Betrix5068 I think you're right in a way that those tribes were the last to practice pagan beliefs. However, even when they did they were officially under the Christian rulers, be that Muscovites/Russians or Swedes. Lithuania was the last pagan country in a sense that its rulers were pagan.
MrFlipToy Tht is right. Teutonic knights often raided Lithuanian border for wealth and "not slaves". Occsionaly they "get lost" in polish border and claimed their prize anyway because "they were merely pretending to be converted".
Betrix5068 Yeah, true. What's meant by the last pagan country is that Jogaila was the last pagan ruler in Europe to convert. And also, in many places (see Ural, Prussia, Lithuania, Baltic states) populace did officially convert but never really stopped praising the old gods, creating a weird mish-mash of pagan and Christian beliefs. So Christianisation is a rather oversimplified term to use in these situations.
The Adda - in the books it was implied she would be mentally like a child, but it was only temporary. She had to re-learn stuff. But by the time game takes place, it made perfect sense for Adda to be normal adult.
LN2233 Yes. Kotor 2 is flawed. You should play it again sometime. Both to see how flawed it is, and to remember how awesome it is in spite of that. Kotor 1 on the other hand I would agree with you, that game is not flawed like it's sequel is, that game is a solid 9/10 for me.
Agreed, I just started playing the second for a first time and revisiting a video about revisiting the first really brings back a lot about all the feelings I had when I played the first one back in 2014. A great game, a distinct game, an incredibly janky, ugly and somehow beautiful game.
Actually, George, the English translation of the Witcher is a scandal. It's not just that it is horribly bad, it is actually full of holes. I played through the Witcher twice, with Polish voices and English subs (I'm not Polish, but I understand the language) and almost every character will say like 5 sentences in Polish, but you will see only one or two in the English subs. I don't know if the publisher or the devs were in charge of the English translation, but whoever did it simply didn't do their job. And I'm not just talking about flavour dialogue here, I had to replay through the end of act 3 at least three times, loading an autosave from 20mn ago, because there is some crucial dialogue that is just cut in the English subs! To make it worse, it seems like the other versions have been translated from the English text, not the Polish original. I tested the French version, and the cuts were the same... W2 and W3 are a lot better in this respect, because the devs wrote both ENG and PL versions simultaneously as they were developping the game. I still find the Polish version is better, but for W2 and 3 that's a subjective opinion.
Late response to this. =P If I understood it correctly the Polish version was written and recorded before the other versions. Atari handled the publishing of the game outside of Poland and I think they paid for the actors in those versions too. Which meant that they had given CDPR a "word budget." When the game was translated to the other languages the ended up exceeding the word budget Atari had given them, which meant that they had to cut a lot. Making the other versions have less lines than the Polish version. CDPR still dealt with the Polish localisation themselves, so they never had the problem with having to cut any Polish dialogue from the game.
Later answer I just got through an English dub French sub of the game and there are parts of the dialogue that are cut out in the sub, I would think it is the same for every sub and dub
I'm so happy that I decided to play the first Witcher with Russian subs... _(I liked the sound of English Geralt, but felt too lazy to deal with alchemy terms and monster names in English)_ because I realised very soon that either the English dub or the subs were full of shit, and switched to the Polish dub to check. What a shock that was, to realise just how much the English version fucked up. I got an impression that whoever translated the game into Russian worked with the Polish original, because for the most part the dialogue had accurate subtitles... thankfully. p.s. Drunk Polish Geralt is the best Geralt.
So... Get drunk with Talar he is going to give you a book. Read it, and take it to the cleaning-shoes guy. He will realise that you know who he is, and he is going to give you a ring. This ring is being respected by old people, so put it into your finger and show it to Shanis grandma. This way she will be no problem at all.
Another way for her to permanently let you in is to get the "Will you take pity on the kitty?" dialogue and give her about 30 orens. She never kicked me out again after that.
Theirs so much heart in this game overall, i think that goes for the series though. The creators are passionate about their game, culture, and work and it pays off. It doesn't feel like it was made by a committee it feels like it was driven by one or a couple talented people. It may sound strange but its very similar to Japaneses developers are run with one lead developer/director who runs the show. And i like that i always feel that is needed in the development cycle.
Theo Truter And the Japanese Devs did also put a lot of their own culture in their games and made it popular in other parts of the world. It's like poetry, they rhyme :D
"Too many cooks will spoil the broth" is a term that more AAA developers need to understand. I mean, compare any canon MGS game to an Assassin's Creed game. There's a big difference in the character, story, care, and consistency.
Dears SuperBunnyhop and SuperBunnyhop's Comment section, It so happens that I'm polish, have read the books (be it a decade ago) and have plyayed the games. As such I would like to offer a few pieces of insight on the subject. Firstly, in regards to the books themselves: * The matter of sex firs off all (mostly to get it out of the way) - all along the series it is mostly pandering to a teenage boy audiance which is facilitated by Geralt's infertility BUT (in quite total opposition to the games) Geralt's never really looking for it. He's just a real magnet for women (on the account of him being the ultimate badass whith whom you can have unlimited unprotected casual sex). * I' ve never seen a version of the book in english but I can tell you that accuratly translating the kind of language Sapkowski is using would be (in my humble opinion) practically impossible. The thing is written in a style quite clearly borrowed from (or at least paying homage to) Henryk Sienkiewicz - a prominent XXth century polish wrighter that engineered a form of polish that would (in his mind) fit the renaissance settings of his multiple novels while still being comprehensible to the contemporary reader. Add to that the fact that, in hindsight we know that (despite his best efforts) his version of old polish has very little to do with the way actual XVth century polish nobles might have talked and you get a linguistic and cultural construct that just cannot be translated. I think... * As to the structure of the universe, well, (and here we're entering personal opinion land, but I'm pretty convinces by my take on it) the novellas are quite different from the "saga". The novellas establish the basic premise (which is probably why people told you to read them first) but they only really do that. And concerning that particular matter: the novellas are essentially fairy tales. With all the outlandish goofy elements of fairy tales contrasted with a healthy dose of (CYNICAL) down to earth realism. Imagine Ariel the Mermaid Princess that falls in love with a human Prince and goes thru a painful (and permanent) magic ritual that will transform her tail into legs. She leaves her home, forever, forsakes her family and friends for true love. The Princes father then convinces his son that this kind of marriage is finantially and dynastically unviable and that the girl poses a threat as she might spread the rumor that the young Prince sleeps around (with filthy freaks no less!).So she gets burnt at the stake for wichcraft. This is the basic model for the novellas - subverted fairy tales. * Geralt himself is another matter. He is the ultimate hero. Or even Hero (in the ancient greek sence). The premise being that a arthurian/greek Hero never looses, not really. The problem is that this kind of character would be REALLY boring or REALLY goofy. Geralt gets TRASHED in more than one encounter (even thou he wins in the end) which gives him some basic believability. Than comes the witcher part that essentially makes him an ubermensch of sorts. Furthermore we learn that he is an exceptionally skilled witcher. All of these elements (hopefully) let him remain credible while he remains virtually invincible. * Further concerning Geralt: he actually is not cynical. To the contrary - he is a hardcore idealist at heart. He just presents a wall of cynicism to the world in order to protect himself from the ruthlessness of said world. But that is very much what we learn about him as the story progresses. * Dandelion (named Jaskier in the origial version) is to Geralt pretty much as Homer would be to Heracles. He recounts the deeds and of this face-destroying human army in a way that ommits all the curse words, all the violent rape scenes, and all the scenes where the victime of said violent rape finds herself in a worse position than if her "hero" would not have saved her from the assault as now she will probably be sold to a pimp that actualy kills girls. The entire book is written with a premise that formulates kind of like this: this is how these fairy tales would have have hapenned if they had internal consistency. Now concerning the games (well... mostly the Witcher 1 as you mostly talk about the Witcher 1): * Your point about the colorfullness of the world that is marketed as "dark fantasy" is spot on and I would just like to add that this is due to the fact that these ARE supposed to be fairy tales taken seriously - the seriousness comes from the things that happen thou, not from the setting itsef. * Chapter IV was certainly my favorite part of the Witcher 1 (and thematically of all the series really). It just drowns (in a good way) in arthurian myth and polish folklore. I'm not going to go into much detail here but the quest about the two sisters who became wraiths just before the eldest's wedding day is a retelling of Słowacki's Balladyna (google it) which is a play every polish person knows. Arguably the pending wedding feast (lost in a limbo of merrymaking blindly waiting for the object of the festivities to join them while said girl (/concept) is long dead) is a retelling of Wyspiański's Wesele (Wedding) google it 2.0). Even the arthurian mythology isnt out of place. Medieval Poland (around the 1200s when the witcher ostensibly takes place (on its own time line that seems to, rather conveniently, use a calendar systhem fiendishly similar to ours)) was a Roman Catholic country, with mostly Catholic elites, and a still quite pagan deep countryside. My point being that he arthurian mythos was commonly known to the contemporary polish nobility while the common people might still call forth the spirits of their dead ancestors once a moon year (or something along those lines). Additional note: I really found the offering of a copy of the Witcher 2 to President Obama to be extramly cringeworthy (as anyone would I let myself presume) but it actually kind of makes sense (in it's own butt-clenching way). The game throws you in a DISTINCTLY west slavic high middle ages fantasy setting. It might be discreet to someone that knows nothing about west slavic culture, but that is the point. the Beatles certainly were distinctly british, and thru their success exported britishness outside of britain without anyone even noticing it. That what the Witcher does to a TROUMENDOUSLY LESSER DEGREE!!! But still... TL;DR : Another great video! Thumbs up!
"Imagine a fairy tale, right, but the women are treated even worse." wow what cultural innovations will central Europe come up with next? objectifying & brutalising women...how do they come up with this stuff?
@@TheSoulHarvester Imagine taking any given subject, and making it all about women's alleged victimization, disregarding any other themes that may or may not be in there. Wow! What will the west, mired in its own inadequacies and guilt concerning its past, come up with next!?
Witcher 1 gave me a headache a lot of the time when I played it. But 30 percent of the time it gave me a very dreamlike feeling that only Vanilla WoW has managed to do to me. Great game.
Come to think of it, you're right. I only played the first Witcher last year, but it gave me the exact feeling you're describing. I think there's only a handful of games that have been able to really do that.
It actually took me 3-4 times of installing the first Witcher, since 2008. Only two weeks ago, I've started reading the Last Wish AND playing the game. This helped - I fell in love :) Pacing and fetch quests are indeed a problem, but after a while I got used to planning my route through the world for maximum efficiency. I love how the game (and the book) shows life in grayscale - not just black and white - the goodies and the baddies. Except Dagon - he had to go.
