With the announcement that a new installment in the popular Witcher series is on the way, fans of the franchise are eagerly awaiting more news about the next game. It appears the new entry in The Witcher saga will be moving away from characters like Geralt and Ciri and focusing instead on a new school. Other details about The Witcher 4 are incredibly scarce. However, given the popularity of the previous games, it seems likely that the next installment will not stray too far from its predecessors in terms of mechanics and gameplay, even if its narrative is exploring new avenues.
The Witcher 3 brought many great features to the Witcher formula, as well as improving on previous games in the series. The game's setting, storyline, and focus on Geralt's character were all praised by both fans and critics alike, and its combat was a large step up from previous games as well. One aspect that fans are hoping to see make a return in The Witcher 4 is the way that the last game handled side quests, and how they were more seamlessly integrated into the world of the games, especially compared to how other titles handle them.
Side Quests In The Witcher
The Witcher 3 is a vast open-world game that is bursting with content. The main story alone could take upwards of 50 hours, but there is also a healthy amount of side quest content alongside this. While the main storyline is an epic tale that takes players all across the Continent and leads them into many memorable scrapes, the side quests in The Witcher 3 also stand out for several reasons. They help add depth to the world, in addition to giving players more than a few options of how to explore the region and fill their time.
In the game, players can peruse a town's noticeboard after they've visited and check out a variety of side quests, including Witcher Contracts where they have to hunt down some of the world's many monsters. As a Witcher — monster slayers with a range of abilities and a formidable amount of training — these quests are basically Geralt's day job and infuse the game with another level of role-playing as well. Not only are these side quests mechanically important in terms of gameplay, but they're also great ways to introduce the range of monsters that inhabit the world and provide narratively-appropriate reasons for players to earn money and XP.
Why Side Quests Work So Well in The Witcher 3
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In most games, side quests are a given, but they don't always function that well within their respective worlds. They can feel frustratingly random and like filler content alongside the much meatier and narratively significant main quest. For story-focused games, it can seem a little strange for the heroic protagonist to take time out of their world-saving schedule to fetch a specific plant for a villager or deal with some pesky minor nuisance to help an NPC. Side quests can be fun, but in the majority of games they boil down to mere distractions for the player as they attempt to stop the world from ending, and can push the bounds of believability when it comes to role-playing.
In The Witcher games, Geralt's actual job is to hunt down and slay monsters, so these types of side quests feel both appropriate for the character and for the story. Even if Geralt has other heroic responsibilities weighing heavily on his shoulders, there's no reason why he shouldn't still complete his day-to-day tasks so that he can sustain himself, and this helps these aspects of the game feel less like side quests and more like necessary undertakings that players should complete.
The monster slaying side quests feel authentic to the Witcher world, and help to provide structure, lore, and in some cases, characterization. Even if the attention moves away from Geralt in The Witcher 4, the next Witcher protagonist (or protagonists) should still follow the same side quest formula.
The Witcher 4 is currently in development.