Ciri’s Continent looks very different to the one Geralt knew. I saw only a glimpse of it in the new Witcher 4 trailer shown at last night’s Game Awards 2024 ceremony, but that was more than enough to have me perched slack-jawed on the edge of my computer chair, threatening to fall off it.
I know this sense of awe and wonder is not exclusive to me. We’ve all been waiting years for more news, given the very hush-hush development journey of CD Projekt Red‘s long awaited followup to one of the best RPGs ever. To have some semblance of it tangibly in sight – despite the lack of platforms or even a vague release window – feels bizarre to say the least. The best part? The Witcher 4 looks like everything I didn’t know I was hoping to see.
The lamb becomes the lion
The insidious atmosphere of the cinematic trailer speaks to maturity in every sense of the word, with CD Projekt Redadopting a darker tone to present Ciri’s perspective as a young Witcher beginning to walk her own Path without Geralt – to say nothing of her “battle against destiny [that] comes at a price,” her magic-melee-signs combat stylings, and a world that feels more punishing than ever before. This is Ciri’s story, and we get to help shape it through “your actions within the open world, the people you permit to come close to you.”
The dawn of Ciri’s journey indicates a new beginning for CDPR as a developer. If sequels are hard to crack, building a new trilogy on the back of something as monumental as The Witcher 3 must be positively daunting. There’s a familiar form and flow to what players expect from a Witcher game, after all; Geralt has well-oiled steel swords for humans, silver for monsters, and all manner of gruesome decoctions to guzzle for an extra edge in battle. Weighing up whether those combat buffs offset each potions’ toxic side effects is all about risk management, as is gauging whether your 78% effective sword needs a quick visit to the blacksmith or if it’ll be able to withstand one more contract. It’s such a well-tempered system that the developer could have chosen to stick by those guns indefinitely, with a Witcher 4 that introduces a brand new protagonist – drawn from the novels or created in-house – who sports the exact same same combat moves.
It would certainly have let CDPR leave Geralt firmly in the past, repositioning the audience for something complerely fresh. But through Ciri, CDPR has found a way to keep things fresh and interesting without abandoning its legacy.
Passing the torch
Whether or not Ciri and Geralt reunite after Wild Hunt, the girl has witchering in her blood.
Even from the 6-minute cinemtic, the experience of playing Ciri already looks distinct from Geralt’s typical MO. She has the help of her magical abilities, after all, and compounded by all of the above, that puts Ciri on track to be one of the most powerful witchers ever.
In the new Witcher 4 trailer, we see some of her nascent abilities displayed in TW3 put to the test after years of undoubtedly careful honing. She glugs a decoction as her eyes glow and dilate like a cat’s before charging at some spindly, spider-like creature with her silver sword, following this up with a quick burst of Quen to deflect an incoming attack. As she gets pinned against a tree, the thing I’m most thrilled to see is how Ciri draws upon some sort of natural magic, flowing into her palm like cool blue water, to break her enemy’s grasp. She throws it into the monster’s face to deliver an electric shock-like blow, stunning it long enough for her to grab her sword, hack off one of its many limbs, and pull out a chain-like flail – or is it a whip? – to truss the beast up with. It looks like Indiana Jones meets The Witcher, and I am so here for it.
The brief time I played as Ciri during her adopted father’s last adventure indicated this potential outcome already, though being a branching narrative, Ciri’s fate was very much left in the hands of player decision. It’s been a long time coming, but I am oh so thankful that CDPR decided to bring Ciri back to kick off its next great adventure, canonizing the fact that whether or not Ciri and Geralt reunite after Wild Hunt, the girl has witchering in her blood. Hopefully not her wine, though.
There’s a host of upcoming PS5 games to hyped for as well as The Witcher 4, and don’t forget about the other new games of 2025 and beyond!