DragoFireheart
all caps, rainbow colors, SOMETHING.
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- Jun 16, 2007
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In Witcher 2:
Geralt learns QTE
Fuck the Witcher 2.
In Witcher 2:
Geralt learns QTE
Some people seem to have an issue with anything exaggerated. They like fantasy settings to be as real as possible, despite the fact there are dragons and whatever the fuck else. They react as if ninja kicks and such are "for kids." You can see this in complaints against all manner of games, from art style to animations, quest design and whatever else.
It's kind of annoying since that mindset is why we have endless Tolkien clones instead of more stuff like Arcanum and Fallout.
It's not that things have to be realistic it's that they have to make sense.
Think about this way then... if nothing else, unless you know about martial arts, their back-flips and high spinning kicks are rather impressive looking (even if impractical). I would imagine if you are some guard or thug in a medieval city who has been told that werewolves and vampires will cut you to pieces in seconds. Then a guy with white hair, a ton of scars and cat pupils comes to town and you know that his profession is to kill said monsters. Now if he starts spinning his sword around in some fancy way you've never seen before you're probably going to be fairly intimidated, maybe that's the reason witchers train like that. Or maybe all those spins and twirls are a viable way to take advantage of your supernatural speed to block more attacks and see what's going on around you. Point is it's not hard to make a justification for a pirouette with a long sword.It's not that things have to be realistic it's that they have to make sense.
Moves that don't make sense bother me rarely as I have practically no idea about martial arts but sometimes they do. Especially spinning sword moves.
Again, it's not about realism as you can make those kind of moves in real life too. It's that it's stupid thing to do.
You can defend it by saying that it's okay to do ridiculous things in fantasy but I doubt you would similarly defend it if Geralt felt like always hopping on one foot while fighting. Perhaps it would be more glaringly stupid but the spinning isn't too bright either.
The endless city and swamp slog throughout the middle of the game is a piece of shit and ruins what pacing there was. If the whole game was like chapters one and four I would agree for the most part, but it isn't. Chapters 2 and 3 are objectively bad due to poor pacing and design.
That's weird. I've always seen Chapter 4 as being the worst part of Witcher 1. I loved all the political stuff in chapters 2 and 3, with chapter 3 being the best part of the game, I think. The problem is that at the end of chapter 3, just when all the politics are heating up and everything is coming to a head, you are suddenly transported to the countryside and the game becomes a high fantasy King's Quest style game for a while, with you doing completely random sidequests exorcising ghosts and hanging out with lake spirits and what not. It's really jarring, tonally out of place with what came before, and stops the momentum of the game dead in its tracks.
Lack of brain cells would be a more likely reason, unless you played some early pre-EE version or something. Nothing "incomprehensible" about it. It's probably the most interesting part of the game as far as the story goes, certainly more so than Acts I or IV. It also has some of the best side quests.Could be a translation issue to some extent. The story in the middle of the game was mostly incomprehensible to me due to poor translation.
Lack of brain cells would be a more likely reason, unless you played some early pre-EE version or something. Nothing "incomprehensible" about it.
Okay, you've convinced me.comments on the internet
Okay, you've convinced me.comments on the internet
I have played through Witcher 1 twice, though, and it does make perfect sense. Plus, while the game was initially terribly translated, I've never heard anyone claim that the re-translated Enhanced Edition is bad (and I've played enough foreign games to know a shit localization when I see one). It is complicated, though, and unlike most games you actually have to actively pay attention to follow what's going on (especially when a whole bunch of characters are all introduced at the beginning of chapter 3), but it's no harder to follow than your average episode of Game of Thrones. Especially if you read journal entries and character bios which are a huge help when it comes to getting a sense of who everyone is.
Still comes accross as more sensible as that DalekFlay guy with his "people on the internet are supporting my vision!"-arguments while it's pretty obvious for anyone who spent more than 5 minutes in Witcher-threads that act 4 is usually seen as a weaker one and a pretty artificial way to give the game some more playtime. If you're going to use that kind of dumb strawman at least do it right.Juan Carlo doing some major fanboying in this thread.
I actually think Witcher 1 is one of the better written and plotted RPGs I've ever played, though. Like, there's a really interesting theory that Alvin (i.e. the kid) is actually the Grand Master of the Order as a child that's well supported through circumstantial evidence, but the designers never really come out and say it fully. Lesser writers would have had this be a huge shocking reveal at the end of the game, but CDP just sticks in clues here or there and totally trusts the intelligence of its players to put two and two together. That sort of subtlety in writing is so rare in video games. Most game writing is so shitty, broad, and surface level that you really don't have to pay much attention, but Witcher actually rewards close analysis.
Anyhow, the wiki outlines the basics of the Alvin theory if anyone hasn't heard of it:
http://witcher.wikia.com/wiki/Alvin
You guys can push this narrative of me being a total dumbass if you really want to. At the end of the day I know the game's dialogue was stilted and cumbersome as fuck. "Geralt!" "Yes?" "What?" I assumed it was translation. Maybe it was just poorly written, or not my style.
Act 4 easily rivals it in all the same regards. And sure, both have totally different feeling to 2 and 3, but I think this change of pace is for the better.
Strange, Vizima Outskirts is my favourite chapter in TW. I like how nothing really "epic" is going on there, how "rudimentary" the landscape is and how it feels like a quiet place, with only minor problems at first. It's one of the best designed areas in game, with disturbing atmosphere, great music, a lot of free-running and exploration(and unfortunately backtracking). Witcher vacation before Vizima Confidental.
Well, you initially said that chapters 2 and 3 were bad because (your words) "The story in the middle of the game was mostly incomprehensible to me due to poor translation."
So we're not putting words in your mouth or anything, just responding to stuff you said yourself.
My biggest problem with Act 4 is just that it fucks up the momentum of the game and the vast majority of it is entirely irrelevant to the plot (not to mention the dramatic shift in tone from gritty political RPG to high fantasy). It might be a fun change of pace or respite for some people to just hang out and be a witcher for a while, but I've always seen it as unnecessary padding (it would have maybe made good DLC or something, I guess).
Bethesda makes the most successful quasi-RPGs and they too are much better than the Witcher.