I feel like the W3 is one of the few games that is maintaining some semblance of what fantasy use to be in the 80's and 90's, but also manages to be emotionally much more mature.
Nah in the 80's and 90's it was darker sure, but looked more like a renaissance stage play with very "costume" looking attire and whatnot. The witcher games use very time period accurate armor and architecture with fantastical elements added here and there. Compare the way the world looks to say, Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Because of it's art style I know I will play the Witcher 3 again, and then probably again. The Witcher 3 moves me in a way few art styles do, it has a je ne sais quoi feel to it, that's truly lightning caught in a bottle. It's an aesthetic masterpiece, I don't use the word 'masterpiece' lightly, but in relation to the Witcher 3's art style, it's deserved. :)
Something i love about the art style, it's rhe fact that the game actually applies filter to the different areas of the game. Being Toussaint the one that gets the most distinctive tones.
Yup, it's a credit to the visuals ingame that after spending a few days doing missions in Toussaint, when I had to travel back to Velen I really did *feel* the sheer dour drudgery, the hopelessness of that region.
@@donmongoose the game actually applies different filters depending on the area. There's a mod to take them out, and it's amazing seeing the game completely flat in terms of saturation and illumination.
same, the colors is what gets me in this game. yeah, rdr2 is more realistic, but i cant find it pretty at all, while im almost constantly in love with the views in tw3, even if certain textures are bad
While Wild Hunt is great, the first two are super underrated. Hoping that the remake of the original gets more people interested in trying the previous games.
@dugeor I've played through the witcher 1 a couple times, and my only complaint is that of the loading screen everytime i enter and exit a location... one of the only features i disliked about it, as well as the constant running round with no corners available to cut
@@-RedCloud witcher 1 is the most underrated, it has clunky gameplay but the environment and story balances it out very well. I spent 70hr and absolutely loved it.
@@-RedCloud I started with Wild Hunt, I did try to play 2, but the gameplay, at least on PC, feels a little clunky and for some reason it runs worse than the Witcher 3. I have an 11th gen i5 and GTX 1650 so I'm not sure why I got such low frame rates but hopefully they remake 2 after they finish the UE5 remake of 1. I think if 3 stuck with it's original art direction, at least with the outline shader, it would've been even better. It still holds up as one of my favourite games I've ever played.
I really like Eridan’s original armour, it was more intimidating, alien looking, and I think more inspired. I like what we got in game, but I prefer what they had
Would be cool to have an alternative outfit DLC for him like with Triss and Yen, especially since they probably still have those textures sitting around somewhere
A lot of people sleep on TW2. That game was one of a kind, way ahead of its time. I still hold TW2 above TW3 (yes u read that right) because of its artstyle, quest writing and mature storytelling. TW3 is a generational masterpiece but TW2 is a hidden gem you can only find in the most secluded shrine deep beneath, if u have the eyes for it.
@@johnnyringo35 I played the TW2 because I had played a game of it in my nokia mobile , I liked the concept of having 2 swords and fighting monsters and people, thought I would like the game and I LOVED IT. The environment, the people who are near the village, the monsters HOLY FUCK WHAT A GRAND AMOUNT OF LORE ON MONSTERS , then peasants speaking something as u move past them, "can girls become witchers too?", "the mutant is after me". I loved every single thing about the game. My pc could only run it at below 20fps yet I enjoyed every moment of the game. Withcer 2 is, personally the first game that I really fell in love with.
I feel like you’re just being a contrarian for the sake of it. The Witcher 2 is easily the weakest of the trilogy, with TW3 doing everything better than its predecessor. Also wdym by being mature storytelling? Every game in the series has mature storytelling
I'm not so sure about that. People sometimes say TW2 was a bit generic, at least when compared to TW3. And it makes sense, there must be a reason why it isn't popular.
The shift was a great idea imo. It just fits the setting much better and also allows for Toussaint and some other areas to be much more colourful in contrast. Besides, the art style definitely remained very recognizable.
I agree. That is not to say the lost style was bad, but the one we ultimately got allowed for a lot of variation in all directions of the spectrum. From the vibrancy of Touissant‘s landscape all the way to the tragic greys of the Von Everec estate. Skellige feels cold through it’s pallet, and White Orchard has the same colours of a morning sun that we can see illuminate our real world.
I actually really liked E3 2014 art style of the game. Novigrad had these cool oversaturated green colors everywhere, and just overall was a very colorful game, loved how it looked
I've played all the Witcher games, Witcher 3 however is a special game to me. I've done 12 playthroughs, clocking 2000~ hours of playtime. The game has so much potential with the addition of mods, it kept me coming back over and over again. My archived install has 200+ mods. I'm a photographic artist, and I used the game as a composition/photography trainer in the winter months when taking photos outside is harder to practice. I have an obscene 50gb of screenshots from all my playthroughs. A beautiful game that means a lot to me, the art style, atmosphere and depth of choice available in Witcher 3 is enough to get lost for weeks on end.
Didn’t most of the best mods break when they released some big patch for TW3 last year to improve its graphics? I mean not for nothing the improvements did make the game look absolutely incredible, but it also ran like shit and broke all of my favorite mods.
that's so cool to me! I use photo mode quite a bit in games for my own amateur composition practice, but 50gb of screenshots is v impressive. the whole game is a series of beautiful evoking scenes
Good stuff 👍 Personally I find Withcer 3’s soundtrack to be another vital crucial pillar of its success. So enthralling. It’s just fantastic, even to this day.
For me The Witcher 1 carries the closest spirit and atmosphere of the books, especially the short stories. Fits so good also the music, main menu and the intro.
I like both. Witcher 2 has a fantastic story and witcher 3 really leans into the fact its an rpg and lets you BECOME a witcher. Pretty sure i ditched the main story to be a paid monster slayer full time at least twice every playtrough. Man i love these games so much.
@@romanromanchuk7718 the r in rpg stands for roleplay in case you've forgotten. That means becoming someone else. In this case, a damn witcher. Or has geralt died again and reincarnated as a gigolo since I opened this game last?
It's refreshing to see a video like this that isn't just 30 minutes of padding. You provide clear explanations, and you don't waste everyone's times. I appreciate that.
