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
If you ask me that's the only way HOS should be completed, because whether you've chose Triss or Yen, you've made your choice and banging Shani would make no sense
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.
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.
For me it's both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. Probably my two favorite DLCs of all time. After playing Elden ring and Shadow of the erdtree to death, it feels amazing to come back to the Witcher 3. Even after all these years, this game still holds up and captivates me.
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. 😂
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.
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
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
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.
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
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".
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
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 is described as evil incarnate. I like the idea of him not being interested in harmless, decent people, like the peasants at the wedding, but him being attracted to evil individuals, does not make him gray.
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.
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.
@@MarcellLakatos-h1qyup 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
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
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.
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..
The biggest issue I have with Syanna is that Detlaff would have likely helped her with her vengeance had she just asked. Instead she goes for playing with his heart and manipulating him instead. Given his powers and skill he likely could have killed each victim without causing such a fuss around Tussiant, and Syanna could have had vengeance without a manhunt being put in place. There is also the fact that Syanna refuses to think about all the damage she is at the center of, her history is brutal and those knights deserved it but the rest of the kingdom didn't need a higher vampire terrorizing it. Add in Anna unwilling to see her sister's anger and vileness, I'm unwilling to give these two a happy ending that isn't at all earned. I tend to either give Syanna to Detlaff or seeing the Unseen Elder just because those two give me a sense of fulfillment for the story.
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….
It's not entirely clear whether the story of Geralt's name is true or if he was just making fun of people with overly long names. Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach and Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy certainly seemed to think it was the latter. But yes, Geralt being officially named "Geralt of Rivia" after having used the name for decades was pretty funny.
@@DagothThorus Well, it's been a while since I read the books, so I may be misremembering, but it's always read to me as Geralt making fun of Cahir and Regis' names.
Regis does not get attacked by Bruxae loyal to Dettlaff. He gets attacked by Bruxae because the cardinal rule of Vampires is that they do not kill their own kind. Whether those Bruxae knew Dettlaff or liked him wasn't relevant. ANY vampire Regis meets in the future is likely to attack him.
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.
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.
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
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.
@@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.
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.
About 1:44 on Anna Henrietta. I think its intentional. She says she doesn't want for panic to spread and alarm the beast and then she rides with you frantically through the city, because what she really doesn't want to happen, is to call of the festivities. It shows that she might be not so nice of a person as she seems (as every ruler probably), caring more for kingdom image etc. than life of one knight
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)
@@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.
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.
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.
Something that I never caught in my playthroughs of this game, but saw something in a Neon Knight video that really changed my perspective on the intro frog hunt from Hearts of Stone. I always thought it was weird that the second Geralt kills the frog, the Oferi guards show up. For a game that avoids contrivances as well as the witcher 3, it seemed like an oversight, but when you read the journal entry for that quest, it's implied that Geralt was drawn to that quest on that specific day, implying that Gaunter set up everything in Hearts of Stone from the very beginning. In short: go watch Neon Knights video on Hearts of Stone it's great
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.
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.
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
Syanna has some basis in a character from the short story The Lesser Evil, where Geralt meets a cursed former princess named Renfri. She shares some parallels, shes also on a quest for revenge against those who caused her situation, but the stories are pretty different overall. Highly recommend, one of my favourite Witcher short stories.
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
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.
I felt nothing but pity and hollow sadness for Olgierd by the end of _Hearts of Stone._ He had been boisterous and haughty in his early life, sure, but he was still a good man full of old-school romance before he was enticed, deluded, and corrupted by Gaunter. He was made the man he became, he did not mean to become him. Even Iris, the one he had hurt the most, still deeply loved him despite everything. I always save him, because he deserves the ability to redeem himself and be truly human again. I hate seeing the alternate ending. It's so cruel. And I LOVE Regis! When reading the books, I fell in love with his sweet, gentle, and deeply caring character. Having Geralt's adventures as a witcher conclude with him and Regis being true brothers, discussing life and "where do we go from here?" was fulfilling, wholesome, and heart-warming. When I finished the base game and had stupidly taken Ciri to see her father, I was practically sobbing, watching Geralt's baby girl leave him forever to become empress. After _Blood and Wine,_ finishing up with Regis and returning to Corvo Bianco to find that Yennefer had moved in, made my heart full for Geralt. He and Yennefer have more than earned and deserve to live happily ever after in peace. And beautiful Toussaint is the perfect place. And I know it's ridiculous to feel these ways about fictional characters who do not actually exist, but that's just a testament to quality, immersive storytelling.
