The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Critique | 5 years on...still the GOAT

[@firegon2288]

I'm new to this channel - got a recommendation after watching Joseph Andersons video. I think that the video is great, really describes the game well, while pointing out the flaws - and I can't disagree with most of them ( not that it matters ). But when You are saying "white people", please do keep in mind that I, as a Polish person, have very little connection to someone who is French or Spanish or Swedish. Our cultures and history have been completely different. And while Velen, Novigrad and Skellige are fictional, they are based on real cultures, religions, beliefs, myths and tales. So I don't understand Your point about diversity. The game is clearly diverse. It shows different places with different cultures, myths, beliefs. What You want is more color for the sake of color. Please stop thinking that when the game is showing some american white person, it's somehow representing me. I have as much in common with that guy as with Mr. Zhen from Chongqing or Mr. Sumptoh from Port-Vila. I do agree with one thing though - some characters from either Ofier or Zerrikania should've been in Novigrad (after all, it's a huge trading place) or potentially in Oxenfurt ( education ). It simply would make sense. But the same doesn't apply to either Skellige or Velen. Oh and one more thing - while I don't think that the diverse cast of the show made it worse - the show clearly lost some of the atmosphere of the witcher world in order to cater to the american audience.

[@punishedbarca761]

The show is missing the prosaic writing, moral grey areas and the constant feeling that everything is shit. Also fuck that Nilfgaard armour.

[@KohenBlassingame]

I agree with you, diversity shouldn’t be about color exclusively. I also am a part of the American audience and despise the show for its pathetic attempt at “diversity” they should of left it alone.

[@stephenobrien6983]

Reminder to the television watching public: Redheads aren't common, they were of the old world....fuggetabout'em. Diversity is our strength!

[@Spellweaver5]

If they decided to add them with proper stories etc it could fit in pretty well. But there's a countless number of characters that you could fit in if authors wanted to. Yet none of them are in game and none of them is more worthy than the other. Also, you know, there are at least two Ofiri merchants added by the Hearts of Stone, and considering how far it is, you really can't expect more. Remember how much of a surprise were zerrikanians in the book to everyone, and those had a significant reason to go this far.

[@leonardofernandez6488]

As a Spanish, we may have little in common, but I assure you that we admire and appreciate your culture and history, and the pride that you put on it. Many of us even envy it.

[@easterneagle5]

No one, absolutely no one: Chris Davis and Joseph Anderson: Hey everyone you ready for 14 hours of Witcher game discussion?

[@samuraihokage2196]

Going to watch joesph Anderson after haha

[@harrshpant8298]

I just found 7hrs... WHERE ARE THE OTHER 7 TELL ME

[@samuraihokage2196]

@@harrshpant8298 rewatches lol

[@heisennoob6446]

Harrsh Pant Will be released in the coming weeks

[@katherine2596]

Quarantine really tests one's sanity.

[@MrLukasboys]

Joseph Anderson recently released 4 hours on the first Witcher game and now you follow with 3 hours on the third game. Quarantine is good for something.

[@jjforcebreaker]

now Noah Caldwell-Gervais must release vid on Witcher 2.

[@cheezburgrproduction]

@@jjforcebreaker the holy trinity

[@omarcomming722]

Joseph probably wouldn't have finished his before 2021 if it wasn't for quarantine

[@Pitman856]

Omar' Commin he actually said it delayed the videos by a few weeks

[@Vulpes89]

Then mailer will probably release a 30 hour video on how they're all wrong like the pedantic maniac he is 😂😂😂

[@GeekOfGaming]

Weakest section of the video is the part discussing the lack of "inclusivity" in the game. It's a game developed in Eastern Europe, based on Eastern European novels, that borrow from Eastern European folklore, and if they want to tell their story they should be able to. It is a difficult decision because it is a fantasy setting, so there is at least the possibility of the discussion, but still shoe-horning PoC into the story just for inclusivitys-sake is just silly. It's like when people thought there should be more PoC in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a game set in 12/13th Century Bohemia, developed in Eastern Europe. This view is such a selfish (or Western-centric) view. Let other people tell the stories they want to. I wouldn't expect to see many white people in a story set in North Africa, created by people living in, say, Kenya. And that certainly wouldn't upset me.

[@ghostoflazlo]

And when resident evil set their game their it became racism so yeah.... No winning w this crowd.

[@GeekOfGaming]

To add, you could make the argument for PoC appearing in a trade hub like Novigrad (Ofir? and Zerikanians?) for example. But this is a time of war with massive travel restrictions where even native peasants struggle to move around, but that is a valid argument.

[@Dante-uj5pc]

And yet so many black or colored elves and humans in the Netflix show

[@enochannor6550]

@@Dante-uj5pc It's almost like the vast majority of people don't give a shit about ethnic realism and care more about a compelling story.

[@Spellweaver5]

@@enochannor6550 it's almost like you just called Netflix' story compelling.

[@yarpen26]

1:10:10 The part that explains why there are so many downvotes which you no doubt took note of. You're welcome.

[@Bigby-von-Wolfburg]

Same feelings. I totally agree with you.

[@whodatninja439]

i was enjoying the video and just suddenly went "i'm sorry WHAT"

[@iansheppard7662]

totally agree waiting for the non genders to start being offended about not being added to a game

[@legion999]

Wow, that's so helpful, I'm sure he couldn't have figured it out from the other hundred comments outraged at the same thing

[@TheMarcHicks]

Never knew that white men were so horribly thin skinned & easily triggered. Do you snowflakes need a safe space?

[@Pwnarbullen]

I hate to be 'that guy' but Skjall isn't killed by The Hunt. He dies when he tries to fight Morkvarg in Freya's garden in order to restore his honor and lose the moniker 'Craven'.

[@tychovanvugt5531]

I thought that at first too

[@oliversavolainen8850]

There are alternative endings, I got the one that Chris is referring to.

[@Pwnarbullen]

@@oliversavolainen8850 really? What determines if he survives the hunt or not?

[@Pwnarbullen]

@@oliversavolainen8850 and does his corpse still appear in the garden?

[@moonknightish]

@@oliversavolainen8850 Bullshit, Skjall always dies fighting Morkvarg

[@KingGuy-YT]

Sometimes I feel like the only person on the whole planet that actually loved the combat in this game. Every so often I go back just to try out new builds and to chop more bandits in half.

[@MrJade12]

You are not its just that some people are really mad at the game doing so well and "combat bad" is the only semi-valid flaw they can come up with.

[@rafterman5072]

I like it. I mean it's not Bloodborne good, but it's definitely fine. I can't think of many Western RPGs that have great combat.

[@Spellweaver5]

Combat isn't bad, it's just generic as all hell. If only they expanded upon Witcher 1 system instead of discarding it.

[@LeggyLegends]

People slam witcher 1's combat so hard and its a damn shame. The "puzzle" element of stance matching and the way you get stronger with abilities feels genuinely rewarding and more "witcher-y" than spamming one mouse button until everything dead. It's a bit shallow but the idea of Geralt having to adopt differnt combat styles for different monsters is charming and fits with the theme really well and deserved more depth not discarding outright. I can not comprehend the baffling opinion that combat was massively improved in 2, especially 3.

[@Colonel_Overkill]

I personally enjoyed the combat quite a lot, and it did help me improve my playing as well though I went without quen for the most part and the game takes on a whole new feel when you dont get a free hit. Before you ask no Im not a masochist I just preferred Aard and would cast quen as I prepped for a big fight but rarely recast once down and also very rarely cast in general exploration fights.

[@CharcharoExplorer]

Where you see white people, the rest of the world sees different nationalities. I see a lot of African Americans (they are just Americans) in games, but I rarely see Polish people. I rarely see positively portrayed Russians either. But of course, the Anglosphere world of the US and UK is all that matters. IMHO your countries really need to reevaluate their thought process. It is not the rest of Europe and Asia and Africa or South America that are wrong, it is you.

[@khankhomrad8855]

I love how The Witcher games portray a fantasy world based on Eastern Europe, which is something pretty rare to see in the Western hemisphere. It is as you say, the people in the game may all have pretty much the same skin colour but you can see how the different kingdoms are based on different real world culture groups that are ethnically related. And the DLC's dor Witcher 3 introduce more and diverse cultures pretty well.

[@Reece1Harding]

But... but... wHiTE MAn huVve NO cUltURe

[@ghostoflazlo]

@@Reece1Harding It's such a weird argument (I know you're not making it). Look at the northern or eastern european culture. It's so rich with its lore and legends that been heavily borrowed from for years now (skyrim anyone) so just because america doesnt have a culture it shouldn't set the standard for the rest of us. It's a bit sad and feel like it's ok to borrow from but when it comes down to it not worth acknowledging.

[@dzejrid]

To be fair even Russians are not just "Russians". It's a huge country and there are differences between regions and cities in customs, traditions and even a spoken language.

[@Spellweaver5]

@Matti XIII. please stop diluting the important problems like racism, nationalism etc by assigning those labels to random people. You are making a huge service to actual racists this way.

[@LibertarianTrap]

I love how you ignore Ofiri's in Hearts of Stone on your weakly constructed "Why is the witcher so white" argument. And to also point out on one of your arguments about teleportation. It is established lore that those who use teleportation need to have a visual of where they are teleporting to, or else they can end up anywhere.

[@khankhomrad8855]

yeah that came totally out of nowhere and went nowhere, glossing over that if, as he says, most fantasy writers are from Western Europe and base their works on Western Europe medieval time, it is only natural to expect that things will be quite white indeed. Even more so f the writer itself is white because, you know, people tend to write what they know. And about the Ofiris, don't know much about them but they look to be heavily inspired by medieval Arabians, which is cool and weakens his argument.

[@LibertarianTrap]

The presence of The Ofiri doesn't just weaken his argument, it destroys it. The Ofiri appearing in the game is pretty consistent with 12th century Europe. A royal visits a country for diplomatic or trade relations. You have a small army the accompanies them. And the occasional merchant (ie, the Ruinwright)

[@stephenobrien6983]

Honestly, I don't give too much of a crap with this stuff but I do find it suspect that there can be Black leadership summits, Jewish leadership summits etc, and those groups are praised for such gatherings but if anyone was to organise a white leadership summit, I guarantee you they would be blasted as wacist and denounced as the worst thing ever. It's quite the double-standard.

[@LonelyKnightess]

It doesn't weaken the argument because there's still no reason for there to *not* be black people in the Witcher. I highly doubt the Conjunction of Spheres racially segregated anyone who went through.

[@mariobadia4553]

@@LonelyKnightess the people of Zarrikania I clearly Middle Eastern but don't let any of the racists in this comments section know that.

