Going Witchering

[Jubal]

Right, I've gone back to the Witcher games, and we don't have a general thread for them so here's one.

I played through two surprisingly fast, partly because I decided I'd do a lot more switching to easy mode than the previous time and partly because I managed to get the hang of the controls and not incinerate any guards, which it turns out is pretty helpful for completion of the game. I did Iorveth's path and helped Saskia build the Pontar Free State, which was nice albeit that

Spoiler

it's a bit crushing when it turns out to have been so flattened by the start of W3 that nobody's even mentioned it yet.

And now I'm on 3. I'm not finding the combat much more fluid than 2, but I think a lot of the effectiveness of the Witcher's combat systems relies on you having a controller. For example, I really can't use the step-dodge because accurately tucking my thumb under to use the alt whilst stepping fluidly whilst next to an enemy, in a game that really relies on you not taking hits, is a recipe for disaster. I also think I've barely made a single strong attack all game, I need to get to working that one but it's one key more than my brain can manage most of the time. I guess the other issue as ever is that my timing is crap which means the nice new stuff like having blocking/parrying available on the mouse isn't very helpful for me. All that said, now I'm improving a bit at strike-and-roll combat it is a lot more bearable, and I'm playing on Normal rather than Easy.

Regarding other mechanics, the alchemy system feels very streamlined: the ability system took longer to work out, it feels a bit weird that you can have so few abilities activated simultaneously as it really reduces the "ooh cool upgrades" feeling as you probably can't use whatever you just bought, though that might just be me still misunderstanding the system.

The plot writing has been very good with 3 so far - I'm still bumbling about in Velen and probably will be for some time, since I'm very much exploring random areas of the map first, sidequests second, then main quest third, although I've got back and done some chunks of main quest recently since I was feeling super underlevelled for absolutely everything. I also seem to have a constantly full inventory and almost no money due to the cost of equipment repairs and the fact this game keeps giving me chances to be generous to people and I'm taking all of them. The writing of Strenger/the Baron was really interestingly done, I though, as was Keira, though there is some obvious flirting in the latter and I have a bad feeling I'm going to horribly mess up all the major interpersonal stuff in this game.

[Gmd]

Finally! The return. I can finally weigh in and help.


Witcher 2 is a great game about politics, but

Spoiler

The fact that nilfgaard invades at the end kind of ruins all the plot development of that game as both Aedirn and tameria get stomped, the only major importance is that the mages are blamed for loc muinne and radovid starts his witch hunts. I personally love the witcher 2 story, but its quite small scale compared to the witcher 3's apocalyptic tones. I love Iorveth as a character and i honestly much prefer his half of the game, but its events are sadly mostly ignored in the witcher 3. I felt this was such a loss and recently DM'd a witcher DnD session set just before the witcher 3 with Iorveth and saskia at the forefront of the plot.

Witcher 3 is one of my favourite games of all time so i am biased here. Also dark souls with its rolling dodges is another of my favourite series, so i cant help much with the combat advise except get good    . i've completed it on the hardest difficulty, those dodge i-frames are a the trick. My main advice is play on controller for much simpler multi targeting of mobs and pressing of the strong attack and do not at all underplay the alchemy side of the game, potions and oils give huge damage boosts. Another tip is to go all out on one build magic/swords/alchemy, dont pick and choose, as the ending abilities are a godsend. For example in combat tree Whirl, where u literally just hold attack button and do spin attacks can deal with large groups of humans easily.

Have you read the books? (i'm sure i've asked you before).

The plot of this game and its writing (especially its side quests) is amazing. It is the witcher game that links to the books the most, majorly so in its DLC so the story is strongly enhanced with the knowledge of book characters. Emhyr (Charles Dance <3)/Yen/Ciri etc. Lots of things affect lots of things in this game so be careful. Can i ask how your encounter keira and the baron went? The baron storyline is a great one, such a conflicted character.

Money Tips: take lots of witcher contracts and explore/loot everything

Keep me updated as you go along, people playing my favourite games for the first time is always a joy!

[Jubal]

I agree regarding W2's core plot - at least the Iorveth path through it - feeling a bit undermined by W3. It does feel a bit weird that Sas just vanishes off the map.