For me personally i think that the style of the killing monsters trailer fits the world of witcher very well, its a dark depressing and gritty world and the greyness showed that
It's also overly moody, the one they chose was the right decision. Making it like the 2014 one would have put it into that 08-2013 mushy overly processed garbage heap that many other games found themselves in. Especially since the witcher universe isn't nearly as depressing as people like to think it is
@@victorkreig6089 I really agree with you on this strongly. The " mushy overly processed garbage heap " is absolutely what i think when i see those colors
Without Dandelion's writing and Geralt and Ciri taking the time to share stories with him, none of this would exist. I feel like one message of the game is how important writing and talking to each other is.
Because of it's art style I know I will play the Witcher 3 again, and then probably again. The Witcher 3 moves me in a way few art styles do, it has a je ne sais quoi feel to it, that's truly lightning caught in a bottle. It's an aesthetic masterpiece, I don't use the word 'masterpiece' lightly, but in relation to the Witcher 3's art style, it's deserved. :)
First time i got to skeliga i was taken in by its visuals,instead of completing the quest i was like"fuck it i will go scale that mountain and see this magnificant land"one of my best experiences ever
bro, Flotsam is one of my favorite game design locations in all of the open world rpg's of early 2010's + the music = perfection, i fell in love in the world of the Witcher right there
I like the fact that you interpret visual stylistic choices with the players/viewers perspective because it's often the intention from the creators with specific stylistic choices or specific framing and staging, also in video games and people tend to overlook it.
Subscribed immediately, I just love listening to others who are passionate about this universe, I have been obsessed with the art/graphics in the Witchers games for a few years now, I just absolutely love it!
While I do like The Witcher 2, its colors and general art style are some of the things I don't like about it. The vibrant, over-saturation, while at the same time having a lot of vignette on the screen felt like a very weird combination. I'm glad they switched it up.
Witcher 3 is incredible but I always felt detached from the world compared to Witcher 2. In Witcher 2, I felt that Geralt was far more immersed and less "outside looking in". And I recognize that Geralt being an outsider is a theme in the books and games, so it makes sense that they might seek to create distance in game design. But I really enjoyed the overall feeling of immersion in Witcher 2 more
@@ompatel5570 I guess its more immersive on the fields you operate on. In a more political plot the surrounding enviroment is your anchor point and in a more introspective adventure more emphasys is put on characters involved in the story
Geralt was more part of the world in 2 because he was in pretty much every way, he had amnesia so no matter where he looked he would not have seen the world with the seasoned eyes of a 112 year old man but as a child wandering through an almost dream like awe of the world itself due to lack of perceptions of any kind. In 3 that is all gone as most of his memory has returned allowing him to see the world in a much more realistic sense, THAT is why they changed it even with the new lighting engine they still would have eventually made it the way they did, the color pallet of the game is as much a reflection of Geralt's mind as it is of the world itself. CDPR subscribes heavily to the Remedy school of lighting and color deciding your narrative. Or at least they did, I am not sure how many of the old devs are left anymore so many have left for their own small projects
Enjoyed hearing your discussion on this- I've always been surprised people dont pay enough attention to the art direction in games. But I feel like the game still retains the flavor you talk about, because in areas like Novigrad streets and the surrounding forests and more importantly touissant are really vibrant ! Especially with the new lighting system, the sunsets on clear days in novigrad straight up look like paintings!
your ability to clearly distinct between this is objectively good/bad vs it's a reasonable change vs to me personaly is mighty impresive my dude. that's a sub.
@@nickverschoore4351 TW2 was far more extreme: One decision changed everything at the half point of the game! You had many moral dilemmas such as protecting a child or ending a war. You had to choose between two friends.
@@edi9892 you have to keep in mind that TW2 is far more linear + sizewise quite a bit smaller than TW3. Putting so much choice in TW3 would be impossible or they'd need years more of dev time
It would've been awful to spend 200+ hours in a witcher open world with witcher 2 artstyle. It worked for witcher 2 because it is not really an open world and it also had pupose with Geralt's amnesia it fit the theme. Witcher 3 has a wide range of terrain which won't suite the artstyle of 2. My personal favorite it terms of the environment is Witcher 1 which captures the environment in such a true and compelling way that even 2 and 3 don't hit the same for me environment wise, Toussaint definitely comes very close though.
Interesting stuff, I think the change after vgx was even more noticable.. the famous downgrade that some pretended didn't happen, but the devs basically admitted in a roundabout way (as if we didn't have eyes to see).
Damn I thought this guy would have atleast 60-100K subs, but I'm shocked to see he only has like 1.23K subs, you're truly underrated, keep making videos.
Using a HD texture pack with a photorealistic reshade makes this game look absolutely astounding. Some of the wild area's were straight up indiscernible from real life
Thanks for talking about this. I was one of those who loved the sword of destiny trailer and style at e3 2014. That High fantasy look was awesome. While I love the W3 we got. If consoles we out of the equation we would of gotten this. Probably. This tech in the trailers even existed in the game at one point, CDPR’s trailers were real time despite others saying otherwise. Why they even scrapped it while it was working I have no idea. It’s more than just “technical reasons”. But, it’s fine.
I remember as a kid seeing the Witcher 3 gameplay excited, then the visual change happened later on I'll admit I was kinda angry and disappointed this world is supposed to be dark. I've been replaying the Witcher 3 recently and thinking about seeing if there's a mod. ALSO I miss the medallion actually moving and humming from the older games in the Witcher 3 the wolf is just a flat image and you have to wait for Geralt to say "the medallion is humming" instead of being able to actually see it which was one of the coolest parts of these games for me as a kid.
incredibly great topic that I never thought to appreciate. I always thought to my self that I love the graphics, but truly the art direction got to me the most. lots of appreciation towards what you highlighted
I LOVE the art style of The Witcher 2, the colors and lighting are superb. Still haven't played The Witcher 3 yet because I spent forever playing the first two games and clearing the endless backlog.
What a breath of fresh air, both your text and video! Bro! I wish you the world in the time to come - subscribers and fame. Remember where you started!
There are mods that attempt to bring the aesthetics of earlier witcher builds (vgx, e3). Concept lighting by Majime really stands out as it does a very good job is making the game look like in VGX trailer while Took Lighting Mod NG mostly succeeds at replecating Novigrad and Velen from E3 Demo.
