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[maverickjesus]

I originally didn't think too hard about the endings, because I got the best one, but thinking about it now... I'd feel absolutely cheated if I got the bad ending.

The idea of raising Ciri right is OK in theory, but you can't just represent that as a handful of mundane decisions and call it a day. Either do it right (and allow room for maneuvering and course correction because this isn't Tetris nor is it a movie) or don't do it at all.

I think the developers got too wrapped up in the idea that "what you think is right might actually be wrong," which is a good principle but can't be scaled down to the level of a snowball fight having consequences on the fate of the universe. They just took this principle to an absurd level and abused it.

A friend of mine got the worst ending and he was so incredibly soured on the whole game, because it's a fantastic game but Geralt's worst-case outcome is one hell of a bombshell, and doesn't make sense at all. I think Spoo articulated this really well; where the hell are Yen, Triss, Dandelion in that ending? That ending just completely invalidates your experience and your attachment to the characters. That ending cutscene feels like a failed QTE where you die a violent death for missing a button press. That's not a real ending.

Sums it up perfectly for me. I won't regurgitate what's already been said on the bad ending as its been done to death, but its how my game ended and I felt it was incredibly disjointed and completely soured my experience. In my opinion a game that resolves its story line in such a dissonant way for the player is not well written at all.

Which is a shame as I loved the other 99% of the game

 

[Window]

Ciri is an empress ending with that fade out is really wonderfully done. The world keeps on spinning.

 

[KorrZ]

[Are you sure you want to take Emhyrs coin? Ciri will kill herself in the end if you do]
[Press "I want Ciri to die" to confirm]

This is basically what it comes down to. People feel robbed because they feel that they made a "good" choice and it turned out to have unintended consequences. Which is exactly the point and why this game does choice right.

People are too used to games where the player is the messiah and dictates the fate of everything. Ultimately, it doesn't matter if you feel that the choice you made should have had x effect on Ciri. What matters is how Ciri herself interpreted the choices you made. All you could do is try and go with your gut and choose what felt right to you, just like life.

 

[Karl Hawk]

How do we know the white frost was stopped, since Ciri didn't come back to talk about it?

Some of the dialogue choices were also really mundane, like "You don't have to be the best at everything" and "calm down." One of them results in a strange cutscene where Geralt places Lara Dorren's necklace on Ciri's neck, out of nowhere, which is apparently negative.

The implementation of the ending criteria is just atrocious.

Additionally, for a series that is so nuanced and not about "good vs bad" decisions, they sure as hell paint some of these bland decisions as totally black or white, like supporting her with the witches is apparently straight up bad (-1) and doing otherwise is good (+1).

And apparently, engaging in a snowball fight is more of a formative event than Geralt and Yen raising her and rescuing her? That's just BS. Imagine if you just rescued your kid after years of being separated, but you made her soup instead of letting her make her own, so she died in a car crash because she wasn't confident. I'd argue the ending criteria in the game are analogous to that.

The criteria aren't even consistent. Supporting her by going with her Craven's grave is +1, but supporting her by attending her meeting with the witches is -1, regardless of your actions during the meeting. You could argue "she would be stronger if she dealt with his death on her own" by the game's logic.

Not CDPR's problem that you made a choice that you felt right that unintended and negative consequences.

If you prefer to act like a bad parent to Ciri, be my guest and live with the consequences. If not, then don't try to undermine her self-confidence.

 

[borborygmus]

This is basically what it comes down to. People feel robbed because they feel that they made a "good" choice and it turned out to have unintended consequences. Which is exactly the point and why this game does choice right.

People are too used to games where the player is the messiah and dictates the fate of everything. Ultimately, it doesn't matter if you feel that the choice you made should have had x effect on Ciri. What matters is how Ciri herself interpreted the choices you made. All you could do is try and go with your gut and choose what felt right to you, just like life.

You're wrong, it's not because it's a good choice or a bad one. It's because most of the decisions are really mundane and shouldn't be significant. It's not because you have to be in total control, because I certainly wasn't in total control in the Witcher 1 and 2, and I can't complain that I experienced unintended consequences (in fact, I enjoyed that about them).

A few of the criteria are OK, like accepting money from the Emperor, and continuing to report to him. It makes sense for those to affect your relationship with Ciri. It's a form of betrayal, and that's something. But the majority of the criteria are just trivial and have no business being so significant to the outcome. The logic isn't even consistent: going with her to Craven's grave is +1, going with her to the witches, regardless of your actions, is -1. Such nuance. :/

edit: @Karl Hawk

I actually got the good ending so it's not about that at all. I enjoyed the unintended consequences of my actions in The Witcher 1 and 2.

But there's nothing enjoyable about trivial things that have no business being so significant in the game overshadowing everything else. You're telling me the entirety of Geralt and Yen's history with Ciri is undermined if Geralt tells her to calm down and doesn't do a snowball fight with her? How petty is Ciri really if this is what she truly cares about?

 

[VanCityGamer]

How do we know the white frost was stopped, since Ciri didn't come back to talk about it?

