CD Projekt Red’s aankomende The Witcher 4 heeft discussies losgemaakt onder fans door de beslissing om Geralt van Rivia te vervangen als hoofdpersonage. In een interview met VGC erkende narrative director Philipp Weber de zorgen, maar sprak hij zijn vertrouwen uit in de keuze voor Ciri als nieuwe hoofdpersoon.
Weber ging in op de gemengde reacties op de onthullingstrailer, waarin werd bevestigd dat Ciri de protagonist zal zijn. De trailer heeft momenteel 3,7 miljoen weergaven op YouTube, met 250.000 likes en 25.000 dislikes.
“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,” gaf Weber toe. “I really loved playing as Geralt, 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.”
Ondanks de twijfels van sommige fans benadrukte Weber dat de keuze om Ciri centraal te stellen niet zomaar is gemaakt.
“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,” zei Weber.
Weber legde uit dat Ciri’s evolutie als personage een logische ontwikkeling is, waarbij hij verwijst naar haar rol als secundaire hoofdpersoon in de boeken van Andrzej Sapkowski en haar speelbare segmenten in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
“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,” legde hij uit. “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.”
Executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga sprak ook haar mening uit en benadrukte de positieve reacties van fans die de verandering steunen.
“We are also overwhelmed by so many people liking the choice, being excited for it, understanding where it came from,” zei Mitręga. “Also actually doing a little bit of our job, the community itself is doing the explanation on why it’s the correct choice.”
Ze voegde eraan toe: “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.”
CD Projekt’s uiteindelijke doel is om sceptici te overtuigen met boeiende verhalen en gameplay zodra The Witcher 4 wordt uitgebracht. “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,”