I'd also like to add that the art style is one of the few that incorporates some of the more fantastical elements that are still actually based in reality. We have a tendency to believe that dark fantasy must be "dark" with few or muted colors, but we know historically that color was celebrated and used lavishly where possible by people of rank or wealth. It's the same in the game; you do see muted colors in places like the battlefield or the slums, but if you make it to the markets or to an officers tent, you see color aplenty to show off status and success. It used color and fashion to communicate a character in a smart way so that you often knew something of them before they spoke based on the function, fashion, context, and color of their clothes. Additionally Witcher 3 did something I haven't seen many other games do by featuring relatively realistic armor and mounting systems; especially cloth armor. Zoltan for example doesn't wear that jacket just because its warm, it's a padded gambeson, and the cute little ties at the shoulders and hips are harness mounting points to hold the system together and to allow the mounting of plate armor.
I'm glad I ain't the only one, who noticed The Witcher 2 unique artstyle, and how the very first trailers of The Witcher 3 followed it. I too really like The Witcher 2 uniqueness, with its gritty and satured colors. The Witcher 1 lacked this color palette, but it looked dark and gloomy too. The Witcher 3 looks brighter and more natural, which is fitting in its way and offers more vibrant and lively landscapes in Skellige for example (which I think has the best looking scenery of the whole game). Now it reminds me, in The Witcher 2, if you go Roche path, and you decide to help that courtier woman out of the city in Act III, you play through a heavy forest map that blew my mind the first time I played it (2019 or something) because it looked so full and enormous, and the lights and colours made it vivid. Shout out to you for such an incredibly detailed video for a short duration of 5 minutes ! You exposed everything relevant in my eye about the subject, with a swift and comprehensive conclusion.
Yeah man i was looking back at this time, when TW3 out i was very satisfied with it, but now years later i kinda preffer the first two games, they were more original and deep, the second game in particular was something unreal to me the atmosphere was just so magical and the combat was amazing.
@@theholypopechodeii4367 TW3 is a great game that's incredibly big a beautiful, however my view on open worlds soured over the years, I played 1 and 2 before 3 came out and the hype that the old fans had was unreal. Nowadays I see it as just another huge wasteland that's hard to play again, people criticize the first game cause they are used to hyper realistic graphics and super easy game design, but the first game is amazing IMO I finished it multiple times and personally could adapt to it's systems with ease. The sequel was also an amazing game with a lot of choices and paths to take, I feel sorry for people that can't get into those games cause they are so special to me.
"more original and deep" Lmao not even close to reality TW1 was actually pretty poorly written in a lot of ways, the reason people jerk off to it is because of it's rpg mechanics(which were bad btw but that's games of the era for you) TW2 was a political intrigue action game that did a great job of illustrating the political intrigue of the books specifically the first 2(the one thing Sapkowski is actually good at) TW3 is a more muted political intrigue focusing on adventure and the overall feel of what it is like to be a witcher in society without getting too ruthless for normal people by setting it during a civil war If you like open world games TW3 is top 3 best ever made, If you're a weirdo rpg romantic TW1 is for you, if you're a political junkie you love TW2. It's that simple
Not only did the artstyle changed. But the game itself got severely downgraded, with lower distance and less varied LODs, less usage of what appeared to be tesselation (or parallax mapping), lower resolution textures, a vastly simplified skybox, less varied grass. There is a really good video from “Overlord Gaming” that goes in detail of the probable causes of the downgrade.
I wonder what your take on Kingdom Come: Deliverance would be. That game absolutely stole me. I'm happy just riding around and endlessly exploring. By no means is it as "good looking" as The Witcher 2 - but somehow it just... captivates me.
Agreed. This is not just about colors and lighting to me. Thinking about W3, one thing I missed are those more fantastical landscapes. They are stunningly beautiful. But in a way of beautiful realism, not like the less-realistic, kinda magical W2 places, giant forest, the amazing town design of Vergen and so on. REcalling the whole experience I would have liked some more magic to inspire, vitalize the world. I believe this was more than a change of rendering system. A huge open world might work better with realistic landscapes and a realistic look seems coherent for that. Whatever... Nontheless one hell of a game.
true man, i feel like witcher 2 had most amazing views, witcher 1 had darkest and cool yeah, witcher 3 the weakest but still landscapes look good and natural
it's funny to me how the series was originally more colorful and vibrant. Because to me, as someone who started with the witcher 3. one of the things that has stood out to me playing the game is how bright and colorful the game actually is compared to other similar games. Because what I remember from playing the game are the lush forests and verdant plains. And it's one of the things I fell in love with about the game. It would have been cool to see the game with it's original vision fully realised
In about 2-3 years, my memory of playing W3 will be faint enough to do another playthrough. I've been putting this off for years, but I want to forget as much as possible before I go again.
i recently start replaying it... max settings 4k native... Kae Morhen at the start at the game.. and the surroundings look like the game came out in 2023 ... absolute stunning.
The algorithm is working omg. My friends and I were talking about this the other day. How some games have staying power because of the art style chosen regardless of when it was released. However we were talking about the Batman games. I never knew TW3 had a different art style initially. It looks incredible. The environments look much more livelier.
When I played Witcher 2 for the first time, my PC really wasn't up to the task, so I had to turn all of the graphics options to the lowest values...and the game still looked amazing. I really loved the artstyle in that game.
I’ve literally played the whole trilogy since the last Joseph Anderson video (iykyk) and Witcher 2 is definitely my favourite in terms of art style and vibe
I really dug the look of the VGX trailer with it's realism, and was definitely somewhat disappointed by the art style change and graphics nerf from the VGX trailer. I remember reading from a former CDP dev that the graphics nerf was due to XB1/PS4 being weaker than CD Projekt expected them to be, up until the point they received official dev kits CD Projekt had been designing the game with 3 tflop consoles in mind because that was what CDP expected Sony and MS to put into their next gen consoles, so then CD Projekt was forced to nerf the graphics somewhat when XB1 and PS4 were announced at 1.2 and 1.8 tflops respectively.
You can get close to that art style from 2014 trailer with Lighing Mods. It's many of those but still could be better to get that from the beginning ofc.
