Can The Witcher 2 Keep Impressing Me? - Chapter 1 Analysis

[@uteausmunchen7235]

You nailed it with your remark about epicness. Witcher 2 really wants to be epic above all else. The funny thing is that the best moments of the game are not when it tries so hard to be epic. The best moments still lie in the typical witcher side quests, decisions and "all the little stories and side characters". While I totally agree with you that Roche is the character with whom Geralt would prefer to side, I am not sure that in this exact situation he would do so. At the end of chapter 1 Geralt urgently wants to leave and hunt down Letho because of Triss. Iorveth leaves more or less immediately, while Roche stays to handle things at Flotsam. Geralt is not interested in politics and would not really care who is responsible in Flotsam, he would want to follow Letho as soon as possible. Therefore I can imagine him chosing Iorveth as well as Roche. I always want to play both paths one after another anyway, because they are rather different in regard of what is revealed about the background of what is going on. You need to play both sides to get the full picture. If you only play Roche´s path you also miss the other very good side quest (Secrets of Loc Muinne) in the third chapter, because that one is not available on Roche´s side. I hope you made a save file to play the second half of the game also on Iorveth´s path?

[@ParadoxiaGaming]

When I played the game for the first time, I sided with Iorveth. I vaguely remember some events but I was pretty confused since it was my introduction to the universe and I was a bit overwhelmed. I don't plan to play the Iorveth path again for this series of videos, I want to cover the main story with Roche's path and maybe in the future I can make another video on Iorveth's path. I think that after my 5 videos on Witcher 2, I'll be ready to go back to Witcher 3, so it probably wont be right after. Also I agree with a lot of what you said. I especially appreciate the difficult choices so far, the game makes us think a lot and I like it haha!

[@apolan598]

Funnily enough I recently finished Witcher 2 and had the same thoughts as you in regards to many aspects. Particularly with repetitiveness as you're walking along the same paths many times, with side quests compounding it further. One thing I absolutely hated though, which you didn't mention, were the invisible walls around the forest. Instead of being able to walk through virtually everywhere (Witcher 3) there are many invisible boundaries which ruins the environment for me personally. I also ended up picking Roche as he is the character I wanted to explore first when I first played the game as I remember seeing him in Witcher 3 and thinking he was an extremely cool character. Also I'm a sucker for lore, so I wanted to learn more about Temeria. The stuff you said about the ambience I also totally agree with. The music and noises felt very C tier and just overall pretty generic. Whereas in Witcher 3 the music excels in immersing you in the area you're located. Particularly Skellige as the music uses tones reminiscent of medieval Highlanders or Vikings. Anyways that's all I got to say, another awesome video as always. Keep it up!!

[@ParadoxiaGaming]

Glad you enjoyed :) It's true that Roche is awesome in Witcher 3. We don't see him much but I find his character and his patriotism for Temeria quite interesting. That man could be alone against Nilfgaard and he still wouldn't give up. Also I really like the song that plays in Witcher 3 when we talk with him at his hideout. I can understand how seeing him in Witcher 3 made you curious about him. In an ideal world, Iorveth would've made an appearance in the third game as well... It's a bit disappointing that he's not there at all. Also I agree with what you said about the invisible walls in the forest. It just feels like an extremely limited location to navigate and unfortunately it's super easy to compare it to Witcher 3 for us haha and it's clear that the world of Witcher 3 is way more enjoyable to navigate overall.

[@Diego-rt2ot]

@@ParadoxiaGaming In my opinion, the elf's path is more interesting and has a better location, and a large role is played by Filipha, who is absent from Vernon's and her part of the plot is very important in 3. importing this ihorweth also adds more unique w3 dialogues

[@FolkWalkCZ]

Really interesting points 🙂 I agree with most of what you said. Iorweth is definitely cool and interesting character that I would chose on my second playthrough just to see his path but Roche is clearly the more based and correct decision 😉

[@ParadoxiaGaming]

Happy to hear that you found the video interesting! But yeah, having to choose between Iorveth and Roche is almost sad haha! It definitely makes the 2nd playthrough way more interesting though! 😉 I think that by the end of Chapter 1, both paths seem almost equally as interesting. It shows that the game is still doing many things well, especially when it comes to the characters!

[@Smoked_Cheddar]

I'm glad my comment made it to your video. What's weird is chapter 2 I feel The combat isn't as bad. Maybe you get better. I don't know for sure. But since you're grouped up on all the time it makes it really hard to do. One of my personal gripes but I know it's trying to be immersive is the map. Especially in chapter 1 because like you said everything looks the same it's so hard finding things. Especially the contracts. As for the music. I always have loved the shadows and conspiracies track which is like the stealth music you heard during like conference and such. I do like the bar music which is in chapter 1 and on the iorverth side in chapter 2. I do think one thing chapter 1 gets right is this kind of fantasy world type place that flotsam is almost at the edge of the known world in a weird way.

[@ParadoxiaGaming]

Actually, you are right about the tavern music. Initially, I had a moment in the video where I talked about how I enjoyed the short segments with Dandelion, Zoltan, Triss, etc in the tavern. One of the reasons why I liked those segments so much was the music, it was really good. Unfortunately that part of the video ended up being cut for a few reasons :/ Also I just listened to shadows and conspiracies again, I think it does a great job at creating tension but it's not necessarily a track that I will really remember personally. I can see why you like it though, it definitely isn't bad. Interesting to hear you say combat might get better in Chapter 2. I'll keep an open mind and we'll see how it goes!

[@adamjensen1831]

new fan here of the witcher, i love stories like this, Geralt is Giving Adam Jensen a run for his money on favorite character hahah

[@pointlessreplay]

Great breakdown! I dont remember the specifics of the combat but i do remember specifically at the end of the game choosing not to fight Letho but not because that was the choice i wanted to make. I just didnt wanna deal with more Witcher 2 combat! So yeah I remember not liking it. And I definitely picked Roche for almost the exact same reasons as you but also I think the voice actor is very charismatic and commanding and made me wanna like Roche. But damn, this video really makes me antsy to play this game again!