The Witcher 4 lets snow-haired princess Ciri take the series’ protagonist role from her adoptive father Geralt, which some fans are decidedly grumbly about. But, although there are people out there who find it controversial for a beautiful woman to slay moldy, undead monsters, developer CD Projekt Red maintains it’s what’s best for their story.
“I think there’s many very valid worries and responses,” narrative director Philipp Weber tells Eurogamer in a recent interview, “because I think a lot of them come out of passion.” Weber also emphasizes that CD Projekt Red is “beholden to the lore, the canon of the books by Andrzej Sapkowski, the three previous Witcher games, and we’d want to take that seriously, and we really want to respect that.”
In The Witcher novels, Ciri is trained as a witcher, and is so powerful and prominent, some fans have wondered why she isn’t widely considered to be the series’ main character. In allowing Ciri to be the main focus of another Witcher adaptation – something The Witcher TV show has already done – The Witcher 4 falls perfectly in line with the narrative laid out by Sapkowski’s fantasy books.
“We’re not suddenly making up stuff just because we want to,” Weber continues. “I could make games about Geralt until the day I die, and I would probably die happy. But I think for me, and I think for all of us [at CD Projekt Red], it’s also just really exciting to see all the opportunities that Ciri brings us.”