"Get good" is horrible advice, but thanks I guess I mean, obviously practice does help, and I do enjoy the alchemy which is helpful. I always play with keyboards not controllers which I'm sure is a disadvantage, but I'm managing OK on normal difficulty in any case. I'm afraid to say I have gone quite a mixed build so far, and I'm about level 18/19 so it may be too late for me to specialise enough to reach the end of any of the trees - ah well. I don't think I have any desire to play the combat on a level above normal - given my handicap of a keyboard and joint problems and slow reaction times this seems like the fun/challenging rather than frustrating level to play at.

In Velen, my key choices:

Spoiler

Keira has been safely sent off to Kaer Morhen, the Baron is dead and the bog orphans are alive.

I have been doing a ton of exploration so I'm now quite overlevelled for the main quest, but oh well I'm now working my way through Novigrad and some of the politicsy stuff, though I seem to have managed to lock myself off finishing some quests I want to complete because characters are only giving me dialogues for other quests so I may have done things in the wrong order (likely due to my tendency to want to do all the side quests before pushing on with the main).

Specifics of the current problem:

Spoiler

Started the quest that involves going to a party with Triss. This means I don't have the dialogue available for getting Triss to look at the gem thingy I snagged from Philippa's Hideout.

Not read the books yet but they're on my list!

[Gmd]

and I'm about level 18/19 so it may be too late for me to specialise enough to reach the end of any of the trees - ah well. I don't think I have any desire to play the combat on a level above normal - given my handicap of a keyboard and joint problems and slow reaction times this seems like the fun/challenging rather than frustrating level to play at.

I'm sure this will be fine on normal, just play what you find fun provided it avoids the frustrating level. Some monsters especially towards the end and can be hard to fight. There are a few chances to reset your builds with items in the game. If you do suddenly feel like a change.


Interesting Velen choices! I'll say no more.


It's not a real rpg if you arent completely overleveled for the main quest right? Novigrad is an interesting place as it is the main "hub" of the game so has quests from a variety of levels that appear as you progress through the game. You can easily stumble into doing things in an odd order.

Spoiler

I wouldn't worry too much about that, all the main characters have their own side quests/romances which are considered separate to the main story, but yeah it does stop you progressing for a it


Be sure to give them a read, i love them so much. Especially enhances the DLC blood and wine as it revolves completely around a book location and major book character.

[Jubal]

Well, I finished the main quest. Still got Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine to do.

Overall thoughts: I think for me the thing that stands out about Witcher 3 is the acting. Nobody in that VA cast was having an off day, it's very much up there with the best and the graphics do the characters pretty good justice as well. I wasn't as thrilled by the narrative design as I'd hoped in places: the scenes are very well written, the task mix is interesting, I just don't agree that pressurised timed decision-making is a good way to simulate interpersonal interactions and key plot moments. So in that sense I wasn't a huge fan of how the romance lines and core interactions with Ciri were handled (I got the romance lines wrong, and got the Ciri stuff right mainly by looking it up - I genuinely don't think the outcomes of a number of key interactions are properly predictable from the text you get given & that the game doesn't telegraph what it's doing very well in some of those cases). Where they did do a good job, I think, was ensuring that "wrong" outcomes were still well acted to create a good story. The setting is as ever really good, a few big suspension of disbelief elements required (the more you think about Gwent, the less it works) but it's generally enjoyable and the characters are really interesting.

I was finding it odd that the end state is un-implemented, so I'm going to leave it a week or two before starting the DLC so I can sort of take them on their own merits rather than in the light of having finished the main story and finding it weird to go back to a Novigrad that's acting as if I hadn't.

My end state, with accompanying notes:

Spoiler

• Ciri became a witcher. She would likely have died - call it a toss-up - had I not looked outcomes up, and I maintain that some of the decisions you have to "get right" in order to "be supportive" are unintuitive (the "lighten your spirits" versus "you don't have to be good at everything", either of which can be construed as supportive) or actively counterintuitive (someone stressing about a meeting should not actually be told "hey, you'll be fine on your own" rather than supported at the meeting). I did quite like the story ending, I thought the bit with Ge'els was fun: Eredin was underwhelming, barely scratched the gilding on my mastercrafted Witcher armour honestly.
• I stuck with my Temerian allies so Nilfgaard won the war. I was a bit annoyed by this because it was not at all obvious to me why Djikstra didn't just bugger off and take over Redania rather than coming to murder his erstwhile allies totally unnecessarily and then get killed because I'd put too much effort into keeping Ves and Thaler alive during these games to let him kill them now. Also, given they don't implement the end state, having a choice to spare Djikstra after that fight seemed an easy gimme for more variation?
• Cerys was queen of Skellige. I liked the Skellige rulership stuff perhaps the most out of the core political quests: it handled in a way that seemed sensible and fun.
• Geralt remained single. I'd decided I wanted to go with Triss, but picked the option where he asks her to stay and she refuses at the docks so I just leaned into that and had Geralt be a bit sad and mopey about it.