[@franciscogarcia-mf3js]

So a game featuring west slavic/polish culture (Northern kingdoms, Temeria, Redania...), germanic culture (Nilfgaard), "irish mixed with norman/viking" culture (Skellige), a mix between French, Italian and Spanish culture (Toussaint)... is lacking cultural diversity and it's too homogeneous. North American intellectual lunacy at its best :D This anglocentric assumption that "cultural diversity" just means "racial diversity" (your kind of term, not mine) is, at this point, either plain stupidity or inane ideology; and by the way, it's a shared view between racist white-nationalist loons and the so-called progressive left. Reducing and standardizing all European cultures as "white" (a category invented by anglosaxons in modern times) is just plain disrespectful and ignorant, as it would be claiming there is no diversity in Africa between the Nuer and the Khoisan, because they're both "black cultures". I suppose this is big news for USA's pseudo intellectuals, but I as a spaniard have culturally less in common with a pole or a czech than you as a white american have with a black american (still have quite some things in common, of course). As a side note, I wonder what would be more culturally diverse? A lot of videogame developers from all sorts of different countries and backgrounds making works of fiction inspired by their own cultures, or by other cultures, or doing mishmashes of whatever they consider better and more fitting... or a videogame landscape where all works of fiction have to reflect one country's contemporary sociological configuration because pathological adolescents from Murica can't stand experiencing projections of medieval Europe where the "default is being white"? P.S. I demand that Don Quijote, Brahma and Quetzalcoatl appear in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. They would make a hell of a diversity boss.

[@mariobadia4553]

Zarakannia exists and they should be should in the city of novigrad since it's a huge trading post.

[@LorisNoKami]

Agree with the spirit of what you said but just wanted to point out he's not American; he's British. Don't know whether that makes it better or worse considering he's got less of an excuse for saying ignorant shit like this being from Europe himself. He should know better. Like, fucking hell; the English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh have wildly diverse cultures and they're part of the same archipelago.

[@crazygamer-kids8118]

Perfect!

[@mattmattmatt131313]

Put this comment to the top people!

[@DravicPL]

@@mariobadia4553 during a war? Yeah, right. You're a goddamm baboon. They had no business going this far from their home. In the books, when the particular knight had two zerrikanian females by his side, they were following him so freaking far from home due to sheer love and admiration. You get it? They had an extreme reason to ever go this far.

[@necromingo7073]

"I'm not even sure why we have to fight the crones" ...because they were in the same place as Imlerith, and Geralt & Ciri both had a few bones to pick with them. two birds with one stone, pretty simple.

[@noahdavis8626]

Geralt himself tells the Crones that he'll be back to kill them after he finds Ciri, like how do you miss that line of dialogue?

[@blastermaster5039]

@@noahdavis8626 Dont forget that the Crones did tell to Geralt that they've planned at one time to eat Ciri, which is a huge deal to Geralt and a major reason why he has a bone to pick towards those ladies. This guy seems kind of awkward when it comes to reviewing the game - but then again, he prefers Triss over Yen so that pretty much tells me all I've to know.

[@alexscriabin]

eh

[@Corrupted]

@@noahdavis8626 because it's one line of dialogue in an 150 hours long game, jesus christ dude

[@mustamiesjefer7032]

​@@CorruptedYeah, the Crones are pretty much the "main" villain of the Velen part of the game. Seems like most of the ppl who actually played the game remembered that

[@Liberator130]

44:00 - Geralt can actually let the bandits take Letho's school of the viper medallion and the deception can be 100% successful.

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

@Jordan Ghill Perhaps he overestimates your ability to infer context.

[@lordhawkridge4116]

As a non-white british male, I didn’t have any issue at all with the lack of poc, it makes sense and all the comments from people of differing European descent say more than I need to

[@lordhawkridge4116]

@Alexander Pascalev Th game is marketed to most first world countries, I wouldn't say it is directly created to appeal to America, it's just a large consumer base

[@xcaluhbration]

I get it as well, however the point of "white" being considered the default for any fantasy is just something some of us wish weren't so. In the end an artist must be free to express themselves however they feel. To your points though, why do you think they market to the west with "white" characters so much? You think that THEY believe that white consumers would be turned off by seeing a non white person as the main character because as humans it's just nice to be able to see yourself physically represented? Do they simply care about pandering to white males because they're more likely to buy the product?

[@xcaluhbration]

@Chase Moore Mmm hmm... I can see where you're coming from.

[@vinceredeor439]

@Chase Moore But do you remember Resident Evil 5, it was set in Africa, so most of your enemies were black, and because of that the devs were called racists. Or Ghost of Tsushima, where the devs were accused of cultural appropriation, despite Japanese audiences loving the game. Or Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the Devs were called colonialists. Devs often create stories in Asia, Africa, South America, and Central America, but they are still called racist because SJWs, game jornalists, and snowflakes need to find something to complain about.

[@mysticwizard1943]

@Alexander Pascalev bruh it was made by a bunch of polish people, based on a series of books written originally in polish, set in a sort fantasy version of medieval poland, and it's the third game in a series that was only on pc until this game. It's about as un-American as it gets, but the quality is on par with/better than anything being made by AAA studios marketing directly for a US audience first and thats how it got so big. And while I dont know if US audiences would be any more open to people of color than European audiences (guess it depends on what part of the country among other factors that tend to make someone racist), there is certainly a larger percentage of POC in the US than most EU countries, and theyd prolly less likely to care if there was more diversity. Point is, being marketed to America doesnt really make a game less likely to feature a more racially diverse cast of characters or npc's, if anything it would be the opposite. Not really sure where you were going with that. It's just something of a medieval-esque fantasy trope that the world is still pretty separated since there isnt a safe and reliable way for people from other places to immigrate or travel from. Usually people of different races in fantasy are travelers from a different country, because thats just how it was in history.

[@Liberator130]

"One of the lead developers at Warhorse is a horrible racist." Citation required for such an incredibly serious accusation.

[@darknessviking]

yeah that was so weird.

[@TheCivildecay]

Yeah I would like to know more about this

[@NotShaikan]

Well I don't know the specific occurrences he is referring to but Daniel Vávra said a lot of edgy shit at the time so I assume that's the lead in question. With his propensity on fighting everyone and anyone and putting out hot takes I wouldn't be surprised.

[@LibertarianTrap]

Honestly that whole section he just felt the need to sperg on, turned me off to his channel. Like is this a signal of things to come. What's next, is he going to complain that Azar Javed was forced into the villain role because of systematic oppression.

[@Spellweaver5]

Wait, what you mean, citation? Don't you believe this man's word?

[@Jorhan]

I am a mutated, albino monster hunter from Poland and I was glad to finally have representation in a video game.

[@zachtojo4343]

Well he isn’t albino. He has white hair because he got extra mutations that made his hair like that

[@friendalex7384]

You've been an under represented group for far too long.

[@alexhall7584]

My cat was chuffed to

[@CaidicusProductions]

@@alexhall7584 Chuffed to where?

[@Jonathandelemos302]

@@zachtojo4343 iuioj

[@ChrisDavis_Games]

Here are some timestamps if you need them: Intro - 0:00 Story Commentary (inc. books) - 5:23 Story analysis - 19:10 Worldbuilding - 55:02 Side Quests - 1:15:42 Choices - 1:55:28 Combat - 2:02:54 Quests - 2:40:25 Gear - 2:44:55 Other quests - 2:51:45 Bugs - 2:54:38 Conclusion - 2:59:06

[@darknessviking]

nooooooo.. dude..dont go sjw... dont go accusing developers for being racist because the inhabitants are one skin color. come on. come.on. go woke go broke. dont die on that hill. its racist to demand diversity. because i dont see you have a problem with nativa indians being one color? or chinese being one color? but oh no.. white people.white.people.oh no. please tell me i misunderstood you

[@darknessviking]

you should include "1 hours 15 mark: when chris has a problem with people with a certain skin color"

[@tasin2776]

@Old World Blues I'm not sure why he didn't mention that there are other "colours" for example the ofieris in hearts of stone. Also I take issue with "white" being a race because it's not. The nilfgardians, nothern kingdoms and skellige are all different races even if their colour is the same. This shows that even white people don't migrate that much so why would people from faraway do so?

[@TheLegendaryDread]

Please educate yourself on the things the "racist" Warhorse developer has actually said/done. You're better than this. I don't watch all of your videos but you've mentioned a few times that you are based in the USA; and boy is it showing. Other than that, good video.

[@LorisNoKami]

Please Chris, I respect your game critique but this ridiculous take on diversity is misguided. They didn't choose to populate the game with "white people because they're the default". They chose to represent multipl, different Slavic cultures (which get less representation in media than most other ethnic groups). The fact that Slavic ethnic groups have white skin is irrelevant. You can't just generalise people like that. It's like saying all black people are just that, black people. No difference between Carribean, Kenyan, Ugandan, Hatian. Or all asian people are the same. Japanese, Korean, Cambodian, Indonesian. You are judging based purely on how people look. That's racist as fuck, Chris. Judge generalizing all Slavic ethnic groups as "just white people". Seriously, fuck you for saying that. Not acceptable at all. I know it's not what you intended to say, but that's why you are misguided. "I don't know how this might have came across in the Polish original", proving how ignorant you are of other cultures yet you are comfortable to make grand statements like this. Leave the racial politics alone, you have neither the gumption or the knowledge for it.

[@lhitman2222]

When I hear Witcher 3, I get hyped. I still holds a place in my soul.

[@marcuswalters8093]

I'm surprised by the whole "bad combat" thing. I really enjoyed the Witcher's combat.

[@fakeweeb5405]

Combat isn't as smooth as other games, like arkham knight for example, but honestly most people don't really mind about that at all

[@marcuswalters8093]

@@fakeweeb5405 I actually just started playing The Witcher again in game+. I realise a lot of how it's set up is pretty archaic, especially when compared to more recent offerings that try to ape it like AC Odyssey. You forget just how old this game is!

[@carlphillips3876]

Agreed. However, I think it’s the stiff “floaty” movement more than anything. Geralt moves throughout the world, but has no weight at all. Perhaps that’s the issue?

[@patriks247]

@Ring-a-ding-ding baby This is what i never understood. How is the combat in Dark souls / bloodborne deep in any way whatsoever? Yes, you got different weapons you can weild, but the core combat loop is: Roll around until you've learned the enemy attack pattern, then roll -> hit -> roll -> roll -> hit -> repeat. Just because it's difficult does not mean it's complex. Actually, the fact that it IS so simple is part of it's charm, because you don't have to worry about managing different shit like oils, signs, swords, potions, bombs and the fight preparations that come with it, and instead can focus on improving your skill and timings. To me, the DS combat is the most boring shit ever, and the main reason I never finished a game in the series. Plus its hella buggy sometimes. So how exactly is witcher combat "miles behind games like the Soulsborne series"? (I left out DMC because that comparison is just stupid)

[@insertnamehere5045]

@@patriks247 dweeb

[@MrMrmagoo34]

I just started my second play through after 3 years. First run, I put 128 hours into it. Now they have a 40gb update that makes the game look modern and 4K. It’s fantastic.

