“Since I can bear in mind, we have been speaking about Ciri and the way a lot she deserves her personal journey,” says Sebastian Kalemba, recreation director of The Witcher 4.
This doubtless gained’t come as a shock to many followers of CD Projekt Purple’s beloved RPG sequence. Ever for the reason that Polish developer introduced “Polaris”, The Witcher 4’s codename, individuals have theorised that the sequence would swap perspective from the long-lasting Geralt of Rivia to his adoptive daughter, Ciri. She is, in spite of everything, successfully the secondary protagonist of each the unique novels and The Witcher 3. “I feel ‘The Witcher’ as a title refers to each Geralt and Ciri and at all times has,” explains Cian Maher, franchise and lore designer at CDPR. “I feel she’s arguably extra necessary to the plot than Geralt himself is.”
Final we noticed Ciri she was a younger girl going through her future. However now, as depicted in a brand new cinematic trailer proven at The Recreation Awards 2024, Ciri is a fully-fledged witcher looking monsters for revenue. Kalemba explains that, following the occasions of The Witcher 3, Ciri has undertaken the famously painful Trial of the Grasses which has mutated her into a robust and resilient warrior. She’s able to tackle an entire new journey in The Witcher 4, which is the primary a part of a deliberate new trilogy of single-player, open-world RPGs.
“I like this grit in her,” Kalemba says. “She’s nearly obsessive about the way in which she lives. There are some moments the place you must go together with your coronary heart as a substitute of at all times going with the calculated calls. And that is what I like in Ciri. She’s much less calculating, following her coronary heart, her ardour, her intestine really feel.”
It’s this ardour that can differentiate Ciri from Geralt, and subsequently The Witcher 4 from its predecessors. “We wish to let gamers attempt to outline her,” says Kalemba. In contrast to Geralt, who has been a veteran monster hunter for the whole Witcher saga, Ciri is just simply beginning her profession. Which means there’s house for gamers to create their very own model of her. “She’s about to kind her personal codex on her personal phrases,” Kalemba reveals. “The best way she really offers with the monsters, the way in which she offers with quests, the adventures, it is her personal distinctive means.”
As any veteran of CD Projekt Purple’s RPGs will know, the form of Ciri and her codex can be dictated by choices, each huge and small. We see an instance of such throughout the trailer, wherein Ciri’s interruption of a darkish ritual ends in the loss of life of a lady she is making an attempt to avoid wasting. It’s a basic instance of the studio’s signature method to alternative and unexpected penalties, however Kalemba guarantees a deeper method for this fourth chapter. “We wish to put participant company on the middle,” he says. Reaching such has required an enlargement and evolution of The Witcher’s definition of participant alternative.
“(We’re giving) extra instruments for gamers’ disposal, to have the ability to not solely play and go together with the implications narratively, but additionally gameplay-wise,” explains Kalemba. “We wish to give gamers extra alternatives to have the ability to really feel that they outline their expertise.”
Whereas The Witcher 3 is sort of rightly thought-about among the many easiest RPGs of the twenty first century, its admirable complexity could be very a lot in its narrative design relatively than elastic gameplay. For instance, Geralt can’t grow to be a grasp of stealth and silently backstab his approach to victory, nor can he hone his expertise in area of interest polearms to develop a selected combating type. However within the years between Witcher tasks CDPR created Cyberpunk 2077, an RPG with a lot, a lot better flexibility with regards to these sorts of decisions.
“I consider the gameplay (in Cyberpunk 2077) was extra different (than that in The Witcher 3) and it allowed extra freedom with regards to creating character builds and with the ability to expertise encounters in your personal means,” Kalemba explains. Each encounter in 2077’s Night time Metropolis is a flowchart of choices: Motion or stealth? Hacking or weapons? Ranged or melee? These choices are expanded and enhanced by the talents and perks you’ve invested in (in addition to a wholesome dose of curiosity and experimentation). And so for Ciri’s subsequent journey, the studio is trying to not simply construct upon what it achieved in The Witcher 3, but additionally Cyberpunk 2077 and its enlargement, Phantom Liberty.
“That is one thing we undoubtedly wish to carry as a lesson (to The Witcher 4),” asserts Kalemba. “We wish to enhance on (The Witcher 3’s) gameplay but additionally we wish to enhance the alignment of the way in which it is possible for you to to discover the world.” He hopes that such enhancements will lead to a “tremendous coherent expertise” throughout most important story missions, facet quests, and open-world actions.
CD Projekt Purple undoubtedly has the ‘larger, higher, extra superior’ side of a AAA sequel underway, then. However sequels are additionally about persevering with the story, and whereas The Witcher 4 is the beginning of a brand new saga, it’s nonetheless the subsequent chapter in a longtime character’s life. And that’s the place there’s a bit of downside to beat.
“The one complication might be the concept that there’s an ending wherein Ciri can die in The Witcher 3,” explains Maher. Fortunately that ending, which is one in every of three completely different fates for Ciri and the result of a number of hidden decisions made all through the sport, isn’t fairly as clear minimize as it could appear.
“There are hints in that ending that spotlight the truth that she most likely doesn’t die,” says Maher. And so whatever the occasions you personally witnessed on the finish of your personal Witcher 3 playthrough, the sequel is not going to “break any canon and even offend any canon.”
After all, there can be loads of gamers coming to The Witcher 4 who haven’t any data of the occasions of the earlier video games, to whom the main points of Ciri’s former adventures will imply little. CD Projekt Purple could be very conscious that it’s been a decade for the reason that launch of Wild Hunt, and that an entire era of fantasy followers who have been too younger for a mature-rated RPG again in 2015 will doubtless begin their Witcher journey with the fourth recreation when it lastly launches.