I think that's about all you get much major choice over? Except the Velen stuff as discussed earlier.

I do wonder if there's much more to be done with the Witcher IP in games. The trilogy in many ways feels right and neat, and it'd be very tricky to make more games about Geralt given the finality of W3 and the huge scale of choices involved, but there's presumably always going to be the temptation to find some way to use it more, and I might go for it if that did happen as I'd like to explore more of the world: a Witcher game set thirty years or so after W3 (long enough for you to explain a major new shift/reset in world politics) where you got to create your own witcher rather than being Geralt might be fun in its own way, I sort of felt it'd be fun to explore the other schools a bit, though maybe the series is just too wedded to its core cast for that to work.

[Gmd]

I agree with all your points especially the time based decision making. Some quests are not obvious that completing or accepting them locks off other quests, especially regarding the romance stuff. Yeah gwent just doesnt work if u have certain cards you always win. They fortunately balanced it for the standalone game.

Spoiler

   
• Great ending, i do agree with you the "choices" can feel very hard to work out and some of the options sound very similar but have different results. I do feel like the game struggles in its final act and eredins fight is underwhelming.
• 100% i always felt the djikstra stuff is incredibily out of character for him. After Geralts specially choosing a side and helping kill radovid he somehow thinks geralt will remain neutral. doesnt make much sense to me. but i love the philipa/radovid stuff.
• shame you didnt end up with who you wanted, some simple dialogue can really mess you over here. The game throws Triss at you early game then lets you get to know yennifer late game in skellige, so you can quite easily mess up romance or feel like changing your mind which messes with it. Or end up romancing both and getting neither (though the scene is funny if you do this) as i did first playthrough.

few spoilery questions, what were your favourite side quests? I personally like the serial killer quest who attacks priscilla.
Did you encounter the quest with letho (if you let him live in W2)? one of my favourites as he can join you at kaer morhen.
Did you enjoy the battle of kaer morhen? It was one of my favourite story quests.
Did you take Ciri back to chat with charles dance (emhyr)?

I think you'll enjoy the dlc's even more as they have a much more concise story and blood and wine definitely will give you even more "finality and a more neatly defined end state". I think blood and wine contains my favourite story and could easily be a stand alone game and hearts of stone has my favourite quest. Let me know what you think of them both!

[Jubal]

Answers to GMD's questions above, quite spoilery:

Spoiler

What were your favourite side quests? I personally like the serial killer quest who attacks priscilla.

Hm, tricky! The ball with Triss was fun, honestly, and I really loved the haunted house with the Godling in Novigrad (I guess that's actually a main quest come to think of it). It was sort of a pity you ended up on bad terms with the Nilfgaardian lady you give swordfighting lessons to who needed her world-views challenged a bit more. Oh, and the high stakes Gwent tournament, apart from the incredibly annoying fist fight to the death in the middle of it the rest was really good.

Did you encounter the quest with letho (if you let him live in W2)? one of my favourites as he can join you at kaer morhen.

Yes! The mistrust between him and the Temerian duo is quite fun.

Did you enjoy the battle of kaer morhen? It was one of my favourite story quests.

I did, though I'd have liked more follow up, especially since it returns you to KM after the endgame and you can arrange for Letho to stay. Like, I get the whole "Vesemir is dead, Eskel and Lambert don't see a reason to stay" but also... I still think of Kaer Morhen as Geralt's home, for better and worse alike, and I'd have been interested to see what might happen to it. Especially with the whole training Ciri as a witcher thing (and the consequent recognition that Witchers don't strictly have to be Witchers in the trial-of-grasses sense). I sort of like the idea that with it stopping being a Witcher hold, Geralt would start trying to find a new way for it as a general home of friends, misfits, and monster hunters.

Did you take Ciri back to chat with charles dance (emhyr)?

I didn't, and felt that was a mistake in retrospect: I might well have gone toward the Empress ending otherwise which I think might have been quite good, as much as Ciri the witcher is a fun one to have.

