Sorry for the wait as always. I'll be trying to get one or two more videos in before I'm on hiatus for a little bit to help my wife after our child is born. Thanks for your patience! And if you'd like to check out Stalcraft: X, head to stalcraft.net/s/46xqzV and use my welcome bonus code THESALTFACTORY24 in game.
Fun fact: if you complete HoS before the main quest and choose to kill Olgierd you can also ask O'Dimm about Ciri's whereabouts and you will basically get instructions on how to get the good ending.
Let me tell you Geralt did everything in the world before finding Ciri. Ciri was the last thing on Geralts mind. He was far too busy playing Gwent, Commiting Tax Fraud, and chasing that Yenussy to be bothered looking for his adopted daughter. That's the true Witcher experience. I was like 300 hours into the game before I went OH YEA my child...😂
There is always that one guy that tells him something he missed ^^ I wonder how much scrolling before someone tells him about "Night to remember" cinematic. Edit: Oh, 2 comments later somebody did XD
Riding into Toussaint for the first time was one of the all time best gaming experiences I’ve ever had. The colors, the music, the atmosphere, the unknown monsters stalking the land. All of it such a _HUGE_ difference from Velen, Skellige, Novigrad, and Kaer Morhen with their cooler earth tones and generally darker feeling.
It's wild how poor his takes are sometimes though. Especially with the fairytale world. Like he just views it as entertainment and nothing more, rather than how Syanna views her childhood, and how it's shaped her life: Her view on the world and everyone around her is warped, but still a reality that has weight to it. AND with Regis' whole, "I don't drink anymore" storyline from the books. A modicum of research would find that the Witcher video games take extreme liberty with how they've adapted/built upon the written work of Andrzej Sapkowski. Salt Factory's reviews come across disingenuous, in terms of the actual research he does, sometimes because most of his "reviews" are just playthroughs of games. People in these comments are referencing Joseph Anderson for good reason: He actually does in-depth critical analyses. SF just does playthroughs and says what he's thinking, at least for a few of his videos. I'm very disappointed in this one.
@@tonybaloney8617 well said. I'll say that I don't mind him having his own interpretations or takes on the storytelling, such as mentioning how the haunted mansion quest centers on the wife's emotions and how olgierd had impacted her. That's an interesting point to make. But he doesn't seem to apply that level of introspection to other quests where the writer's intentions are begging to be be explored beyond the surface level reading. It would be a better video if his default was to assume every decision was made intentionally to further a specific underlying theme -- why is syanna here with us right now instead of geralt just following her tracks alone? IMO, he's helping syanna find her inner child that she had completely neglected after her traumatic experience. And it's by her reconciling with this lost childhood that she's able to see past her hardened shell to understand the actions of, and feel empathy for, her lost sister who, to syanna, represents everything she lost and who she could have been if given the same opportunity. That's impactful storytelling.
We see Geralt come back for Orianna in the cinematic trailer, “A Night to Remember”, that came out prior to the base games release. We see Geralt kill her then ride off back to Toussaint. A prerelease trailer ended up being a post epilogue event. This is one of the coolest things that any gaming company has ever done for me for some reason.
I will stand and die on the hill that Hearts of Stone is the single best story driven DLC ever made. It is everything great about the Witcher dialed up to 100.
Agree. In the other two stories in Witcher 3, and even in Cyberpunk, they always made the mistake of writing some sort of urgency into the story that the game world then fails to live up to. When the game is fresh and the player is exploring for the sheer fun of it that doesn't register too much, but when it keeps repeating it starts to sour the experience. It definitely spoilt Cyberpunk for me.
The idea of an ending where you spare Dettlaff and Syanna strongly goes against Geralt as a character. As an RPG, the Witcher games give you some choices, but core to their strength is that Geralt is an established character with a consistent code the player can deviate from but never fully reject. Sparing Dettlaff arguably shuldn't even have been an option in the ending where Syanna dies. Choosing that ending should just straight up have Geralt being executed and its only game convenience that prevented it. The whole point of Witchers is to kill monsters who are a danger to humans. Geralt might spare Dettlaff when he was unwillingly tricked into a handful of murders. But the second he attacked the city, Dettlaff was dead. Unprompted, with no choice from the player, Geralt makes it clear that he will come back and kill Orianna for feeding on children and she doesn't even kill anyone (and he does, it happens in the trailer). The idea of sparing Detlaff no matter how sympathetic he is after he killed hundreds of people would literally never even cross Geralt's mind. Dettlaff was dead the second he even threatened that. Spending time humanizing him would be wasted. The whole reason that worked in Hearts of Stone is that no one involved was the kind of person Geralt would feel obligated to kill. All the humanizing of Dettlaff happens before he snaps, at which point the idea of sparing him ceases to make sense as a story beat.
Yes, i was surprised didn't really get mentioned much in this video. Toussaint is being RAVAGED by vampires. The game makes that very apparent. Innocent people are actively dying in droves because of this attack. Geralt isn't steven universe. He can't just hug Dettlaff and make it all better.
@@spencerlively3049 I actually sent Regis to Syanna while I went to see the female vampire at the orphanage because I thought he was too personally invested in protecting Detlaff. Was disappointed later when I went online and saw all of the stuff about the fairytale land that I missed out on
It’s kinda crazy that they foreshadow the whole moon being on the ground plot twist when Shani says the moon is right there in the middle of the lake. Never noticed that before
Another 2 things about the cannibal quest. 1. There's a human sized cage in that larder, now why would there be a human sized cage if they're just taking the wolves' left over dinner? 2. If you choose to attack them, they seem to be quite capable in a fight given that they're so “frail and fragile”.
At the same time though, if you just threaten them to stop, they actually do listen to Geralt, and if you lie to the herbalist and they aren't killed by a mob, you can come back later and find out the woman slowly died because they didn't have enough food. Hard to feel too bad for them when it happens, but still, they clearly weren't completely lying about having no other food sources...
And I hardly doubt that simply relying on wolves (usually a pack of) that should kill someone first and then leave food for you is a believable thing at all.
@@efrenarevalo2025If black people eat white people, is that cannibalism? If the white people insist that black people are clearly something else it should be perfectly fine. No moral dilemma. 😂
Id still say Warcraft3 Frozen Throne is up there in the top3 for me alongside Mass Effect 3 Citadel, but also would be hard to choose between HoS and B&W. Theyre wildly different.
@@ArcticVXR1 well no, truth. You start the game, start a quest and put the controller down for minutes. Then you follow your map marker to the next cutscene and so on. gtfo "wrong" xD
Pretty sure Regis explains in the books and briefly in game that drinking blood is the equivalent of mortals drinking hard liquor for vampires. He's always consumed alcohol, he even brews moonshine out of mandrake root. He swore off drinking meaning human blood not alcohol.
Fun facts: 1. The Demons that serve Iris straight up tell you how to beat O'Dimm's challenge 2. O'Dimm , should you choose to let him take Olgierd's soul, will actually tell you how to get the base game's best ending when you ask him where Ciri is. (Provided you do this before you finish the Main Story) 3. The Wight, while never stated, is all but confirmed to be cursed by O'Dimm. The spoons, the mirror, the mention of a "mechant of mirrors" in the notes as the one who cursed her and his theme playing as Geralt explains the tragedy of the woman's fate. Its basically all there, but Geralt never acknowledges it. Almost like O'Dimm is taunting *the player directly* and not him.
@@tydendurler9574 I also know for a fact that Yennefer and Ciri even have dialogue that mentions the mark on Geralt's face if you do it *parallel* to the main story. Yen in particular admitting that its a product of *ancient* magic and that there's nothing she can do to remove it.
