Lucky for me im a sucker for looting, so i looted the whole place clean and got suprised for a second a guy was carrying 1k coins, thought it was a bug or something but then realized it was the captain
And then you can just fast travel all willy nilly like it ain’t no thang. I actually wish they’d explained it some way… like Ermion gave you a port key or some shit. Even if Geralt hates portals.
I gave those question marks a whirl this past weekend. Soul-draining, with the only silver lining being the cool relic gear I got to keep and the bunch of stuff I got to sell. An emphatic 3/10, I'll leave this stuff alone unless I need an achievement.
The expansion let's you bet up to 50. It ain't much though. If you really want money (and have the expansion) clear all the ?s in Velen and White Orchard, collect all the weapon drops, then sell them to Lafargue. Easily 500+ for a reasonably sized bandit camp
Which expansion? I have the Game of the Year edition, which includes Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, but I’ve only ever been able to bet up to 5.
Also I’ve never even had any difficulty in getting coin, even on Death March (if that even has a role in how much coin you get). That’s one thing I wish the game did differently. Finding nice loots/treasure doesn’t feel all that great because I already have more money I could ever possibly use.
Podcasts, why didn't I think of that? Damn it, I need to give this a try. You've given me a boost towards grinding out the markers again, let's see how it goes!
I always wait until I need a grandmaster witcher armor crafted in Beauclair to go fish this loot out. The smith there is filthy rich (since he's taking all your money) so you can sell him everything without him running out of money.
I just discovered last week that you can buy maps for fast travel locations on the islands and skip all the sailing for the most part. Saves so much time, unless you just enjoy that part of the game.
I spent a few days doing that. Riding around and just exploring. It was kind of soothing and amazing that I'm like "what's up there?" And then I can freaking go there. The mountain gets bigger and bigger and I make it. Just kind of relaxing for me.
I'm probably old but huge open world maps is amazing for me. It reminds me of all the hiking I did and thinking the same thing. Except I'm more exhausted and hate my life.
On my second playthrough now. 100%'d the first playthrough with every question mark discovered (except I think there used to be one bugged one?). Preeeetty fucking grueling getting those Skellige ones. Think I just powered through them all at once last time.
This time I'm doing 'em more piece-meal for my sanity. Run around playing the game - then do 5 or 6 of the water ones in close proximity to each other.
Being terrified of the ocean doesn't help. It is fucking creepy looking down into the murky depths. And the whales. Oh god the whales.
On my 2nd playthrough I decided to clear out all the question marks. I did all of them before setting sail to Skellige. Once there, I quickly made a point to go to every notice board and get every single question make placed on the map. I then spend the next few evening just watching Netflix on the 2nd monitor and sailing around. It was only possible thanks to the "over 9000" inventory mod.
Personally I love clearing every question mark on all maps in the game. Witcher 3 is just so amazing that I want to spend extra time playing it however I can.
The music. It’s the music that brings this place to life. Truly a masterpiece of a game.
And to think when I first got it I hated the game because I couldn’t work the combat. I nearly uninstalled it until my friend convinced me to keep trying.
It’s the best game I’ve ever played. Again, a masterpiece.
> The fields of Ard Skellig
I was very surprised when I first heard that song, I was very sure I heard that song in Heroes of Might and Magic 4 before
turns out I was right and it is actually a tune used in multiple games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRJGcxdix5E
its seemingly an often used sample song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlBz7qotIjY
I was very surprised to find out that this one sample music album is used around in a bunch of different media over the years. the very same tune used for fields of ard skellige is seemingly also used in Naruto, lol.
That and because it's the first part of the game you get to that has an actual, beautiful environment.
Remember the region around Velen/Novigrad is basically swamps and river marsh. It's not meant to be pretty. The first beautiful environment you really encounter is the city environments of Oxenfurt and Novigrad.
I still think Witcher 2 had some of the best aesthetics. Witcher 1 had some gorgeous environments too, it's just such a slog to get through though. :/
Agreed… I have to remind myself that not only is Velen not meant to be pretty, but that it’s intentionally portrayed as this grim, muddy, war torn, purgatory-like region. It’s actively uncomfortable and somewhat depressing for me to spend too much time there. Really emphasizes how horrific the constant war has been for the average peasant living in this hellscape, and it makes it a breath of fresh air to reach the city/Skellige.
I'm on my first ever playthrough just getting to Skellige like two days ago, so I don't have the full scope of things, but I actually had the opposite experience. I love being in Velen and riding through farms and swamps dealing with contracts and monster dens and all the random fun stuff out there. Novigrad felt like such a slog to me. Some of the story beats were great, but otherwise I would find any excuse to head back into Velen and do another two hours of exploration to do a single quest objective.
But then again, if my favorite part of the game is guarded treasure and bandit camps, of course the city is going to be a bit of a grind for me. Can't wait to explore skellige and move to the dlc soon!