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.
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.
2:02:30 But you HAVEN'T literally seen the thing in another quest. You saw a regular wight. The quest requires a spotted wight, which are said to be extinct.
I Almost strictly play games for gameplay/combat, but Hearts Of Stone is hands down the best DLC I've ever Played the narrative is gripping for me and Gaunter is the ultimate villain and words can't express how I feel about it
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 🔥 🙏🙏
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)
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
One thing the blood and wine does best is that it makes you not want to do the fights because there's almost always an option to take a good ending route to avoid the fight, but the fights are also really freaking awesome and you want to fight because gameplay is awesome. Also the bad endings have the good rewards. I always do a bad ending run with the fights, then after new game plus I go for the good endings.
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.
I thought I saved the day, until I saw Syanna kill Anna Henrietta… I went in blind and hadn’t done enough to get the happily ever after ending. It doesn’t feel forced with all the work you have to put in to get it.
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.
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.
Blood and Wine is definitely bigger and the better if the two but I've got love for Hearts of Stone. Definitely worth the money, whether you paid for the three (game + DLCs) separately or as the GOTY edition. Both have their faults, nothing is perfect. HOS is short but I found it really fun and well written. Happy you enjoyed it too Salt. I've played through the vanilla game and DLC a few times to try out the different outcomes and enjoyed it each time. I can't wait for the next Witcher game!
Both expansions offer completely different experiences, both amazing. Hearts of Stone was an amazing condensed story, imo tighter and better than the base game which had a messy final act. Blood and Wine while not amazing story wise, it felt like the best send off to the series. Fun map, tons of content, and Geralt breaking the 4th wall to say goodbye at the end made me tear up
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
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.
Truthfully as someone who's first CD Projekt Red was Cyberpunk it is interesting to hear from people who have built up this repertoire with them. Personally their transparency about the pressure from Sony kind of endeared them to me so, I cut them some slack. I mean look at No Man's Sky, home dude LITERALLY BOLD FACED LIED and everyone let it go so, I believed in them. I had a good time so I had faith. It truly is interesting hearing your point of view on these things given mine tends to differ or I have no plan to play a series i.e. I prefer Outer Worlds over Fallout, I have never played Mass Effect. I think this truly plays into how you analyze topics that really allows for me at least to see it in a new way.
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.
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 Complete Story of Destiny! From origins to Shadowkeep [Timeline and Lore explained]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9mbDXvDNqTU/mqdefault.jpg)
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!
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
If you ask me that's the only way HOS should be completed, because whether you've chose Triss or Yen, you've made your choice and banging Shani would make no sense
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.
and if you glitch beyond the boundaries everything is solid and it's vast amount of green . Unlike velen where most of the ground is fake .
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.
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
For me it's both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.
Probably my two favorite DLCs of all time.
After playing Elden ring and Shadow of the erdtree to death, it feels amazing to come back to the Witcher 3.
Even after all these years, this game still holds up and captivates me.
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.
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.
@@yo3theguys980Geralt: She doesn't wear a mask.
Henrietta: It would be pointless, all would know her anyway.
@@ArjunB5 CDPR confirmed that it was her in the trailer, and that she is a Bruxa.
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.
You gotta learn to spell
@@AdminAbuse *Insert Renegade Response here*
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
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
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!
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...
Seyanna: Man people usually ask me shit about myself...
Ledger: Do you wanna know how I got these scars?
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
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".
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
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 is described as evil incarnate.
I like the idea of him not being interested in harmless, decent people, like the peasants at the wedding, but him being attracted to evil individuals, does not make him gray.
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.
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.
@@MarcellLakatos-h1qyup
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
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.
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 👍
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*...
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.
“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
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..
