Like Ben, there are many players lost in "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt."
Open-world games revolve around two key elements: openness and the world.
You could say "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" is a classic open world with a strong story, but in terms of gameplay, it's not truly free.
However, the world built by the quests and story makes players feel that this world is real.
All sorts of gathering quests and side quests hint to players that their actions will have different effects on this world.
Velen, with its architecture based on medieval poor people's styles, and Novigrad, with its Western European style architecture,
both give players a sense of reality.
In the game, players really feel like they've become Geralt of Rivia, but at the same time, they're just a witcher who can't save the world.
Plus, there's the butterfly effect and trolley problem quest design.
This makes the world of "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" seem so real, so believable.
Ben in the game arrives in Novigrad as if opening up a new world.
White Orchard is just a small village, not very big, and Velen, although large, is suffering from war, while Crow's Perch is more like a refugee camp.
But Novigrad is different. Although located within Redania, Novigrad is not under the jurisdiction of any country, but a neutral free port city.
Thanks to free trade, Novigrad has gathered unimaginable wealth, so the city center is also very prosperous. However, due to its economic development, the city's factions are also very complex.
The headquarters of the Eternal Fire Church is located here, and with the support of Redania, barbecue feasts are held almost every day in the city, but the barbecue objects are sorceresses and some non-human races.
However, while collecting clues in Novigrad, Geralt also ran into another old friend: Triss Merigold, of course, she is also a sorceress.
And she seems to have had a relationship with Geralt when he had amnesia, but now Triss's attitude is obviously much colder.
"So, why are all your old friends sorceresses, Geralt?" Ben thought of that night with Keira in the small forest, and couldn't help but click his tongue.
But the current Triss doesn't know anything about Ciri's whereabouts either, so if Geralt wants to find out about Ciri's whereabouts, he has to find other people, such as his best friend, the carefree poet Dandelion.
However, Dandelion is also missing, so Geralt has to ask for help from the underground forces of Novigrad.
In addition to the Eternal Fire Church, the various industries of Novigrad are controlled by four underground bosses.
Sounds very impressive, but after a few missions, Ben is also speechless.
The industries and images of these underground bosses are really something, especially the first meeting place is actually at a big bathhouse. That's definitely something special.
The four giants are the bathhouse owner Sigi Reuven whom Geralt knows, who is also the character of the Zack Gwent card that Geralt took from the Bloody Baron's table.
There's the beggar king in the slums who cooperates with Triss, the pimp Thaler who controls the city's brothels and casinos, and the seemingly tough little dwarf Cleaver.
Faced with Geralt's request, Sigi Reuven also made a condition, which is that someone recently robbed his private vault, so he wants Geralt to help him find out who did it.
However, as the investigation went on, Geralt discovered that the person who robbed the vault was actually his good friend Dandelion.
Following the clues, Geralt quickly found Thaler and learned from him about Dandelion's whereabouts. It turned out that Ciri found Dandelion as soon as she arrived in Novigrad, and in order to undo a cursed artifact, the two of them sought help from Thaler. Robbing the vault was the condition Thaler proposed.
However, the money in the vault was intercepted by witch hunters, and Thaler also fell out with the two of them. Dandelion was directly thrown into jail.
Faced with the guy who almost hurt Ciri, Ben in the game directly chose to kill him with one blow.
After that, Geralt and Triss put on a show and rescued Dandelion, but unfortunately, Dandelion didn't know where Ciri went either, because when he was arrested, Ciri escaped in the nick of time by using her space-time powers.
So the clues in Novigrad were also cut off, leaving only one last place: the Skellige Islands.
But compared to the main story, it was the sights and sounds in Novigrad that Ben found more interesting.
First of all, there are a lot of people to play Gwent with in Novigrad, and there are even main storylines that are advanced because of Gwent.
For example, a dwarf friend whom Geralt knows is trying to move a very precious Zack Gwent card.
And because of this Zack Gwent card, the person who owned it was robbed, fully demonstrating the madness of the people in "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" world for this card game.
Of course, aside from this, in the bank in Novigrad, he found that he could actually take out loans, although he couldn't borrow much, it gave him a very real feeling.
But what made him linger the most were the two shops in Novigrad.
One is located in front of the bridge connecting the port of Novigrad to Hierarch Square, and it has three charming girls inside, and you can get a relaxing experience for 20 coins.
The other is located next to St. Gregory's Bridge, which is a more upscale entertainment venue. You can not only play cards on the first floor, but also have non-human races, experience the joy brought by elves, but the price is also much more expensive, as much as 40 coins.
"This game is amazing! This isn't "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt," it's a game of excessive gambling and whoring!" Ben couldn't help but exclaim.
He's betting with people everywhere playing Gwent, and he hooked up with the sorceress Keira in Velen, and when he got to the big city of Novigrad, Geralt completely let himself go!
Triss over there seems to have some complicated and unclear feelings, and then there's even ways to find lovers in the entertainment locations.
"Zack, have you reached Novigrad in your game progress? There are some good things here!" Ben connected to his good brother Zack's voice chat, wanting to share his discovery with him.
"Tch, it's just those two brothels, right? I've been there a long time ago." Zack's voice came from the voice channel.
"You're awesome, Zack, but do you have that much money? Aren't you trying to get equipment and buy materials?" Ben asked curiously.
Compared to the Lucas-developed "The Witcher" in his previous life, Lucas had toned down a lot of the money-making content.
Including the Toussaint bank in the Blood and Wine expansion, everything would also be slightly toned down, and there would be no situation where you could infinitely farm soldiers for money.
So money is relatively scarce in the early stages of the game. Ben, who has been pushing the main quest, has basically spent his money on buying alchemy items and materials. Of course, a lot of it has also been used to buy Gwent cards. These entertainment venues may not be expensive, but he really can't afford it.
"Are you stupid? The save system for "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" is different from "Bloodborne." Can't you manually save?"
"Before you get romantic with the girls at the brothel in the game, save first, and then load the save after you're done, got it?" Zack's voice came from the headset.
Hearing Zack's words, Ben was shocked.
"Zack... is that the kind of thing a human would do!?"
(End of chapter)
---
Read +100 advanced chapters on my patre*n
patr eon.com/GustinaKamiya
Free Tier can read 3 advanced chapters
---