As someone from Poland, I'd like to thank you for the amazing care and attention to detail I can see just by looking at how you documented your research. I always felt that people from western cultures miss the point of The Witcher, but your awareness of how CYNICAL the material is seems to demonstrate that you came as close to understanding what the whole franchise is about as one from outside culture can. THANK YOU!
I started replaying the series after the netflix show dropped. Witcher 1, I haven't played in a few years but I was pleasantly surprised with the attention to detail. For example, when it rains, NPC's will run for cover and even comment on the weather. NPC's will also remember who you sided with during the faction quests. Great series overall
It can be fun. Roach is the name of the fish. But the name of the fence surrounding the house sounds almost the same. Płotka (fish), Płot (name of the fence in the eye of the building). The riders tied their mounts to fences so that they would not go away. This can be the origin. Anyway, who knows what was in the author's head :-D
I liked the alchemy system in the first game, the elixirs effects lasted for hours, just like they were supposed to, judging by the books. They fucked up the alchemy in the sequels of the game though.
No they didn't fucked up the alchemy. They make sure that it's not OP. The fact that the alchemy in the first game lasted hours long, if that was implemented in the second or third game, Geralt is pretty much a tanker that could just marched on any enemies without worrying about health dropping (Swallow) and even more so that enemies could easily get rekt with enhanced attack power (Thunderbolt).
You just put into words what I've been trying to tell people for years about the first Witcher game. Its such a bad game, yet it somehow overcomes all of it to be such a memorable experience. I hope you find time to read rest of the books before Witcher 3. There are just so many references that you will miss without reading The Sword of Destiny and the entire saga. As good as The Wild Hunt is, having read the novels just enhances the experience that much more.
There are precisely two Adda's. The first one was Foltest's sister, he got her pregnant and they married. All to his plan, royalty is weird. Their child was stillborn, also resulting in Adda's death. Foltest named his deceased daughter after his wife, as to honor her memory I guess. The rest you can witness in the original Witcher's intro cinematic. They never buried her, put her in a sarcophagus instead, where she became a Striga years later. All due to a curse, might I add. One of Foltests advisors fell in love with Adda, mad with jealousy and contempt for Foltests incest ass.
This is a very emotional game. It's got enough joints, but I still love it. I liked when some moments of the game made me laugh bugs or just simply jokes with tons of sarcasm. (Especially the face Zoltan, it's just hard) Collecting cards, mad at what didn't work for animations, or just simply crashes the game(It was rare) that is What I love about the first Witcher. For sincerity and the positive and negative emotions that it gave me. I love these games, books and the universe. I'm always gonna love them.
The Witcher 1 is a sleazy, shlocky b-grade fantasy game, not unlike the kind of low budget b-movie from the 80s you'd find on VHS in the back of a video store. And I love it specifically for that reason.
I can't agree harder with this review!! I played this recently to prepare for The Wild Hunt and I loved how bad it was! I absolutely adored The Witcher 1 and I couldn't point to where or when! The cheesy dialogue, flavorful characters, interesting chests and simplistic combat kept me going through it and I loved it! One of my personal favorite moments was in Act 5. By this point you best everyone who is anyone at Dice Poker and you play FOLTEST! You destroy him and get like 2000 Orens and feel like a king. It's great hahaha
For anyone who wants to give the books a try: the order isn't really as complicated as the video makes it out to be. First come the two short story anthologies - this is how The Witcher series originally started and where the story, characters and worldbuilding are set up - they're essential reading. Then come the five novels with an overarching plot. Lastly and optionally, there's a sidequel published years after the last book. So the full order is: Shorts: The Last Wish Sword of Destiny Novels: Blood of Elves Time of Contempt Baptism of Fire Tower of the Swallow Lady of the Lake Sidequel: Season of Storms
James Sunderland it’s not in the first few lines of the game. In the beginning of the game the narrator just says he “disappeared for a while but that’s another story” and his friend just says “you look like you came out of the grave” but that can easily be interpreted as a figure of speech.
One of the things that I found most impressive when playing the original Witcher is its implementation of drinking. You can develop resistance to certain alcohols and try to outdrink NPCs, but there are so many robust and unpredictable outcomes when trying to win.
"European" folklore, "european" totems... More like Polish. Each country has it's history and are vastly different from each other. I'm tired of americans using the word Europe as it were the United Sates.
Adam Jones in all fairness most European countries are far older with long histories, who only still survive today due to alot of sacrifice over the last 1500 years as such are defensive as being generalised it would be like saying mexico and Canada are the same place
There's more than only Polisch references (names and wordplays) in the game though. Alot of dutch and flemisch and probably more western european ones.
Yeap, you got it right. I mean, I see quite a few people saying "You managed to articulate what I felt and couldn't say" and that's great. I for one loved the fetch quests and slow burn of most of the game. I wanted it slow and 'boring' so I can read more and soak up how the places looked and felt. I've seen quite a few inconsistencies, silly writing (that "Oh, what the hell. Strip" scene cracked me up so hard when I played) glitches, frame drops, all of it. It doesn't matter, though. It's pleasant, and it's not afraid to be dumb. This game is huggable. I wanna hug it.
Great video, but I have to disagree about the "phoned in ending". I think the ending was great and the rest of the game built up to it very nicely. I especially enjoyed it because it was sort of a twist on the main arc of the books. A cheesy ending for sure, but I wouldn't call it phoned it. And yes... I know... 3 years late... wtver :P
The first Witcher feels like the awkward teen phase of the series, what with how janky everyone looks and behaves, how awkwardly stilted the conversations are, and how the gender relations and outlook to sex might very well have been taken from group conversations between male 9th-graders. It just presents itself with such fiery passion and naiveté, I can't but love it in all it's pimpled, voice-cracking, teen-moustached glory.
Mr. Gradgrind I know, right? I remember my first hour with the game. I felt really underwhelmed, and to be honest, I felt like that until the end of the second chapter. But you know what? The game grew on me. Almost to the point where now, after 2 years, I even feel like replaying it. The atmosphere was just excellent.
As for conversations, Polish dub was pretty good , i heard Russian and German ones were also ok so conversations sound better in those versions. Sex cards, I don’t know why people complain so much about them they are immature yes, so what? It shows that game doesn't always take itself seriously and even more important it laughs of players who want to fuck every character "look you got a card are proud of your self? :D", game itself never force you to collect them. The problem i had with first witcher was how unpolished it looked in first hour of the gameplay. How horribly paced second act was and finally how shitty, qte combat was.
You see, I loved this game too. Sometimes I'm amazed with the amount of bullshit we're willing to put up with. It's funny when I end up talking about games with someone who has enough introspection to understand their opinions, and we find that we like and dislike the same things; we just operate at different thresholds. I actually think even the newest game in the series is jank, but I still like it. All you have to do is set the difficulty to a level where the jank doesn't frustrate, and it's fine. Have geralt roll in place because there's a stray polygon that sharply raises the elevation by a grand total of a centimeter when you get killed in 3 hits, is jank. It's just easy to look past with all the things it does well. Why the fuck are the same people who praise dark souls for the lore and immersion able to laugh their asses off at the ragdoll physics and have no problem with the lack of believeabilty that brings? We're so selective about the things we care about.
First Witcher is kind of like Gothic. It is shit. Its production values are low, team was inexperienced, the engine is shit, the game is janky, bugged to hell and pretty much everything has a slight shit feeling. But it's apparent, that people working on it were extatic to have it made. It's labor of love, guys at CDPred put their heart and soul into it, and you can see and feel it in every nook and cranny of the game world and that's what compells you to play it.
They were not ecstatic, they were driven like slaves. They didn't put their hearts and souls, they put their health (physical and mental) and social life in it.
@@lukkkasz323 Crunching even for a month is a sign of bad time management by the company. And if it's for few years straight, it's not crunch, it's slavery.
I'd say the ending wasn't quite as phoned in as you say. The final villain was introduced in one of the most original ways ever in an RPG, in my experience (Spoilers: he was the kid you sort-of adopted). And his motivations actually make quite a bit of sense if you consider his point of view, the visions he recieved, and the lore of the world. Another thing I loved about the first Witcher game was even though Garalt had the whole amnesia treatment we've seen so often, he still remembered quite a bit about his profession and the world around him. During some conversations he would explain things to the player just as often as Solid Snake might repeat back the last two words in question form in his own game. Flawed, but quite redeemable, and able to surprise.
So as a fan of Berserk the Witcher appealed to me on a similar level(didnt get far, computer exploded and now I really can only play Morrowind on my laptop) but it is definitely interesting to hear that the Witcher takes these mediaeval myths and makes them fresh and interesting! Also the Gerald gets a lot more character development than you would expect a gravely voice cool dude to get.(I like when that happens, although its usually impossible to explain) Cool video though George! Looking forward to the next one
From isnt gonna make a Berserk game, and in all truth I kinda dont think we will be seeing another chapter very soon. I do wish there was more Berserk though. :c From the sounds of the Witcher though, its interesting to see a completely different series deal with almost the same subject matter.
"They tried, they really tried" is really how I come to love games too. If I can feel the passion, the drive to bring about the developer's vision then it honestly doesn't matter to me how janky the combat is or if I don't like some of the themes. It's why I still like the first Witcher over the others despite the obvious technical superiority (in both gameplay and writing) of the others. It's why I can enjoy Deadly Premonition despite it being pretty objectively terrible in many ways. I love the feeling of playing a game and feeling that this is what the developers wanted, even (_perhaps_ especially...) if that includes cheesy sex cards.
I remember an excellent bug from The Witcher whereby in cutscenes the witcher closeups were at full frames per second but cut to the old gentleman he was talking to and the old fella's beard would fall into place all at 10fps then cut back to the witcher at full fps like, "I'm fine old man, the problem's on YOUR side of the scene". Looking forward to your comments on the second installment, George.
while Poland were one of the last pagans they were not the very last ones. the Baltic countries and nations of Estonia Latvia and Lithuania (the Romuva religion), plus the now culturally extinct country of Prussia (not the german one, pagan Prussians were located roughly where the nowadays Belaruss is.... edit: I messed up, it was actually in Kaliningrad south west from Lithuania and North of Poland) were the last ones. they were the farthest away from the Vatican going North eastwards so it makes sense :D (though the christianization of Finland started allready in 11th century, while Lithuania Got babtised in the end of 14th)
Paganism is alive and well here still ;] check out clips by żywiołak, or magda przychodzka, derwana. ;] Traditions are still here despite a semic cancer
Mhm, I know, I even know a Polish pagan, really cool and nice person :) And Romuvan paganism is still alive here too, some people just want to get back to the very roots of their culture, I think it is wonderful, here it actually got a revival in the populous during the independence period in the 1920's to 1940's. And I was talking about paganism more in the official sense, as a diplomatic status of a country, after getting baptized people still performed their rituals, such as giving grass snakes eggs and milk to win favor with the old gods for hundreds of years after, I imagine a lot of them just got baptized to be left alone and to get a free linen shirt, Paul John Peter Ąžuolas would have three nice linen shirts at least, because some would go several times :D.
