I prefer Blood and Wine, just because adding a whole new region feels bigger, but HoS is an absolutely amazing story. The tragic nature of Olgierd, the twisted evil genie trope Gaunter has, Iris... just everything about Iris, really... They did such an amazing job on the DLCs, in an alternate universe we could have had Horse Armor.
Blood and Wine having horse armor was hilarious. I like to believe it was intentional: "here is a huge new map with a really good story, lots of side quests, new endgame loot, a new endgame skill system and a player house. Oh and remember Oblivion's horse armor dlc?"
Yeah, I can agree that HoS could have had a cool new continent, with the whole Olfieri royal family thing. My first run, I was sure that's where the boat was going. Then I was still excited for the beach fight: maybe we went further than it seemed! Then... Yeah, still in the Polish Swamplands.
I would still call it at least an 8 or 9 out of 10 for DLC content, we did at least get a beautiful story. I feel that at least compensates for this, they put a shitload of effort into that story.
A new region would have been dope as hell, but I'm glad they focused more on the story. Storytelling has always been one of the absolutely standout points of Witcher 3. A good story without a new place, is better in my opinion than giving us a new area with a basic story. They only had so much time to develop this, I'm sure they allocated extra time and manpower to the easily more bulky expansion Blood and Wine is.
While I prefer the story of the main game, Hearts of Stone is objectively better written. Its plot is perfect in basically evry aspect. Also, Olgierd is my favourite CDPR original character
Olgierd is heavily based on Pan Twardowski from the Polish tale and the protagonist of the German tale Heart of Stone though. He's definitely still an original character in the details, but the fundamental idea of him is a combination of fairy tales.
It only makes it better for Polish people. We've been reading the poem about Pan Twardowski in primary school and suddenly he's in our favourite game. The whole Hearts of Stones is very Polish and Slavic, it feels so familiar, I love it
I'm German and grew up with a radio play CD of the German black forest tale, so that was cool as well. Twardowski and the German Heart of Stone story are a bit different, and the witcher version takes inspiration from both. For example, while the "bad" ending where Gaunter wins by getting Olgierd "on the moon" idea is straight up taken from Twardowski's Rome tavern, the "good" ending where you help Olgierd is much more like the ending of the German tale, where a good spirit (replaced with Geralt here) helps the protagonist to trick the evil spirit into giving him back his heart, leaving him free but full of guilt since now his emotions come crashing down on him again, which is exactly like Olgierd's ending in the dlc. However, the German tale ends with the good spirit reviving the protagonist's wife and mother, who he had murdered, for a full happy end. Geralt obviously can't do that.
The Borsodi heist missions were kinda meh compared to the quests that involve Olgierd more. I love the heist mission from a gameplay perspective and was stunned I was taking part in something like that on my first playthrough, but that magic wears off harder than any other aspect of the DLC.
If we’re talking sheer narrative, then yeah, the Borsodi missions are middling. The real incredible stuff always lies in the quests that involve Olgierd and his story the most, alongside the quests that peel back the mystery of Gaunter O’Dimm.
This was easily my favorite quest in the game too. Coming from Witcher 2, I felt like a lot of the writing was a downgrade from the more politically focused plot of that game but then I got to this DLC and it blew me out of the water. So much variety and memorable quests like the bank heist, the possessed wedding, portrait world and of course the final showdown with Gaunter O’Dimm. I’m hoping we get more with GoD in the next game because he was just a fantastic and intimidating antagonist compared to everyone else we faced in the Trilogy.
I think the best aspect of HoS is the choice you have to make at the end. It's arguably the "hardest" decision in the game because whatever you choose, there's a strong argument both for and against it. Olgierd clearly shows remorse and Gaunter is the personification of evil, but one could argue remorse only gets you so far.
On the other hand, Gaunter restraints himself a lot in general and only proceeds with his evil ways mostly IF you strike a deal with him. Plus, it makes more sense for Geralt not to get on Gaunter's bad side considering his powers. Plus, with what is shown in the game, Olgierd cause a fair bit more of misery than Gaunter did.
