Did not know about this channel. I was recommended Chris Davis TW2 video. After watching Joseph Anderson's 4h18m long TW1 video 5 (yes FIVE!) times! They say RUclips has an AI trying to figure out what videos to recommend to keep you watching. Well I don't think AI will take over the world any time soon.
Joseph almost never argues objectively. Drives me nuts. Soma isn't scary? Lol. It's meant to instill existential dread, not FNAF you into a giggle spree.
It seems like JA had an idea of doing whole Witcher trilogy in one go supplemented by books etc. or at least he felt that he have to know everything about the franchise before he starts to talk about it which might be admirable but in the end it was too much material and all he did was an apology video.
Hi everyone. This video took a long time to make, partly because I had to do about 80 hours of reading before I could even start playing the game. I know I say something like this every time, but I'd REALLY appreciate any love you could show the video, whether it be a like, comment, share, etc. It'll help keep me motivated when I'm working on the next two videos in this series! Also, does anyone know of any good books about Polish folklore (with an English translation)? It'd be great to read the Polish equivalent of Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology book if there is such a thing. Thanks.
Wow, it took you whole hour to finally say "Order of the flaming fist" instead of flaming rose... It takes me to mispronounce them exactly as much time as it takes them to appear ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) so hey, nice job. Also, thanks for great video.
Great video!As for the Polish folklore I don't know if there is a equivalent for Gaiman's work but there are a few that stand out: Polish Folklore and Myth by Joanne Asala and A World Remembered Tales by Marion-something-something.Looking forward for whatever comes next from you!
I'm afraid that (sadly) there's no such compendium even in polish. There are few reasons for this. First, we have shallow knowledge of Slavic pre-Christian believes due to lack of written sources. Second, post-christianization folklore was very differentiated among different regions of Poland. There was some common things, but there was no fixed canon like in Greek or Norse mythology. Every good books about polish folklore I've ever seen was only about specific region.
@@tomekm1804 In this case knowledge about Polish romanticism and literary tradition in general might be more important if you want to understand the inspirations behind the Witcher since there are far more references to famous (in Poland) XIX century novels rather than the actual folklore.
6:30 Vesemir would've smacked you right across the back of your head at this point. "Both swords are for killing monsters, young man. You will recite Bestiary chapter XI to me tomorrow, by heart, in full." 44:00 Shani is NOT a sorceress. She's just a medic, even though a talented one.
Isn't magic sorcery? Kind of healer class in mmos? Though healers can use other spells too. After watching Joseph Anderson's video on this I have to agree, she is a sorceress, but a loosely one.
Both swords are not for monsters that rule is only in books in games it is separated and it is comfirmed by some characters in game I dont remember who exactly said it but i am sure one of people was geralt himself.
Geralt tells the Baron's men who are harassing him and the locals at an inn that the silver sword is for monsters and, after pausing, that the steel sword is for humans to intimidate them when they ask why he carries two swords. I wouldn't take that as gospel. Alternatively, the "both swords are for monsters" could be interpreted in a way that doesn't necessarily conflict with the take that one is for monsters and the other for humans. A big theme in the Witcher is that not all who appear monstrous are monsters at heart, and that sometimes the ones who look human are the real monsters. In the Killing Monsters cinematic, Geralt even states he is killing monsters when he is killing humans. Thus, the steel sword can be for humans and monsters at the same time, becomes sometimes they are one and the same.
This interpretation makes no sense if you think of Triss badly for her actions then you should also consider all of geralt's best and most trusted friends to be complete assholes and terrible people for not reminding him about his daughter The developers clearly didn't think they were going to get a sequel so they wrote them out of the store
Nah. The secret is she has alterior motives for helping you, because she is working with the Lodge of Sorceresses. You get a hint at this if she uses Alzur's Shield on you shortly before the final Professor fight. I believe the instructions on how you cast the spell were in the Tower Mage's Book, which might still be in your inventory. There's also the neutral "witcher" ending, in which the Lodge gains more influence over the kings. Jackques was one of their biggest enemies so they probably just helped you take him out.
I always feel old when people say their first Witcher game was the third one... This game was amazing for its time, though my favorite is still the second. Can't wait for that one.
I'm thinking of playing the whole trilogy from the beginning. My first witcher was 3. But I want to get immersed in the whole world of the witcher. I'm starting the books now too.
Dr House I played Witcher 3 in 2018 and then last September I did the first two. Despite the graphics and combat I really enjoyed them both, however the map in W2 is awful (Vergen suffers so much from this).
I know, right? I picked up TW1 on the shelf like a week after it released, purely because I thought the box looked interesting and I was in the market for a new game. Ended up not playing it for nearly a year because, for those who *don't* know, the gold release of the game was HORRIBLY optimized for the machines of the period. My computer may not have been the GREATEST in the world, but it ran a lot of games quite well, and we're talking 5 minute load screens to enter someone's 1-room house. Once I got the Enhanced Edition patch (which fixed all the optimization, and a lot of bugs, AND included a lot of extra and re-recorded dialogue lines), it was easily my game of the year. I ended up buying the only book that had been translated into English not long after, and pre-ordered the second one. It definitely sort of got overshadowed with the rise of things like Game of Thrones in popularity, but the world of The Witcher was always my first, and favorite, grey/grey morality crapsack world. Oh, and I loved the combat. Timing clicks was something different, to me, plus it felt so fluid because their animations were phenomenal.
I played the first one in 2007 and remember thinking it was a trainwreck of a game at the time. I think I got into Chapter 2 or 3 and gave up. Came back a couple years later, with the Enhanced Edition in hand, tried again, and lost interest somewhere around the same point. I don't even remember when or why I bought The Witcher 2. It was probably an impulse buy during a Steam sale. I don't think I've ever actually played it. I ignored The Witcher 3 at launch, and only picked it up a couple months later, and loved it almost immediately. I didn't play the DLC for it until last year sometime. Yeah, there's a lot of ways you could have come to this franchise.
Regarding the detective quest, you actually *don't* have to kill Ramsmeat once you discover Raymond is guilty. You either have to go talk to Kalkstein first, or simply leave Raymond's house and come back later, and you're able to lie to him saying you killed Ramsmeat even though you didn't.
I just checked my footage and I did go back and speak to Raymond, but never got the option to ask him. I'd already spoken to Kalkstein as well and was quite far along on that quest. I'd already questioned Raymond on the other suspicious stuff, I'm not sure if that makes a difference.
@@ChrisDavis_Games I think to get it right, you have to either succesfully do the autopsy and determine the guy was killed by inhaling eggs of zerrikanian fly, or find Raymonds body in the crypt on the cemetery. I think proving innocence of all other suspects is also possible before continuing the quest and setting the flag for the falling into trap part. It's a bit wonky, because there is a bug where after Raymond goes to hide (the attack in his house) and you exit the instance to Vyzima, you instantly get the message of him being back sometimes, which makes it more likely to get trapped by Javed. Proving innocence of each suspect happens after you get I think 3 pieces of evidence and some of these are really hidden, like REALLY easy to miss so prep for autopsy and scouting out cemetery crypt after Raymond gets replaced by Javed (which shows by your medallion starting to shake when you're next to him) is crucial.
You can make the fight against the Beast a lot easier if you talk to the witch earlier while she's still in her hut. She gives you specter oil which turns the fight from a diceroll to a cakewalk.
I remember just upgrading Aard a couple times and getting the execution move. Fight starts -> Aard -> kill -> fight ends. They may have patched that, eventually. It still worked for boxed Enhanced Edition.
@jocaguz18 I got it free on gog And I love the game It is one of the most amazing game i ever played And I am gonna finish it In less than three days I completed game upto chapter 1
There's a Witcher 1 Mod by a now CDPR employee called Full Combat Rebalance or FCR, which really turns up the challenge in the game and makes the most out of the fighting system. I can only recommend it.
@@whodatninja439 I don't agree. I finished the entire game with it and it's perfectly well balanced. Much harder, yes, but not unbalanced. You have to make full use of the entire alchemy system and watch your positioning in combat. Dodges are now important to reposition yourself and carelessly engaging enemies will kill you.
@@UGOTNUKED The very first enemy of the game, in the tutorial, was so ridiculously OP that he could kill me in like two hits while Geralt, a Witcher, could barely scratch him. No alchemy available there. So yeah i promptly uninstalled it. The vanilla combat is tedious and easy, but making the already tedious combat difficult on top of it? That's just not for me.
That is a possibility, more likely though it was interests of the lodge of sorceresses. Triss was after the place at Foltests court and it's also indirectly implied in neutral ending. The person she was communicating with was most likely Philippa Eilhart. Radovid implies the same when you find him in the game too.