Neo-paganism is not the same thing as Paganism. Neo-pagans just picked what they liked in old traditions, ornaments and culture and made it a pop-cultural trend sligthly off mainstream. It looks cool and it sells. It also promotes cultural heritage very well but it's not a damn religion... (PS: It's *Semitic* not *semic*. As in *anti-Semitic* world view which you are displaying. Would you mind keeping our national identity separate from your personal bias? )
I think it depends on the person or group and the specific offshoot of the re-established pagan beliefs that they follow. it deppends If they just picked the aspects which they like, to hold the oldest values and symbols of their ancestors, which are still compatible with the present day, or if they try to historically reconstruct the entire thing as authentically as possible according to folklore and historical evidence and accounts. Modern Paganism is classified as a group of religious beliefs, and people studying it for academic reasons think of it as a bunch of religions. In the end it depends on the person if they are actually religious or just explore modern paganism to connect with their ethnic identity, same for the reasons of expressing it in their creativity. I do not disagree with you entirely, I am just saying ''it depends''. After the independence when religions could be official again ''Romuva was recognised as an Ancient Baltic faith community in 1992'' and in 1995 a law was passed that recognised it as a non traditional religion, the law in Lithuania requires for a religion to exist for more than 25 years until it is classified as traditional. so supposedly this year it should become traditional. Oooh so that's what he meant by 'semic' ( did he really?) ... Damn, I thought ''what does Semantic Interoperability Community, have to do with anything?''
I don't disagree with you either. I was talking about media personalities, musicians, etc. who get some money on the back of it and their fans considering themselves Neo-Pagans because of them. What they don't get is that you can't just dress like someone or listen to particular music to become that person if you know what I mean. Thanks for all the info tho. Very interesting stuff. ------- I think that's exacly what he meant. In our language "semites" is spelled "semici" and "semitic" is "semicki". There is no "t". But I'll not give this more attention. I believe we can both agree, it's just bellow standards. That's a SIC acronym, hahaha
Thanatos388 A game cannot be 10% mediocre. Honestly, I'd say way more than 10% of the Witcher is seriously flawed. That doesn't of course mean that it hasn't got its charms. Nontheless, I'd say (just like George) that the Witcher 1 is no more than mediocre. Admirable for a first game project on a low budget but still completely mediocre when looked at as a product.
God I love the Witcher. You expressed it very well. The atmosphere in this game is grimy and strangely comforting at the same time. It has a 'pacing problem', but I gotta say I loved the parts where you were solving minor things, instead of saving the world.
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You should have tried the original Polish voice acting: it is much better than the English voice acting, and - for me at least - the fact that I'm listening to a foreign language helped me to get immersed more into the game world; it felt like a medieval fantasy world far away with it's own language and everything.
***** This exists within film as well, they would scoff at anyone watching a foreign film dubbed. Actually popular opinion with watching foreign movies, to be consider a pleb if you're not watching it in its original language.
vonVince If you know jack shit about the language in a video game you're playing, then you're in absolutely no position, what so ever to judge the quality of the voice acting. And hearing Polish in a generic Tolkien fantasy RPG sounds utterly silly.
***** Or maybe, just maybe, get this, both mediums contain people who are actually invested into them and understand them more than you, who happens to expose himself to them on the most superficial, basic way. But nah, putting people into groups which you can easily hate and ridicule for caring about something more than you do is far easier and satiates the ego far more, doesn't it.
It's true that the game is so much better with Polish voices, though the third outing is still pretty amazing in English. Myself being a Pole I read the books in my early teens and fell in love with the franchise. Now, after all these years, being able to meet all those characters again come alive on the screen... it's hands down the best gaming experience I've ever had. And it fills me with pride, that such broken, depressed country as Poland is finally able to find something it's good at! Look at the success of the Dead Island, Dying Light, The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter, Witcher 3... It's way to early to say, but it would be so awesome if Poland could one day become the new capital of videogames (that Japan once was and sadly, seems to be losing its crown with each new crappy game they release). Probably not.. but it's something to think about;) How cool would that be?!?;)
R Michalski I think the capital of videogames is a little bit too ambitious, but I think Poland can be proud of being currently number one in Europe. Even if I'm not from Poland, as an European I'm also a bit proud of what CDPR has achieved.
R Michalski Dead Island and Dying Light get a not so great rap though. I myself didn't like dead Island at all once I gave it a proper shot, and I was playing with a friend too. (didn't know the creators were polish, huh, good to know.) Sorry to be a downer, I'm not really sure what to think. Long Live Poland as a place where games come from as long as they are really good games.
Give them the break, they didn't have years of experience coming from North American game industry, they were gaining this experience while building game industry in their country
Hm, Poland was for sure not the last pagan european country. It converted to christianity in 966, while Hungary, Iceland, Sweden and Norway did a bit later. And Lithuania did 450 years afterwards! So there is a bit of inaccuracy there, and it would be nice of you to put a disclaimer there. Awesome video nonetheless. Cheers!
9:40 where did that shit come from? Poland baptised in 966 CE, it took another 400 years for the last European ruler Jagiello to convert which btw was a part of polish-lithuanian royal matrymony and took place in Cracow - Polish capital of that time. So not only Poland Christianized somewhere in the middle, they also evangelized other nations.
the Trolls in Witcher 2 were my favorite things ever. But i have a soft spot in my heart for giant lumbering monsters who actually have good hearts, to one degree or another.
Nope, Geralt in the books isn't more cruel and talkative. What the hell? Define "cruel", I'm curious what you mean by that because it was different in medieval standards.. He has his own "code" according to which he, for example, doesn't kill dragons. He also prefers to be neutral which he realises isn't the best idea. Geralt in games is what you choose him to be like, more or less. And reading books I always had this impressions that he talks when he has something to say which is good, IMO. In games he also shows some emotions.
Witcher 2 > Witcher 1 >>>>>>>>> shit > "Witcher" 3 Like fucking really, does it take to just make good graphics and open world to make everyone shit with hype? Photorealistic graphics in the 3rd lack artistic style and atmosphere of the previous games. Main quest is just a fucking sad joke in Witcher 3, since the 1/3 of the game I had to force myself into completing it, I didn't feel engaged at all. There was no plot twist. You fight fucking Wild Hunt, just like in the title. THAT'S ALL. Now get fucking bored to death. Villages and towns looks so artifical, people just walk around and make stupid strange sounds when you walk into them -- that's it. Compare it to the previous games. The combat system is also the worst one in 3rd game. First game's combat was unique and I had a lot of fun playing it, it wasn't the greatest for sure, but it didn't feel irritating at least. The Witcher 2 had the best combat, tho it was very similiar to the witcher 3. What was better in 2nd? You could feel the fucking weight of your hit, also, you were a human after all, when you moved even tho you're supernatural mutant you had to take some time still. What we have in The "Witcher" 3? Jumping everywhere like a fucking ape, doing spinning attacks 24/7, feeling 0 actual impact your sword does to the enemy (even worse when you unlock that retarded permaspin attack). That just felt insanely stupid, completly ruining immersion to the point I'd be more ok with the 1st one combat system... Not to mention that alchemy in the 3rd game is a joke compared to previous ones, and here prove me wrong... Why Witcher 2 is the best for me? Well: Witcher 1 -- Combat: 2/5, Story & atmosphere: 5/5 --- 7pt Witcher 2 -- Combat: 3,5/5, Story & atmoshpere: 4/5 ---- 7,5pt Witcher 3 -- Combat: 1,5/5, Story & atmosphere: are you kidding/5 -- 1,5pt (ok, graphics are detailed, so yeah, have +0,5pt -- 2) Yeah, and if you look for a good open world RPG just don't think about Witcher games, play Fallout or smth. They won't ever be good as open world games and 3rd game proved it. Saying all above as a fan who read all of the saga books in original language, btw in those Ciri's plot was such shitty and boring those were the worst parts of the saga (which actually is all about Ciri & Geralt & Yennefer, but there is still some side shit that's very good). I don't know how devs haven't seen that, among saga fans it's a common statement that the whole Ciri plot is shit and little novels are much much better.
KappaKnight I respectfully disagree on all aspects and you can thusly shove your completely aggressive and subjective, mind you, opinion back up your ass where your head is.
KappaKnight seriously are you kidding you’re saying I should play the hot garbage that is f:NV or F3 or F4 I was taking it seriously till you said that
KappaKnight Witcher 3 1.5/10.... lol I mean... Wow..... The Witcher 3 is objectively one of the best games of the generation. Even if it were only "decent" a 1.5/10 is not remotely indicative of that. It passes by its writing and visuals alone to be high-graded material.
It is incredible that this great franchise started as a super big 'mod' of Neverwinter Nights 2. As many other great games from today had their origins in mods from other great games.
The games are set after the books, that's why so the Princess becomes a Strigger again and in the books is the first time it happens. That's why the amnesia is a thing. For those confused
Wusel "Let's take the most interesting part of the game and make it shit!That sounds like a good idea!!" Meh.They truly fucked the alchemy system.Is almost as bad as Skyrim.
LN2233 For the Witcher 3 all you have to do is find the ingredients of the potion once and then you can get a free refill when you rest if you have alcohol. As for 1 and 2 you need to follow the potion recipe to the letter. You have to have the required ingredients every time.
I was planning on reading the books, and didn't know he died at the end of the books. That's a major spoiler there, Bunnyhop. I wish you would have not done that. Goddamn that defeats the entire purpose of reading them.
Well maybe not the entire purpose, as you may argue it's more about the journey than the destination, but if you have the ending spoiled of something you spend over 50 hours on, it greatly takes away from the experience as a whole.
What's the point of this reply. Yes, he comes back in the first game, but that doesn't mean there isn't a disconnect from the games and the books. The games doesn't follow the story completely, so whether or not he "comes back" in the first game matters not at all, as it's a game based on the books, but not the books themselves.
Jinxtah Yes, but you can't have a player control a literature character in an RPG and expect it to be "accurately" portrayed. The books are a separate experience that enhance the fantastic journey the games take you through
@@buck5200 No. Ive read the first two book. He didnt die then :D. At its not at all obvious that he is going to die at the end of the series. What happend happend. Just put a pop up thing saying spoilers. Job done :)
she isn't mentally impaired for the rest of her life, she just hasn't lived as a human for years so she's still behaves as a baby until she's taught proper manners and all that.