Some of the dialogue choices were also really mundane, like "You don't have to be the best at everything" and "calm down." One of them results in a strange cutscene where Geralt places Lara Dorren's necklace on Ciri's neck, out of nowhere, which is apparently negative.

The implementation of the ending criteria is just atrocious.

Additionally, for a series that is so nuanced and not about "good vs bad" decisions, they sure as hell paint some of these bland decisions as totally black or white, like supporting her with the witches is apparently straight up bad (-1) and doing otherwise is good (+1).

And apparently, engaging in a snowball fight is more of a formative event than Geralt and Yen raising her and rescuing her? That's just BS. Imagine if you just rescued your kid after years of being separated, but you made her soup instead of letting her make her own, so she died in a car crash because she wasn't confident. I'd argue the ending criteria in the game are analogous to that.

The criteria aren't even consistent. Supporting her by going with her Craven's grave is +1, but supporting her by attending her meeting with the witches is -1, regardless of your actions during the meeting. You could argue "she would be stronger if she dealt with his death on her own" by the game's logic.

This post is 100% correct. Nothing more needs to be added.

Not CDPR's problem that you made a choice that you felt right that unintended and negative consequences.

If you prefer to act like a bad parent to Ciri, be my guest and live with the consequences. If not, then don't try to undermine her self-confidence.

Bad parent to Ciri?? What the hell are you even talking about? Offering to assist her with the witches and trying to calm her from destroying a lab is not bad parenting. Maybe you can debate whether or not it would be your tactic but quit with the "it's bad parenting bullshit".

 

[xenist]

The logic isn't even consistent: going with her to Craven's grave is +1, going with her to the witches, regardless of your actions, is -1. Such nuance. :/

How is this inconsistent? I don't understand. The choice is not about you going with her somewhere or not. Which is the only logical way these two choices would have been inconsistent.

Going with her to the grave was about you respecting her grief. Letting her go after the witches alone was about you respecting her ability.

 

[KillerMan91]

Damn what an game. It has been a while since I have felt this much emptiness after finishing a game. After 80 hours I was just so invested to the world and the characters that real life seems kinda boring lol. While awesome game there were some minor complaints:

-They handled romance very poorly. I mean you have to choose between Triss and Yen before even meeting Yen properly. Didn't even know I was doing the final romancing quest for Triss before I got the timer and had to say ''I love you''. Also after that quest they pretty much completely abandoned Triss as far as the plot goes and the rest of the game was all Yen so while I would have nevertheless picked Triss it kinda felt that even the game told you that Yen is the canon choice and Triss option is here just because of previous games/fanservice.

- Things you did in Witcher 2 didn't matter at all. I mean it's more time consuming and harder to make a game that factors the choices of past games meaningfully but I feel they could have made little better job regarding of this. Chose Iorveth path in Witcher 2 and saved Saskia and you don't see or even hear about neither characters during the whole game in Witcher 3. Definitely feel that for example Mass Effect sequels handled this much better. It felt that Witcher 3 was pretty much completely its own game rather than direct sequel to Witcher 2. Actually kinda similar to Dragon Age: Inqusition in this regard.

That is pretty much all. Will be some time probably before I find game that affects me as much....

 

[SkylineRKR]

Finally beat TW3 today, and its probably my GOTY slightly edging out Bloodborne. Unless MGS V becomes really fucking awesome.

What I find a bit odd was the whole thing with Eredin. From what I gather, Eredin and Avallac'h both had the same goal. That is to save their own world from the ice age. Eredin by inhabiting the human world, and avallac by preventing the frost.

If they met and discussed this, they could've agreed on Avallac'h's idea perhaps, Ciri trusted him after all. No need to hunt. But Eredin rambles about he was being played by Avallac. So I take it Eredin was completely oblivious to Avallac'h plans?

As for the choices. They are black and white but so is a lot of stuff in this game (had to reload Keira Metz as I killed her due to a wrong answer) and I don't really mind it. If you treat Ciri well enough you'll get the good ending anyway. You only have to take 2 orders I think, Skjall and Imlerith. Perhaps another one like going alone to the sorceresses (which agreed, should be weighed less than ignoring something like Skjall). You basically have to keep in mind that she wants to carve her own path and doesn't want to be lectured and used anymore. That would make the sorceress audience choice kind of obvious, though admittedly the snowball and lab are kind of out of the blue.

I felt bad for Skjall, as he was an innocent boy dragged into all this and didn't even get a proper burial despite having died a hero. So that choice was easy. The other was easy as well, as I wanted to kill the Crones and Imlerith ASAP anyway so when she asked I was like right on. You can mess up most of the others and still get it afaik.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Finally beat the game and got the ending where Ciri survives and continues living the Witcher life. Can't wait to new game+ this, feels like I missed a billion other side quests.