@@iamtrass dont think so at the end of lady of the lake triss struggled very much with herself for betraying yen geralt and ciri for powers sake So i highly believe that she did it bc she was horny as often was mentioned in the books that she would do so and tw3
Narratively, that makes absolutely no sense. Yen isn't mentioned in the game and when stuff from the books is brought up, it's made clear that it is background and not important to this story. That scene with Triss clearly implies it is important to THIS story and not a connection to a relatively small part of the books. If that is the reason, it's well out of place in a major cutscene. To be consistent with the rest of the storytellling structure, it should be something you read about in a book/journal.
@ IamTrass Possible, it's been years since I played the first two games so my memory might be a bit hazy there. It was perhaps the absence of Yen making me interpret it that way. I also think the existence of the lodge doesn't really warrant such a stern warning. If I recall correctly though, that will be further referenced in 2. But like I said, hazy. @ Chris Davis As it stands it already has no connection to the story in 1 and will only be brought up again in 2. It was intended as a teaser.
You can completely stay neutral between the Order and the Elves. It does make several fights a lot harder since you'd essentially be fighting both sides at the same time, but you are essentially siding with the people of Vizima by staying neutral.
"I aligned myself with the lesser evil which was the order and defeated the scoia tael" *Shows footage of killing knights of the order alongside the scoia tael*
@@BLIGHTROT666 it be like that sometimes, I once accidentally killed a dwarf who came to help me fight some assassins in the nonhuman quarter, I just miss clicked and off went his head.
What a great retrospective. Just want to "clear" some things: -Shani is not a sorceress. Just a talented medic. -The silver sword that Geralt recieves at the start of Chapter II it's not from Berengar. It belonged to Coën, another witcher from the school of the wolf. You may remember him from Blood of Elves when Ciri was training in Kaer Morhen. He also fought in the Battle of Brenna. He died at the medic's tent in front of Shani. If I remember correctly, the gardener also fought at Brenna at his side, so he just left him his silver sword of something like that. -Triss didn't teleport Alvin to Murky Waters. The Proffesor and salamandra were after him, so when they attacked Triss'es house he pannicked and teleported himself to a random point. Triss didn't know the exact location of where tf Alvin was, so she just teleported Geralt and Dandelion the closer she could to him. -I was expecting you to mention the beautiful and atmospheric soundtrack, but well, idk. Yeah, I'm a nerd :c
ryslaw the project director of The Witcher clarified that his team mainly based the game on KOTOR, in order to honor Bioware for allowing them to use their Aurora Engine for it.
Triss's secret, I think, is that she knows just about EVERYTHING he has forgotten, as well as how to magically restore his memories. I think this comes in to play in 2.
What I like most about The Witcher 1 is the overall aesthetic. The game is quite beautifully stylized, which makes me feel that this game actually has aged better than The Witcher 2. At least visually.
Holy shit, I literally just started my re- playthrough of all 3 games about a month ago and finished the first game about a week ago and was hoping for one of my favorites to make a video about it eventually. Killer timing
'Kaer Mor Hen' All jokes aside though, what a great video. Easily one of the best retrospectives I've seen. Fair and equal on all your points, background information on everything and back up for all your criticisms. I've learnt a lot about the witched world from this, not just the games. Great work man keep it up
My first encounter with The Witcher series was picking up The Witcher: Enhanced Edition on a whim from Target one day. Instantly, I loved it. The combat system was, while not great, unique at the time. The lore was deep and the world fascinated me. It was *this* game that made The Witcher 2 and 3 day one purchases for me, and it will always have a special place in my heart.
Dear Chris, thank you for your excellent work. Though I don't share your criticism of the books, esp. the framing and the story-in-a-story narrative, which I've highly enjoyed, I can get, why you feel that way. You show some background knowledge about the production, even I didn't know, though I sap up every information Witcher-related, I come across. Some minor corrections and annotations to your video: 44:00 Shani isn't a sorceress, she is a medical student at the university of Oxenfurt (in the books, 6 years prior to the first game), I don't remember, if she's already a medical doctor in the first game, but I suppose so, because in the third game (taking place 2 years later) she has her own practice in Oxenfurt. 54:30 The conversation between Triss and another sorceress of the lodge, who I presume from the looks is Francesca Findabair as we can rule out all the other sorceresses of the lodge (we meet Philippa, Sheala, Assire and Sabrina in TW2 and they look very different; in TW3 we meet Keira, Margarita, Ida and Fringilla, and they don't resemble the lady in the mirror at all). As only sorceresses and mages use the megascopes for communication, and Triss consults the lady in the mirror for advice, it is fair to assume her to be Francesca. But what is the hidden agenda? To find Ciri, of course. With the end of the novels Geralt, Yen and Ciri disappeared into thin air. Yet the lodge still wants to use Ciri for it's own purposes - marry her to Tankred Thyssen, heir of Kovir and Poviss, to get a foot into real nobility and reign the Northern Realms not by proxy (as court advisors) but for real. Ciri is essential to this plan, because her elder blood grants her magic abilities without 1. endagering her ability to procreate by the procedures used in Aretusa and 2. procreate without the danger of disabled offspring, which so often is the case by (non elder blood) magical talented people. Last but not least: You didn't mention the excellent score. The music in TW1 imho is by far the best of the Witcher games and of the best scores for an RPG, I ever experienced. When one of favourite German YTrs celebrated his reaching 500 subscribers, he set out a competition with recognizing music from the games he'd made LPs on his channel: Recognize the game and the circumstance / location, where / when it's played in the game. I recognized a lot of the games (including TW1-3, Gothic 1-3, Risen 1-3, several Assassins Creed, and some other games) but never directly the occasion (even though I played TW2 and TW3 ad nauseam), the only one I got right in an instant was TW1 and the "Tavern in Murky Waters, though I had only seen 1 LP of TW1, that says a lot of the quality of the musical score in TW1. CU twinmama
I modded The Witcher 1 with some graphic mods and the great Rise of the White Wolf mod. It makes combat much harder and balances signs better among other things.
The Witcher books were popular in Soviet Russia (it came from Soviet Poland), we and the Poles had not much good fantasy except for it. After we had PCs - We played every single rpg, fps, rts and action adventure existing in the PC catalogue. We love the Witcher every piece of it. Thank you for this in depth analysis and respectful critique. P.S.: The Russian translation of the books and games are closest to the polish original. This is just all about slavic themes of folklore tales and even the old religions - It's easier for slavic people to feel more at home, than the western people. P.P.S: The best example is Gerald's horses name: 1 PL - Płotka - a fish 2 RU - Плотва (Plotva) - the same fish 3 EN - Roach - the same fish Two of the 3 are linguistically connected and bring out the gender of the horse as a she.
Dafuq you're talking about. The first book came out in 1993 - 2 years after the USSR fell. And Poland was never "Soviet", sure it was in the sphere of influence but never in the Union.
This made me glad I got neutral. Even though Siegfried really helps for imported w2 on roche’s path PS you have to play through w2 on each side to get the whole story And also replay the ending on one of those for the neutral choice lol Shorter game though Also I must have replayed the Adar Javed fight 50 times to keep Berengar alive, nothing ever came of it though
You have a small mistake around 44 minute mark. Shani is not the sorceress who heals people at the battle of Brenna - that was Marty, Shani is a medical student geralt meets (and beds ) who is key in helping him find Rience.
Don't worry about it, it's very hard to keep up with the books, I myself read them dozens of times and I wouldn't be able to tell the full story of the top of my head. I also have one more thing to add... around 39th minute mark you mention how Geralt gets stabbes by a pitchfork for some reason - it's actually a prophecy made in the first part of the Saga by Ciry towards Geralt and his fellow witcher Coen (the one witcher who dies at the battle of Brenna - the healers talk about him). I think that was one of the smarter things on part of Sapkowski - he fortold Geralts death in part 1 and actually managed to stick with it by the end. Geralt was supposed to die by "three teeth" and Coen by two - the teeth are the "blades" or the "spikes" on the pitchfork, but at the time the characters comment how oddly low numbers of teeth would the monsters who kill them would have....
@@mateuszkwietowicz2470 Oh right, I remember that now you mention it. I even have it highlighted in the ebook I think. Never occurred to me to go back to book 1 to look for a prophecy!
I like that as an answer, but it's pretty bad considering we get nowhere close to anything to do with Yennifer in the game. I wouldn't mind if it was just something we read in a journal, but if it's in a cutscene, it should have some sort of payoff or further clues in the game itself.
@@ChrisDavis_Games it would be disrespectful towards Geralt as a character (from devs point of view) and Geralt as a human (from his friends' point of view). he and his loved ones died, so people must consider his amnesia a bliss.
54:07 Of course, it was about Yennefer. This is the secret. Triss used Geralt's amnesia to start an affair with him. 1:13:35 This theme was inspired by Juliusz Słowacki's "Balladyna". 1:34:00 I like the Alvin twist. The cool thing is that the developers don't treat players like idiots and don't say it outright. And Geralt is a mutant, so maybe deep down he regrets that Alvin ended up like this, but he does not show feelings.
I started to notice an influx of girls that rival Belle Delphine. If only somebody wanted fat-black-man-sweat shower water for sale, and I swear to god if somebody does... XD
@@brucenatelee This is the internet, my friend. You put yourself out there enough and you'll find at least one perverted rube willing to part with their hard-earned cash for an envelope full of your toenail clippings.
Great video thank you for this!! At first I was unsure of even trying the game out because of the combat specifically, but now am more willing to play it after this video, so thank you. Edit: The “Literally just your mom” name in the associate producers list at the end was hilarious 😂
I would argue the opposite, Act 1 is pretty engaging, it's Act 2 that is horrific garbage. Then it's mediocre until Act 4 where it gets really good again.
You shouldn’t have to wait several hours for a game to get good. Maybe an hour or two, if it’s open world and it takes that long to get to the world itself, but 6+ hours is ridiculous. Most people don’t play that much in one sitting, so expecting them to be bored, put the game down, and then continue coming back until they get to the good parts is, frankly, unrealistic. There’s a difference between patience and ridiculous amounts of waiting for the game to get good.
1:14:10 This is a story from poem "Balladyna" by Julian Słowacki. There is love triangle, and once sister kills the other one in while they were looking for raspberries. Also the poem that Jaskier made is a poem made by Adam Mickiewicz, by i dont remember its name. And in chapter 4 characters Adam And Julian loves Alina. And as for another note Julian Słowacki and Adam mickiewicz didnt like each other. There are a lots of more references to polish culture in that chapter.
@@krybling not if you want to experience an excellently written story. 2 wasnt BAD just rough, 1s combat can be make or break. Just disregarding the first 2 is a huge disservice to the story CDPR penned through the games
@@skylarsimes8 i dont know man, i have problem with games that doesnt use the graphics. these games where you can complete them by only looking on the count down for when to press x. why not just watch movies instead. i like games because i can be a part of it,. maybe if they just completely removed the combat i might try the games again, sorry if you are fan but thats what we call stupid games.. also the written story def put me off XD ,. guy in cut scene ,: you must open the door, my fingers are broken.. continue to slay monsters ith 2 hand greatsword while im just doing nothing. lol that was one of the worst written lines in gaming history.. just saying
A thing that's overlooked in the autopsy is that you can discover raymond killed the guy you did the autopsy on by talking to the gardener outside the hospital about his mercenary days by giving him food. The gardener gives you some really specific information that lets you discover that both the poison and stab wounds were a cover up for the fisstech that had been laced with brain eating flies. This makes Geralt realise that only the sorcerer would have access to to the files since they come from his homeland and essentially allows you to go to every suspect on the list and say sorry, giving you all of their rewards and keeping them all alive to reappear in later chapters. Personally I finished the game on the hardest difficulty and the easiest thing to do was level up Igni and endurance regen and spam it.
Just so you know, you can actually meet Aldersberg earlier in the swamp, but the game has a lot of important characters that you can very easily. You can also meet the king of the wild hunt in chapter 1.
This is one of my favorite games tbh I feel that is an unpopular opinion but I had such a fun time playing it and I also liked the combat. It was a nice change to the combat system in comparison to what new games have. Love the video btw!
One nitpick: signs are actually quite overpowered in the game. An upgraded Igni does huge AoE damage and Aard can stun enemies to make them susceptible to instant kill finishers, which also works on some bosses - it's actually by far the easiest way to kill the Beast.
I remember playing it in 2009 on my Pentium 4 with 2GB RAM. Loading screens were taking a few minutes each... The fetch quests and lack of fast travel were seriously driving me crazy back then...
@@ChrisDavis_Games And please pay no mind to the muppets having a moan about everything in the comments. Genuinely does my head in reading the fifth comment about your "unnecessary politics". Keep up with your top notch work.
I also started my Witcher journey with Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Upon finishing the game I bought 1&2 then set my mind to find all of the books! Zero regrets! Edit: Witcher 1 Triss comes off as book & Witcher 3 Yen.
That thing where you take your sword by the blade and smash the opponent with the hilt is called the 'murderstroke' - it's one a series of maneuvers that can be performed by grasping the blade with (usually) one hand for more precision or control or just fucking going ham against someone in armor by using two hands on the blade and winging the pommel and crossguard into the head and joints of your opponent like an absolute madlad.
This is very thorough while also being very personal. I think your cadence and scripting is especially strong in this video, though I couldn't say why on the former. Just everything fits just so, creates a rhythm and suddenly half an hour goes by. The latter is obvious, you clearly came prepared for every part and every point. I hope you know how much I appreciate this as someone who works often for hours by myself and thus long-form analysis is my crux. I hope this video does well. The less people blindly praise or admonish Witcher the better, feels like everyone just echoes opinions they heard elsewhere about the games, the first game especially. "The combat in 1 is horrible!" is it tho? Is it really? It's rough but so is the entire rest of the game my guy.
I will always have a soft spot for the first Witcher game. I took over my dad's playthrough when he couldn't figure out what to do with the obelisks and quickly fell in love with the game and it's world. At that time it wasn't even sure there would be a sequel at all so I kept replaying the game and started reading the books. I've been a fan for over 10 years now and it's nice to see how far my favorite franchise has come
This is one of the few Games which i regret not having bought when it was available in the shops and i had the money . Watching this video therefore hurts a bit , but on the other hand fuels my determination to win my personal battle against despair . Thank you .
As someone who also read all of the books and was familiar with Witcher 1, I felt that you were going a little bit too all-over-the-place when it came to discussing the context of the books. Yes, I know that they matter very little in this entry, but the way that it was framed would make anyone unfamiliar with the books/games really confused and therefore not be able to retain much of what was said. If you're going to talk about story, then it's really good to make the story understandable for those who rely on your videos for context. People could watch this and ask things like, "Did Geralt know the witchers at the beginning? Who is the King of the Wild Hunt? Why mention Ciri and Yennifer, who are they?"--and more. I get the appeal of only talking about topics when they come up naturally, and trying to be quick so that the game itself can be the focus, but splitting attention so erratically makes viewer comprehension drop so much.
Your videos are phenomenal. One of the best of the great few critique channels I've seen. Kudos on reading so much comic/novel source material outside the game, unfortunately those can be criminally overlooked. Top tier video-game journalism seems more appropriate here. Loved your critique of the Mass Effect Trilogy and am looking forward to the same with the Witcher.
The Wedding was used as inspiraton for the quest in Hearts of Stone expansion for Witcher 3. Act 4 quest with the love triangle was based on polish drama Balladyna: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balladyna_(drama). And you are right with Shakespeare vibe, Balladyna was compared to Macbeth.
Just a thought about your point of signs being bad. Aard and Igni are usually pretty great when leveled up. I got through the game on the hardest difficulty using mainly Igni, because I got it to the point where I my endurance bar would replenish faster than I could drain it. Basically, infinite nukes. Bosses become a complete joke. You can also finish enemies in one hit with Aard because it can stun enemies leading to an instant kill. Entire groups become immobilized with a single Aard which allows you to then Igni spam until dead. Great critique otherwise, as always!
Chapter 4 of Witcher 1 felt like the game transitioning from the saga style narrative to the one from short stories, it felt really refreshing and was also my favourite part of the game. Edit: one other Slavic inspiration for that chapter was Adam Mickiewicz's 'Dziady', taking quotes directly from the novel during Dandelion's poem for the wraiths. Its influence can be also found in a more direct form in Witcher 3, where a sidequest has Geralt involved in a ceremony called Forefathers' Eve, a direct reference to the actual Dziady - a feast commemorating the dead.
Great video! Especially regarding the background of the game. I would like to point out a few mistakes, though, namely that the silver sword actually did not belong to Berengar. Instead, it belongs to witcher Coën. Thaler actually specifically says "I have your boyfriend's other property". You can find more by doing the quest Memory of a Blade in Ch 2.
at the time it was fairly unique, and at least they tried something different. It worked in my opinion. It was a good compromise between action and traditional rpg where your character stats mean something.
trust me, there are translation issues. it should be obvious considering that some characters speak two different voices in one dialog. english translation is subpar and lots of characters loos their charm in it.
@@leonartha03 well iirc geralt is not affected so much by that. but in the games that is a point of insecurity. he knows he's supposed to be neutral and emotionally calm, but it's not in his nature.