[@goodtaste2185]

I expect you to call out lack of diversity in Nioh 2 as well, lad.

[@diesirae6780]

Nope, only white people have to give up any semblance of distinct culture.

[@MCFinest2013]

Aight so Nioh takes place in Japan Witcher takes place after the conjoining of the spheres. You’re telling me after dimensionally mashing 9 different worlds and timeslines there’s not a single black dude? Okee FWR much

[@TheEvilAngelDemon]

@@TANG3RINE95 Plenty of 'white cultures' were destroyed by other 'white cultures'. History isn't black and white, and culture isn't skin deep

[@Spellweaver5]

@@TANG3RINE95 It's almost as if you believe all white people to be some kind of one single entity. I personally haven't destroyed any cultures, and if you did then please don't force others to partake in your guilt.

[@PFCE]

Debusan im pretty sure only one conjunction brought humans to the world, which did in fact bring black and white people because thats where all humans came from in the witcher dimension

[@sid7283]

As someone who isn't white, I don't get the furore over lack of racial diversity in games. I mean CD Projekt Red is Polish and mainly filled with White folks so I wouldn't even expect them to do justice to real world racial issues if people of different races are included. I played through the Witcher knowing full well what I was getting into, I don't need someone to fight on my behalf for something as inane as representation in a video game. Even if the Witcher series was filled with humans of different races, I don't expect it to be a world where all these different humans are coexisting peacefully which would then open another can of worms for consumers of the game to latch on to. If there was to be black or brown or any other kind of representation in the game I'd much rather it be one where the developers genuinely want to tell that story instead of including diversity just to pander to the consumers.

[@TheSausXL]

Sid yea it’s just childish. There’s only Egyptians in AC Origins. As there should be. It’s not racist to others not to include other races, it’s just real. And people who get offended by this actually need to re-evaluate what things are actually worth complaining about

[@sadpee7710]

Sid the game is modeled after our real life earth and our real life countries: but with an alternate history where the continents drifted in different directions and where y'know... magic happened n shit. to that end the game failed to reflect this fact in their ethnicities. canonically that was a spoof. in real life for this time the world would have been far more diverse. that said, even non canonically if you disregard the setting etc. i think expecting more diversity just from a plain representational stand point is fair as well.

[@dzejrid]

@@sadpee7710 No, it's not. It is literally a completely different world.

[@Spellweaver5]

I suppose that's because you aren't a racist and have no trouble with people having whatever race they have.

[@CeroAshura]

CDPR are horrible racists, that's why they love cyberpunk 2027 by Pondsmith.

[@vincenthill1339]

We're approaching 20 hours of top tier Witcher analysis, perfect for quarantine. Thanks for putting this together Chris!

[@PurposelessRabbitholes]

3 hours, Jesus Christ, _my body is ready_

[@shiftyjim4138]

Did ya watch the Joseph Anderson one too Charlie?

[@PurposelessRabbitholes]

Not just yet, but it's on the list

[@ScoutSilico]

It's times like these where I really appreciate the extra effort that goes into adding the chapter markers

[@cr-nd8qh]

Please start praying 🙏

[@Jannientjuhhh]

I like the combat, purely because I'm not a good gamer and I love story-based games. For example, with GTA V, I had my boyfriend do all the hard parts, only so that I could follow the story. I liked the story, but I sucked at shooting (or anything chaotic happening). With this game, I could learn the basics of combat and play it on my own without dying in every combat. The story is amazing and I'm happy it's not ruined with (for me) impossible fights

[@XLegiitBadassX]

It’s not clear that Ciri does die in the “bad” ending, just that she doesn’t return to Geralt; and why would she, if you make it so that they have a bad relationship?

[@moonknightish]

Exactly. The choices Geralt makes influence his relationship with Ciri, not the fact that she does or doesn't die.

[@XLegiitBadassX]

Alfredo di Nuzzo True, though it’s believe it’s implied that she lived in the slideshow at the end, where the narrator says that after the tower Ciri is “yet to be seen” and when she goes into the frost it’s the same cutscene either way (barring the recollections of Geralt making the wrong choices) which would imply she elected to not return, nor that she dies.

[@stephenobrien6983]

The implication comes from Geralt saying "my daughter is dead." Who knows if he really knows but I guess most people assume he is speaking the truth.

[@XLegiitBadassX]

Stephen O'Brien I don’t know exactly how he would know that, though

[@info0]

@@stephenobrien6983 sorry, for late reply here, but no, Ciri is not dead. Even Dandelion confirms that at end of Blood and Wine if you didn't pick Triss/Yen/Ciri (basically, the worst ending you can have). Ciri does not die. She just cuts off any relations she had with Geralt as he did not care for her (that's the assumption from wrong answers/choices you made). Geralt saying "my daughter is dead" is same to saying "my daughter abandoned me." And I will be completely honest here, it's the 2nd best outcome when it comes to Ciri endings. Her becoming baroness is what I consider the worst choice, myself.

[@paulpicu7932]

Was enjoying, but the diversity complaint turned me off - terribly forced and - sorry - not relevant. European medieval fantasy, inspired by Arthurian legend has predominantly white cast. Yes. Shocker. Also - don't be overly simple, there is huge diversity in Witcher universe - see the tensions between humans, dwarfs, elves.... the class struggles. The magic versus non magic etc... don't use race as the lens for everything!

[@sry4head]

totally agree. really bumped me using these points to critizise the game. How can this even be a requirement for a good world/stroy/game?

[@Bigby-von-Wolfburg]

I totally agree. In my eyes he was just racist towards whites. Nowadays I am just tired of this and thus I unsubscribed. I get it, the witcher is not a perfect game, but through the trilogy I have seen slavic cultures represented correctly and I was so happy about it. In this video he disrespected the culture and the people making the game with their heart! Seeing color over culture is the real problem. There is a wide range of cultural representation in the games, and also if he had played HoS then he would know that Ofieri people would closely resemble some kind of arabian or persian culture (whom aren't white!). So all in all I am just tired of these kind of acting from content creators, simply unsubscribed.

[@sry4head]

@@Bigby-von-Wolfburg oh yeah. He even got black people wir understandable background, but still tries to blame the devs for making a white world. Pretty ignorant and picky.

[@Bigby-von-Wolfburg]

@@sry4head this is why I feel that I do not care anymore for this kind of acting. I am trying to find content creators that are not biased, instead of watching problem creators. I would like to see what he would say to Nioh or Ghost of Tushima... there are nippon people with their culture in it, and not any other ethnicity. But they leave it alone, and are not poking it with lack of representation because it is Asian... This is just cherry picking at its best.

[@TheLovescream]

The whole angle guys like Davis take on ethnic issues is the epitomy of american cultural illiteracy and ignorance to me. Actually employing the same racist vocabulary and tactics like spacial separation and distribution of privileges based on the color of ones skin, which classic racists use is so incredibly hypocritical and stupid, its insane.

[@TheMysterieRPGguy]

About your point on Alvin leaving that book for Geralt being a bit of a plot-hole. Remember Alvin can travel in time he could have traveled to a point in time after de Aldersberg's death having seen what happened decide to pick up the book so he could leave it for Geralt in the past, it's very possible that the jump in time at the end of chapter 4 in the witcher was not the last one and there might have been many more. Also I don't remember the content of the letter that well but from what I recall it read a bit as a I forgive you letter confirming what most people already thought Alvin is de Aldersberg.

[@michimatsch5862]

I think Geralt‘s last wish is to connect to Yen because he always wanted to belong somewhere. In the Book it is mentioned that Geralt called himself „of Rivia“ and even taught himself the accent just so he had a place to belong to.

[@LukeSparrow221]

Well actually, he said it to save her life. If their fates are entwined the Djinm can't kill her because a Djinn can't kill its master. Of course there's more to it, and your take does fit in.

[@cmurphiv]

I've always interpreted the "bad" ending as Ciri simply choosing not to return as opposed to dying

[@ТАДАМ-ю4ж]

cos she died bro. She had no reason to live cos nobody here was for her

[@Aaron_Potter]

Over 7 hours of content between you and Joseph Anderson in one week, consider me a very happy man.

[@98RandR]

Witcher is not Assassin's Creed it wasn't developed by a multicultural team of various faiths and beliefs. Of course there were foreginers in a team creating it, but It's to a core polish. It references or straight up adapts the most important works of arts from polish history. It's a voice of diversity because it's probably one of two maybe three distinctly east european AAA games. It's deeply disturbing that someone can call for cultular diversity by chaninging the very fruits of culture to be more uniform.

[@HudyHubaHa]

Just because there's no people with different skin colour (apart from few Zerrikanians in "Hearts of Stones") doesn't mean there's lack of diversity. The whole witcher universe's second theme is multicultural dispute between humans and non-humans, and whole lot of different kingdoms with different cultures. People who says that seeing world through skin colour prism is racist, and the very same people are looking through said prism when there's not enough non-white representatives in game/movie/whatever. Next thing you'll see is someone calling KC:D developers a bunch of racist.

[@Spellweaver5]

@@HudyHubaHa >someone calling KC:D developers a bunch of racist Which happened in this very video.

[@nastrael]

I guess even Assassin's Creed 2 was racist. There's only Italians in that one.

[@SHAWN94ITA]

Uh, I see that for some people the colour of the skin is a big deal. Oh wait! This game has the elder races! Oh wait! Zerrikania and Ofir do exist! Oh wait! Travelling by portals is really really dangerous!

[@artyfole]

You've gotten a lot of details wrong, so much so that I cant take much of your critique seriously without thinking "he might be misremembering."

[@ArtificialVik]

Like what?

[@ArtificialVik]

@MC Cooper respect for actually answering

[@lokidragon2034]

@@ArtificialVik Jorund isn't the inkeeper, Gattan doesn't poison Geralt, just tricks him into giving him swallow, Skjall isn't killed by the Hunt, but by Morkvarg, Ciri doesn't die, just doesn't return to Geralt, Cave of Dreams isn't about Madman Lugos, but his son Blueboy. I could go on. Seems he played the game once, maaaybe twice, and also skipped a lot if content. It's a bit irritating since you'd expect he'd learned tge game front and back in detail before making a 3 hour review

[@TheShameless_OW]

Well skin color is not culture.. There is a lot of cultural diversity in this game but today's people see only skin color and nothing else. And yeah having black elvs and drayads in the series didnt feel like shoehorning at all...

