@@Bvetrayed There definitely was a big quest related to solving a plague being a big trouble throughout Velen. And some more quests after Radovid's assassination (hence the rushed Djikstra doing a 0 IQ move to close the questline badly)
I think also one of the most underrated aspects of the game is the music production. The OST you experience, especially when you get to Skellige (in your first ever playthrough imo) is one of the best immersing experiences you'll ever get to take in. Truly a Top 5 games of all time. Hope CDPR blows expectations out of the water too with Witcher 4
Well said. I couldn't agree more. I just got a family member to start the game for their first time. They are more into the Assassin's Creed franchise so idk if this game will hook them in like it did me. Like you said, the music quality in this game can not be overstated.
@@anthonydomanico8274 i was also an assasin creed fun and as i was browsing through the deals of sony i suddenly find the witcher 3 complete edition for 6$ XD and i had watched the netflix series so i googled the game and said why not try it and i fell in love with it i believe your family member is also going to love the game cause it has the aspect of exploration and mystery like that of an assasins creed game
Funny, but the temple isle was actually the place where I ended my 150-hour long playthrough of the game. After completing everything I wanted to complete and after all the endings I stripped Geralt to just his undewear, put on a mandrake mask, grabbed an incense and left Geralt standing next to the eternal fire, contemplating his achievements :)
Well, did the same but dressed oc😁, meant after ended all, I was checkin places to see if I had missed anything, and sure, near the Island bridge I trigger the Novigrad Closed City II quest, cos after dealt with all the important matters in the City I never returned to that area. What a waste was all of the TI😟
At least Temple Isle is completely rendered and modeled. I think the University of Oxenfurt is a worse offender. Only one quest takes you there and even that is of a very isolated area. If you manage to glitch yourself into the university, you'll find that it's not even modeled beyond the tiny area said quest takes place in. Given how frequently the university is mentioned, it's kind of a shame you never really get to see it.
I agree with you. It would be nice to be able to visit everything because this game is that good, but roleplaying-wise, it does not make sense for Geralt to go there unless there is an associated quest
@@bassenji5565 About as much sense as going to the church of the Eternal Fire. A murder mystery at the university could have been interesting I think. Or maybe just retrieving research and whatnot before the Witch Hunters destroy it all.
There is also one other reason to visit Temple Isle - it is the location of Whoreson Junior's house, which you can visit during the "Get Junior" quest.
@@nathanielwilliams3891 Your right, Junior's Hideout I guess is T.I. as well. Which means Hammelfart is implicated in his protection as much as Radovid. Scoundrels all.
Tbh I don't need every area to be filled with quests or be super relevant. Temple Isle fleshes out the city by simply existing - it not only makes Novigrad even larger, more diverse and affords it more verticality, it also serves as the seat of power for the city's government. By not being super story relevant the world as a whole also seems like it is an actual place rather than just a theme park built around the player and what he does. I am glad Temple Isle exists, it does its part in making Novigrad my favorite fantasy city in all of gaming.
You forgot the one hidden side quest where you search for Nilfgaarfian spy notes in order to open a loot. On Temple isle you are ambushed in the house of a woman spy.
YES! I was just going to mention this. If I recall correctly, some woman flags you down near the bridge when you're entering Temple Isle and asks for help. She leads you round the corner and into a building which turns out to be a trap. So OP is a tad incorrect. But Temple Isle is definitely one of the truncated sections of the game. Like the final act and the quest "Reasons of State."
They don’t make such gripping games like this one anymore. It was a labour of love by a polish team on a polish story that is very big over there. Compare with AAA games: no passion, no love, just making money but no soul, no compelling characters ….
The way I see it, any area with a place of power is a good area as that is a simple and easy free skill point. So Temple is mostly baron but it does have that and the Cat Gear cave which is cool.
What i heard from some devs when they got interviewed in german is that they deleted a quest around Hierarch Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfart related to the witch-hunters on the temple island. And in Novigrad they also cancelled a quest with more story around the Beggar-King with a complete big building to enter. And the devils pit in Velen was originally supposed to bear a quest where u meet Saskia. I just hope before they throw TW4 they throw some sort of enhanced edition of TW3 with added cut content as warm up because there are many locations in Velen, Skellige and also Toussant which look like they were supposed to get more meaning but didnt made it at the end.
To me, it's not a problem... the rest of the world is large enough to play with ! And the architecture is smooth and not neglected, mark of CDPR's dedication! And yes, no game has come close as this one in my heart and gaming life... it's been 8 years already.❤
@K.C-2049 I think the biggest fuck ups of cut content are scrapping of Iorveths whole questline and Roche being there for one side quest and one main quest. Truly love the two characters from the Witcher 2 and was saddened by their much less significant roles in the third installment. And to be honest when it comes to Witcher I am a loot whore so I will complete every POI until its all gone ... but the Skellige Treasure hunts in the sea must be among the most autistic ones in the game, would rather have 10 - 15 unique places with flashed out stories or quests then to aimlessly dive for treasure and fight the sirens about 500th times by this point.
Even as I prefer Roche, I wish Iorveth's questline was in the game. It also had a lot more to do with the Nilfgaardian military (Army Group Centre camp in southern Velen) and the mask Geralt wears to pick plants with Regis at the end of BaW was orignally beloning to the main antagonist during this Catriona Plague questline.
Using a free-cam mod you used to be able to clip through the walls of the palace on the rear side and find rooms at levels below the ground relative to the front side. On the right side of the palace, if you circle around counter-clockwise, there is a locked door, and to the right there is a path down the rocky cliff you can climb down--or up--leading to some scaffolding on some building below the palace. It all looks like there used to be a way to get onto the isle through a secret back-door path, which they mostly dismantled, but there are lots of hints to it, including a pair of shoes to be found toward the path and some loot to be had. Also, starting from the market on Elector's Square, a series of causeways and doorways leading to the palace square. Below Elector's Square there are lots of alleyways etc, but one very peculiar one. Some steps lead down to what appears to be a well or cistern blocked by iron bars, which is at the end of the path; so it's a cul-de-sac. But there is a constant stream of NPC's wandering into this cul-de-sac, simply turning around and leaving again. It appears to me that they put some NPC-pathing down there, then closed off the alley and forgot to take the NPC-pathing out. All in all there are so many dangling strings, they must have put a considerable amount of effort into preparing the area for a serious quest-line. Maybe there was a connection with the Devil's Pit, being that the Temple and corruption connects the two irrevocably. Sigh, so much DLC just waiting to be completed.
I think it's due mainly to cut content but I think there's also a bit of storytelling in its lack of content as well. Temple Isle is home to the highest and mighty, the Church and the Hierarch who we pretty much never see in game despite his importance. I think Geralt is just _beneath_ it all, in a way. The people here are socially inaccessible to us. The musical ambience here especially at night gives me a feeling of loneliness like I'm not really supposed to be there.
Yeah, Geralt is so beneath it all that he has scheduled private talks with Radovid and Emperor. Witchers are not on the level of commoners, they are outsiders in every group, yet every group can also hire them to solve their monster problems. Kings, farmhands, priests, bandits, doesn't matter. Witchers are not welcome anywhere aside from their keeps, but they are still tolerated because they are neccessary.
@@weirdafters4007 he was considered more of a pest when he "had Ciri" or even was just looking for her. Now that Ciri is adult, even less people care, except for those that he already had a history with due to his relations with Ciri. If not for Ciri (and maybe Jaskier and his songs), he would be just another anonymous witcher, like he was for decades already.
