CD Projekt Pink’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 every little thing: a dynamic open-world, multi-faceted characters and in-game selections that truly felt like they mattered. Nonetheless, the latter bit me within the ass a number of occasions over in my first playthrough.
Regardless of being an enormous lover of fantasy RPGs with impactful choices (taking a look at you, Dragon Age: Origins,) I went into The Witcher 3 pretty unaware of 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 searching for my pseudo-daughter Ciri, whereas my lovely lover Yennefer instructed me how silly I used to be and didn’t perceive why that solely made her need to kiss me all of the extra. As you may in all probability 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 shedding 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 needed.
So determined, it appears, that Keira takes the notes for the potential remedy of the Catriona plague and shapes it right into a weapon for the worst particular person 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 neglect 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 hundreds of individuals appears a bit of, let’s assume, dramatic? However, in a extremely roundabout manner, I sympathized together with her. It’s not straightforward being pressured out of your private home, by no means understanding when or if you happen to’ll ever be capable of return. Ought to it come at the price of hundreds 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 concept of creating a number of saves earlier than what is likely to be a horrible determination. Preserve 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 attraction the pants off Radovid, it will in all probability be her, proper? So, off I went and continued to spend 30+ hours doing my very own factor in The Witcher 3. I made selections that I remorse, however finally didn’t really feel too terrible about. Slowly, however absolutely, I fully forgot about Keira.
Then I headed to Novigrad once more in the course of the quest Remaining Preparations and discovered that I’d made a bit of large 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 she or he, 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 bought 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’ dying the gravity it deserved. It’s in all probability why it’s nonetheless certainly one of my favourite video games of all time.
I additionally realized a precious lesson that day: Solely imagine lovely 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.