Nothing against the new actor, but can you imagine being the producer whose job it is to be a high level personnel management and decision maker, and your decisions leading to the super popular star of the show leaving. Many of us will not return for the next season. What an IP waste.

ive watched all the seasons so far, but with Henry gone — and from what ive read about the show drifting even further from the original story — im honestly not sure ill keep watching. i think its time to start reading the books and experience the story the way it was meant to be told.

Watching the Witcher 4 trailer, I was very excited like most of you. But as the trailer went on, I couldn't help but find various flaws. I just can't understand why cdpr chose to do it this way.

Some of the things I didn't like or found lacking:

Survival

In the beginning of the trailer, we see that the villagers are all gathered outside. Yet, we don't see Ciri going house to house and looting everything that's not bolted down.

What did Geralt even teach her? In the witcher ending of witcher 3, they say that Geralt taught Ciri all he knew. But it looks like Geralt didn't teach her one of the basic things that he himself does.

Combat

This was one of the bigger disappointments. Firstly, she is silent during the fight. I expected her to say something like "What now you piece of filth?" or at least "How'd you like that silver?"

Secondly, what is that horrible style of fighting? Why wasn't she spinning around like an out of control beyblade?

Contract

Finally the ending of the trailer. Ciri seems to soft hearted. Why didn't she immediately demand payment from the grieving father? And we didn't see her haggling and demanding for the highest possible price(prior to the fight).

Conclusion

I'm disappointed with cdpr. I hope these issues can be fixed by the next trailer.

Possible additions for the next trailer:

Ciri calling for her horse only to find it stuck on a fence or a rooftop.

Immediately dying from a 10 foot drop.

Asking for a round of cards directly after a poor peasant has just finished his sob story.

They are about to start shooting S5 soon too LMAO

I saw a lot of people asking a lot of questions about the decisions CD PR made and some even questioning if they can justify what they chose. Now, of course, I don't know how they're gonna write it, what I do know is a lot about the media it's based on. Be it the books or the stuff Cd Pr made.

For those unaware, CdPr takes most of the events in the witcher books as canon, and they keeps the books' lore pretty consistent. There are some contradictions but for the greater part of the games they keep it in line with the lore to an astounding degree. There were some details changed so the story could continue. But most (I'd argue 90% at least) of the new story in the games expands the lore from the books, doesn't contradict it.

Now to address the general questions/points I've seen people raise:

1. Isn't Ciri OP at the end of the Witcher 3?

Most people seem to forget that most of her power is dimensional travel and/or bending time and space, but mostly space. While a very strong power it's not really a combative power where it has that godly level of strength. She still struggled against Caranthir and most big monsters formidable opponents with great reaction time. For example, against someone like the Unseen Elder she would stand no chance simply because even Geralt, who is not exactly stronger but who has a faster reaction time, can't react to the Unseen elder. Ciri has a body as fragile as any human, or now a witcher I suppose, she would lose to him all the same. Also, the average monster would still pose a great threat to her, she can't teleport to safety that easily, small jumps are possible for her, big jumps take concentration if she wants them to be safe. People seem to forget how strong and fast the average monster is. The only time we saw her be "godly in combat" is at the end once she gets the blink. What is she fighting? Slow wild hunt warriors. The hunt's warriors are strong because they are big hunks and skilled fighters, but they have nowhere near the speed and flesh durability of the average monster.

Now if you still think her having the lady of space and time powers is bullshit. The easiest way is to remove the powers as a result of her stopping the white frost. That or partly nerf them. Would be cheaper imo but it could work.

2. We see her use Elder blood magic though.

No.... we don't. It's bluey in how it looks, could be a combination but it's 100% not just that. Her elder blood power is in her, we see her pull magic from outside, from a source, and using an element at that. This is how sorcerers and sorceresses use magic in the witcher universe. None of them have a lot of magic inside themselves, they are adept at pulling magic from around them, some use staffs to channel it better, but most of the magic prowess comes from the outside. Life itself is a source but it's a last resort for a sorcerer to use their own life energy. At the end of the witcher books Yennefer nearly dies because she drained herself in trying to save Geralt. Also Yennefer uses the tree in the garden in Skellige to revive Skjol, a very longevive and powerful life was needed, since necromancy is insanely draining in the witcher verse (as stated by Yen herself). Still... source = life or other magical presence in the environment. So Ciri is more than surely using normal magic there, also signs are the same thing, they are magic. Witchers use their medallions to help them detect source and cast from it, it's a channeler. But they are still pulling magic from the outside. What do we see Ciri cast? Sings.