One question that's been bothering me though. How/why did Geralt make the connection between Uma and Ciri after seeing him through the eyes of that dead guy? From what I understand, that guy saw Ciri and masked mage leave at the same time via boat just as he was cut down by the Hunt, then sees Uma galloping through the shore the next day. Am I missing something here because I do not see anything that would hint at Uma being anything other than some random inhabitant in the Witcher world

 

[endlessflood]

One question that's been bothering me though. How/why did Geralt make the connection between Uma and Ciri after seeing him through the eyes of that dead guy? From what I understand, that guy saw Ciri and masked mage leave at the same time via boat just as he was cut down by the Hunt, then sees Uma galloping through the shore the next day. Am I missing something here because I do not see anything that would hint at Uma being anything other than some random inhabitant in the Witcher world

Yeah I was puzzled by that too. I assumed that it was clear to Geralt that Uma had returned to shore on the same boat that Ciri had left in, and that I just hadn't been paying enough attention to the cutscene (probably checking GAF on my phone lol).

 

[Moff]

uma did come back on the boat, that's how geralt knew.
but I am pretty sure the cutscene did not properly show that, I think we saw only saw uma walking away from the beach.

 

[EGM1966]

This is basically what it comes down to. People feel robbed because they feel that they made a "good" choice and it turned out to have unintended consequences. Which is exactly the point and why this game does choice right.

People are too used to games where the player is the messiah and dictates the fate of everything. Ultimately, it doesn't matter if you feel that the choice you made should have had x effect on Ciri. What matters is how Ciri herself interpreted the choices you made. All you could do is try and go with your gut and choose what felt right to you, just like life.

The issue with choice in the Witcher for me is that often there is zero to go on with early choices, as in no clue where it might lead, and you're therefore not really learning anything or connecting choices it simply starts to feel random. Coupled with the very long nature of the game, particularly with all the side content, and the flow and connection simply gets lost.

I admire this kind of choice but I'm not sure it fits that well in an open world RPG where you can spend so much time on side stuff you literally lose track of those connections. Really it would be better in a more linear experience.

I also think some of the connections are simply too random and stretch your sense of credibility.

I think the gold standard - of games I've played - for what they're trying to achieve is Silent Hill 2. In that game the connection to your actions and the ending really makes sense without telegraphing anything to the player, in fact rather than somewhat arbitrary checkpoint choices from the developer it mostly comes down to more extended, natural behaviour on the players part.

Obviously this approach is a challenge, but I feel that hinging big outcomes on unlikely choices isn't a great answer.

But it's a learning experience for the industry so I'd rather see what I consider near misses like Witcher than no attempt at all.

 

[Yasae]

The issue with choice in the Witcher for me is that often there is zero to go on with early choices, as in no clue where it might lead, and you're therefore not really learning anything or connecting choices it simply starts to feel random. Coupled with the very long nature of the game, particularly with all the side content, and the flow and connection simply gets lost.

I admire this kind of choice but I'm not sure it fits that well in an open world RPG where you can spend so much time on side stuff you literally lose track of those connections. Really it would be better in a more linear experience.

I also think some of the connections are simply too random and stretch your sense of credibility.

I think the gold standard - of games I've played - for what they're trying to achieve is Silent Hill 2. In that game the connection to your actions and the ending really makes sense without telegraphing anything to the player, in fact rather than somewhat arbitrary checkpoint choices from the developer it mostly comes down to more extended, natural behaviour on the players part.

Obviously this approach is a challenge, but I feel that hinging big outcomes on unlikely choices isn't a great answer.

But it's a learning experience for the industry so I'd rather see what I consider near misses like Witcher than no attempt at all.

Finished the game today and got the "worst" ending. This is pretty much how I felt. I had the guide to Silent Hill 2 and was spoiled a bit on how the endings were affected (looking at certain important character's given item for example).

With smaller, self-contained quests I didn't have as much of a problem with a touch of unpredictability because if you're along for the ride, you see the outcome right then and there. I don't want everything to go my way. Really.

But the choices with regards to how you treat Ciri are sometimes ludicrous. I remember taking the coin from Ehmyr once she was found and laughing at her objections in my head. Is she brain damaged or something? She's royalty. She knew there was a finder's fee. Money makes the world go round. But of course they have to make her a world-crossing superhero who's above such petty concerns. Her struggle is bigger than everything else.... But, no, really it's not as far as the Geralt would be concerned. He's taken god knows how many contracts for mere gold. CDPR are stupid for going that route and punishing you for showing a little caution towards your adopted daughter.

The game's still a 9/10 to me because nearly everything else was great. I even felt the Novigrad sections of the main story were highlights rather than molasses. General opinions on GAF (and many reviews) were on the money about the last parts of the game and ending. I've been hard on the controls - which are still cruddy - and the cheating ass AI, but these things are what they are.

I hated the ending fights, my god. They were boring, cheesy, repetitive and lasted way too long. Worst of all, Caranthir bugged out in his second half where you fight him as Geralt. I sat there and spammed igni while he was frozen in place, unmoving. So very bad.

 

[Lunar15]

You don't have to make 100% of the right choices. Just enough. You could still take the gold and still get the "good" ending.