@@user-nw9hx9xz2oyup i remember doing these before that point in the game the second dlc too and i decimated the end of the main story w dlc padded geralt downside tho if you do ng+ and restart the game above lvl 50 you cannot use the sets from blood and wine because they in ng+ unlike the base sets take your level at restart and add 50 but you cant go above 100 the gear can so they become unusable a bunch of dlc shit does sadly for blood and wine so dont go too ham if you are doing ng+ idk wtf devs never hard capped the stuff made zero sense
One thing important to note about Gaunter, is that he may not be as grey as it initially may seem. It is strongly implied that ODimm is responsible for Olgierds downfall, pushing him to the point where he asks Gaunter for help. And it’s almost guaranteed that Gaunter was responsible for Gerald being arrested by the Ofieri wizard, who just *happened* to show up to save his prince at the exact moment where Geralt kills him and passes out. In short that ODimm creates the problems for his subjects and then offers them the solutions.
Gaunter's rewards at the end of HoS (if you let him take Olgierd's stinking soul) actually has no "strings" attached. Despite being Evil Incarnate, he actually does genuinely like Geralt. Being a demon just kinda screws with showing that in the normal way. If you challenge him though, he does still enjoy it. Just more in a "best frenemies" way.
I'm not sure about that I don't think he like anyone he is what he is and all he sees is what he can gain. But that's my opinion atleast but I do like him very very much lol and whatever he speaks when you beat him sounds so dam awesome wish he spoke it more
The first time I heard the child song about o'dimm it send me shivers down my spine - usually I play games in English but the witcher series in my mother tongue, which is German, is phenomenal
I appreciate you calling out I Finished a Videogames, or as I call him Fin's, channel. He does a level of work that surprised me when I got recommended his Prince of Persia video when he dropped it. He's provided a level of insight into games I thought I knew over the years that I didn't know I wanted. I was less pleasantly surprised when I found out about the cancer. He doesn't deserve that. Thank you.
Interestingly the story of Heart of Stone is more closely inspired by the story of Pan Twardowski in Polish literature, a noble man who made a deal with the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Their deal had a special clause which stipulated that Twardowski's soul could only be collected in Rome, a place he never intended to go to. But the devil used a loophole when Pan Twardowski entered an inn called "Rome". Just like Gunter O'Dim collected Von Everec's soul "on the moon".
All through the game I felt like no challenge was above Geralt the White Wolf. O'Dimm sparing me felt absolutely real. The look he gives, along with the gentle talk he give us in the tavern put the Butcher of Blaviken in his place. I'd literally go fight the wild hunt again if it could get me out of a duel with Gunther.
@@rundownaxe I think you missed the point, as at that point he wasn't looking at Geralt. He was looking at you as the player asking if you truly wish to know, only to back out after thinking, probably as taking the player's soul would stop Geralt from completing his purpose as well.
1:50:09 both are. In the books he’s being knighted as Geralt of Rivia. - but not because of his name, no. Funny enough he’s known as Geralt of Rivia because of Vesemir. In the books Geralt notices that people treat him differently when he says that he is from somewhere, but he picks a funny complicated name. So Vesemir tells him to take a simpler one, so Geralt takes “Geralt of Rivia” and learns how to integrate Rivia’s accent. But later in the books they (his company - Milva, Regis, Cahir, etc) happen to be in Rivia. They see that Northen troops retreat from the Nilfgarian ambush and they decide to give them time and hold a specific bridge near a ferry. They do just that and they are being greeted by quen Maeve - queen of Lyria and Rivia. Because of this happens in Rivia, Geralt is being knighted as “Geralt of Rivia” with a “Bridge” emblem. Oh the fate irony here….
2:04:10 didnt play the game in english but i'm pretty sure that in polish it was mentioned that the beverage they were enjoying on the graveyard was non-alcoholic
That might explain it actually, because they definitely both refer to it as a bottle of alcohol in English. "Mandrake cordial", or just "Mandrake". Though Regis does say that it's pretty weak compared to the stuff he brewed up back at his estate. Still strange that they didn't translate it that way for the English version.
@@TheSaltFactory Yeah, that bit at the beginning kinda made me wonder if you were having sinus problems while recording. Good to hear you're doing alright, and don't worry about taking a break to tend to family; we'll be here when you get back.
Absolutely agree. I blew through the game the first time on standard difficulty. New game (for the sweet, sweet alternative endings) I played on the highest difficulty (can't remember the name) and needed to prepare for every contract. A much better experience imo
as for Regis drinking alcohol, there's no mistake here - in the books, it is the blood that affects vampires in the booze way, and it was the blood that Regis had a drinking issue with. so him casually dropping a glass or two of regular alcohol creates no contradiction.
Near the end it is mentioned about giving Detlaff's "victim" knights some backstory, but there is some for each if you keep an eye out (or read a guide). Syanna does mention what they did to her while taking her to exile during the chats in the Land of a Thousand Fables and how it tied into the ways Detlaff posed them post-mortem. We aren't told it in the main questline, but they pop up in references across the sidequests. For example, Count Crespi is Detlaff's first victim. Syanna tells us he beat the teen unconscious during the exile trip in front of the other supposedly chivalrous knights who apparently did nothing to help her. Having got away with that one, he continued down that "immune from consequence" road full force. During the long Wine Wars questline - which we may have done a long time prior to her story - we learn he was the trying to destroy both houses' crop so he could claim them all, until he met Detlaff of course, and his plans were cut short. But if you did the two quests a long way apart you might not realise it is the same Crespi. (there is a set up for each of the 4 knights in the Wiki, but Crespi is perhaps the most fleshed out scumminess)
Gaunter O’Dim (GOD) known as Mr Mirror (or whatever his nickname in English is), so a reflection - the devil. The dlc is heavily inspired by an old polish legend of Mr Twardowski.
@@thelastcrow5660 "Why is the music suddenly so epic? He's just a common bandit. I'll probably wipe the floor with hi..." **Teleports behind me and drains almost all of my health in a single attack* *"NANI !?"*
@@thelastcrow5660 this actually is a reference/direct quote to Sienkiewicz's "Deiluge" where Colonel Wołodyjowski duels Kmicic in the rain (the latter being an inspiration for Von Everec)
I didn't realise that fight was missable. I like it a lot. Fighting against the backdrop of the burning house in the night + the cutscene after where he pulls his head back into place.
2:05:09 Regis was addicted to blood, not alcohol. And they are drinking non-alcoholic mandrake infusion (at least that’s how it’s presented in the PL translation) - opposition to the mandrake hooch/moonshine that Regis was crafting when they first met. The next dialog piece from Geralt mentions it, even - at least how it goes in PL dub: Regis says that Geralt has to excuse him, it’s not alcohol - only an infusion, at which Geralt responds that maybe it’s for the best, after trying his moonshine people used to say things that they wouldn’t otherwise, at which Regis responds “so what are the things that famous witcher wouldnt want to say” and the dialog goes onward.. In the books the company found out that Regis is brewing a moonshine, they start drinking and saying weird things :D The whole DLC is a one big to the books..
Playing Blood and Wine, I'd squeeze the very seconds out of minutes before having to go to work to keep playing it. I remember saving in a toy shop in the city during the main quest and vividly looking forward to finishing work for nine hours to get back onto it. Some of my favourite gaming moments ever are in The Witcher 3 DLC. Olgierd remains amongst my favourite characters in fiction.
28:50 There's actually a difffernt dialogue sequence you'll get with this noble woman if you do this quest before the Battle of Kaer Mohen where Geralt will pretty much say Vessemir is alive an well ,you can even go back to Vessemir an tell him about the encounter with this noble woman and get additional dialogue from him.