I think it is sometimes realistic when you can't enter any building and interact with any character. Maybe it was assumed that those people were busy or just forbidden to talk to a witcher? Of course, the Church of the Eternal Fire condemns the very existence of witchers... Yes, in other parts of the game you can at least meet many monsters, find loot or bandit camps. But I also think that this "emptiness" makes the Temple Isle unique. Me personally, I liked just walking there, and I made quite a few beautiful screenshots from the roofs nearby :)
Oxenfurt as a whole also feels underutilized, even with a few DLC quests taking place there. The university is mostly closed off, and for a major city, there isn't that much to do.
For me personally, I actually thought that Temple Isle being "empty" from a gameplay standpoint added to the immersion. It gave the whole area a more sinister, closed-off kind of vibe. It was almost as if it was a mandate of the church that outsiders were to be kept at arm's length, so as not risk revealing any church business. It gave the Eternal Flame a much more culty feel to it. The fact that the only merchant who will deal with you also happens to be an alchemist just adds to it: only a corrupt member of the clergy would operate outside the rules of the church kind of thing. Maybe I'm just weird lol, but I thought Temple Isle being void of things for the player to do actually made some sense, and even added to the immersion, at least for me...
Seems like there are a couple places where Ciri's main quests occur that have next to nothing there in other quests. Temple Isle, southeast of the Lidenvale graveyard where she fights the Wolf King, long spans of territory that Ciri's quests happen in that nothing else seems to occur. Often wondered if there was some sort of issue with quest implementation where Ciri has to travel in her quests. Also that tower that Ciri races to has next to nothing along the way to that tower until you get to the fortress where the Griffin School armor diagrams, I think, are at the extreme northern point of the land.
I think the eternal fire deleted quest theory makes a lot of sense. I never thought about it, but this church is actually quite relevant in the worldbuilding of the game, and is heavily important and mentioned in a lot of quests and lore items. So it's truly a little weird that there isn't a quest specifically dedicated to it.
Let's not forget that a whole lot of content was cut , due to CDPR being pressed to release the Game. And that's saying a lot considering the amount of content that is in the Game. But yeah, that's why some areas feel somewhat empty, some characters feel like they were supposed to have a bigger role, and sometimes some NPCs reference some places or things that seem random. The saddest part for me is that a lot of Nilfgaardian content was cut like that. We never really get to explore the Faction beyond them being presented as "the bad guys" most of the time. Emhyr is criminally underused despite being a crucial character of the franchise and having pulled an absolute master-move in The Witcher 2. And similarly i kept getting the feeling that Morvran Voorhis was meant to have a bigger role, hence you regularly bump into him here and there. Geralt's hostility towards him when asking Emhyr for reinforcements literally comes out of nowhere.
It also has a Place of Power (Igni) and the enhanced Cat gear (and I think, the Witcher that was tortured until he went mad). But all of that is optional.
I still kind of like the vibe of Temple Isle despite its emptiness. Kind of feels like the summit of Novigrad in the same way one might associate the Parthenon with Athens, albeit perhaps less grand!
I wish that instead of making the temple Isle, CDPR would instead have used the time it took to make it, to make a medium sized city in some other part of the world. We only really have 3 cities in the Witcher: Novigrad, Oxenfurt and Toussaint. Kaer Trolde is really just a large village. A city in Velen would be quite nice
@@olafmikoaj3121 yeah, but that's the point. Crow's perch cannot be treated as a city. It could be a Skyrim city, sure, but in the witcher we have large real life size cities, like Novigrad.
@@MiSt3300 Yes because witcher 3 is very detailed. Novigrad is so big and it still has only a small part of things that were there to do in the books. Crow's perch is just a medium sized town.
I think that you’re almost correct. I’d say that Oxenfurt University is “worst” location in the game as it is closed for the entirety of the game except for one optional and missable mission in Hearts of Stone. On top of that, you can never go back after leaving. Temple Isle has a fully explorable location with several missions, and a place of power. Oxenfurt has one mission. That’s it. I’d say that that warrants the title “most boring patch of land in the Witcher 3”
There is a very small side quest with a women on the covered road to the temple I dont remember much of it but I am pretty sure there was a quest there
I never really thought anything about the temple isle being empty. But you did remind me being very dissappointed that there was really no questline for the church of eternal fire. The whole game I wished there'd be a questline for it and it felt like there was supposed to be one. I wished I could pretty much annihilate the whole gosh darn cult, I hated it so much. But in the end, no, there never was one. The church just exists and nothing else to it really gameplay wise
Great video. FYI, I think there’s another quest location. You can raid Ciprian Wiley’s townhouse on Temple Isle, with a bunch of angry dwarves, as part of the Gangs of Novigrad questline.
I think a big part of it is temple isle is a big part of the books, as is the college. If it wasn’t made it would make no sense, because everyone would talk about an area you can’t see or doesn’t exist. So it makes sense they made it but didn’t exactly have a lot to do with it.
2:10 - The player also begins looking for the blueprints of the witcher school of Cat in the dungeons located in the depths of the Temple Island of Novigrad. And this series of quests can significantly affect the gameplay for experienced players, and is also interesting in terms of plot for all fans of the Witcher franchise.
Good video - of course the title is clickbait but I was surprised there were exactly 0 quests on Temple Isle. Even the Radovid questline terminates just before Temple Isle, not on it itself. I remember finding some things to do in the caves beneath the Isle but nothing on it itself. Would it have killed them to have added in a quest or two in the patches/expansions?
I agree that it does seem a little sterile but I think that's largely because the game sets such a high standard. Everywhere else there is so much content so it really stands out in areas where there is less content.
Technically you have to go *under* Temple Isle to get diagrams for the armor in one of the 'Cat School Armor' treasure hunt quests. There's also a priest vendor there in Elector's Square who quietly sells alchemical items and he's the only one who sells a book required to complete the side-quest "Free Spirit" that Geralt gives to the quest-giver who is trying to convince their lover to quit being a priestess of Freya on Skellige (this quest is easy to miss since it's on an island far north of Ard Skellige that the player isn't required to go to). Geralt can also briefly chat with the alchemist priest and has harsh words for him, saying he dislikes priests and that you'd need to pay him to even talk to one. During the quest where Geralt hunts down Whoreson Junior, Geralt can also go to his hideout which is technically on Temple Isle but not in the main area and can [SPOILER] go there again to meet Whoreson Junior with Ciri later on. Aside from that though, I'd agree that Temple Isle is disappointing and I was surprised I can't even go inside the main shrine or chapel area or even run into Hierarch Hemmelfart himself at some point (they should've at least had him come out in public and give a speech at some point maybe towards the end).