Wonder if Super Bunnyhop has even played Drakengard? If you want flawed, but super interesting, holy shit that is the pinnacle of amazing, crappy games.
I'm really impressed by amount of research you did. Many reviewers didn't make an effort to even check out a books, not even mention comparison between novel and game. You made some very interesting points about how Witcher novels and European folklore are perceive in Western World. Great video, man.
Witcher(Monster Hunter) : He fights very few monsters Games of Thrones: There is only one Throne, Winter never really came, Dragons are useless. Spartacus(Blood and Sand): Gladiators mostly Flexed and screwed around. Breaking Bad: Drogs are Bad. Yea TV shows are just puling a fast one on us by promising us what we find interesting and putting Human feelings and politics and real life issues inside, what a pranksters.
Ehhh don't Google Bałwan if you want to find this sculpture. Bałwan is insulting name for this probably given by church. It name is światowod. Świat means world. Wid comes from widzieć what means see. Because he is looking on four directions of world.
2019/2020 feels like a year of remasters... I WOULD LOVE TO see remaster of The Witcher 1 and 2, even if this would be just DLC for W3 :) love it. I hate when good games are "abandoned". I always thought that W3 had so much more potential for more DLC, even something like "endgame dlc" that would give us quests to track and kill new epic monsters.
The Wither books can be divided into three groups: - “The Sword of Destiny” and “The Last Wish”, are not novels but completions of short stories published earlier separately in magazines, Sapkowski wrote some stories to connect them but it is very lose. Unfortunately the main sweet spots of the books are the specific language and nuances that English speaker won’t get. To book defense there are very popular not only in Poland but in many countries, especially in Eastern Europe (Russia, Czech Rep, Slovakia). Sapkowski was very successful, the books were translated into 10 languages. Why it took so long to go to English? Simple, first there are lots of fantasy novels in English, second English speakers usually dismiss eastern European culture and don’t know anything about it. - 5 tom saga, it should be more compelling to English speakers as it is one big story, believe or not it is regarded as lesser then the short novels in Poland. - “Season of Storms” - written something like 30 years after the first short story, it is a prequel to all books (as Geralt dies at the end of the saga), I think this book shows how much better the Author has got in all this year’s. Read this one first! If you don’t like it, don’t bother with the rest.
About the Bałwan thing, you'll have much easier time searching for "Światowid". It's a specific type of that totem. Ah screw it, here's how wikipedia translates it en.wikipedia.org/?title=Zbruch_Idol
Didn't get past the first fight on my witcher try out, those controls on an rpg timescale seemed painful. Looks like it's worth a second look though. Mods and fetch quests await You're the best SB, one of the few you tubers I sit down and deliberately watch without distraction
I was thinking that Roach was named after the insect as well, seeing as Eskell named his horse scorpion I just assumed it was some sort of witcher tradition to name your horse after an insect
Your way of looking at the Polish religion is a little off, I thought Poland converted to Christianity relatively early. And I don't understand why you think of the endings of each story "90's" in nature, man that's an insult :L I find the introspective nature of the series not only unique for fantasy, but quite refreshing. Of all fantasy I've read, there are only three truly unique and original takes on fantasy: LOTR, ASOIAF and the Witcher, hell I'd say even the translation isn't *that* awful, people put up with worse anime dubbing all the time. The 90's cinematic and gaming scene was plagued by overanalysing everything, but I find The Witcher to be the sweet spot of both reflection and postmodernism, Geralt isn't some dick waving a sword, the monsters aren't things to be killed. All in all, not a bad retrospective, look forward to your take in W2
Watching this not only years after the Witcher 3 was released, but even longer since I last beat the Witcher makes me really want to go back and play through W1 again.
I just finished playing through the Witcher 1 for the first time over the weekend and I agree with everything that you said. Even without the mods it still looks really good, but the loading times were crazy, specially when I was using quick save every opportunity that I could because there felt to be no checkpointing system. Just getting into the Witcher 2 and getting further than I did all the previous times I attempted to start it. I feel that playing the first game is definately reccommened. I tried to play starting with the second one with by the recommendation of my friend, but I feel that after getting through the first game I feel much more connected to the world. I look forward to watching your next video once I finish 2 for myself.
I love your videos and for the most part we share the same taste for videogames. The Witcher in particular and your knowledge seems quite impressive. All my support for MGSV disappointment upon the lack of a consistent plot ! Subscribed for it !! Keep it up!
Doom2Guy Actually, some of his guards are pretty accurate. Holding your sword above your head is called "Vom Tag." When his parry animation plays, he is doing a variation of "Auchs" which is called a "Hanger". It's his lower positions that are terrible. And the jumping. And turning his back on his opponents. That's the worst. But I was surprised by how well researched they were overall.
One little correction, just for the sake of historical truth. The last pagan country of Europe was not Poland but Lithuania, its medieval cousin.
MrFlipToy Wouldn't it be a finno-ugric minor? They didn't convert until the Russians and Swedes conquered them in the early 15th century.
Betrix5068 I think you're right in a way that those tribes were the last to practice pagan beliefs. However, even when they did they were officially under the Christian rulers, be that Muscovites/Russians or Swedes. Lithuania was the last pagan country in a sense that its rulers were pagan.
MrFlipToy Tht is right.
Teutonic knights often raided Lithuanian border for wealth and "not slaves".
Occsionaly they "get lost" in polish border and claimed their prize anyway because "they were merely pretending to be converted".
The same could be said about Lithuania however as it had catholic dukes ruling over a heavily pagan population.
Betrix5068 Yeah, true. What's meant by the last pagan country is that Jogaila was the last pagan ruler in Europe to convert.
And also, in many places (see Ural, Prussia, Lithuania, Baltic states) populace did officially convert but never really stopped praising the old gods, creating a weird mish-mash of pagan and Christian beliefs. So Christianisation is a rather oversimplified term to use in these situations.
The Adda - in the books it was implied she would be mentally like a child, but it was only temporary. She had to re-learn stuff. But by the time game takes place, it made perfect sense for Adda to be normal adult.
It's even directly mentioned in the game
"Some of the most interesting games out there are the most flawed."
Gothic.Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.KotOR 2.
I don't know if I will say that KOTOR 2 is that flawed
LN2233
Yes. Kotor 2 is flawed. You should play it again sometime. Both to see how flawed it is, and to remember how awesome it is in spite of that.
Kotor 1 on the other hand I would agree with you, that game is not flawed like it's sequel is, that game is a solid 9/10 for me.
MadBrainBox Arcanum
CradeElcin Kotor 2 was so good.It could've been better if they had more than 10 months to work on the game.
CradeElcin
I think a lot of my enjoyment of kotor 1 was killed by the fact that 75% of your main story is a big fetch quest.
Man, this vid is good watching in 2019...
Agreed, I just started playing the second for a first time and revisiting a video about revisiting the first really brings back a lot about all the feelings I had when I played the first one back in 2014. A great game, a distinct game, an incredibly janky, ugly and somehow beautiful game.
Currently watching it, in 2020
@@coz4371 ayyy me too
Amen
@@coz4371 Also me! : )
Actually, George, the English translation of the Witcher is a scandal. It's not just that it is horribly bad, it is actually full of holes. I played through the Witcher twice, with Polish voices and English subs (I'm not Polish, but I understand the language) and almost every character will say like 5 sentences in Polish, but you will see only one or two in the English subs. I don't know if the publisher or the devs were in charge of the English translation, but whoever did it simply didn't do their job. And I'm not just talking about flavour dialogue here, I had to replay through the end of act 3 at least three times, loading an autosave from 20mn ago, because there is some crucial dialogue that is just cut in the English subs! To make it worse, it seems like the other versions have been translated from the English text, not the Polish original. I tested the French version, and the cuts were the same... W2 and W3 are a lot better in this respect, because the devs wrote both ENG and PL versions simultaneously as they were developping the game. I still find the Polish version is better, but for W2 and 3 that's a subjective opinion.
Late response to this. =P
If I understood it correctly the Polish version was written and recorded before the other versions.
Atari handled the publishing of the game outside of Poland and I think they paid for the actors in those versions too. Which meant that they had given CDPR a "word budget."
When the game was translated to the other languages the ended up exceeding the word budget Atari had given them, which meant that they had to cut a lot. Making the other versions have less lines than the Polish version.
CDPR still dealt with the Polish localisation themselves, so they never had the problem with having to cut any Polish dialogue from the game.
Later answer
I just got through an English dub French sub of the game and there are parts of the dialogue that are cut out in the sub, I would think it is the same for every sub and dub
I've played the game with Polish voices and Czech subs and I've noticed that too.
I'm so happy that I decided to play the first Witcher with Russian subs... _(I liked the sound of English Geralt, but felt too lazy to deal with alchemy terms and monster names in English)_ because I realised very soon that either the English dub or the subs were full of shit, and switched to the Polish dub to check. What a shock that was, to realise just how much the English version fucked up. I got an impression that whoever translated the game into Russian worked with the Polish original, because for the most part the dialogue had accurate subtitles... thankfully.
p.s. Drunk Polish Geralt is the best Geralt.
ackchyually
So... Get drunk with Talar he is going to give you a book. Read it, and take it to the cleaning-shoes guy. He will realise that you know who he is, and he is going to give you a ring. This ring is being respected by old people, so put it into your finger and show it to Shanis grandma. This way she will be no problem at all.
That's so random it's awesome haha.
duuude thank you sooo much xD never talked to the bootblack again after the first time xD
No worries : D Any other problem with The Witcher? Im here to help.
Avenged nah think i'm good for now :D
Another way for her to permanently let you in is to get the "Will you take pity on the kitty?" dialogue and give her about 30 orens. She never kicked me out again after that.
Theirs so much heart in this game overall, i think that goes for the series though. The creators are passionate about their game, culture, and work and it pays off. It doesn't feel like it was made by a committee it feels like it was driven by one or a couple talented people. It may sound strange but its very similar to Japaneses developers are run with one lead developer/director who runs the show. And i like that i always feel that is needed in the development cycle.
Theo Truter And the Japanese Devs did also put a lot of their own culture in their games and made it popular in other parts of the world.
It's like poetry, they rhyme :D
CradeElcin
Was that a George Lucas reference?!
CradeElcin That is also true Okami is a great example of that
"Too many cooks will spoil the broth" is a term that more AAA developers need to understand.
I mean, compare any canon MGS game to an Assassin's Creed game. There's a big difference in the character, story, care, and consistency.
tillmannfischer
Yes. Yes it was. But this time, actually applicable.