Played this when it was first released and loved it then....Still feel it does certain things better then any of the others. The graphics for mid 2000 's look fantastic imo also. Its a very deep game and offers some genuine..."This is fantastic" moments. Also...The combat never really had me disliking it...Personally thought it is simplified only if you just use lone aspect....Love the potions and variety. Personally would give it an 8 all day. Always play the first game on the hardest setting. It makes the use of potions/signs etc much more useful and in general is a much more immersive play imo...Some things you say makes me believe you didn't....It makes a difference. The Golem can be killed by signs btw..also by sword...takes a bit though.
I played the first game right when it came out, in 2007, before the first "enhanced edition" patch, and it was phenomenal. I still play this game at least once a year and have now beaten it around 13-14 times. It's a masterclass and the biggest issues I have with it is the voice direction. But there's Polish and English subtitles for that. All three games have common threads running through the, such as Geralt's memory going and coming back, and the Wild Hunt, who are also featured in this game as a very background mystery threat. This game is the reason I was disappointed in Dragon Age: Origins the first time I played it, because for all it's hype about a realistic/gritty fantasy world, The Witcher had already been there and done that two years earlier.
Long time subscriber here (I'm the one that thanked you for saving 50+ hours by not playing ME:Andromeda;)). Great video, as always and your opinion of the books align with my own. Here are couple of things as extra info: 1. Planks to the doorway in towns were mostly to avoid draging in unnnessesary dirt from the street. 2. The Alina and Celina story, the whole debacle, is taken straight from "Balladyna", a XIXth century tragedy written by polish poet Juliusz Słowacki, that is in fact filled with folklore, so you weren't far off. And a s a minor nitpicks: a) A highly leveled ARD sign will stun most enemies and then they became one-hit-kills. Not a big deal with the fodder ones (it's faster to just use the group style) but against middle tough guys that's a serious advantage and a time saver. b) There's no "witcher code", Gerald just came with the series of his own personal rules for life. I know that you know this but it would be clearer for the people that didn't read the books. c) and you called Shani a sorceress where she's a medic. But that can be (and I believe is) a typo. That video is long and your script had to be long as hell, so that's understandable. I believe that I didn't came out like a dick, if so I'm sincerely sorry. Really enjoy your videos, mate. Keep them up!
You definitely arent' coming across as a dick! Thanks for the folklore reference. Regarding that Witcher Code thing, I'm not sure it's accurate to say they are just personal rules. There definitely isn't a written code or anything like that, but the witchers all tend to abide by certain rules such that it has become code. E.g. charging money, not killing dragons, etc. The Shani thing is me getting confused between two of the medics at Brenna. I either forgot to double check or I was so sure I thought I didn't need to.
this was my first witcher game an as you say you can see the quality of the game, back in the day this game wasn't that famous, i always wondered why, when i used to search videos of this game on YT there were very very few videos in english, most of them where in russian, anyways when witcher 2 came out the first game gain a lot of recognition and i'm happy for that, this game is trully great yeah combat might not be the best but let's be honest even witcher 3 hasn't a great combat system, in my humble opinion witcher 2 is the best combat system the series ever had. thanks for doing these videos and enjoy them a lot.
Sounds like the FCR mod for TW1 would address several of your issues with the combat. It makes it almost a necessity to use oils and signs in most encounters.
The comment on the golem is straight up fiction. You can attack it with either sword, on any difficulty, just fine. Igni surprisingly also works. It takes a while to whittle down, but using the pylons instead is dangerous because you're just as likely to get one-hit-killed by the lightning.
That doesn't play out in this story at all though. This is a major moment that Geralt hears in a cutscene, but the game never even mentions Yennifer. People who haven't read the books won't know how she is or have a clue about any of this. Everything else that's in cutscenes is part of the game's story, not the books.
Notably enough, Andjey Sapkowski is totally a chill dude in person. I had a honor of meeting with him at one of the Russian fantasy conventions. He just really dislikes videogames.
Plenty of people don't like videogames and it doesn't make them bad people. Just a little close-minded maybe. It's also a generational thing to a certain extent.
@@ChrisDavis_Games Roger Ebert was one of most open-minded people when it comes to cinema but he died being sure that games cannot be art. we must keep in mind that we learned to read books and watch cinema since childhood, there're even class hours for that. but in case of games, there is no institution to teach how to play games.
Okay first of all how dare you.
Ah fuck. I can't believe you've done this.
Shots fired.
new phone, who dis?
This is extra funny now, a few days after JA released his Withcher 1 video and CD released his Witcher 3 video XD
Did not know about this channel. I was recommended Chris Davis TW2 video. After watching Joseph Anderson's 4h18m long TW1 video 5 (yes FIVE!) times! They say RUclips has an AI trying to figure out what videos to recommend to keep you watching. Well I don't think AI will take over the world any time soon.
Congrats on beating Joseph Anderson to the punch lmao. I’m excited to watch this
Joseph almost never argues objectively. Drives me nuts. Soma isn't scary? Lol. It's meant to instill existential dread, not FNAF you into a giggle spree.
*_Exigentable_* - Same here...
_"Minit is matter of fact actually and objectively bad."_ - yeah alright, whatever you say mate. Bleedin' idiot.
@@Exigentable Didn't he make a video about the weirdos who expect critics of videogames, *a form of art*, to be "objective"?
@@gargamellenoir8460 as a direct response to criticism of his critique.
It seems like JA had an idea of doing whole Witcher trilogy in one go supplemented by books etc. or at least he felt that he have to know everything about the franchise before he starts to talk about it which might be admirable but in the end it was too much material and all he did was an apology video.
Hi everyone. This video took a long time to make, partly because I had to do about 80 hours of reading before I could even start playing the game. I know I say something like this every time, but I'd REALLY appreciate any love you could show the video, whether it be a like, comment, share, etc. It'll help keep me motivated when I'm working on the next two videos in this series!
Also, does anyone know of any good books about Polish folklore (with an English translation)? It'd be great to read the Polish equivalent of Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology book if there is such a thing. Thanks.
Wow, it took you whole hour to finally say "Order of the flaming fist" instead of flaming rose... It takes me to mispronounce them exactly as much time as it takes them to appear ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) so hey, nice job. Also, thanks for great video.
Great video!As for the Polish folklore I don't know if there is a equivalent for Gaiman's work but there are a few that stand out: Polish Folklore and Myth by Joanne Asala and A World Remembered Tales by Marion-something-something.Looking forward for whatever comes next from you!
Shani's a sorceress? I thought she was a surgeon?
I'm afraid that (sadly) there's no such compendium even in polish. There are few reasons for this. First, we have shallow knowledge of Slavic pre-Christian believes due to lack of written sources. Second, post-christianization folklore was very differentiated among different regions of Poland. There was some common things, but there was no fixed canon like in Greek or Norse mythology. Every good books about polish folklore I've ever seen was only about specific region.
@@tomekm1804 In this case knowledge about Polish romanticism and literary tradition in general might be more important if you want to understand the inspirations behind the Witcher since there are far more references to famous (in Poland) XIX century novels rather than the actual folklore.
6:30 Vesemir would've smacked you right across the back of your head at this point. "Both swords are for killing monsters, young man. You will recite Bestiary chapter XI to me tomorrow, by heart, in full."
44:00 Shani is NOT a sorceress. She's just a medic, even though a talented one.
Isn't magic sorcery? Kind of healer class in mmos? Though healers can use other spells too. After watching Joseph Anderson's video on this I have to agree, she is a sorceress, but a loosely one.
@@HueghMungus Shani is not a macigal healer, but a medical student/doctor. She just heals as if by magic in game due to limitations.
Both swords are not for monsters that rule is only in books in games it is separated and it is comfirmed by some characters in game I dont remember who exactly said it but i am sure one of people was geralt himself.
@@hodes7562 Geralt says both are for monsters in W1 but the opposite in W3. Maybe to mess with the guard he talks to in the third one?
Geralt tells the Baron's men who are harassing him and the locals at an inn that the silver sword is for monsters and, after pausing, that the steel sword is for humans to intimidate them when they ask why he carries two swords. I wouldn't take that as gospel.
Alternatively, the "both swords are for monsters" could be interpreted in a way that doesn't necessarily conflict with the take that one is for monsters and the other for humans. A big theme in the Witcher is that not all who appear monstrous are monsters at heart, and that sometimes the ones who look human are the real monsters. In the Killing Monsters cinematic, Geralt even states he is killing monsters when he is killing humans.
Thus, the steel sword can be for humans and monsters at the same time, becomes sometimes they are one and the same.
The secret is that Triss is going behind Yenniffers back and wants to bone Geralt.
That's why I scream "You Dirty Homewrecker!" each time she shows up. And I actually like Triss.
Triss on that quest for some GMO meat the whole series lol
This interpretation makes no sense if you think of Triss badly for her actions then you should also consider all of geralt's best and most trusted friends to be complete assholes and terrible people for not reminding him about his daughter
The developers clearly didn't think they were going to get a sequel so they wrote them out of the store
@@carlosanthony4972 Shoot, that ain't his daughter though.