1:50:27 - Bringing Regis back IS actualy true to the source. It is said in the books that highier wampires cannot be truly killed by anything besides other higher wampires. It was never mentioned how can they restore their health after very critical injuries (like being turned into sizzling pile of goo) but it is not against the lore. It's surprisingly well made from the lore perspective and someone had to look at very fine details to realize that bringing him back is possible (or they did it on a whim and were lucky enough not to make any retcons) (EDIT2: they fucked up in the end. Regis should be dead according to interviews with Sapkowski) EDIT. Also, Anna Henrietta butting in on everything, may not be the devs "wanting" her to do it, but rather their way of portraing her. While she may seem kind, and most of the time she is, in the books she is almost mentally unstable, things are going her way or no way. She is the kind of person that would execute a faithful servant for his opinion, just because she's in a bad mood. Whole backstory to Sylwia Anna being cursed is also a reference from the story of Renfri from the books. Geralt himself doubts there is a curse and belives that those girls turned cruel, not because of it, but because how they were treated. Some were even "worked on" by mages (which I imagine was nothing short of torture). The main difference between the story of Renfri and Syanna is that this time, he could change her mind, while Renfri was beyond saving, which resulted in Blodbath in Blaviken
I do not remember exactly but I'm pretty sure that the rule that only higher vampires can kill other higher vampires is introduced in the games.That said I don't think he really died in the books since when Geralt dies ghosts of his fallen friends help put him on a boat and Regis is not there.
"She is the kind of person that would execute a faithful servant for his opinion, just because she's in a bad mood." Damn, that sounds quite a bit like Vaylin, the daughter of the Eternal Emperor Valkorion in Star Wars: The Old Republic...
@@janekfilipowski9119 You are right. I did checked "Baptism of Fire" and I found nothing of the sort. I propably got it from same source as @Iverald, that Sapkowski "confirmed" it. Which is wrong. I found the interview. He said: "Względem Regisa, przyznaję, było trudniej, i wersje, w których wampir przeżywa, istniały. Zrezygnowałem z nich jednak" ENG "In relation to Regis, I admit, it was more difficult, and the versions in which the vampire survives, existed. However, I gave up on them" As well as: "Wampir ginie, bo poświęca się - ratuje Geralta i Yennefer" ENG "The vampire dies because he sacrifices himself - he saves Geralt and Yennefer" There might still be a chance that for highier vampire "death" may refer to the time it is defeated and needs long time to recover, but I found nothing that would So in the end, they did fucked it up/retconed it.
It's kind of funny. I always get the everyone dies ending in Blood and Wine but never feel bad. Geralt did his job of killing someone who at the end was impulsively violent to the point of wiping out a city. It sucks that the duchess died but that was her own fault due to not listening to Geralt and I didn't find her sister particularly forgiveable.
This is the ending I got and lowkey considered it a good ending. I mean....not for the people in the city I guess but.... For me I was satisfied! The two monsters were punished!
I alwaYs disliked the Novigrad Part the most. "Oh wow, a city to explore. Quest - go there, watch Cutscene. Then you go here and watch a Cutscene, then you go back and watch a cutscene, then you 2 regular dudes followed by a cutscene, and when you finally decide to progress the main story...guess what...GO WATCH A CUTSCENE. In Skellige you can at least PLAY a videogame.
@@tydendurler9574 I'm just a sucker for city settings in RPGs they always have unique quests you can't find in other areas like High Stakes or Catch Junior where instead of just going to an area and a fight happens we get some intrigue and shit. I remember when I first played the game I raced to Novigrad first and every enemy for the first few hours was so many levels ahead of me that every fight was a half hour dodge fest till I whittled down their health, I admit going back through I think areas like Velen have a lot more going on but everything in Novigrad just feels grimy in a good way to me and I like that in my games.
13:35 well, he is out at sea and completely unaware of where in the sea he is. He would stay in jail to figure out what’s going on, and wait for a better time to escape
W3 is seriously one of the best games ever made. if the combat and movement were even slightly better. it would probably be the best RPG ever made. absolutely love this fcking game.
What I really love about HoS is they made Olgierd first, then wrote the story around him. Instead of write a story and shoehorn someone in that "fit". I mean they didnt even technically add any new area. And... and I was enthralled, the entire story.
You have no idea how happy I was to see Regis in the games, and not just as a card or throwaway mention in the first game. He was an absolute bro in the books.
The Witcher is written in Polish and than translated into english, and goddamit this game is so MUCH better in Polish, even polish voices are so much better. Goddamit i'm sorry you guys miss so much of this game
For example the fact that the mandrake beverage that Geralt and Regis drink here in the game is non-alcoholic and it is not Regis’ hooch/moonshine is missing in the EN version. In the PL it has a different meaning and it is yet another nod to the books. Here even Salt got it differently. Weird
2:04:24 iirc what they're drinking isn't wine, its Mandrake Juice, which is brewed but not fermented like the Mandrake Cordial. I believe this is Regis' substitute for alcohol given how regular humans and Geralt get poisoned by the roots alone.
The only quest I missed in "Blood and wine" was the Roach quest and I didn't know it until after I'd already finished the game and couldn't go back to it at all.
Blood and wine might also be a snowqueen reference (might be called trollmirror). Another Danish HC anderson fairy tale about the girl Anna who sets out to save her friend who has been cursed to only see the bad in the world. There is a sub plot about Anna meeting a friendly gang of robbers who help her on the journey. But well i might be over thinking it incidentally it is probably the inspiration of frozen.
On the skellige deck, I disagree, I thought it was surprisingly strong and kept using it, but you need to tweak the main strategy and completely throw away the siege units.
1:30:30 I don't know how known Asterix is in Poland, but at least here, "Passierschein A38" has become an idiom for pointless and insame bureacracy. I didn't even know this quest was in the Witcher 3, I just learned about it from you. Love it.
Mostly by millennials - we had comics since the 90s, cartoons and then the movies with Depardieu. Some may know the A38 reference, but I guess commonly people recognize the absurd red tape from communist times, or from before 2010s.
1:14:22 On Death March preparation is more important, you want a sword coating and at least one potion related to the monster you’re fighting. That said, the third game makes repeating this process much easier by having coatings and potions regenerate
I'm surprise that the "Night to be remember" trailer wasn't brought up. It was a fun little thing, for me, to realise the link when she started singing
I don't care what anyone say, CDPR is one of the only studios who actually put a lot of work into their project. This game completely blows pretty much AAA studio out of the water. Even cyberpunk 2077 made a great comeback and put a lot to shame. We seriously should give them a round of applause for their games side content being amazing.
Shill No wonder they got away with C2077. Game was promised as an RPG, but what we got was a shallow action game, with no RPG elements or stripped features that were shown or promised. Doesn’t help a lot of the devs that worked on Witcher 3 left the studio.
@@georgie9303 How to say you never played cyberpunk without saying you never played cyberpunk, the story and quests literally change completely based on how you build your character, not like a blind hater would know that.
@@VeilsideTofu The story does NOT change depending on the build,only thing that changes is the ending and romances depending on dialogue choices,stop spreading misinfo
I remember that at my first playthrough I’ve misunderstood Olgierd when he described his sword in a way that my impression was that whatever/whoever is cut by it - dies. And there I was, watching Olgierd cuts himself with his sword after helping him in O’Dimms challenge… Now I know that it is simply “nice to feel something for a change”, but still
This was a fantastic review of both DLCs. Hearts of Stone seems to be well reviewed by every critic because of its immense focus and tight writing. Blood and Wine tends to get a lot more criticism, and rightfully so. However, despite its many problems, B&W ended up being better than the sum of its parts. All the individual issues you pointed out were spot on but somehow the whole package became a great wholesome ending to Geralt's journey. I'm hopeful that CDPR will learn lessons from Cyberpunk 2077 and deliver another masterpiece with the next Cyberpunk.
Should i point out that according to the books, yennifer is the cannon ending and the one gerled deeply loves, with triss being more of a common friend in a poliamore kinda way, and yes, gerled loves how yennifer takes control in the books, he would complain about her picking his clothes and sorting his hear, but it always somehow ended in a hot bang session cause he enjoy it.
@@AesirUnlimited there is lots of stuff from the books in the games, so clearly it's not a mute point, and in game geralt have very similar feelings towards yenn
@@LillyP-xs5qe Unless you choose for him not to. Making it a moot point. Player choice is what determines his actions and feelings, not the original book canon. If the book canon were the be all and end all then Geralt and Yennefer would still be dead and the games wouldn’t exist.
