Update 6 - The Reunion

It's been a while since the last update. I've been very bogged down with coursework in the past week so didn't get to play much in that time.



Between now and where I left off, I spent some time finishing off all the side activities in the White Orchard area, from destroying ghoul nests and clearing bandit camps to finding even more hidden treasure and sources of power. I mentioned this previously, but the side activities do seem very well done in this game, and it appears that some have a small impact on the world which is awesome. They all fit into the world rather naturally rather than feeling tacked on.

On the road I came across a merchant, clearly upset. He told me that his corpse had galloped off with all of his cargo into the swamp, before being devoured by the monsters within. He asked me to retrieve what remained of the cargo, specifically a small box that he had had with him.



When I found the wreckage in the swamp, something was off. There was a man’s corpse there, and the cart had been hit by several arrows. I also found the dead horse, looking very much uneaten. I took the box and headed to confront the “merchant”. When I accused him of lying, he jumped on his horse and rode off, but it didn’t take too long to catch him.



Finally, he admitted to being a Temerian soldier. He had attacked the cart as it was delivering medical supplies to the Nilfgaardians, and he wanted them for his own men. Despite his pleading, I turned him in and received a reward from the Nilfgaardians.

After finishing off some other minor tasks, I returned to the inn where Vesemir was waiting for me. I told him about Yennefer and Vizima, but he seemed concerned about some of the more recent arrivals to the inn. A young woman started arguing with Elsa about her decision to take down the Temerian shield, and when Vesemir intervened, the other visitors drew their weapons on the two Witchers.



We killed the bandits, and left when we saw the horrified faces of the civilians in the bar. To our surprise, Yennefer was waiting outside for us, with a Nilfgaardian escort. She told me that the Emperor himself was waiting for me, that he wanted to make an offer. It was here that Vesemir and I parted ways; he was to head back to Kaer Morhen. After saying our goodbyes, Yennefer, the soldiers, and I rode off to Vizima.



On the road, we were attacked by the Wild Hunt, the same things seen in Geralt’s dream at the beginning of the game. Yennefer and I managed to escape, but all the soldiers were killed.

At Vizima, Geralt was bathed and his beard shaved. A Nilfgaardian general, the one whose soldiers were killed by the Wild Hunt, came in and questioned me about the attack. I told him exactly what happened, but he didn’t seem to believe me. He left me to finish preparing for my audience with the Emperor.

Update 7 - Arrival at Velen



I got dressed and the chamberlain taught me how to bow, although when Geralt performed the act it looked more like a dab. The guy led me to the Emperor so that I could show off my moves.



Emreis was clearly not impressed, and moved on to tell me that his daughter, Cirilla, was being chased by the Wild Hunt, and that he wanted me to find her. I never realised that Ciri was the Emperor's daughter although I did know she was Geralt's sort-of adopted daughter or something. I'm not sure if the identity of her true father was something that we knew in previous games but the update to her biography seems to suggest that Geralt wasn't happy about it.



After I finished my conversation with the Emperor, his chamberlain led me to speak with Yennefer. We discussed the situation in more detail, including Ciri's possible locations. The first place I was to search was Velen, while Yennefer would head to Skellige, and so once again Geralt and Yennefer said their goodbyes.



After a five days of travel, Geralt arrived in Velen. I was to find an Imperial agent named Henrik, who apparently had information on Ciri. I passed through the village of Mulbrydale, making sure to check the noticeboard. On my way out, I came across a priest of something called the Eternal Flame. All he asked me to do was burn the bodies of the fallen on the battlefield to stop them from being eaten by necrophages, which seemed reasonable enough.



At the first corpse pile I was attacked by a new enemy called a rotfiend. It wasn't too difficult to kill, although it exploded unexpectedly when I killed it and I lost quite a bit of health. At the final location I found a lone survivor, named Titus, fighting off a pack of ghouls. It turned out that the priest had been killing people and throwing their corpses onto piles, and had hired me to destroy the evidence.



I confronted the priest about what I had learned. He tried to bribe me, but I wasn't going to take it. In response, he and his guards attacked. After swinging his mace around a bit, the priest died in one hit, which was kind of amusing.



A side note: there are times when Geralt really reminds me of Xavier: Renegade Angel. His voice, the manner in which he offers his help to people, the times when he talks to himself all make me think of Xavier for some reason.

Update 8 - New Leads



As I was leaving the dead priest and his men behind, I was approached by a shady merchant offering to sell me a counterfeit pass that would allow me over some nearby bridge, one controlled by the Redanians. His price was ridiculous, so he offered me some work to possibly reduce it. He wanted me to protect his brother-in-law, who worked on clearing battlefields. I said I’d think it over, but at this point the quest seemed too high level to be attempted now. I didn't need to get across the bridge at this point in time anyway.



On the road to the Henrik’s location, I came across a wild dog patrolling outside a small house. Inside, I could see a young girl. I killed the dog, allowing her and some other children to come outside. The girl said that they hadn’t eaten in a week, so I gave her some food, and in return she gave me… a doll. Okay?



After a short ride, I arrived at the Inn at the Crossroads, where I was to meet Henrik. I asked the inkeep if he was there, but before he could say anything, a group of bandits wandered in. They started taunting me about how I have two swords, to which I bought them all a round of drinks. After a tense moment, everyone was calm - for now, at least. In a more private area, the inkeep thanked me for not starting a fight, and told me that Henrik should be in Heatherton.



Upon reaching Heatherton, I found the village empty and lifeless, save for a lone man being attacked by dogs. After I rescued him, the man told me of how the Wild Hunt raided the village, and tortured Henrik for information before killing him. Entering Henrik’s hut, I found his corpse. A key was inside his boot, and I used it to unlock a trapdoor to the cellar. Inside, I found a book containing notes on Ciri. It also mentioned two possible leads - a baron and a witch.

What’s the rule on looting in this game?

If you loot in front of people they get mad but it seems like chests are just lying around everywhere

I want loot but I don’t really want to steal

Also

Are there health potions or something?
I feel like eating a few pieces of bread isn't the best way to fight a griffin

Nice blog, faggot

Finished the game and the two dlcs on Wednesday, im sad now

Update 12 - Mission: Aborted



The Baron had suggested I speak to “The Pellar,” who apparently had quite a reputation. After getting rid of some rowdy soldiers outside his hut, I showed the Pellar the talisman found back at the Baron’s castle. Turns out he made it to protect the Baron’s wife, Anna, from evil spirits or something. Before he could help me further, however, he needed me to find his missing goat, Princess.



There was an option to refuse, but I assumed it would make me do the quest anyway so I volunteered to find his stupid goat. I had to use a bell to lure it back to the hut, while protecting her from wolves and bears. A bit pointless but some of Geralt’s dialogue was funny. In exchange for bringing Princess back, the Pellar did some weird shit which caused him to become possessed or something, and revealed that Anna had been pregnant but miscarried, with some implication that the Baron was abusive towards her. He told me that I now needed to find the discarded fetus - or “botchling” - and lift its curse to locate Anna and Tamara. Never thought I’d ever have to do anything with a miscarried fetus in a video game.



I returned to the castle to find the stables on fire - the Baron had flown into a rage and set the place alight. A civilian was trapped in there, so I went to save him before confronting the Baron about his wife. Before I could say anything though, the Baron tried to fight me, so I beat the shit out of him. Once things calmed down inside the castle, the Baron came clean. He was an abuser, never of his daughter, but much of his wife. One night the two had fought so brutally that Anna had miscarried. The lost child was all that remained when he awoke the next day. Geralt informed the Baron of the plan with the botchling, and so the Baron took me down to where he had taken it.



At this point I had two choices: I could either try to lift the botchling’s curse, turning it into a “lubberkin” which would lead me to Anna and Tamara, or simply kill the creature and let the Pellar do his work on its blood. I choose the former, and so the Baron carried the botchling back up to the castle while I protected him from wraiths. Up at the castle, he buried the child, at which point we needed to wait some time for it to turn into a lubberkin. The Baron went into his castle while I waited by the grave.



At midnight, a magical ghost baby rose from the grave and led me on a trail, taking me to a smokehouse, a dead horse, and finally a fisherman’s hut. There, I found out that a fearsome beast had attacked and taken Anna, while Tamara had escaped to Oxenfurt. On my way back to tell the Baron of my findings, I was approached by a man named Ronvid, who wished to fight me to honor some Maid Bilberry.  I hit him a few times and he ran off, but he did say that we’d meet again.



I found the Baron sitting in his garden. In his castle, I filled him in on what I’d found out. I volunteered to go even meet Anna (if alive) and Tamara personally. However, the deal did only involve me finding out their locations, and for that the Baron told me more about Ciri. She had been hunting with the Baron and his men, and were camping out for the evening. Ciri challenged the Baron to a horse race, which I was winning before being interrupted by a winged creature swooping in from above. The Baron stopped his tale there, and so I was off once again to go find his missing family.

i like that you have screenshots and shit, i'll have to see if i can't implement them into my playthroughs

dark souls isn't a very screenshot friendly game on ps3 though

I wish they'd add a photo mode option to the PS4 ones. I could get some sick fucking shots if they had it.


>BuT iT wOuLd RuIn ThE oNlInE eLeMeNt

The controls in this game really suck

eh, I found it okay for the most part

the lock-on system is a fucking pain though

i will get back to this soon. exams got in the way