Even before The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released, the developers planned a different ending — Geralt was supposed to go on a «suicide mission» inspired by the Mass Effect 2 setting. The ending almost became the main one.
CD Projekt Red’s lead writer Marcin Blaha said that between the initial development of the game and its release, some of the «biggest changes» were related to Wildhorn. In the rejected version, Geralt was supposed to gather his team like Shepard and go all-in.
«Initially, we had an ending that was kind of inspired by Mass Effect 2… that moment when Geralt gathers a party and goes on a suicide mission. It was on a Skellige drakkar you were sailing into a frozen sea, and you were supposed to fight the Wild Hunt on this drakkar», — says the lead writer.
It was planned that Geralt would have his last battle right on board in a dark fantasy setting with an epic production. But in the end, CD Projekt Red opted for a personal story, internal conflict, and relationships between characters rather than an epic clash. However, some elements of the idea remained — the same boat on the icy sea, for example, was preserved in the scenes before the final confrontation.
This is another example of how much the game could have been different if the authors had taken a different path. For example, a few years ago, a modder was able to restore cut extended ending of The Witcher 3 — in which Ciri becomes a witch. As we can see, the CDPR has decided to to hold this plot for the new The Witcher 4. And the other mods restored boat races that were cut from the final version. The Witcher 3 quest designer himself admitted that I would like to change a lot of things in this game.
By the way, another great idea that didn’t make it to release was the manticore. The recent technical demonstration of the upcoming The Witcher 4 showed their return — the monsters that were cut from the third part more than 10 years ago.
Source: PC Gamer
Spelling error report
The following text will be sent to our editors: