Summary
- The Witcher 4 will shift to focus on Ciri’s monster-hunting journey, moving on from Geralt’s tale.
- The game can improve monster nests by making them more dynamic and engaging compared to The Witcher 3.
- The Witcher 4 could feature new monster types or larger scenarios for nest hunts and offer additional role-playing opportunities to deal with them.
The Witcher 4‘s latest trailer at the 2024 Game Awards was a welcome sight for all the fans who had been patiently awaiting to get further details about the next chapter in CD Projekt Red’s popular dark fantasy franchise. Among its reveals, the trailer showcased that The Witcher 4 will be the beginning of a new adventure, moving largely on from Geralt of Rivia’s tale and starring Ciri as she starts her path down the road as a newly minted monster hunter.
The previous entry in the series, 2015’s The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, was widely praised and embraced as one of the best and most immersive RPGs. Now that the fourth installment is focusing on Ciri’s journey as a fully-fledged witcher, many are eagerly anticipating how it will follow up on its predecessor’s achievements. One of the major activities that players could undertake throughout The Wild Hunt was clearing out infestations of various monsters that had constructed their nests across the lands of Velen and Skellige. And The Witcher 4 has a golden opportunity to make these more interesting and engaging in the upcoming outing.
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The Witcher 4 Monster Wish List
The Witcher features a variety of monsters from Eastern European folklore, with some returning favorites and new ones in The Witcher 4
The Witcher 4 Should One-Up its Game for Monster Nests
The Witcher 3’s Monster Nest Hunts Were Good, But They Could be Great in The Witcher 4
Like many open-world RPGs, The Witcher 3 had a number of side activities scattered across its massive map. Representing the bread and butter of Geralt’s profession, players could seek out or stumble upon sites overrun with groups of dangerous creatures and clear them out. There are around 30 of these nests that The Witcher‘s menacing monsters inhabit in The Wild Hunt for players to tackle, which include a range of beasts such as:
- Ghouls and Alghouls
- Nekkers
- Rotfiends
- Drowners
- Harpies
- Sirens
- Endrega
After getting rid of the smaller mobs, usually a more powerful version of the given monster appeared as a mini-boss to cap off the encounter. While these were generally satisfying, and offered some solid rewards and loot for completing, they could also eventually feel a little repetitive. The methods for clearing out The Witcher 3‘s monster nests didn’t really change much or require fans to greatly switch up playstyles or strategies. So long as players were sufficiently leveled and had the right gear (specifically the bombs needed to destroy the nests), they were fairly easily dealt with. The Witcher 4 can thus look to improve on them and make nests more dynamic.
The Witcher 3‘s Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine DLCs added a few new nest types, like wyverns and giant centipedes.
How The Witcher 4 Could Evolve Monster Nests
The Witcher 4 will likely once again feature many of the monsters mentioned as possible nest hunts. But it could also go above and beyond by both expanding on them and incorporating others that have been seen before but weren’t technically nests, fleshing them all out into larger and more elaborate scenarios. Some good candidates might be ones like:
- Leshen
- Bruxa/Higher Vampires
- Succubi/Incubi
Based on what’s been shown so far, Geralt may play a mentor role in The Witcher 4, which could provide an organic narrative and gameplay justification for this. As Ciri leans the ways of a witcher, she may need to hone her skills by eliminating various nests. This could then show more of a particular monster’s culture and living habits where applicable. If the creature in question is one of the more intelligent ones and able to communicate, it would create further opportunities for role-playing and player choice in how they deal with a sentient threat.
In other cases, where they are more bestial in nature, having nests presented as mini-dungeon lairs could make them more interesting and enjoyable compared to their often simple and repeated design in The Witcher 3. These encounters could also impact combat by forcing fans to change tactics and play into other potential aspects, like how the crossbow could be improved in The Witcher 4. The next installment then has some excellent ways to take monster nests to the next level, and hopefully CDPR has plans in store to do just that.
The Witcher IV is a single-player, open-world RPG from CD PROJEKT RED. At the start of a new saga, players take on the role of Ciri, a professional monster slayer, and embark on a journey through a brutal dark-fantasy world. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, it aims to be the most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game to date.
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