CD Projekt Purple’s The Witcher 3 hit 18-year-old me and each different fantasy role-playing video games dork (honorific) like a truck. The threequel had all the pieces: a dynamic open-world, multi-faceted characters and in-game decisions that truly felt like they mattered. Nevertheless, the latter bit me within the ass a number of instances over in my first playthrough.
Regardless of being an enormous lover of fantasy RPGs with impactful selections (taking a look at you, Dragon Age: Origins,) I went into The Witcher 3 pretty blind to the lore. I hadn’t but performed the earlier two video games and so didn’t know an excessive amount of past “Oooh, magic and swords and monsters!” All I cared about was that I used to be a basilisk-slaying protagonist named Geralt who was in search of my pseudo-daughter Ciri, whereas my stunning lover Yennefer informed me how silly I used to be and didn’t perceive why that solely made her wish to kiss me all of the extra. As you’ll be able to most likely inform, this lack of comprehension led me to locations I wouldn’t go together with a gun. Particularly: proper into the arms of Keira Metz.
[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for the Keira Metz questline in The Witcher 3.]
Keira Metz is a part of the Lodge of Sorceresses, a secret group devoted to overseeing issues of magic and counseling the kings and queens of the Northern Kingdoms. By the point The Witcher 3 comes spherical, Keira’s swapped a life within the royal courtroom to turn out to be the native witch for the folks of Velen. Not by selection: she’s been run out after dropping the belief of her liege, King Foltest of Temeria. Due to this, she’s determined to get again into the lap of luxurious – by any means vital.
So determined, it appears, that Keira takes the notes for the potential treatment of the Catriona plague and shapes it right into a weapon for the worst individual alive: the magic-hating King Radovid of Redania. In Keira’s thoughts, impressing Radovid will earn her a spot at his aspect and a complete willingness to completely overlook about the entire I-hate-magic-and-all-who-wield-it shtick that he has occurring.
Now, Keira’s desperation for a life with out mattress bugs coming at the price of 1000’s of individuals appears a bit of, let’s consider, dramatic? However, in a very roundabout manner, I sympathized along with her. It’s not simple being compelled out of your house, by no means realizing when or in the event you’ll ever have the ability to return. Ought to it come at the price of 1000’s of lives? Ehhhhh.
So, I decided. And it turned out to be a horrible, no-good-at-all, very unhealthy, one. Once more, I used to be 18 and had not but mastered the thought of constructing a number of saves earlier than what may be a horrible determination. Maintain that idea on the entrance of your thoughts, please and thanks.
I made a decision to belief that Keira knew what she was doing. Moreover, if anybody may appeal the pants off Radovid, it will most likely be her, proper? So, off I went and continued to spend 30+ hours doing my very own factor in The Witcher 3. I made decisions that I remorse, however finally didn’t really feel too terrible about. Slowly, however absolutely, I utterly forgot about Keira.
Then I headed to Novigrad once more through the quest Last Preparations and came upon that I’d made a bit of huge mistake. When asking Triss the place the opposite sorceresses of the Lodge had been, she revealed that Keira’s confidence in gaining amnesty from Radovid was unearned, and he or she, sadly, was put to the stake.
To say I used to be gutted was an understatement. There was a Keira Metz-shaped gap in my coronary heart and it solely obtained worse when myself and Triss needed to sneak her physique out from the sq. of Novigrad’s metropolis. It’s a heartwrenching scene, and I adored how The Witcher 3 gave even a minor characters’ demise the gravity it deserved. It’s most likely why it’s nonetheless certainly one of my favourite video games of all time.
I additionally realized a helpful lesson that day: Solely consider stunning ladies know what they’re doing 99% of the time, and, for the love of god, make a number of saves. It could save a digital life.