Don't totally know why people would say that The Witcher 3 was too big a really good all some open world game can't me too big to me when I get into a game on a dark winter cold night or when I'm back from work or looking to relax I want to enjoy a huge I liked content that I can get immersed in because once you beat a game you're like okay what can I but now you know there's people out there that knows of what I speak
Also imagine if there was a quest that connected both the things that were happening in the church behind the scenes, AND the cave beneath Temple Isle where you find Kiyan. You could have some of the more elite members of the church know about what was right beneath them and try to get Geralt to sweep the place and bring them whatever valuables were inside, plus rid them of the crazy witcher in there, or maybe you could uncover some sort of connection between that mage, what was going on inside the cave, and the church of the eternal fire. Since none of these (except the cult of the eternal fire which I'm not sure about) are constrained by the lore in the books, CDPR could have most probably come up with a really cool story to take Novigrad's Eternal Fire lore to the next level. Another example of what happens when you don't give talented people enough time to work on cool things.. but it is true that the game is pretty massive even without Temple Isle. Though, I wouldn't go as far as to say it's better that they cut this piece of content out for the people who complained about the game's length. Imo if you play this game and get bored and drop it halfway through the main storyline, it's probably just that the story or gameplay or vibe isn't for you.. so with or without some extra quests in Novigrad, I doubt it would have made a real difference. Awesome video btw, I'm replaying the game now and have noticed quite a few things I didn't pay attention to during my first playthrough. The absence of anything to do around Temple Isle also stuck out to me when I got there a few days ago, so this was good timing 😅
There is actually a small sidequest in temple isle many seems to have missed where a lady is calling for help (its below that large roof-covered patch of area on the map of temple isle, iirc). Stumbled upon it when I was trying to find the route to get to the feline armor diagram treasure hunt. Went in circles a lot because I never knew it was under the isle lol.
There is another kinda empty area in the game. South Velen is filled with cannibals and some other monsters, but there isn't really a question. There is also another village in Velen with supposedly cut content. Apparently there was another large questline around that plague Keira mentions which was also scrapped.
I think it would've been cool if they included Temple Isle in the search for Ciri. Like if Geralt goes there to investigate after Dandelion tells him she was there, and maybe have some sort of small magical anomaly as a result of Ciri's teleport similar to Skellige, or just some remnant to indicate that she teleported. Just some note about Ciri in Temple Isle would've been nice.
Yeah, but only by luck gamers will trigger part 2 of that quest, cos after dealing with more important matters in the city, people didn't return to that area.
About not finishing the game. They said that many players stopped at around 80% of the story, which is probably around battle of Kear Morhen. That mission seems to many, like it did to me as the final mission, i genuinely though that this was the end, so i was completely surprised when there were mission after
The only quest, I even remember from Temple Isle is where the pretty elf girl tries to get you to investigate a supposed break in of her house and then when you get there, thugs, try to jump you! Other than that, Temple was just this beautiful place on the map that had nothing -
It took about 3 Novel for Geralt to find Ciri after she went missing, and he only got delayed with side quests when he was stuck and waited for spring. The game had big!
I cant say i agree, i like that area for more then one reason. For example it is the power stone you have there that gives you easy extra power. Then there is the cave that also gives you small treasures. Also in the late quest when you help Ciri repay people, you meet a woman there that try to lure you in to a trap. (you don`t actually get much from it, but i can never resist killing those that want to trap me..) And then there is the other quest you mention with Ciri, and the vendor. But yea, at the same time compare to other areas, i kind of have to agree a little also.
Great video as usual. The ending leaves me a bit sad, as it just shows the slop people favor with complaining about getting too much for their money...
It's like The Devil's Pit in Velen. They didn't finished it back in the day it but they added new mission in Next Gen update. One of the best missions in the Witcher.
Very late to the party, but in my first playthroughs I sort of enjoyed that feeling of "there MUST be something hidden here," that sense that if Geralt just pokes around enough, checks out a few doors, annoys the right priest, some kind of fateful encounter with Hemmelfart or his forces might trigger. And the cat school gear hunt, the "secret" alchemist and the fateful Radovid assassination nearby all kind of added to the mystique. And, loving the world (and Novigrad) as most of us do, I can't be the only person who looked at every door, walked every staircase, looked for hidden ledges and illusions, came back and tried at night, on and on, hoping that fateful 'something' would happen. I'm glad to know I didn't miss a quest, and I'm okay with Temple Isle being just a temple, of sorts, to the overall menace of the church, the dread of living under its watchful eyes and treacherous minions, and you're right--that view is dynamite. Thanks for all the great content, I'm enjoying your Witcher 3 videos immensely!
Yeah, I agree. I made the same argument in another comment. It has a great view plus not every location can be chocked full of content like so many other locations are. The developers did a lot more than most game developers do.
I didn't even visit Temple Isle in my near 100% 1st playthrough, was amazed at how big and detailed it was on my 2nd. No quest npcs but there was some cool exploration
There is one important thing in temple isle. The witcher gear below the temple, where you'll have to fight a doctor to get the witcher gear. And also place of power behind the temple.
But, Avarti has shown both of them. Also you don't fight a doctor, but a crazed, tortured witcher from the School of the Cat, whom the doctor "studied".
I remember play one mission in this place. The game bugged so hard that I could access some of the areas. One in special its a treasure room quite big with gold all over the floor and some chests that had a set of armor of the eternal fire, pretty good stats
I don't even think a 10/10 justifies the depth and genius this game actually is. I've been playing this NG+ for almost 4 straight months...and I mean 2 or 3 hours a day of play for 4 straight months. Just finished the 2nd of the additional content blood and wine and am currently lvl 97 and I haven't even touched half the map's question marks,or side quests. Beat the game a couple years ago and omfg am I glad I went back through it again. This game is on it's own level,I thought rdr2 was amazing (which it still is) but wow the witcher 3 is incredible!!!
There are witcher diagrams under Temple Isle, at least 1 place of power at the temple itself, there's the ciri quests, the Radovid ending, and an interesting merchant with a special Gwent card. Vizima has less utility.
I've played The Witcher 3 (DLC's and all) 9 times.....it's always installed on my PC, Steam Deck and Switch. The only other two games I've played twice are shadow of the Tomb Raider and Breath of the Wild and the only game I didn't finish was AC Valhalla. Anywa yes Temple Isle might have had a story there or two but honestly the place I hate most is Freya's garden...the Morkvarg quest.....I always get confused doing that one since there are two quests there overlapping each other. You have to go there to look for Craven which is part of the main storyline and you can't avoid it.
I actually get there outside of any quests only on my 4th playthough. This and Oxenfurt. But CDPR added new quest in empty Devil's Pit. Maybe one day on 10th anniversary or whatever they make another DLC with university and church. I mean, with them in is not impossible.
The only reason i went there was because of the Ciri quest,because i was wondering where in the city was that place. And after i saw the only thing was there was the place of power and dipped.
it's kind of ironic that the the siege of power of the eternal fire is build on top of an elven ruin turn power mad mage laboratory. its like the true face of the church unlike the pristine visage presented on top...
Well, thing is that they HAD plans for Temple Isle, but simply didn't have the time to do it. And thought it was better to focus on the other expansions. And perhaps, they might've thought that you can't expect to solve all problems that happen in this game. So, they left Novigrad to their own devices.
I actually am on the opposite side of this, My favorite part of the Entire game was Novigrad and all of it's main quests/side quests, I would always give my self any excuses to go there I love it so much, Everything about it for me is top notch, Music, Design, Missions, characters so well defined, The only thing I think that may get people upset with it, is that there isn't any combat to be had at the city ( except for burglars, jonior's men ) but other than that its perfect in my opinion
Yeah there's NO WAY that huge area was not part of some big quest arc involving the church, but as you said TW3 was so expansive already that it probably was left for last and never completed in time. Hey at least we get to visit it and admire the beautiful view and snatch a Stone of Power, instead of a forever closed off area like the Devil's Pit for many many many years until the next gen patch.