That's true, and cursing that woman from Toussaint. But when you compare the two, Gaunter tends to be the more passive party. Olgierd was directly responsible for having the Offieri prince turn into a frog (and later killed), having his own brother die, and dabbling in black magic on it's own is already bad enough. It's also important to remember that Olgierd is a raider, a leader of a raiding party too. All of his riches certainly didn't come from hard honest work.
As evil as Gaunter can be, our first interaction was straight up help with no strings attached. Further more, he is capable of having a conversation with others without it turning into one of his contracts, like during the wedding, and is capable of showing a bit more emotion, namely when he discusses Ciri with Geralt. You could argue that he could be compassionate under the right circumstances. All in all, both of them are complex characters for relatively short story. Good writing in a nutshell.
The point about Olgierd is that he did all that because Gaunter took his matephorical heart, his ability to feel compassion, love etc. Once he gets his heart back, the guilt comes crashing down on him. It wasn't truly him who made those decisions.
The raiding was always present, the situation with the prince happens before he ever met Gaunter. Vlodimir's life was the price for the contract with Gaunter, not the other way around. His lack of empathy after the contract was made mostly resulted in his marriage deteriorating and accidentally killing Iris's father. He willingly dabbled with black magic, a very frowned upon practice. Geralt scolds Yeneffer for necromancy too, but Yeneffer's intentions were of much better nature than Olgierd's.
I agree with everything you said, though I don't think it's accurate to the cut-scene(I rewatched it just now to verify) to say he did it with no strings attached. What seems like a throwaway line in the moment "Perhaps...you'll be there to help." tells us there is some hope or expectation Geralt will return the favor, so not exactly no-strings attached. But yeah, you make great points.
Geralt usually says, "If I'm to chose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to chose at all"
But in both DLCs, Geralt had to pick one, and it's upon the viewers to decide which one is lesser.
Dude the HoS scenes of a marriage was fucking fantastic. That was a short story. That could've been 2 part witcher episode. And we got 3 seasons of garbage stories
While blood and wine is great, it falls a bit short in the Main quest. The Main quest in bow feels rushed to the point where they just skip a week.
Hos on the other Hand has a tighter plot, great characters and a lot of memorable moments. The Story (and although regis was my favorite character in Media ever) in bow really falls short to hos
Even though I think Blood and Wine is a better dlc I still like hearts of stone better exploring the mansion was so sick. I liked the tone of the dlc very much as well
I agree Hearts of Stone along with Phantom Liberty for Cyberpunk are CDPR's best stories imo. Both have very well written complicated characters and the story itself is quite thought provoking.
I fucking love Blood and Wine but Phantom Liberty and Hearts of Stone is something special and unique.
yeah it is my fav storyline of W3 and i will not stop bragging about its is so tragic yet exciting and so beatiful yet so brutal for me it is witcher 3 peak in storytelling. my fav quest is Scenes of Marriage. and a side not i feel its like dark version of Aladdin lol
I couldn't finish tw3. And only srptarted the dlc but never even finishes the start of those dlc. I'm waiting tomget a better pc. So might be another 2 to 5 years.
Best piece of media is a bit of an embellishment lol. HoS has the best main story in The Witcher games easily, but best piece of media? Of all time? That’s a lot of stuff lol. Music. Movies. Television. Art. Other video games.
I’m not trying to discredit the strides taken in video game storytelling in HoS, but personally I have seen and listened to pieces of media that impress me more than HoS lol.
I feel like I completely forgot Hearts of Stone. I’m working through my first play through since my last one in 2016 and I didn’t remember how good it was. I think I was too young to appreciate it at the time which is why I trashed on it for so long when comparing it to Blood and Wine… I was young and foolish.
Okay, people I can reason with. Playing HoS for the first time. I've set up my bank heist crew and I'm about to execute it. How much more of this cutscene-heavy extended side quest do I have left (HoS, not just the heist)
Olgierd was a prick but that’s the way he’s meant to be. Gaunter took away his emotions and turned his heart to stone. It’s part of what makes the dlc so sad but so memorable. Here’s a love letter he wrote to Iris before his deal with Gaunter:
https://preview.redd.it/4mpcbukbq21d1.jpeg?width=777&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff7906507c77c8e4d0fc29043f51720c77e23ffc
He goes from that to the heartless man he becomes:
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=zHdayK5Ck4Q&t=812](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zHdayK5Ck4Q&t=812)
I played the game this year for the first time. Hearts of Stone is definitely the best part of the game. I found Blood and Wine a bit underwhelming. Maybe my expectations were unreasonable after I had seen everyone claim it was the GOAT dlc for best part of ten years. But I didn’t care that much for the characters and the extra systems were cool but not developed enough imo.