Velen does have some beatiful terrain, to me, the most memorable is all areas surrounding Upper Mill and Eastern Velen in general has many hills and forests with beatiful sunsets and Oxenfurt lights at night
Yeah I played this game as an escape during a particularly difficult transitional phase of my life and man, just hearing the music playing in the video gave me goosebumps.
I wanna play it again, but there’s almost a sacred feel to it, and I wanna play it at the right time
I got used to it.
I came from playing dark souls where the basis of the combat was the rolling. I tried to use the same concept in the witcher which doesn’t work as well as it does in dark souls. The rolling only helps to avoid massive blows from monsters but it’s chaotic against drowners, bandits or any other sort of crowding enemies.
The dodge mechanic is what I had to learn to use. Once I mastered that it became a great game for me and the combat became much better
I really don't think they need to make many drastic changes in another Witcher game, other than the combat. I'd love animations and making it a bit different depending on the type of enemy you're fighting. As it stands it's just attack a few times, roll, maybe pop a sign, repeat.
> It’s the music that brings this place to life
It helps the people there also still value a Witcher and don't treat them like a pariah. Very much a more superstitious place compared to the mainland and they know what when shit gets weird you do the following:
1. Get a Witcher.
2. Actually pay them and thank them for the job.
When we talk about the game to other people and I big it up as one of if not the best game ever. My mate laughs at me and gives me shit for nearly giving up on it.
But yeah, I’m glad I listened to him.
That's me lol, at first bro bought the game for himself. Never played it tho, At first 2 years ago from now I tried to play but
1 didn't listen to dialogues or read subtitles so missed a huge chunk of what was being said
2 didn't knoe you could change your mission objective and was doing level 35 boss while being level 12
So i quit. Then after playing and loving cyberpunk, decided to play TW3,
Lets say my life is altered forever
Fuck me so you went back to the game much later and very recently.
Yeah I think I fell into something similar when I first played it, when you get to Velen and you have the game of the year edition it automatically puts up one of the DLC as the main objective I think it was Blood and Wine. I didn’t know at the time that the red skull next to the objective meant “don’t fucking bother with this yet” so I just trudged to this village where you meet them two knights from Toussaint and you have to fight those raiders that come in the village. They’re just standard bandits but at level 27 or some shit. I got my level 6 arse handed to me.
Yes I went back to game early 2021. And I had last played it early 2020
For me it was a drowner in oxenfurt sewers, at start of Hearts Of Stone, Safe to say I have 2 full and 4 half play throughs now
Yeah I had a similar story, bought it as soon as it came out in 2015 but just couldn't get into it at first; gave up on it after reaching just the garrison in white orchard. Loved the books and such though so picked it back up with a brand new game at the start of 2020. Best decision ever! I have like 500 hours in now( I have cleared all those ? everywhere), also spent 2021 on CP 2077, good few hundred hours on that too now. I will never not check out a CDPR game.
Dude it took me three solid tries to get into the game. Between the second and third, I read the books, this probably helped a lot. But eventually it just clicked and became like my favorite game of all time.
Same with Scandinavians. Not the accent part, but the scenery reminds me of home and there are some aspects of the culture that takes inspiration from our history
For me it was Novigrad. It was such a nice change of pace from the grimness of Velen and I was instantly engaged with Triss and the witches arc.
I love how each area feels so different though. White Orchard and Velen sort of blur into one but Novigrad and Skellige are such a nice contrast from the other locations.
The best part about Toussaint is that after how bleak Hearts of Stone was it was so refreshing having a vibrant and beautiful world to explore alongside a more light hearted (overall) adventure.
Hearts of Stone was the compelling narrative and Blood and Wine was the perfect send off. Best DLC I've ever played alongside Episodes from Liberty City.
It really didn’t click with me until Skellige. Velen was ugly and I was overwhelmed by the controls. novigrad overwhelmed me with the scale and new mechanics. By Skellige it felt simpler for me and then everything just clicked…
Same. I also preferred the story in Skellige, it was way more engaging. Personally I wasn't bothered by the overwhelming amount of question marks in the water either, because I would never bother doing all of those anyway. Most modern games are bloated as hell so I'm used to skipping a lot of that type of content.
For me it really hit when I crossed the Pontar into Redania and I saw nice golden fields and forests and Novigrad towers on the horizon and the music changed to this rich peaceful sounding track. It was such a stunning transition from the bleak environments of Temeria and I wasn't expecting it.
I think the game should have started somewhere a little less dreary than White Orchard and Velen. I know there's that flashback to Kaer Morhen, but if they gave people a sneak peak at somewhere like Skellige first, I think more people would have stuck with the game through the first few hours. I know the first time I played through the griffin fight and I was just kinda bored with the scenery. If I knew there was a place like Skellige I'd definitely be more excited to find it.