Just like the nilfgaardian soldier camp it seems like there were plans for content but for whatever reasons they didnt get enough time to actually finish everything in time for launch (plus you cant even get in the camp legitimately for the biggest part of it)
A main part of the expansion area of Hearts of Stone in "infested" with Fallen Knights of the Church of the Eternal Fire. At some point you will confront their commander and he will tell you that Radovid commandeered the Church and it's Knights and were using it as "cannon fodder" to fight Nilfgard. This story / plot line could have been fleshed out on Temple Isle. As Andrzej Sapkowski is a Polish author; and given the history and eventual desolation and dismantling of the Teutonic Order by Polish and Lithuanian nobility, I believe the Church of the Eternal Fire is modeled after or influenced by the Teutonic Order. Their desolation by Radovid would have been a very worthy quest.
I suspect Temple Isle is barren because it's a victim of the butchered original plot. I think this game is the GOAT, but it could have been so much better if they'd completed the original storyline.
Lol I actually utilized the temple Ile alchemist a few times in the beginning. Early levels he does have a few helpful things but as you progress you become less reliant on merchants since you've pretty much upgraded all your stuff, all you need to do is rest to get more.
show of hands, who went aaaaall the way to the cusp of Temple Isle (not in the cave where you were supposed to go) while searching for the feline armor on their first playthrough?
In my head, I made up a whole mythology of the eternal flame coming from a gas vent in the mountain or something mystical and spent time looking for it on temple Isle and below it...very disappointed to not find something related.
This is the first I've ever heard someone dislike that area. The common consensus I always heard was it was underutilized, there's just not much there.
I think this location is still really cool if for no other reason than the view. In fact, I don't think I dislike any area in this game. In the end, issues like this come down to time limitations imposed upon the developers from the business side of the equation. Great video, btw!
It's still a cool location if for no other reason than the view but I get your sentiment. It would have been such a great place for a mission to take place.
@@anthonydomanico8274Some big fight in the central courtyard with a bunch of priest assassins. At night, with all the braziers lit, during a festival so fireworks are constantly going on overhead. As the climax of a whodunnit mystery questline with the aforementioned festival as a backdrop.
Very well made video! However, I wish the title was something different. "Why Temple Isle appears underdeveloped" maybe? Clickbait is really annoying, regardless of who does it.
I don't think CDPR has fully delved into making a storyline about the Eternal Fire church. They put a big emphasis on it and in a big chunk of Witcher 1 you are involved with the Eternal Fire church and characters such as Siegfried, Aldesburg, and Dewitt. In Witcher 3, the one involved with the church is not Geralt but Ciri. In the next game, I hope, we get to fully experience Eternal Fire stories.
I disagree that there is ‘nothing there’. There are no quests on shops, but there is loads going on and it adds to the lore and atmosphere of the city just wandering round. Not everything in needs to be a scripted quest.
I think most gamers used to big open world RPG can smell the bittersweet flavor of cut content from their room, the exact same most of us had when discovering the Nilgaardian camp and wondering why the fuck there is almost nothing in such a unique place, or when the Radovid questline fiinished in such a weird fashion. Crazy to think my personal favorite game EVER could have been even better with the deleted questline whe know about !
Great video! I always found it such mystery why temple isle and oxenfurt was so empty if you ever like have a chance I hope you make a video about dragon age!! I love those series especially after playing witcher 3
Temple isle feels like the one neighborhood in my city that I've never set foot in. I know it exists, I know its purpose. I just never needed to go these. That's what it is to Geralt. A part of the city he knows exists but he doesn't need to go to at all.
Your opening statement is true and exact, sir. In that no other game has come close to Witcher three. Not even close.. and I believe that their secret sauce has no happy endings. This game is almost a reality simulator that gives you magical powers in a fantasy world if that makes sense. The patch that updates it to 2024 is Meh…. Could use a little more work.. I still can’t see myself in mirrors or reflective surfaces. But like yourself, I will still give it 10 out of 10 Hands down and you see I come from those who have started this game late in fact as of writing this I started the game 2 1/2 to 3 weeks prior. The first three days took some getting used to because of the aged graphics but then I made my way over to The improvements which helped tremendously and again I say they still could be better but for now good enough.. but overall I end my paragraph same way it began by saying no other game comes even close to this one….
While I disagree that Witcher 3 players “HATE” Temple Isle, I certainly agree with the content in the actual video, here. It really is crazy - when considering the enormous amount of content in the full TW3 release - how much partially-developed content was (probably) cut. The lands east of Oxenfurt, the areas north & northwest of Novigrad, the Nilfgaardian camp near Vizima, large swathes of central & northern Ard Skellige, the forests and coasts southwest of Novigrad, Temple Isle, the southern half of Oxenfurt, several uninhabited islands in Skellige, most of southern and eastern Beauclaire. There have been many times during my hundreds of hours in TW3 where it seemed like more was intended to be in these spaces.
Both temple isle and the oxenfurt academy were supposed to have more content, but were both cut due to time constraints.
Do you know what was the cut content?
@@Bvetrayed There definitely was a big quest related to solving a plague being a big trouble throughout Velen. And some more quests after Radovid's assassination (hence the rushed Djikstra doing a 0 IQ move to close the questline badly)
@@sreeravi25there was also a plan for the wild hunt to have a siege on novigrad, using temple isle as a base of operations
@@iainsteele5737 that would of been MAD
@iainsteele5737 that would've been awesome
I think also one of the most underrated aspects of the game is the music production. The OST you experience, especially when you get to Skellige (in your first ever playthrough imo) is one of the best immersing experiences you'll ever get to take in. Truly a Top 5 games of all time. Hope CDPR blows expectations out of the water too with Witcher 4
Well said. I couldn't agree more. I just got a family member to start the game for their first time. They are more into the Assassin's Creed franchise so idk if this game will hook them in like it did me. Like you said, the music quality in this game can not be overstated.
@@anthonydomanico8274 i was also an assasin creed fun and as i was browsing through the deals of sony i suddenly find the witcher 3 complete edition for 6$ XD and i had watched the netflix series so i googled the game and said why not try it and i fell in love with it i believe your family member is also going to love the game cause it has the aspect of exploration and mystery like that of an assasins creed game
Man, when i got on Skellige and Heard THAT music❤❤❤
Really how is the music underrated lol.. pretty sure everyone who played the game loved all the bangers
Dude, I've installed Witcher 3 because of its OST I had listened to on yt :D
Funny, but the temple isle was actually the place where I ended my 150-hour long playthrough of the game. After completing everything I wanted to complete and after all the endings I stripped Geralt to just his undewear, put on a mandrake mask, grabbed an incense and left Geralt standing next to the eternal fire, contemplating his achievements :)
Lol that's hilarious. I went for the fairy-tale ending and left him sat in good company looking out at his vineyard.
Madlad
@K.C-2049 maybe ng+ with different choices?
works for me...
I ended my near 140 hour playthrough by climbing up the mountain to the boat in skellige where you figh the djinn 🤓
Well, did the same but dressed oc😁, meant after ended all, I was checkin places to see if I had missed anything, and sure, near the Island bridge I trigger the Novigrad Closed City II quest, cos after dealt with all the important matters in the City I never returned to that area. What a waste was all of the TI😟
At least Temple Isle is completely rendered and modeled.
I think the University of Oxenfurt is a worse offender. Only one quest takes you there and even that is of a very isolated area. If you manage to glitch yourself into the university, you'll find that it's not even modeled beyond the tiny area said quest takes place in.