Dears SuperBunnyhop and SuperBunnyhop's Comment section,
It so happens that I'm polish, have read the books (be it a decade ago) and have plyayed the games. As such I would like to offer a few pieces of insight on the subject.
Firstly, in regards to the books themselves:
* The matter of sex firs off all (mostly to get it out of the way) - all along the series it is mostly pandering to a teenage boy audiance which is facilitated by Geralt's infertility BUT (in quite total opposition to the games) Geralt's never really looking for it. He's just a real magnet for women (on the account of him being the ultimate badass whith whom you can have unlimited unprotected casual sex).
* I' ve never seen a version of the book in english but I can tell you that accuratly translating the kind of language Sapkowski is using would be (in my humble opinion) practically impossible. The thing is written in a style quite clearly borrowed from (or at least paying homage to) Henryk Sienkiewicz - a prominent XXth century polish wrighter that engineered a form of polish that would (in his mind) fit the renaissance settings of his multiple novels while still being comprehensible to the contemporary reader. Add to that the fact that, in hindsight we know that (despite his best efforts) his version of old polish has very little to do with the way actual XVth century polish nobles might have talked and you get a linguistic and cultural construct that just cannot be translated. I think...
* As to the structure of the universe, well, (and here we're entering personal opinion land, but I'm pretty convinces by my take on it) the novellas are quite different from the "saga". The novellas establish the basic premise (which is probably why people told you to read them first) but they only really do that. And concerning that particular matter: the novellas are essentially fairy tales. With all the outlandish goofy elements of fairy tales contrasted with a healthy dose of (CYNICAL) down to earth realism. Imagine Ariel the Mermaid Princess that falls in love with a human Prince and goes thru a painful (and permanent) magic ritual that will transform her tail into legs. She leaves her home, forever, forsakes her family and friends for true love. The Princes father then convinces his son that this kind of marriage is finantially and dynastically unviable and that the girl poses a threat as she might spread the rumor that the young Prince sleeps around (with filthy freaks no less!).So she gets burnt at the stake for wichcraft. This is the basic model for the novellas - subverted fairy tales.
* Geralt himself is another matter. He is the ultimate hero. Or even Hero (in the ancient greek sence). The premise being that a arthurian/greek Hero never looses, not really. The problem is that this kind of character would be REALLY boring or REALLY goofy. Geralt gets TRASHED in more than one encounter (even thou he wins in the end) which gives him some basic believability. Than comes the witcher part that essentially makes him an ubermensch of sorts. Furthermore we learn that he is an exceptionally skilled witcher. All of these elements (hopefully) let him remain credible while he remains virtually invincible.
* Further concerning Geralt: he actually is not cynical. To the contrary - he is a hardcore idealist at heart. He just presents a wall of cynicism to the world in order to protect himself from the ruthlessness of said world. But that is very much what we learn about him as the story progresses.
* Dandelion (named Jaskier in the origial version) is to Geralt pretty much as Homer would be to Heracles. He recounts the deeds and of this face-destroying human army in a way that ommits all the curse words, all the violent rape scenes, and all the scenes where the victime of said violent rape finds herself in a worse position than if her "hero" would not have saved her from the assault as now she will probably be sold to a pimp that actualy kills girls. The entire book is written with a premise that formulates kind of like this: this is how these fairy tales would have have hapenned if they had internal consistency.
Now concerning the games (well... mostly the Witcher 1 as you mostly talk about the Witcher 1):
* Your point about the colorfullness of the world that is marketed as "dark fantasy" is spot on and I would just like to add that this is due to the fact that these ARE supposed to be fairy tales taken seriously - the seriousness comes from the things that happen thou, not from the setting itsef.
* Chapter IV was certainly my favorite part of the Witcher 1 (and thematically of all the series really). It just drowns (in a good way) in arthurian myth and polish folklore. I'm not going to go into much detail here but the quest about the two sisters who became wraiths just before the eldest's wedding day is a retelling of Słowacki's Balladyna (google it) which is a play every polish person knows. Arguably the pending wedding feast (lost in a limbo of merrymaking blindly waiting for the object of the festivities to join them while said girl (/concept) is long dead) is a retelling of Wyspiański's Wesele (Wedding) google it 2.0). Even the arthurian mythology isnt out of place. Medieval Poland (around the 1200s when the witcher ostensibly takes place (on its own time line that seems to, rather conveniently, use a calendar systhem fiendishly similar to ours)) was a Roman Catholic country, with mostly Catholic elites, and a still quite pagan deep countryside. My point being that he arthurian mythos was commonly known to the contemporary polish nobility while the common people might still call forth the spirits of their dead ancestors once a moon year (or something along those lines).
Additional note:
I really found the offering of a copy of the Witcher 2 to President Obama to be extramly cringeworthy (as anyone would I let myself presume) but it actually kind of makes sense (in it's own butt-clenching way). The game throws you in a DISTINCTLY west slavic high middle ages fantasy setting. It might be discreet to someone that knows nothing about west slavic culture, but that is the point. the Beatles certainly were distinctly british, and thru their success exported britishness outside of britain without anyone even noticing it. That what the Witcher does to a TROUMENDOUSLY LESSER DEGREE!!! But still...
TL;DR : Another great video! Thumbs up!
CatWithAHat2HD P.S. I am NOT spellchecking that bitch...
I think your version of the little mermaid is much better
Wow, the effort that went into this essay of a comment... Well done, and dziękuję for the entertaining read :)
"Imagine a fairy tale, right, but the women are treated even worse." wow what cultural innovations will central Europe come up with next? objectifying & brutalising women...how do they come up with this stuff?
@@TheSoulHarvester Imagine taking any given subject, and making it all about women's alleged victimization, disregarding any other themes that may or may not be in there. Wow! What will the west, mired in its own inadequacies and guilt concerning its past, come up with next!?
Witcher 1 gave me a headache a lot of the time when I played it. But 30 percent of the time it gave me a very dreamlike feeling that only Vanilla WoW has managed to do to me. Great game.
That ending made all the headaches worth it.
Come to think of it, you're right. I only played the first Witcher last year, but it gave me the exact feeling you're describing. I think there's only a handful of games that have been able to really do that.
Same, it gave me a literal headache and vertigo.. :') but it was still worth playing it
Obama receives The Witcher, the Pope receives Undertale. Have games became cultural gifts or something while I was asleep or what
Now even girls play games. Surprising, I know.
@@O1OO1O1 wtf
@@O1OO1O1 what has the world come to
Bruce Fellas I’m starting to think there are w*men on this website
@@GobaGNon lmao
It actually took me 3-4 times of installing the first Witcher, since 2008. Only two weeks ago, I've started reading the Last Wish AND playing the game. This helped - I fell in love :) Pacing and fetch quests are indeed a problem, but after a while I got used to planning my route through the world for maximum efficiency. I love how the game (and the book) shows life in grayscale - not just black and white - the goodies and the baddies. Except Dagon - he had to go.
For some reason I find your writing style very satisfying. It is both organised and chaotic at the same time.
As someone from Poland, I'd like to thank you for the amazing care and attention to detail I can see just by looking at how you documented your research. I always felt that people from western cultures miss the point of The Witcher, but your awareness of how CYNICAL the material is seems to demonstrate that you came as close to understanding what the whole franchise is about as one from outside culture can. THANK YOU!
I started replaying the series after the netflix show dropped. Witcher 1, I haven't played in a few years but I was pleasantly surprised with the attention to detail. For example, when it rains, NPC's will run for cover and even comment on the weather. NPC's will also remember who you sided with during the faction quests. Great series overall
Oh! The horse is named after a fish! That makes sense!
It can be fun. Roach is the name of the fish. But the name of the fence surrounding the house sounds almost the same.
Płotka (fish), Płot (name of the fence in the eye of the building). The riders tied their mounts to fences so that they would not go away.
This can be the origin. Anyway, who knows what was in the author's head :-D
I liked the alchemy system in the first game, the elixirs effects lasted for hours, just like they were supposed to, judging by the books. They fucked up the alchemy in the sequels of the game though.
No they didn't fucked up the alchemy. They make sure that it's not OP. The fact that the alchemy in the first game lasted hours long, if that was implemented in the second or third game, Geralt is pretty much a tanker that could just marched on any enemies without worrying about health dropping (Swallow) and even more so that enemies could easily get rekt with enhanced attack power (Thunderbolt).
They reworked the alchemy, in the first game it was better IMHO, and accurate to the books lore.
Having a potion effect for 30 seconds is pretty useless. Make it a few minutes or something.
I really miss Witcher 1 alchemy....
Witcher 1 in a nutshell, drink potions till toxicity limit, meditate 1h, repeat until every possible buff is activated and then obliterate everyone.
Minor smartassery: Lithuania was the last pagan country in Europe, not Poland.
You just put into words what I've been trying to tell people for years about the first Witcher game. Its such a bad game, yet it somehow overcomes all of it to be such a memorable experience. I hope you find time to read rest of the books before Witcher 3. There are just so many references that you will miss without reading The Sword of Destiny and the entire saga. As good as The Wild Hunt is, having read the novels just enhances the experience that much more.
There are precisely two Adda's. The first one was Foltest's sister, he got her pregnant and they married. All to his plan, royalty is weird. Their child was stillborn, also resulting in Adda's death. Foltest named his deceased daughter after his wife, as to honor her memory I guess.
The rest you can witness in the original Witcher's intro cinematic. They never buried her, put her in a sarcophagus instead, where she became a Striga years later. All due to a curse, might I add. One of Foltests advisors fell in love with Adda, mad with jealousy and contempt for Foltests incest ass.
There is also a rumor that Foltest's mother cursed the child
Princess adda was cursed and turned into a striga not her mother
Jon Snow it wasn’t her mother. It was a jealous lover of Adda iirc
This is a very emotional game. It's got enough joints, but I still love it. I liked when some moments of the game made me laugh bugs or just simply jokes with tons of sarcasm. (Especially the face Zoltan, it's just hard) Collecting cards, mad at what didn't work for animations, or just simply crashes the game(It was rare) that is What I love about the first Witcher. For sincerity and the positive and negative emotions that it gave me. I love these games, books and the universe. I'm always gonna love them.
The Witcher 1 is a sleazy, shlocky b-grade fantasy game, not unlike the kind of low budget b-movie from the 80s you'd find on VHS in the back of a video store. And I love it specifically for that reason.
+DrTheKay That's not petty, that's just being reasonable.
W1 has the best plot, soundtrack and overall feel, close to the one captured in the books, the game is hardly perfect, but it's still great
Jayson Ducharme I've 90 hours and even finished
The writing is far above B-grade though
Without the atmospheric music the game wouldn't be as good.
I can't agree harder with this review!!
I played this recently to prepare for The Wild Hunt and I loved how bad it was! I absolutely adored The Witcher 1 and I couldn't point to where or when!
