Evaluating The Witcher 3 - A Tedious Masterpiece
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- The Expanse: A Telltale Series is out 27th July 2023 on PlayStation, Xbox & PC via the Epic Games Store! Buy it here: wehy.pe/y/1/TheSaltFactory
This one took awhile, but I'm glad I did it. As flawed as the game is, it's really something special. Some stuff went awry with the music just after the 3h15m mark, and that's my bad for not catching it.
If you want to check out my merch: thesaltfactory.store/
Thanks to / getgianni for voicing a more unhinged Geralt.
The audio for this one was done by my talented wife: / cakefan220
Hey I stream on twitch: / thesaltfactory_
Twitter: / saltiestfactory
Discord server: / discord
Patreon: / thesaltfactory
Cooking channel: / @thesaltkitchen
Songs:
Most of The Witcher 3 OST
"AERØHEAD - Giving Way" is under a Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) license
Sneakman from the Jet Set Radio Future OST
Artist ➢ A-ONE featuring Ken Blast (Odyssey)
Title ➢ No Guardian Angel
Intruder 2 from Metal Gear Solid
Timestamps:
00:00- Intro
03:55- White Orchard and general mechanics
39:23- Velen side questing
50:09- Velen main questing
01:10:24- Novigrad side questing
01:24:30- The Expanse ad
01:25:56- Novigrad main questing
02:03:08- Skellige side questing
02:27:11- Skellige main questing
02:54:21- Kaer Morhen
03:15:47- Preparing for the end
03:40:22- Final fight and endings
03:51:21- Final thoughts
04:02:41- Outro
Thanks for watching! - Hry
I'll definitely be hitting the DLC for The Witcher 3 at some point, but gonna aim for something quicker to get out for now.
Thanks to Telltale's The Expanse again for the sponsor. The game's characters take a bit to warm up to, but I had a lot of fun once I got used to them. If you want to check out the game for yourself, you can buy The Expanse: A Telltale Series here: wehy.pe/y/2/TheSaltFactory
I love the DLC for this game
Dlc’s were imho better than standard game ;)
@@TheMinnickiin some ways, yes but overall I preferred the main games themes around family
Got a notification this time.👍🤞
enjoyed their walking dead series. Should be worth checking out
Cmon man I was going to have a productive day.
…were you?
i was not but the excuse to waste time is appreciated
Lol same
You only have 4 hour days?
Exactly
For what it's worth, I felt that the Crones of Crookbag Bog worked better story wise if you had already done the Bloody Baron first.
A lot better. Imo
Even better if you find the clues to the witches mother first and find out how they get their power. It even loops back to the orphan you saved.
The “Tower full of mice” quest has another, “better” ending.. depending on your choice.. also you can use the lamp around the island to learn more about the story
RPG retrospectives should always cover all the options. This guy reviews RPGs like linear adventures.
@@Undivided_X I think he tries very hard to get every option, I remember his look at dragon age origins trying very hard at it it seemed. I think these games are just so insanely huge, he's bound to miss some options. He probably didn't even know it was an option to see, and at already four hours long.. If he did notice, maybe he made the decision to cut what he felt wasn't perfectly nessesary.
I too love it when all options are covered, but I have to give him.. This was a nuts project to make. Four hours is bonkers.
@@Undivided_X My same thought. Dude is just retaling his playthrough. Anyone who did not play the game may have a negative view of the story.
@@Undivided_X Bro, what the fuck did you expect from a four hour long video?
@@XeanIV not only that, but many things are wrong - for example yen mentioned searching/navigation magic informs the hunt, not teleports. Same with "lack of consequences" in one of the white orchard quests. Still watching, expecting to find more
Fun note with the Tower Out of Nowhere quest. The whole plot of it involves getting through the Defence Regulatory Magicore (DRM) by using Gregory's Omniopening Grimoire (GOG) to access the library files in order to turn off the DRM. The entire quest is essentially one gigantic series of puns about how annoying DRM in gaming is.
That sounds like something Lionhead would put in Fable.
There's a much better ending to the plague maiden quest (A Tower of Mice) if you don't take the bones. If you instead go to her lover you can convince him to go to her and beg forgiveness. This kills him when she kisses him, but frees them both.
This ending should be what everone has who pays remotely some attention to what's going on in the dialogue.
He must have speed run this section.
@@sobsagyou have to use the lantern to watch all the ghost scenes in the tower otherwise the option doesn’t show up. He probably didn’t do that.
@@eb-xm5ds No that's not true.
You literally don't need to do that. You just need to exhaus all dialogue options with Anabelle when you talk to her and at one point Geralt will be like "Hmm strange you didn't mention that." and Anabelle will be like "Oh didn't I? I just forgot probably." It couldn't have been more obvious and you would need to be literally asleep to miss that.
@@sobsag you only get the dialogue after watching the ghosts. I literally played it the other day and didn’t watch all of them and so I didn’t get the option. I reloaded the save and watched the only one I needed and it popped up. Nice try though bud 🤣
@@eb-xm5ds You are straight up lying.
I literally played it today and you get the dialogue options even if ignore all the ghosts.
Nice try though "bud" XD
WOW! Cant believe its over 3 years since Joesph Anderson released his Witcher 2 video and now someone has releases a Witcher 3 video before him
Joseph's is supposedly like 12-15 hours and include a lot about the books aswell.
@@UltimateRareAncientGearGolemi been out of touch with his vids for a while, what else did he say, anything about release date?
@@lordstarkiller139 A few months ago he said on stream that he is going to upload the W3 video this year no matter what state it is in. He also said that if he doesn't go through with that promise, that he will delete his entire online presence.
UPDATE 22/12/23: Just a few hours ago, Joe made a post on his Subreddit about the state of the video. It is nearly complete but it seems like he might barely miss the deadline.