Given how frequently the university is mentioned, it's kind of a shame you never really get to see it.
I agree with this. Wish we got to dive deeper into that
Because it’s a university….what did you think Geralt was going to do there? Fucking study for the finals?
I agree with you. It would be nice to be able to visit everything because this game is that good, but roleplaying-wise, it does not make sense for Geralt to go there unless there is an associated quest
@@bassenji5565 About as much sense as going to the church of the Eternal Fire.
A murder mystery at the university could have been interesting I think. Or maybe just retrieving research and whatnot before the Witch Hunters destroy it all.
@@zzodysseuszz Bang some hot student girls lol. He actually goes there in the books.
There is also one other reason to visit Temple Isle - it is the location of Whoreson Junior's house, which you can visit during the "Get Junior" quest.
yeah man i was thinking the same.
And again with Ciri when she is looking for a friend.
That's in Oxenfurt proper
@@YABBAHEY1 He has one on Temple Isle as well.
@@nathanielwilliams3891 Your right, Junior's Hideout I guess is T.I. as well. Which means Hammelfart is implicated in his protection as much as Radovid. Scoundrels all.
Tbh I don't need every area to be filled with quests or be super relevant. Temple Isle fleshes out the city by simply existing - it not only makes Novigrad even larger, more diverse and affords it more verticality, it also serves as the seat of power for the city's government. By not being super story relevant the world as a whole also seems like it is an actual place rather than just a theme park built around the player and what he does.
I am glad Temple Isle exists, it does its part in making Novigrad my favorite fantasy city in all of gaming.
This^
Perfectly said. Just like in real world
Okay but at least a door to the temple would have been nice. There is also a lot of villages in the north that have 0 quests which is sad.
This
You forgot the one hidden side quest where you search for Nilfgaarfian spy notes in order to open a loot. On Temple isle you are ambushed in the house of a woman spy.
I painfully remember that because I got killed in the small confines of the house on Death March lol
YES! I was just going to mention this. If I recall correctly, some woman flags you down near the bridge when you're entering Temple Isle and asks for help. She leads you round the corner and into a building which turns out to be a trap. So OP is a tad incorrect. But Temple Isle is definitely one of the truncated sections of the game. Like the final act and the quest "Reasons of State."
LMAO I remember this vividly. What an experience that was
@@E.Humperdinck It wasn't really a trap, the witch hunters were after her and she needed them gone.
Man it's been 8 YEARS since this game was released and people are still making amazing videos about it....❤️
They don’t make such gripping games like this one anymore. It was a labour of love by a polish team on a polish story that is very big over there. Compare with AAA games: no passion, no love, just making money but no soul, no compelling characters ….
@@franglais-ridersbg3: allow me to introduce myself
The way I see it, any area with a place of power is a good area as that is a simple and easy free skill point. So Temple is mostly baron but it does have that and the Cat Gear cave which is cool.
What i heard from some devs when they got interviewed in german is that they deleted a quest around Hierarch Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfart related to the witch-hunters on the temple island. And in Novigrad they also cancelled a quest with more story around the Beggar-King with a complete big building to enter. And the devils pit in Velen was originally supposed to bear a quest where u meet Saskia.
I just hope before they throw TW4 they throw some sort of enhanced edition of TW3 with added cut content as warm up because there are many locations in Velen, Skellige and also Toussant which look like they were supposed to get more meaning but didnt made it at the end.
Yeah only time you can meet Hemmelfart in-game is in whoreson's arena.
To me, it's not a problem... the rest of the world is large enough to play with ! And the architecture is smooth and not neglected, mark of CDPR's dedication!
And yes, no game has come close as this one in my heart and gaming life... it's been 8 years already.❤
Im willing to bet that the Temple Isle was much more used in the planned catriona plague questline that got scrapped.
@K.C-2049 I think the biggest fuck ups of cut content are scrapping of Iorveths whole questline and Roche being there for one side quest and one main quest. Truly love the two characters from the Witcher 2 and was saddened by their much less significant roles in the third installment. And to be honest when it comes to Witcher I am a loot whore so I will complete every POI until its all gone ... but the Skellige Treasure hunts in the sea must be among the most autistic ones in the game, would rather have 10 - 15 unique places with flashed out stories or quests then to aimlessly dive for treasure and fight the sirens about 500th times by this point.
Even as I prefer Roche, I wish Iorveth's questline was in the game. It also had a lot more to do with the Nilfgaardian military (Army Group Centre camp in southern Velen) and the mask Geralt wears to pick plants with Regis at the end of BaW was orignally beloning to the main antagonist during this Catriona Plague questline.
Using a free-cam mod you used to be able to clip through the walls of the palace on the rear side and find rooms at levels below the ground relative to the front side. On the right side of the palace, if you circle around counter-clockwise, there is a locked door, and to the right there is a path down the rocky cliff you can climb down--or up--leading to some scaffolding on some building below the palace. It all looks like there used to be a way to get onto the isle through a secret back-door path, which they mostly dismantled, but there are lots of hints to it, including a pair of shoes to be found toward the path and some loot to be had.
Also, starting from the market on Elector's Square, a series of causeways and doorways leading to the palace square. Below Elector's Square there are lots of alleyways etc, but one very peculiar one. Some steps lead down to what appears to be a well or cistern blocked by iron bars, which is at the end of the path; so it's a cul-de-sac. But there is a constant stream of NPC's wandering into this cul-de-sac, simply turning around and leaving again. It appears to me that they put some NPC-pathing down there, then closed off the alley and forgot to take the NPC-pathing out.
All in all there are so many dangling strings, they must have put a considerable amount of effort into preparing the area for a serious quest-line. Maybe there was a connection with the Devil's Pit, being that the Temple and corruption connects the two irrevocably.
Sigh, so much DLC just waiting to be completed.
I think it's due mainly to cut content but I think there's also a bit of storytelling in its lack of content as well. Temple Isle is home to the highest and mighty, the Church and the Hierarch who we pretty much never see in game despite his importance. I think Geralt is just _beneath_ it all, in a way. The people here are socially inaccessible to us. The musical ambience here especially at night gives me a feeling of loneliness like I'm not really supposed to be there.
Trying to rationalize the lack of content by calling it good storytelling lmao
@@Ruairoquaiyeah thats some major fan retconning
Yeah, Geralt is so beneath it all that he has scheduled private talks with Radovid and Emperor.
Witchers are not on the level of commoners, they are outsiders in every group, yet every group can also hire them to solve their monster problems. Kings, farmhands, priests, bandits, doesn't matter. Witchers are not welcome anywhere aside from their keeps, but they are still tolerated because they are neccessary.
geralt is one of the most important people in the state are you nuts?
@@weirdafters4007 he was considered more of a pest when he "had Ciri" or even was just looking for her. Now that Ciri is adult, even less people care, except for those that he already had a history with due to his relations with Ciri. If not for Ciri (and maybe Jaskier and his songs), he would be just another anonymous witcher, like he was for decades already.
I think it is sometimes realistic when you can't enter any building and interact with any character. Maybe it was assumed that those people were busy or just forbidden to talk to a witcher? Of course, the Church of the Eternal Fire condemns the very existence of witchers... Yes, in other parts of the game you can at least meet many monsters, find loot or bandit camps. But I also think that this "emptiness" makes the Temple Isle unique. Me personally, I liked just walking there, and I made quite a few beautiful screenshots from the roofs nearby :)
Oxenfurt as a whole also feels underutilized, even with a few DLC quests taking place there. The university is mostly closed off, and for a major city, there isn't that much to do.