[@dzejrid]

I somehow feel that this fact flies completely over the head of certain people. There is a tremendous amount of cultural diversity in Central and Eastern Europe. The only difference is, that diversity does not run along the pigmentation lines and the shade of your skin or the colour of your eyes are completely irrelevant. Whether people over here love or hate each other it's for reasons far more subtle. But some only see skin-deep and throw everyone into the same bag because of imaginary "white privilege" (which does not exist in this part of the world).

[@Eskimo_iio]

You're right but after playing so many rpgs (especially jrpgs) you start to get bored of the lack of pigment variation. I wish more rpgs would have the variety of culture diversity like W3. That kept things interesting.

[@Warfolomei]

The best part of that whole Werewolf mission is that you can accept the bride and continue investigating anyway, where Geralt even comments of not been able to contain his curiosity.

[@alittlecreepywhenyou]

No way, all this time, I've never even once considered that as an option. Poor Neillen, he deserved much better than what happened with that bitch.

[@nienie1088]

Hello Chris!! Watching from Poland and enjoying every second of your content. You actually made me replay Witcher 3 the last time I did was only a month ago. A little fun fact, even though you probably won't see it anyways: Roach is actually female in the original version and her name is "Płotka" which is a fish species. Just thought you might find it interesting. Much love from Poland, I would love to see you analise either of KOTOR games one day!!!

[@dwayneparker1182]

5 years and 3 separate playthroughs later and I'm still discovering new things in the witcher 3. Great Game.

[@CoconutChriss]

1:30:50 You absolutely can call out her lies in dialogue with her. But Graham dies when the curse is lifted. This doesn't change.

[@kamakazi5103]

Good video except the random race rant that really isnt critiquing the game in anyway it doesnt change gameplay or story whether there are more races included or not and game developers shouldn't feel obligated to do anything outside of making the game they want

[@stephenobrien6983]

But there are loads of races. Dwarves, Elves, Humans etc. Heck, there's massive plots that revolve around prejudice and racism. What the video essayist is saying is that there are too many people with white skin while ignoring the many nuances regarding their differences. It's kinda wacist.

[@kamakazi5103]

@@stephenobrien6983 Dont think I claimed there werent loads of races. All I'm saying is adding different skin colors isnt important in any way to how the game plays or the story so critiquing that isnt even a critique of the game and doesn't have any place in the video. Do you see any irony in saying there are too many white people cus that is also a bit racist? There wouldnt be anything wrong with the game being more diverse but to count it against the game is ridiculous and you know it. If the games lack of diversity based on real world races bothered anyone to the point they quit the game feel free to reply so I know that this a common issue because I'm doubting it was prove me wrong.

[@stephenobrien6983]

@@kamakazi5103 I agree with you. I was basically saying what you're saying there. That his complaint in itself can be viewed as wacist since there is already many different ones prevalent in the game. He just doesn't recognise it as diversity due to the skin colour.

[@kamakazi5103]

@@stephenobrien6983 Ah sorry for the misunderstanding then

[@ashleylight9882]

Elves and dwarves are not humans, races are variation within the human specie.

[@maritnmetal]

"Shame, that was a good bed" has to be one of my favorite lines from Geralt.

[@Damien6295]

The skin color choice has to do with geography and technology. They were staying faithful to the books.

[@chefcooks86]

so why were the books so white

[@Damien6295]

@@chefcooks86 has to do with geography and where the books took place.

[@Leo-pd2dq]

@@chefcooks86 because they are based on slavic culture and European culture in general.

[@Ammoniumbicarbonat]

@@chefcooks86 Same reason you wouldn’t have white characters in Jade Empire

[@GniadoMi]

@@chefcooks86 Basically as a person from poland, we are all white. I started seeing people with different color skin maybe only last 3/4 years in big cities on the streets as I live until now in smaller city. It doesn't mean for our stories that they are racist because we don't include asians and black people- it means they don't really live here. Witcher already deals with topic of racism but based on elves, dwarfs or just prejudice for witches and witchers for example.

[@royalkina]

The thing about skin color was a real minus to me in the video. I never saw a problem with the white cast in the game, knowing there's different races (dwarfs, elves and so on) in that universe.

[@angel8fingers]

Me too

[@sanguin3]

And there're Zerrikanian and Ofieri too.

[@melthra]

I recently re-read "The Last Wish". It bothered me that he made that wish, too. In a discussion between Chireadon and Dandilion they realize that if Geralt wants to save Yennifer from the Jin he would have to tie her to him in a way that the Jin couldn't harm her when it was free. That made more sense to me. Also, Geralt was still feeling the effects of that spell and was probably more attracted to Yen than he normally would have been. In a "A Shard of Ice", Geralt also showed a lot of self-control when he decides to leave rather that fight rather than fight Istredd. Still, however guarded, their love seems to be very powerful and grows over time.

[@thevikingsock8527]

I really enjoyed the fighting system in the Witcher 3. Its really good and fitting. Personally I never enjoyed it in dark souls etc

[@fuzzydunlop7928]

That "Heart of the Woods" quest seems almost tailor-made to cause me indecision. On one hand, I'm all on board with maintaining the delicate balance between man and nature in this fiction universe and absolutely LOVE the Leshy in this game - they're my favorite enemy, to the point where I don't like killing them. They were there first and all that. On the other hand, I've come to totally empathize with a younger generation of folk seeking to overthrow an older, backward and self-defeating one that seeks to put a band-aid over a bullet wound instead of biting the bullet and taking care of an existential threat. If the younger faction had ALSO been the tree-hugger faction, then this decision would've been immediate and without contemplation - but as it is it puts two tenets of my beliefs in the game world - that in some part tie in to my beliefs in real-life - in conflict with each other. Makes for a tough decision and I think on some level CDPR knew what they were doing.

[@SirDenzington89]

That’s so funny. They’re my favorite monster too and I hate killing them. Such a cool design and presence. I can’t help taking sone screenshots each time they show up

[@epiccontrolzx2291]

1:23:10 Damn...to this day, the bloody baron quest-line remains one of the most well-written quests in all of gaming. It's amazing how multiple people can end with VASTLY different views on the baron by the end of it. I'll try to justify why I think the baron isn't as unsympathetic as you claim here. First off, the baron DID NOT cause the miscarriage, he only believes he did and he tells Geralt so. Not to mention, when he opens up about his drunk, violent outbursts, he expresses deep guilt and regret since he also believed the child would've been a way to help rebuild their marriage. Back to the miscarriage, Anna herself did that when she went to the Crones to ask for an abortion (which ended up jeopardizing her own mental health too). Immediately after, Anna was put into servitude under the crookbag witches for a year, as payment. The baron, realizing he's done wrong, continues to make tangible progress towards change. He's kind and generous with Gretka and Ciri. He makes amends with the botchling and puts her at peace. He then quits drinking and immediately goes off to save his wife from the Crones. Even while cursed with is own violent temper, it's blindingly obvious that he repents his actions and desperately wants a chance to redeem himself. So if we follow the prior series of events: The baron becomes an alcoholic to handle the brutality, loneliness and depression of the war, with his one and only solace being that he had loving wife and daughter to return home to.---->He comes home to find his wife was cheating on him the whole time and has taken his daughter and left him ENTIRELY alone.--->Deep in an understandable grief and fury, he goes to look for his family and happens to find the man.--->In a blind rage, he murders the man in front of Anna, stealing everything from her just as she stole everything from him. Murder is clearly MORE wrong than adultery, but there's no way we can say that it was entirely on him or that she didn't have a MAJOR hand to play in the events leading up to the murder. * For the endings, you rescue Anna from the Crones but she ends up dying anyway, it's worth noting that Anna finally DOES SEEM to forgive him. What drives him to hang himself is that his daughter won't forgive him if this happens. However, if you choose differently, you can save Anna's life but she's left mentally broken from her time with the Crones. The baron then leaves his castle, his power and his wealth behind to find a way to restore Anna's mind. I don't think I could ever possibly find a more eloquent way to put this...so I'll quote the best description I've seen online. "This ending leaves open a chance for the Baron. A chance to finally right his wrongs, for atonement. If you believe that no one can change and some actions can never be forgiven, then hanging himself was likely more satisfying. Neither of the endings forgive the Baron, but neither of the endings condemn him either. The writers write. They create deep history and complex relationships and then let the players decide and form their own opinions. Somehow, they were able to make me deeply identify with someone who, if we read the story in a newspaper column, would have been an irredeemable monster. This is what art is for." Here's the video with the quote: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJnFdHh7qKmUrrs * = (Hell, if taken further and we add the context of the whole Witcher world into account, you could even say the baron was another byproduct of his environment and more a victim of the world humans created when they were transported into the planet of the Witcher. But eventually, this inevitably brings up issues on whether we possess freewill and I think that's a bit out of scope for this particular story.) By the way, this is an excellent video! I didn't agree with every critique(or praise for that matter) but there's no doubt that the Witcher series is really something special in all of gaming.

[@TheLovescream]

For someone who seems to a follower of social constructivism I thought that he was quick to pass morale judgement on the characters. Geralt as the grey-haired witcher is the embodiment of moral ambivalence and in that capacity is perfectly mirroring the world he inhabits.

[@enochannor6550]

I don't think he's claiming that the baron didn't change but his change was insignificant to the harm he caused. Furthermore, was it actually confirmed that he only drank because of the terrors of war? He did kill the guy that Anna was having an affair with and he had no remorse for it retelling the story with little to no sympathy. He also kept Anna captive not allowing her to leave at all so it's understandable why Anna provoked him at any chance he got. I actually have an important question if you might answer. If Anna was cheating on the baron for years but still had a child in the womb when baron got back with her, was she raped? Anna absolutely hated the shit out of baron for killing the love of her life so i highly doubt she'd have sex with him, this point is further supported by the fact that she wanted an abortion.

[@MsJavaWolf]

@@enochannor6550 People in medieval times had different views on adultery. Of course The Witcher is still fantasy but killing the guy sounds like a pretty normal thing for the setting to me.

[@enochannor6550]

@@MsJavaWolf This seems like a vapid point. The game conveyed that the Baron killing the cheater was not at all morally just or okay. Furthermore, there are literally side quest in Witcher 3 of character commiting adulatory and being killed by a jealous partner over it and the jealous partner is always conveyed as morally unjust

[@enochannor6550]

@@awanderingtraveler1972 She tried to actively kill him after the baron essentially kidnapped her and refused to let her go. Why would she need to lure the Baron to a false sense of security by having sex with him when there are so many other ways of doing that? This literally makes no sense considering the fact that she made a pact with the 3 witches that essentially removed every autonomy she had just so she could get an abortion, this is not the action of someone that used her body as a lure. The vast majority of people didn't know that the Baron got cheated on so the argument of social weight seems vapid. All of your points about the current cultural climate at that moment seems super vapid. There are a lot of shit that happens in the witcher time period that might of been culturally okay being showcased as morally wrong i.e racism in the witcher universe is super common and culturally okay in that time period yet the game always showcases the racism displayed as morally wrong.