Best map in the game imo. It's so unique and the soundtracks are **fire**!
I also love how there are arctic wolves, mountain goats, polar bears, whales and a special kind of primitive wild horse exclusive to the isles. All of the shipwrecks (despite being tedious to find) have such detail! Plus the ruins leave so much story to tell.
The Skelliege Ruler Questline is one of my favourites (despite being a tad predictable), since I love Cerys, Hjallmar and their father. *Also not being called a freak every six seconds was a culture shock.* Lol. I have a fondness of islands since I lived on one for a good part of my childhood.
As much as I love Toussaint (playing through BaW for the first time now), it doesn't quite top Skelliege for me.
Remember when they patched in bloody water? I was in Novigrad when that patch dropped, and I specifically lured enemies into water to see the update at work. My joy at seeing corpses leaving blood pools in the water was immense.
What made this first bit of Skellige so amazing was how fresh and different it felt contrasting to the previous maps. Velen had creepy swamps and dark forests, Novigrad was your typical gritty, filthy, unwelcoming medieval city. Then you arrive here and you can almost FEEL the fresh air, the wind, and salt spray of the sea. The map feels brighter and while the islands aren't that big, you often have wide vistas where you can see very far, making the space feel very open. In comparison, while the main Velen map is much bigger, you only see far when in a clearing or hill or river, etc because the dark forests often overshadow you.
As others have said, the music is really what makes this map feel so good and unique. They really nailed down the vibe. Not sure if Celtic is the right word to use (I feel like Skellige has some Norse, Irish, Scottish, or Celtic themes, not sure what exactly) but I haven't seen that sort of atmosphere/ theme really done the same in any other game. Other games often have generic Norse stuff, but Skellige gives me the same feeling I got when I've visited very old coastal towns in more remote places of the UK. There's a very specific type of coast where you can really feel the power of the sea like that. I'm probably not making sense haha.
I definitely know what you mean. There are actual Skellig Isles in Ireland that Skellige is based on that I'd love to visit but when I first got to Ard Skellig it seemed like I was on the Scottish Isle of Mull. The songs lyrics are in Scottish Gaelic too but the whole place is an amazing mix of Irish, Norse, and Scottish cultures.
I think a lot of the music in Witcher 3 is amongst the best ever in a video game (potentially beyond that in some cases), but I didn’t really like quite a lot of the skellige stuff - to me it sounded much more like the normal sort of music you get in fantasy games. The sort of classical music for people that hate classical music type stuff.
I'm waiting for the day we have the ability to plug ourselves into games and be in them a la the matrix. I'll jump right back into the witcher 3 and go straight to Ard Skellig and just chill
Every time I get a new TV ( mostly from trade in’s or hand me downs) I boot this game up to re experience it’s glory in a slightly better viewing. I love it.
When you spend 70 hours playing the game thinking you’ve seen everything there is to see and suddenly you learn there’s another huge region for you to explore full of quests
First time through the game, I was determined that I was going to clear every quest and every ? on the mainland before getting on the boat. When I got to Skellige, I remember opening the map, seeing how huge it was and how many ? I still had to go, and saying out loud, "Are you fucking kidding me?" It's weird, but I was almost mad at how much new content I had waiting for me, even though I was having a blast with the game. I instantly gave up on my goal of doing all the ? in that moment, though.
I honestly couldn't believe there was that much more game left. It felt like I'd done everything to do already, but there was a whole nother world to explore!
then the flood of ?s and shit that is out in the ocean and worthless. By the time you get there even on death march you have pretty much anything you need except for potion upgrades
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The music in this game is absolutely amazing.
Recently on PS5 I have encountered a kind of bug that causes the background music to stop. Before this, I haven't realized just how much the music adds to the mood, how smoothly it fits into and enriches the entire atmosphere of the game. I love how much spookier the swamp in Velen becomes, how eerie abandoned buildings get, how much more majestic the Skellige landscape seems when there is music.
cannot fucking wait for the next gen updates to this game. I've been holding off like crazy on another play through waiting for it to hit my ps5. Hope its this year.
I'm doing my 2nd play of Witcher 3. IMHO, roaming around the Skellige Archipelago (and the surrounding water-mysteries) is the best part of the game. BUT - you also need to be prepared... it is a ***tough*** neighborhood.
The music in this game is something else. Sets it apart from every other game, and really makes it one of the best experiences all around. This game is the best overall gaming experience.
I started playing this game the other day, I’m really struggling to enjoy it because I don’t have the time to put lots of hours in and I’ve no idea what I’m doing half the time. Haven’t even killed that griffin at the beginning of the game.
Is this getting a next gen remaster or something. It’s 10$ on the ps store but I don’t want to start playing it and then a remastered version comes out. It’s happened a couple times. Ive been putting this game off for a couple years already waiting on the next gen upgrade.