While it seems like he will absolutely have the video finished before the year rolls over, things like rendering times, CZcams accepting the 12 hr long video first try, as well as testing for copyright claims are highly variable in how long they may delay the video by. Making sure the video doesn't get copyright struck seems to be the biggest contender for eating up time.
Joe will not be deleting the channel if he misses the deadline. The deadline was used as a way to force himself to finish the video and if the video was not close to being finished by the deadline then he said that he absolutely would've deleted the channel, but since the video is, at this point, probably a few days away from being finished, he does not feel the need to pull the trigger.
While Joe brought up what could cause him to miss the deadline, the way he wrote implied that there is still a chance that he barely makes the deadline. If he does miss it, then my guess is that it would be maybe 1-2 weeks late at most, but that's just my mostly uneducated guess.
@lordstarkiller139 he also said that if isn't released this year, he's deleting his channel(hopefully a joke) but he knows how long it's been drawn out
We're all here to make this exact comment 😅
The Barons questline has stuck with me as the most emotionally memorable quest in all the games I've played. I can not remember any other character who has made me feel such a wide and deep spectrum of emotions.
Try ffxiv shadowbringers
You will literally never play any game that can compare to that story. Literally.
@@Xtriniverse I tried and it was boring. No emotional attachment to any of the characters and I left disgusted at it.
@@JoshuaGraves113 Witcher 3 is the most overhyped game of the century, tied in with skyrim
@@bentocampos301 And FFXIV isn't? Lmao
@@bentocampos301Your taste in games sucks balls then...
Fun fact! If you convince the Temerian soldier to accept the Nilfgaardian soldier into his home you can actually find them all living together in one of the houses in White Orchard ^_^ Pretty sweet little details, and the game is FULL of moments like this.
I've found that one but I have missed all the other such moments. I didn't think there were that many because of it.
@@kalma5003 And no one is surprised :) There's no reason to return to White Orchard after you're done there. I just happened to return to sell off some stuff and decided to ride through the area. That's when I noticed these things. Take your time and try to remember all the small tasks you do throughout the game and explore ;) It'll be worth it.
There is if you didn't pick enough bloody Balisse fruit!@@skitkjell85
If you help Dijkstra become king at the end you see the same people but they execute them for harboring the enemy
Just in case you didn't know, Emhyr is voiced by Charles Dance, known more commonly as Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones. I could listen to him read the phone book and it would be riveting.
Sardo Numspa.
@@DeadPixel1105 Dude. My first exposure to Charles Dance too! The movie, while hot garbage, obviously, had some absolutely hilarious moments.
You should see him in big fat quiz of the year where they get him to read dumb books by vacuous celebrities
"My dear, sweet brother Numsie!"
Piotr Grabowski - Emhyr var Emreis
This game has probably the best dlcs in any game ever. Blood and Wine is like an entire different game.
Indeed
I really enjoyed Hearts of Stone but Blood and Wine's story was lacking for me, I really did not care about what's going on with the vampires.
No it isn't? It adds nothing new mechanically at all.
Its just essentially a standalone story expansion. If you loved the Witcher 3 that's amazing. But its hardly like a new game
@@Dylanjrvsi agree that blood and wine has a weaker story but the new mechanics and gameplay additions (the mutations, toussaint, the new bosses, corvo bianco, etc.) just make the game so much more enjoyable to me
Blood and Wine is amazing, but my god I loved the smaller scale story of HoS. Olgierd and his Faustian journey was so awesome, and so Witcher too. It was just a contract for Geralt.
The annoying thing about Emhyr not sending an army to Kaer Morhen is there is a far better explanation other than “I don’t want a Witcher leading my men”. The war is still going on and stalemated at the Pontar, while Kaer Morhen is in northern Kaedwen, hundreds if not thousands of miles away from the front. It would be pretty much impossible for them to get there without winning the war first. The developers clearly wanted there only to be a handful of defenders to make the stakes seemed higher, just wasn’t the best excuse when there is a far more plausible one right there.
Very few people even know where the castle is
not necessarily unrealistic. pride is a hell of a motivator to do or not do something
@@grilledleeks6514 Well they would have to be informed in order to send an army there. And logically, as soon as Emhyr was informed he would realize he literally cannot send an army there because that would require winning the war first, as OP explained. Anyway people might not know its exact location but everyone knows it's somewhere north, so of course the geopolitical situation would be relevant to Emhyr if he were to send an army.
@@craig7405 It's pretty unrealistic when you consider how much Emhyr desperately needs them to beat the Wild Hunt. Ciri is crucial for him. The idea that he wouldn't help out of pride is kind of nonsense for that reason. The geopolitical obstacle makes much more sense as an explanation for why he wouldn't be able to send an army.
Man the drinking sequence with lambert and eskel is hands down my favorite part. A real side splitting experience lol
And the show had the nerve to just kill him off like he was no one...
One of those game where you wish you could wipe your memory just to play it for the first time again. I'll never forget when we finally found Ciri.
I really thought she was dead the first time I found her. I remember tearing up and about to cry while watching Geralt cradle her lifeless body then the moment she woke up was enough to push me over, like holy shit. The music, the setup, everything was perfect that scene.
@@PriscentSnowI bawled my freaking eyes out. W3 was my first proper video game, I'd only played some Zelda and Super Mario Bros on DS before, and I just got completely sucked in. I almost threw my Switch across the room when Vezemir died.
I haven't played in so long that it brings back sublime memories.
@@CatnamedMittens I do a play through every couple years. It's been awhile though, think I'll hold off until I get a new GPU and see what kind of graphics mods are out.
On the contrary, I've tried to play the game three separate times, but the game loses my interest shortly after the bloody baron every time. I wish I could play a version of the game without all of the random icons all over the place that are just busy work trying to take your attention away from the actual good parts of the game.