[@rayglassworks307]

Didnt the book say that Geralt fights like a dancer as well having an unorthodox fighting style. guessing thats why he spins a lot and twirls around with his swords.

[@zoisantonopoulos7999]

People don't understand that the games slow opening is working in its favour. The world of the game get bigger and bigger the more you play and become familiar with it. I prefer this to a game that allows you to go anywhere from the begging meaning that since you can go anywhere , nowhere is more important.

[@roxxxydubois]

Also its not as overwhelming that's how I actually managed to explore all of witcher 3

[@DavidHosey1]

Great vid, though I do want to quickly mention how there aren’t any real inconsistencies, retcons, or changes through the timeline of the books and games. Things simply change over the course of the 50 or so years that the series actively covers, which can lead to sometimes confusing at first changes in the general world Yen and Geralt aren’t overly thrilled to see eachother mostly due to the involvement of Nilfgard and the fact that Geralt had very active relations with Triss (basically one of Yen’s closest friends). This makes Yen somewhat upset despite seeing him, thus making her put on icy airs. And it makes Geralt unsure and awkward, likely worried about how to proceed after all of this time Emhyr isn’t changed as Geralt very clearly doesn’t want much of anything to do with him, even in the nicer options. And Yen is working with Nilfgard so as to have a greater handle on the Nilf invasion and the search for Ciri. And Emhyr’s relationship is likely either cut off or not important, given that the invasion is at a possible climax and he allowed the news of his empress heir to be made public. These are less retcons and more just plot developments Also there’s some other stuff, like how Iorveth is likely dead or laying low since the Scoiatel are basically done and how Dijkstra only made such a seemingly dumb move since he assumed Geralt would side with him (cause even though Roche is closer to Geralt, Dijkstra ruling is better for the realm overall). Great analysis though, loved your take on one of the best fantasy series ever written :)

[@hiddenshadow2105]

White Frost in books seemed to me like a incoming Ice Age, triggered, ironically, by such giant destruction of Vilgerfortz's fortress during the fight to free Ciri that the tremors affected tectonics, and like a domino effect it subtly affected the whole world. There is a mention in later books that some warm-liking vegetables and fruits cannot be grown in Northern Kingdoms any more due to encroaching cold climate.

[@allhopeabandon7831]

Sapkowski lived through the period when the climate alarmists were using the threat of an ice age to gain power, control and money...that may have been a reflection from his youth. Yes, that's right, 50 years ago, and much closer to the Industrial revolution, when coal filled the skies with no restrictions, they told ppl the climate was going to freeze everyone to death...unless they all did EXACTLY what the governments told them...

[@SpunkyTheNutcase]

Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Dopplers, Godlings etc, seems pretty R A C E diverse to me. Oh wait, forgot that skin color is all that matters these days...

[@ДраганНишевић]

Well Godlings are blue...

[@maxcalderon6611]

I've always loved this logic, multiple dimensions crashing together pulling people from the dwarf dimension, elvish dimension, monster dimension, and some more and everyone's like "yeah I can believe that" but the possibility of a dimension with black people becomes unfathomable! What are people even getting mad about? this "liberal sjw cuck" mentality didn't even make it into the game lmfao

[@Spellweaver5]

​@@maxcalderon6611 I find it hard to believe that black people from one dimension wouldn't interbreed with white people from other dimension even if it was the case. Unless, of course, you want a world where they are segregated and treaded as nonhumans which is far from the woke diverse utopia you guys seem to expect.

[@maxcalderon6611]

@@Spellweaver5 Yo! At no point did I say I wanted segregation, I'm just saying that people shouldn't get upset about a youtuber wanting diversity in general and causing no actual change to the game. The Witcher's team wanted to build a medieval poland with their folklore and taking inspiration from other fairy tales, and should they have chosen, they could have included POC (but I'm fine if they didn't, it didn't stop me from reading the 7 books, and playing 100s of hours on the game series) Hope this helped!

[@_skud]

Ben Barker Seriously, they act like depicting fictional races is diversity when diversity is more about representation of real world people. They are right when they say the game has a diverse set of characters, but these characters aren't representative. It also would've been a good way to have more than a handful of NPC models

[@liviupeles8666]

That's a bs argument about the lack of skin colour diversity in Witcher 3. What's wrong with it being too "white" ? And btw there are people of colour in the witcher series : Azar Javed and the Ofieri. But guess what, they live in distant, warm lands, and they have no job/better-life opportunities like there are now, in our present day. So why would they come to the North which is a pretty unwlecomming land ? I bet they have no reason to do so. Trading doesn't count btw, since they're kinda "passing by". Multiculturalism is more fitted for cyberpunk and in "western" worlds.

[@Drum8888]

Exactly, the games are set in essentially medieval times, aeroplanes and world wide travel and vast multicultural cities didn't exist. A lot of settlements would be the same race and globally the population was only like 300-400 million. Northern countries were mostly made up of white settlers. The series addresses racial conflict as well just through elves, dwarves rather than through skin colour specifically.

[@Assassin21BEKA]

1:10:40 i agree with almost everything that you said, but this just doesn't make sense. The game has a huge amount of different nationalities in it, different countries have different cultures inside of them. The world of witcher is basically medieval Europe that had contact with the world filled with monsters, so of course, you will not see Asian or Black people there, because it is how it was in history. It's like asking for the same thing in Kingdom come deliverance. 1:12:59 it has fully glorified reason to be like this.

[@alexscriabin]

the Witcher isn't historical reality (medieval Europe), it's fantasy. like The Expanse, having (eg) black humans exist, and having white humans not be racist against said black humans, *intensifies* the audience experience of the racism against elves/dwarves/nonhumans.

[@goldenrequiem7533]

@@alexscriabin but you forget the book is polish the author is polish and the game is made in Poland. I see no reason why the game needs black people it isn't set in an era like the 1800s so it makes sense why the game has no other races. Look at it this way someone makes a fictional story of let's say pre colonized Africa would expect to see any other races even if it is as fictional as the witcher. Plus the books make many reference to Poland and European culture. I'm black and this is literally not a problem to me in fact I think it adds to the game. Adding a person of color to a game shouldn't be a huge factor unless it relates to the time and setting. And it's even more insulting to me to swap races, like do you think I'll feel happy no I would be insulted because someone clearly did it not because they cared but because they were trying to attract more customers or avoid backlash. Racism is a serious topic and one I very much believe in but to add it to stories like other. Plus I'm a firm believer in the fact that you can show racism without having a person of color the use of elves is a good example drawing a parallel to reality while keeping a sense of escapism. I apologize for the long essay plus I'm sure you also have good point I can understand your view tho but I just disagree

[@angel8fingers]

@@goldenrequiem7533 well said buddy!

[@Andrekurzephimimus]

​@@goldenrequiem7533 I live in Argentina, I am from Argentina, and here most people are white since we've got a lot of italian heritage. This makes sense, we don't currently have a strong enough economy to warrant people from other countries to try their luck with us. The problem is that The Witcher didn't have a reason to be this white. It didn't need to be black; but it did have the option to be more diverse given how the conjunction of the spheres works in the lore. I don't belive that you need to have people of colour to show racism. Nor that escapism is really the objective of the series as a whole, specially considering how knee-deep in politics the whole thing is. The reason the books and games make so many references to fairy tales and polish mythology (as well as the fact that redania sometimes serves as an analog) is because Sapkowsky used the narrative frame of the conjunctions to insert said stories. I'm sure that if given more knowledge about the subject he whould've interjected myths from Asia and South America and Africa. But he wrote of what he knew, he wrote of poland and europe.

[@sygyzy0933]

So just forget elves? Dwarves? People from nazair and ofir? I'm not understanding why the witcher 3 having a bunch of white people is a bad thing? You had me up until there chief I'm black btw and the witcher 3 is also my favorite game but trying to insert real world race politics into the witcher isn't okay. Different races do exist and there are different cultures among the white people in the game, skellige and novigrad etc are very different. I disagree hugely

[@MrJade12]

And his main complaint is that there is no reason for everyone to be white even though thats a thing in the books because the darker skinned people live in parts of the world the story isnt set in even though we hear about them.

[@1098765432wo1]

bugs me aswell.

[@sadpee7710]

SYGYZY0 for a nitpick, you would definitely except more "racial" variety so to speak on the human side, even for a medieval setting. especially from nilfgaard: a huge colonial empire spanning a gigantic territory and which is built off of assimilating other cultures and civilizations. they conquer distant lands and (as we see in thronebreaker) force them to join their empire. moreover they bring slaves in from foreign nations and conscript them in their armies and such. you'd expect more. even skellige could have gotten away with more diversity seeing as how they too go pillaging and waging war from afar. though admittedly they're more isolationist. so stylistically i think they fit better as is. lastly there's novigrad. an independent city state, the center of the universe. the melting pot of humans and nonhumans alike and a kind of safehaven for all the world's wanderers. as we see in the game novigrad accept refugees and people are attracted there because of their neutral status. mages and nonhumans used to thrive there until the witch hunters came, but even then it's still the most diverse city in the game. you can see people from velen keeping asylum there and overhear guards talking about it for example. novigrad has nilfgaardian estates and ambassadors, it has skellige tourists and citizens. you can find nonhumans and humans aplenty. lastly it houses the major temple for the eternal fire which should boost their population-flow immensely, kind of like a mecca type effect where people travel far to come visit and stay temporarily. with all that said and done why do all the white people in novigrad look the same? even for a medieval setting that's unheard of. well... the answer is definitely just budgetary and managerial limitations. still. that's what makes this a nitpick. not saying novigrad or nilfgaard should have been a futuristic/cyberpunk level of diverse with colorful crowds no matter where one goes. but you'd expect more than what's on offer is all.

[@Spellweaver5]

Also he uses the portals as a justification even if it's obvious they are an expensive way of travel used almost exclusively by mages and most people use horses or boats. One could of course say that authors could make those portals readily accessible, widespread enough for multiculturalism to exist. But if they did, the world would be very different in a lot of ways. Logistics would be different. War would be very different. The world would no longer be medieval, feudal Northern Realms could no longer possibly exist. It would require to rewrite the whole world (and I mean full scale rewriting until it doesn't look remotely like a Witcher) to account for that or suffer the inconsistent worldbuilding. And for what? Just to let there be more people of color in Novigrad, as if it would be an objectively better thing and not just different worldbuilding. (this whole comment would be easily applicable to Netflix show btw)

[@LateToThaParty]

I still wish there were more elves and dwarves and other fantasy humanoids. They seemed more like myths in witcher 3.

[@N_Wah_]

One of the most interesting things about this game is the combat, but I gotta say I actually quite enjoyed it on death March since the knowledge of each enemy can give you quite a leg up compared to the normal difficulty where you can hack n slash through almost every fight.

