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