I love that moment during the battle of Kaer Morhen where you see the two witchers fighting back to back, showing that their fighting style was designed to be used in tandem when outnumbered and surrounded.
I always looked at that at how wolves fight with some going under the neck of the other to protect them. Dont know if thats what they were going for with the whole school of the wolf thing but i think its a cool concept.
@@DirtyStinkyif you’re talking about the scene where Letho and Geralt just go sicko mode watching each others back against the wild hunt, than you’d be mostly right except for the fact that Letho was trained at the school of the viper. But I assume if witchers are working together they’re more than competent enough swordsman to be able to cover each other, it also just makes sense that all witchers would be trained in fighting several assailants at once.
@@sergiomendoza4850 Oh no shit damn. Im actually going to start reading the books soon so I mustve missed that detail.
@@DirtyStinky I don’t think Letho is in the books. As far as I remember Letho is a game only character because the games take place after the events of the books.
@@sergiomendoza4850 My bad misread it as lambert canonically letho should not have been there. It was more of a nod to the previous series if anything.
Salt Factory: "I don't like Priscilla's song."
Everyone: "Heresy!"
this games story and characters are absolutely insane and anyone who hasn’t experienced it is missing out so badly
I’ll second that buddy! 👍🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
I aint rich
@@alt1f4? it's $10-20 max
@@alt1f4 It comes on steam sales quite often, you can get it real cheap if you just put it on your wishlist and wait
@@alt1f4i understand but it comes on very good sales from time to time :) wish you better times in the future
Note - at 19:20 you say the witcher 3 camera is very close to roach, thats an option from the next gen update,you can increase camera distance in the menu
The little girl whose entire village got killed during where the cat and wolf play, her question she asked Geralt;
“ you think I can ride on your shoulders?!”
This for me was one of the most simple, yet heartfelt moments in the entire game that put a smile on my face!
“But no hair pulling!”What a great moment. 🙂
It's q reference to the books when a young Ciri was riding on Geralt's shoulders through a forest. I also think she was pulling his hair the whole time lol
The reason why the devs pushed for Yenn so hard is because if you take account of the books it would make absolutely zero sense for Triss to be the main option in comparison to Yenn
I you take into account the books(and the game itself, tbh), even a waterhag would be a better alternative than Yenn
@@sdpolukhin cool. You're entitled to be wrong
@@sdpolukhinwrong but nice try
@@sdpolukhin how could you misinterpret a character's own motivation so bad? Both Geralt and Yen have hurt each other, but they're absolutely crazy for the other, they died together ffs. Choosing Triss in W3 is fine, but it's NOT the canon default choice.
@@nahuelmat Yeah, for sure. Definitely has nothing to do with Geralt's genie wish. It's not like all his other relationships with bitchy sorceresses have fallen apart. It's not like Geralt is a victim of circumstance literally tied to Yen by fate.
Severing this horrid relationship is the only good choice for Getalt, even if he doesn't choose Triss. The only thing that really matters is separating from Yen, and in my heart of hearts I do believe that if the undoing of Geralt's wish to be with Yen forever is canon, then so is them breaking up.
"Lambert, Lambert - what a prick" that still makes me laugh 🤣
4 hours of salt on Witcher 3? Bless you
Thanks so much man, I appreciate ya 💜
u in the mood to just send a nigga some money
@@TheSaltFactorybeen waiting for this video.
@@TheSaltFactoryyou are a great video maker of these, thank you
@@TheSaltFactorytry playing on hard next time. It's only easy if you play it on the baby difficulties
So here's something pretty cool and really speaks to CDPR's attention to small details. During the mission where you interact with the Witcher from the Cat School, if you walk up to him wearing another school's armor he'll comment on it. Specifically I walked up to him wearing Cat School armor and he called me crossbreed. Really cool little detail there. It makes total sense for another Witcher to be a little confused by seeing a Witcher of one school wearing armor from a different school.
He has special line only for cat armor. For every other one dialogue is the same
in my opinion armors shouldn't be "categorised" as Witcher 3 showed us. I prefer approach from the first game. I know, there was no diversity, but the armor upgrade gave this feel of actually improving an old armor. It was something personal, or even more, intimate. Witcher 3 makes every witcher "not unique" among the others because the school armor sets.
So that's actually because the cat school used to be elves only, then they let a few mixers in
The empty ubisoft level open world of nothing distracted me
@@jonathansoko1085huh? There's lots of shit to do in the Witcher 3 and almost all the side quests are well written and well executed. Nothing like Ubisofts recent games at all.
DeathMarh definitely cranks the difficulty, you have to plan your fights more and use the potions you've got on hand to ensure you are going to come on top.
IMO it changes combat completely (from a tactical standpoint). I remember fights that I prepared for, read bestiary entries, gathered info, stacked up on potions, and upgraded them as much as I could. I also used oils and poisons on my swords, crafted traps, and bought the best armor and weapons that I could. In a few "hunts" that wasn't enough, but when it was, it really felt like an accomplishment.
true, the end game still feels like you're way overpowered lol
I chose Death March as my starting difficulty (having never played a Witcher game before) and it took about two dozen deaths before I properly learned the mechanics because I got cut down by the ghouls too quickly.
Deathmarch is the difficulty to play on, shame that even it gets a bit too easy around mid game.
it is the ONLY way to play
Storytelling is 100% the best part of this game. The mechanics are decent but the side quests and storyline and performances are absolutely top notch
The editing on Geralt whirlwinding the Nilfgardian ambassador's daughter had me in tears 😂
Same haha. It felt like “well if you can survive this, you can survive anything. Going on the offense? Hah, nah 🌪️”
How do you do the whirlwind? I've been playing this game since '17 and still couldn't figure it out
@@TheJigsaw298 If its the spinning aoe attack (i play on Polish ver so i do not know the names) then you must press light attack and guard at once and hold them (left and right mouse button if i remember correctly) if you wanna do the really heavy attack "rend" i guess you just press and hold left mouse button and shift. for both of those you need stamina (so don't use a sign before trying to use those moves.). I hope that helps (and i did remember stuff correctly lol).
@@xxXXRAPXXxx That does help partner. Thank you for the help
@@xxXXRAPXXxx "you must press light attack and guard at once and hold them [...] I hope that helps (and i did remember stuff correctly lol). "
You misremembered, friend. To launch into the "whirl" attack, as it's called in the English version, you click LMB and then click LMB again and hold. After the second light strike activated by the button press, Geralt starts the spin.
If you play on the harder difficulty, it changes the mechanics a lot. You have to use potions and decoctions to progress. The builds play a huge role in the harder difficulty as well. Some of your criticism was the result of playing on normal, in my opinion.
100%
Yeah came here to comment this. When looking at his build and how he was playing I am just surprised he did not turn it up naturally as clearly he understand the game, normal is to easy and you want a challenge right? You want the boss fight to feel like an achievement.. hope he tries the DLCs on harder difficulty.
disagree. death march really just requires quen and you're good to go
@@DennisHeikkior just don’t use quen?
@@Outright__imagine limiting yourself just to feel challenge. A perfect difficulty is where you use all the resources the game gives you and still be a challenge.
I'm pretty sure they do mention Dudu's eye when you are planning to lure him with the others during the theater play quest line. I think you either forgot or missed a dialogue option
They do
The Tower of Mice quest has a different ending if you refuse her request. You bring the fisherman to her and the curse is lifted from the island without any kind of plague occurring. I had the same event as you did on my playthrough, and only found out later that there was another choice.
god... hearing this games music makes me feel like finding something you've lost a long time ago and now you have it back. I don't know how to explain it properly. It's just such a good soundtrack :)
Like inner peace, relief that things are finally how they were meant to be. Like this is where you actually belong. I know that feeling way too well, it's something more than just nostalgia.
This game's music was instant nostalgia for me, even though it was my first time ever playing it (or any Witcher game).
The only other games that have ever had that quality of instant nostalgia for me have all been Jeremy Soule soundtracks (e.g., KotOR 1, Oblivion, Skyrim). This game broke that trend, and its DLCs continue one-upping it.
Hearing the Kaer Morhen song start playing when he got there in the vid made me shed a tear after not hearing it in so long... It's such a beautiful track
Goddamn right!
That side story with the baron and the botchling and the botched marriage around the one hour mark had the same impact on me. One of the few and only times in a game where I stepped back and just absorbed the story I was witnessing. It was quite impactful.
"When it came out I played the game for 20 hours and then stopped"
Me too I had to go to sleep.
He did it. He beat jospeh anderson.
George R.R. Anderson didn't put up much competition.
Not that hard to do
I personally feel like the two harder difficulties are the best way to play the game if you want a fun challenge. A lot of the criticisms directed to combat weren’t relatable for me personally due to playing the game on deathmarch. Otherwise I find your criticisms of the game enlightening. You definitely pointed some things I never gave too much thought initially.
"challenge". Gtfo casual
As I commented before: IMO it changes combat completely (from a tactical standpoint). I remember fights that I prepared for, read bestiary entries, gathered info, stacked up on potions, and upgraded them as much as I could. I also used oils and poisons on my swords, crafted traps, and bought the best armor and weapons that I could. In a few "hunts" that wasn't enough, but when it was, it really felt like an accomplishment.
@@mb8083 yes, and I think it results in what will sound like a cliche impression, but you really do feel like a Witcher.
I just found the combat to become too reliant on using quen. Would be better if using one magic spell didn't hamper you from using another. I also found the wind-up for sword attacks a bit too long. Makes it feel laggy. Perhaps if this changed and add some cool finishers for monsters it would be great.
I still thoroughly enjoyed the combat though as it advances the story. 😊
Death march is the way to go, if your build is good it isn't really that hard endgame, but way more immersing!
Tedious? *TEDIOUS?!* How dare you? I have played this game for about 500 hours and i loved every second of it! I challenge you to a duel sir, to defend The Witcher 3's and Maid Bilberry's honor!
The Next Gen did not change the skills from level 5 to 3. I played it a few months before it and all skills were at max level 3. You aren't using all of your points to change up the game from time to time if you change your build. There aren't even enough levels to upgrade everything so next time use your skill points and try to change your build. The camera was added in the Next Gen Update but you can always change it in the settings. It wouldn't be a problem if you looked a bit in the settings.
The village the Wild Hunt destroys in Velen looking for signs of Ciri is actually the closest one too the Tower she teleported at.
That tower with the basilisk where Ciri uses her power is actually right next to the village the Wild Hunt show up at, so they are pretty accurate.
I really think that if you would have played the game a little slower you would have found another layer to it, especially from storytelling point of view:
People are talking about what you did if you return a few days after resolving side quests, The Nilfgaardian soldier you saved in White Orchard is now working with his friend on a farm, Berna’s punishment can be witnessed if you sail to a certain rock, an interesting closure to the girl you saved (or not) in White orchard and many other small stories being told and references made (“Schrodinger’s cat” anyone? Or Dr. who multiple references…)
I think that it is this attention to details that makes this game so special, above all else.
I honestly felt empty after finishing this game and it really felt like I did not wish to play any other game for a very long time. And I really wish I could play it for the first time, again.
Enjoy the DLC’s they are both exceptional, each in a slightly different way.
I had the exact same feeling when I finished it! After soo many hours of playing every single sidequest there was and then finally finishing the game I honestly didn´t know what to with my life lmao, I didnt feel emerged in any other game I tried to play for quite a long time since none of them really gave me that feeling The witcher gave me. Its definitely a game I hold close to my heart
Those small details are cute, but they don't add much to that "another layer" you're talking about, if you somewhat pay attention as you play. Running through a town and hearing people say as you pass them, "Thank you, Geralt, we were lost without you," is part of that layer. Salt caught it and mentioned it.