[@ageoflove1980]

I think the game is very "inclusive". It deals with discrimination against magic users and racism against non-humans like elves and dwarves. With sexism against women and alot more of very relevant social issues, but in the context of The Witchers world, instead of our own. It shows the motives of the Witch Hunters who need "scapegoats" to justify their reason to exist with the horrible consequenses that come with this. And The Witcher tells these stories in a mature way. It doesnt tell you what to think, it just shows why people do what they do and what terrible things they are capable of, and then leaves it to you to draw your own conclusions.

[@RightWing1]

Agree. also the day they start including LGBGTXYZ main themes in games like this they'll be crap

[@chefcooks86]

@@RightWing1 there are way more crap games with straight relationships than any games at all that have lgbt representation in it.

[@SinaelDOverom]

@@chefcooks86 The problem is not the inclusivity. The problem is hamfisted and badly written inclusivity. Putting an LGBTQ/black/otherr person in the game just so devs could point at them and claim they support is tokenism, and tokenism is just as bad as non-inclusivity.

[@alexscriabin]

@@RightWing1 luckily for transphobes like you, CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077 was very transphobic and thus very not crap... unluckily for you, it was crap too.

[@alexscriabin]

@@SinaelDOverom black humans in The Witcher isn't tokenism, it's just normal in a story about humans versus elves/dwarves.

[@cozminr]

skjall died when he tried to prove he wasnt a coward killed by morkvarg pay attention this is sloppy

[@boilaknezzi8974]

RA I care, fuck your shitty opinion :)

[@Spellweaver5]

@RA Yeah, those nerds and their lore. Playing games all day, they should go get a life or something. Stupid gamer nerds.

[@Mitsonify]

The lack of "colour" when it comes to people populating the world of the Witcher 3 is present due to the places portrayed. The game is based on Prusso-Polish lands in a medieval time period with magic as a fantasy element. That alone shouldn't mean that it's open season to add every possible ethnicity just to satisfy a modern quota. Other ethnicities are talked and portayed in game with a wonder and mystery and an example of this is a book writen (in game) about them. The book is called "Wonders of Zerrikania" which is a land vastly unexplored in the witcher universe, by both games and books, filled by predominantly coloured people. You can encouter Zerrikanians travelers, who are in universe Arabic and are portayed with a vast knowledge, even surpassing the people present in game. Due to the lack of diversity in game, this encouter is made even more special and makes me wish there was and Zerrikenia based DLC.

[@migkillerphantom]

Alchemy builds are just one of the ways to minmax. I went for fast attacks and speed through cat school gear, and would dominate fights without any consumable items or thinking. Just one button, and keep moving/dodging. Let the DPS do the work.

[@twinmama42]

Dear Chris, again a superb critique, this time of my favourite game of all time. I don't agree with everything you said but with most and I just wanted to add some of my thoughts, while watching the video. 22:50 Geralt helps Ciri to destroy the elven lab (and all the other choices contributing) - resulting in Ciri's survival. One of Ciri's main character traits is her desire for freedom. She always felt imprisoned in some kind of trap or cage (and may it be golden). She grew up not only as a princess but as the heiress to the throne. She was restricted by the strict regime of her grandmother, who didn't shy away from corporal punishment. She was supposed to marry prince Kistrin of Verden (?) when she was still a child but ran away. The dryads wanted her to become one. Geralt sent her back to Calanthe. When Cintra was conquered Calanthe organized her escape. She got snatched by Cahir but managed to get away and stay with a family in the Riverlands (?). Geralt finds her and brings her to Kaer Morhen. Even though she is happy there, this was not her decision. Then the adults decide to send her to Ellander and Yen later wants her to attend Aretusa. And again, none of those decisions are her own. So she runs away, again, to find Geralt in Hirundum. Later Yen summons her to the chamber and council of the wizards. In the Korath desert, she has the first opportunity to decide for herself but is captured and handled like a package again. When there are no more adults to decide for her, she is forced by the circumstances to act in a certain way. I often had the impression Ciri felt like a ball in a pinball machine for most of her life - and she is tired of it. She wants to deal with it for good. And Geralt encouraging her to decide for herself, to feel free to decide for herself, heightens her self-esteem, makes her stronger. That's why Geralt's decisions (the right ones at least) help her survive. 26:20 The rose of remembrance - this item is a clear indicator of why to chose Yen over Triss, even for game-onlies. TW2 clearly stated the rose of remembrance would be blossoming and being alive, if it was given in true love. Yet, in TW3 it was dried up. Conclusion: Geralt didn't feel true love, when he gave it to Triss. That's why Yen is the only viable choice. 28:40 Sapkowski - speakers of English can't seem to get it right. Please: sapp - koff - skee 46:30 continuity problem with Jaques de Aldersberg / Alvin - there is none. He was able to time-travel, just like Ciri. He probably traveled to the distant future, where the problem of the White Frost was already solved . We know from the last novel "Lady of the Lake", that books, notes, records, pictures esp. from this time and part of the continent are scarce, even one or a few centuries later. So it might have been lost knowledge WHO defeated the White Frost. Alvin/Jaques couldn't find out, maybe heard rumors of the Order of the Flaming Rose, of a "child of the Elder Blood" and a she. But as he probably had even more problems with navigating space and time as Ciri (who had a unicorn and an elven sage as teachers, whereas he had nobody to teach him) he couldn't be sure, so he had to try to save the world his way anyway and he left the letter for Geralt, just in case he failed. 1:40:00 Dijkstra's fate - I'm angry with CDPR because of this. Dijkstra is one of the best characters in the novels. I really liked his (and Radovid's father Visimirs's) vision of a more enlightened and civilized Redania, his intelligence and patriotism. And CDPR did him justice in the game in the way they portrayed him. But, the forced decision between him and the Temerian lot wasn't a decision at all. Thaler helped Geralt in TW1, Roche and Ves helped Geralt in TW2 and TW3, including the battle of Kaer Morhen. And what was Dijkstra's contribution? A small amount of money, if at all. I'm always sorry to kill him, but to sacrifice Roche, Ves and Thaler is out of the question for me. 2:55:00 Roach is a mare, a "she". Yes, there are some bugs, yet relatively few regarding the scope of the game. I never encountered any bugs with Roach btw, but I didn't whistle her in narrow confinements or within city gates, that would have been stupid. I sometimes have problems with talking to certain merchants and smiths. On occasion, I encountered problems when trying to dive. In both cases saving and reloading would solve the problem. My impression of the story and lore in connection to the books: I think CDPR did a phenomenal job. The overwhelming majority of book characters in the games (and add-ons) are portrayed in a fitting manner. The characters, the world-building and the kind of stories are true to the source material. Yes, Emhyr appears to be a much more likable character than in the books. Yet, there is one moment in "The Lady of the Lake", where he revokes his plan to take Ciri with him and leaves her with Geralt and Yen. Ciri had been a means to an end for him for such a long time. And then he sees her for the first time after about 10 years or so. He feels and acts like a father for the first time, recognizing that Geralt and Yen were more of parents to her, than he ever could, maybe even recognizing that Ciri had to come to him of her free will. He could have taken Ciri by force, but he didn't, because he knew, that in forcing her to come with him to Nilfgaard meant he lost her for good. And this development in character is caught with CDPR's vision of him. I don't mind the difficulty being too easy for your taste. I'm a woman in my mid-fifties and I've only started playing computer-games about seven years ago (besides casual games, "Civilization" type turn-based strategy or The Sims). My skills with the controller and mouse/keyboard respectively are limited as are my reflexes and reaction-times. I heavily depend on the use of oils, potions, and concoctions even on the easier difficulties. And I'm grateful CDPR provides me the possibility to play their games until the credits roll. Because more often than not, I run into barriers in games of other developers, that I can't overcome. And I guess, I'm not the only one. My standard is: I play RPGs for the story. I'd rather have a superb story with a mediocre combat-system than the other way round. I'd rather play another 1000 hours of TW3 than one hour of Dark Souls (the story in these games may be excellent, I just can't bear the way it's told) with dying over and over again. I get the excitement and satisfaction by fighting a special boss enemy and eventually figuring him out and defeating him, I really do. But that's not my kind of game. So please, don't measure the experience with your personal standards. Yes, you said, your expectations were set on a RPG and therefore you didn't expect too much from it, yet you describe it as "too easy" (with the connotation of "in general"). It isn't "too easy" for me, so this reflects only your "personal standard". Please don't consider yourself as the standard. Nonetheless, I really appreciated your critical look at my number one RPG and I' looking forward to the video on the "add-ons", not DLCs. The DLCs were just little bits and pieces and some quests, free of charge. CU twinmama

[@KingsandGenerals]

If they ever make a Mistborn game, they can have all of my money

[@michimatsch5862]

Kings and Generals I wish there were battle videos for the Witcher and mistborn like the ones you do.

[@boomshakalaka7353]

Yooo I love your videos. My favourite is Darius and his greatest lie. You should do a vid on Witcher like you did Game of thrones!!!!

[@DrSubtle]

Kings and Generals commented on your channel? Beautiful lol. This is the most in-depth analysis of The Witcher 3. My hat's off to you, Ser, holy shit. Well done. Edit: Like playing The Witcher 3, I'm gonna watch it again lol.

[@FinneousPJ1]

You must not have much money.

[@SaberRexZealot]

I wouldn’t recommend giving them any more money lol

[@Accuracy158]

Of course Chris is a SJW. 😂 I'm not exactly ready to rage in the comments but I was far more entertained by that part of the video than I should of been, to point of honestly laughing out loud. I guess catching me off guard helped make it a lot funnier than I'd expect. When the "whiteness of the world" gets brought up I was wondering what Chris is referring to, whether it was something about moral decisions or an artistic/lighting choice (he was just talking about artists going over the environment) and the fact that he was referring to race hit me way out of left field. I just wasn't expecting this to be a race thing for a second even though I should have been and picked up on it immediately.

[@darknessviking]

yeah im sad he is that. it makes me remember when Gus from that Rooster channel called the kingdom come deverlopers racist for having only white people in their game about their own country 600 years earlier.

[@TheStuebi1]

"Too many whites" is still one of those bottom of the barrel criticisms a lot of people dug out because they couldn't find anything else to be unreasonably mad about. That and the fact that the Bloody Baron Quest was actually presented with some shades of grey instead of "Beating wife bad, mkay?"

[@nietzschean3138]

It's all part of the 'culture of critique' mate. University courses indoctrinate students in that sort of analysis now: Marxism for class, Postcolonialism and Intersectionality for race, Feminism and Queer for gender/sexuality etc. All from the same shitty schools of thought that emerged around the 60's and later. Unfortunately it's what passes for criticism and analysis these days. In only a few places will you find, for example, literature courses teaching things like formalism, narratology etc. It's power politics disguised as academic analysis for the tl;dr version.