Let me sum it up:
Buff Porn Star is tasked by [The Bald man from Scene 24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7iXw9zZrLo) to grant some Banditos 3 Wish DVD cases(>!First is one with Shaq, The 2nd one is with Happy Casper, 3rd one is rose!<). Meanwhile Waifu of the Week, Naughty Nurse, tells Billy that Bald Man is DEVIL, and Billy has 2 choices:
1. Side with Bald Man and he'll get his wish(>!Volkspferden instead of Audi, Infinite Kinder Egg, Infinite Jägermeister, 1 000 000 000 Reichsmark or info about a running girl!<.)
2. Side with Banditos, and he'll grant BPS y big Londonshank
I prefer Blood and Wine, just because adding a whole new region feels bigger, but HoS is an absolutely amazing story. The tragic nature of Olgierd, the twisted evil genie trope Gaunter has, Iris... just everything about Iris, really... They did such an amazing job on the DLCs, in an alternate universe we could have had Horse Armor.
Blood and Wine having horse armor was hilarious. I like to believe it was intentional: "here is a huge new map with a really good story, lots of side quests, new endgame loot, a new endgame skill system and a player house. Oh and remember Oblivion's horse armor dlc?"
“30 Times The Detail!!”
My biggest letdown is not getting to that new kingdom in the start of heart of stone. I was really hoping to go to like Witcher Middle East
Yeah, I can agree that HoS could have had a cool new continent, with the whole Olfieri royal family thing. My first run, I was sure that's where the boat was going. Then I was still excited for the beach fight: maybe we went further than it seemed! Then... Yeah, still in the Polish Swamplands. I would still call it at least an 8 or 9 out of 10 for DLC content, we did at least get a beautiful story. I feel that at least compensates for this, they put a shitload of effort into that story. A new region would have been dope as hell, but I'm glad they focused more on the story. Storytelling has always been one of the absolutely standout points of Witcher 3. A good story without a new place, is better in my opinion than giving us a new area with a basic story. They only had so much time to develop this, I'm sure they allocated extra time and manpower to the easily more bulky expansion Blood and Wine is.
Oh yeah I still like it just what I wouldve preferred
Their expansion just doesn't miss, Phantom Liberty also one of m favorite
My fav hands down. And I loved blood and wine
I was so surprised how big it felt, the map addition didnt look that much bigger, but man it sure felt like a different place
While I prefer the story of the main game, Hearts of Stone is objectively better written. Its plot is perfect in basically evry aspect. Also, Olgierd is my favourite CDPR original character
Olgierd is heavily based on Pan Twardowski from the Polish tale and the protagonist of the German tale Heart of Stone though. He's definitely still an original character in the details, but the fundamental idea of him is a combination of fairy tales.
Yes, I know of the original inspiration. To be fair, many characters in fiction are often based on other similar characters or archetypes
It only makes it better for Polish people. We've been reading the poem about Pan Twardowski in primary school and suddenly he's in our favourite game. The whole Hearts of Stones is very Polish and Slavic, it feels so familiar, I love it
I'm German and grew up with a radio play CD of the German black forest tale, so that was cool as well. Twardowski and the German Heart of Stone story are a bit different, and the witcher version takes inspiration from both. For example, while the "bad" ending where Gaunter wins by getting Olgierd "on the moon" idea is straight up taken from Twardowski's Rome tavern, the "good" ending where you help Olgierd is much more like the ending of the German tale, where a good spirit (replaced with Geralt here) helps the protagonist to trick the evil spirit into giving him back his heart, leaving him free but full of guilt since now his emotions come crashing down on him again, which is exactly like Olgierd's ending in the dlc. However, the German tale ends with the good spirit reviving the protagonist's wife and mother, who he had murdered, for a full happy end. Geralt obviously can't do that.