I'm currently wrapping up my first playthrough of the DLCs, and I already know that I won't be as overwhelmed as you were once I'm done with Witcher 3. The main game's plot is *laughably* dull and by the numbers; most of the characters, including Geralt, are primitive cardboard cutouts; and the combat is just kind of there - they should've made sign casting, bomb tossing and crossbow shooting/reloading like five times faster so they're easier to weave into fights. I'm only gonna miss the exploration, which is, admittedly, top 1% in video game history.
Sorry but not very deep. On the level of Skyrim guards giving you some new lines
@@i_am_ergo you have no idea which small details hes reffering to it seems like
@@i_am_ergo Funny, I disagree with every single point in this comment
- The small details add a lot of immersion to the game and add weight to every decision you make, making you play much more attentively. It's more subtle than just NPC's directly congratulating you
- How is the main game's plot dull and by the numbers... are you having an acid trip? What generic game does this plot remind you of? There's nothing comparable that I know of, at least
- The characters are cardboard cutouts? The game has some of the most complex characters with many layers to their characters, like the baron for instance. The video should have done more than enough to prove this point
- Interesting that you mention the exploration as so exceptional... while the world looks great, it becomes clear very early on that any point of interest is either marked on the map or part of a quest or contract. There's no real purpose to freely roam about once the initial "magic" of the graphical beauty has subsided
Everyone is mentioning playing on a higher difficulty like death march but no one is talking about enabling enemy upscaling in the game menu. It makes every single enemy below your level match it and while it might not be super challenging it does make fighting a handful of drowners that you would normally roll through in a matter of seconds at least a little more interesting
Also, the alternative exploration camera and a bunch of other things.
As a note for the discussion of mutagens around 24:00, the specific mutagens from high-profile monsters are used in the same way as those you described in Witcher 1. Unique mutagens can be used to brew decoctions in TW3, which are specialized high power potions with unique effects. They completely alter an alchemy build, and aren’t just replacements for the typical red/green/blue.
Seems like despite having an alchemy build, he doesnt utilise decoctions, a vital part of alchemy lmao
yeah im not sure how he missed them, but some of these potions are really build defining
I'm glad someone else noticed that to
he seems to ignore a lot of the game mechanics btw
oils, bombs, decoctions, etc
he don't mention that every enemy has some weaknesses for some sign or strategy and you need that to do the contracts
beating it in normal without level scaling, doing all sidequests (aka being overlevel) and talks about how the game mechanic is easy and shallow its a bit unfair
tw3 its not a soulslike and it's combat mechanics aren't the best but its better than this imo
he says that you cant parry monsters (pretty obvious, they dont have a weapon), but you can block and counter some of them
@@irxssxp Very true
I don't know if this was added in the next-gen update, but the camera being too close is an option you can change in the menu. It bothered me how zoomed in it was too, and changing it made horse riding less claustrophobic.
Yeah it was really annoying when he kept mentioning the camera but he didn’t bother to check if he could change it
I didn't see this comment and just made my own but yes it was added in the next gen. The closer angle is great for just walking around the towns or riding Roach but it's ass in combat.
@@Shertowin the next-gen is relatively new, he probably played through he whole game before it came out, and spent a lot of time on editing
@@AnnaEmilkabut the camera close up was added in next gen. Before next gen it was fruther away.
@@itsgonnabeokay9341 ooh ok, sorry 😅
Playing on death march on my first play through was painful at first, but I'm glad I did it at the end. I really had to prepare for fights and use potions, oils etc. Also the weapon degradation was more of a "sharpen it for bonus damage" rather than a "your sword will be useless if you don't" if I remember correctly.
The witcher series is one of those that just avoids all real critical thinking in my brain and just makes me go "this is magical" - the world, writing, characters and atmosphere create such a special experience that is so damn rare, it's not a perfect game, but very few games had me immersed to this degree
The camera follow distance was changed in the next gen upgrade. Needed to put a few settings to “classic”. I notice you had the same issue. Normal difficulty basically negated the need for potions and elixirs. DeathMarch was my favourite difficulty to play on.
Also it feels like cdpr had death march slightly rebalanced. I remember enemies in early game where hitting you like a truck and you could easily die in 2-3 hits but now early game on death march is more casual if you can say so. Few hours into the game damage returns to pre-patch level or close to it, but now it’s so much easier for new players or those who haven’t play for a decent amount of time to hop into the death march without frustration of dying to the very first pack of ghouls in the beginning of white orchard!
One of the big changes between Normal and the harder difficulties is that resting no longer restores HP which means that you have to eat or use pots to stay healthy, and enemies hitting harder now has more consequences. Even if you aren't dying, combat costs you money in terms of both equipment and any HP that you lose. As the game goes on and you get more money and more resources, the difficulty fades, but I remember my first playthrough of the game being rough going early trying to stay healthy.
Later on though they patched in a skill that extends the HP regen of food to something like 20 minutes per item. It feels almost like cheating, and is easily the best skill in the game outside of maybe the Blood and Wine specializations.
In the time since Joseph Anderson released his Witcher 1 - 2 videos, I have now played every single Witcher game, I listened to all 8 Witcher books, watched Neverknowsbest's 4 hour Witcher series, am about to watch The Salt Factories final video in his series, I also just finished an 8 hour series criticizing the Netflix show. And his Witcher 3 video still hasn't released , but I have a good feeling about tomorrow!
I went from a freshman in high school during the pandemic to a senior planning my future as an adult😂
1059
You can't read?