The biggest issue I have with Syanna is that Detlaff would have likely helped her with her vengeance had she just asked. Instead she goes for playing with his heart and manipulating him instead. Given his powers and skill he likely could have killed each victim without causing such a fuss around Tussiant, and Syanna could have had vengeance without a manhunt being put in place. There is also the fact that Syanna refuses to think about all the damage she is at the center of, her history is brutal and those knights deserved it but the rest of the kingdom didn't need a higher vampire terrorizing it. Add in Anna unwilling to see her sister's anger and vileness, I'm unwilling to give these two a happy ending that isn't at all earned. I tend to either give Syanna to Detlaff or seeing the Unseen Elder just because those two give me a sense of fulfillment for the story.
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?😂
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….
Oh I love the books. Thanks for that short trip back
It's not entirely clear whether the story of Geralt's name is true or if he was just making fun of people with overly long names. Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach and Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy certainly seemed to think it was the latter.
But yes, Geralt being officially named "Geralt of Rivia" after having used the name for decades was pretty funny.
@@RanVor It is tho.
@@DagothThorus Well, it's been a while since I read the books, so I may be misremembering, but it's always read to me as Geralt making fun of Cahir and Regis' names.
Regis does not get attacked by Bruxae loyal to Dettlaff. He gets attacked by Bruxae because the cardinal rule of Vampires is that they do not kill their own kind. Whether those Bruxae knew Dettlaff or liked him wasn't relevant. ANY vampire Regis meets in the future is likely to attack him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yes, the two knights of Toussaint are indeed from the books, which I do recommend you to read. 😉
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.
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
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.
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 :)
About 1:44 on Anna Henrietta. I think its intentional. She says she doesn't want for panic to spread and alarm the beast and then she rides with you frantically through the city, because what she really doesn't want to happen, is to call of the festivities. It shows that she might be not so nice of a person as she seems (as every ruler probably), caring more for kingdom image etc. than life of one knight
Noble; That's against the rules.
Anna: Rules are for poor people.
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)
Seeing rapunzel (langlocks) hanging by her own hair legitimately freaked me the hell out when i first saw it
I don't know if this bitch had it coming.
The diary entry where she writes out "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH" might be a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail
It was nice to help the old lady clear up her "Wightness" by having her listen to "A Tribe Called Quest."😂
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.
1:26:56 noway they made the A38 joke.
Brilliant reference
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.
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.
Talking Roach was something I’d not known I needed until the Quest
I've been looking for that quest.
Something that I never caught in my playthroughs of this game, but saw something in a Neon Knight video that really changed my perspective on the intro frog hunt from Hearts of Stone. I always thought it was weird that the second Geralt kills the frog, the Oferi guards show up. For a game that avoids contrivances as well as the witcher 3, it seemed like an oversight, but when you read the journal entry for that quest, it's implied that Geralt was drawn to that quest on that specific day, implying that Gaunter set up everything in Hearts of Stone from the very beginning. In short: go watch Neon Knights video on Hearts of Stone it's great
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.
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.
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.
Gaunter sending Geralt to Professor Shakeslock as a way of killing him is a very interesting perspective. I never looked at it that way.
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
Syanna has some basis in a character from the short story The Lesser Evil, where Geralt meets a cursed former princess named Renfri. She shares some parallels, shes also on a quest for revenge against those who caused her situation, but the stories are pretty different overall. Highly recommend, one of my favourite Witcher short stories.
Regis is one of the goats. No one was mad they brought him back
Well, considering Geralts nature he probably got used to insults thrown at him "just because". So he just easily shrugs them off
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
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
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.
I felt nothing but pity and hollow sadness for Olgierd by the end of _Hearts of Stone._ He had been boisterous and haughty in his early life, sure, but he was still a good man full of old-school romance before he was enticed, deluded, and corrupted by Gaunter. He was made the man he became, he did not mean to become him. Even Iris, the one he had hurt the most, still deeply loved him despite everything. I always save him, because he deserves the ability to redeem himself and be truly human again. I hate seeing the alternate ending. It's so cruel.
And I LOVE Regis! When reading the books, I fell in love with his sweet, gentle, and deeply caring character. Having Geralt's adventures as a witcher conclude with him and Regis being true brothers, discussing life and "where do we go from here?" was fulfilling, wholesome, and heart-warming.