I'll never quite be happy with how they handled the White Frost, it's definitely a black mark on the game for me. The post-endings themselves were pretty good though. I got the Royalty one and I thought her conversations with Geralt before she left were genuinely touching. It made it really bittersweet once you realized that she'd be leaving. It's probably my favorite ending of the 3, despite being a bit abrupt.

That said, I still think we should have gotten just one more final cutscene with Geralt riding off or something. Some kind of closure for him.

 

[lordfuzzybutt]

But the choices with regards to how you treat Ciri are sometimes ludicrous. I remember taking the coin from Ehmyr once she was found and laughing at her objections in my head. Is she brain damaged or something? She's royalty. She knew there was a finder's fee. Money makes the world go round. But of course they have to make her a world-crossing superhero who's above such petty concerns. Her struggle is bigger than everything else.... But, no, really it's not as far as the Geralt would be concerned. He's taken god knows how many contracts for mere gold. CDPR are stupid for going that route and punishing you for showing a little caution towards your adopted daughter.

So her beloved, albeit adoptive, father made it clear to her that he only did what he did for the money, would you really, if you were in her shoes, not be pissed off at that?

She is his daughter, not just a mere contract.

 

[Yasae]

So her beloved, albeit adoptive, father made it clear to her that he only did what he did for the money, would you really, if you were in her shoes, not be pissed off at that?

She is his daughter, not just a mere contract.

And where is that made clear? Accepting gold is one tiny action weighed against what could be numerous actions in the reverse direction. Money is money, the gold is a convenience. And shit, 2000 shinies ain't nearly enough for all that mess if you must put a price on it.

What's this talk of betrayal? What's this talk of motivation? Taking gold for one thing you were probably going to do anyway is not duplicitous, it's shrewd. It's cunning. Yen even got time to divine leads under Emhyr's roof. He provided some marginal value. To think this self-righteous brat should guilt trip me over a wise (roleplaying-cause-I-was-already loaded) decision is jester league, yes.

Ciri is obviously very capable and her power eclipses Geralt halfway through TW3, but they didn't provide much counterpoint to her inflexibility. She takes Yen's calling card and goes to another level with it. As a result, I don't buy many of her reactions. Then again I've only gone by what the game has given me. I'd count on the books providing better context? (That's cheating though)

 

[Gucci Messiah]

I personally also find it unlikely that both Yen and Triss would permanently write him off considering all their history. How I imagine things, Geralt realizes he needs to choose one woman, apologizes profusely, and makes his choice.

Exactly, I accidentally romanced both and got the forever alone ending which was bullshit. I knew I wanted to end up with Triss but after that quest with Yen where you break the spell or whatever she's all depressed so I say "I love you". It was meant to be a friendly, platonic type of thing and then he starts sticking his tongue down her throat and I realize I've made a terrible mistake. Couldn't go back and re-do the choice either because my last save was like 4 hours before.

 

[SkylineRKR]

uma did come back on the boat, that's how geralt knew.
but I am pretty sure the cutscene did not properly show that, I think we saw only saw uma walking away from the beach.

They didn't get further and were grasping straws at that point. He saw Uma at the Baron's place, and then all of sudden at the boat where only Ciri and the Mage could've been. This guy couldn't have done shit by himself, yet he's been in Skellige at a site the Wild Hunt rampaged.

Ciri was also looking for a remedy for a certain curse. I guess they deduced that he could be the curse or at least a witness, forgot if they actually mentioned this but I think they did. They thought she might be cursed herself.

There was only one like Uma in the world afaik, Geralt had never seen such a thing before and felt it wasn't a monster either.

 

[borborygmus]

How is this inconsistent? I don't understand. The choice is not about you going with her somewhere or not. Which is the only logical way these two choices would have been inconsistent.

Going with her to the grave was about you respecting her grief. Letting her go after the witches alone was about you respecting her ability.

Yeah, see, those are just phrases, and specious ones at that.

Supporting her vs. not supporting her happens in such a ludicrously short timespan, and is presented as though these were her formative years that you were participating in (even though she's already a grown ass woman). Going with her to the witches is -1 "quit coddling her bro" regardless of what you actually do during the meeting, but letting her cope with her friend's death on her own is also -1 "you need to support her bro." Her needs are just insane if you ask me, because what's stopping her from telling you "I need to meet the witches on my own." Hell, she has no problem running off to the White Frost later without even telling you.

Another thought is that we've seen her participate in a negotiation that went down the toilet (with Whoreson Junior) and you ought to think, surely the sorceresses are even more dangerous than him. The game is also entirely inconsistent in the cues it gives you about how to deal with Ciri, and frankly randomness ("calm down" -> necklace scene -> -1) is not the same thing as nuance.

The entire affair gives me flashbacks of "Players will want to protect Lara (...Dorren's descendant)" in terms of how wishy-washy the developers' intention is on how you're meant to consider a game character.