@@AesirUnlimited it is cannon that he and yenn are a couple, I haven't got to the end up so thanks for spoiling that/s And no matter what choice you make, in games he will still have a long loving history with yenn as she was a mother figure to ciri, in books and in games, so it only makes sense he and yenn get together as they are both ciri's adoptive parents. Making your point moot, since all the important stuff to their relationships from the books are 100% cannon in the games.
26:04 Interesting foreshadowing about arriving at the moon without...arriving there. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but I've only just realised that now.
Bro hearing you shout of IFAVG made me so happym You, him and josh strife are my goto essayist and i love everything all y'all do (i know you didnt mention josh but i put him in a similar category so figured id mention him)
Have to mention that if you do hearts of stone before finding Ciri, you can basically ask O’dimm how to achieve the “best ending”. And he just flat out tells you what to choose in the 5 instances that determine if you get the depression ending. He could have screwed with Geralt but he just honestly tells you how to do it. The only wish that he has a little fun with, is if you ask for money. He deems it predictably, banal and boring. So he just gives 5000 crowns. (When you are in a position to spend twice that for the runewright😅)
Took a solid few tries for the Witcher 3 to fully hook me. But glad i stuck with it Now it is GOATed, and top 5 gaming experiences for me after several hundred hours put in. And the DLCs are so goddamn good too 🔥 🙏🙏
2:53:00 Which is weird because Regis described this bond as stronger than anything that can happen between two humans, even stringer that humans can imagine.
The Apollo story you referenced has another version where the god Eros had a spat with Apollo which results in Eros shooting Apollo with an arrow that made him fall in love and Daphne with a lead arrow that made her hate him.
A cool tidbit of info, at 32:58 you can see Gaunter O'Dimm with a crossbow in the background, on the left. And yes, he can also be seen several other times throughout the DLC. Also, what difficulty did he play on? Judging by the combat footage and the (almost) complete lack of decoction or potion icons, and his mentioning that he never needing to prepare for contracts, I highly doubt that it was on DeathMarch with enemy scaling.
Can't wait until you get around to BG3, I always enjoy these longform review videos to keep rolling the background while doing day to day stuff around the house.
Blood and Wine remains one of my favorite gaming experiences ever. I keep a save right at the beginning of the DLC just so i can play through it every year or so and not have to slog through the base game.
55:00 you missed out on a key one, if you do hearts of stone before you progress a certain point of the main game Geralt can ask him where Ciri is. And Gaunter will answer
The analysis at around the 48 minute mark hit me like a sledgehammer. This DLC/game was just so fantastic. Emotionally jarring to the point I've only done 1 additional play through. Well done video, sir.
As a fan of the Dark Tower series (the books, of course) Gaunter O'Dimm is just another name of Randall Flagg/Walter O'Dim to me. He just wanted to torment Geralt instead of Roland for a while. Gaunter fits Flagg's character so well, too.
It’s quite poetic that the devs used the black sun prophecy in Geralt’s final adventure as the curse of the black sun is a pretty big part of the Geralt’ early adventures
Sorry for the wait as always. I'll be trying to get one or two more videos in before I'm on hiatus for a little bit to help my wife after our child is born. Thanks for your patience!
And if you'd like to check out Stalcraft: X, head to stalcraft.net/s/46xqzV and use my welcome bonus code THESALTFACTORY24 in game.
Hype, thanks for the upload Salt, and congrats on growing your family!
Take all the time you need! Congrats on the little Salt Factory!
Congratulations on your kid.
Congrats Salt
Congratulations!
Bro completed his Witcher Trilogy before Joseph Anderson.
Oh yeah… time to check how Joseph’s reddit is holding up
Joseph has horrible takes anyways.
It's so joever
Came here to say that
He called Fallout 4 "Boston after Trump and I haven't watched him since. Get that shit outta here man. No one cares about your TDS.
Fun fact: if you complete HoS before the main quest and choose to kill Olgierd you can also ask O'Dimm about Ciri's whereabouts and you will basically get instructions on how to get the good ending.
It's also cool that you can ask some characters about Gaunter's mark. Ciri, Yen, Triss, even Regis. I love that they accounted for that
@@lokidragon2034 I did know about the G.O.D clue and about Yen and Triss, but didn't know about Regis. That is cool
Let me tell you Geralt did everything in the world before finding Ciri. Ciri was the last thing on Geralts mind. He was far too busy playing Gwent, Commiting Tax Fraud, and chasing that Yenussy to be bothered looking for his adopted daughter. That's the true Witcher experience. I was like 300 hours into the game before I went OH YEA my child...😂
There is always that one guy that tells him something he missed ^^
I wonder how much scrolling before someone tells him about "Night to remember" cinematic.
Edit: Oh, 2 comments later somebody did XD
Riding into Toussaint for the first time was one of the all time best gaming experiences I’ve ever had. The colors, the music, the atmosphere, the unknown monsters stalking the land. All of it such a _HUGE_ difference from Velen, Skellige, Novigrad, and Kaer Morhen with their cooler earth tones and generally darker feeling.
It's wild how poor his takes are sometimes though. Especially with the fairytale world. Like he just views it as entertainment and nothing more, rather than how Syanna views her childhood, and how it's shaped her life: Her view on the world and everyone around her is warped, but still a reality that has weight to it.
AND with Regis' whole, "I don't drink anymore" storyline from the books. A modicum of research would find that the Witcher video games take extreme liberty with how they've adapted/built upon the written work of Andrzej Sapkowski.
Salt Factory's reviews come across disingenuous, in terms of the actual research he does, sometimes because most of his "reviews" are just playthroughs of games. People in these comments are referencing Joseph Anderson for good reason: He actually does in-depth critical analyses. SF just does playthroughs and says what he's thinking, at least for a few of his videos.
I'm very disappointed in this one.
@@tonybaloney8617 well said. I'll say that I don't mind him having his own interpretations or takes on the storytelling, such as mentioning how the haunted mansion quest centers on the wife's emotions and how olgierd had impacted her. That's an interesting point to make. But he doesn't seem to apply that level of introspection to other quests where the writer's intentions are begging to be be explored beyond the surface level reading.
It would be a better video if his default was to assume every decision was made intentionally to further a specific underlying theme -- why is syanna here with us right now instead of geralt just following her tracks alone? IMO, he's helping syanna find her inner child that she had completely neglected after her traumatic experience. And it's by her reconciling with this lost childhood that she's able to see past her hardened shell to understand the actions of, and feel empathy for, her lost sister who, to syanna, represents everything she lost and who she could have been if given the same opportunity. That's impactful storytelling.
Hard agree. It is burned into my memory as well…
The land of 1000 fables.
We see Geralt come back for Orianna in the cinematic trailer, “A Night to Remember”, that came out prior to the base games release. We see Geralt kill her then ride off back to Toussaint. A prerelease trailer ended up being a post epilogue event. This is one of the coolest things that any gaming company has ever done for me for some reason.
Technically no, the vampire he kills in the trailer is a bruxa but we know Oriana is a higher vampire so…
@@ArjunB5it’s very clearly her though
@@yo3theguys980Agreed and she is a bruxa, otherwise G man wouldn't be able to kill her.
I will stand and die on the hill that Hearts of Stone is the single best story driven DLC ever made. It is everything great about the Witcher dialed up to 100.
You have my Axii
Agree. In the other two stories in Witcher 3, and even in Cyberpunk, they always made the mistake of writing some sort of urgency into the story that the game world then fails to live up to. When the game is fresh and the player is exploring for the sheer fun of it that doesn't register too much, but when it keeps repeating it starts to sour the experience. It definitely spoilt Cyberpunk for me.
