Yeah I'm thinking it could be quite a cultural difference. I'm from Britain myself and I find the game refreshing - the characters speak in English accents rather than American ones, I think the writing is hilarious at times, and it all has a rather quaint feel. It definitely has a very European feel to it which is absolutely unique. It definitely stands out from a game like Dragon Age to me, but I can understand why the American mass market might find it weird or unusual, given they have far less of a cultural history than Europe, so LOTR might be considered classic fantasy, but all our European nations have far more folk lore and stuff to draw upon. So the weird monsters like strigas, drowners, draugs and stuff might seem weird to an audience used to stuff like dragons, phoenixes and orcs.Higgs303 said:Perhaps Western audiences tend to dislike or do not identify with the Eastern European themes and mannerisms which crop up from time to time amidst more conventional fantasy tropes? I would argue that many Westerners are influenced by the negative stereotypes and pre-conceived notions surrounding Eastern Europeans and their cultures, which may be affecting how they perceive certain aspects about the game. Although, on second thought, that might be completely baseless as there is widespread acceptance all the cultural tropes found in Japanese games, I am really just spitballing...
The fact that the series is developed with the PC as the primary platform may have resulted in a significant loss of quality or intuitiveness on the subsequent ports to consoles? I've only played on PC, but I thought the Witcher 2 was fantastic in both story and game design. Nothing Bioware has produced in the last decade comes close to surpassing the narrative and gameplay found in the Witcher 2. The weak point of the Witcher series, the fairly stereotypical characterization, remains on par with the rather dull, rehashed personalities created by Bioware. Bethesda still takes the cake for world design. I expect the Witcher 3 will not surpass the rich yet expansive environment of Skyrim, but who knows. The NPCs at least do not have that wooden, uncanny valley feel so prevalent in the Elder Scrolls series.
Having said all that, the first Witcher was a bit of a mess, even after the Enhanced Edition was released. The gameplay was old-fashioned and repetitive and there were some rather immature/tired themes which tended to mar the story overall. Maybe the first title has put people off the whole series and/or coloured their perception of the sequel?
It comes across as misogyny because the setting is misogynistic because it is based off 1300s Europe. Plus the plot is driven by the actions of a powerful group of female mages, so I wouldn't say the game is misogynistic or sexist, but the culture portrayed in the game is.Longing said:I would enjoy The Witcher a lot more if you weren't forced to play as Gerald. I get that it's a book series, but he just comes across as so extremely unlikeable to me. I've briefly played the second one a year or so ago and I could not for the life of me get into it. It's the same reason I can't get into GOT I suppose. Everything's got this toxic thin layer of misogyny over it, like shit fondant (is there another kind?) on top of an otherwise excellent cake. I don't want to have to scrape everything off of it to get to the good parts.
Combat seemed functional, I`ll admit I didn`t get very far in the game so maybe it gets worse later on; a lot of people seem to have a problem with it.
Anyway, I guess it all comes down to: it`s not for me. And that's fine.
Yeah I think you're stretching there. I don't have a problem with other culture's concepts and mythologies, it's how they are presented. And in Witcher, everything is just so...dull and drab. There is no life to any of it. It felt like a checklist of common fantasy elements, without any actual substance to them. Gruff, grim protagonist? Check. Scantily clad female protagonist/bedwarmer? Check. Random dudes in leather with swords, one of them being an old and scarred elder asskicker? Check. Big evil threat that you don't actually deal with for a while because you have tons of random fetch quests to do for people you don't know? Check.Higgs303 said:Perhaps Western audiences tend to dislike or do not identify with the Eastern European themes and mannerisms which crop up from time to time amidst more conventional fantasy tropes? I would argue that many Westerners are influenced by the negative stereotypes and pre-conceived notions surrounding Eastern Europeans and their cultures, which may be affecting how they perceive certain aspects about the game. Although, on second thought, that might be completely baseless as there is widespread acceptance all the cultural tropes found in Japanese games, I am really just spitballing...