Nah. The secret is she has alterior motives for helping you, because she is working with the Lodge of Sorceresses. You get a hint at this if she uses Alzur's Shield on you shortly before the final Professor fight. I believe the instructions on how you cast the spell were in the Tower Mage's Book, which might still be in your inventory. There's also the neutral "witcher" ending, in which the Lodge gains more influence over the kings. Jackques was one of their biggest enemies so they probably just helped you take him out.
I always feel old when people say their first Witcher game was the third one...
This game was amazing for its time, though my favorite is still the second. Can't wait for that one.
I'm thinking of playing the whole trilogy from the beginning. My first witcher was 3. But I want to get immersed in the whole world of the witcher. I'm starting the books now too.
Dr House I played Witcher 3 in 2018 and then last September I did the first two. Despite the graphics and combat I really enjoyed them both, however the map in W2 is awful (Vergen suffers so much from this).
I'm 28 and my first game was Witcher III, I just wasn't aware of the first two because they were released to very little fanfare.
I know, right?
I picked up TW1 on the shelf like a week after it released, purely because I thought the box looked interesting and I was in the market for a new game. Ended up not playing it for nearly a year because, for those who *don't* know, the gold release of the game was HORRIBLY optimized for the machines of the period. My computer may not have been the GREATEST in the world, but it ran a lot of games quite well, and we're talking 5 minute load screens to enter someone's 1-room house.
Once I got the Enhanced Edition patch (which fixed all the optimization, and a lot of bugs, AND included a lot of extra and re-recorded dialogue lines), it was easily my game of the year. I ended up buying the only book that had been translated into English not long after, and pre-ordered the second one. It definitely sort of got overshadowed with the rise of things like Game of Thrones in popularity, but the world of The Witcher was always my first, and favorite, grey/grey morality crapsack world.
Oh, and I loved the combat. Timing clicks was something different, to me, plus it felt so fluid because their animations were phenomenal.
I played the first one in 2007 and remember thinking it was a trainwreck of a game at the time. I think I got into Chapter 2 or 3 and gave up. Came back a couple years later, with the Enhanced Edition in hand, tried again, and lost interest somewhere around the same point.
I don't even remember when or why I bought The Witcher 2. It was probably an impulse buy during a Steam sale. I don't think I've ever actually played it.
I ignored The Witcher 3 at launch, and only picked it up a couple months later, and loved it almost immediately. I didn't play the DLC for it until last year sometime.
Yeah, there's a lot of ways you could have come to this franchise.
Regarding the detective quest, you actually *don't* have to kill Ramsmeat once you discover Raymond is guilty. You either have to go talk to Kalkstein first, or simply leave Raymond's house and come back later, and you're able to lie to him saying you killed Ramsmeat even though you didn't.
That's what i did too!!
+
I just checked my footage and I did go back and speak to Raymond, but never got the option to ask him. I'd already spoken to Kalkstein as well and was quite far along on that quest. I'd already questioned Raymond on the other suspicious stuff, I'm not sure if that makes a difference.
@@ChrisDavis_Games I think to get it right, you have to either succesfully do the autopsy and determine the guy was killed by inhaling eggs of zerrikanian fly, or find Raymonds body in the crypt on the cemetery. I think proving innocence of all other suspects is also possible before continuing the quest and setting the flag for the falling into trap part. It's a bit wonky, because there is a bug where after Raymond goes to hide (the attack in his house) and you exit the instance to Vyzima, you instantly get the message of him being back sometimes, which makes it more likely to get trapped by Javed. Proving innocence of each suspect happens after you get I think 3 pieces of evidence and some of these are really hidden, like REALLY easy to miss so prep for autopsy and scouting out cemetery crypt after Raymond gets replaced by Javed (which shows by your medallion starting to shake when you're next to him) is crucial.
@@iamtrass That was what triggered it for me...I found his body in the crypt and the JIG WUZ UP 😁
The sister quest is based on Balladyna by Słowacki.
Although Ghost stuff gets closer to Mickiewicz writing.
I also recall some of the dialogue lines being quotations from the song _W południe_ by Kaziemierz Grześkowiak.
Yup, it's a fine mix of some of the most famous Polish romantic literature. I loved it.
You can make the fight against the Beast a lot easier if you talk to the witch earlier while she's still in her hut. She gives you specter oil which turns the fight from a diceroll to a cakewalk.
I remember just upgrading Aard a couple times and getting the execution move. Fight starts -> Aard -> kill -> fight ends.
They may have patched that, eventually. It still worked for boxed Enhanced Edition.
Funny that it's the very preparation for the fight the lack of which he criticised.
if any game needs a full remaster this game is one of them. Especially since cd project red has more money and has more credibility.
this comment did not age well
Well, more money at least
This aged well, it is coming
I've never had any issues with the combat, but this was my entry into the series a while back.
@jocaguz18 I got it free on gog
And I love the game
It is one of the most amazing game i ever played
And I am gonna finish it
In less than three days I completed game upto chapter 1
Sweet bejezzus, somebody finally did it.
I look forward to this one!
Superbunnyhop did it. Although in several videos.
I see that the two users above me are also men of knowledge.
May I point you in the direction of "NeverKnowsBest"? He's also done it a long time ago.
Now I can't unsee Geralt carrying a pack of sexy cards of himself around.
There's a Witcher 1 Mod by a now CDPR employee called Full Combat Rebalance or FCR, which really turns up the challenge in the game and makes the most out of the fighting system. I can only recommend it.
Had no idea about this cant wait to check it out.
it's horribly unbalanced imo, all it does is give enemies way more health and strength and Geralt way less.
@@whodatninja439 I don't agree. I finished the entire game with it and it's perfectly well balanced. Much harder, yes, but not unbalanced. You have to make full use of the entire alchemy system and watch your positioning in combat. Dodges are now important to reposition yourself and carelessly engaging enemies will kill you.
@@UGOTNUKED The very first enemy of the game, in the tutorial, was so ridiculously OP that he could kill me in like two hits while Geralt, a Witcher, could barely scratch him. No alchemy available there.
So yeah i promptly uninstalled it. The vanilla combat is tedious and easy, but making the already tedious combat difficult on top of it? That's just not for me.
@@whodatninja439 On what difficulty? It's quite enjoyable on the third one
Played the games, read the books. Loved every moment of everything.
54:50
As someone who has read the books it should've been clear she was referring to Triss keeping Yen a secret from Geralt to keep him for herself.
That is a possibility, more likely though it was interests of the lodge of sorceresses. Triss was after the place at Foltests court and it's also indirectly implied in neutral ending. The person she was communicating with was most likely Philippa Eilhart. Radovid implies the same when you find him in the game too.
@@iamtrass dont think so at the end of lady of the lake triss struggled very much with herself for betraying yen geralt and ciri for powers sake
So i highly believe that she did it bc she was horny as often was mentioned in the books that she would do so and tw3
Narratively, that makes absolutely no sense. Yen isn't mentioned in the game and when stuff from the books is brought up, it's made clear that it is background and not important to this story. That scene with Triss clearly implies it is important to THIS story and not a connection to a relatively small part of the books. If that is the reason, it's well out of place in a major cutscene. To be consistent with the rest of the storytellling structure, it should be something you read about in a book/journal.
Melcore.... more like FAILcore. right guys.... im a right. up high. wait im high
@ IamTrass Possible, it's been years since I played the first two games so my memory might be a bit hazy there. It was perhaps the absence of Yen making me interpret it that way. I also think the existence of the lodge doesn't really warrant such a stern warning. If I recall correctly though, that will be further referenced in 2. But like I said, hazy.
@ Chris Davis As it stands it already has no connection to the story in 1 and will only be brought up again in 2.
It was intended as a teaser.
You can completely stay neutral between the Order and the Elves. It does make several fights a lot harder since you'd essentially be fighting both sides at the same time, but you are essentially siding with the people of Vizima by staying neutral.
Despite being, without a doubt, the wonkiest entry in the series, Wither 1 is my second favourite behind the Wild Hunt.
TW2 was way better for me, first half of tw1 was filled with fetch quests, especially in acts 2. It was terrible for hours.
Mine too. I didnt actually like TW2 despite preordering it.
I love everyone in the series. But gotta say the beginning of the Witcher is a fetch quest galore
@@legion999 I mean how would you know if you liked it beforehand?
at least someone admits it, it's painful. Fetch quest the game.@@alexworm1707
Apart from character models, Witcher graphics were actually good the year it released.
"I aligned myself with the lesser evil which was the order and defeated the scoia tael"
*Shows footage of killing knights of the order alongside the scoia tael*
Collateral damage.
@@BLIGHTROT666 it be like that sometimes, I once accidentally killed a dwarf who came to help me fight some assassins in the nonhuman quarter, I just miss clicked and off went his head.