When I finished the base game and had stupidly taken Ciri to see her father, I was practically sobbing, watching Geralt's baby girl leave him forever to become empress. After _Blood and Wine,_ finishing up with Regis and returning to Corvo Bianco to find that Yennefer had moved in, made my heart full for Geralt. He and Yennefer have more than earned and deserve to live happily ever after in peace. And beautiful Toussaint is the perfect place.
And I know it's ridiculous to feel these ways about fictional characters who do not actually exist, but that's just a testament to quality, immersive storytelling.
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.
1:30:26 while old, its a very popular & well known cartoon in Poland & might even been part of childhood for some of younger devs
Hearts of Stone might legit be my favorite video game storyline of all time. It’s up there for sure.
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.
Hearts of Stone has the best story ever, I think.
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.
2:02:30
But you HAVEN'T literally seen the thing in another quest. You saw a regular wight. The quest requires a spotted wight, which are said to be extinct.
Between Blood and Wine and Pokémon x and y I've developed a love for fictional French countrysides
I Almost strictly play games for gameplay/combat, but Hearts Of Stone is hands down the best DLC I've ever Played the narrative is gripping for me and Gaunter is the ultimate villain and words can't express how I feel about it
Fantastic timing for this video to release, just caught up on your witcher series after playing it myself and am ecstatic to watch this!
Probably won’t see this but you should definitely keep posting to your cooking channel, love all your videos
The funny part is I just checked your channel last night to see if you posted a recent video. Let's go!
This game is eternal. I still remember it vividly. Wind's howling
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
🔥 🙏🙏
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)
I thought i heard the wind howling, but its just another banger upload.
Purist here and I loved Regis being brought back
2:08:12 Don't tell me you caught all these other references in the DLC and missed the Monty Python reference
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
The woman in the fist fighting quest is a reference to Brienne of Tarth from got
One thing the blood and wine does best is that it makes you not want to do the fights because there's almost always an option to take a good ending route to avoid the fight, but the fights are also really freaking awesome and you want to fight because gameplay is awesome. Also the bad endings have the good rewards. I always do a bad ending run with the fights, then after new game plus I go for the good endings.
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.
I thought I saved the day, until I saw Syanna kill Anna Henrietta… I went in blind and hadn’t done enough to get the happily ever after ending. It doesn’t feel forced with all the work you have to put in to get it.
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.
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.
NEW SALT FACTORY???? WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY.
Blood and Wine is definitely bigger and the better if the two but I've got love for Hearts of Stone. Definitely worth the money, whether you paid for the three (game + DLCs) separately or as the GOTY edition. Both have their faults, nothing is perfect. HOS is short but I found it really fun and well written. Happy you enjoyed it too Salt.
I've played through the vanilla game and DLC a few times to try out the different outcomes and enjoyed it each time.
I can't wait for the next Witcher game!
The Guillame/Vivienne curse side quest is sweet.
Both expansions offer completely different experiences, both amazing. Hearts of Stone was an amazing condensed story, imo tighter and better than the base game which had a messy final act.
Blood and Wine while not amazing story wise, it felt like the best send off to the series. Fun map, tons of content, and Geralt breaking the 4th wall to say goodbye at the end made me tear up
1:14:44 The guy cleaning
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.
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
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.
Truthfully as someone who's first CD Projekt Red was Cyberpunk it is interesting to hear from people who have built up this repertoire with them. Personally their transparency about the pressure from Sony kind of endeared them to me so, I cut them some slack. I mean look at No Man's Sky, home dude LITERALLY BOLD FACED LIED and everyone let it go so, I believed in them. I had a good time so I had faith. It truly is interesting hearing your point of view on these things given mine tends to differ or I have no plan to play a series i.e. I prefer Outer Worlds over Fallout, I have never played Mass Effect. I think this truly plays into how you analyze topics that really allows for me at least to see it in a new way.
I've been looking forward to this for the longest time and now it's finally out!! ^_^
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.
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
I went with a Alchemy build too it was really good
Ayee let's go. Pumped for this