Also, I think I'm most of the way through Hearts of Stone now (just finished the paintings bit). General thoughts and one mid-length rant:

• Definitely very much feels like a new story. Still a bit odd after the finality of the main game's endgame, but I actually quite like it (that is, between the two I'd have considered leaving the endgame states more open, because I want to feel more optimistic for my Geralt's endings again with the new storylines and Dandelion already having told us "and yes he was always poor and lonely forever" feels a bit of a bummer).
• OK, the frog prince switcheroo thing is quite fun and very much the kind of silly fairytale-twist I actually like out of those games. Though it does feel weird that Geralt doesn't even manage to work out the possibility that it might be cursed or consider curse-breaking options.
• Sad that you can't stay with Shani, I actually did the romance options there and they worked out for once so felt a bit of a pity you couldn't get more of a happy ending with her.
  I really liked the wedding section, it just felt very nicely written and good fun.
• Also re said wedding, I often feel like I'm a bit out of place playing Geralt as I'm too dissimilar to him, so well done to CDPR for creating a character I have to play who I'm so much less similar to that it makes me feel comparatively comfortable to be back playing Geralt.
• I'm not sure who hurt the person who designed the first couple of boss fights at the Everec mansion, but I'm very sorry for whatever happened to them, as dear gods those were horribly designed and executed and show a disdain for my own human suffering that, whilst thematically of a piece with the themes of the DLC, was also annoying as hell. I didn't die, or even come at risk of dying, in either: they were just really grindy and boring and frustrating to complete. In the first, the healing mechanic is quite OP, and the correct strategy which is "land like one hit then roll back because every time the thing hits you it heals itself massively, rinse and repeat" I had to look up mostly because I couldn't believe someone would design such a horrifically boring grind of a boss fight. Like at least give me some other options: turn the healing off for a bit if I dimeritium bomb the thing or something (I tried this, no dice).
  
  Then the second boss fight was somehow even worse, I actually intuited the strategy wholly correctly and then still had to look it up because the game makes executing the strategy so difficult that I'd assumed I must have gotten it wrong: you have to damage the healing points for the boss when it goes into healing mode to stop it healing up, but also at least in my PC version the game doesn't target-lock you onto those points even if you're closer to them than to the boss, so most of the time you end up rolling over, trying to flame the point, then the game automatically turns you round to uselessly point flames at the boss who's a) not in range and b) healing up rapidly as you do it. What about using a crossbow, which you can aim? Well, dear reader, the boss is so quick and you're in such an enclosed space that the boss constantly interrupts you pulling the crossbow out. So your best option is "flail with a sword and hope" which whilst it does sum up much of my gameplay in the Witcher 3 does feel like it shouldn't be the ideal plan A in most situations.

[Jubal]

And that's more or less it - done Blood and Wine, thus all the witchering has been done (unless I decide to try replaying the games to get different outcomes etc, not sure how likely that is but I've no plans to start on it immediately).

Blood and Wine thoughts:

• Toussaint is SO PRETTY and it's such a relief after how grey and grim the rest of the game is. Not that it's wholly lacking in darkness, but just the general feeling of light and colour is lovely.
• Also, silly fantasy France is always an enjoyable theme to run with. And I like Toussaint more than Orlais by and large, though I guess in Toussaint you get to see a lot more detail and day to day life which is the sort of thing I like a lot.
• Regis is a very good character and was very enjoyable. Other than Regis, the character & companion end of the DLC was its weakest part, but it was still very good.
• The sidequests are really nice and very enjoyable. I really like the Wine Wars line, the tournaments and gwent bits were fun even though I messed them up (didn't win either the Gwent or actual tournament). The painter & barber quests in Beauclair were good.
• The lack of romance was actually kind of a pity. I wanted Geralt to just have someone nice to settle down on his vineyard with (which I think as much as anything speaks to the fact that Geralt and I do not have the same wants when it comes to women, but still).
• Small negative, I wanted to put in some much bigger windows in Corvo Bianco because it was so damn dark inside I couldn't see anything. One thing the Witcher could do with learning is that light from anything bigger than a small candle actually gets room-filling much more easily than they seem to think.
• Big plus, we got to see the lady again and got Aerondight back! Honestly this made me almost more happy than anything else in the DLC, the original scene where you get the sword in the first game is one of my most memorable ones from the entire trilogy, because I love all the silly faux Arthuriana stuff the Witcher throws in sometimes and the thing of Geralt being uncomfortably pushed into that classical hero role. I would absolutely play any Witcher game that just had Geralt awkwardly having to do various classic quests from medieval epics.
• Frustrating but good final thought: it felt more like a new beginning than an ending to me. We had references to past characters, but it didn't feel like "here's a send-off love letter to the series" so much as a "hey look what else we can do with this character and world" which is lovely but now I'm a bit sad there won't be more.