But anyway, consistency aside, the bigger problem is that a handful of mundane choices have such an insane impact. Those little choices are the difference between "Ciri is gone forever, Yen/Dandelion/Zoltan/Triss are all gone for some reason, and now I'm going to cry as I die alone in a cabin." and "Ciri becomes a witcher." This is just crazy. It's more like The Bold and the Beautiful in how hilariously dramatic the consequences over such trivialities, than The Witcher.

 

[VanCityGamer]

Yeah, see, those are just phrases, and specious ones at that.

Supporting her vs. not supporting her happens in such a ludicrously short timespan, and is presented as though these were her formative years that you were participating in (even though she's already a grown ass woman). Going with her to the witches is -1 "quit coddling her bro" regardless of what you actually do during the meeting, but letting her cope with her friend's death on her own is also -1 "you need to support her bro." Her needs are just insane if you ask me, because what's stopping her from telling you "I need to meet the witches on my own." Hell, she has no problem running off to the White Frost later without even telling you.

Another thought is that we've seen her participate in a negotiation that went down the toilet (with Whoreson Junior) and you ought to think, surely the sorceresses are even more dangerous than him. The game is also entirely inconsistent in the cues it gives you about how to deal with Ciri, and frankly randomness ("calm down" -> necklace scene -> -1) is not the same thing as nuance.

The entire affair gives me flashbacks of "Players will want to protect Lara (...Dorren's descendant)" in terms of how wishy-washy the developers' intention is on how you're meant to consider a game character.

But anyway, consistency aside, the bigger problem is that a handful of mundane choices have such an insane impact. Those little choices are the difference between "Ciri is gone forever, Yen/Dandelion/Zoltan/Triss are all gone for some reason, and now I'm going to cry as I die alone in a cabin." and "Ciri becomes a witcher." This is just crazy. It's more like The Bold and the Beautiful in how hilariously dramatic the consequences over such trivialities, than The Witcher.

Yeah, you're exactly right. Well articulated. Sadly, it's one of the least satisfying endings I have ever experienced and I felt utterly cheated. Loved the rest of the game, though.

 

[Last Hearth]

I remain convinced that they ran out of time during development of chapter 3, and cobbled together a disjointed ending with the assets that they already had.

Everything from the underdeveloped plot with the White Frost, to the sudden appearances and disappearance of NPCs, to the out of nowhere "plot twists", to the jumbled end game state is clear evidence of this. I just hope there is an enhanced edition that fixes some of these problems.

 

[General Lee]

I finished the game last night after 118h58m. I swear I thought it might be more than DA:I but that took maybe 140h. I did swept probably 99% of Velen/Novigrad clean of objectives, but at some point in Skellige I got really tired of the question mark hunt and only finished the side quests, witcher contracts and treasure hunts. In retrospect I probably should've disabled most of the map markers and just went where the game took me instead of systematically try to clear areas. That's what I did in DAI too, and it's pretty clear to me by now that it's just not that fun in the end. I'd like to experience as much content as I can in my first playthrough, but there's just too much fluff in open world games to grind through.

I got the empress ending with Temeria restored and Triss romanced, which it seems was probably the best ending, even if it didn't quite feel that way at first. After reading about the other endings I was just wowed how bad they were. Also I was disappointed with the Triss romance that was brushed aside after Novigrad. I did spoil myself of the threesome fail, exactly because I was afraid of the game handling it in a cruddy way like they did. For all the talk Witcher gets of its sexual content, there was only a couple fun and unique scenes like with Keira, Triss and Yennefer, and the rest was fairly bad copypaste stuff hardly worth mentioning. I think sex in RPG's like this should mainly be about the fun foreplay so to speak, rather than a 10-second poorly animated softcore scene.

I do also agree that the decisions affecting Ciri were done poorly, and I never even realized something like going with her to talk to the sorceresses could have any consequences. I also took the money, because why the hell not, and then it ended up as this ridiculous scene. I hate when games try to pull of these kind of "morality" stunts. In the rest of the choices it was fairly obvious what the game wanted you to choose, aka the non-sensical option that supports Ciri's emotional outbursts. I get that they wanted you to encourage her and support her decisions, but they way the went about it didn't impress me.

Overall, the game was better than DAI, though not in all aspects. The combat system was poor, as was the levelling up. The basic abilities were fine and the combat was ok for a good while, but you never got any truly meaningful changes to it, and it was dirt easy even on death march. I did die occasionally, but those were mostly one-shots or stunlocks. By the end the combat was a trudge to go through, and the end bosses were fairly meh in hindsight.

That said, the game had a ton of great quests and characters in it, and the world was beautifully crafted, so it was easy to forgive the lackluster combat and leveling system. I'm sure I'll do an NG+ run and get that other semi-good ending with Yennefer romance. Hopefully they'll also add some DLC stuff to flesh out the ending.

 

[SkylineRKR]

I remain convinced that they ran out of time during development of chapter 3, and cobbled together a disjointed ending with the assets that they already had.

