Far from choosing to denigrate those players who had hoped that The Witcher 4 would one again feature Geralt as its protagonist, The Witcher 4 narrative director Phillipp Weber has instead admitted that not only does he consider the disappointment over the hero’s retirement to be “valid”, but that it’s up to CD Projekt Red themselves to prove that Ciri will be a “worthy protagonist”.
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Weber, who in addition to his current role has also served as a studio Quest Designer on The Witcher III, it’s two expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, and Cyberpunk 2077, offered his thoughts on the current The Witcher-related discourse during a “soon-to-be-published interview” with VGC’s Jordan Middler.
In an excerpt from said interview provided to the public on December 18th, on the topic of the Geralt-Ciri protagonist switch, Weber asserted, “I think we definitely knew it could be controversial for some people because of course, in the previous three Witcher games Geralt was the protagonist and I think everyone really loved playing as Geralt.”
“I really loved playing as Geralt,” he continued, “so I think we’re aware that if some people think right now that they would still prefer to be Geralt, I do think that’s a legitimate concern, so if this is where that concern is coming from, that’s valid.”
To this end, rather than berate upset fans for their preferences or attempt to shame them into ‘getting on board’, Weber took the rare move of admitting that the onus of both endearing Ciri to players and ensuring that her story made sense lay completely on CD Projekt Red.
“The best thing that we can do, and I think this is really our goal, is to prove that with Ciri, we can do a lot of interesting things so we can really make it worth it because this decision to have Ciri as a protagonist wasn’t made yesterday, we started making this a very long time ago,” said the narrative director.
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“Ciri was already being set up as a second protagonist in the Andrzej Sapkowski novels and as the second playable character in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, so for us it really was the natural evolution of what we’ve already been making for so long,” he added. “Also for people who really love Geralt, it lets us honour the ending that Geralt had in The Witcher 3 and in Blood and Wine (which saw him hanging up his sword and retiring to a peaceful life at his newly-gifted Corvo Bianco Vineyard, itself given to the witcher by Duchess Anna Hentrietta as pre-payment for his killing of the Beast of Beauclair).”
Offering one last admission that the responsibility for Ciri’s reception lay solely with CD Projekt Red, Weber ultimately affirmed, “At the same time, of course, with Ciri being at the beginning of her journey as a Witcher, it also lets us tell new stories of what it means to become a Witcher. So, for those people who are worried right now, if that comes from a place of passion, I want to say I think the next time we show the game, our goal is to show and prove that Ciri can be a worthy protagonist for The Witcher 4.”
Adding to his colleague’s sentiments, the game’s executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga closed out this bit of the interview by further recognizing the genuine and understandable reasons behind the fanbase’s varied reactions.
“We are also overwhelmed by so many people liking the choice, being excited for it, understanding where it came from. Also actually doing a little bit of our job, the community itself is doing the explanation on why it’s the correct choice,” said Mitrega. “Everyone has the right to have an opinion, and we do believe it comes from the passion for our games and I think the best answer for that will be the game itself when the game is released.”
At current, it’s unknown when Middler’s full interview with The Witcher 4 dev team will go live, but when it does, interested readers can check it out directly on VGC.