And some spoilery thoughts on the ending:

Spoiler

OK, the ending was good but didn't completely land for me, and I don't think that's just because I got "the wrong ending". I think what they were trying to do with Syanna and Detlaff, making them both semi-sympathetic, didn't quite work given how utterly horrific the things they were doing were. Both of them are utterly at fault doing extremely gruesome murders, which for me went way beyond "OK, I can see how this character's tragic backstory has led them here and see a redemption path for them". I got the "good" ending where Syanna and Annarietta make up, and it just felt like Syanna was getting a really big and very unearned happy ending and the focus has been pulled right off the actual horrors that had happened to boil it down to a family spat. That kind of feels like the opposite of what the Witcherverse does when it works well, which is often showing how the family spats of rulers lead to actual horrors rather than minimising the latter to discuss the former.

It was nice all the same, and having Ciri visit Corvo Bianco was a very cute touch.

[Gmd]

Yes so glad you played the DLC's finally! Toussaint is one of my favourite locations to chill in and i think master mirror is a really good villain.

   
• Sad that you can't stay with Shani, I actually did the romance options there and they worked out for once so felt a bit of a pity you couldn't get more of a happy ending with her.
  I really liked the wedding section, it just felt very nicely written and good fun.
• Also re said wedding, I often feel like I'm a bit out of place playing Geralt as I'm too dissimilar to him, so well done to CDPR for creating a character I have to play who I'm so much less similar to that it makes me feel comparatively comfortable to be back playing Geralt.
• I'm not sure who hurt the person who designed the first couple of boss fights at the Everec mansion, but I'm very sorry for whatever happened to them, as dear gods those were horribly designed and executed and show a disdain for my own human suffering that, whilst thematically of a piece with the themes of the DLC, was also annoying as hell. I didn't die, or even come at risk of dying, in either: they were just really grindy and boring and frustrating to complete. In the first, the healing mechanic is quite OP, and the correct strategy which is "land like one hit then roll back because every time the thing hits you it heals itself massively, rinse and repeat" I had to look up mostly because I couldn't believe someone would design such a horrifically boring grind of a boss fight. Like at least give me some other options: turn the healing off for a bit if I dimeritium bomb the thing or something (I tried this, no dice).
  
  Then the second boss fight was somehow even worse, I actually intuited the strategy wholly correctly and then still had to look it up because the game makes executing the strategy so difficult that I'd assumed I must have gotten it wrong: you have to damage the healing points for the boss when it goes into healing mode to stop it healing up, but also at least in my PC version the game doesn't target-lock you onto those points even if you're closer to them than to the boss, so most of the time you end up rolling over, trying to flame the point, then the game automatically turns you round to uselessly point flames at the boss who's a) not in range and b) healing up rapidly as you do it. What about using a crossbow, which you can aim? Well, dear reader, the boss is so quick and you're in such an enclosed space that the boss constantly interrupts you pulling the crossbow out. So your best option is "flail with a sword and hope" which whilst it does sum up much of my gameplay in the Witcher 3 does feel like it shouldn't be the ideal plan A in most situations.

I 100% agree with this, the wedding is one of my favourite quests in the whole game, possessed Geralt is hilarious and Shani/geralt are amazing together. Regarding the bosses...I do find them incredibly weak in this DLC, and you are right to be annoyed by some of their gimmicks, I'm unsure if its better to do hearts of stone at a lower level or not? I did it after the endgame and it does feel a bit off combat wise. Though i think blood and wine fixes both the bosses and the combat well.

Spoiler

Hearts of stone question
What did you think of master mirror? and how did his story end, did u save olgeird?

   
• Regis is a very good character and was very enjoyable. Other than Regis, the character & companion end of the DLC was its weakest part, but it was still very good.
• The sidequests are really nice and very enjoyable. I really like the Wine Wars line, the tournaments and gwent bits were fun even though I messed them up (didn't win either the Gwent or actual tournament). The painter & barber quests in Beauclair were good.
• The lack of romance was actually kind of a pity. I wanted Geralt to just have someone nice to settle down on his vineyard with (which I think as much as anything speaks to the fact that Geralt and I do not have the same wants when it comes to women, but still).
• Big plus, we got to see the lady again and got Aerondight back!

I LOVE Regis, hes an amazing character in the books and to see him ingame was something very special to me as CDPR do a perfect job of imagining the character. It's nice to Geralt to have a friend around who isnt Dandelion or a love interest for a change. Toussaint itself is also in the books and they brought it to life so well.