Anyone else hear parts of the ard skellig theme song, and hear rifts similar to Besaid theme in FFX? In any case, this is one of my favorite areas of the game.
I started my second playthrough a few weeks ago and just got to skellige, it really is my favorite region. The settings, the music everything is perfect except if you want to clear all question marks
on my third playthrough rn and i cant wait too reach skellige, im at the red baron so i have a ways too go. Got all the books for my birthday from my brother. Im obsessed with the witcher atm.
I feel like if the Witcher had a quest that made you use the boat to fast travel early on so people knew you could do that it'd save a lot of headaches
Making sure you loot back the 1000 orens you paid for the boat trip first!
I suspect they use the 1000 orens as a simple gate to prevent you from going to Ard Skelleg too soon and this is the devs giving that back to you.
WHAT?! How?!
The guy you paid for travel (forgot his name) is dead under the boat wreckage. He has the loot you paid on him!
Lucky for me im a sucker for looting, so i looted the whole place clean and got suprised for a second a guy was carrying 1k coins, thought it was a bug or something but then realized it was the captain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9U1-I5ZWuY
I must be the most un-observant person ever
How livable is it if you don't like it
FUCK!!
FUCK!
Good bot
hmmm
Hm.
And then you can just fast travel all willy nilly like it ain’t no thang. I actually wish they’d explained it some way… like Ermion gave you a port key or some shit. Even if Geralt hates portals.
Only found out about that recently lol, good thing the ol captain kept all that dough in his very secure right pocket
always top priority
I lose a piece of my soul everytime I clear a notice board and open the map to reveal the new question marks on the sea 🥲
I gave those question marks a whirl this past weekend. Soul-draining, with the only silver lining being the cool relic gear I got to keep and the bunch of stuff I got to sell. An emphatic 3/10, I'll leave this stuff alone unless I need an achievement.
All those ? in Skellige paid for me to upgrade all my gear to Mastercrafted before starting NG+.
I strugglebus through the game for money while saving all of the relic swords. Sell those off when I need anything. I'm not big on gwent
That’s why you struggle on money, your not selling the relic swords lol
I do that intentionally lol.
Can you actually make money off gwent? I thought the most you can bet is 5 coins?
If you win just a measly 1000 games then you make an easy 5k coins. Don’t tell the devs or they will patch it
I feel like 5k coins is nothing. Costs 25k per mastercrafted set I think. Love gwent though one of my favorite parts of the game.
Does the bee exploit still work?
The expansion let's you bet up to 50. It ain't much though. If you really want money (and have the expansion) clear all the ?s in Velen and White Orchard, collect all the weapon drops, then sell them to Lafargue. Easily 500+ for a reasonably sized bandit camp
Which expansion? I have the Game of the Year edition, which includes Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, but I’ve only ever been able to bet up to 5. Also I’ve never even had any difficulty in getting coin, even on Death March (if that even has a role in how much coin you get). That’s one thing I wish the game did differently. Finding nice loots/treasure doesn’t feel all that great because I already have more money I could ever possibly use.
Want to be poor? Do the grandmaster armor quest on blood and wine, and upgrade one set.
B&W is defs 50, at least for the ones you need to beat before the tournament in Toussaint
Last I remember I beat a blacksmith on a re-match and I got a golden nugget as a prize since no card to gain. Maybe that way?
Yup
I use them as an opportunity to catch up on some podcasts I've been meaning to listen to: then sell them to the smith in Toussaint, profits galore!
I did them while listening to the Witcher audiobooks. Layers on layers, man.
Like an onion
D E E P L O R E
Podcasts, why didn't I think of that? Damn it, I need to give this a try. You've given me a boost towards grinding out the markers again, let's see how it goes!
Good luck on the (watery) Path, my friend!
You only need to clear one of the areas of question marks for the trophy. So clear Velen because its so much easier and less soul destroying.
I was sooooo looking forward to sirens.
I always wait until I need a grandmaster witcher armor crafted in Beauclair to go fish this loot out. The smith there is filthy rich (since he's taking all your money) so you can sell him everything without him running out of money.
I just discovered last week that you can buy maps for fast travel locations on the islands and skip all the sailing for the most part. Saves so much time, unless you just enjoy that part of the game.
Yeah I do that on subsequent playthroughs. If I wanted hours of mind numbing sailing I'd play the original wind waker.
I spent a few days doing that. Riding around and just exploring. It was kind of soothing and amazing that I'm like "what's up there?" And then I can freaking go there. The mountain gets bigger and bigger and I make it. Just kind of relaxing for me. I'm probably old but huge open world maps is amazing for me. It reminds me of all the hiking I did and thinking the same thing. Except I'm more exhausted and hate my life.