[@LukeSparrow221]

The game has a fucking genderfluid elf. What do SJW's want at this point?

[@Intertubercularis]

I actually first thought he was talking about the lighting, the whole American sjw nonsense is so silly to me that the idea of putting more ''non white people'' in polish story about elves dwarves etc. is the last thing that comes to mind. Do Americans view elves and dwarves as white lmao?

[@casizle377]

I love this game. I also remember vividly when I got the Winter's Blade. You described the epitome of what I felt perfectly. Didn't really even think about it (since it was such a commonality throughout the game) until I heard you mention it. But now I clearly recall being somewhat on edge... only to look at it in my inventory and going "Hmmmmm..." with a slight head tilt.

[@cr-nd8qh]

Lol yep I did the same thing

[@Ken-ss1en]

At least it looked nice on my wall at Corvo Bianco

[@alittlecreepywhenyou]

Goodnews! They fixed it with the NextGen update.

[@Corrupted]

beautiful video for a beautiful series, well done chris!

[@cozminr]

the reason geralt was so chummy with letho is they had history before the 2nd game geralt had saved lethos life but didnt remember because of amnesia did you do any research at all about these characters?

[@cozminr]

@Old World Blues yeah I stopped watching. 3 hours of garbage

[@lionfire3359]

Geralt letho and 2 other wotvhers Geralt killed 1 when they tried to assassinate king Hensley where on a mission to track down the white hunt.

[@fbritannia]

He mentions that in the video, he specifically says they had history but it didn't seem like a close friendship was stablished. Did you even poot attention to the video?

[@cozminr]

@@fbritannia shut up stupid

[@nenadmilovanovic5271]

@@fbritannia they say in the Witcher 2 Letho, Serrit and Auckes saved Geralt's life before the events of Witcher 2.

[@neamraven]

1:15:26 "We can see that from the TV show." Oh yes, the wonderful TV show that is so very good. The one that puts feminism and so called 'diversity', as well as embarrassing fan fiction, over good writing and a good representation of the actual Witcher world--the world from the books and the games rather than the one existing within the warped SJW mind of the (post)modern American progressive left ideologue.

[@Andrekurzephimimus]

Ok mate, there's a lot, and I mean a metric shit ton of 'lot' of things to hate about the witcher show, but please be a little bit more elocuent. Simply saying that the show is shit because it has leftist ideals is just as bad as me saying I hate Game of Thrones for being "too righty". That's not good critisism. I cannot dismiss an argument by simply being woke bullshit; that would make me an ignorant twat. Elaborate. I for one dislike the show because 1. Its poorly paced, confusing, and adds a lot of unnecessary scenes with characters that matter to no-one. 2. Represents the protagonists in a boring way. 3. Doesn't work as an adaptation. 4. Every new thing it adds to the plot subtracts from the narrative. 5. Plot holes a plenty. 6. The comedy was 10 times better in the books. The only thing I like about the show is Dandelion/Jaskier. I think he's pretty neat, I like his songs and he portrays the character sometimes better than even the games.

[@JN-vn4ng]

1:10:10 You seriously took that route?

[@DBOwens]

I almost suffocated while laughing when you mentioned that the fantasy version of Poland doesn't have enough color.

[@Antiformed]

could do without the meaningless droning about skin color but otherwise good video

[@xcaluhbration]

Not meaningless to all of us

[@amwsmiles]

@@xcaluhbration Meaningless to the extreme. Stop dragging your skin colour into this. i say this as a "PoC". No one needs your pity.

[@xcaluhbration]

@@amwsmiles not asking for pity, it's just a point is all. I'm not interested in taking anything from anyone or "cancelling" someone for their artistic choices but simply noting it's nice to hear someone else feels the same way about the fantasy genre as a whole. The games are no less amazing for having mostly "white" skinned characters because the story isn't predicated off of skin color, just as the Netflix series was no less amazing good having more characters "of color" in it.

[@xcaluhbration]

@@MatijaDrame95 no need for name calling or insults, G. We can have a legit discussion where you bring your points to the table and I'll listen to you.

[@AmericanHairlines69]

@@xcaluhbration All ginger characters from comics have been blackwashed in movies. There is no red headed superhero character nowdays. You go on social media and black people are boasting and celebrating about how "we got another whitey" whenever this happens. If there is to talk about skin color I think white people have every right to complain.

[@Keogyn]

Really like the video, but one inaccuracy really irks me: The Bloody Baron does not "beat his wife so hard one day that she miscarries". He gets drunk, and she and his daughter take the opportunity to pack their bags and run away. The Baron, drunk, tries to stop them, and the wife then bludgeons him with a candlestick. At that point, she'd already made a pact with the Crones to get rid of her unborn baby out of her hatred for him. I'm not pointing this out is to defend a fictional character who is undoubtedly abusive (people who play the game will have varying degrees of sympathy for him anyway), but it's an important distinction to make, because it helps to muddy the waters and make the dynamic of their relationship so grey. The Baron's wife is also guilty of some pretty shitty stuff - a long-term affair among other things - and those details help to support the developers' aim of making the whole situation morally ambiguous. The rest of the video is top-notch, I hasten to add.

[@nicosonico94]

There is a secret resolution to the Bloody Baron questline (or at least there was at game release, might have been a bug but there were journal lines about it so I don't think so). SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY! If you go and free the Nightmare under the tree BEFORE you meet with the witches and they ask you to kill it, they won't be able to blame it on the wife and thus she won't die, but neither will the Baron. Best of both worlds.

[@Demon-cleaver]

A quick correction regarding the English localization of the game and accents in the game: 1) The Skeligens have a Scottish and Irish mix of accents with settle pronunciations of names in an old Nordic language... not strictly Irish 2) The people of Beauclair thou appearing in a very French manner of speech are actually Danish in their accents with small hints of old English... this misconception is due to the pronunciation of many of the names there (Beauclair literally means 'beautiful clear' in French) as well as some fantasy tropes present over the years. 3) To emphasize the Strange and unnatural the CDPR opted for Welsh accents for probably obvious reasons, as the Welsh language is considered one with plenty of oddities in phonetics and pronunciation. 4) For local peasant and farmers, there can be observed a small hint of eastern European accents in language mannerisms or phrases and sayings.

[@dex6630]

Not saying you are wrong, but in the time I played with the game which is around 150 hours, all of the skelligans accents I heard were specifically Northern Irish, I would guess from memory roughly based around the Belfast, Antrim area. I don't recall hearing any Scottish accents. Maybe I missed them as its a big game, but it seems like it was very easy to do so.

[@MarkHogan994]

There are no Scottish accents in Skellige. The dwarves in the game have Scottish accents (Zoltan, Vimme Vivaldi, etc...). The Skelligers pretty much all have various Irish accents, most of them being Northern Irish. As for the people of Beauclair, it is not really a Danish accent at all. I'm not sure where you got that. Though obviously I agree that it isn't French either. It's honestly a strange hybrid accent, it seems to me. As for peasants and such, most of them have various English accents. There are no Eastern European accents in the game. Sayings and mannerisms are a different story.

[@Demon-cleaver]

@@MarkHogan994 Everything I commented was based on what I saw in Noclips documentary regarding the Witcher games. Mainly the interviews with the lead worl designers... there was actualy an entire segment regarding the accents used throughout the Witcher 3

[@aplank2898]

Joseph Anderson be like: "I'm about to end this man's career"

[@MrAskmannen]

In 3 years when he finally releases his video*

[@ethanbrunott7223]

How so?

[@garlae9329]

Thanks for the great video! There are few minor things that I noticed that I would like to point out. DLC quest Contract : Skellige's Most Wanted the werewolf will attack no matter what you did. "...will cause all but the werewolf to back down, but blinded by hatred, the werewolf will force you to fight and kill him" from the wikia. Also there was a bug where you couldn't get bloody baron's gwent card if he died or left with his wife. From the wikia " You will not be able to win the gwent card from the baron in the quest Gwent: Velen Players if you complete the quest Return to Crookback Bog first. With Patch 1.20, you can find his card in a box in his office."

[@hpcarlos2255]

2/27/20 - built a Pc Rig that Can handle the Witcher III @ Ultra quality / 1080p / 144hz with Great FrameTimes ( Very important ) Runs NICE 🎮 R7-3700x 4.5ghz + 32 gb & Rtx 2060 Super 🕹 with tons of Enb’s + other Mods = 🍷 i’ve been gaming Since Atari 2600 & Commodore 64c days & i still Rock this game Weekly. 🖥

[@joethealternativegamer3935]

You lost me on the “whiteness” part. Also how is a dev from Warhorse a racist? clarification would have been nice as it was just thrown in there with not much context.

[@mejdlocraftci]

yeah it was like mid-way through he realized he had forgotten to put some politics in

[@antonisharris-arocho2119]

Yeah, I had to look up and pause and wonder if my beloved retrospective videos were going to become PC speak pieces. I think the real problem is people seek validation and recognition from things like books, movies, and games. Nobody addresses that that isn't healthy.

[@tiagoandre7114]

Imagina a movie about Hitler and nazis, and someone complaining about the lack of black nazis! Not a nazi or white supremacist, but a game based on the slavic and Eastern European mythology with colored people? Not historically correct, thus the comparison with the black nazis!

[@mejdlocraftci]

@@tiagoandre7114 behold, Battlefield V

[@tiagoandre7114]

@@mejdlocraftci really? FPS aren't my type of game, but that's stupid

[@blastermaster5039]

>And she barely bat an eyelid. Dude. Just look at Yen's face, observe her body posture. She's hugging herself after what she has done to the dead body of Skjald. She knows she's done wrong but she doesn't want to show it. Yen is not as cold as you think she is. And no, she doesn't treat Geralt as a child or a lackey at all, specially if you play Geralt as assertive, capable of bantering back and not afraid to stand up against her from time to time. She is a strong woman and will push at you so Geralt has to push back, an action and response which Yennefer loves since it made her stand toe to toe with a man who is not a toadie but a partner whom she can trust.

[@teahousereloaded]

The one thing I owe to ign is a discussion about how you can (and should) play the Witcher without any HUD. The game is so well written and designed that if you pay attention people will describe you exactly where to go. For one of the first open world RPGs (of this scope) this is a huge achievement.

[@allhopeabandon7831]

Great idea! I have played thru the main story and both DLCs several times...I am now on a no Witcher til the next gen update releases and I am going to do just that...I always thought how it sucked that you have to watch this little round circle in the top right corner of t your screen and miss all the beautiful scenery, it's kinda like the people who go to a concert and spend the whole time watching through their phone so they can get clout pics.

[@valgusAllergik]

Really nice critique! Looking forward to your next work, take your time!

[@seanjones9473]

I've been waiting for this for a long time. Can't wait to watch it 45 times over the next few months. Love your content sir.