I have a lot of nostalgia for this game, it really starts to bloom the longer you play.
What a great retrospective. Just want to "clear" some things:
-Shani is not a sorceress. Just a talented medic.
-The silver sword that Geralt recieves at the start of Chapter II it's not from Berengar. It belonged to Coën, another witcher from the school of the wolf. You may remember him from Blood of Elves when Ciri was training in Kaer Morhen. He also fought in the Battle of Brenna. He died at the medic's tent in front of Shani. If I remember correctly, the gardener also fought at Brenna at his side, so he just left him his silver sword of something like that.
-Triss didn't teleport Alvin to Murky Waters. The Proffesor and salamandra were after him, so when they attacked Triss'es house he pannicked and teleported himself to a random point. Triss didn't know the exact location of where tf Alvin was, so she just teleported Geralt and Dandelion the closer she could to him.
-I was expecting you to mention the beautiful and atmospheric soundtrack, but well, idk.
Yeah, I'm a nerd :c
Review? It says Retrospective though?
@@Eassstt Shit
ryslaw the project director of The Witcher clarified that his team mainly based the game on KOTOR, in order to honor Bioware for allowing them to use their Aurora Engine for it.
Triss's secret, I think, is that she knows just about EVERYTHING he has forgotten, as well as how to magically restore his memories. I think this comes in to play in 2.
What I like most about The Witcher 1 is the overall aesthetic. The game is quite beautifully stylized, which makes me feel that this game actually has aged better than The Witcher 2. At least visually.
The graphics have dated, but the charm hasn't.
Holy shit, I literally just started my re- playthrough of all 3 games about a month ago and finished the first game about a week ago and was hoping for one of my favorites to make a video about it eventually.
Killer timing
Same, just one year later hahaha
Oh my god. He actually did it. I can’t wait to watch this I’m so excited!
3 vids on the Witcher. Guess I’ll have to restructure my schedule
'Kaer Mor Hen'
All jokes aside though, what a great video. Easily one of the best retrospectives I've seen. Fair and equal on all your points, background information on everything and back up for all your criticisms.
I've learnt a lot about the witched world from this, not just the games. Great work man keep it up
This is one of the best retrospectives I've watched. Good on you.
My first encounter with The Witcher series was picking up The Witcher: Enhanced Edition on a whim from Target one day.
Instantly, I loved it. The combat system was, while not great, unique at the time. The lore was deep and the world fascinated me. It was *this* game that made The Witcher 2 and 3 day one purchases for me, and it will always have a special place in my heart.
58:57 the way he just throws away the kid in front of him, like: „get out of the way, I‘m more important than you, little bastard“
Dear Chris,
thank you for your excellent work. Though I don't share your criticism of the books, esp. the framing and the story-in-a-story narrative, which I've highly enjoyed, I can get, why you feel that way. You show some background knowledge about the production, even I didn't know, though I sap up every information Witcher-related, I come across.
Some minor corrections and annotations to your video:
44:00 Shani isn't a sorceress, she is a medical student at the university of Oxenfurt (in the books, 6 years prior to the first game), I don't remember, if she's already a medical doctor in the first game, but I suppose so, because in the third game (taking place 2 years later) she has her own practice in Oxenfurt.
54:30 The conversation between Triss and another sorceress of the lodge, who I presume from the looks is Francesca Findabair as we can rule out all the other sorceresses of the lodge (we meet Philippa, Sheala, Assire and Sabrina in TW2 and they look very different; in TW3 we meet Keira, Margarita, Ida and Fringilla, and they don't resemble the lady in the mirror at all). As only sorceresses and mages use the megascopes for communication, and Triss consults the lady in the mirror for advice, it is fair to assume her to be Francesca. But what is the hidden agenda? To find Ciri, of course. With the end of the novels Geralt, Yen and Ciri disappeared into thin air. Yet the lodge still wants to use Ciri for it's own purposes - marry her to Tankred Thyssen, heir of Kovir and Poviss, to get a foot into real nobility and reign the Northern Realms not by proxy (as court advisors) but for real. Ciri is essential to this plan, because her elder blood grants her magic abilities without 1. endagering her ability to procreate by the procedures used in Aretusa and 2. procreate without the danger of disabled offspring, which so often is the case by (non elder blood) magical talented people.
Last but not least: You didn't mention the excellent score. The music in TW1 imho is by far the best of the Witcher games and of the best scores for an RPG, I ever experienced. When one of favourite German YTrs celebrated his reaching 500 subscribers, he set out a competition with recognizing music from the games he'd made LPs on his channel: Recognize the game and the circumstance / location, where / when it's played in the game. I recognized a lot of the games (including TW1-3, Gothic 1-3, Risen 1-3, several Assassins Creed, and some other games) but never directly the occasion (even though I played TW2 and TW3 ad nauseam), the only one I got right in an instant was TW1 and the "Tavern in Murky Waters, though I had only seen 1 LP of TW1, that says a lot of the quality of the musical score in TW1.
CU twinmama
I modded The Witcher 1 with some graphic mods and the great Rise of the White Wolf mod. It makes combat much harder and balances signs better among other things.
@Brandon Moore where is it possible to download?
@@stupidpol Mod Nexus: nexusmods.com/witcher/mods/669
The Witcher books were popular in Soviet Russia (it came from Soviet Poland), we and the Poles had not much good fantasy except for it. After we had PCs - We played every single rpg, fps, rts and action adventure existing in the PC catalogue. We love the Witcher every piece of it.
Thank you for this in depth analysis and respectful critique.
P.S.: The Russian translation of the books and games are closest to the polish original. This is just all about slavic themes of folklore tales and even the old religions - It's easier for slavic people to feel more at home, than the western people.
P.P.S: The best example is Gerald's horses name:
1 PL - Płotka - a fish
2 RU - Плотва (Plotva) - the same fish
3 EN - Roach - the same fish
Two of the 3 are linguistically connected and bring out the gender of the horse as a she.
Have some Redanian pepper vodka with me
Dafuq you're talking about. The first book came out in 1993 - 2 years after the USSR fell. And Poland was never "Soviet", sure it was in the sphere of influence but never in the Union.
Chris Davis, Thank You for making me feel nostalgic af and make me install and enjoy this masterpiece again!
This made me glad I got neutral. Even though Siegfried really helps for imported w2 on roche’s path
PS you have to play through w2 on each side to get the whole story
And also replay the ending on one of those for the neutral choice lol
Shorter game though
Also I must have replayed the Adar Javed fight 50 times to keep Berengar alive, nothing ever came of it though
You have a small mistake around 44 minute mark. Shani is not the sorceress who heals people at the battle of Brenna - that was Marty, Shani is a medical student geralt meets (and beds ) who is key in helping him find Rience.
Yeah I got confused between a couple of the healers at Brenna.
Don't worry about it, it's very hard to keep up with the books, I myself read them dozens of times and I wouldn't be able to tell the full story of the top of my head. I also have one more thing to add... around 39th minute mark you mention how Geralt gets stabbes by a pitchfork for some reason - it's actually a prophecy made in the first part of the Saga by Ciry towards Geralt and his fellow witcher Coen (the one witcher who dies at the battle of Brenna - the healers talk about him). I think that was one of the smarter things on part of Sapkowski - he fortold Geralts death in part 1 and actually managed to stick with it by the end. Geralt was supposed to die by "three teeth" and Coen by two - the teeth are the "blades" or the "spikes" on the pitchfork, but at the time the characters comment how oddly low numbers of teeth would the monsters who kill them would have....
@@mateuszkwietowicz2470 Oh right, I remember that now you mention it. I even have it highlighted in the ebook I think. Never occurred to me to go back to book 1 to look for a prophecy!
Chris. Triss's secret is most likely that Geralt loved Yennefer and Triss is pretty much using his amnesia to fulfill her own desires for the Witcher.
I like that as an answer, but it's pretty bad considering we get nowhere close to anything to do with Yennifer in the game. I wouldn't mind if it was just something we read in a journal, but if it's in a cutscene, it should have some sort of payoff or further clues in the game itself.
@@ChrisDavis_Games The payoff comes in the third game?
@@ChrisDavis_Games it would be disrespectful towards Geralt as a character (from devs point of view) and Geralt as a human (from his friends' point of view). he and his loved ones died, so people must consider his amnesia a bliss.
54:07 Of course, it was about Yennefer. This is the secret. Triss used Geralt's amnesia to start an affair with him.
1:13:35 This theme was inspired by Juliusz Słowacki's "Balladyna".
1:34:00 I like the Alvin twist. The cool thing is that the developers don't treat players like idiots and don't say it outright. And Geralt is a mutant, so maybe deep down he regrets that Alvin ended up like this, but he does not show feelings.