I agree with your points about TW2's style giving it a more unique and probably more interesting look and you have to wonder what a version of it could have looked like in TW3. That said I've been playing TW3 recently with the ray tracing enabled and while there are some definite anomalies and you can tell it wasn't built for RT from the ground up, my god there have been so many moments I've been in awe of how good the game looks and I can't stop taking screenshots
The art style from the last trailers is really what got me into the game, as it embraces the latest trend of the 3D rendering theme and looks more, as you said it, objective.
I don't think they chose to abandon their art style, I think the graphical features they where relying on (mainly global illumination) were simply not achievable ,from a technical standpoint, in 2015. It really wasn't until recently 2018-present that hardware capable of running probabilistic models for light simulation (known as raytracing and global illumination) became commercially available. Back then we had to rely on ambient occlusion to simulate light models. The heatherton scene @ 2:35, looks very convincing, the village is being illuminated globally by the huts on fire, we can also observe how the light from the fires disperse through the plumes of smoke. Even more so at 2:39 when we observe the shadow being cast by Eredin on the hut, this is a clear indicator of a offscreen lightsource still accurately emitting light (this is how raytracing is sometimes described). One more example, the lighting @ 3:14 seems to be uniform, one global light source, which allows us to see all the way to Crow's Perch, even the shadows cast on the rooftops of Mulbrydale by the plumes of smoke frome the chimmneys. The recent implementation of raytracing for this game seems to bring it closer to what we see in the trailer. But I really think the stark difference from what we saw in the trailers to what eventually shipped was mainly a matter of technical constraints. CD Projekt does now, unfortunaltey, have a track record of overpromising in technical areas, however I believe there intent was to not to mislead, rather they had unrealistic expectations. Still though they did end up delivering us one of the best RPG's in exsistence. It's not the concept I think CD Projekt had trouble with, it was the execution. But execution is a matter of practice, whereas the conceptual artistic basis relies more on talent. And I must say I don't think CDPR is at all short of talent!
The Witcher 3 is the only game I repeated a game campaign including 2 DLC, let alone 4 times between 2018 and 2019. I didn't even think about doing a 2nd run on RDR2 when it's my best game of all time. Although I always ended up with the same ending, the dialogue is so diverse. It feels different every time. I don't touch the game anymore, even after they scaled up, but Witcher 3 will always live in my heart rent free.
Next gen update with RTX on actually make the game look a lot more like the VGX trailer than what we ended up getting. I'm not sure why, the RTX lighting, when enabled, returns it to a much more realistic looking tone. It's especially noticeable in places where interior and exterior light sources play off of each other, like in Vizima and in open door shops in Novigrad. There's some great comparison videos on here that you can look up to see what I mean.
![[4K] Watch SpaceX Catch A Starship Rocket From Space!!! #IFT5](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pIKI7y3DTXk/mqdefault.jpg)
I feel like the W3 is one of the few games that is maintaining some semblance of what fantasy use to be in the 80's and 90's, but also manages to be emotionally much more mature.
Nah in the 80's and 90's it was darker sure, but looked more like a renaissance stage play with very "costume" looking attire and whatnot. The witcher games use very time period accurate armor and architecture with fantastical elements added here and there. Compare the way the world looks to say, Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Skyrim to a lesser extent and elden ring to a greater extent also does this
Because of it's art style I know I will play the Witcher 3 again, and then probably again. The Witcher 3 moves me in a way few art styles do, it has a je ne sais quoi feel to it, that's truly lightning caught in a bottle. It's an aesthetic masterpiece, I don't use the word 'masterpiece' lightly, but in relation to the Witcher 3's art style, it's deserved. :)
Isn't Kingdom Come more period accurate?
@@MarioLeCarre je ne sai what?
Something i love about the art style, it's rhe fact that the game actually applies filter to the different areas of the game. Being Toussaint the one that gets the most distinctive tones.
Yup, it's a credit to the visuals ingame that after spending a few days doing missions in Toussaint, when I had to travel back to Velen I really did *feel* the sheer dour drudgery, the hopelessness of that region.
@@donmongoose the game actually applies different filters depending on the area. There's a mod to take them out, and it's amazing seeing the game completely flat in terms of saturation and illumination.
same, the colors is what gets me in this game. yeah, rdr2 is more realistic, but i cant find it pretty at all, while im almost constantly in love with the views in tw3, even if certain textures are bad
It's even more beautiful if you mod it, and remove filter + add ENB effects
Disagree @@City-Hunter Original is ALWAYS the best. Never bother with ENBs at all!
It's nice to see someone who actually played the Witcher series making content. Most of the creators were introduced to the Wild Hunt.
While Wild Hunt is great, the first two are super underrated. Hoping that the remake of the original gets more people interested in trying the previous games.
@dugeor I've played through the witcher 1 a couple times, and my only complaint is that of the loading screen everytime i enter and exit a location... one of the only features i disliked about it, as well as the constant running round with no corners available to cut
@dugeor enhanced edition. Its not as bad as the situation you described on premiere, but still annoying haha
@@-RedCloud witcher 1 is the most underrated, it has clunky gameplay but the environment and story balances it out very well. I spent 70hr and absolutely loved it.
@@-RedCloud I started with Wild Hunt, I did try to play 2, but the gameplay, at least on PC, feels a little clunky and for some reason it runs worse than the Witcher 3. I have an 11th gen i5 and GTX 1650 so I'm not sure why I got such low frame rates but hopefully they remake 2 after they finish the UE5 remake of 1. I think if 3 stuck with it's original art direction, at least with the outline shader, it would've been even better. It still holds up as one of my favourite games I've ever played.
I really like Eridan’s original armour, it was more intimidating, alien looking, and I think more inspired. I like what we got in game, but I prefer what they had
Would be cool to have an alternative outfit DLC for him like with Triss and Yen, especially since they probably still have those textures sitting around somewhere
There is a mod on nexus that recreates that look.
I've read somewhere that the reason for his armor change was that he resembled Sauron too much. It's a shame tho, I also prefer this "alpha" look.
As someone else mentioned, there’s a mod on the Nexus that does this called “VGX Eredin Appearance”, and it looks fantastic
There is a pretty much perfect mod for it on Nexus Mods.
A lot of people sleep on TW2. That game was one of a kind, way ahead of its time. I still hold TW2 above TW3 (yes u read that right) because of its artstyle, quest writing and mature storytelling. TW3 is a generational masterpiece but TW2 is a hidden gem you can only find in the most secluded shrine deep beneath, if u have the eyes for it.