The cheesy dialogue, flavorful characters, interesting chests and simplistic combat kept me going through it and I loved it!
One of my personal favorite moments was in Act 5. By this point you best everyone who is anyone at Dice Poker and you play FOLTEST! You destroy him and get like 2000 Orens and feel like a king. It's great hahaha
For anyone who wants to give the books a try: the order isn't really as complicated as the video makes it out to be. First come the two short story anthologies - this is how The Witcher series originally started and where the story, characters and worldbuilding are set up - they're essential reading. Then come the five novels with an overarching plot. Lastly and optionally, there's a sidequel published years after the last book. So the full order is:
Shorts:
The Last Wish
Sword of Destiny
Novels:
Blood of Elves
Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire
Tower of the Swallow
Lady of the Lake
Sidequel:
Season of Storms
"I'll talk about the game, and spoil the ending of the book without any WARNINGS!"
fucking christ I know
Yeah completely ruined it for me
Dude, it's literally the first few lines in the game. It can only be a spoiler if you never played this masterpiece... oh, wait... xD
fr fuck that
James Sunderland it’s not in the first few lines of the game. In the beginning of the game the narrator just says he “disappeared for a while but that’s another story” and his friend just says “you look like you came out of the grave” but that can easily be interpreted as a figure of speech.
One of the things that I found most impressive when playing the original Witcher is its implementation of drinking. You can develop resistance to certain alcohols and try to outdrink NPCs, but there are so many robust and unpredictable outcomes when trying to win.
"European" folklore, "european" totems... More like Polish. Each country has it's history and are vastly different from each other. I'm tired of americans using the word Europe as it were the United Sates.
Adam Jones in all fairness most European countries are far older with long histories, who only still survive today due to alot of sacrifice over the last 1500 years as such are defensive as being generalised it would be like saying mexico and Canada are the same place
There's more than only Polisch references (names and wordplays) in the game though. Alot of dutch and flemisch and probably more western european ones.
Many of The Witcher's monsters are not Polish though. Many come from all over Europe, from Russia to Scandinavia to Germany.
Agentcoolguy1. Mostly Slavic. you knwo ...the bigest ethnic group of white people in the world.
Adam Jones, where were your ancestors 300 years ago? from where does your language come from? I think you know the answer :)
Yeap, you got it right. I mean, I see quite a few people saying "You managed to articulate what I felt and couldn't say" and that's great. I for one loved the fetch quests and slow burn of most of the game. I wanted it slow and 'boring' so I can read more and soak up how the places looked and felt. I've seen quite a few inconsistencies, silly writing (that "Oh, what the hell. Strip" scene cracked me up so hard when I played) glitches, frame drops, all of it. It doesn't matter, though. It's pleasant, and it's not afraid to be dumb. This game is huggable. I wanna hug it.
Great video, but I have to disagree about the "phoned in ending". I think the ending was great and the rest of the game built up to it very nicely. I especially enjoyed it because it was sort of a twist on the main arc of the books. A cheesy ending for sure, but I wouldn't call it phoned it.
And yes... I know... 3 years late... wtver :P
The first Witcher feels like the awkward teen phase of the series, what with how janky everyone looks and behaves, how awkwardly stilted the conversations are, and how the gender relations and outlook to sex might very well have been taken from group conversations between male 9th-graders. It just presents itself with such fiery passion and naiveté, I can't but love it in all it's pimpled, voice-cracking, teen-moustached glory.
Mr. Gradgrind Teens don't make that good a mood and atmosphere.
Mr. Gradgrind I know, right? I remember my first hour with the game. I felt really underwhelmed, and to be honest, I felt like that until the end of the second chapter. But you know what? The game grew on me. Almost to the point where now, after 2 years, I even feel like replaying it. The atmosphere was just excellent.
As for conversations, Polish dub was pretty good , i heard Russian and German ones were also ok so conversations sound better in those versions. Sex cards, I don’t know why people complain so much about them they are immature yes, so what? It shows that game doesn't always take itself seriously and even more important it laughs of players who want to fuck every character "look you got a card are proud of your self? :D", game itself never force you to collect them. The problem i had with first witcher was how unpolished it looked in first hour of the gameplay. How horribly paced second act was and finally how shitty, qte combat was.
Mr. Gradgrind All true. Still, that was CDPR debut. And pretty damn good one.
the male 9th graders are here with some opinions I see
You see, I loved this game too. Sometimes I'm amazed with the amount of bullshit we're willing to put up with. It's funny when I end up talking about games with someone who has enough introspection to understand their opinions, and we find that we like and dislike the same things; we just operate at different thresholds. I actually think even the newest game in the series is jank, but I still like it.
All you have to do is set the difficulty to a level where the jank doesn't frustrate, and it's fine. Have geralt roll in place because there's a stray polygon that sharply raises the elevation by a grand total of a centimeter when you get killed in 3 hits, is jank. It's just easy to look past with all the things it does well.
Why the fuck are the same people who praise dark souls for the lore and immersion able to laugh their asses off at the ragdoll physics and have no problem with the lack of believeabilty that brings? We're so selective about the things we care about.
I rewatched these videos so many times when they came out. I cant believe its been 7 years
First Witcher is kind of like Gothic. It is shit. Its production values are low, team was inexperienced, the engine is shit, the game is janky, bugged to hell and pretty much everything has a slight shit feeling. But it's apparent, that people working on it were extatic to have it made. It's labor of love, guys at CDPred put their heart and soul into it, and you can see and feel it in every nook and cranny of the game world and that's what compells you to play it.
They were not ecstatic, they were driven like slaves. They didn't put their hearts and souls, they put their health (physical and mental) and social life in it.
kiddhkane That thing is called crunch and it's recommended however it's normal in game development. If you don't want crunch then go work at Bethesda.
@@lukkkasz323 Crunching even for a month is a sign of bad time management by the company. And if it's for few years straight, it's not crunch, it's slavery.
I'd say the ending wasn't quite as phoned in as you say. The final villain was introduced in one of the most original ways ever in an RPG, in my experience (Spoilers: he was the kid you sort-of adopted). And his motivations actually make quite a bit of sense if you consider his point of view, the visions he recieved, and the lore of the world.
Another thing I loved about the first Witcher game was even though Garalt had the whole amnesia treatment we've seen so often, he still remembered quite a bit about his profession and the world around him. During some conversations he would explain things to the player just as often as Solid Snake might repeat back the last two words in question form in his own game.
Flawed, but quite redeemable, and able to surprise.
So as a fan of Berserk the Witcher appealed to me on a similar level(didnt get far, computer exploded and now I really can only play Morrowind on my laptop) but it is definitely interesting to hear that the Witcher takes these mediaeval myths and makes them fresh and interesting! Also the Gerald gets a lot more character development than you would expect a gravely voice cool dude to get.(I like when that happens, although its usually impossible to explain)
Cool video though George! Looking forward to the next one
Now if only berserk could get its own games series, possibly by fromsoft, then that would be amazing. Or you know, another chapter would be cool too
From isnt gonna make a Berserk game, and in all truth I kinda dont think we will be seeing another chapter very soon. I do wish there was more Berserk though. :c
From the sounds of the Witcher though, its interesting to see a completely different series deal with almost the same subject matter.
A video about the Witcher is 13: 37 long
:)
I don't get it...
Ah, "leet". Thanks, that clarifies everything 🙄😒
Stephen Vittles if only there was a better way of learing than reading youtube comments 😭
The whole trilogy - so it makes sense to not just make it 2 minutes. But I agree, it's gloriously over-indulgent.
@@heycidskyja4668 leet=elite, thought everyone knew this by now
I have a little trope for you: "Spaghetti Western" really popular in Poland in time when Sapkowski write first novels about witcher.
Makes sense, Garalt has been called the "Clint Eastwood of videogame characters"
last remaining pagan country in Europe was Lithuania not Poland
THEgrasskit Lithuania was under Poland in a personal union at the time, so you're both technically correct, the best kind of correct.
Union of Lublin that created Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was some 80 years later after Christianization
PaperMarioGuy02 It's not even technically correct, personal union and Christianization of Lithuania happened at the same time.
"They tried, they really tried" is really how I come to love games too. If I can feel the passion, the drive to bring about the developer's vision then it honestly doesn't matter to me how janky the combat is or if I don't like some of the themes. It's why I still like the first Witcher over the others despite the obvious technical superiority (in both gameplay and writing) of the others. It's why I can enjoy Deadly Premonition despite it being pretty objectively terrible in many ways. I love the feeling of playing a game and feeling that this is what the developers wanted, even (_perhaps_ especially...) if that includes cheesy sex cards.
I remember an excellent bug from The Witcher whereby in cutscenes the witcher closeups were at full frames per second but cut to the old gentleman he was talking to and the old fella's beard would fall into place all at 10fps then cut back to the witcher at full fps like, "I'm fine old man, the problem's on YOUR side of the scene". Looking forward to your comments on the second installment, George.
while Poland were one of the last pagans they were not the very last ones. the Baltic countries and nations of Estonia Latvia and Lithuania (the Romuva religion), plus the now culturally extinct country of Prussia (not the german one, pagan Prussians were located roughly where the nowadays Belaruss is.... edit: I messed up, it was actually in Kaliningrad south west from Lithuania and North of Poland) were the last ones. they were the farthest away from the Vatican going North eastwards so it makes sense :D (though the christianization of Finland started allready in 11th century, while Lithuania Got babtised in the end of 14th)
Paganism is alive and well here still ;] check out clips by żywiołak, or magda przychodzka, derwana. ;] Traditions are still here despite a semic cancer
Mhm, I know, I even know a Polish pagan, really cool and nice person :) And Romuvan paganism is still alive here too, some people just want to get back to the very roots of their culture, I think it is wonderful, here it actually got a revival in the populous during the independence period in the 1920's to 1940's. And I was talking about paganism more in the official sense, as a diplomatic status of a country, after getting baptized people still performed their rituals, such as giving grass snakes eggs and milk to win favor with the old gods for hundreds of years after, I imagine a lot of them just got baptized to be left alone and to get a free linen shirt, Paul John Peter Ąžuolas would have three nice linen shirts at least, because some would go several times :D.
Neo-paganism is not the same thing as Paganism. Neo-pagans just picked what they liked in old traditions, ornaments and culture and made it a pop-cultural trend sligthly off mainstream. It looks cool and it sells. It also promotes cultural heritage very well but it's not a damn religion...