You speak the truth
Could you do a cyber punk video that would be generational
The idea of an ending where you spare Dettlaff and Syanna strongly goes against Geralt as a character. As an RPG, the Witcher games give you some choices, but core to their strength is that Geralt is an established character with a consistent code the player can deviate from but never fully reject. Sparing Dettlaff arguably shuldn't even have been an option in the ending where Syanna dies. Choosing that ending should just straight up have Geralt being executed and its only game convenience that prevented it.
The whole point of Witchers is to kill monsters who are a danger to humans. Geralt might spare Dettlaff when he was unwillingly tricked into a handful of murders. But the second he attacked the city, Dettlaff was dead.
Unprompted, with no choice from the player, Geralt makes it clear that he will come back and kill Orianna for feeding on children and she doesn't even kill anyone (and he does, it happens in the trailer). The idea of sparing Detlaff no matter how sympathetic he is after he killed hundreds of people would literally never even cross Geralt's mind. Dettlaff was dead the second he even threatened that. Spending time humanizing him would be wasted. The whole reason that worked in Hearts of Stone is that no one involved was the kind of person Geralt would feel obligated to kill. All the humanizing of Dettlaff happens before he snaps, at which point the idea of sparing him ceases to make sense as a story beat.
I didn’t even consider sparing Dettlaff tbh
Yes, i was surprised didn't really get mentioned much in this video. Toussaint is being RAVAGED by vampires. The game makes that very apparent. Innocent people are actively dying in droves because of this attack. Geralt isn't steven universe. He can't just hug Dettlaff and make it all better.
@@spencerlively3049 I actually sent Regis to Syanna while I went to see the female vampire at the orphanage because I thought he was too personally invested in protecting Detlaff. Was disappointed later when I went online and saw all of the stuff about the fairytale land that I missed out on
Geralt executed? Please...
I'm Commander Shepphard and this is my favorite RUclipsr to listen to while doing trivial tasks on the citidel 👍🏽
I listen to these while I'm doing my deliveries at work (pizza delivery). I love it man.
It’s kinda crazy that they foreshadow the whole moon being on the ground plot twist when Shani says the moon is right there in the middle of the lake. Never noticed that before
Just the other day I was pondering upon my porcelain throne that I hadn’t seen a new salt factory. Ask and the gods shall deliver
Haha. Me too.
always good to come across a fellow thrall of that porcelain throne. * tips the hypothetical fedora *
I literally was thinking to myself yesterday I wonder what salts been up to and this was here
Hopefully it wasn't granted by O'Dimm
I also contemplated the lack of salt content, he always seems to provide when needed
Another 2 things about the cannibal quest. 1. There's a human sized cage in that larder, now why would there be a human sized cage if they're just taking the wolves' left over dinner? 2. If you choose to attack them, they seem to be quite capable in a fight given that they're so “frail and fragile”.
At the same time though, if you just threaten them to stop, they actually do listen to Geralt, and if you lie to the herbalist and they aren't killed by a mob, you can come back later and find out the woman slowly died because they didn't have enough food. Hard to feel too bad for them when it happens, but still, they clearly weren't completely lying about having no other food sources...
And I hardly doubt that simply relying on wolves (usually a pack of) that should kill someone first and then leave food for you is a believable thing at all.
If a human eats a non-human, is that even cannibalism?
@@efrenarevalo2025If black people eat white people, is that cannibalism? If the white people insist that black people are clearly something else it should be perfectly fine. No moral dilemma. 😂
Also listen to their dialogue when fighting them. They are monsters. No sympathy.
The Witcher 3 DLC are the 2 best DLC I've ever played
Well, HoS you mostly watched.
Id still say Warcraft3 Frozen Throne is up there in the top3 for me alongside Mass Effect 3 Citadel, but also would be hard to choose between HoS and B&W. Theyre wildly different.
@@tydendurler9574 wrong.
@Grivehn Citadel DLC felt like fan fiction.
@@ArcticVXR1 well no, truth.
You start the game, start a quest and put the controller down for minutes. Then you follow your map marker to the next cutscene and so on.
gtfo "wrong" xD
Pretty sure Regis explains in the books and briefly in game that drinking blood is the equivalent of mortals drinking hard liquor for vampires. He's always consumed alcohol, he even brews moonshine out of mandrake root.
He swore off drinking meaning human blood not alcohol.
Exactly!
Fun facts:
1. The Demons that serve Iris straight up tell you how to beat O'Dimm's challenge
2. O'Dimm , should you choose to let him take Olgierd's soul, will actually tell you how to get the base game's best ending when you ask him where Ciri is. (Provided you do this before you finish the Main Story)
3. The Wight, while never stated, is all but confirmed to be cursed by O'Dimm. The spoons, the mirror, the mention of a "mechant of mirrors" in the notes as the one who cursed her and his theme playing as Geralt explains the tragedy of the woman's fate. Its basically all there, but Geralt never acknowledges it. Almost like O'Dimm is taunting *the player directly* and not him.
Who would do this why before the end of main game?!?
Ridiculous details.
@@tydendurler9574Yeah it's so ridiculous the devs went out of their way to give unique dialogue for players choice. So ridiculous
@@Gerald-of-Rivierathat also means you can tell the countess, that Vesemir is still alive.. which makes it even sadder😔
@@tydendurler9574 I also know for a fact that Yennefer and Ciri even have dialogue that mentions the mark on Geralt's face if you do it *parallel* to the main story. Yen in particular admitting that its a product of *ancient* magic and that there's nothing she can do to remove it.
@@user-nw9hx9xz2oyup
i remember doing these before that point in the game the second dlc too and i decimated the end of the main story w dlc padded geralt
downside tho
if you do ng+ and restart the game above lvl 50 you cannot use the sets from blood and wine because they in ng+ unlike the base sets take your level at restart and add 50 but you cant go above 100 the gear can so they become unusable a bunch of dlc shit does sadly for blood and wine so dont go too ham if you are doing ng+
idk wtf devs never hard capped the stuff made zero sense
One thing important to note about Gaunter, is that he may not be as grey as it initially may seem. It is strongly implied that ODimm is responsible for Olgierds downfall, pushing him to the point where he asks Gaunter for help. And it’s almost guaranteed that Gaunter was responsible for Gerald being arrested by the Ofieri wizard, who just *happened* to show up to save his prince at the exact moment where Geralt kills him and passes out. In short that ODimm creates the problems for his subjects and then offers them the solutions.
He also straight up brutally kills a man who annoyed him for absolutely no reason.
Gaunter's rewards at the end of HoS (if you let him take Olgierd's stinking soul) actually has no "strings" attached. Despite being Evil Incarnate, he actually does genuinely like Geralt. Being a demon just kinda screws with showing that in the normal way. If you challenge him though, he does still enjoy it. Just more in a "best frenemies" way.
He doesn’t like Geralt, he just sees him as a plaything
@@seclumii9490 Doesn't mean he can't like him, it's just that he likes him in more of a "kid with a favorite new toy" way.
I'm not sure about that I don't think he like anyone he is what he is and all he sees is what he can gain. But that's my opinion atleast but I do like him very very much lol and whatever he speaks when you beat him sounds so dam awesome wish he spoke it more
Gaunters reward has no strings attached because Geralt upheld his end of the deal.
The saddle for Roach is the best reward to choose.
I remember the first time i finished Heart of stone and the shivers i felt when o'dimm started to whistle his own theme, what a great dlc !
One of the best written villains in all of media, not just gaming. And chilling theme too.
It's also great when in the beginning you come at his meating point on the crossroads, and kids in the village sing a folk song about him!
The first time I heard the child song about o'dimm it send me shivers down my spine - usually I play games in English but the witcher series in my mother tongue, which is German, is phenomenal
Being a fan of the books, I almost cried when Regis was introduced in Blood and Wine.
