About to start The Witcher 3. Never played 1 or 2. Anything I should know?

[danzibr]

What it says on the tin.

Should probably say... no spoilers from 3 please. Which is why I’m asking here instead of Google. Feel free to spoil 1 and 2 though.

Thanks!

[Anteros]

I'm positive that many more people have played just 3 than have played the entire series. I don't think there's anything you really need to know that isn't made clear in 3 itself.

[Aotrs Commander]

If you have Blood and Wine, I highly recommend you either leave it until after you've done the main quest and Hearts of Stone, or just do a little bit, then finish the aforementioned (in whatever order you chose, I finished Hearts of Stone before I wrapped up the main quest) before completing it, as that expansion makes a REALLY nice cool-down and epilogue (the cheerier weather helps with that).

Other than that, my playthrough was 215 hours (I did basically everything) and it held my interest contiuously throughout that time and I didn't - as I often do - break to play anything else in that period, which is pretty hgh praise; so enjoy yourself.



If on PC, it is worth the time to have a nosey at the mods available; for my playthrough, I used one done by one of the developers (FCR3), plus FriendlyHUD, Map Objectives, Nitpickers, slots, slots, slots and an XP mod - took a little juggling to get it all together, but it was a very enjoyable experience.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Nothing strictly necessary that's isn't explained, but I can give a summary anyhow.

So at the end of the books, Ciri (object of prophecy) saved Yen and Geralt by hiding them on a magically hidden isle, while a league of female sorceresses has been formed to control the kingdoms of the North, and the antagonistic empire of Nilfgaard is tenuously held at bay.

Game 1 is mostly disconnected from the novels, as an amnesiac Geralt is caught in a civil war fought in Temeria between Elf and Dwarf separatists and terrorists and a racist fascist holy order on the other, as he hunts down a secret order that stole the Witcher secrets. It ends with the King of Temeria highly endebted to Geralt, both for ending the civil war and for saving his life from an unknown witcher assassin.

Game 2 has Geralt framed for the second, successful assassination on the King of Temeria, after they also assassinate the King of Aedirn. He hunts down the strange group of Witchers who have been killing Kings, in the process allying either with the Temeria secret service and the King of Kaedwen, or with a union of peasants, elves, dwarves and a handful of Aedirnian nobles, dallying with sorceresses either way, and the recovering his memories over time. At the end, it's revealed that the Lodge of Sorceresses had begun the assassinations but then their assassins went rogue, so the King of Redania (while potentially also gaining control of Temeria, depending on your actions) starts a witch hunt, purging all magic users, and especially sorceresses. You confront the leader of the assassins, the man who framed Geralt, who reveals that a whole pile of stuff. First off, Yen had been kidnapped by the Wild Hunt, and Geralt had hunted them down, and offered to replace her in their ranks, and then escaped (hence the insomnia), that Yen was alive and in Nilfgaard, and that Nilfgaard had actually hired the assassins away from the Lodge to weaken the Northern Kingdoms for a new invasion, which has already begun.

Witcher 3 begins after the war has reached a stalemate. All of Temeria has been overrun, when Geralt receives a letter from Yen requesting they meet.

[Keltest]

Nothing strictly necessary that's isn't explained, but I can give a summary anyhow.

So at the end of the books, Ciri (object of prophecy) saved Yen and Geralt by hiding them on a magically hidden isle, while a league of female sorceresses has been formed to control the kingdoms of the North, and the antagonistic empire of Nilfgaard is tenuously held at bay.

Game 1 is mostly disconnected from the novels, as an amnesiac Geralt is caught in a civil war fought in Temeria between Elf and Dwarf separatists and terrorists and a racist fascist holy order on the other, as he hunts down a secret order that stole the Witcher secrets. It ends with the King of Temeria highly endebted to Geralt, both for ending the civil war and for saving his life from an unknown witcher assassin.

Game 2 has Geralt framed for the second, successful assassination on the King of Temeria, after they also assassinate the King of Aedirn. He hunts down the strange group of Witchers who have been killing Kings, in the process allying either with the Temeria secret service and the King of Kaedwen, or with a union of peasants, elves, dwarves and a handful of Aedirnian nobles, dallying with sorceresses either way, and the recovering his memories over time. At the end, it's revealed that the Lodge of Sorceresses had begun the assassinations but then their assassins went rogue, so the King of Redania (while potentially also gaining control of Temeria, depending on your actions) starts a witch hunt, purging all magic users, and especially sorceresses. You confront the leader of the assassins, the man who framed Geralt, who reveals that a whole pile of stuff. First off, Yen had been kidnapped by the Wild Hunt, and Geralt had hunted them down, and offered to replace her in their ranks, and then escaped (hence the insomnia), that Yen was alive and in Nilfgaard, and that Nilfgaard had actually hired the assassins away from the Lodge to weaken the Northern Kingdoms for a new invasion, which has already begun.