Everything from the underdeveloped plot with the White Frost, to the sudden appearances and disappearance of NPCs, to the out of nowhere "plot twists", to the jumbled end game state is clear evidence of this. I just hope there is an enhanced edition that fixes some of these problems.

Possible, because from Kaer Mohgren on I felt the game was rushed. Almost Xenogears like. Dialogue, warps to locations and sudden boss fights. Imlerith was like one scene after Vezemir. No build up or anything.

 

[DarkChronic]

Wrapped it up last night, 65 hours. Terrific stuff. Got the Ciri becomes a Witcher ending.

Also, I youtube'd all the endings, and believe it or not, my favorite ending was the bad ending.

It's one of the biggest problems I have with open world games. Different endings, so no matter what you get, it doesn't feel as impactful because someone else might have gotten something else.

But that bad ending, god damn. That is powerful and badass. You don't know if Ciri succeeds or not. You go out and get revenge on that creepy witch. You see Geralt overflowing with emotion. And then it ends on a cliffhanger.

 

[Bartholomuse]

Possible, because from Kaer Mohgren on I felt the game was rushed. Almost Xenogears like. Dialogue, warps to locations and sudden boss fights. Imlerith was like one scene after Vezemir. No build up or anything.

Xenogears was the exact game I thought of when it got past Act 2. It's very obvious the back end was rushed. Which is disappointing but understandable after the game got a large delay.

 

[Croatoan]

Just finished the game and I got the "bad ending" which I actually kinda liked. I like that it isn't happy and I like that the actual fates of geralt and ciri are uncertain.

In my mind Geralt slays every single monster around the Crone's home and then makes his way back to Triss. Over the years she slowly starts to heal the wounds left by Ciri's apparent sacrifice and eventually Geralt can be happy again.

IMO they should have allowed you to actually make that last stand to show just how broken Geralt has become and then have ended it after you murder like 100 or more monsters. Let Geralt witness the carnage around him and throw down both his swords before walking away.

Fan fictiony but IMO the bad ending actually is open to interpretation more than Dandelion telling you exactly what happened.

Why people think its some horrible thing is beyond me (unless they only like Disney type fairy tale endings).

 

[VanCityGamer]

Just finished the game and I got the "bad ending" which I actually kinda liked. I like that it isn't happy and I like that the actual fates of geralt and ciri are uncertain.

In my mind Geralt slays every single monster around the Crone's home and then makes his way back to Triss. Over the years she slowly starts to heal the wounds left by Ciri's apparent sacrifice and eventually Geralt can be happy again.

IMO they should have allowed you to actually make that last stand to show just how broken Geralt has become and then have ended it after you murder like 100 or more monsters. Let Geralt witness the carnage around him and throw down both his swords before walking away.

Fan fictiony but IMO the bad ending actually is open to interpretation more than Dandelion telling you exactly what happened.

Why people think its some horrible thing is beyond me (unless they only like Disney type fairy tale endings).

The main reason people are mad is the WAY the endings were decided. The ludicrous criteria.

And I actually often enjoy dark endings to media, but that ending felt like a slap in the face. Seemed pretty clear to me they were implying Geralt was going to let himself die, and that Ciri was dead. Pretty unsatisfying, particularly when the REASONS for that ending were complete garbage...not earned at all.

 

[MrFrankFontaine]

Beat the game last Sat night and got the Witchers ending. Absolutely fantastic game and loved my ending. Ended up with Triss and Ciri and it felt just right. Someday I'll go for the Empress ending with NG+.

I had picked Triss before that quest with Yen. I didn't feel a connection with Yen during the game only have played TW2. While I can see the attraction to her, I found her to be too demanding of Geralt. Anyways, the mission with Yen to break the curse. I told her I didn't love her anymore. For me it wasn't because of the curse, just because I already picked Triss and wanted to stay faithful. Geralt blamed it on the curse being lifted, but oh well.

Can't understand why Dijkstra, who seemed very smart throughout the game would pull a stupid move at the end. He already stated he wasn't much of a fighter. So he's going to just bet that Geralt is going to turn his back on his other comrades (Roche). Doesn't make sense and I had to cut him in half.

I don't believe my ending really touched upon what happened to Yen or Phillipa. I was curious how that played out as Phillipa mentioned straight up that she wanted Yen position next to Emyr.

Besides those things, thought the game wrapped up well. While the story revolved around Ciri, it humanized Geralt to a great degree due to how much Ciri meant to him. This is why my ending felt so right. Loved the game. Definitely my current pick for GOTY so far. Thanks CDPR!

 

[Berzerkiymc]

Beat the game a couple weeks ago and got pretty much the 'expected' ending.

Ciri trains and becomes a Witcher, Yen and Geralt live happily every after. Kinda was hoping for more than that, but still content all the same.

Btw played the steam version, but the achievement for beating the game won't unlock. Anyone else had that issue?

 

[LilJoka]

I got the bad ending, felt terrible.

 

[NastyBook]

Triss who?

Contents in mug not shown - Triss fan's tears.