It could be, others like myself have stated we just couldn't sit through Witcher 1, and have no intention of picking up 2. And I fully admit it's because of how little interest I have in Witcher 1.Higgs303 said:Having said all that, the first Witcher was a bit of a mess, even after the Enhanced Edition was released. The gameplay was old-fashioned and repetitive and there were some rather immature/tired themes which tended to mar the story overall. Maybe the first title has put people off the whole series and/or coloured their perception of the sequel?
This really isn't that big of a deal. We are familiar with English accents from hundreds of actors and actresses that are in many of the most popular shows out there. Seriously, it's not because of the accents.endtherapture said:Yeah I'm thinking it could be quite a cultural difference. I'm from Britain myself and I find the game refreshing - the characters speak in English accents rather than American ones
Nah, it's not that. Seriously, one random fantasy monster is the same as any other. It's not like we balk when we see some creature we've never seen before. By that logic we would all freak out at every new IP that introduced new creatures, and we don't. Besides, all 3 of those examples of monsters you mentioned, I'm personally familiar with from other games/books/movies/shows, so it's not like they're totally new material.endtherapture said:I think the writing is hilarious at times, and it all has a rather quaint feel. It definitely has a very European feel to it which is absolutely unique. It definitely stands out from a game like Dragon Age to me, but I can understand why the American mass market might find it weird or unusual, given they have far less of a cultural history than Europe, so LOTR might be considered classic fantasy, but all our European nations have far more folk lore and stuff to draw upon. So the weird monsters like strigas, drowners, draugs and stuff might seem weird to an audience used to stuff like dragons, phoenixes and orcs.
I dunno, every character in Witcher (that I actually met before turning the game off) screamed as being a super tropey archetype too. I even listed some of the tropes they seemed to use in my comment further up this post. I dunno, I mean, we've stated pretty clearly why we didn't like it, I think the reasons are explained in our posts. You don't have to theorize it, just read what we said. xDendtherapture said:But yeah, I agree with you regarding the companion design. Each Bioware character is well written, but essentially they are all tropes and stereotypes in every game, despite being well written. I do think characters like Roche and Iorveth are similar, but they feel a lot fresher, probably because they're not under your command and do their own things, they're more proactive than Bioware characters, and live with their backgrounds, rather than you having to go out and solve their daddy issues.
Must. Resist. Obvious. Language. Joke.BathorysGraveland2 said:overall lack of polish.
Aard is basically a force push or "fus ro dah" if you played Skyrim, a shockwave that can destroy enviromments, push away and stagger enemies.Laggyteabag said:I don't have anything against it, at least not enough to hate it, I just can't get into it. It just seems like it is very against the player. One example is the spells. Here is a list of names:
Aard
Igni
Yrden
Quen
Axii
Heliotrop
Now, for those who have never played the Witcher series, or have only ever briefly played it, please tell me what the spells do? Well, Igni = Ignite = Fire. Right, cool. What about the others? In my playtime, they are explained once: In the tutorial, but there aren't even any tooltips that I could find that explained what the hell the others did. What is wrong with giving them more conventional/ understandable names?
I constantly say to myself that I will play and complete the Witcher 2, but I know that will probably never even happen.
I wouldn't say the card game is really forced. I don't think you HAVE to get any of them, but the fact that they're in the game at all is kind of immature and sexist. I didn't have much issue with the colors in The Witcher, though I do think that entirely too much time was spent in ugly swamps. What I remember most about the colors is the effects of light hitting Geralt's hair. In sunny areas it just burned out my eyes.leberkaese said:I like the series for being a RPG with an adult audience in mind and a good story.
I think, nearly every problem I have with series comes from the first game.
I dislike Witcher 1 for its forced 'sex collection minigame'. Collecting cards for all the women you have slept with? Not what I'd call very grown up... Witcher 2 has done it a lot better.
And the used colors... Witcher 2 has really beautiful colors and has nicely done environments. From what I remember from Witcher 1 it's.. grey in grey with a little bit of brown.
Also, I really dislike the combat system of Witcher 1. Can't pull myself together to play it through to the end because of that.