@@SeregaOrgan Yes, unfortunately CZcams shorts have ruined my attention span
The music in this game is incredible. It’s unique and sticks in your mind. I do wish the music for gwent was more than one song lol. Heard that damn song so much.
i remember it having multiple songs, especially in the dlc
it IS more than one song though...
I routinely use Witcher 3 music for DnD sessions. It just fits so perfectly.
Gwent dies have different songs you moran!!!!
fun fact. the whole beefed up elves is actually how tolkien envisioned elven men. in his letters he's described Legolas as being both beefy, and broad of shoulders, as one would expect for an archer. Imagine, if he'd just used a bit of his poetic skills to describe the elves as hunky beefcakes, the fantasy landscape would be very different from the one we got regarding elves, where at some point the lithe build became the standard, and the default.
The Baron is a character who earned his redemption in my opinion. He clearly needed help to stay on the right path. So I helped him.
The thing about the save is that you have to import you last autosave from TW2 not your last quicksave/manual save for some reason. Too bad your Letho dint show up, his questline is fun and he helps in the Kaer Morhen battle.
Great video as always. There is a different version of the Ciri is a Witcheress ending where Nilfgaard wins the war and Temeria becomes a vassal state but Ciri is still a Witcher. That's my personal favorite
Thats the one I have done on all my playthroughs :)
@@DianeBethra Same, I always naturally gravitate towards that one. Only seen the other ones in videos. I've also never bowed to Emir, yet I've never seen a let's player not grovel in front of him.
I didn't bow on my first playthrough but have bowed on every one since because I felt bad for that dude who will get in trouble if you don't
The dialogue in this game feels so much more real than a lot of other RPG’s, the humour is actually funny and the characters are just amazing. Plus the fight club reference with the NPC called Tyler Durden 😂
Oh hell yes. When this came out for switch i was in early sobriety and the world was still on lockdown. New to witcher before this and OMG did it help me stay sober early on. THANK YOU GERALT
A Towerful of Mice actually has multiple endings, one of which I believe you actually get to fight the wraith.
It has 2 endings.
@@sobsagI think if you leave the tower when she tells you not to she transforms into a Pesta and attacks you
@@sobsag 3
44:16 Man, you didn't even get the good ending of the tower full of mice either
Just one addition: you can actually "parry" some monsters if you time your block similar to when you want to parry human enemies. Geralt will perform a backstep with a slice that will do little damage and the monster back off too, but I personally never managed to use that well with the rest of the moveset - it was always easier just to step aside or dodge.
Aside of this nitpick, awesome analysis, it was a joy listening to it. I looking forward to see the videos about the expansions, especially Hearts of Stone. I think that is where the storytelling of the Witcher 3 peaked.
Not the CZcamsr we all expected to drop a multi-hour Witcher 3 retrospective, but the one we deserve.
I get this is a joke but considering he did the previous games this was 100% expected
Joseph Anderson reference
Overused "meme" reference.
If his fans can be used to judge this other creator; the fact that I've seen multiple far too much upvoted comments wishing this video was the other creator's video, one can assume since his fans are scumbag assholes he is one too.
Except that is basically the entire content library of this channel, and makes it one of the most expected channels likely to do so
This is how you review a game. 4 hours... I can't wait to dig in to this.
The DLC is some of the best stories in the entire game. I can't wait to hear your time on them because they are REALLY good!
This was a great video. It actually really makes me want to go back and play the game one more time, and I've played through it several times.
Also, your description of the unicorn scene was 100% accurate, and I appreciate that.
The first dlc Hearts of Stone is the greatest narrative I’ve ever experienced in a game. Can’t wait to see a review on it.
And it's basically just a re-telling of the Sir Twardowski tale mixed with some bits from Sienkiewicz's The Deluge and Wyspiański's The Wedding novels.
Hey the other dlc is also narattively amazing as well.
It was below average.
Joseph Anderson seething rn
He'll never catch up smh
Really glad to see you cover Witcher 3 in such a long video; easily one of my top 5 games of all time. Always happy to see my notifications when one of your videos pops up!
About the point of the player not knowing of the character's future, like if Baron succeeded, or if his daughter is still praising the Flame etc. I don't feel like we deserve an answer, or rather we need one. After all, The Witcher is mostly about characters we meet, and the struggles they endure. It emphasizes that everybody has something going on in their lives at all times, hence why we can't know everything about what happens to them. They made an impact on us, we made an impact on them, but after all, they are living their lives, and we are living ours. I never felt like these answers were a given, but mostly that people come and go, and whatever happens with them at the end, is not up to us.
i appreciate the usage of the skellige field ost for the sidequesting segment. that's literally the most beautiful piece of music i have ever heard in my life.
I think probably my fave game ever made to date. And I don't say that lightly. No game is perfect, but this game is just so incredibly well done despite some flaws and bugs, it stands in a category on its own.
@@BIH9_LedZepmy subjective opinion is objective fact
Yup, it's one of the most polished and completed games I've played especially considering its size, though the 3rd act of the main story was obviously rushed.
Enjoyed this very much - thank you for all the hard work. I can imagine it took many many many hours to do the entire game and replay so much of it to get at least some of the different endings.
Probably taking more time to edit the video than finishing the game 😊
15:42 SALT MY SON IS SLEEPING IN THE ROOM BEHIND ME YOU CAN'T DROP THIS ON ME OUT OF NOWHERE I HAD TO PRACTICALLY CHOKE MYSELF TO KEEP FROM LAUGHING.
You have no idea. Like Mr. Salt. You really don't understand how much joy you bring me when I see your new videos posted. You bring so much joy to my life, and I appreciate you so much for it and all the effort you put into these videos.