Got the good ending

Ciri becomes a Witcher
Sardo Numspa fucks off
Triss fucks off
Geralt and Yen bang and take it easy somewhere in the north
Radovid got FUCKED
Both humans and elves somehow won

Bring on the DLC.

P.S. I hope Ge'ls learns to draw. Old girl's left boob was way too high in his painting.

 

[RadioactiveLobster]

Triss who?

 

[Ricker]

I am not finished so I didnt read the rest of this thread but I am after the part where Vesemir dies during the Wild Hunt attack on Kaer...does that happen to everyone...? can you save him ....?

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

I am not finished so I didnt read the rest of this thread but I am after the part where Vesemir dies during the Wild Hunt attack on Kaer...does that happen to everyone...? can you save him ....?

He always die.

 

[Ricker]

He always die.

All right thanks...guess he needs to so Ciri can unleash that scream...that whole section was great although it was a little choppy at times on the PS4.

 

[Karl Hawk]

''World's Biggest Bitch''? Is this another codename for ''Female character that I hate''?

Anyways, I feel bummed that there were no Yennefer/Ciri relationship moments. I know its mostly about Geralt/Ciri, but man, Yennefer cares about Ciri as much as Geralt does (She even considers Ciri as her daughter), and it feels horrible to not see Yennefer and Ciri bonding together.

If there ever gonna be an Enhanced Edition, I would like it if they add some Yen/Ciri scenes.

 

[Inkvoterad]

I got the good ending, i'm pretty sure. She fixed the frost and became a witcher and Geralt kept being a Witcher. The big dissapointments however: No postgame, no conclusion with Dandelion, Zevran, Triss or Yen (didnt romance them, apparently that makes them unimportant), and i had hoped for atleast some cool postgame state, but nope, damn game reverts the world state to where the wild hunt fight happened. I dont know, i was so hyped for something like that, and the lack of a conclusion for the characters that i've been getting to know since Witcher 1 getting no room at all in the ending felt pretty sour. I don't know, loved the trip but the last part kinda bummed me out. Witcher 2 and 1 had wayyyyyyyyy better conclusions and last acts imo. Especially Witcher 2 (excluding that one shitty dragon fight). I hope the second expansion takes place post-game or atleast brings some of the cast from W2 back, Roche is cool and all but he's not really the big "oh shit!" you're hoping for when you did Iorveth's path. Man, Witcher 2 plot was just so much better for the most part imo.

 

[Axbarn]

I think because there were 3 distinct ending scenes that were largely different, the reaction has been very positive, but I can't be the only one who felt like the ending was... kind of undue, can I? I even got the ending where Ciri becomes a witcher, and I just felt the same punch in the stomach as when I beat Mass Effect 3, albeit not as bad.

To me it felt like the entire climax was missing something, and then that "2 weeks later" was the moment where I started feeling weirded out. What happened to Avellac'h? How did my being a good father to Ciri make her somehow beat the white frost?

Needless to say, I found the endings (and the 2 others I saw on YT) to be largely unsatisfactory, and honestly it hampered my overall impression of the game. The individual subplots such as the Baron questline and the crime-lord and magehunter arc in Novigrad stood out to me, but the main plot really fumbled in the final act IMO.

Oh yeah, and no closure for your love interests wtf? I think the fact that the last shot you get of Yennefer when she's all out of power behind the barrier during the climax, was so unceremonious and devoid of closure. Same with Triss' except even worse, but I hear the next patch brings some sort of expanded romance arc for Triss with it, so I'm crossin my fingers the game rocks the next time I touch it.

 

[Karl Hawk]

I'm ultimately convinced that the only reason people like Empress Ciri ending is because of the emotional impact it gives to the player. All you get in Witcher Ciri ending is satisfaction, but you know what? I don't give a shit. Ciri gets to spend time with Geralt before setting on the path which is what she wanted.

Is it selfish? Yes, but so is Ciri. Frankly, I don't see Ciri as someone who wants to rule the world and the game emphasizes that she doesn't want other people to dictate her future, which begs the question: How the hell do we think Ciri will make a great empress? Nilfgaard is a complete stranger to her, she doesn't know anything about them, which makes the empress ending even worse for me (The fact that it also doesn't fit Ciri's personality).

So sorry, but Witcher Ciri ending is the best ending for Ciri. Sure, she'll not make a difference by killing monsters in forgotten villages and its completely selfish, but frankly, the continent is in such a dire state that I don't think it deserves any repair. She gets what she wants to do, traveling the world and killing monsters.

How did my being a good father to Ciri make her somehow beat the white frost?

Because by being a good father to Ciri, She gets her own resolve to beat the white frost alive and well


And I swear some of the discussions about Yennefer in this thread are just awful. You know you fucked up when the official Witcher forums have more civil discussions about Yennefer than NeoGAF.