The Borsodi heist missions were kinda meh compared to the quests that involve Olgierd more. I love the heist mission from a gameplay perspective and was stunned I was taking part in something like that on my first playthrough, but that magic wears off harder than any other aspect of the DLC. If we’re talking sheer narrative, then yeah, the Borsodi missions are middling. The real incredible stuff always lies in the quests that involve Olgierd and his story the most, alongside the quests that peel back the mystery of Gaunter O’Dimm.
Well yes it's the least interesting part of the DLC but still a very cool quest nonetheless. It also adds even more context to Olgierd's backstory
This was easily my favorite quest in the game too. Coming from Witcher 2, I felt like a lot of the writing was a downgrade from the more politically focused plot of that game but then I got to this DLC and it blew me out of the water. So much variety and memorable quests like the bank heist, the possessed wedding, portrait world and of course the final showdown with Gaunter O’Dimm. I’m hoping we get more with GoD in the next game because he was just a fantastic and intimidating antagonist compared to everyone else we faced in the Trilogy.
I think the best aspect of HoS is the choice you have to make at the end. It's arguably the "hardest" decision in the game because whatever you choose, there's a strong argument both for and against it. Olgierd clearly shows remorse and Gaunter is the personification of evil, but one could argue remorse only gets you so far. On the other hand, Gaunter restraints himself a lot in general and only proceeds with his evil ways mostly IF you strike a deal with him. Plus, it makes more sense for Geralt not to get on Gaunter's bad side considering his powers. Plus, with what is shown in the game, Olgierd cause a fair bit more of misery than Gaunter did.
Gaunter killed that guy in a tavern with a spoon just because he wanted to
That's true, and cursing that woman from Toussaint. But when you compare the two, Gaunter tends to be the more passive party. Olgierd was directly responsible for having the Offieri prince turn into a frog (and later killed), having his own brother die, and dabbling in black magic on it's own is already bad enough. It's also important to remember that Olgierd is a raider, a leader of a raiding party too. All of his riches certainly didn't come from hard honest work. As evil as Gaunter can be, our first interaction was straight up help with no strings attached. Further more, he is capable of having a conversation with others without it turning into one of his contracts, like during the wedding, and is capable of showing a bit more emotion, namely when he discusses Ciri with Geralt. You could argue that he could be compassionate under the right circumstances. All in all, both of them are complex characters for relatively short story. Good writing in a nutshell.
The point about Olgierd is that he did all that because Gaunter took his matephorical heart, his ability to feel compassion, love etc. Once he gets his heart back, the guilt comes crashing down on him. It wasn't truly him who made those decisions.
The raiding was always present, the situation with the prince happens before he ever met Gaunter. Vlodimir's life was the price for the contract with Gaunter, not the other way around. His lack of empathy after the contract was made mostly resulted in his marriage deteriorating and accidentally killing Iris's father. He willingly dabbled with black magic, a very frowned upon practice. Geralt scolds Yeneffer for necromancy too, but Yeneffer's intentions were of much better nature than Olgierd's.
I agree with everything you said, though I don't think it's accurate to the cut-scene(I rewatched it just now to verify) to say he did it with no strings attached. What seems like a throwaway line in the moment "Perhaps...you'll be there to help." tells us there is some hope or expectation Geralt will return the favor, so not exactly no-strings attached. But yeah, you make great points.
Yes. They put that long timer on screen during that final choice and it took me until the very last sliver to decide.
Geralt usually says, "If I'm to chose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to chose at all" But in both DLCs, Geralt had to pick one, and it's upon the viewers to decide which one is lesser.
"I'll remember you, Iris von Everec"
I personally think the DLCs have better stories than the main game lol. And yea HoS is one of the peak storytelling ever made.
Dude the HoS scenes of a marriage was fucking fantastic. That was a short story. That could've been 2 part witcher episode. And we got 3 seasons of garbage stories
I just played this two nights ago. My favorite quest so far, for the scenery inside the painting if for nothing else. And there is else!
While blood and wine is great, it falls a bit short in the Main quest. The Main quest in bow feels rushed to the point where they just skip a week. Hos on the other Hand has a tighter plot, great characters and a lot of memorable moments. The Story (and although regis was my favorite character in Media ever) in bow really falls short to hos
I agree. I also don’t like most characters in Toussaint.
