It’s also something of a Witcher origin story

Image credit: CD Projekt

The announcement of The Witcher 4 with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Ciri as protagonist has attracted a bit of discussion. Some of the reaction is online toddlers waxing wroth about a video game having a (somewhat older!!!) woman as lead character, and especially, shock, a video game in a series that has hitherto starred a man. And some of it is people commenting more thoughtfully on whether Ciri genuinely makes for a suitable Witcher protagonist, given that she isn’t the product of the typical Witcher genetic modification regime (which is heavily tailored towards men), and given that, without spoiling too much, she has gifts that make crumbly old Geralt’s sword-and-sorcery skillset look rather paltry.

Speaking to Eurogamer this week, game director Sebastian Kalemba and narrative director Philipp Weber responded to a few of these comments, and also shared a little about Ciri’s situation at the start of the game.

The specific section of the interview in question begins with Weber noting that, in the original Witcher books from Andrzej Sapkowski, Ciri is repeatedly described as a witcher, so you’re all out of luck if you’re arguing against her protagonism on the basis that it disagrees with the source material. He and Kalemba acknowledge that, yes, fair enough, Geralt is a good laugh and some people would love to have him back, but Ciri is already playable at points in The Witcher 3, and CD Projekt want to see what more they can do with her.

“I think for me, and I think for all of us [at CDPR], it’s also just really exciting to see all the opportunities that Ciri brings us, both with her character, and also by just virtue of who she is, what we can do with her in terms of the gameplay as well,” Weber said. “So I think the best answer for us, for those people that really are worried right now, is basically to show them, when we are ready, that we really do this well and with care.”

Did CD Projekt consider introducing a custom Witcher 4 protagonist, Eurogamer asked, as in Cyberpunk 2077? “I think, honestly, this character-driven storytelling has been always in the DNA of our Witcher games,” said Weber. “First with Geralt, and then, of course, we started setting up Ciri as a second protagonist in The Witcher 3, and now we want to continue with her as well.”

Weber added that what makes Ciri an intriguing choice of protag is partly that she isn’t quite a witcher. She might not be a fully customisable character, but she has room to grow where grizzly Ger had already nailed down his Eastwoodian outsider persona by the time he became a video game leading man.

“One of the things that makes Ciri into an interesting new protagonist for us is, of course, also that she is at the beginning of her journey as a witcher,” said Weber. “So as an example, Geralt was very, very experienced already. He went through so many things. And, you know, he created his own code, his value of neutrality, he created through so many experiences. And Ciri still has to make many of those experiences. She has to go through so many of these things.

“So in a way, even though Ciri is, of course, a defined character, with her, players will have the opportunity to still define her quite a bit more, specifically define the path that she will take on her way to becoming a witcher, and basically also what kind of person that will make her.”

Naturally, Ciri also promises to bring a fresh perspective to the broadly misogynistic, alternately sensitive and pervy universe of The Witcher, a video game series that once let you collect porno cards for female characters, and still loves to make a spectacle of its nubile sorceresses.

“I mean, I would say the world of The Witcher is a really dark one that’s really inspired by, of course, dark fantasy folklore,” Weber commented, when asked about the game’s portrayal of gender politics and sexism. “But also medieval to early Renaissance history, and that is a world that was tough – tough for many different groups, women among them. As an example, in The Witcher, we also deal a lot with racism when it comes to non-humans, and this is something that we want to keep up with The Witcher 4. I think it’s something that has always been really important.

“We make games for adults, and it also means that we tackle some difficult topics,” he suggested. “We tackle them in interesting ways. We tackle them without giving easy answers, but often opening difficult questions that players have to answer. And I think some of those questions might be going in this direction as well, because, yeah, Ciri is a woman, and as a witcher in this world, this is an unusual state. So I don’t think it’s going to be this story everywhere, but since this is a part of this world, and we want to tackle so many of those different themes, it’s definitely also going to appear there as well.”

There’s also the tiniest snippet of hand-wavey commentary on the question of Ciri’s various supernatural capabilities, and how they might disrupt the quest design and slash-dodge-aard combat of The Witcher 3. Will Ciri begin The Witcher 4 in a low-power state, without the talents she displayed towards the end of the previous game, enquired Eurogamer? CD Projekt don’t have anything to share for the moment.

“No, we cannot tell you exactly how,” said Kalemba. “But we can tell you just, like, believe us: that was one of the things, or first things, that we were solving, to make sure – the way we develop here, we do not leave anything without a clear answer.” OK then.

Previously codenamed Polaris, The Witcher 4 is the first of several new Witcher experiences. You can read more about it in our announcement post. If you’re still pining for Geralt, you might prefer to read about The Witcher 1 remake in development at Fool’s Theory. I wouldn’t be surprised if it did away with some of the original game’s laddier elements.