 

[tbd]

It was always Geralt and Yennefer. Geralt just lost his memory which allowed that whole Triss thing. More importantly, Triss also wants to serve a king again and cares about all that political shit. Everything Geralt hates. Yennefer wants to live an independent life somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Everything Geralt wants. She also has more scenes with Geralt and Ciri, especially towards the end when its Yennefer and Geralt that check out Avallac'h's hideout or when it's Yennefer that fights on Geralt's side the last few minutes while Triss is doing some sorceress shit in the background.

I like Triss but all this made it pretty obvious to me that she is the right choice.

Only makes sense that most people picked Triss and now defend her with their lives considering the way the game basically forces it on players, especially players that haven't even read the books and don't know Yennefer before they have to make their Triss/Yennefer decision in Novigrad, though. Not a fan of how CDPR handled this.

 

[Durrzerker]

Triss basically roofied Geralt in the books, and took advantage of him being an amnesiac in the games. She's one degree shy of being a rapist in my eyes, and I don't understand how anyone intimately familiar with the universe can stand her, even if they've only played the games.

 

[dEvAnGeL]

thinking about starting new game plus but the DLC comes out in about 2 weeks so i don't know, i got the good ending with ciri becoming a witcher, that's the best ending IMO, i watched the one she becoming a empress and that ending is kinda sad

 

[Karl Hawk]

thinking about starting new game plus but the DLC comes out in about 2 weeks so i don't know, i got the good ending with ciri becoming a witcher, that's the best ending IMO, i watched the one she becoming a empress and that ending is kinda sad

Since the expansion requires you to be at level 60 for NG+, you'd better off doing it with the new game playthrough as it requires a level 30 Geralt.

You can play the expansion at any time (Even post-ending) as long as you are at level 30, so don't fret.

 

[spuckthew]

Just finished the game and I got the "bad ending" which I actually kinda liked. I like that it isn't happy and I like that the actual fates of geralt and ciri are uncertain.

In my mind Geralt slays every single monster around the Crone's home and then makes his way back to Triss. Over the years she slowly starts to heal the wounds left by Ciri's apparent sacrifice and eventually Geralt can be happy again.

IMO they should have allowed you to actually make that last stand to show just how broken Geralt has become and then have ended it after you murder like 100 or more monsters. Let Geralt witness the carnage around him and throw down both his swords before walking away.

I finished the game earlier after 109 hours. Got the same ending, and I agree with your points except for the bolded. I think left as is it's perfect...totally open to interpretation.

I read about the different endings and this 'karma system', and I honestly couldn't remember any of the decisions it talked about except the last one where I accompanied Ciri to the grave of that guy. Clearly Ciri wasn't too fond of the decisions I made though!

 

[b0uncyfr0]

So i dunno which ending i got but:

Geralt butchered Wild Hunt
Geralt pretended Ciri was dead (Told Emperor)
Got sword made.
Meet Ciri in tavern..
She survived...after somehow sacrificing herself
Emhyr got the North
Cant remember what happened to Radovid

I also remember before the final mission that Yen grabbed Geralt and kissed him.

How did i go?

 

[frontovik]

That's certainly one of the best endings. IIRC, Emhyr can only get the North if Radovid is dead; which is good for the political stability of the Northern Kingdoms.

 

[SuperBanana]

This is the worst I have EVER seen an ending handled. This was on track to be one of my favorite games of all time, and now I'm not sure. I'm absolutely gutted. So I got the bad ending, essentially, because I told Ciri to calm down instead of throwing a fit in The Child of the Elder Blood quest, and because I decided to support her in her conversation with the Lodge of Sorceresses?? Fuck off. So illogical and stupid I can't even believe it.

I did the same and got the best ending. I think those two are the only ones that matter.

 

[Jibbajabbawockky]

The big dissapointments however: No postgame, no conclusion with Dandelion, Zevran, Triss or Yen (didnt romance them, apparently that makes them unimportant), and i had hoped for atleast some cool postgame state, but nope, damn game reverts the world state to where the wild hunt fight happened..

Yeah, I wish they did something similar to DA:Inquisition where once you finish the game and keep playing it stays in the post game state and your companions have a couple lines of dialogue reacting to the end of the game's events.

I just hate how it reverts you to some odd post game world where the main quest is done but its like all your buddies have just vanished and even ones like Dandelion that will still be standing around have absolutely nothing new to say.

Some of the late game reactivity in general is kind of lacking. Like how after you potentially kill Radovid, it seems like absolutely nothing has changed.

 

[Karl Hawk]

Kinda wish they focused on adding new stuff (Like adding Nilfgaardian soldiers in Novigrad if Nilfgaard wins the war during post-ending playthrough) and some dialog if you killed Radovid after Reasons of State, and so forth instead of updating Triss romance. But I suppose CDPR saw that the negative feedback to Triss romance's problems was more important than fixing the post-ending issues.

Fingers crossed for the Enhanced Edition, I hope.

I did the same and got the best ending. I think those two are the only ones that matter.

You need only 3 positive choices out of 5 Ciri's important dialog choices in order for her to survive at the ending.

For me, I helped her thrash Avalla'ch's lab because fuck him. He's only helping her because of her blood heritage.