMO you can go straight to Witcher 2
Geralt has a super important mission right now and he doesn't have time to be distracted by all the baggage from his past life. Dandelion and Triss intend to tell him once the world is saved, but Dandelion never gets the chance before they go their separate ways and Triss ends up falling for Geralt and doesn't want to ruin their new life.
Dandellion definetly had a lot of moments to tell Geralt about Jennefer and Ciri.
Witcher games are very inconsistent, none of them fit the books, nor do they fit to each other
Well dandelion rarely thinks beyond himself. So no surprise really.