In the books Ciri loses her magical connection to source in "Time of Contempt". But there's no reason for it to be permanent. A Ciri that lost most/all of her Elder Blood powers but is reconnecting with her normal casting abilities would make for interesting plot.

3. How did Ciri turn into a witcher? it makes no sense.

The trail of the Grasses was an alchemical process developed by the mage Alzur along with his master, his apprentice and a few others. The goal? Make the ultimate monster killing machine. 38 girls and boys were selected for the experiment, of which 5 boys survived. After that he focused his efforts only on males and stabilized it to be with a 3/10 survival ratio. Alzur had a bit of success and said fuck it, only dudes will be witchers.

This point will be a bit of speculation in my part. In real life medical science has been for the better part of our history male dominated, which resulted in poorer treatments for women, where would would have needed adjustments because of different biology. Now I'm no witcher historian but we see that the northen kingdoms are largely... not very progressive, and it probably was even worse then Alzur was alive which was roughly 1000 years before the events in the books and games. So a bunch of dude mages, using dude research probably made mainly for dudes probably led to a lot of mishaps and things not taken into account in regards woman biology.

But now you may wonder how would Ciri figure out how to mutate herself? Well Alzur focused only on getting results and not involving magic directly. He never used magic as a precaution to prevent damage. In witcher 3 though, we see a trail that is on a magically modified lifeform with vastly different biology, Uma. And even in its original state (Meanin Avallach) I certainly doubt that elves have a near identical biology to humans, so it was a very law chance of survival. We saw it succeed because Yennefer was there to magically protect Uma's body, a less than desirable candidate for the trail.

We also see Geralt find further research into mutages in Touissant plus the added fact that Ciri knows a lot of people. She has/could get the resources needed to mutate herself and others, and maybe even make it more safe. A healthy Ciri with a greatly improved mutation process, with magical protection couldn't survive the trail when Uma did in horrendous circumstances? There's more than enough ways to justify it, it's just up to CdPr to make it right, but they 100% can.

It's to early to draw any conclusions, of course, but I don't like seeing people that seem to have no understanding of the media they consumed jump the gun that the story will make no sense.

I knew it was witcher 4 just from first scene yay

This thread is for sharing your thoughts and discussing Netflix’s The Witcher Season 4. Feel free to share your reactions, theories, and opinions full spoilers are welcome here.

S04E01: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger

S04E02: Dream of a Wish Fulfilled

S04E03: Trial by Ordeal

S04E04: A Sermon of Survival

S04E05: The Joy of Cooking

S04E06: Twilight of the Wolf

S04E07: What I Love I Do Not Carry

S04E08: Baptism of Fire

I and some friends collected every piece of information we could find to summarize into one place so fans can catch up before the full-blown marketing campaign of Witcher 4 begins.

The information comes from countless interviews, press releases, posts from developers & CEOs across various social media platforms (YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn), and investor calls/financial reports by CDPR. Everything is confirmed by an official source unless stated otherwise.

I categorized everything into sections (Story, World, Technology, Development, and Additional Details) in case you're only interested in certain parts.

Happy reading. :)

Story

• The game will start a few years after Witcher 3.

• This is Ciri's origin story.

• Ciri will be the first Witcher by choice.

• Ciri underwent the trial of the grasses. CDPR knew this would be controversial. Many devs spoke out, reassuring players they won't break any canon and that it's a thoroughly thought-through decision.

"I can't reveal any spoilers, but we definitely won't take the trial lightly—it's a huge deal, and how this could even work for Ciri, and how others react to this happening, is definitely a huge part of the story we're going to tell!" - Narrative Director Phillip Weber

• Ciri is a mutated source, connecting Witcher and sorcerer abilities.

• Ciri is less defined than Geralt, less experienced, and younger. She offers a wider range of narrative choices.

• Players will learn the trade alongside her and define her codex, the way she deals with struggles, problems, and quests—the witcher she will be. They want players to experience what becoming a witcher means.

• Ciri's story is a battle against destiny. This battle comes at a price that will have to be paid eventually—either by Ciri or by those dear to her.

• Your actions within the open world and the people you permit to come close to you all have the potential to affect the path Ciri goes down and who she will become.

• Bauk (trailer monster preying on people's fear) told Ciri, "Fate cannot be changed; you cannot change anything."

• Survival depends not only on your skills in combat but also on the connections you make with those around you, for better or worse.

• The world setting is described as "a world where the old order is crumbling, dark forces are seizing their chance to rise."

• Ciri's medallion is a lynx. Many people assume that therefore a "school of the lynx" exists, but they didn't confirm that. In the books, Witchers have different medallions despite being from the same school.

• Geralt will appear. They didn't say whether he'll be playable or not.

