I have a complicated history with this game.
I became aware of The Witcher back while working at a bookstore, co-worker friend of mine gave me the first book, but I couldn’t get through it. I remember struggling to get into it and not really being sure why until I mentioned it to said friend who loaned it to me. He pointed out because of the Polish translation it wasn’t formatted super well for English. Like dialogue not being separate paragraphs and having quotes around it.
It’s funny how I couldn’t put my finger on the reason until it was pointed out, but then it was so noticeable I couldn’t stop noticing that more than the actual words themselves.
So anyway, I didn’t really give the books a fair chance. I should do that again now, but the to-read list grows longer all the time, much faster than I’m crossing things off it.
But this isn’t about the books, or even the first two video games. I tried 2 for about 20 minutes, in 2014, one time and decided I wasn’t into it either.
Then came 3, and boy from the trailer I was hooked. Maybe this would be the one I was waiting for, I certainly only heard good things about it.
First attempt: in October of 2015, a few months after it released, I picked it up and started playing. For maybe 2 or 3 hours. I didn’t really set myself up for success here either by trying to play it while I was living with my partner’s parents, and unlike the first go-around of me living there I was at least trying to make an effort to not be hidden away Harry Potter style up in a bedroom all the time.
I had my Xbox and PC set up in the family living room and would at least be around and taking part in conversations.
Didn’t really lead to me picking up much of anything from the story, this was before the great headphone revolution that changed the way I play video games entirely. I can’t remember the last time I played a game through speakers.
I enjoyed the game a good bit, but distracted myself by immediately wanting to make a video about it. Which I did. It’s actually funny because that video was the reason the channels are now split and I’m recording gameplay at all today. (It got flagged as adult content, which… is fair given the nature of what I included in that video)
Second Attempt would be sometime after moving out into our own place, but again distraction just pulled me away to something else. Probably ESO, I remember playing A LOT of ESO while living in that apartment.
Third Attempt: Here we go, this is gotta be the charm right? That’s what they say.
So I would then try it again a few years later, no data to this because I didn’t make any further progress. But I’m guessing I got another 2 hours into the game sometime in the late 2010’s, just based on when and where I was living from what I remember. But I had another co-worker friend who was REALLY into Witcher 3. Like that’s all he would talk about most days, which was cool, made the work day go by faster.
He mentioned how he had bought some kind of ultimate collector’s edition guidebook and how that changed the way he played the game, because it had things like “wait before you do even the first mission, go over here and gather these herbs and craft this oil and potion to make the fight go better.”
That’s exactly what I needed, this game was clearly massive and not the kind of thing I can blindly bull rush through and have as good of a time.
So the plan was set. And then we just played the waiting game.
For a while…
During which time I also watched the show, which I really enjoyed and got me back around towards the series. Not that I was ever against it, I never wrote it off, just wasn’t nearly as focused on finishing games as I was jumping from one to the next unless something grabbed me entirely. Also I’m really curious to see how this next season goes with new Geralt.
Fourth Attempt: Today, or really about a month ago after I finished Borderlands. I had already picked this as my next game and I dove right in.
I’m about 40 hours in now and it’s been going fantastic, having the guidebook digitally so I can make notes for myself and look up all the various choices. It’s exactly how I wanted to play this game. I don’t think it’s even strictly necessary given how the map shows you all the undiscovered locations. Was that always a feature? I’m not sure. I just know the Complete edition has it and so after I got through all the story quest in Velen I moved onto collecting and haven’t stopped. I’ll get back to it soon, but not very soon.
I knew I needed to get hooked just enough so that I wouldn’t drop it entirely, because it’s about to go on the back burner. The “I’ve been waiting for Pokemon Legends Z-A since it was announced about a year and a half ago and knew I would drop everything to play it at release” back burner. You know the one.
So that’s what I’m quite looking forward to this week. The countdown has begun and Witcher 3 is about to go on pause. But I’ll be back as soon as I catch them all. I certainly can’t just leave Geralt looking like he just pulled a souffle out of the oven right before kicking your ass.
I’ve had these stupid oven mitt looking gauntlets for like 3 levels and NOTHING is coming close to being better.
Also I was playing around with the camera angles and how bright the sun is, this game is beautiful.
Also looking forward to changing out that top that I’m getting tired of, but one thing at a time. I only just read on a load screen about “dyes” and… Well I couldn’t find that I have any yet but I NEED IT.
So far this game is about 20% cool monster fighting, 20% dying in combat to said monster fighting, 40% picking all the flowers and looting every single box, and 20% playing dress up.
I’m all about it.
And as I mentioned it seems like I’ve lined myself up just right to MAKE SURE I come back to the game. Not only am I finally past those first 2 hours with the beginning of the Bloody Baron quest (every time I’ve kind of winced through that particular quest, it’s icky) but I also plan to watch the 4th season starting at the end of the month.
We’ll see how far I am into Pokemon by then, I’m not expecting it to be all that long. Looking back at my notes from Legends Arceus it was right around when I was packing to move out of state and had plenty of time off. Prepping for the actual move went smoothly and so I found myself able to put in about 25 hours over 6 days, completing the campaign. This one will probably be longer, but we’ll see. Definitely feels like a kid on Christmas eve right now just waiting for the main event.