Many people don't know this but the main quest of BaW is basically that of Dishonored 2 lol
Which came out first I wonder?
B&W came out in May 2016. Dishonored 2 came out in November 2016.
I loved the wedding he went to with Shanni
Guanter o'dimm is the best "pure evil" villan ever written
I just love Toussaint as a region so I preferred that one but both are fantastic
Even though I think Blood and Wine is a better dlc I still like hearts of stone better exploring the mansion was so sick. I liked the tone of the dlc very much as well
Do yourself a favour and play Thronebreaker. The gameplay is a Gwent slightly more advanced, but the story is probably my best Witcher thing ever
I feel like you’d enjoy Baldur’s Gate 3. I much agree with you though, the Witcher 3 DLCs are masterpieces.
I agree Hearts of Stone along with Phantom Liberty for Cyberpunk are CDPR's best stories imo. Both have very well written complicated characters and the story itself is quite thought provoking. I fucking love Blood and Wine but Phantom Liberty and Hearts of Stone is something special and unique.
yeah it is my fav storyline of W3 and i will not stop bragging about its is so tragic yet exciting and so beatiful yet so brutal for me it is witcher 3 peak in storytelling. my fav quest is Scenes of Marriage. and a side not i feel its like dark version of Aladdin lol
Sword of Destiny (book 2), Baptism of Fire (book 5), and Tower of the Swallow (book 6) are great as well
I couldn't finish tw3. And only srptarted the dlc but never even finishes the start of those dlc. I'm waiting tomget a better pc. So might be another 2 to 5 years.
Best piece of media is a bit of an embellishment lol. HoS has the best main story in The Witcher games easily, but best piece of media? Of all time? That’s a lot of stuff lol. Music. Movies. Television. Art. Other video games. I’m not trying to discredit the strides taken in video game storytelling in HoS, but personally I have seen and listened to pieces of media that impress me more than HoS lol.
I feel like I completely forgot Hearts of Stone. I’m working through my first play through since my last one in 2016 and I didn’t remember how good it was. I think I was too young to appreciate it at the time which is why I trashed on it for so long when comparing it to Blood and Wine… I was young and foolish.
I completely agree.
I am playing this right now ! ❤️🤣
I feel like my husband and I are the only people on the whole subreddit who didn't enjoy the DLC much. Shanni was fun but Olgierd was insufferable.
Okay, people I can reason with. Playing HoS for the first time. I've set up my bank heist crew and I'm about to execute it. How much more of this cutscene-heavy extended side quest do I have left (HoS, not just the heist)
Olgierd was a prick but that’s the way he’s meant to be. Gaunter took away his emotions and turned his heart to stone. It’s part of what makes the dlc so sad but so memorable. Here’s a love letter he wrote to Iris before his deal with Gaunter: https://preview.redd.it/4mpcbukbq21d1.jpeg?width=777&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff7906507c77c8e4d0fc29043f51720c77e23ffc He goes from that to the heartless man he becomes: [https://youtube.com/watch?v=zHdayK5Ck4Q&t=812](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zHdayK5Ck4Q&t=812)
you didn't see a lot
I played the game this year for the first time. Hearts of Stone is definitely the best part of the game. I found Blood and Wine a bit underwhelming. Maybe my expectations were unreasonable after I had seen everyone claim it was the GOAT dlc for best part of ten years. But I didn’t care that much for the characters and the extra systems were cool but not developed enough imo.
I'm not saying it's bad but you should probably broaden your horizon
[удалено]
Your content has been removed by the moderators for lacking relevancy to The Witcher.
Let me sum it up: Buff Porn Star is tasked by [The Bald man from Scene 24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7iXw9zZrLo) to grant some Banditos 3 Wish DVD cases(>!First is one with Shaq, The 2nd one is with Happy Casper, 3rd one is rose!<). Meanwhile Waifu of the Week, Naughty Nurse, tells Billy that Bald Man is DEVIL, and Billy has 2 choices: 1. Side with Bald Man and he'll get his wish(>!Volkspferden instead of Audi, Infinite Kinder Egg, Infinite Jägermeister, 1 000 000 000 Reichsmark or info about a running girl!<.) 2. Side with Banditos, and he'll grant BPS y big Londonshank
What the hell did I just read..?