(PS: It's *Semitic* not *semic*. As in *anti-Semitic* world view which you are displaying. Would you mind keeping our national identity separate from your personal bias? )
I think it depends on the person or group and the specific offshoot of the re-established pagan beliefs that they follow. it deppends If they just picked the aspects which they like, to hold the oldest values and symbols of their ancestors, which are still compatible with the present day, or if they try to historically reconstruct the entire thing as authentically as possible according to folklore and historical evidence and accounts. Modern Paganism is classified as a group of religious beliefs, and people studying it for academic reasons think of it as a bunch of religions. In the end it depends on the person if they are actually religious or just explore modern paganism to connect with their ethnic identity, same for the reasons of expressing it in their creativity. I do not disagree with you entirely, I am just saying ''it depends''.
After the independence when religions could be official again ''Romuva was recognised as an Ancient Baltic faith community in 1992'' and in 1995 a law was passed that recognised it as a non traditional religion, the law in Lithuania requires for a religion to exist for more than 25 years until it is classified as traditional. so supposedly this year it should become traditional.
Oooh so that's what he meant by 'semic' ( did he really?) ... Damn, I thought ''what does Semantic Interoperability Community, have to do with anything?''
I don't disagree with you either. I was talking about media personalities, musicians, etc. who get some money on the back of it and their fans considering themselves Neo-Pagans because of them.
What they don't get is that you can't just dress like someone or listen to particular music to become that person if you know what I mean.
Thanks for all the info tho. Very interesting stuff.
-------
I think that's exacly what he meant. In our language "semites" is spelled "semici" and "semitic" is "semicki". There is no "t". But I'll not give this more attention. I believe we can both agree, it's just bellow standards.
That's a SIC acronym, hahaha
This video:
"The Witcher is completely mediocre but I STILL LOVE IT"
LukeSparrow Is that wrong?
LukeSparrow Really, I wonder why? Oh wait thats the other 90% of the video. That and the cultural background of the game.
Clowndoe
Nope! Laughed my ass off. It was great!
Thanatos388
A game cannot be 10% mediocre.
Honestly, I'd say way more than 10% of the Witcher is seriously flawed. That doesn't of course mean that it hasn't got its charms.
Nontheless, I'd say (just like George) that the Witcher 1 is no more than mediocre.
Admirable for a first game project on a low budget but still completely mediocre when looked at as a product.
After the misery-fest that was the E3 Lies and Hype video it's nice to hear you genuinely enjoying yourself again.
God I love the Witcher. You expressed it very well. The atmosphere in this game is grimy and strangely comforting at the same time. It has a 'pacing problem', but I gotta say I loved the parts where you were solving minor things, instead of saving the world.
3:18
there are many people who got into the series with the third game. I wanted to read the books but ok
So this game has layers? So it's Shrek?
***** Come to think of it, you are right ...
The Shreker 3: Wild Swamp.
*****
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*****
fugg :----D
***** Way to tell me, big strong man
*****
so it's love
so it's life
You should have tried the original Polish voice acting: it is much better than the English voice acting, and - for me at least - the fact that I'm listening to a foreign language helped me to get immersed more into the game world; it felt like a medieval fantasy world far away with it's own language and everything.
vonVince every proper gamer plays game with original voices. Playing witcher with english dub is just stupid.
*****
This exists within film as well, they would scoff at anyone watching a foreign film dubbed. Actually popular opinion with watching foreign movies, to be consider a pleb if you're not watching it in its original language.
***** Actually, OP isn't being a douche, just expressing his opinion. Blame the other guy.
vonVince If you know jack shit about the language in a video game you're playing, then you're in absolutely no position, what so ever to judge the quality of the voice acting.
And hearing Polish in a generic Tolkien fantasy RPG sounds utterly silly.
***** Or maybe, just maybe, get this, both mediums contain people who are actually invested into them and understand them more than you, who happens to expose himself to them on the most superficial, basic way.
But nah, putting people into groups which you can easily hate and ridicule for caring about something more than you do is far easier and satiates the ego far more, doesn't it.
What I got out of this. "The games pretty bad but I love it" I feel you
It's true that the game is so much better with Polish voices, though the third outing is still pretty amazing in English. Myself being a Pole I read the books in my early teens and fell in love with the franchise. Now, after all these years, being able to meet all those characters again come alive on the screen... it's hands down the best gaming experience I've ever had. And it fills me with pride, that such broken, depressed country as Poland is finally able to find something it's good at! Look at the success of the Dead Island, Dying Light, The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter, Witcher 3... It's way to early to say, but it would be so awesome if Poland could one day become the new capital of videogames (that Japan once was and sadly, seems to be losing its crown with each new crappy game they release). Probably not.. but it's something to think about;) How cool would that be?!?;)
R Michalski It seems to me you guys are slowly getting there, you just need three more dev-studios like CDPR :P
R Michalski We should also mention about People Can Fly studio, they also do great work.
peoplecanfly.com/games/
Hubert Cwajda
also, SUPER.HOT. SUPER.HOT.
R Michalski I think the capital of videogames is a little bit too ambitious, but I think Poland can be proud of being currently number one in Europe. Even if I'm not from Poland, as an European I'm also a bit proud of what CDPR has achieved.
R Michalski Dead Island and Dying Light get a not so great rap though. I myself didn't like dead Island at all once I gave it a proper shot, and I was playing with a friend too. (didn't know the creators were polish, huh, good to know.)
Sorry to be a downer, I'm not really sure what to think.
Long Live Poland as a place where games come from as long as they are really good games.
Give them the break, they didn't have years of experience coming from North American game industry, they were gaining this experience while building game industry in their country
You clearly did not watch through the entire video before commenting. He said more or less the same thing as you at the very end
håvard Helgesen I did watch the entire video
Then watch it again, but this time pay attention.
Hm, Poland was for sure not the last pagan european country. It converted to christianity in 966, while Hungary, Iceland, Sweden and Norway did a bit later. And Lithuania did 450 years afterwards! So there is a bit of inaccuracy there, and it would be nice of you to put a disclaimer there. Awesome video nonetheless. Cheers!
Love from Hungary
@@Catkovi Did he say that????
9:40 where did that shit come from? Poland baptised in 966 CE, it took another 400 years for the last European ruler Jagiello to convert which btw was a part of polish-lithuanian royal matrymony and took place in Cracow - Polish capital of that time. So not only Poland Christianized somewhere in the middle, they also evangelized other nations.
Omg the nostalgia 😍 First one only nailed the feeling from books
Holy 240P batman! Surprised I got here early enough to witness this glorious beast. Anyway, good vid dude!
It's become a ritual of mine to replay the games, re-read the books and watch Super BunnyHop's Witcher videos year after year.
SuperBunnyHop’s whole series on The Witcher games is something I return to probably every 3-4 months or so. These videos are so good.
the Trolls in Witcher 2 were my favorite things ever. But i have a soft spot in my heart for giant lumbering monsters who actually have good hearts, to one degree or another.
The trolls in witcher 3 are also heart-warming and it kills me when i had to kill them for achievements :(
Nope, Geralt in the books isn't more cruel and talkative. What the hell? Define "cruel", I'm curious what you mean by that because it was different in medieval standards.. He has his own "code" according to which he, for example, doesn't kill dragons. He also prefers to be neutral which he realises isn't the best idea. Geralt in games is what you choose him to be like, more or less. And reading books I always had this impressions that he talks when he has something to say which is good, IMO. In games he also shows some emotions.
He was more apathetic, that is considered cruel when you're willing to ignore those in need.
He admits to himself that beating people up is something he likes to do at least 2 times in the books.
@@jackleague3086 I know these comments are old but he often helps his friends.
@@adreak9868 Quote, please. This still doesn't mean he's cruel. I would say the dark part of human nature is showing up here.
"Sandpaper away for the sake of Polish."
I see what you did there.
This video was so detailed, so well researched. Honestly, you are a great guy for making this. Thanks.
This video appeals to my inner fanboy of the witcher series.
Anyway: Witcher 3 > Witcher 1 > Witcher 2
Prove me wrong
The Witcher 1 definitely had more meat on it than The Witcher 2
Witcher 2 > Witcher 1 >>>>>>>>> shit > "Witcher" 3
Like fucking really, does it take to just make good graphics and open world to make everyone shit with hype?
Photorealistic graphics in the 3rd lack artistic style and atmosphere of the previous games.
Main quest is just a fucking sad joke in Witcher 3, since the 1/3 of the game I had to force myself into completing it, I didn't feel engaged at all. There was no plot twist. You fight fucking Wild Hunt, just like in the title.
THAT'S ALL. Now get fucking bored to death.
Villages and towns looks so artifical, people just walk around and make stupid strange sounds when you walk into them -- that's it. Compare it to the previous games.
The combat system is also the worst one in 3rd game. First game's combat was unique and I had a lot of fun playing it, it wasn't the greatest for sure, but it didn't feel irritating at least. The Witcher 2 had the best combat, tho it was very similiar to the witcher 3. What was better in 2nd? You could feel the fucking weight of your hit, also, you were a human after all, when you moved even tho you're supernatural mutant you had to take some time still. What we have in The "Witcher" 3? Jumping everywhere like a fucking ape, doing spinning attacks 24/7, feeling 0 actual impact your sword does to the enemy (even worse when you unlock that retarded permaspin attack). That just felt insanely stupid, completly ruining immersion to the point I'd be more ok with the 1st one combat system... Not to mention that alchemy in the 3rd game is a joke compared to previous ones, and here prove me wrong...
Why Witcher 2 is the best for me? Well:
Witcher 1 -- Combat: 2/5, Story & atmosphere: 5/5 --- 7pt
Witcher 2 -- Combat: 3,5/5, Story & atmoshpere: 4/5 ---- 7,5pt
Witcher 3 -- Combat: 1,5/5, Story & atmosphere: are you kidding/5 -- 1,5pt (ok, graphics are detailed, so yeah, have +0,5pt -- 2)
Yeah, and if you look for a good open world RPG just don't think about Witcher games, play Fallout or smth. They won't ever be good as open world games and 3rd game proved it.
Saying all above as a fan who read all of the saga books in original language, btw in those Ciri's plot was such shitty and boring those were the worst parts of the saga (which actually is all about Ciri & Geralt & Yennefer, but there is still some side shit that's very good). I don't know how devs haven't seen that, among saga fans it's a common statement that the whole Ciri plot is shit and little novels are much much better.
KappaKnight I respectfully disagree on all aspects and you can thusly shove your completely aggressive and subjective, mind you, opinion back up your ass where your head is.
KappaKnight seriously are you kidding you’re saying I should play the hot garbage that is f:NV or F3 or F4 I was taking it seriously till you said that
KappaKnight Witcher 3 1.5/10.... lol
I mean... Wow..... The Witcher 3 is objectively one of the best games of the generation. Even if it were only "decent" a 1.5/10 is not remotely indicative of that. It passes by its writing and visuals alone to be high-graded material.