[@JoshGolus]

My opinion on Witcher 3 has always been that the game doesn't do any one thing the best out of the entire industry, or even within its own genre. But what it does do the best of any game ever is the combination of deep combat, exploration, world design, and cinematic, immersive narratives across a massive, lovingly crafted world. It's not any one thing that makes Witcher 3 the best game ever, it's how it accomplishes so much on such a wide scale. Unlike Skyryim, which is often considered to be as wide as an ocean but deep as a puddle, Witcher 3 finally realizes that idea of being as wide and deep as an ocean.

[@yono2765]

chris saving us all from the quarantine with this behemoth

[@pvtspartan]

Oh yay I I white dude standing up for my arbitrary inclusion in historically based video games that's not cringe or patronizing at all 1st world problems

[@boilaknezzi8974]

It’s never a POC that has a problem with it lol, always a white person getting offended on your behalf

[@CeroAshura]

@@boilaknezzi8974 "white man's burden" never stopped, it just changed form.

[@QwertySparrow]

M Murphy omg, I totally agree. My fragile ass feels insecure when I see anyone outside my race. How dare they wish to see someone who looks like them. After all. People did travel back then and even settled in other areas of the world.

[@simone105]

@@QwertySparrow yeah but they were extremely rare, plus the witcher world isn't like our world.

[@TheMysterieRPGguy]

You and Joseph Anderson are filling my evenings nicely 4 hours from him on the witcher 1 and now 3 hours from you on wild hunt, very nice thank you.

[@nataljajurisa4679]

First Josephs video now this, what a treat this week has been.

[@alekdoesvideos]

You've completely missed half of the background behind Tower of mice quest. And in general there are plenty mistakes in the review. Also 15 minute SJW speech in the middle. WTF

[@ghostoflazlo]

The witcher games are extremely diverse. No, not from a woke 2020 perspective where PoC should be shoehorned in for the sake of just being there. But in it's own context of being a solid built up world. There are racial tension between the humans, elves and dwarves. How humans look down on dopplers is a great example, just look at the quest "The play's the thing" and how that is handled. That is a prime example of how racial tension is very much a part of the witcher universe. There are wars and downright genocide due to these tensions so making any argument that skin colour is the only way to create diversion is being a bit dishonest and imo a very lazy way of looking at things. So what would making some carachter black add to anything? Except some people feeling better about themselves from SjW perspective. I hate that term but I think its fitting here. Even laying the eastern european argument aside it still wouldn't benefit the story in any way because that's looking at it from just that, a woke perspective that exist for no other reason than just being woke.

[@lisztdylan7846]

It's not though, the world would be more realistic if there are more people of color if you can't wrap your head around that I'm sorry, its really not the complicated

[@ghostoflazlo]

@@lisztdylan7846 you want a world inhabited by elves, drowners and vywerns to be "more realistic"? You see the flaw in your point here huh?

[@lisztdylan7846]

​@@ghostoflazlo you realise when i say realism i mean realism in the context of a fantasy setting, how moronic do you have to be to not get that. eg. it would break realism if ciri was all poerful and could easily defeat the wild hunt as it would break the narrative just like the ofieri only appearing in the hearts of stone and literally not appearing in 'the free city of Novigrad at any point' is a plothole and breaks immersion.

[@Spellweaver5]

​@@lisztdylan7846 in context of a fantasy setting it's realistic that people of different skin colors live in different parts of the world because there hasn't been mass slave transportation like in America to move black people away from their homeland. They also haven't invented airplanes yet to allow for easy migration.

[@hollowtomato]

@@lisztdylan7846 If diversity comes down to shoehorning people of colour in to Northern Kingdoms and calling them nordlings like the Netflix series did, then it's immersion breaking. If it's done right, like in the Hearts of Stone expansion, it creates more immersion and the world building is organical, not forced.

[@tantricoath]

I never understood the issue with 99% of people being white in the Witcher 3, this continent is like he says based of medieval northern Europe so I expect it to be homogeneous, but we do see some people of colour specifically the Ofieri who seem to be middle eastern/ Turkish/ north African and the ofieri we meet describe their homeland as a very vast land of fallen empires and kingdoms now unified. so I suspect that if we were to ever visit ofir we would mostly see people who look middle eastern and with the inclusion of the new armour in the next gen update their is most likely a nation that fills the role of an Asian nation. so to me this world just seems to be in a period of time before migration was made easier and peoples are just more homogeneous to their own region. I do hope we get to see ofir in the next Witcher game that cdpr has revealed they are making, the descriptions of ofir from the traders in hearts of stone made me wish to see a more warmer climate than that of the norther realms.

[@snark4611]

i just got over my addiction and this appears in my recommendations... GUESS I'M FUCKIN' RELAPSING WOOOOOOOO

[@exerzet2661]

Chris Davis, you had me enjoying your video until you, blinded by your "inclusivity" bias and fully ignored what you'd said before. "No cultural diversity" you said, but you just got done praising the different clans and cultures of Skellige, Novigrad and Nilfgard. What? Not enough cultural diversity in vastly different cultures, if there aren't enough shades of colour in peoples' skin? That is incredibly bigoted, and I am disappointed in you.

[@MisterAAnderson]

That's not right. What is bigoted is dumping the Scoia'tael when they were part of the main story in the first two games. Racism is a big part of The Witcher books and games. No way around that.

[@neamraven]

@@MisterAAnderson Fuck the terrorist elves.

[@MisterAAnderson]

@@neamraven Fuck the fascist d'hoine.

[@Nizer798]

@@MisterAAnderson the elves were the real fascists tbh, they just think they are a higher race than everyone else

[@MisterAAnderson]

@@Nizer798 Yeah it kind of works both ways. The majority will always oppress the minority. When humans are majoritarian they trample over non-humans. When non-humans are in the majority, they trample over humans. A twisted mirror of real life.

[@davidl8111]

The fight of this century : Joseph Anderson versus Chris Davis on the topic of the witcher. Who will win this XD

[@Jetslurpfunk]

chris just needs to release his in the backwards order

[@Reloaded2111]

Why are they both reviewing same game anyway?

[@JD-gf7ur]

Joe.

[@davidl8111]

@@Reloaded2111 Probably because they thought they could time it with the release of either the netflix show or cyberpunk. Joseph Anderson seems to have already finished all the videos ,so he probably started months ago.

[@JD-gf7ur]

@@brapmaster sounds shit

[@1tsunnamed239]

2:09:25 you know there is a thing called the "lock on" feature if you need to target a single enemy. Don't get me wrong, I love this critique and I get what you're saying but this one thing for some reason pisses me off.

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

Imo the combat was fun, but like I said IMO. I love how I learned the system, and when to dodge, and which dodge to use, and what signs are gonna stun, and hurt the enemy.

[@dathunderman4]

I thought it was too, until I played a game with actual good melee combat.

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

@@dathunderman4 yea there is better but I still enjoyed it even after using other systems from other games

[@leoroth6162]

Weird how two of the best game critics/analysers/complainers do the same game almost in unison to extreme depths ;) great job boys!

[@FinneousPJ1]

"The game doesn't need to be white" is a horrible argument, as it goes both ways. The game doesn't need to be non-white either, so then what. Need to find a better argument.

[@lazaglider]

I'm afraid people like Chris use 'white' as a perjorative.

[@nenadmilovanovic5271]

"Sekiro doesn't need to be all yellow, put some arabs there in middle of Edo Japan. It is fantasy after all." Chris Davis probably

[@m13b]

What a weird conclusion for him to arrive at. - He admits that the world the time, place, and setting the Witcher borrows from was not "diverse" in the way modern massive western metropoli are - He admits that even today the majority of the world is not a sprinkling of diversity like the aforementioned modern massive western metropoli - He applauds CDPRs great efforts to create a realistic lived in world And then he goes a full 180 and advocates for an unrealistic smattering of diversity that progressive writers so often lean toward these days. There are ways to add diversity that would make sense; being mindful of geographic barriers and in-group preference that to this day has cultural and racial groups willingly separate themselves from different groups even in the most diverse of cities. As a minority living in the greater Toronto area I can attest to this. But people like Chris have no commitment to telling a believable tory and prefer the idealistic, nonsensical route so they can signal "virtue" to their comrades.

[@BohemianStix]

I was offended when I watched the fresh Prince as there was no White main characters... oh wait no I wasn't as I'm not a woke snowflake.

[@Andrekurzephimimus]

I don't think thats the root of the problem. The problem is that the Witcher setting enables better than no other on fantasy writing to show people of diverse races. The conjunction brought humans to the continent, all maner of them, from all parts of earth. The witcher is not an alternative version of earth, it is not set on europe. The fact that the Ofiri exist but they are *all* middle eastern-coded is as much of a wasted oportunity that could very much be called a plot hole. The problem is not *only* that the game is too white, is that it had a perfectly servicable excuse not to be and refused to take it. But then you have these dipshit ragamuffins that say that a fantasy show is "woke propaganda" because it included a black guy as a minor character. Sapkowsky never really talks about skin color in his books, not even in the original Polish.

[@sandelic1]

Somehow you played for "hundreds of hours" and got so many things wrong. That's an achievement in itself. And I'm not even going to comment on that, quite frankly, weird 'not enough POC' comment. Firegon22 did that really eloquently.

[@lionfire3359]

Ha ha,ha.

[@joeyvdm1]

Awesome. Thanks so much Chris. I have been looking forward to this critique for months. Loved your Witcher 1 and 2 critiques and been eagerly awaiting this one. Yo da man👍Can't think of a better way to enjoy isolation.

[@ChefandStuff913]

A Polish game studio made a game based on Polish mythology with characters that look like 98% of the Polish population (this isn’t a ballpark estimate, Poland is 98% Caucasian). And you’re telling them they shouldn’t have? I’d 100% edit that asinine moral posturing out of this critique to save yourself some headache.

[@Jan_von_Gratschoff]

I've lost count how many times I've played through the base game and both dlc's. And here I am, under quarantine and just finished the main story, and moving on to Hearts of stone and Blood and wine after that. :) For me, The Witcher 3 and FF VII are sharing the top spot for all time greatest games.

[@alexdenton6586]

For me, it was a huge surprise, a very beautiful discovery. I was all the more disappointed when Cyberpunk 2077 came out - you can imagine. And I'm not talking about the bugs because at the time I was playing on PC so I was rather spared compared to console players. I'm talking about the overall quality. If someone had told me that Cyberpunk had been designed by EA, I could have believed it, such is the huge difference in quality between the two. I really hope that CD Projekt will recover and find their mojo again.

[@toddpacker1015]

Witcher 3 is simply the 🐐

[@alexdenton6586]

@@toddpacker1015 oh yeah baby I play it 3 or 4 times a year since it's release