• Geralt will be around for a long time, at least until 1373 (101 years after W3).

• Ciri will always choose the bigger evil. She is very passionate/determined.

• Ciri is a continuator of Geralt's values—honorable, brave, and just—but she also has a side they haven't explored much—grim, rebellious, and fierce.

World

• There will be multiple regions. They put a lot of emphasis on creating distinct identities for each region that are special to its root/origin.

• The map is roughly the same size as W3's. They want to make the world deeper, more immersive, and more systemic.

• Inspired by RPGs like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 but will not copy those approaches. They will not create a "sim."

• Animals shown in the tech demo include crows, deer, horses, pigs, chickens, bears, and rabbits.

• One of the regions is Kovir.

• The forest is described as one of the "key experiences" and "heart of the game."

• The reveal trailer depicts one of the "epic monster hunts." The village is called Stromford and is an isolated location in the north; around 35 people live there. The girl Ciri is trying to save is called Mioni, and her father is Zivan. The monster is called Bauk and is inspired by Serbian folklore. It preys on fear and gets in people's heads.

• We will be able to save Mioni in the game.

• Lan Exeter, the winter capital of Kovir, will be in the game. The city is described as having no streets, and as such, people use the Great Canal to navigate the city. Its university rivals, if not surpasses, Oxenfurt.

• Valdrest (tech demo town) is a port town and a hub for fishing, freight, and mining. It's a place where you can meet shady characters or overhear gossip from other lands.

Technology

• Witcher 4 uses a custom Unreal Engine 5 build. It's built in a way that allows them to take advantage of all the future features coming to UE5.

• CDPR is already using features from future versions of UE5, including "TurboTech," now known as the FastGeo plugin in UE5 5.6. A streaming technology CDPR has been using in Cyberpunk and moved to UE5 since last year. It removes traversal stutter if the game is optimized, as seen in the tech demo.

• Witcher 4 will use raytracing as the default option for lighting because it creates a secure environment for artists to work in, smoothens development, and helps keep the art direction consistent across all platforms.

"You need to secure the environments lighting-wise for all light angles, and it's an open-world game, so you need to make sure that the way you make content will work and it will not light leak in all the situations. Hardware Raytraced Lumen is just much better for securing your walls to not leak lumen inside, and like Kevin said, you actually can move trees and have a proper occlusion, so for us it was like, okay, if we 'go with software raytracing, we would have a lot of limitations. It's a different way of how you set up the environment, like from the content point of view for both modes, and that will actually kill us from the production point of view, so looking from this point of view, there was just one big challenge: we just need to do it on the tech side because it would literally kill us on the production side later on; otherwise, you would have to change the design of the game."

"With this approach, we can alter the game once, and we make sure that it's pretty much visually similar; it just gets better, but it's similar visually across all the platforms. That's the difference: we can ensure that our direction is consistent across all the platforms." - Jakub Knapik, Art Director at CDPR

• The tech demo showcases the technology they use to create The Witcher 4, but not The Witcher 4 itself. Features shown include reactive NPCs with chain reactions, detailed routines, seamless cutscene transitions, cloth physics, muscle simulation, dynamic flora and day/night cycles, volumetric clouds, lens/film simulation, etc.

• The tech demo ran in real-time at a stable 60 fps (no stutters) with full raytracing—this includes the cinematic shown at the start where the merchants get attacked by the manticore, which many believe was pre-rendered.

• CDPR is in a partnership with Epic, and they provide full support. Both sides are extremely happy with what they have achieved so far.

• CDPR started working on Unreal Engine 5 in 2021, even before officially announcing the partnership with Epic.

• The tech demo had a dynamic base resolution of 800-1080p, which was upscaled to 1440p with TSR and then further upscaled to 4k.

• Witcher 4 is developed with a console-first mindset because it's easier to scale up than down, especially with the solid foundation their new technologies provide.

"We started with the console because, like Charles said, we wanted to solve certain foundations for us, and it's pretty logical. Think about it: it's easier to scale up than down, and because we know that both Lumen and all those technologies are providing us pretty consistent representation across the scale-up, we knew that once we set up certain foundations, both visually and technically, there's room to scale up." - Jakub Knapik, Art Director at CDPR

• They're aiming for 60 FPS on consoles. (Xbox Series S will be "extremely challenging.")

• They used scanning technology that will be available in UE5 5.7 to capture the rocks in the Polish "Table Mountains."

Development

• RUMOR: Concept stages began sometime in 2020/2021 when they started shifting teams and spending money on unannounced projects, which were later revealed to be Project Polaris/Witcher 4.