The first time I made it to flotsam is burned into my memory.....the atmosphere....
1000% agree
@@johnnyringo35 I played the TW2 because I had played a game of it in my nokia mobile , I liked the concept of having 2 swords and fighting monsters and people, thought I would like the game and I LOVED IT. The environment, the people who are near the village, the monsters HOLY FUCK WHAT A GRAND AMOUNT OF LORE ON MONSTERS , then peasants speaking something as u move past them, "can girls become witchers too?", "the mutant is after me". I loved every single thing about the game. My pc could only run it at below 20fps yet I enjoyed every moment of the game. Withcer 2 is, personally the first game that I really fell in love with.
I feel like you’re just being a contrarian for the sake of it. The Witcher 2 is easily the weakest of the trilogy, with TW3 doing everything better than its predecessor.
Also wdym by being mature storytelling? Every game in the series has mature storytelling
I'm not so sure about that. People sometimes say TW2 was a bit generic, at least when compared to TW3. And it makes sense, there must be a reason why it isn't popular.
The shift was a great idea imo. It just fits the setting much better and also allows for Toussaint and some other areas to be much more colourful in contrast. Besides, the art style definitely remained very recognizable.
I agree. That is not to say the lost style was bad, but the one we ultimately got allowed for a lot of variation in all directions of the spectrum.
From the vibrancy of Touissant‘s landscape all the way to the tragic greys of the Von Everec estate.
Skellige feels cold through it’s pallet, and White Orchard has the same colours of a morning sun that we can see illuminate our real world.
I actually really liked E3 2014 art style of the game. Novigrad had these cool oversaturated green colors everywhere, and just overall was a very colorful game, loved how it looked
E3 looked like it played better than what we got
I've played all the Witcher games, Witcher 3 however is a special game to me. I've done 12 playthroughs, clocking 2000~ hours of playtime. The game has so much potential with the addition of mods, it kept me coming back over and over again. My archived install has 200+ mods. I'm a photographic artist, and I used the game as a composition/photography trainer in the winter months when taking photos outside is harder to practice. I have an obscene 50gb of screenshots from all my playthroughs. A beautiful game that means a lot to me, the art style, atmosphere and depth of choice available in Witcher 3 is enough to get lost for weeks on end.
Didn’t most of the best mods break when they released some big patch for TW3 last year to improve its graphics?
I mean not for nothing the improvements did make the game look absolutely incredible, but it also ran like shit and broke all of my favorite mods.
that's so cool to me! I use photo mode quite a bit in games for my own amateur composition practice, but 50gb of screenshots is v impressive. the whole game is a series of beautiful evoking scenes
Got better the further I read. A very real connection to the game, indeed!
Probably they just added your dream mod in the form of the RedKit update 🤩
Good stuff 👍 Personally I find Withcer 3’s soundtrack to be another vital crucial pillar of its success. So enthralling. It’s just fantastic, even to this day.
Absolutely
'even to this day' Why do people even use this phrase, it is so cringe and retarded
For me The Witcher 1 carries the closest spirit and atmosphere of the books, especially the short stories.
Fits so good also the music, main menu and the intro.
I like both. Witcher 2 has a fantastic story and witcher 3 really leans into the fact its an rpg and lets you BECOME a witcher. Pretty sure i ditched the main story to be a paid monster slayer full time at least twice every playtrough. Man i love these games so much.
Why would I want to BECOME a Witcher? I'm playing a 112 year old man with all of his memories returned more or less. I shouldn't be BECOMING anything
@@victorkreig6089 then dont play the game.
@@roanoke7551 your stupidity knows no bounds
@@roanoke7551the game isn’t about becoming a Witcher. You play as someone who already is a Witcher. Have you even played the game?
@@romanromanchuk7718 the r in rpg stands for roleplay in case you've forgotten. That means becoming someone else. In this case, a damn witcher. Or has geralt died again and reincarnated as a gigolo since I opened this game last?
It's refreshing to see a video like this that isn't just 30 minutes of padding. You provide clear explanations, and you don't waste everyone's times. I appreciate that.
For me personally i think that the style of the killing monsters trailer fits the world of witcher very well, its a dark depressing and gritty world and the greyness showed that
It's also overly moody, the one they chose was the right decision. Making it like the 2014 one would have put it into that 08-2013 mushy overly processed garbage heap that many other games found themselves in. Especially since the witcher universe isn't nearly as depressing as people like to think it is
nice pfp
@@kalb390 thanks
That is an extremely impressive pre rendered cinematic, ain’t no way your gonna make a 2015 game look like that and run I’ve 3 FPS much less in 2015
@@victorkreig6089 I really agree with you on this strongly. The " mushy overly processed garbage heap " is absolutely what i think when i see those colors
Without Dandelion's writing and Geralt and Ciri taking the time to share stories with him, none of this would exist. I feel like one message of the game is how important writing and talking to each other is.
Amazing video mate. Not short, not long, no filler and with great narration and interesting content. Hope to see what you make in the future.
Because of it's art style I know I will play the Witcher 3 again, and then probably again. The Witcher 3 moves me in a way few art styles do, it has a je ne sais quoi feel to it, that's truly lightning caught in a bottle. It's an aesthetic masterpiece, I don't use the word 'masterpiece' lightly, but in relation to the Witcher 3's art style, it's deserved. :)
First time i got to skeliga i was taken in by its visuals,instead of completing the quest i was like"fuck it i will go scale that mountain and see this magnificant land"one of my best experiences ever
I've always noticed the stylistic differences between the trailers and the full game, and I'm glad someone finally made a video about it!
thats called downgrade
it called downgrade
bro, Flotsam is one of my favorite game design locations in all of the open world rpg's of early 2010's + the music = perfection, i fell in love in the world of the Witcher right there
I like the fact that you interpret visual stylistic choices with the players/viewers perspective because it's often the intention from the creators with specific stylistic choices or specific framing and staging, also in video games and people tend to overlook it.
Subscribed immediately, I just love listening to others who are passionate about this universe, I have been obsessed with the art/graphics in the Witchers games for a few years now, I just absolutely love it!
While I do like The Witcher 2, its colors and general art style are some of the things I don't like about it. The vibrant, over-saturation, while at the same time having a lot of vignette on the screen felt like a very weird combination. I'm glad they switched it up.