It is incredible that this great franchise started as a super big 'mod' of Neverwinter Nights 2.
As many other great games from today had their origins in mods from other great games.
I think you mistook Poland for Lithuania in terms of that "last pagan" country
Oh I'm reading the last wish right now.
The games are set after the books, that's why so the Princess becomes a Strigger again and in the books is the first time it happens. That's why the amnesia is a thing. For those confused
Whoa, you don't get to use that word. Humans like us have to say "striga"
3:17 DUDE, WHY?
You find out that he dies in all the games... not really a spoiler.
@@akalonian probabely he meant spoiling the books.
Its only a spoiler if you didn't understand the first game is a direct sequel to the last book.
@@geordiejones5618 or if you haven't played the first game
@@YumiSumire Or any of the games
Oh boy the alchemy system... how I miss it :-( The one in Wild Hunt is just so boring, it's really sad.
Wusel "Let's take the most interesting part of the game and make it shit!That sounds like a good idea!!"
Meh.They truly fucked the alchemy system.Is almost as bad as Skyrim.
MadBrainBox what is the difference between Witcher 3 alchemy and the other games? How much worse is it?
LN2233 For the Witcher 3 all you have to do is find the ingredients of the potion once and then you can get a free refill when you rest if you have alcohol.
As for 1 and 2 you need to follow the potion recipe to the letter. You have to have the required ingredients every time.
Sl1ceSlice Ingredients you could get from different materials.That was a good thing.Kept alchemy interesting.
Oh yeah, thats right. It was based on the color of the ingredient right?
Superbly written and wonderfully produced. Great job!
I was planning on reading the books, and didn't know he died at the end of the books. That's a major spoiler there, Bunnyhop. I wish you would have not done that. Goddamn that defeats the entire purpose of reading them.
how does it defeat the entire purpose, his death serves nothing to the main plot of the witcher books which are more focused on ciri.
Well maybe not the entire purpose, as you may argue it's more about the journey than the destination, but if you have the ending spoiled of something you spend over 50 hours on, it greatly takes away from the experience as a whole.
He comes back in the games..
What's the point of this reply. Yes, he comes back in the first game, but that doesn't mean there isn't a disconnect from the games and the books. The games doesn't follow the story completely, so whether or not he "comes back" in the first game matters not at all, as it's a game based on the books, but not the books themselves.
Jinxtah Yes, but you can't have a player control a literature character in an RPG and expect it to be "accurately" portrayed. The books are a separate experience that enhance the fantastic journey the games take you through
Been waiting for you to cover this franchise, awesome! Can't wait to hear your commentary on TW2 and 3.
Why did you spoil the ending of the whole series of books?! Without warning ???? Thank you very much ....
Thanks for this comment now I can click away on time
Because he's talking about the games. The thing that takes place after the books.
@@chuckielover06 yes but the title...just does not say anything about the books does it?
its not the whole series, only the first collection of short stories, and also its really obvious its coming when you read it
@@buck5200 No. Ive read the first two book. He didnt die then :D. At its not at all obvious that he is going to die at the end of the series. What happend happend. Just put a pop up thing saying spoilers. Job done :)
she isn't mentally impaired for the rest of her life, she just hasn't lived as a human for years so she's still behaves as a baby until she's taught proper manners and all that.
Wonder if Super Bunnyhop has even played Drakengard? If you want flawed, but super interesting, holy shit that is the pinnacle of amazing, crappy games.
I'm really impressed by amount of research you did. Many reviewers didn't make an effort to even check out a books, not even mention comparison between novel and game. You made some very interesting points about how Witcher novels and European folklore are perceive in Western World. Great video, man.
There's a great charm in the first game. I love this series so much.
What mods would you recommend for the first game?
Love that New Vegas shoutout in the intro. So many people go on about FO3, and don't acknowledge how great NV was.
In the book series as a whole, sex isn't really that uncommon. Coming from the books, it didn't really feel shoehorned in in the games.
Seriously, I appreciated his effort in reading one of the books but the short stories are in no way indicative of the rest of the series.
Witcher(Monster Hunter) : He fights very few monsters
Games of Thrones: There is only one Throne, Winter never really came, Dragons are useless.
Spartacus(Blood and Sand): Gladiators mostly Flexed and screwed around.
Breaking Bad: Drogs are Bad.
Yea TV shows are just puling a fast one on us by promising us what we find interesting and putting Human feelings and politics and real life issues inside, what a pranksters.
did he just spoil the whole witcher book series for me ??!!
Harry Beckwith Same, I’m one book away from finishing and only played Witcher 2 and 3. Wish we had some sort of warning
@@steed643 How the hell can you have played Witcher 2 and 3 and not know that Geralt had died?
Ehhh don't Google Bałwan if you want to find this sculpture. Bałwan is insulting name for this probably given by church. It name is światowod. Świat means world. Wid comes from widzieć what means see. Because he is looking on four directions of world.
Great video as always. Though I could have sworn than Lithuania was the last European pagan country, not Poland.
I totally love your Videos,could go back to some of them over and over again
2019/2020 feels like a year of remasters... I WOULD LOVE TO see remaster of The Witcher 1 and 2, even if this would be just DLC for W3 :) love it. I hate when good games are "abandoned". I always thought that W3 had so much more potential for more DLC, even something like "endgame dlc" that would give us quests to track and kill new epic monsters.
The Wither books can be divided into three groups:
- “The Sword of Destiny” and “The Last Wish”, are not novels but completions of short stories published earlier separately in magazines, Sapkowski wrote some stories to connect them but it is very lose. Unfortunately the main sweet spots of the books are the specific language and nuances that English speaker won’t get. To book defense there are very popular not only in Poland but in many countries, especially in Eastern Europe (Russia, Czech Rep, Slovakia). Sapkowski was very successful, the books were translated into 10 languages. Why it took so long to go to English? Simple, first there are lots of fantasy novels in English, second English speakers usually dismiss eastern European culture and don’t know anything about it.
- 5 tom saga, it should be more compelling to English speakers as it is one big story, believe or not it is regarded as lesser then the short novels in Poland.
- “Season of Storms” - written something like 30 years after the first short story, it is a prequel to all books (as Geralt dies at the end of the saga), I think this book shows how much better the Author has got in all this year’s. Read this one first! If you don’t like it, don’t bother with the rest.
About the Bałwan thing, you'll have much easier time searching for "Światowid". It's a specific type of that totem.
Ah screw it, here's how wikipedia translates it
en.wikipedia.org/?title=Zbruch_Idol
Oh those scenes from act IV, the music... they give me goosebumps, I'll never forget them.
9:40 oh no no no, that would be Lithuania next to it. not Poland
Oh boy! I'm pulling together a PB&J with peanuts in anticipation of kicking back and watching both of your Witcher videos!
A Polish game that lacks polish -the review in summary
Didn't get past the first fight on my witcher try out, those controls on an rpg timescale seemed painful. Looks like it's worth a second look though. Mods and fetch quests await
You're the best SB, one of the few you tubers I sit down and deliberately watch without distraction
lol. Witcher was unknown for usa or some parts of Asia. But saying that it was popular only in Poland? It was popular for whole Europe.
robert nomok Continental Europe. It was completely unknown in the UK and Ireland.
Nilhilion
bad for them then.
robert nomok True that.
robert nomok Also never heard of it in Austria before and we arent that far away. It really wasnt that popular.
robert nomok Maybe not whole Europe but most of Eastern Europe. And I know a couple of readers from Germany and Spain.
I was thinking that Roach was named after the insect as well, seeing as Eskell named his horse scorpion I just assumed it was some sort of witcher tradition to name your horse after an insect
Your way of looking at the Polish religion is a little off, I thought Poland converted to Christianity relatively early. And I don't understand why you think of the endings of each story "90's" in nature, man that's an insult :L I find the introspective nature of the series not only unique for fantasy, but quite refreshing. Of all fantasy I've read, there are only three truly unique and original takes on fantasy: LOTR, ASOIAF and the Witcher, hell I'd say even the translation isn't *that* awful, people put up with worse anime dubbing all the time. The 90's cinematic and gaming scene was plagued by overanalysing everything, but I find The Witcher to be the sweet spot of both reflection and postmodernism, Geralt isn't some dick waving a sword, the monsters aren't things to be killed. All in all, not a bad retrospective, look forward to your take in W2
Have you ever read Ghormenghast? That's quite a unique take on fantasy. I don't see how LOTR is unique at all.
@@apolloptx lotr is fantasy
@@scalticus Yeah, and I said I don't see how it is *UNIQUE* fantasy. Its about as generic as it gets.
@@apolloptx the reason why lotr is generic fantasy is because it invented generic fantasy
Watching this not only years after the Witcher 3 was released, but even longer since I last beat the Witcher makes me really want to go back and play through W1 again.
You sound tired, Mr. Bunnyhop. Are you feeling alright?
Haedox You must be new to this channel
Gosh, it makes sense that a youtuber as cool as you would like SBH too
I just finished playing through the Witcher 1 for the first time over the weekend and I agree with everything that you said. Even without the mods it still looks really good, but the loading times were crazy, specially when I was using quick save every opportunity that I could because there felt to be no checkpointing system.
Just getting into the Witcher 2 and getting further than I did all the previous times I attempted to start it. I feel that playing the first game is definately reccommened. I tried to play starting with the second one with by the recommendation of my friend, but I feel that after getting through the first game I feel much more connected to the world.
I look forward to watching your next video once I finish 2 for myself.
First Wiedźmin is still amazing...
I love your videos and for the most part we share the same taste for videogames. The Witcher in particular and your knowledge seems quite impressive. All my support for MGSV disappointment upon the lack of a consistent plot ! Subscribed for it !! Keep it up!
Oh my god, those battle animations
Who the hell uses a sword like that??
Doom2Guy A witcher. ;)
Doom2Guy In the second game, Geralt even mentions how awful those combat techniques were in passing.
Doom2Guy I think it's called high guard or something like that, you can look it up.
Doom2Guy Actually, some of his guards are pretty accurate. Holding your sword above your head is called "Vom Tag." When his parry animation plays, he is doing a variation of "Auchs" which is called a "Hanger". It's his lower positions that are terrible. And the jumping. And turning his back on his opponents. That's the worst. But I was surprised by how well researched they were overall.
ask guys from zelda
8:50 - I'm glad you showed this paragraph. Trailer 'Killing monsters' refers to it. when Geralt says 'Close your eyes'. (Somehow nobody noticed it).
"Ah, what the hell.. strip!"
ahahahaha :D
OH! You forgot to mention that The Witcher has one of the best plot twists EVER.