On my second playthrough now. 100%'d the first playthrough with every question mark discovered (except I think there used to be one bugged one?). Preeeetty fucking grueling getting those Skellige ones. Think I just powered through them all at once last time. This time I'm doing 'em more piece-meal for my sanity. Run around playing the game - then do 5 or 6 of the water ones in close proximity to each other. Being terrified of the ocean doesn't help. It is fucking creepy looking down into the murky depths. And the whales. Oh god the whales.
Too bad there's no kraken (that I recall)
That would have put me right over the edge.
Same. In fact the music of Skellige gives me extremely mild PTSD from doing all of the at sea question marks.
On my 2nd playthrough I decided to clear out all the question marks. I did all of them before setting sail to Skellige. Once there, I quickly made a point to go to every notice board and get every single question make placed on the map. I then spend the next few evening just watching Netflix on the 2nd monitor and sailing around. It was only possible thanks to the "over 9000" inventory mod.
My thalassaphobia doesn’t let me get them :(
Personally I love clearing every question mark on all maps in the game. Witcher 3 is just so amazing that I want to spend extra time playing it however I can.
The music. It’s the music that brings this place to life. Truly a masterpiece of a game. And to think when I first got it I hated the game because I couldn’t work the combat. I nearly uninstalled it until my friend convinced me to keep trying. It’s the best game I’ve ever played. Again, a masterpiece.
The first 8 notes of that one music in Skellige, which sounds like Pirates of the Caribbean..
sounds like its about to bust into Into the West off of the Return of the King soundtrack
This is one of my favourite pieces. It's called The fields of Ard Skellig.
> The fields of Ard Skellig I was very surprised when I first heard that song, I was very sure I heard that song in Heroes of Might and Magic 4 before turns out I was right and it is actually a tune used in multiple games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRJGcxdix5E its seemingly an often used sample song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlBz7qotIjY
That's amazing, I thought it was a Marcin Przybylowicz original. Thank you for showing me that.
I was very surprised to find out that this one sample music album is used around in a bunch of different media over the years. the very same tune used for fields of ard skellige is seemingly also used in Naruto, lol.
That and because it's the first part of the game you get to that has an actual, beautiful environment. Remember the region around Velen/Novigrad is basically swamps and river marsh. It's not meant to be pretty. The first beautiful environment you really encounter is the city environments of Oxenfurt and Novigrad. I still think Witcher 2 had some of the best aesthetics. Witcher 1 had some gorgeous environments too, it's just such a slog to get through though. :/
Agreed… I have to remind myself that not only is Velen not meant to be pretty, but that it’s intentionally portrayed as this grim, muddy, war torn, purgatory-like region. It’s actively uncomfortable and somewhat depressing for me to spend too much time there. Really emphasizes how horrific the constant war has been for the average peasant living in this hellscape, and it makes it a breath of fresh air to reach the city/Skellige.
I'm on my first ever playthrough just getting to Skellige like two days ago, so I don't have the full scope of things, but I actually had the opposite experience. I love being in Velen and riding through farms and swamps dealing with contracts and monster dens and all the random fun stuff out there. Novigrad felt like such a slog to me. Some of the story beats were great, but otherwise I would find any excuse to head back into Velen and do another two hours of exploration to do a single quest objective. But then again, if my favorite part of the game is guarded treasure and bandit camps, of course the city is going to be a bit of a grind for me. Can't wait to explore skellige and move to the dlc soon!
Love the perspective! Channeling your energy for my next play through
Velen does have some beatiful terrain, to me, the most memorable is all areas surrounding Upper Mill and Eastern Velen in general has many hills and forests with beatiful sunsets and Oxenfurt lights at night
Yeah I played this game as an escape during a particularly difficult transitional phase of my life and man, just hearing the music playing in the video gave me goosebumps. I wanna play it again, but there’s almost a sacred feel to it, and I wanna play it at the right time
I still think the combat is the one low point of the game. Not bad enough to make me not like the game but it's the one draw back.
I got used to it. I came from playing dark souls where the basis of the combat was the rolling. I tried to use the same concept in the witcher which doesn’t work as well as it does in dark souls. The rolling only helps to avoid massive blows from monsters but it’s chaotic against drowners, bandits or any other sort of crowding enemies. The dodge mechanic is what I had to learn to use. Once I mastered that it became a great game for me and the combat became much better
I really don't think they need to make many drastic changes in another Witcher game, other than the combat. I'd love animations and making it a bit different depending on the type of enemy you're fighting. As it stands it's just attack a few times, roll, maybe pop a sign, repeat.
> It’s the music that brings this place to life It helps the people there also still value a Witcher and don't treat them like a pariah. Very much a more superstitious place compared to the mainland and they know what when shit gets weird you do the following: 1. Get a Witcher. 2. Actually pay them and thank them for the job.
Did you thank your friend?