For me personally, I actually thought that Temple Isle being "empty" from a gameplay standpoint added to the immersion. It gave the whole area a more sinister, closed-off kind of vibe. It was almost as if it was a mandate of the church that outsiders were to be kept at arm's length, so as not risk revealing any church business. It gave the Eternal Flame a much more culty feel to it. The fact that the only merchant who will deal with you also happens to be an alchemist just adds to it: only a corrupt member of the clergy would operate outside the rules of the church kind of thing. Maybe I'm just weird lol, but I thought Temple Isle being void of things for the player to do actually made some sense, and even added to the immersion, at least for me...
Seems like there are a couple places where Ciri's main quests occur that have next to nothing there in other quests. Temple Isle, southeast of the Lidenvale graveyard where she fights the Wolf King, long spans of territory that Ciri's quests happen in that nothing else seems to occur. Often wondered if there was some sort of issue with quest implementation where Ciri has to travel in her quests. Also that tower that Ciri races to has next to nothing along the way to that tower until you get to the fortress where the Griffin School armor diagrams, I think, are at the extreme northern point of the land.
I think the eternal fire deleted quest theory makes a lot of sense. I never thought about it, but this church is actually quite relevant in the worldbuilding of the game, and is heavily important and mentioned in a lot of quests and lore items. So it's truly a little weird that there isn't a quest specifically dedicated to it.
Let's not forget that a whole lot of content was cut , due to CDPR being pressed to release the Game.
And that's saying a lot considering the amount of content that is in the Game.
But yeah, that's why some areas feel somewhat empty, some characters feel like they were supposed to have a bigger role, and sometimes some NPCs reference some places or things that seem random.
The saddest part for me is that a lot of Nilfgaardian content was cut like that. We never really get to explore the Faction beyond them being presented as "the bad guys" most of the time. Emhyr is criminally underused despite being a crucial character of the franchise and having pulled an absolute master-move in The Witcher 2. And similarly i kept getting the feeling that Morvran Voorhis was meant to have a bigger role, hence you regularly bump into him here and there. Geralt's hostility towards him when asking Emhyr for reinforcements literally comes out of nowhere.
It also has a Place of Power (Igni) and the enhanced Cat gear (and I think, the Witcher that was tortured until he went mad). But all of that is optional.
I still kind of like the vibe of Temple Isle despite its emptiness. Kind of feels like the summit of Novigrad in the same way one might associate the Parthenon with Athens, albeit perhaps less grand!
I wish that instead of making the temple Isle, CDPR would instead have used the time it took to make it, to make a medium sized city in some other part of the world. We only really have 3 cities in the Witcher: Novigrad, Oxenfurt and Toussaint. Kaer Trolde is really just a large village. A city in Velen would be quite nice
You meant Beauclair. Toussaint is a land.And Crow's perch acts as a city for Vellen so we have atleast that.
@@olafmikoaj3121 yeah, but that's the point. Crow's perch cannot be treated as a city. It could be a Skyrim city, sure, but in the witcher we have large real life size cities, like Novigrad.
@@MiSt3300 Yes because witcher 3 is very detailed. Novigrad is so big and it still has only a small part of things that were there to do in the books. Crow's perch is just a medium sized town.
I think that you’re almost correct. I’d say that Oxenfurt University is “worst” location in the game as it is closed for the entirety of the game except for one optional and missable mission in Hearts of Stone. On top of that, you can never go back after leaving. Temple Isle has a fully explorable location with several missions, and a place of power. Oxenfurt has one mission. That’s it. I’d say that that warrants the title “most boring patch of land in the Witcher 3”
i remember a quest there with a conflict between families and i had to visit and explore most of the mansions up there.
I was gutted that the University in Oxenfurt is closed 😢
There is a very small side quest with a women on the covered road to the temple I dont remember much of it but I am pretty sure there was a quest there
I never really thought anything about the temple isle being empty. But you did remind me being very dissappointed that there was really no questline for the church of eternal fire. The whole game I wished there'd be a questline for it and it felt like there was supposed to be one. I wished I could pretty much annihilate the whole gosh darn cult, I hated it so much. But in the end, no, there never was one. The church just exists and nothing else to it really gameplay wise
Great video. FYI, I think there’s another quest location. You can raid Ciprian Wiley’s townhouse on Temple Isle, with a bunch of angry dwarves, as part of the Gangs of Novigrad questline.
I would definitely buy a DLC, where they would add questlines with the Church of the eternal fire or the Plague.
I think a big part of it is temple isle is a big part of the books, as is the college. If it wasn’t made it would make no sense, because everyone would talk about an area you can’t see or doesn’t exist.
So it makes sense they made it but didn’t exactly have a lot to do with it.
2:10 - The player also begins looking for the blueprints of the witcher school of Cat in the dungeons located in the depths of the Temple Island of Novigrad. And this series of quests can significantly affect the gameplay for experienced players, and is also interesting in terms of plot for all fans of the Witcher franchise.
Good video - of course the title is clickbait but I was surprised there were exactly 0 quests on Temple Isle. Even the Radovid questline terminates just before Temple Isle, not on it itself. I remember finding some things to do in the caves beneath the Isle but nothing on it itself. Would it have killed them to have added in a quest or two in the patches/expansions?
I agree that it does seem a little sterile but I think that's largely because the game sets such a high standard. Everywhere else there is so much content so it really stands out in areas where there is less content.
Technically you have to go *under* Temple Isle to get diagrams for the armor in one of the 'Cat School Armor' treasure hunt quests. There's also a priest vendor there in Elector's Square who quietly sells alchemical items and he's the only one who sells a book required to complete the side-quest "Free Spirit" that Geralt gives to the quest-giver who is trying to convince their lover to quit being a priestess of Freya on Skellige (this quest is easy to miss since it's on an island far north of Ard Skellige that the player isn't required to go to). Geralt can also briefly chat with the alchemist priest and has harsh words for him, saying he dislikes priests and that you'd need to pay him to even talk to one. During the quest where Geralt hunts down Whoreson Junior, Geralt can also go to his hideout which is technically on Temple Isle but not in the main area and can [SPOILER] go there again to meet Whoreson Junior with Ciri later on. Aside from that though, I'd agree that Temple Isle is disappointing and I was surprised I can't even go inside the main shrine or chapel area or even run into Hierarch Hemmelfart himself at some point (they should've at least had him come out in public and give a speech at some point maybe towards the end).
Don't totally know why people would say that The Witcher 3 was too big a really good all some open world game can't me too big to me when I get into a game on a dark winter cold night or when I'm back from work or looking to relax I want to enjoy a huge I liked content that I can get immersed in because once you beat a game you're like okay what can I but now you know there's people out there that knows of what I speak
A few outliers complained about the size and length of the main quest, it's why the main quest of cyberpunk is like 5 missions
@@shawnamiller191 Reason why Cyberpunk doesn't feel as epic in comparison.
@@awsomeboy360 yeah, also there's a fun city to explore but even with alot of NPCs around night city feels empty compared to Novigrad
5 missions? cyberpunk have 26 main quests @@shawnamiller191
Even with no quests in temple isle its still insanely immersive and fun to explore.