• Pre-production began in May 2022 and lasted for 2½ years until full production began in October 2024.

• Towards the end of 2024, they had a "big chunk" of the game made to prove certain concepts and gameplay mechanics. (I personally think it's similar to the Cyberpunk 2077 48-minute demo.)

• W4 won't be released before 2027.

• Over 420 developers are working on W4 as of May 2025. This includes over 100 Witcher veterans in a wide variety of positions, such as lead writers, level designers, music composers, animators, art directors, and many more.

• A part of Fool's Theory, a small studio created by ex-Witcher devs, and the team behind the Witcher 1 remake is currently also working on W4 due to its development directly affecting work on the Witcher 1 remake.

• Many things changed in the studio and on the development level to avoid another CP 2077 launch. CDPR previously operated with siloed teams (art, narrative, code) working independently, leading to communication breakdowns and a lack of cohesion. Since 2021, CDPR has adopted a more agile approach, emphasizing cross-functional collaboration and communication. This involves teams working together more closely, sharing information, and iterating on designs and development in a more fluid way. For a more in-depth explanation, I recommend this presentation from Cyberpunk Orion/Phantom Liberty's director, Gabe Amatangelo.

• They knew Ciri would be the next protagonist as early as 2016 while working on Blood & Wine, although they didn't know specific story details at the time.

Additional details

• They want to put player agency in the center—in-depth choice & consequences, more tools, and more opportunities to be able to feel that "I am the player, and I define my experience."

• Bauk has a goblin's head, a snake's neck, and scorpion claws. The tail and back legs are like a dinosaur's.

• Ciri's face is a direct copy of the Witcher 3 model, adapted to work with the latest MetaHuman technology. Two subtle changes were made to improve animation quality: slightly raised eyebrows and a more relaxed eye area—the latter was present in the trailer but has since been removed.

• Sebastian Kalemba was offered the role of Game Director by Studio Head Adam Badowski—main vision creator since Witcher 1, Head of Art on W1, Game Director of Witcher 2/Cyberpunk 2077, Studio Head on W3, and Chief Creative Officer on Phantom Liberty.

• They want to make you feel like a hunter, not just play as one. After spending some time in the game, you will notice details in the environment or subtle sounds that will make you aware so you can prepare for potential combat.

• The game director teased that some other characters, apart from Geralt, might appear, saying, "Geralt will appear; who knows who else?" I made a post a while back on how W4's producer Gosia Mitrega might have given away its Iorveth with her reaction during an interview (kind of a reach from my side).

• Both the trailer and the tech demo used in-game assets and Lumen.

• They pay utmost respect to the canon (Sapkowski's books and CDPR's games) and will respect the story and characters that were introduced in previous games.

• Witcher 4 marks the start of a new trilogy with Ciri as the main protagonist.

• It's a single-player, narrative-driven, open-world action RPG.

• Ciri has been recast. Her new actress, Ciara Berkeley, is a young and talented Irish actress. The Polish voice actress is Jagoda Jasnowska.

• Jake Lampert has been cast as a character named "Branko." His acting manager is Kate Saxon, who previously led the English voice cast for Witcher 2/3.

• Alan Sciberras has been cast as "Traveller."

• Yennefer's voice actress, Denise Gough (most recently known for her role as Dedra Meero in Andor), said she doesn't know anything about W4.

• CDPR loves working with pre-defined characters because they can tailor the journey 100% to Ciri herself, creating more immersive storytelling. Story Director Tomasz Marchewka previously stated on the answeRED podcast (highly recommended if you're interested in learning more about CDPR's approach to creating games) he prefers writing with less freedom.

• Game Director says Witcher 3's weakest point was combat responsiveness.

• Before the reveal trailer at the Game Awards 2024, CDPR teased a coin with runic letters inscribed onto it, which read, "Days and nights pass, but the blood remains the same."

• Geralt is living in Corvo Bianco (as shown in the 10th anniversary video).

• They will refer to the endings. Seasoned players will be able to spot subtle dialogue and references.

• Gnomes will be in the game.

• One of the composers for W4, P.T. Adamczyk, already recorded the first cues for W4's OST and the music for the tech demo in the Vienna Synchron Stage.

• Gwent will return.

• The chain from the trailer is one of the new utility tools.

• Ciri's silver sword is Zireal (from the Witcher 3 ending) and has runes on it that translate to, "My flash will pierce the darkness, my brightness dispels the gloom."

• Kelpie is Ciri's horse from the books and will return. If it's the same horse is unclear.

• The monster from the tech demo is a manticore. A creature described as having bat wings and a lion's head.

• Witcher 4 will not be an Epic exclusive.