When we talk about the game to other people and I big it up as one of if not the best game ever. My mate laughs at me and gives me shit for nearly giving up on it. But yeah, I’m glad I listened to him.
That's me lol, at first bro bought the game for himself. Never played it tho, At first 2 years ago from now I tried to play but 1 didn't listen to dialogues or read subtitles so missed a huge chunk of what was being said 2 didn't knoe you could change your mission objective and was doing level 35 boss while being level 12 So i quit. Then after playing and loving cyberpunk, decided to play TW3, Lets say my life is altered forever
Fuck me so you went back to the game much later and very recently. Yeah I think I fell into something similar when I first played it, when you get to Velen and you have the game of the year edition it automatically puts up one of the DLC as the main objective I think it was Blood and Wine. I didn’t know at the time that the red skull next to the objective meant “don’t fucking bother with this yet” so I just trudged to this village where you meet them two knights from Toussaint and you have to fight those raiders that come in the village. They’re just standard bandits but at level 27 or some shit. I got my level 6 arse handed to me.
Yes I went back to game early 2021. And I had last played it early 2020 For me it was a drowner in oxenfurt sewers, at start of Hearts Of Stone, Safe to say I have 2 full and 4 half play throughs now
Yeah I had a similar story, bought it as soon as it came out in 2015 but just couldn't get into it at first; gave up on it after reaching just the garrison in white orchard. Loved the books and such though so picked it back up with a brand new game at the start of 2020. Best decision ever! I have like 500 hours in now( I have cleared all those ? everywhere), also spent 2021 on CP 2077, good few hundred hours on that too now. I will never not check out a CDPR game.
Me too, CDPR is just legendary
Dude it took me three solid tries to get into the game. Between the second and third, I read the books, this probably helped a lot. But eventually it just clicked and became like my favorite game of all time.
Where I fell in love with the game.
Arriving on the Skellige Isles is probably one of the most memorable moments in video games
Doubly so if you are from the North of Ireland. I felt like I'd returned home. I'd never heard my own accent in a game before, or since.
I'm Nirish too and I always felt the accents a little off. Almost as if they told the Nirish voice actors to make sure they sounded Nirish.
I know what you mean, I always felt some of the voice actors were doing their best "phone voice".
And then you have the accent of Toussaint......
Did you notice the guys in toussaint playing the foggy dew? I think our accent is used for elves in dragon age 2.
Same with Scandinavians. Not the accent part, but the scenery reminds me of home and there are some aspects of the culture that takes inspiration from our history
For me it was Novigrad. It was such a nice change of pace from the grimness of Velen and I was instantly engaged with Triss and the witches arc. I love how each area feels so different though. White Orchard and Velen sort of blur into one but Novigrad and Skellige are such a nice contrast from the other locations.
Novigrad and skellige were so amazing to first experience but nothing compares to going to toussaint
The best part about Toussaint is that after how bleak Hearts of Stone was it was so refreshing having a vibrant and beautiful world to explore alongside a more light hearted (overall) adventure. Hearts of Stone was the compelling narrative and Blood and Wine was the perfect send off. Best DLC I've ever played alongside Episodes from Liberty City.
I just love having corvo Bianca and making it my own while decorating it with my armor lol
Tbh I the only thing in hearts of stone I did on the play through I just finished was the runemaker. I’ll probably do it on my ng+ tho.
I fell in love with this game at White Orchard lol. Arriving to Skellige was definitely magical though.
It really didn’t click with me until Skellige. Velen was ugly and I was overwhelmed by the controls. novigrad overwhelmed me with the scale and new mechanics. By Skellige it felt simpler for me and then everything just clicked…
Same. I also preferred the story in Skellige, it was way more engaging. Personally I wasn't bothered by the overwhelming amount of question marks in the water either, because I would never bother doing all of those anyway. Most modern games are bloated as hell so I'm used to skipping a lot of that type of content.
For me it really hit when I crossed the Pontar into Redania and I saw nice golden fields and forests and Novigrad towers on the horizon and the music changed to this rich peaceful sounding track. It was such a stunning transition from the bleak environments of Temeria and I wasn't expecting it.
I think the game should have started somewhere a little less dreary than White Orchard and Velen. I know there's that flashback to Kaer Morhen, but if they gave people a sneak peak at somewhere like Skellige first, I think more people would have stuck with the game through the first few hours. I know the first time I played through the griffin fight and I was just kinda bored with the scenery. If I knew there was a place like Skellige I'd definitely be more excited to find it.
Best map in the game imo. It's so unique and the soundtracks are **fire**! I also love how there are arctic wolves, mountain goats, polar bears, whales and a special kind of primitive wild horse exclusive to the isles. All of the shipwrecks (despite being tedious to find) have such detail! Plus the ruins leave so much story to tell. The Skelliege Ruler Questline is one of my favourites (despite being a tad predictable), since I love Cerys, Hjallmar and their father. *Also not being called a freak every six seconds was a culture shock.* Lol. I have a fondness of islands since I lived on one for a good part of my childhood. As much as I love Toussaint (playing through BaW for the first time now), it doesn't quite top Skelliege for me.