Witcher 3 is incredible but I always felt detached from the world compared to Witcher 2. In Witcher 2, I felt that Geralt was far more immersed and less "outside looking in". And I recognize that Geralt being an outsider is a theme in the books and games, so it makes sense that they might seek to create distance in game design. But I really enjoyed the overall feeling of immersion in Witcher 2 more
@@theholypopechodeii4367 shouldn't a personal be more immersive then?
@@ompatel5570 I guess its more immersive on the fields you operate on. In a more political plot the surrounding enviroment is your anchor point and in a more introspective adventure more emphasys is put on characters involved in the story
@@Yeavinus I suppose
Geralt was more part of the world in 2 because he was in pretty much every way, he had amnesia so no matter where he looked he would not have seen the world with the seasoned eyes of a 112 year old man but as a child wandering through an almost dream like awe of the world itself due to lack of perceptions of any kind.
In 3 that is all gone as most of his memory has returned allowing him to see the world in a much more realistic sense, THAT is why they changed it even with the new lighting engine they still would have eventually made it the way they did, the color pallet of the game is as much a reflection of Geralt's mind as it is of the world itself.
CDPR subscribes heavily to the Remedy school of lighting and color deciding your narrative. Or at least they did, I am not sure how many of the old devs are left anymore so many have left for their own small projects
There are mods consisting of Reshade presets and other lighting engines that can get you close to that atmosphere.
Mind listing which ones?
@@Imperium10search witcher 3 e3 modlist.
You even have e3 ui
@@Imperium10 Best one is STLM.
This was a great video to stumble upon from a small creator. Keep it up!
Enjoyed hearing your discussion on this- I've always been surprised people dont pay enough attention to the art direction in games. But I feel like the game still retains the flavor you talk about, because in areas like Novigrad streets and the surrounding forests and more importantly touissant are really vibrant ! Especially with the new lighting system, the sunsets on clear days in novigrad straight up look like paintings!
The game does look incredible still, indeed.
It's funny how I thought that the Witcher 3 had the best story until Letho jumped out of the window
your ability to clearly distinct between this is objectively good/bad vs it's a reasonable change vs to me personaly is mighty impresive my dude. that's a sub.
What I missed in TW3 was the extent to which decisions matter... It‘s still more than most games though.
I do not know what you mean, there's so many decisions that matter alot when it comes to the outcome of the main story and sidequests...
@@nickverschoore4351 TW2 was far more extreme:
One decision changed everything at the half point of the game!
You had many moral dilemmas such as protecting a child or ending a war.
You had to choose between two friends.
@@edi9892 you have to keep in mind that TW2 is far more linear + sizewise quite a bit smaller than TW3. Putting so much choice in TW3 would be impossible or they'd need years more of dev time
@@nickverschoore4351 sure
You're comparing a choose your own adventure book to a tome about political intrigue
I really love the Witcher 2’s graphic and I am saddened that they did not used the graphics from the early Witcher 3 trailers…
Honestly I personally can't prefer one over the other as I love what both games brought to the story and scenary
It would've been awful to spend 200+ hours in a witcher open world with witcher 2 artstyle. It worked for witcher 2 because it is not really an open world and it also had pupose with Geralt's amnesia it fit the theme. Witcher 3 has a wide range of terrain which won't suite the artstyle of 2.
My personal favorite it terms of the environment is Witcher 1 which captures the environment in such a true and compelling way that even 2 and 3 don't hit the same for me environment wise, Toussaint definitely comes very close though.
Yeah, that's one of the reasons why they changed it. CDPR mentioned that the longer you played the game, the harder on the eyes it was.
Omfg you gonna be a GREAT one.
It’s a shame that this video is not monetized.
Thanks for the content bro.
Interesting stuff, I think the change after vgx was even more noticable.. the famous downgrade that some pretended didn't happen, but the devs basically admitted in a roundabout way (as if we didn't have eyes to see).
Damn I thought this guy would have atleast 60-100K subs, but I'm shocked to see he only has like 1.23K subs, you're truly underrated, keep making videos.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Using a HD texture pack with a photorealistic reshade makes this game look absolutely astounding. Some of the wild area's were straight up indiscernible from real life
Thanks for talking about this. I was one of those who loved the sword of destiny trailer and style at e3 2014. That High fantasy look was awesome. While I love the W3 we got. If consoles we out of the equation we would of gotten this. Probably. This tech in the trailers even existed in the game at one point, CDPR’s trailers were real time despite others saying otherwise. Why they even scrapped it while it was working I have no idea. It’s more than just “technical reasons”. But, it’s fine.
The single long sentence from 01:31 was next level. Would love to see you post more!🔥
I remember as a kid seeing the Witcher 3 gameplay excited, then the visual change happened later on I'll admit I was kinda angry and disappointed this world is supposed to be dark. I've been replaying the Witcher 3 recently and thinking about seeing if there's a mod. ALSO I miss the medallion actually moving and humming from the older games in the Witcher 3 the wolf is just a flat image and you have to wait for Geralt to say "the medallion is humming" instead of being able to actually see it which was one of the coolest parts of these games for me as a kid.
10/10 video. Honestly, my only critique is I wish it were longer. Keep it up!
I loved the Witcher 2s color palette. As you pointed out, it sets the vibe for the dark fantasy world perfectly
this is a great video! Great to see someone else liking the Witcher 2 a lot. us small youtubers gotta stick together! subbed
incredibly great topic that I never thought to appreciate. I always thought to my self that I love the graphics, but truly the art direction got to me the most. lots of appreciation towards what you highlighted
Anyone else had no idea Dandelion was the narrator until halfway through the game because the voice sounds NOTHING like him?
It's like that on purpose. The dandelion you hear in the loading screens is much older than the Dandelion who appears in the games.
In the polish version its not like that idk why@@-RedCloud
@@averagestraightwhitemale6776 Huh, odd.
I LOVE the art style of The Witcher 2, the colors and lighting are superb. Still haven't played The Witcher 3 yet because I spent forever playing the first two games and clearing the endless backlog.
What a breath of fresh air, both your text and video! Bro! I wish you the world in the time to come - subscribers and fame. Remember where you started!