You make a great point about the "twisty" writing for the side quests. On the downside, I think it really limits the emotional connection with the characters when you're spending the whole time thinking "what's your angle" and trying to figure out what twist if coming your way. On the plus side though, it really does simulate what is has to be like to actually be a witcher. You're just doing these jobs for coin and you can't afford to get emotionally invested or too trusting of everyone person you meet.
crones of crockbog quests line was so epic for myself. i finished game few times , and by hearing your story i believe everyones expierences are different . Like i see how different experience could be by doing quests in different order. And also some things are taken from our eastern europe folklore so thats is so familiar and awesome for myseld . And others could not understand some things if from different culture.
2:33:35 funilly enough, no, you could actually complete the quest and save everyone before meeting with Crach, both the dialouge in the quest, and when you talk with Crach change to reflect that.
Sweet, I needed plans for this weekend.
Alot of questions about loose ends are actually answered when you make different choices e.g. choosing triss over yen and getting to know what happened in Kovir
Something interesting about the game is that you can do the 3 main quest areas out of logic. When I redid the game, I did Skellig before Novigrad. Your objective is then quite different: find the box to lift the curse on Uma. It changes the perspective of the whole storyline and makes it way more interesting, especially since the end now has a better payoff
I am so excited for your video on thr DLC. Blood and wine is one of my favorite DLCs of any game. And Gaunter O'Dimm from hearts of stone was so fascinating to me. Cant wait to see what you do with it!!!
18:30 the horse in ghost of tsushima is great in comparison. It does not complain like roach. It jumps small differences in height, no problem. It even jumps from greater heights, throwing you to the ground though, but it still does it.
Can't disagree more was playing that the other day and had to quit when the horse constantly had a mind of its own and would just flat out ignore my inputs
@@mementomori771git gud
@@leonrussell9607 git gud this git gud that
Skill issue
The Witcher 3 is definitely enjoyed best at the highest difficulty: Death March. Especially early on, for some enemies you actually need to check the bestiary to find out their weaknesses. And even craft oils, utilise different signs and bombs. Playing the game at lower difficulty than that makes the game a cakewalk pretty much. Since you can brew different decoctions that basically make you unkillable. Therefore I recommend death march alot.
IMO Death March is the best way to play the game. Because you actually have to prepare, which is the whole point of what witchers do. The Batman prep time memes basically also apply to Geralt.
I was just thinking the same thing. Deathmarch will make you properly play the game. You have to use everything from bestiary to alchemy. If you wanna live use this concoction.
@@HadesWTF True. Playing the game on Death March also nullifies one of salt factory’s points aswell
@@seclumii9490It's kind of a flaw with Witcher 3 still because the first 2 games even on easy will punish you for not using potions and the like. It's that casualization for dumb gamers like Angry Joe and other journalists who don't like learning mechanics in games and want to just button mash their way through every game to get that sweet review revenue.
@@Dylanjrvs To me it just seems like they made the game more accessible. You can play it and challenge yourself if you want, or not. It’s up to you
Great video as usual! Can’t imagine how much time this took
Commenting in support of the channel. Thank you for reviewing one of my favorite games. Can't wait to see videos on the DLCs, they are AMAZING
For anyone playing this for the first time, I’d definitely suggest death march difficulty. It makes you make use of all the mechanics in the game. Just a suggestion but it’s what made me love the game.
Precisely, people say the game is easy because they played on less challenging modes. They sought that out.
@@DarthBerial in my experience, only the first 10 levels or so are difficult on Death March. After that it doesn't really matter what difficulty you're on; the game is dead easy.
Yup, salt factory is like "this game is so easy I don't know why" yet plays on journalist difficulty
@@deanhaight5833yeah sure until you fight nightmare Olgierd, the toad or Detlaff.
@@itsgonnabeokay9341 the toad wrecked my shit more times than I’d care to admit. The DLCs definitely stepped it up for the boss fights
What makes this game truly special is the Geralt and Ciri dynamic. While the other 2 games have some sort of big plot revolving around politics and wars, Witcher 3 is Geralt's story as a father and an incredible conclusion to his book arc if you look past some inconsistencies.
Him finding Ciri on the Isle of Mists is the only video game cutscene where I actually cried.
people keep telling me there's inconsistencies. i don't see it. sure, there's a few *very* minor things, but things like Ciri traveling with Avallach, even though she was clearly not fond of him in the books? i mean, tw3 is several years after the last book, so why couldn't she just change her mind about him?
@@MrDoYouKnowMe2211 What about the asence of Fake Ciri?
Also Nilfgaard is displayed way too positively in Witcher 3.
@@sobsagI never got the feeling nilfgard was positive at all.
@@Donovarkhallum Compared to the show, they're saints XD
@@Donovarkhallum Emhyr was portrayed as far more competent than "Crazy Radovid loves burning herbalists".
Souls games don't have shit on this, I don't care if the combat is more challenging in souls games, this game is the goat
Strong agree on the geography of the story thing: I too did all of Velen, then all of Novigrad, and only then went to Skellige. Even though the writers direct you to Skellige almost as soon as you get to Novigrad and tell you, "Dude, you can, like, teleport between the two. Well, it's not teleporting in-world, but it's teleporting for you. And everyone will stay put and wait for you! There's no urgency to anything! Go for it!" I just didn't want to abandon the Novigrad storylines done halfway. I get what they were going for with the "doing donuts 'round the world tracking down Ciri" idea, but I wish they didn't. It didn't work on the gameplay level _or_ the story level.
Hey salt when you play the dlc please play hearts of stone first then blood and wine. It's just the way to do it as it transitions smoothly and make sense storyline wise. You'll see what I mean when you've completed blood and wine.
Congrats, that's a huge video to drop.
As for Yen's relationship with Triss- In the books Triss and Geralt had some sort of a small romance while he and Yen were having their on/off relationship and Yen knew about it. She was a bit mad at Triss for it, but when they met in some more relaxing circumstances they were hugging so we can assume their friendship was stronger than banging the same man.