Spoiler

I think the ending must of felt a bit annoying without Geralt have getting any romance to settle down with...as it feels out of character for him to settle down without yen or triss. As i really liked it as he settles down with Yen in my playthroughs and it feels earned. Also YES Aerondight! The main thing i love about blood and wine is that it almost feels like a standalone game with a lot of content.


I really liked the story, but i do agree they both go well past redemption, but i like how it plays out down that path...The other path is very dark, but the final quest is completely different and very monstery/vampirey with a cameo from dandelion and more book references which i enjoy.
Only question:
Did you like the detlaff fight? At least more than the hearts of stone one

Also i'll leave this here for some Toussaint chill vibes

[Jubal]

So for the HoS question:

Spoiler

I thought Master Mirror was fantastically well played - I thought it created a scale of story we don't get enough of in RPGs where it's more about the people than the Fate Of The World(tm) and I really enjoyed it. I did save Olgierd. My biggest gripe with the end sequence was that working out the riddle (which I did) didn't actually help with the final quest section, which I felt it should've done. Also given the amount of crap I carry in my inventory, and the fact I literally had two shiny shiny swords I could use as mirrors, I ended up kind of annoyed that I couldn't just use that given I knew what I was looking for at the start. So that final sequence only half-landed for me, but Olgierd's farewell was great and Gaunter O'Dimm was super well played.

And for the Blood and Wine question:

Spoiler

Yes, the Detlaff fight was good. Not hugely challenging I felt, I knew what I was getting into and had prepped pretty well, but it was very climactic and Regis finishing him off at the end was a brutally good piece of work.

I didn't feel that Geralt settling down without Yen or Triss was out of character for how I played Geralt... I was sort of almost sad those were the only two romance options, because I kind of almost feel like neither of them is necessarily ideal for Geralt (who I think cares a lot about both of them, but in TW3 he feels older and much more in dad mode and Ciri feels like the real core connection in the game, whereas Yen has understandable but exhausting trust issues and Triss is charming but maybe a bit too political for Geralt). And yeah, I'd absolutely have loved to have had more Regis, he was very good.

[Gmd]

Shani romance option is needed for sure!!

[Jubal]

New Witcher games are coming!

Article: https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/21/22989313/cd-projekt-red-new-witcher-game-unreal-engine-5-announcement

Honestly I think this is something of a risk given how well recieved the main trilogy were, but it does make sense given how well the Netflix series did. People at CDPR are stressing that this isn't necessarily "The Witcher 4", and despite additional collaboration with Epic Games they're not plannign to limit it to the Epic Games Store (Twitter link). And that seems to be about all we know right now...

[Gmd]

Yeah seems like its own standalone thing set in the witcher universe. My guess is pre/post-geralt times with very few characters from the trilogy returning. But i cant think of any lore events outside the geralt northern wars which it could possibly be from the history.
Either that or they just go full on Ciri sequel 20 years later or something.

Also apparently thats a lynx in the photo so its not witcher school ever mentioned before.... which is very interesting

[Jubal]

I think after TW3 may be the most likely. Unmentioned witcher school suggests new witcher school, unless they have a really good retrofit to explain why nobody ever mentions them in the main witcher series or the book. Which suggests either a) someone has started making witchers again, or b) that these are a combination of failing schools, or c) that these are "witchers" in job but not necessarily in typical powers, and any of those three might make for a good core initial plot hook.

I watched a YT video where someone pointed out that the trouble with a Ciri sequel is that you risk cheapening the ends of TW3 where she doesn't become a Witcher, though you could have a forked game beginning/background where one is Ciri the witcher, one is Ciri being deposed by a plot as Empress, and one is Ciri having actually survived defeating the Frost but stripped of her powers, stuck, and having to regain them as a way of retrofitting the bad ending. But even that does kind of cheapen the bad ending.

I guess TW3 gives some trouble with any Witcher game set in the north in that you kinda have to severely change the political outlook of the region depending on whether it was a Redanian or Nilfgaardian victory, or you need to re-merge the paths (which, again, can feel cheap). I guess Kovir and Poviss are IIRC still independent regardless of the outcome, and moving the whole thing east of the Blue Mountains wouldn't be impossible either. I kind of hope the snow is less of a hint than it looks, because I liked Blood & Wine so much that I'd sort of like to see more of places like Ophir, Zerrikania, etc.