Witcher 3 begins after the war has reached a stalemate. All of Temeria has been overrun, when Geralt receives a letter from Yen requesting they meet.

Adding to this, the King of Kaedwen ends up dead one way or another, either directly in TW2 or in between games, setting up Redania to be the de facto power in the north, as the other three major kingdoms are in chaos from the loss of their king, conquered by Nilfgaard, or both.

Also, the events of Hearts of Stone are leveled so they get completed after the original game, but if you do skip sequence the game notices and lets you take actions and pick dialogues to reflect that. Blood and Wine is totally separate and leveled to take place after Hearts of Stone. You can start it earlier, but youre going to struggle.

[Balmas]

Like he said, the game already has most of the information to get the general gist of what's going on. There's plenty of instances where the people who've read the books will kinda nod and smile at a cameo, but you don't need to recognize any to get the meat of the story.

Still, quick recap!

1500 years or so ago, our world and another world overlapped in something called the Conjunction of the Sheres. During that window, a bunch of monsters--and potentially, humanity itself, depending on whom you ask--hopped over. In response, a new kind of monster hunter was created: the witcher. Adopted at young ages by orders, these boys are then trained up, taught to fight monsters, and magically mutated to make them faster, stronger, immune to disease, more agile.

You are Geralt of Rivia, and you are the last of a dying breed. Man has spread across the continent, out-murdering and out-breeding the elder races. Monsters are rare, and nobody wants a monster hunter until they're absolutely necessary. Witchers are despised, resented, feared, cast out from society. People have written books maligning witchers as monsters, child-stealers, and led pogroms to destroy them and their orders.

You woke up a few years back with no memory of what had happened, where you where, and what had happened. The events of the first two games are mostly made moot by the beginning of the third game, but you struck up a relationship with the sorceress Triss Merigold, saved the life of the local king, failed to save the life of the same local king from a second assassin, and slowly recovered your memories of your true love, the sorcereress Yennefer of Vengerberg.

[NeoVid]

Skimming the thread, it looks like no one mentioned that the game gives you the option to fake having a save from Witcher 2 to transfer over. It's a good idea to take this option, as it adds at least one major character to the game.

[Bastian Weaver]

If you have not done that yet, you should read the books. They're awesome. One of the best fantasy series of all time.

[danzibr]

Thanks for the responses!

Egad. Got to the interview before you meet the royal person. Had no idea how to answer those questions. Exactly what I was afraid of >.>

[thethird]

If you want to look at the answers based on the impact they have in game without It being too spoilery it should be safe to
google those. I did it when starting the game and dont remember it as too spoilery.

[warty goblin]

Triss is straight up hot as hell. That's the most pertinent point.

[DBear]

Oh goody, another Triss vs. Yennifer flame war coming up...

[Balmas]

Oh goody, another Triss vs. Yennifer flame war coming up...

Really, I think the divide in the debate comes down to whether a person has read the books or not. If you've played the Witcher games but haven't read the games, then you have two previous games' worth of relationships with Triss, and none with Yen. The books, meanwhile, have had Geralt and Yen together since The Last Wish.

[factotum]

Well, again going purely by the games, Triss is a far nicer person than Yennifer is, and personally I think she's more attractive, so it's a pretty easy choice between the two IMHO.

[Bastian Weaver]

Well, again going purely by the games, Triss is a far nicer person than Yennifer is, and personally I think she's more attractive, so it's a pretty easy choice between the two IMHO.

Whereas going by the books, Triss is absolutely not a nice person, is not to be trusted, and has scarred breasts since the Sodden Battle so she never wears a revealing dress.
And Yennefer, with all her drawbacks, is the only one who really understands and loves the witcher.
I love the books.

[Rynjin]

Triss and Yennefer are both terrible people (though Triss is less terrible).

Shani is the One True Waifu.

[factotum]

Whereas going by the books, Triss is absolutely not a nice person, is not to be trusted, and has scarred breasts since the Sodden Battle so she never wears a revealing dress.

I thought the idea with sorceresses was that they all hide their true appearance anyway?

[Bastian Weaver]

I thought the idea with sorceresses was that they all hide their true appearance anyway?

It's more complex than that. They use magical methods to fix the defects that talented children have (bad teeth, broken bones, smallpox marks, the stuff). Then they use a combination of magic and natural components (mostly mandrake, if I remember correctly) to make themselves not just beautiful, but stunningly gorgeous when the occasion calls for it.
But Triss is allergic to magical healing. Maybe that had something to do with her scars.