The third vial on Gerry's bandolier is his provisional gamer girl bath water
I mean yeah, I keep mine on me at all times, it's a no brainer.
I started to notice an influx of girls that rival Belle Delphine. If only somebody wanted fat-black-man-sweat shower water for sale, and I swear to god if somebody does... XD
@@brucenatelee This is the internet, my friend. You put yourself out there enough and you'll find at least one perverted rube willing to part with their hard-earned cash for an envelope full of your toenail clippings.
Witcher 1 is a classic, its atmosphere, music and story is up there with the best! Even if the combat kinda sucks.
Haven't played the original Witcher since its release, which was so long ago I bought it at Blockbuster! This was an enjoyable look back.
Great video thank you for this!! At first I was unsure of even trying the game out because of the combat specifically, but now am more willing to play it after this video, so thank you.
Edit: The “Literally just your mom” name in the associate producers list at the end was hilarious 😂
I DID NOT REALISE ALVIN AND THE GRAND MASTER WERE THE SAME PERSON WHAT THAT MAKES THE ENDING SO MUCH MORE INTERESTING??
Getting into Witcher 1 was pretty hard but once you get through Act 1 you're in for an amazing experience. People should show a little patience.
Nah I need my stuff NOW. Why should i wait i want my instant gratification shallow bullshit! /s
the swamp let me quit. Worth pacing I ever experienced (at least in the last ten years of my playing.)
I would argue the opposite, Act 1 is pretty engaging, it's Act 2 that is horrific garbage. Then it's mediocre until Act 4 where it gets really good again.
I hated act 2, it was fetchquest hell
You shouldn’t have to wait several hours for a game to get good. Maybe an hour or two, if it’s open world and it takes that long to get to the world itself, but 6+ hours is ridiculous. Most people don’t play that much in one sitting, so expecting them to be bored, put the game down, and then continue coming back until they get to the good parts is, frankly, unrealistic. There’s a difference between patience and ridiculous amounts of waiting for the game to get good.
Your hard work is always appreciated
As are your comments.
Job well done mate. Finally a thorough story recap of this game
1:14:10 This is a story from poem "Balladyna" by Julian Słowacki. There is love triangle, and once sister kills the other one in while they were looking for raspberries. Also the poem that Jaskier made is a poem made by Adam Mickiewicz, by i dont remember its name. And in chapter 4 characters Adam And Julian loves Alina. And as for another note Julian Słowacki and Adam mickiewicz didnt like each other. There are a lots of more references to polish culture in that chapter.
It's Juliusz Słowacki, not Julian
Just started playing the series from scratch. Good timing dude.
best to skip the two first games.
@@krybling not if you want to experience an excellently written story. 2 wasnt BAD just rough, 1s combat can be make or break. Just disregarding the first 2 is a huge disservice to the story CDPR penned through the games
@@skylarsimes8 i dont know man, i have problem with games that doesnt use the graphics. these games where you can complete them by only looking on the count down for when to press x. why not just watch movies instead. i like games because i can be a part of it,. maybe if they just completely removed the combat i might try the games again, sorry if you are fan but thats what we call stupid games.. also the written story def put me off XD ,. guy in cut scene ,: you must open the door, my fingers are broken.. continue to slay monsters ith 2 hand greatsword while im just doing nothing. lol that was one of the worst written lines in gaming history.. just saying
A thing that's overlooked in the autopsy is that you can discover raymond killed the guy you did the autopsy on by talking to the gardener outside the hospital about his mercenary days by giving him food. The gardener gives you some really specific information that lets you discover that both the poison and stab wounds were a cover up for the fisstech that had been laced with brain eating flies. This makes Geralt realise that only the sorcerer would have access to to the files since they come from his homeland and essentially allows you to go to every suspect on the list and say sorry, giving you all of their rewards and keeping them all alive to reappear in later chapters.
Personally I finished the game on the hardest difficulty and the easiest thing to do was level up Igni and endurance regen and spam it.
i dont know why but this video is one of my favorite videos in youtube
My boy is back at it again with another 1 hour + video 👌
Just the video I have been waiting for, been reading the books and loving them. Great video
Just so you know, you can actually meet Aldersberg earlier in the swamp, but the game has a lot of important characters that you can very easily. You can also meet the king of the wild hunt in chapter 1.
That's interesting. Do you know how/when? During chapter 2 or 3? I spent a LOT of time in the swamp and never saw him.
@@ChrisDavis_Games He is mistaken. You don't meet Aldersberg before Chapter 5.
This is one of my favorite games tbh I feel that is an unpopular opinion but I had such a fun time playing it and I also liked the combat. It was a nice change to the combat system in comparison to what new games have. Love the video btw!
This was a great watch. I love the length and depth of your videos, the hard work you put into it really shows. Keep up the fantastic work.
One nitpick: signs are actually quite overpowered in the game. An upgraded Igni does huge AoE damage and Aard can stun enemies to make them susceptible to instant kill finishers, which also works on some bosses - it's actually by far the easiest way to kill the Beast.
Definitely worth mentioning about the beast. Anyone struggling with that battle should remember this.
They are once you upgrade them, but so are swords and swords are at least useful from the start.
Yes!! Finally!! Im still working cant wait to watch it tonight
I remember playing it in 2009 on my Pentium 4 with 2GB RAM. Loading screens were taking a few minutes each... The fetch quests and lack of fast travel were seriously driving me crazy back then...
One of your finest videos mate, really appreciate you doing this!
Thanks!
@@ChrisDavis_Games And please pay no mind to the muppets having a moan about everything in the comments. Genuinely does my head in reading the fifth comment about your "unnecessary politics". Keep up with your top notch work.
Another great video Chris, I'm so excited for when you get to witcher 3,no pressure no rush man, take your time. Your doing a great job, 👍🏼
Just the kind of long form analysis i wanted to fill the rest of my evening.
Thank you, Chris Daddy.
Just watched again after replaying. Gotta say I love the video but most of all I have grown fond of the last minute f-bomb at 1:36:13
I also started my Witcher journey with Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Upon finishing the game I bought 1&2 then set my mind to find all of the books! Zero regrets!
Edit: Witcher 1 Triss comes off as book & Witcher 3 Yen.
That thing where you take your sword by the blade and smash the opponent with the hilt is called the 'murderstroke' - it's one a series of maneuvers that can be performed by grasping the blade with (usually) one hand for more precision or control or just fucking going ham against someone in armor by using two hands on the blade and winging the pommel and crossguard into the head and joints of your opponent like an absolute madlad.
Woah wtf I just watched a retrospective of this game on a random wim not even 5 hours ago and you release this? We really do live in a simulation
Can't wait for the next episode.
Oh shit, I wasn't expecting this! Always love your videos, dude - keep 'em coming. :D
This is very thorough while also being very personal. I think your cadence and scripting is especially strong in this video, though I couldn't say why on the former. Just everything fits just so, creates a rhythm and suddenly half an hour goes by. The latter is obvious, you clearly came prepared for every part and every point. I hope you know how much I appreciate this as someone who works often for hours by myself and thus long-form analysis is my crux.
I hope this video does well. The less people blindly praise or admonish Witcher the better, feels like everyone just echoes opinions they heard elsewhere about the games, the first game especially. "The combat in 1 is horrible!" is it tho? Is it really? It's rough but so is the entire rest of the game my guy.
I will always have a soft spot for the first Witcher game. I took over my dad's playthrough when he couldn't figure out what to do with the obelisks and quickly fell in love with the game and it's world. At that time it wasn't even sure there would be a sequel at all so I kept replaying the game and started reading the books. I've been a fan for over 10 years now and it's nice to see how far my favorite franchise has come
This is one of the few Games which i regret not having bought when it was available in the shops and i had the money .
Watching this video therefore hurts a bit , but on the other hand fuels my determination to win my personal battle against despair .
Thank you .
The context Chris provides , adds significantly to the Game's value .
As someone who also read all of the books and was familiar with Witcher 1, I felt that you were going a little bit too all-over-the-place when it came to discussing the context of the books. Yes, I know that they matter very little in this entry, but the way that it was framed would make anyone unfamiliar with the books/games really confused and therefore not be able to retain much of what was said. If you're going to talk about story, then it's really good to make the story understandable for those who rely on your videos for context. People could watch this and ask things like, "Did Geralt know the witchers at the beginning? Who is the King of the Wild Hunt? Why mention Ciri and Yennifer, who are they?"--and more. I get the appeal of only talking about topics when they come up naturally, and trying to be quick so that the game itself can be the focus, but splitting attention so erratically makes viewer comprehension drop so much.
Your videos are phenomenal. One of the best of the great few critique channels I've seen. Kudos on reading so much comic/novel source material outside the game, unfortunately those can be criminally overlooked. Top tier video-game journalism seems more appropriate here. Loved your critique of the Mass Effect Trilogy and am looking forward to the same with the Witcher.
