Elder Blood

Hello people, I think it’s high time I give you an update how I’m doing with Witcher 3. I have no idea how I’m going to review this behemoth of a game once I finish it. It’s bigger than the other open-world games I’ve played!

I noticed that fellow blogger, Hannie was sharing updates whenever she finished off an area of the game based on the main story and I liked reading her posts on that. Back when I first wrote about this game, I was starting out and struggling with my dilemma to choose between Triss Merigold and Yennefer of Vengerberg. With that being said, my opinion of Yen was rather close-minded and ignorant earlier.

So, after over three months and 72 hours of gameplay, what do I think so far? Since I haven’t been breaking it down like Hannie has, I might have to summarize parts.

In Velen and Novigrad, I felt like I was erratically doing favors for people and navigating around city gangs before getting information about what happened to Ciri. I must admit, I really enjoy those snippets where I got to briefly play as Ciri because her abilities are really cool.

I didn’t like the baron and after having a one night stand with Keira Metz, I was too caught up in my anger from her treachery and killed her; a decision I regretted once it came time to gather people to bring to Kaer Morhen. Rescuing Dandelion on the other hand felt like it took forever all the talking, organizing plays and killing people if necessary. It wasn’t until Skellige did I feel like the game was getting good.

No matter how badly I wanted to continue with Triss, there was another side to me that really wanted to give Yen a chance so I realized I had already made my choice when I chose not to kiss her [Triss] at the masquerade party.

So yeah, I have had a change of heart about Yennefer. She has her moments where she does get bossy and bitchy at Geralt and his friends, but she seems to have this other side to her personality that I like. Sure, she’s feisty, but she’s also sophisticated and independent like taking full responsibility for the destruction of Freya’s garden in order to obtain information about Ciri’s whereabouts. Though she has a very atypical way of showing her love for Geralt, he appears to open up to her when they’re together more than he would to anyone else.

One thing that made me start to really like Yen more was when she reunited with Ciri. She ran overjoyed down the stairs to hug her and I realized that Yen also possesses a sweet motherly side that you just can’t ignore. Sorceresses and witchers are sterile which means they cannot conceive, so Yen sees herself as Ciri’s adoptive mother which is the only close thing she’ll have to having a child of her own. The overall reunion with Ciri was sweet after all I went through to find her, not to mention damn Sirens attacking my boat! Oh I made Cerys queen of Skellige by the way.

I thought the battle of Kaer Morhen was going to be the conclusion but clearly not judging from how it went. Ciri’s power is unstable and Eredin is still a threat. Why is it that in these open-world games, we get a cool-looking villain with an interesting backstory that rarely gets any screen time? There’s Corypheus, Alduin, the Archon, and now this guy.

Oh and what about another subject at hand? Nilfgaard vs. Redania, okay Radovid has got to go, but I don’t like Emperor Emhyr that much either. Well, something tells me that whatever happens next will mean settling that conflict and dealing with the Hunt one last time.

This game is great, but I do hope to finish it soon because I have a whole list of games I want to play on Teletraan-1 including returning to Andromeda that I haven’t tackled yet.

👽Emily