[Keltest]

It's more complex than that. They use magical methods to fix the defects that talented children have (bad teeth, broken bones, smallpox marks, the stuff). Then they use a combination of magic and natural components (mostly mandrake, if I remember correctly) to make themselves not just beautiful, but stunningly gorgeous when the occasion calls for it.
But Triss is allergic to magical healing. Maybe that had something to do with her scars.

Its also never specifically stated whether her scars are physical or emotional, at least in my translation. Several of the mages, including Yen, have some flavor of traumatic memory and PTSD from that battle, even if they don't have any physical scars left.

[Bastian Weaver]

Its also never specifically stated whether her scars are physical or emotional, at least in my translation. Several of the mages, including Yen, have some flavor of traumatic memory and PTSD from that battle, even if they don't have any physical scars left.

Good point. A little bit of both, I'd say. Triss mentioned that "there are almost no... visible traces". So more of emotional damage than physical scars in her case.

[Winthur]

I concur with the posters in this thread. In fact, as a rule, I also value IRL women according to what they look like without makeup. Any attempts at them trying to conform to society's beauty standards in an artificial manner must mean they're shallow and untrustworthy. Just think of the poor men having their senses deceived that they're, in fact, not ogling a "real" beauty, that the hotness in front of them is carefully crafted through means of available luxury. Yennefer and Triss should have joined a covenant instead of dealing with bodily blemishes.

[Driderman]

Let's not bicker and argue about who is or isn't the best girl for Geralt (Triss obviously) in somebody's thread

[Bastian Weaver]

I concur with the posters in this thread. In fact, as a rule, I also value IRL women according to what they look like without makeup. Any attempts at them trying to conform to society's beauty standards in an artificial manner must mean they're shallow and untrustworthy. Just think of the poor men having their senses deceived that they're, in fact, not ogling a "real" beauty, that the hotness in front of them is carefully crafted through means of available luxury. Yennefer and Triss should have joined a covenant instead of dealing with bodily blemishes.

Sir, I applaud your irony. Also, I suppose a covenant wouldn't accept a woman of mixed blood like Yennefer. That was one good thing about the magic society - they didn't care who you are, what you are, were your parents rich or poor, nobles or brigands, as long as you have the potential.
The bad thing was that they didn't care who you are, what you are, what you want or like or hate or fear, as long as they can put your potential to use in their schemes.
Triss was a good example of "good potential, easy to use". Yennefer, on the other hand, was "good potential, pretty much impossible to use". Which is why she's the best.

[Keltest]

Sir, I applaud your irony. Also, I suppose a covenant wouldn't accept a woman of mixed blood like Yennefer. That was one good thing about the magic society - they didn't care who you are, what you are, were your parents rich or poor, nobles or brigands, as long as you have the potential.
The bad thing was that they didn't care who you are, what you are, what you want or like or hate or fear, as long as they can put your potential to use in their schemes.
Triss was a good example of "good potential, easy to use". Yennefer, on the other hand, was "good potential, pretty much impossible to use". Which is why she's the best.

Yennefer was a hunchback with moderate medical issues, as I recall. That's part of why she was given to the mages as opposed to anybody else.

[Bastian Weaver]

Yennefer was a hunchback with moderate medical issues, as I recall. That's part of why she was given to the mages as opposed to anybody else.

Correct. Girls like her had pretty much no future except for magic. She became beautiful and powerful... But she lost something on the way, something she'd give everything to reclaim.

[Keltest]

Correct. Girls like her had pretty much no future except for magic. She became beautiful and powerful... But she lost something on the way, something she'd give everything to reclaim.

Interestingly, the series goes back and forth on whether infertility is inherent to mages like it is witchers, a side effect of the things mages do to themselves (I believe their longevity elixirs are specifically called out), or deliberately inflicted by some of the mage schools.

[danzibr]

Yennefer was a hunchback with moderate medical issues, as I recall. That's part of why she was given to the mages as opposed to anybody else.

Is this backstory from Witcher 1/2, or a spoiler from 3?

[Bastian Weaver]

Is this backstory from Witcher 1/2, or a spoiler from 3?

It is backstory from the books.

[Rynjin]

I guess it could also be considered both, as a lot of backstory stuff is retold in the games (all three are pretty good about making sure you need as little background info as possible).

[Beleriphon]

I guess it could also be considered both, as a lot of backstory stuff is retold in the games (all three are pretty good about making sure you need as little background info as possible).

While providing as much as you want if you care to bother with it.