Also imagine if there was a quest that connected both the things that were happening in the church behind the scenes, AND the cave beneath Temple Isle where you find Kiyan. You could have some of the more elite members of the church know about what was right beneath them and try to get Geralt to sweep the place and bring them whatever valuables were inside, plus rid them of the crazy witcher in there, or maybe you could uncover some sort of connection between that mage, what was going on inside the cave, and the church of the eternal fire. Since none of these (except the cult of the eternal fire which I'm not sure about) are constrained by the lore in the books, CDPR could have most probably come up with a really cool story to take Novigrad's Eternal Fire lore to the next level. Another example of what happens when you don't give talented people enough time to work on cool things.. but it is true that the game is pretty massive even without Temple Isle. Though, I wouldn't go as far as to say it's better that they cut this piece of content out for the people who complained about the game's length. Imo if you play this game and get bored and drop it halfway through the main storyline, it's probably just that the story or gameplay or vibe isn't for you.. so with or without some extra quests in Novigrad, I doubt it would have made a real difference.
Awesome video btw, I'm replaying the game now and have noticed quite a few things I didn't pay attention to during my first playthrough. The absence of anything to do around Temple Isle also stuck out to me when I got there a few days ago, so this was good timing 😅
It's such a damn shame I could not kill the "holy flame" with Aard... and when I tried, nobody even reacted to my transgressions
There is actually a small sidequest in temple isle many seems to have missed where a lady is calling for help (its below that large roof-covered patch of area on the map of temple isle, iirc). Stumbled upon it when I was trying to find the route to get to the feline armor diagram treasure hunt. Went in circles a lot because I never knew it was under the isle lol.
There is another kinda empty area in the game. South Velen is filled with cannibals and some other monsters, but there isn't really a question. There is also another village in Velen with supposedly cut content. Apparently there was another large questline around that plague Keira mentions which was also scrapped.
You need the alchemist on Temple Isle to get the book The Cult of Freya to complete the Free Spirit quest.
I honestly thought it was a super cool area with amazing design, views and architecture
Novigrad is a costal city in my country Croatia.
I think it would've been cool if they included Temple Isle in the search for Ciri. Like if Geralt goes there to investigate after Dandelion tells him she was there, and maybe have some sort of small magical anomaly as a result of Ciri's teleport similar to Skellige, or just some remnant to indicate that she teleported. Just some note about Ciri in Temple Isle would've been nice.
Part of "Novigrad, closed city" takes place on temple isle
Yeah, but only by luck gamers will trigger part 2 of that quest, cos after dealing with more important matters in the city, people didn't return to that area.
About not finishing the game. They said that many players stopped at around 80% of the story, which is probably around battle of Kear Morhen. That mission seems to many, like it did to me as the final mission, i genuinely though that this was the end, so i was completely surprised when there were mission after
The only quest, I even remember from Temple Isle is where the pretty elf girl tries to get you to investigate a supposed break in of her house and then when you get there, thugs, try to jump you!
Other than that, Temple was just this beautiful place on the map that had nothing -
It took about 3 Novel for Geralt to find Ciri after she went missing, and he only got delayed with side quests when he was stuck and waited for spring. The game had big!
I cant say i agree, i like that area for more then one reason.
For example it is the power stone you have there that gives you easy extra power.
Then there is the cave that also gives you small treasures.
Also in the late quest when you help Ciri repay people, you meet a woman there that try to lure you in to a trap. (you don`t actually get much from it, but i can never resist killing those that want to trap me..)
And then there is the other quest you mention with Ciri, and the vendor.
But yea, at the same time compare to other areas, i kind of have to agree a little also.
Great video as usual. The ending leaves me a bit sad, as it just shows the slop people favor with complaining about getting too much for their money...
It's like The Devil's Pit in Velen. They didn't finished it back in the day it but they added new mission in Next Gen update. One of the best missions in the Witcher.
Very late to the party, but in my first playthroughs I sort of enjoyed that feeling of "there MUST be something hidden here," that sense that if Geralt just pokes around enough, checks out a few doors, annoys the right priest, some kind of fateful encounter with Hemmelfart or his forces might trigger. And the cat school gear hunt, the "secret" alchemist and the fateful Radovid assassination nearby all kind of added to the mystique. And, loving the world (and Novigrad) as most of us do, I can't be the only person who looked at every door, walked every staircase, looked for hidden ledges and illusions, came back and tried at night, on and on, hoping that fateful 'something' would happen. I'm glad to know I didn't miss a quest, and I'm okay with Temple Isle being just a temple, of sorts, to the overall menace of the church, the dread of living under its watchful eyes and treacherous minions, and you're right--that view is dynamite. Thanks for all the great content, I'm enjoying your Witcher 3 videos immensely!
Glad I'm not the only one who felt weird in this part of the map. It almost feels liminal with how purposeful it's included yet not interactable
I found the cave under temple isle without any help from outside sources ... it was hell to find the entrance
When you look at the city during the night from temple isle it is very nice,so it is not bed place at all
Yeah, I agree. I made the same argument in another comment. It has a great view plus not every location can be chocked full of content like so many other locations are. The developers did a lot more than most game developers do.
The real crime is Looking at Geralts short here 😂
I didn't even visit Temple Isle in my near 100% 1st playthrough, was amazed at how big and detailed it was on my 2nd. No quest npcs but there was some cool exploration
There is one important thing in temple isle. The witcher gear below the temple, where you'll have to fight a doctor to get the witcher gear. And also place of power behind the temple.
But, Avarti has shown both of them. Also you don't fight a doctor, but a crazed, tortured witcher from the School of the Cat, whom the doctor "studied".
Temple Isle in Novigrad was pretty lackluster. No shops, 1 merchant, and hardly and quests.
I remember play one mission in this place. The game bugged so hard that I could access some of the areas. One in special its a treasure room quite big with gold all over the floor and some chests that had a set of armor of the eternal fire, pretty good stats
I don't even think a 10/10 justifies the depth and genius this game actually is. I've been playing this NG+ for almost 4 straight months...and I mean 2 or 3 hours a day of play for 4 straight months. Just finished the 2nd of the additional content blood and wine and am currently lvl 97 and I haven't even touched half the map's question marks,or side quests. Beat the game a couple years ago and omfg am I glad I went back through it again. This game is on it's own level,I thought rdr2 was amazing (which it still is) but wow the witcher 3 is incredible!!!
There are witcher diagrams under Temple Isle, at least 1 place of power at the temple itself, there's the ciri quests, the Radovid ending, and an interesting merchant with a special Gwent card. Vizima has less utility.
I've played The Witcher 3 (DLC's and all) 9 times.....it's always installed on my PC, Steam Deck and Switch. The only other two games I've played twice are shadow of the Tomb Raider and Breath of the Wild and the only game I didn't finish was AC Valhalla. Anywa yes Temple Isle might have had a story there or two but honestly the place I hate most is Freya's garden...the Morkvarg quest.....I always get confused doing that one since there are two quests there overlapping each other. You have to go there to look for Craven which is part of the main storyline and you can't avoid it.
I actually get there outside of any quests only on my 4th playthough. This and Oxenfurt. But CDPR added new quest in empty Devil's Pit. Maybe one day on 10th anniversary or whatever they make another DLC with university and church. I mean, with them in is not impossible.
The only reason i went there was because of the Ciri quest,because i was wondering where in the city was that place.