There are mods that attempt to bring the aesthetics of earlier witcher builds (vgx, e3). Concept lighting by Majime really stands out as it does a very good job is making the game look like in VGX trailer while Took Lighting Mod NG mostly succeeds at replecating Novigrad and Velen from E3 Demo.
I know exactly what you are talking about, I get you!
That feel when you roam though Flotsam for the first time in W2... Just beautiful.
Flotsam is incredible
I'd also like to add that the art style is one of the few that incorporates some of the more fantastical elements that are still actually based in reality. We have a tendency to believe that dark fantasy must be "dark" with few or muted colors, but we know historically that color was celebrated and used lavishly where possible by people of rank or wealth. It's the same in the game; you do see muted colors in places like the battlefield or the slums, but if you make it to the markets or to an officers tent, you see color aplenty to show off status and success. It used color and fashion to communicate a character in a smart way so that you often knew something of them before they spoke based on the function, fashion, context, and color of their clothes.
Additionally Witcher 3 did something I haven't seen many other games do by featuring relatively realistic armor and mounting systems; especially cloth armor. Zoltan for example doesn't wear that jacket just because its warm, it's a padded gambeson, and the cute little ties at the shoulders and hips are harness mounting points to hold the system together and to allow the mounting of plate armor.
I'm glad I ain't the only one, who noticed The Witcher 2 unique artstyle, and how the very first trailers of The Witcher 3 followed it.
I too really like The Witcher 2 uniqueness, with its gritty and satured colors. The Witcher 1 lacked this color palette, but it looked dark and gloomy too.
The Witcher 3 looks brighter and more natural, which is fitting in its way and offers more vibrant and lively landscapes in Skellige for example (which I think has the best looking scenery of the whole game).
Now it reminds me, in The Witcher 2, if you go Roche path, and you decide to help that courtier woman out of the city in Act III, you play through a heavy forest map that blew my mind the first time I played it (2019 or something) because it looked so full and enormous, and the lights and colours made it vivid.
Shout out to you for such an incredibly detailed video for a short duration of 5 minutes ! You exposed everything relevant in my eye about the subject, with a swift and comprehensive conclusion.
Great video! All in all, The Witcher's 2 and The Witcher's 3 art style each is special in its own way, and i personally enjoy both
Investing early in this one, great hook at the start followed by consistent pacing & a well structured format. Top stuff!
Much appreciated.
Meanwhile me who considers witcher 1 above them all 😂
can you imagine Witcher 3 is almost 10 years old? Yet a masterpiece in Story and Atmosphere
My favorite and best game I've played so far. This game is the GOAT.
Instant sub my man, your channel is going to blow
Yeah man i was looking back at this time, when TW3 out i was very satisfied with it, but now years later i kinda preffer the first two games, they were more original and deep, the second game in particular was something unreal to me the atmosphere was just so magical and the combat was amazing.
No, just no
@@theholypopechodeii4367 TW3 is a great game that's incredibly big a beautiful, however my view on open worlds soured over the years, I played 1 and 2 before 3 came out and the hype that the old fans had was unreal. Nowadays I see it as just another huge wasteland that's hard to play again, people criticize the first game cause they are used to hyper realistic graphics and super easy game design, but the first game is amazing IMO I finished it multiple times and personally could adapt to it's systems with ease. The sequel was also an amazing game with a lot of choices and paths to take, I feel sorry for people that can't get into those games cause they are so special to me.
@@theholypopechodeii4367 they told me that arena daggerfall and Megaten 1 and 2 were dated too but I had a blast playing them
"more original and deep"
Lmao not even close to reality
TW1 was actually pretty poorly written in a lot of ways, the reason people jerk off to it is because of it's rpg mechanics(which were bad btw but that's games of the era for you)
TW2 was a political intrigue action game that did a great job of illustrating the political intrigue of the books specifically the first 2(the one thing Sapkowski is actually good at)
TW3 is a more muted political intrigue focusing on adventure and the overall feel of what it is like to be a witcher in society without getting too ruthless for normal people by setting it during a civil war
If you like open world games TW3 is top 3 best ever made, If you're a weirdo rpg romantic TW1 is for you, if you're a political junkie you love TW2. It's that simple
@@victorkreig6089 that's just your take bro, nobody can force me to simp for Skyrim clone number 650
Not only did the artstyle changed.
But the game itself got severely downgraded, with lower distance and less varied LODs, less usage of what appeared to be tesselation (or parallax mapping), lower resolution textures, a vastly simplified skybox, less varied grass.
There is a really good video from “Overlord Gaming” that goes in detail of the probable causes of the downgrade.
Overlord Gaming is a fantastic channel. That video you mentioned is a very good one.
I wonder what your take on Kingdom Come: Deliverance would be. That game absolutely stole me. I'm happy just riding around and endlessly exploring. By no means is it as "good looking" as The Witcher 2 - but somehow it just... captivates me.
I've actually never finished it. I remember enjoying it, but my interest just trailed off. I may have to revisit it one of these days.
Agreed. This is not just about colors and lighting to me. Thinking about W3, one thing I missed are those more fantastical landscapes. They are stunningly beautiful. But in a way of beautiful realism, not like the less-realistic, kinda magical W2 places, giant forest, the amazing town design of Vergen and so on. REcalling the whole experience I would have liked some more magic to inspire, vitalize the world. I believe this was more than a change of rendering system. A huge open world might work better with realistic landscapes and a realistic look seems coherent for that. Whatever... Nontheless one hell of a game.
true man, i feel like witcher 2 had most amazing views, witcher 1 had darkest and cool yeah, witcher 3 the weakest but still landscapes look good and natural
I'm happy that the franchise from being an AA typified Jank of 1 and 2, to Witcher 3 being a culmination
i love the evolution of the art style. its getting more mature over time which makes sense
Reminds me of how No Man's Sky lost it's art style. It went from a cool 60's scif-fi book cover art, to an arcady art style.
In my opinion it was more bleak in the gamescom trailers and they changed to a more colorful version.
117 subs now. Good luck with your fine work man.
Thanks. Up 20 in the last day. I guess people like witcher.