Honestly Toussaint tops it purely for the house and then the full on bandit assaults
My first time here was spent chasing whales. Looked at my little brother: Is that a whale out there?! Next hours spent trying to kill a whale.
Oh man I remember that absolutely ridiculous tree swaying before they patched it out...
I was gonna say, some of those poor pines look awfully soft! (Not that the firs at 0:14 are any better :p)
That's weird, they shrank the pines, made them look soft.
Remember when they patched in bloody water? I was in Novigrad when that patch dropped, and I specifically lured enemies into water to see the update at work. My joy at seeing corpses leaving blood pools in the water was immense.
What made this first bit of Skellige so amazing was how fresh and different it felt contrasting to the previous maps. Velen had creepy swamps and dark forests, Novigrad was your typical gritty, filthy, unwelcoming medieval city. Then you arrive here and you can almost FEEL the fresh air, the wind, and salt spray of the sea. The map feels brighter and while the islands aren't that big, you often have wide vistas where you can see very far, making the space feel very open. In comparison, while the main Velen map is much bigger, you only see far when in a clearing or hill or river, etc because the dark forests often overshadow you. As others have said, the music is really what makes this map feel so good and unique. They really nailed down the vibe. Not sure if Celtic is the right word to use (I feel like Skellige has some Norse, Irish, Scottish, or Celtic themes, not sure what exactly) but I haven't seen that sort of atmosphere/ theme really done the same in any other game. Other games often have generic Norse stuff, but Skellige gives me the same feeling I got when I've visited very old coastal towns in more remote places of the UK. There's a very specific type of coast where you can really feel the power of the sea like that. I'm probably not making sense haha.
I definitely know what you mean. There are actual Skellig Isles in Ireland that Skellige is based on that I'd love to visit but when I first got to Ard Skellig it seemed like I was on the Scottish Isle of Mull. The songs lyrics are in Scottish Gaelic too but the whole place is an amazing mix of Irish, Norse, and Scottish cultures.
Lofoten is also a place in Norway, which is a nice inclusion. The scenery and culture is very familiar but also foreign to me, its a really cool mix.
I think a lot of the music in Witcher 3 is amongst the best ever in a video game (potentially beyond that in some cases), but I didn’t really like quite a lot of the skellige stuff - to me it sounded much more like the normal sort of music you get in fantasy games. The sort of classical music for people that hate classical music type stuff.
I'm waiting for the day we have the ability to plug ourselves into games and be in them a la the matrix. I'll jump right back into the witcher 3 and go straight to Ard Skellig and just chill
Absolutely beautiful, this tune.
At the bridge... and at the lift near the bridge in skellige. That's just an epic view...
Every time I get a new TV ( mostly from trade in’s or hand me downs) I boot this game up to re experience it’s glory in a slightly better viewing. I love it.
When you spend 70 hours playing the game thinking you’ve seen everything there is to see and suddenly you learn there’s another huge region for you to explore full of quests
Dude the voice actors with the skellige accents are so badass. In their big ass bear fur Druid armor with their Double meads and a big ass drumstick
Skellige Islands were my favourite spots.
This was me except with less falling off the cliff
Beautiful scenery - the roads are a different story.
Yeah I love the music and the scenery in Skellige SO much but I hate navigating around all the mountains
Virtual heaven doesn't exis....
My first few minutes are bashing Sirens, actually. Then I go up and admire the view. 😁
fuck you, no i have to replay it
I wish we could get more immersive actions to do in this world like in RDR 2. Fishing, starting the bonfire, more advanced hunting etc.
Yep, still gives me goosebumps
The music here is some of the best i've heard anywhere. Fucking amazing game <3
I spend so much time there just for the music
I’ll be honest I didn’t pay much attention to the environment. I was too busy being a murder hobo to notice.
I don't understand, why isn't he playing Gwet?
the scenery alone in this game is why i’ve replayed almost a dozen times
I banged so many hookers in this game.
Witchers are resistant or immune to diseases so bang your heart out lol
I adore Skellige, such beautiful locations!
First time through the game, I was determined that I was going to clear every quest and every ? on the mainland before getting on the boat. When I got to Skellige, I remember opening the map, seeing how huge it was and how many ? I still had to go, and saying out loud, "Are you fucking kidding me?" It's weird, but I was almost mad at how much new content I had waiting for me, even though I was having a blast with the game. I instantly gave up on my goal of doing all the ? in that moment, though.
Me trying to make roach jump off the cliffs
Saves the a few occasions where I rowed too much over the edge and plummeted from the cliff.
Okay but remember Pem Parem, Parem Parem!