And after i saw the only thing was there was the place of power and dipped.
it's kind of ironic that the the siege of power of the eternal fire is build on top of an elven ruin turn power mad mage laboratory. its like the true face of the church unlike the pristine visage presented on top...
Well, thing is that they HAD plans for Temple Isle, but simply didn't have the time to do it. And thought it was better to focus on the other expansions.
And perhaps, they might've thought that you can't expect to solve all problems that happen in this game. So, they left Novigrad to their own devices.
I spent too much time in this area trying to find the entrance to that cave that has the witcher gear at the very end of the isle
I actually am on the opposite side of this, My favorite part of the Entire game was Novigrad and all of it's main quests/side quests, I would always give my self any excuses to go there I love it so much, Everything about it for me is top notch, Music, Design, Missions, characters so well defined, The only thing I think that may get people upset with it, is that there isn't any combat to be had at the city ( except for burglars, jonior's men ) but other than that its perfect in my opinion
Yes, nothing wrong with Novigrad, but not a lot going on on Temple Isle.
That's not Skellige with it's underwater caches though
the disappointment when you realize that there’s no achievement for collecting all the caches
Yeah there's NO WAY that huge area was not part of some big quest arc involving the church, but as you said TW3 was so expansive already that it probably was left for last and never completed in time. Hey at least we get to visit it and admire the beautiful view and snatch a Stone of Power, instead of a forever closed off area like the Devil's Pit for many many many years until the next gen patch.
An area that I traveled to quite often, but did relatively little at is Oxenfurt.
Just like the nilfgaardian soldier camp it seems like there were plans for content but for whatever reasons they didnt get enough time to actually finish everything in time for launch (plus you cant even get in the camp legitimately for the biggest part of it)
A main part of the expansion area of Hearts of Stone in "infested" with Fallen Knights of the Church of the Eternal Fire. At some point you will confront their commander and he will tell you that Radovid commandeered the Church and it's Knights and were using it as "cannon fodder" to fight Nilfgard. This story / plot line could have been fleshed out on Temple Isle. As Andrzej Sapkowski is a Polish author; and given the history and eventual desolation and dismantling of the Teutonic Order by Polish and Lithuanian nobility, I believe the Church of the Eternal Fire is modeled after or influenced by the Teutonic Order. Their desolation by Radovid would have been a very worthy quest.
I always hate the swamps near crookback bog getting stuck in these really deep holes everywhere
I was also disappointed in the tamirian rebels quest that went no where. I wanted to have the choice to fight with them more
I suspect Temple Isle is barren because it's a victim of the butchered original plot. I think this game is the GOAT, but it could have been so much better if they'd completed the original storyline.
Lol I actually utilized the temple Ile alchemist a few times in the beginning. Early levels he does have a few helpful things but as you progress you become less reliant on merchants since you've pretty much upgraded all your stuff, all you need to do is rest to get more.
show of hands, who went aaaaall the way to the cusp of Temple Isle (not in the cave where you were supposed to go) while searching for the feline armor on their first playthrough?
In my head, I made up a whole mythology of the eternal flame coming from a gas vent in the mountain or something mystical and spent time looking for it on temple Isle and below it...very disappointed to not find something related.
This is the first I've ever heard someone dislike that area. The common consensus I always heard was it was underutilized, there's just not much there.
The lack of a door on the temple really annoyed me. There should at least be a locked door there.
I just remember consistently falling off the cliff trying to get I believe it was the cat school gear.
the best theme song in the game in the background of ur video memories of riding along the outskirts of novigrad
I've been watching your content on Skyrim for a while and it's cool to see you covering other games and topics
I think this location is still really cool if for no other reason than the view. In fact, I don't think I dislike any area in this game. In the end, issues like this come down to time limitations imposed upon the developers from the business side of the equation. Great video, btw!
Can't say that I hate it because I never thought about it :) But now that you mention it yes - it could have been so much more..
It's still a cool location if for no other reason than the view but I get your sentiment. It would have been such a great place for a mission to take place.
@@anthonydomanico8274Some big fight in the central courtyard with a bunch of priest assassins. At night, with all the braziers lit, during a festival so fireworks are constantly going on overhead.
As the climax of a whodunnit mystery questline with the aforementioned festival as a backdrop.
Very well made video! However, I wish the title was something different. "Why Temple Isle appears underdeveloped" maybe? Clickbait is really annoying, regardless of who does it.
I don't think CDPR has fully delved into making a storyline about the Eternal Fire church. They put a big emphasis on it and in a big chunk of Witcher 1 you are involved with the Eternal Fire church and characters such as Siegfried, Aldesburg, and Dewitt. In Witcher 3, the one involved with the church is not Geralt but Ciri. In the next game, I hope, we get to fully experience Eternal Fire stories.
the most important thing about the alchemist in the temple isle, you can play gwent with him.
Getting the armor recipe on temple isle is such a god damned chore. Its almost impossible to find due to how winding this place is.
What a strangely specific video I didn’t know I needed, great video my dude keep it up
I disagree that there is ‘nothing there’.
There are no quests on shops, but there is loads going on and it adds to the lore and atmosphere of the city just wandering round.
Not everything in needs to be a scripted quest.
I think most gamers used to big open world RPG can smell the bittersweet flavor of cut content from their room, the exact same most of us had when discovering the Nilgaardian camp and wondering why the fuck there is almost nothing in such a unique place, or when the Radovid questline fiinished in such a weird fashion. Crazy to think my personal favorite game EVER could have been even better with the deleted questline whe know about !
It took me ages to find the Nifgaardian camp! I might have even passed it by on my first playthrough.
Great video! I always found it such mystery why temple isle and oxenfurt was so empty
if you ever like have a chance I hope you make a video about dragon age!! I love those series especially after playing witcher 3
There's also Whoreson Junior's townhouse... which is entirely unnecessary to visit and doesn't have any information about his whereabouts lol
Temple isle feels like the one neighborhood in my city that I've never set foot in. I know it exists, I know its purpose. I just never needed to go these.
That's what it is to Geralt. A part of the city he knows exists but he doesn't need to go to at all.
Your opening statement is true and exact, sir. In that no other game has come close to Witcher three. Not even close.. and I believe that their secret sauce has no happy endings. This game is almost a reality simulator that gives you magical powers in a fantasy world if that makes sense. The patch that updates it to 2024 is Meh…. Could use a little more work.. I still can’t see myself in mirrors or reflective surfaces. But like yourself, I will still give it 10 out of 10 Hands down and you see I come from those who have started this game late in fact as of writing this I started the game 2 1/2 to 3 weeks prior. The first three days took some getting used to because of the aged graphics but then I made my way over to The improvements which helped tremendously and again I say they still could be better but for now good enough.. but overall I end my paragraph same way it began by saying no other game comes even close to this one….
While I disagree that Witcher 3 players “HATE” Temple Isle, I certainly agree with the content in the actual video, here. It really is crazy - when considering the enormous amount of content in the full TW3 release - how much partially-developed content was (probably) cut. The lands east of Oxenfurt, the areas north & northwest of Novigrad, the Nilfgaardian camp near Vizima, large swathes of central & northern Ard Skellige, the forests and coasts southwest of Novigrad, Temple Isle, the southern half of Oxenfurt, several uninhabited islands in Skellige, most of southern and eastern Beauclaire.
There have been many times during my hundreds of hours in TW3 where it seemed like more was intended to be in these spaces.
I would have loved a quest breaking the Church of the Eternal Fire.