I love when games change and evolve their styles it really makes each game more unique and memorable
it's funny to me how the series was originally more colorful and vibrant. Because to me, as someone who started with the witcher 3. one of the things that has stood out to me playing the game is how bright and colorful the game actually is compared to other similar games. Because what I remember from playing the game are the lush forests and verdant plains. And it's one of the things I fell in love with about the game. It would have been cool to see the game with it's original vision fully realised
In about 2-3 years, my memory of playing W3 will be faint enough to do another playthrough. I've been putting this off for years, but I want to forget as much as possible before I go again.
i recently start replaying it... max settings 4k native...
Kae Morhen at the start at the game.. and the surroundings look like the game came out in 2023 ... absolute stunning.
I have high hopes for this channel, keep the good work man
Thanks, glad you liked the video.
I hope they return to this style on the upcoming witcher, it needs to be grim and dark!
The algorithm is working omg. My friends and I were talking about this the other day. How some games have staying power because of the art style chosen regardless of when it was released. However we were talking about the Batman games. I never knew TW3 had a different art style initially. It looks incredible. The environments look much more livelier.
bro u have to keep on making contents like this. Its 🔥🔥🔥
You just got a sub! what a banger of a video
Love this visual breakdown! Will definitely tune in if you decide to do any further videos in similar vein!
Great video! As I checked your channel, I guess you are surprised how viral that video went. :D
Yeah. The video I put the least effort into did the best.
Very well put together. Good stuff Red Cloud!
I really loved the art style of Witcher 2, it would be cool to see the world of the Witcher 3 in a similar style to Witcher 2.
When I played Witcher 2 for the first time, my PC really wasn't up to the task, so I had to turn all of the graphics options to the lowest values...and the game still looked amazing. I really loved the artstyle in that game.
I’ve literally played the whole trilogy since the last Joseph Anderson video (iykyk) and Witcher 2 is definitely my favourite in terms of art style and vibe
the game its just so beautiful the world, story, characters I finished it like 5 times and still discovering new things dialogues
I wouldn't call "color" and "light" "simple" tools.
Don't care what you'd call it.
The witcher 2 had an excellent style. A shame they didn’t carry it over onto 3. Luckily some mods help
Nice video, feels nice to see that someone felt the same way I did about witcher 2 art
I love the final quote of this video
I really dug the look of the VGX trailer with it's realism, and was definitely somewhat disappointed by the art style change and graphics nerf from the VGX trailer. I remember reading from a former CDP dev that the graphics nerf was due to XB1/PS4 being weaker than CD Projekt expected them to be, up until the point they received official dev kits CD Projekt had been designing the game with 3 tflop consoles in mind because that was what CDP expected Sony and MS to put into their next gen consoles, so then CD Projekt was forced to nerf the graphics somewhat when XB1 and PS4 were announced at 1.2 and 1.8 tflops respectively.
You can get close to that art style from 2014 trailer with Lighing Mods. It's many of those but still could be better to get that from the beginning ofc.
Nice video and narration. I can easily see your channel growing. Keep up the good work.
I agree with your points about TW2's style giving it a more unique and probably more interesting look and you have to wonder what a version of it could have looked like in TW3. That said I've been playing TW3 recently with the ray tracing enabled and while there are some definite anomalies and you can tell it wasn't built for RT from the ground up, my god there have been so many moments I've been in awe of how good the game looks and I can't stop taking screenshots
Ser you just define how I think about w2 artstyle but cannot put into words! most impressive!
You just made me start a fourth playthrough
Good...
The stylistic jump from Witcher 1 to Witcher 2 was so jarring, it felt like watching anime
Definitely
The art style from the last trailers is really what got me into the game, as it embraces the latest trend of the 3D rendering theme and looks more, as you said it, objective.
I don't think they chose to abandon their art style, I think the graphical features they where relying on (mainly global illumination) were simply not achievable ,from a technical standpoint, in 2015. It really wasn't until recently 2018-present that hardware capable of running probabilistic models for light simulation (known as raytracing and global illumination) became commercially available. Back then we had to rely on ambient occlusion to simulate light models.
The heatherton scene @ 2:35, looks very convincing, the village is being illuminated globally by the huts on fire, we can also observe how the light from the fires disperse through the plumes of smoke. Even more so at 2:39 when we observe the shadow being cast by Eredin on the hut, this is a clear indicator of a offscreen lightsource still accurately emitting light (this is how raytracing is sometimes described).
One more example, the lighting @ 3:14 seems to be uniform, one global light source, which allows us to see all the way to Crow's Perch, even the shadows cast on the rooftops of Mulbrydale by the plumes of smoke frome the chimmneys.
The recent implementation of raytracing for this game seems to bring it closer to what we see in the trailer. But I really think the stark difference from what we saw in the trailers to what eventually shipped was mainly a matter of technical constraints. CD Projekt does now, unfortunaltey, have a track record of overpromising in technical areas, however I believe there intent was to not to mislead, rather they had unrealistic expectations. Still though they did end up delivering us one of the best RPG's in exsistence. It's not the concept I think CD Projekt had trouble with, it was the execution. But execution is a matter of practice, whereas the conceptual artistic basis relies more on talent. And I must say I don't think CDPR is at all short of talent!
The Witcher 3 is the only game I repeated a game campaign including 2 DLC, let alone 4 times between 2018 and 2019. I didn't even think about doing a 2nd run on RDR2 when it's my best game of all time. Although I always ended up with the same ending, the dialogue is so diverse. It feels different every time. I don't touch the game anymore, even after they scaled up, but Witcher 3 will always live in my heart rent free.
I wish they had kept the VGX look. It was so unbelievable.
VGX was pretty gnarly. Had it released looking like that, it'd still be putting other AAA games to shame years from now.
0:49 The funny thing about that Cutscene Geralt wasn't even fighting that guy during that part of the game.
Unfortunately. That would have been a great scene. Not complaining about Eskel taking his place though.
I love how you say 'Two simple tools: Color and Light'.
That, sir, are not two simple tools, rather the hardest parts of any artstyle!
Hook
Brilliant video! You just made me download Witcher 3 for the 50th time xD
Next gen update with RTX on actually make the game look a lot more like the VGX trailer than what we ended up getting. I'm not sure why, the RTX lighting, when enabled, returns it to a much more realistic looking tone. It's especially noticeable in places where interior and exterior light sources play off of each other, like in Vizima and in open door shops in Novigrad. There's some great comparison videos on here that you can look up to see what I mean.