I haven't played hearts of stone but I will now I know he's there, easily 4th best charecter in the books imo
@@hounsdjentlow3074 Im pretty sure he's only in Blood and wine, the 2nd DLC :)
@mattispetersson3072 my bad I was stoned when I read ops comment hahaha thanks buddy 👍
I appreciate you calling out I Finished a Videogames, or as I call him Fin's, channel. He does a level of work that surprised me when I got recommended his Prince of Persia video when he dropped it. He's provided a level of insight into games I thought I knew over the years that I didn't know I wanted. I was less pleasantly surprised when I found out about the cancer. He doesn't deserve that.
Thank you.
Interestingly the story of Heart of Stone is more closely inspired by the story of Pan Twardowski in Polish literature, a noble man who made a deal with the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Their deal had a special clause which stipulated that Twardowski's soul could only be collected in Rome, a place he never intended to go to. But the devil used a loophole when Pan Twardowski entered an inn called "Rome". Just like Gunter O'Dim collected Von Everec's soul "on the moon".
“wake the f- up samurai. Salt factory posted a video.” Yennefer, probably.
YEAH! BOI! HAHahahahah
An f bomb? Woulda been Zoltan most likely
Unfunny millennial humor
@@AngriestPeanutnah unfunny nerd humor
@@MrAjking808 Unfunny nerd millennial humor
50:40 You missed the part where O'Dimm looks at the player when you ask what he really is. That part scared me like nothing else in this game.
he absolutely is one of the most nightmare fuel entities in a game
All through the game I felt like no challenge was above Geralt the White Wolf. O'Dimm sparing me felt absolutely real. The look he gives, along with the gentle talk he give us in the tavern put the Butcher of Blaviken in his place. I'd literally go fight the wild hunt again if it could get me out of a duel with Gunther.
@@rundownaxe I think you missed the point, as at that point he wasn't looking at Geralt. He was looking at you as the player asking if you truly wish to know, only to back out after thinking, probably as taking the player's soul would stop Geralt from completing his purpose as well.
We already know who he is
@@ScarlettR61 We don't.
Ah perfect something light and breezy for me while I’m on the bus.
Lol I read this as light a bleezy on the bus as I skimmed it 😂 glad my eyes deceived me, can't be the only one though
DO the wheels on the bus go round and round? So to does the salt go down down down!!!!!
what bus? a f**king greyhound bus?😂
Me when sponsor segments start on other videos: AHHH SCARY!!!!!
Me when they start on Salts channel: this was expected
I imagined this comment as a meme with the "Stonks" face and now my cat is looking vaguely concerned because I keep giggling about it😂
Yes, because Salt has the decency to tell you it's there and *when*...
Seeing rapunzel (langlocks) hanging by her own hair legitimately freaked me the hell out when i first saw it
1:50:09 both are. In the books he’s being knighted as Geralt of Rivia. - but not because of his name, no.
Funny enough he’s known as Geralt of Rivia because of Vesemir. In the books Geralt notices that people treat him differently when he says that he is from somewhere, but he picks a funny complicated name. So Vesemir tells him to take a simpler one, so Geralt takes “Geralt of Rivia” and learns how to integrate Rivia’s accent.
But later in the books they (his company - Milva, Regis, Cahir, etc) happen to be in Rivia. They see that Northen troops retreat from the Nilfgarian ambush and they decide to give them time and hold a specific bridge near a ferry.
They do just that and they are being greeted by quen Maeve - queen of Lyria and Rivia. Because of this happens in Rivia, Geralt is being knighted as “Geralt of Rivia” with a “Bridge” emblem.
Oh the fate irony here….
2:04:10 didnt play the game in english but i'm pretty sure that in polish it was mentioned that the beverage they were enjoying on the graveyard was non-alcoholic
That might explain it actually, because they definitely both refer to it as a bottle of alcohol in English. "Mandrake cordial", or just "Mandrake". Though Regis does say that it's pretty weak compared to the stuff he brewed up back at his estate. Still strange that they didn't translate it that way for the English version.
I did play in English, and even though it wasn't expressed explicitly, I naturally assumed that the mandrake brew was non-alcoholic.
Yo, you feeling alright brother? You sound a bit off. Everything okay man?
Everything's good on my end, my voice just changes dramatically depending on how awake I am lmao. Appreciate you asking though man
Yeah noticed that too. Good to hear he's alright though.
@@TheSaltFactoryat some moments you sound like you have flu or something
@@TheSaltFactory Yeah, that bit at the beginning kinda made me wonder if you were having sinus problems while recording. Good to hear you're doing alright, and don't worry about taking a break to tend to family; we'll be here when you get back.
Gaunter sending Geralt to Professor Shakeslock as a way of killing him is a very interesting perspective. I never looked at it that way.
Playing on the Death March difficulty brought back a lot of the careful preparation and calculation before each hunt. Highly recommended.
On brand new playthrough maybe. On NG+ Death March difficulty was a cakewalk. Even more so after all the nerfs.
@@LukeR1M True, doesn't work for NG+!
Absolutely agree. I blew through the game the first time on standard difficulty. New game (for the sweet, sweet alternative endings) I played on the highest difficulty (can't remember the name) and needed to prepare for every contract. A much better experience imo
It's the intended way to play, I'm sure of it.
as for Regis drinking alcohol, there's no mistake here - in the books, it is the blood that affects vampires in the booze way, and it was the blood that Regis had a drinking issue with. so him casually dropping a glass or two of regular alcohol creates no contradiction.
Near the end it is mentioned about giving Detlaff's "victim" knights some backstory, but there is some for each if you keep an eye out (or read a guide). Syanna does mention what they did to her while taking her to exile during the chats in the Land of a Thousand Fables and how it tied into the ways Detlaff posed them post-mortem. We aren't told it in the main questline, but they pop up in references across the sidequests.
For example, Count Crespi is Detlaff's first victim. Syanna tells us he beat the teen unconscious during the exile trip in front of the other supposedly chivalrous knights who apparently did nothing to help her. Having got away with that one, he continued down that "immune from consequence" road full force. During the long Wine Wars questline - which we may have done a long time prior to her story - we learn he was the trying to destroy both houses' crop so he could claim them all, until he met Detlaff of course, and his plans were cut short. But if you did the two quests a long way apart you might not realise it is the same Crespi.
(there is a set up for each of the 4 knights in the Wiki, but Crespi is perhaps the most fleshed out scumminess)
I was rewatching the KOTOR II video for the 19th time when this dropped. This is a truly blessed day.
i rewatch that video when i play the game. so good
How many times did you rewatch this video up to now? Lol
Both expansions are amazing Hos has the better story of the two in my opinion but BaW adds so much more and has the best bro Regis.
Blood & Wine is a game of itself and is better than the main game in a lot of ways imo.
0:52 is it just me or does it sound like he’s fighting a cold?
+1
His voice changes in pitch every other episode.
And losing
Yes, the two knights of Toussaint are indeed from the books, which I do recommend you to read. 😉
Gaunter O’Dim (GOD) known as Mr Mirror (or whatever his nickname in English is), so a reflection - the devil. The dlc is heavily inspired by an old polish legend of Mr Twardowski.
I also wanted to mention the tale of Mr Twardowski :)
16:11 Shame, you missed the coolest humanoid boss fight in the game (+the dope soundtrack that goes with it)
- Would you wait sir, for the dribble to subside?
- Makes no difference to me.
- Justly said. Stand and fight!
EPIC
@@thelastcrow5660 "Why is the music suddenly so epic? He's just a common bandit. I'll probably wipe the floor with hi..."
**Teleports behind me and drains almost all of my health in a single attack*
*"NANI !?"*
@@thelastcrow5660 this actually is a reference/direct quote to Sienkiewicz's "Deiluge" where Colonel Wołodyjowski duels Kmicic in the rain (the latter being an inspiration for Von Everec)
Its my biggest hate of HoS - they hideed propably best and one of most challamging bossfight! I hate that! but also... kinda love that
I didn't realise that fight was missable. I like it a lot. Fighting against the backdrop of the burning house in the night + the cutscene after where he pulls his head back into place.