“We wish to goal for the brand new gamers,” says Małgorzata Mitręga, government producer of The Witcher 4. “The broader viewers, and likewise the those that know the franchise however who possibly don’t play our video games.” As such, The Witcher 4 is being pitched as the beginning of one thing new as a lot as it’s the continuation of one thing previous.
As a part of that, Kalemba and Mitręga clarify that they’re guaranteeing The Witcher 4 is an approachable expertise. They need “everybody who cares” to play. However there doesn’t appear to be any signal of the studio’s trademark RPG depth being watered down in cost for that approachability. “We create story-driven video games, so we wish to be sure that those that purchase video games for story, they will have the ability to expertise the story in their very own means and they are going to be merely capable of method it,” Kalemba explains. “However individuals which are in search of particular challenges, they may also have the ability to expertise the story in a difficult means.”
The studio faces a a lot bigger problem than simply crafting a sequel that’s approachable for newcomers, although. Whereas Cyberpunk 2077 is now considered a landmark RPG, its launch was one of many highest-profile disasters in business historical past. It took CD Projekt Purple years to repair the sport’s issues, a venture crucial not solely to make the sport work, but additionally to avoid wasting the corporate’s repute. These years have been extra than simply transformative for Cyberpunk, although; the street to 2077’s notable comeback resulted in vital structural modifications at CDPR. Adjustments that hopefully lay the groundwork for higher issues for The Witcher 4.
“The best way we produce proper now has modified in an excellent means,” says Kalemba. “We’re very mindfully defining the phases of the manufacturing. We’re very mindfully making an attempt to scope it, ensuring that the inspiration is there. I already see that it’s serving to us to be sure that no matter we create proper now could be tremendous coherent throughout the board. This manner makes us really feel that we management this tremendous advanced setting greater than we used to, and that additionally makes everybody really feel safer with regards to growing typically each day.”
The governing rule amongst these new modifications is “let it cook dinner.” That’s evident in the way in which the studio has allowed extra time for pre-production – The Witcher 4’s existence was publicly introduced again in October 2022, nevertheless it has solely simply gone into full manufacturing. However there have been different vital modifications. Throughout the improvement of Phantom Liberty, for instance, the studio was restructured into “content material groups” the place a number of disciplines work collectively in tightly co-ordinated teams to create explicit sequences and quests.
These modifications aren’t nearly guaranteeing recreation high quality and a clean eventual launch, although. Throughout the improvement of Cyberpunk 2077 it was reported that studio employees endured lengthy working hours and necessary extra time calls for. Rewind the clock additional again and CDPR confronted related accusations whereas engaged on The Witcher 3. The studio’s new method goals to create a greater working setting for the individuals making The Witcher 4.
“I feel that it is already serving to (create a greater working setting),” says Mitręga. “I suppose that the way in which (ahead is) to provide it in a wholesome method so that individuals nonetheless can discover enjoyable in what they do. And that is what is inspiring, that is what makes the standard so excessive.
“We’re planning alternative ways we talk with the groups,” she continues. “Groups are deliberate in a different way than we have been (on Cyberpunk 2077), so it is already serving to.”
CD Projekt Purple isn’t able to reveal a launch date for The Witcher 4 but, presumably because of that “let it cook dinner” mantra. However, if the cinematic trailer is something to go by, the recipe must be actual. Whereas IGN visited the studio’s Warsaw HQ forward of The Recreation Awards, the crew defined that the trailer had gone via dozens and dozens of revisions, with every new model fine-tuning the presentation and supply of The Witcher 4’s first story. CD Projekt Purple has approached this cinematic with as a lot precision because it has the sport at giant, iterating over and over till it’s precisely proper.
“Imagine me, behind each single scene there was an intention,” says Kalemba. “There may be, in any single body, no coincidence on this trailer. We have been constructing it in a approach to promote a really, very coherent quick story with a starting and climax.”
“We additionally needed to have the total expertise,” provides Mitręga. “As a result of that is coming dwelling for the previous (followers), however that is additionally an introduction for the brand new viewers.”
After a decade of ready, nothing however a full expertise would do for these previous followers. And that’s what we’ve; the six-minute trailer tells not only a full quick story, but additionally incorporates all of the hallmarks of a basic Witcher quest: a contract, a kill, and a consequence. For veterans of Geralt’s adventures, it is a good reminder of why it’s value coming again for a fourth installment. As for brand new followers, it’s about pretty much as good a style of The Witcher’s magic as you will get in commercial kind. Little question The Witcher subreddit is about to be inundated with a thousand “how do I get into this?” posts (and if that may be a query you may have, then our chat with CD Projekt Purple’s Witcher loremasters ought to be your subsequent cease.)
As for what’s subsequent, CD Projekt Purple gained’t say. With full manufacturing solely simply spun up, we may very well be in for one more lengthy wait till the subsequent particulars about Ciri’s new journey are able to be shared. However what little the crew was prepared to share is already one thing to chew on with anticipation. The expectations round RPGs have shifted so much since The Witcher 3 launched in 2015. Video games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and CDPR’s personal Cyberpunk 2077 have put deep emphasis on worlds that react, reply, bend, and break below the pressures inflicted by gamers. How The Witcher 4 will play with these expectations stays to be seen, however CDPR’s promise of a Ciri that may be outlined by those that play as her is pretty much as good a spot as any to begin.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Options Editor.
