CD Projekt RED is now in promotion mode for The Witcher 4, and talking up the emergence of Geralt’s daughter, Ciri, as the new Witcher. But one element that we may not have heard about yet is how Ciri’s story will handle romance.
Of course, Geralt very famously had the option to romance either Triss Merigold or Yennefer in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. While you could have a satisfying ending by picking either woman, if you tried to play them both at the same time, they would be bound to find out. CD Projekt RED humorously chose not to let you make Geralt into a deadbeat, as you would end up alone at the end of the game if you dared try.
Ciri, of course, was Geralt’s Child of Surprise. Thankfully, there was no ambiguity about raising her as his child. But fans would also know that the games had always set things up for Ciri to be the real protagonist of their world, someone with powers and abilities that even other Witchers did not fully comprehend.
Now that we are transitioning to Ciri’s story, one would naturally wonder question what romantic prospects she would have. As a Witcher, Ciri would face Geralt’s problems of not quite fitting in in conventional society. But that would suggest that Ciri’s potential prospects would be other unconventional, extraordinary people. Would Ciri seek our other royals, as befits her lineage? Would she find other Witchers or other magic users?
And we must admit, the fact that Ciri is a woman also raises questions about how the romance will be handled itself. Are we to look forward to something that more closely resembles Isabel Allende or Anne Rice more than the original author, Andrzej Sapkowski? Does CD Projekt RED see in this an opportunity to cater the game to women more effectively than Sapkowski’s source material did?
Here’s what game director Sebastian Kalemba said in an interview with GameSpot:
“Absolutely. It’s a part of the way we make games. It is a part of human nature. It’s a very normal thing. Without that I think we wouldn’t be able to tell the very full story.
But as always, we want to pay a lot of attention to it and make it super compelling and very meaningful. So it’s not just to make a romance for the sake of making a romance. That’s not the CDPR way.”
From what we’ve seen in CD Projekt RED’s work so far, we may be looking forward to the kind of romances that gamers are used to in AAA games made for a younger male audience, but there’s certainly room to make something that can also appeal to women. This is certainly a prospect that CD Projekt RED could get bold and innovative with, if they wanted. But we’ll see how things play out for our new platinum blonde monster slayer.