Talking Roach was something I’d not known I needed until the Quest
2:05:09 Regis was addicted to blood, not alcohol.
And they are drinking non-alcoholic mandrake infusion (at least that’s how it’s presented in the PL translation) - opposition to the mandrake hooch/moonshine that Regis was crafting when they first met. The next dialog piece from Geralt mentions it, even - at least how it goes in PL dub: Regis says that Geralt has to excuse him, it’s not alcohol - only an infusion, at which Geralt responds that maybe it’s for the best, after trying his moonshine people used to say things that they wouldn’t otherwise, at which Regis responds “so what are the things that famous witcher wouldnt want to say” and the dialog goes onward..
In the books the company found out that Regis is brewing a moonshine, they start drinking and saying weird things :D
The whole DLC is a one big to the books..
Playing Blood and Wine, I'd squeeze the very seconds out of minutes before having to go to work to keep playing it.
I remember saving in a toy shop in the city during the main quest and vividly looking forward to finishing work for nine hours to get back onto it.
Some of my favourite gaming moments ever are in The Witcher 3 DLC. Olgierd remains amongst my favourite characters in fiction.
The diary entry where she writes out "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH" might be a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail
1:26:56 noway they made the A38 joke.
Brilliant reference
28:50 There's actually a difffernt dialogue sequence you'll get with this noble woman if you do this quest before the Battle of Kaer Mohen where Geralt will pretty much say Vessemir is alive an well ,you can even go back to Vessemir an tell him about the encounter with this noble woman and get additional dialogue from him.
1:50:27 - Bringing Regis back IS actualy true to the source. It is said in the books that highier wampires cannot be truly killed by anything besides other higher wampires. It was never mentioned how can they restore their health after very critical injuries (like being turned into sizzling pile of goo) but it is not against the lore. It's surprisingly well made from the lore perspective and someone had to look at very fine details to realize that bringing him back is possible (or they did it on a whim and were lucky enough not to make any retcons) (EDIT2: they fucked up in the end. Regis should be dead according to interviews with Sapkowski)
EDIT.
Also, Anna Henrietta butting in on everything, may not be the devs "wanting" her to do it, but rather their way of portraing her. While she may seem kind, and most of the time she is, in the books she is almost mentally unstable, things are going her way or no way. She is the kind of person that would execute a faithful servant for his opinion, just because she's in a bad mood.
Whole backstory to Sylwia Anna being cursed is also a reference from the story of Renfri from the books. Geralt himself doubts there is a curse and belives that those girls turned cruel, not because of it, but because how they were treated. Some were even "worked on" by mages (which I imagine was nothing short of torture). The main difference between the story of Renfri and Syanna is that this time, he could change her mind, while Renfri was beyond saving, which resulted in Blodbath in Blaviken
I do not remember exactly but I'm pretty sure that the rule that only higher vampires can kill other higher vampires is introduced in the games.That said I don't think he really died in the books since when Geralt dies ghosts of his fallen friends help put him on a boat and Regis is not there.
Sapkowski basically confirmed that Regis was not permanently destroyed. The game later fleshed that out.
"She is the kind of person that would execute a faithful servant for his opinion, just because she's in a bad mood."
Damn, that sounds quite a bit like Vaylin, the daughter of the Eternal Emperor Valkorion in Star Wars: The Old Republic...
@@janekfilipowski9119 You are right. I did checked "Baptism of Fire" and I found nothing of the sort. I propably got it from same source as @Iverald, that Sapkowski "confirmed" it.
Which is wrong. I found the interview. He said:
"Względem Regisa, przyznaję, było trudniej, i wersje, w których wampir przeżywa, istniały. Zrezygnowałem z nich jednak" ENG "In relation to Regis, I admit, it was more difficult, and the versions in which the vampire survives, existed. However, I gave up on them"
As well as:
"Wampir ginie, bo poświęca się - ratuje Geralta i Yennefer" ENG "The vampire dies because he sacrifices himself - he saves Geralt and Yennefer"
There might still be a chance that for highier vampire "death" may refer to the time it is defeated and needs long time to recover, but I found nothing that would
So in the end, they did fucked it up/retconed it.
It's kind of funny. I always get the everyone dies ending in Blood and Wine but never feel bad. Geralt did his job of killing someone who at the end was impulsively violent to the point of wiping out a city. It sucks that the duchess died but that was her own fault due to not listening to Geralt and I didn't find her sister particularly forgiveable.
This is the ending I got and lowkey considered it a good ending. I mean....not for the people in the city I guess but.... For me I was satisfied! The two monsters were punished!
I'm in the middle of my umpteenth playthru of Witcher 3 and Novigrad is still as dope as ever
I alwaYs disliked the Novigrad Part the most.
"Oh wow, a city to explore. Quest - go there, watch Cutscene. Then you go here and watch a Cutscene, then you go back and watch a cutscene, then you 2 regular dudes followed by a cutscene, and when you finally decide to progress the main story...guess what...GO WATCH A CUTSCENE.
In Skellige you can at least PLAY a videogame.
@@tydendurler9574 I'm just a sucker for city settings in RPGs they always have unique quests you can't find in other areas like High Stakes or Catch Junior where instead of just going to an area and a fight happens we get some intrigue and shit. I remember when I first played the game I raced to Novigrad first and every enemy for the first few hours was so many levels ahead of me that every fight was a half hour dodge fest till I whittled down their health, I admit going back through I think areas like Velen have a lot more going on but everything in Novigrad just feels grimy in a good way to me and I like that in my games.
13:45 is pretty obvious, those guards are most likely level 60 or more so geralt can't do shit because this is a game of numbers.
1:14:44 The guy cleaning
13:35 well, he is out at sea and completely unaware of where in the sea he is. He would stay in jail to figure out what’s going on, and wait for a better time to escape
W3 is seriously one of the best games ever made. if the combat and movement were even slightly better. it would probably be the best RPG ever made. absolutely love this fcking game.
What I really love about HoS is they made Olgierd first, then wrote the story around him. Instead of write a story and shoehorn someone in that "fit". I mean they didnt even technically add any new area. And... and I was enthralled, the entire story.
The woman in the fist fighting quest is a reference to Brienne of Tarth from got
Hearts of Stone has the best story ever, I think.
Regis is one of the goats. No one was mad they brought him back
I was literally just thinking about The Witcher 3 DLC and how it was The Golden Age of CDPR.
They got ESGed not too long after and it's been downhill ever since.
Well, considering Geralts nature he probably got used to insults thrown at him "just because". So he just easily shrugs them off
2:08:12 Don't tell me you caught all these other references in the DLC and missed the Monty Python reference
You have no idea how happy I was to see Regis in the games, and not just as a card or throwaway mention in the first game. He was an absolute bro in the books.
The Witcher is written in Polish and than translated into english, and goddamit this game is so MUCH better in Polish, even polish voices are so much better. Goddamit i'm sorry you guys miss so much of this game
For example the fact that the mandrake beverage that Geralt and Regis drink here in the game is non-alcoholic and it is not Regis’ hooch/moonshine is missing in the EN version. In the PL it has a different meaning and it is yet another nod to the books. Here even Salt got it differently. Weird
2:04:24 iirc what they're drinking isn't wine, its Mandrake Juice, which is brewed but not fermented like the Mandrake Cordial. I believe this is Regis' substitute for alcohol given how regular humans and Geralt get poisoned by the roots alone.
The only quest I missed in "Blood and wine" was the Roach quest and I didn't know it until after I'd already finished the game and couldn't go back to it at all.
Blood and wine might also be a snowqueen reference (might be called trollmirror). Another Danish HC anderson fairy tale about the girl Anna who sets out to save her friend who has been cursed to only see the bad in the world. There is a sub plot about Anna meeting a friendly gang of robbers who help her on the journey. But well i might be over thinking it incidentally it is probably the inspiration of frozen.
On the skellige deck, I disagree, I thought it was surprisingly strong and kept using it, but you need to tweak the main strategy and completely throw away the siege units.
1:30:30 I don't know how known Asterix is in Poland, but at least here, "Passierschein A38" has become an idiom for pointless and insame bureacracy.
I didn't even know this quest was in the Witcher 3, I just learned about it from you. Love it.
Mostly by millennials - we had comics since the 90s, cartoons and then the movies with Depardieu. Some may know the A38 reference, but I guess commonly people recognize the absurd red tape from communist times, or from before 2010s.
Between Blood and Wine and Pokémon x and y I've developed a love for fictional French countrysides
1:14:22 On Death March preparation is more important, you want a sword coating and at least one potion related to the monster you’re fighting. That said, the third game makes repeating this process much easier by having coatings and potions regenerate
Congratulations on being a dad. 😎👏👏👏
Yet another nose flick to J. Anderson hahaha
I'm surprise that the "Night to be remember" trailer wasn't brought up. It was a fun little thing, for me, to realise the link when she started singing
Fantastic timing for this video to release, just caught up on your witcher series after playing it myself and am ecstatic to watch this!
I keep hearing Eau Claire when he says Boclair which is hilarious as Eau Claire is a city in Wisconsin. Imagen, the witcher, wisconsin edition
I don't care what anyone say, CDPR is one of the only studios who actually put a lot of work into their project. This game completely blows pretty much AAA studio out of the water.
Even cyberpunk 2077 made a great comeback and put a lot to shame.
We seriously should give them a round of applause for their games side content being amazing.
Mines cyberpunk2077
Shill
No wonder they got away with C2077. Game was promised as an RPG, but what we got was a shallow action game, with no RPG elements or stripped features that were shown or promised.
Doesn’t help a lot of the devs that worked on Witcher 3 left the studio.
@@georgie9303 How to say you never played cyberpunk without saying you never played cyberpunk, the story and quests literally change completely based on how you build your character, not like a blind hater would know that.
@@VeilsideTofu The story does NOT change depending on the build,only thing that changes is the ending and romances depending on dialogue choices,stop spreading misinfo
@@VeilsideTofuShill CDPR. Only the sidequest were good. The main story is the most mediocre Bethesda choice. Keep licking that CDPR bunghole.
I remember that at my first playthrough I’ve misunderstood Olgierd when he described his sword in a way that my impression was that whatever/whoever is cut by it - dies. And there I was, watching Olgierd cuts himself with his sword after helping him in O’Dimms challenge…
Now I know that it is simply “nice to feel something for a change”, but still
This was a fantastic review of both DLCs. Hearts of Stone seems to be well reviewed by every critic because of its immense focus and tight writing. Blood and Wine tends to get a lot more criticism, and rightfully so. However, despite its many problems, B&W ended up being better than the sum of its parts. All the individual issues you pointed out were spot on but somehow the whole package became a great wholesome ending to Geralt's journey. I'm hopeful that CDPR will learn lessons from Cyberpunk 2077 and deliver another masterpiece with the next Cyberpunk.
Should i point out that according to the books, yennifer is the cannon ending and the one gerled deeply loves, with triss being more of a common friend in a poliamore kinda way, and yes, gerled loves how yennifer takes control in the books, he would complain about her picking his clothes and sorting his hear, but it always somehow ended in a hot bang session cause he enjoy it.
I think you should also remember that according to the books Geralt is dead. So it’s a moot point.
@@AesirUnlimited there is lots of stuff from the books in the games, so clearly it's not a mute point, and in game geralt have very similar feelings towards yenn
@@LillyP-xs5qe Unless you choose for him not to. Making it a moot point. Player choice is what determines his actions and feelings, not the original book canon. If the book canon were the be all and end all then Geralt and Yennefer would still be dead and the games wouldn’t exist.
@@AesirUnlimited it is cannon that he and yenn are a couple, I haven't got to the end up so thanks for spoiling that/s
And no matter what choice you make, in games he will still have a long loving history with yenn as she was a mother figure to ciri, in books and in games, so it only makes sense he and yenn get together as they are both ciri's adoptive parents.
Making your point moot, since all the important stuff to their relationships from the books are 100% cannon in the games.
@@LillyP-xs5qe Unless the player chooses not to. Making it a moot point.
26:04
Interesting foreshadowing about arriving at the moon without...arriving there. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but I've only just realised that now.
The funny part is I just checked your channel last night to see if you posted a recent video. Let's go!
Bro hearing you shout of IFAVG made me so happym
You, him and josh strife are my goto essayist and i love everything all y'all do (i know you didnt mention josh but i put him in a similar category so figured id mention him)
The Guillame/Vivienne curse side quest is sweet.
Have to mention that if you do hearts of stone before finding Ciri, you can basically ask O’dimm how to achieve the “best ending”. And he just flat out tells you what to choose in the 5 instances that determine if you get the depression ending. He could have screwed with Geralt but he just honestly tells you how to do it. The only wish that he has a little fun with, is if you ask for money. He deems it predictably, banal and boring. So he just gives 5000 crowns. (When you are in a position to spend twice that for the runewright😅)
Took a solid few tries for the Witcher 3 to fully hook me. But glad i stuck with it
Now it is GOATed, and top 5 gaming experiences for me after several hundred hours put in.
And the DLCs are so goddamn good too
🔥 🙏🙏
2:53:00
Which is weird because Regis described this bond as stronger than anything that can happen between two humans, even stringer that humans can imagine.
I thought i heard the wind howling, but its just another banger upload.
The Apollo story you referenced has another version where the god Eros had a spat with Apollo which results in Eros shooting Apollo with an arrow that made him fall in love and Daphne with a lead arrow that made her hate him.
A cool tidbit of info, at 32:58 you can see Gaunter O'Dimm with a crossbow in the background, on the left. And yes, he can also be seen several other times throughout the DLC.
Also, what difficulty did he play on? Judging by the combat footage and the (almost) complete lack of decoction or potion icons, and his mentioning that he never needing to prepare for contracts, I highly doubt that it was on DeathMarch with enemy scaling.
Can't wait until you get around to BG3, I always enjoy these longform review videos to keep rolling the background while doing day to day stuff around the house.
Bro almost cured his nerd voice
Blood & Wine will probably be my favorite DLC of all time.
I stepped on Thumbelina in Fairytale Land...
We all did...
@@_r4x4 I didn't. But that's because I never visited Fairytale Land.
01:46:06 "I am the senat"
He should say "not yet" and throw the egg away
Am I tripping or does his voice sound deeper??
Nah, it was really offputting, like a lower-pitched rapper.
He's either trying too hard or... He was sick or had a stuffed nose when he recorded this vid..
He had a cold I guess.
Blood and Wine remains one of my favorite gaming experiences ever. I keep a save right at the beginning of the DLC just so i can play through it every year or so and not have to slog through the base game.
55:00 you missed out on a key one, if you do hearts of stone before you progress a certain point of the main game Geralt can ask him where Ciri is. And Gaunter will answer
Longlocks is how rapunzel is called in some Polish retellings. Just wanted to point that one out.
NEW SALT FACTORY???? WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY.
The analysis at around the 48 minute mark hit me like a sledgehammer.
This DLC/game was just so fantastic.
Emotionally jarring to the point I've only done 1 additional play through.
Well done video, sir.
I've been looking forward to this for the longest time and now it's finally out!! ^_^
As a fan of the Dark Tower series (the books, of course) Gaunter O'Dimm is just another name of Randall Flagg/Walter O'Dim to me. He just wanted to torment Geralt instead of Roland for a while. Gaunter fits Flagg's character so well, too.
Randall - Roland
Gaunter - Geralt
Same first letter. It fits as hell!
Best gaming experience ever.
As long as you put infinite carry capacity and durability mod.
It’s quite poetic that the devs used the black sun prophecy in Geralt’s final adventure as the curse of the black sun is a pretty big part of the Geralt’ early adventures
I know what im doing tonight