The Wedding was used as inspiraton for the quest in Hearts of Stone expansion for Witcher 3. Act 4 quest with the love triangle was based on polish drama Balladyna: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balladyna_(drama). And you are right with Shakespeare vibe, Balladyna was compared to Macbeth.
Just a thought about your point of signs being bad.
Aard and Igni are usually pretty great when leveled up. I got through the game on the hardest difficulty using mainly Igni, because I got it to the point where I my endurance bar would replenish faster than I could drain it. Basically, infinite nukes. Bosses become a complete joke.
You can also finish enemies in one hit with Aard because it can stun enemies leading to an instant kill. Entire groups become immobilized with a single Aard which allows you to then Igni spam until dead.
Great critique otherwise, as always!
Chapter 4 of Witcher 1 felt like the game transitioning from the saga style narrative to the one from short stories, it felt really refreshing and was also my favourite part of the game.
Edit: one other Slavic inspiration for that chapter was Adam Mickiewicz's 'Dziady', taking quotes directly from the novel during Dandelion's poem for the wraiths. Its influence can be also found in a more direct form in Witcher 3, where a sidequest has Geralt involved in a ceremony called Forefathers' Eve, a direct reference to the actual Dziady - a feast commemorating the dead.
@Chris Davis The quest you described in 1:13:51 is in fact inspired by the drama "Balladyna" written by a romantic polish poet Juliusz Słowacki.
Quest with Alina, Celina and Julian is based on polish Romanticism drama "Balladyna" by Juliusz Słowacki (set book in polish primary school)
I love your videos man, keep up this great work!
Great video! Especially regarding the background of the game.
I would like to point out a few mistakes, though, namely that the silver sword actually did not belong to Berengar. Instead, it belongs to witcher Coën. Thaler actually specifically says "I have your boyfriend's other property". You can find more by doing the quest Memory of a Blade in Ch 2.
Witcher 1 is a masterpiece, I even love its awful combat
I actually liked the combat
@@Cyrus_II that's what I'm saying, objectively it's not great but I enjoyed it a lot, even wished there were some other games with the same
at the time it was fairly unique, and at least they tried something different. It worked in my opinion. It was a good compromise between action and traditional rpg where your character stats mean something.
Far fewer people would have issue with the combat if they hadn't insisted on using the awful 3rd person camera. Playing in isometric works much better
@@electricant55 I don't know where the insistence is supposed to come from. You had the option to choose right at the start.
46:00 the beast fight was by far the toughest. I was stuck there and it was almost the reason I stopped it completely.
trust me, there are translation issues. it should be obvious considering that some characters speak two different voices in one dialog. english translation is subpar and lots of characters loos their charm in it.
Yes voice acting sucks too compared to Polish version.
@@Danickas0 and Russian. Geralt swearing was hilarious
Been digging all of your videos my man. Been a big inspiration for me to start my own channel. Keep up the good work!
people thinking geralt was flat in 1 are people that need american overtness showed down their throat. geralt is COMPLEX in 1, he's just subtle.
are they forgetting that witcher had their emotion suppressed ?
@@leonartha03 well iirc geralt is not affected so much by that. but in the games that is a point of insecurity. he knows he's supposed to be neutral and emotionally calm, but it's not in his nature.
@@lusteraliaszero None of the witchers are unemotional. They're all just traumatised.
i couldn't tolerate Geralt in W3 because he was depicted as an average Hollywood middle-class daddy.
Played this when it was first released and loved it then....Still feel it does certain things better then any of the others. The graphics for mid 2000 's look fantastic imo also.
Its a very deep game and offers some genuine..."This is fantastic" moments.
Also...The combat never really had me disliking it...Personally thought it is simplified only if you just use lone aspect....Love the potions and variety.
Personally would give it an 8 all day.
Always play the first game on the hardest setting. It makes the use of potions/signs etc much more useful and in general is a much more immersive play imo...Some things you say makes me believe you didn't....It makes a difference.
The Golem can be killed by signs btw..also by sword...takes a bit though.
Aw yes, my favourite lullaby youtuber ♥️
What is a lullaby youtuber?
@@roostermaind6413 I think they just mean he makes good content to watch right before bed
I played the first game right when it came out, in 2007, before the first "enhanced edition" patch, and it was phenomenal. I still play this game at least once a year and have now beaten it around 13-14 times. It's a masterclass and the biggest issues I have with it is the voice direction. But there's Polish and English subtitles for that. All three games have common threads running through the, such as Geralt's memory going and coming back, and the Wild Hunt, who are also featured in this game as a very background mystery threat. This game is the reason I was disappointed in Dragon Age: Origins the first time I played it, because for all it's hype about a realistic/gritty fantasy world, The Witcher had already been there and done that two years earlier.
the same with me, i was not able to play Skyrim after playing W3.
Long time subscriber here (I'm the one that thanked you for saving 50+ hours by not playing ME:Andromeda;)). Great video, as always and your opinion of the books align with my own.
Here are couple of things as extra info:
1. Planks to the doorway in towns were mostly to avoid draging in unnnessesary dirt from the street.
2. The Alina and Celina story, the whole debacle, is taken straight from "Balladyna", a XIXth century tragedy written by polish poet Juliusz Słowacki, that is in fact filled with folklore, so you weren't far off.
And a s a minor nitpicks:
a) A highly leveled ARD sign will stun most enemies and then they became one-hit-kills. Not a big deal with the fodder ones (it's faster to just use the group style) but against middle tough guys that's a serious advantage and a time saver.
b) There's no "witcher code", Gerald just came with the series of his own personal rules for life. I know that you know this but it would be clearer for the people that didn't read the books.
c) and you called Shani a sorceress where she's a medic. But that can be (and I believe is) a typo. That video is long and your script had to be long as hell, so that's understandable.
I believe that I didn't came out like a dick, if so I'm sincerely sorry. Really enjoy your videos, mate. Keep them up!
You definitely arent' coming across as a dick! Thanks for the folklore reference. Regarding that Witcher Code thing, I'm not sure it's accurate to say they are just personal rules. There definitely isn't a written code or anything like that, but the witchers all tend to abide by certain rules such that it has become code. E.g. charging money, not killing dragons, etc. The Shani thing is me getting confused between two of the medics at Brenna. I either forgot to double check or I was so sure I thought I didn't need to.
52:50 you don't have to kill him. You go out, wait a bit, go in and just tall Raymond you did it.
Geralt's sword wielding during battle is hilarious!
this was my first witcher game an as you say you can see the quality of the game, back in the day this game wasn't that famous, i always wondered why, when i used to search videos of this game on YT there were very very few videos in english, most of them where in russian, anyways when witcher 2 came out the first game gain a lot of recognition and i'm happy for that, this game is trully great yeah combat might not be the best but let's be honest even witcher 3 hasn't a great combat system, in my humble opinion witcher 2 is the best combat system the series ever had.
thanks for doing these videos and enjoy them a lot.
Sounds like the FCR mod for TW1 would address several of your issues with the combat. It makes it almost a necessity to use oils and signs in most encounters.
The comment on the golem is straight up fiction. You can attack it with either sword, on any difficulty, just fine. Igni surprisingly also works. It takes a while to whittle down, but using the pylons instead is dangerous because you're just as likely to get one-hit-killed by the lightning.
1st time I died but then I easily killed him, he just has to be at a certain distance of any pillow
OH MY GOD HE DID IT
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST HE DID IT
AND SUBTITLES ARE INCLUDED FROM THE START
SIMPLY LEGEND, LOVE YOU, CHRIS
"The flaming fist" you have clearly been playing too much Baldur's Gate.
the triangle in chapter four is in fact inspired by the Polish romantic drama 'Balladyna' by Slowacki
54:30 - I thought it was obvious. Geralt's relationship with Yeneffer of course.
That doesn't play out in this story at all though. This is a major moment that Geralt hears in a cutscene, but the game never even mentions Yennifer. People who haven't read the books won't know how she is or have a clue about any of this. Everything else that's in cutscenes is part of the game's story, not the books.
Notably enough, Andjey Sapkowski is totally a chill dude in person. I had a honor of meeting with him at one of the Russian fantasy conventions. He just really dislikes videogames.
Plenty of people don't like videogames and it doesn't make them bad people. Just a little close-minded maybe. It's also a generational thing to a certain extent.
@@ChrisDavis_Games Roger Ebert was one of most open-minded people when it comes to cinema but he died being sure that games cannot be art.
we must keep in mind that we learned to read books and watch cinema since childhood, there're even class hours for that. but in case of games, there is no institution to teach how to play games.
Shani ist not a Sorceress, she is a student in the medical department as she actually dies of old age in the Books
Correct. I confused her with another one of the healers who worked with Rusty.