Also Triss was believed to be dead by many wizards after one hardcore magic battle so the relief that she's alive probably got rid of some of the animosity.
Triss was also somewhat of an aunt to Ciri since she came to help witchers with Ciri's magic abilities when Geralt and Yen were separated.
I remember Triss being told to romance Geralt by the Lodge as a way to control him and through him Ciri, books never mention whether or not she used magic to accomplish this. But at the time Tris and Yen were friends so it was a total betrayal. I remember Triss being complicit in handing over Ciri to the lodge when they wanted to marry her off, disregarding both Geralt and Yens wishes on the matter. I remember Yen talking to Triss and Phillipa, the books had set it up that Yen had been viewed as a traitor for something she actually hadn't done and she begged Triss to let Geralt know the truth, Triss refused. Phillipa said Geralt was unlikely to survive (can't remember what mess he was in at the time) so Yen said she would give them any information they wanted if they would save him and it was again refused. Triss asked Yen to forgive her and Yen said 'Never'. Towards the end of the books Yen very pointedly tells Triss that Geralt knows everything Triss had done to him, herself and to Ciri and that she would personally make sure that Triss was never going to get another chance to bamboozle Geralt into believing how misunderstood and innocent she was and that Geralt would likely forgive her for any wrong done to him, but that he wouldn't be so easy to forgive wrongs done to her and Ciri.
So no they really don't have any relationship by the time the games begin, its probably only the 'greater threat' that stops Yen from smacking Tris into orbit when they all meet up at Kaer Morhen , that and Ciri being present, so she contents herself with chucking the bed out of the window.
@@DianeBethra In general yes, but you're ignoring the fact that Yen and Triss at the end of the books fought side by side and single handedly stopped the shitfest in Rivia, even if it was a bit of an accident.
They also end up being friends in the non-canon wedding of Geralt and Yennefer, which despite being non-canon (as stated by the author) many fans (me included) consider to be the canon ending to the books, due to how wholesome and funny it is.
@@DianeBethra It was Fringilla Vigo that was told to romance Geralt in Lady of the Lake by the Lodge, the brief relationship between Triss and Geralt happened years before the Lodge was founded.
One thing that really bummed me out in the Witcher 3, was when they updated the game and made it so that the Wolf livers were no longer food. The wolf livers made it so fighting wolves was worth doing and the livers were the reward. When they were combined with a Swallow potion you could heal very quickly, making the livers very sought after. And it made sense because livers are packed with nutrients. After the update they were worthless, only being used to craft one thing. I hated that update.
Thank you for another long one Salt. I appreciate your endeavors and eagerly await whatever comes next 😃
HOLY SHIT. One of my favorite long form video game analysis guys, doing one of the best RPG's of of all time and its fucking 4 hours long?? I'm buckling in! And now I have another video to add to my "put on in the background so i don't feel lonely" list after I watch it. Thank you for your time and work!
"Footprints... Somebody around these parts owns a soft set of tootsies" Demolished me
I thought it was Geralts actual voice actor at first 😂
You're not the first person I've heard complain about the Kiera Metz/Dark Cave quest... and I don't get the complaints. Sure on my 3rd or 4th playthrough I just wanted to get through it, but on my first playthrough I was totally immersed in the atmosphere and setting. The urgency of trying to catch up to the Wild Hunt, and the back-and-forth dialogue between Kiera and Geralt was great worldbuilding and/or backstory.
I think you definitely get the best experience on Death March difficulty. Makes you have to strategise and really optimise your builds in order to be effective
I 100% agree. Death march pretty much nullifies all the complaints against the difficulty of the game. It's pretty hard for first timers but once you understand you need to prepare for battles with oils, potions and bombs it makes it so much more immersive!
@@victorsarkis8669 lol lol have you actually played the game on death march?
Only thing you need is quen
@@RobertEdwinHouse9 That's why if you want to have more fun you should avoid using Quen. It's OP skill and breaks the immersion
@@stzawadzki if you don't use it then you die in 2 hits
My god, the mad man did it. He released it before the other one. And it’s FOUR HOURS. Welp, there goes productivity
Yes! Been waiting for you to cover this game. Doing a great job!
Regarding parrying, you can also do it on most monster's light attacks, animation is different, and it actually does damage, it's super useful against all the flying stuff on Skellige as it forces monsters like sirens to land.
And regarding the general combat mechanics, I think the same issue is present in CP2077. They only work on highest difficulty levels. Best way to experience TW3 combat, seems to be to do White Orchard on normal (cause it's really tedious on higher ones) and rest of the game on Death March. The difference is huge, especially in final stages on the game and DLC, if you're playing on any lower levels, you're just stuck in this light attack - dodge loop without being forced to learn anything or adapt to anything.
Pretty much the same issue with food. On normal it's just suffiicient to pull you through the entire game, on Death March, you're required to use some potions and food is mostly used as means to regenerate lost hp in between combat and additional active healing during the fight.
I love listening to your vids while delivering packages. Keeps my synapses firing
The game that killed Joseph Anderson
I will say you CAN parry certain monsters as well. Sirens, Detlaff in B&W, Nekker variants and a few others. The game also doesn't tell you any of them are able to be parried.
Though it's still more advised to just dodge most monsters anyway.
i absolutely loved this game. I remember getting it from gamestop for my new xbox one. I was 12 and spent that christmas playing the hell out of the game. I ended up accidently deleting my playthrough when i died during the isle of the mists, and then finishing the second playthrough while getting the worst ending. ive played two more playthroughs since then and have gotten every ending, and finishing both of the expansions through. One of the best rpgs i've ever played, regardless of the simplistic exploration and combat. It's story has raised the standard for amazing stories in video games.
The game always felt like you were supposed to find Ciri sooner. I thought the game was way too long and poorly paced. Like, they treat finding Ciri as the most important thing but then throws tons of neat side content at you...