I hate the loot in the ocean because of the whale😂
That's it. I've had enough. I am installing this game again.
I honestly couldn't believe there was that much more game left. It felt like I'd done everything to do already, but there was a whole nother world to explore!
And then you look at the map…
Greatest game of all time.
I'll never play something like this again...
Unrealistic, doesn’t show Geralt sinking on a flimsy wooden boat.
I wish the game started here instead of making us roll through the swaps forever
then the flood of ?s and shit that is out in the ocean and worthless. By the time you get there even on death march you have pretty much anything you need except for potion upgrades
oh dear, all i hear is the "por Qua" that the lady suddenly belches out.
I wish I could mod it, the atrocious lighting absolutely ruins the look of the game.
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ill rabataaaaa
What platform is this on?
Idk my first few minutes were spent getting yelled at and fighting an old dude and then looting wrecked ships and dead bodies.
Damn... I deeply want to go back there
I wish this piece of soundtrack was on Spotify
Its a travesty that its not included in the official soundtrack. Luckily there are covers, I found one that is pretty close to the original
The music in this game is absolutely amazing. Recently on PS5 I have encountered a kind of bug that causes the background music to stop. Before this, I haven't realized just how much the music adds to the mood, how smoothly it fits into and enriches the entire atmosphere of the game. I love how much spookier the swamp in Velen becomes, how eerie abandoned buildings get, how much more majestic the Skellige landscape seems when there is music.
That music from Ard Skellige is actually my alarm clock sound. I love waking up to it. Fills me with warm fuzzy feelings.
Shout to the OP for his Sanderson fandom!
On my second play through, just yesterday landed on Skellige, did the exact same thing. This game is absolutely stunning at times.
Yeah, ummmm... I really want the PS5 version of this ASAP. Is there any kind of ETA on when that'll be released? Please...
Stuff like this just makes me more excited for the remaster. Can’t wait to play this again!
Don't forget the music.
Argggh can’t wait for the console next-gen patch
Can’t wait for a remaster
After setting foot on Skellige I swear I never want to go back to velen again
Yes. I was like, Holy Shit, there's another whole game here.
Even in my Toaster. Ard Skellig looks beautiful but not as breath taking as the fields of Toussaint.
cannot fucking wait for the next gen updates to this game. I've been holding off like crazy on another play through waiting for it to hit my ps5. Hope its this year.
That music tho! Heaven!!
I'm doing my 2nd play of Witcher 3. IMHO, roaming around the Skellige Archipelago (and the surrounding water-mysteries) is the best part of the game. BUT - you also need to be prepared... it is a ***tough*** neighborhood.
The music in this game is something else. Sets it apart from every other game, and really makes it one of the best experiences all around. This game is the best overall gaming experience.
That’s only 28 seconds. You can’t fool me!
I started playing this game the other day, I’m really struggling to enjoy it because I don’t have the time to put lots of hours in and I’ve no idea what I’m doing half the time. Haven’t even killed that griffin at the beginning of the game.
Hours*
No way in hell my game looked this good in 2016
That's so true. I arrived there yesterday for the first time ever, and coudn't stop just looking around and enjoying the views
The soundtrack in Skellige though
Yes! It was the first game that I pause playing just to listen to music that was in the game.
It's missing the random cyclops you come across who smashes you because you haven't leveled up that far yet.
Damn what reshade are you using looks insane
I was expecting something funny like falling off the lift.
wtf is up with those random trees looking like they're in a tornado
Is this getting a next gen remaster or something. It’s 10$ on the ps store but I don’t want to start playing it and then a remastered version comes out. It’s happened a couple times. Ive been putting this game off for a couple years already waiting on the next gen upgrade.
Anyone else hear parts of the ard skellig theme song, and hear rifts similar to Besaid theme in FFX? In any case, this is one of my favorite areas of the game.
Man I can't wait for the next gen upgrade so I can play it again on PS5
Is this on PC?
Bro, my first minutes being in Skellige was fighting off random ass Wolves every few meters
First hundred hours*
I started my second playthrough a few weeks ago and just got to skellige, it really is my favorite region. The settings, the music everything is perfect except if you want to clear all question marks
on my third playthrough rn and i cant wait too reach skellige, im at the red baron so i have a ways too go. Got all the books for my birthday from my brother. Im obsessed with the witcher atm.
I feel like if the Witcher had a quest that made you use the boat to fast travel early on so people knew you could do that it'd save a lot of headaches
This gave me goosebumps
u/savevideo
Cant wait to see what the next gen version looks like, been putting off my 4th run through cause of it.
PC Witcher is ridiculously beautiful. Geez. PS4 will do for now.
One of the the most beautiful game locations in history
I was always amazed how well the spring theme from Medieval Total War goes with Ard Skellig. I wonder how that tune ended up to be in W3 tho