'The Witcher 4' Executive Producer Reveals Ciri's Power Has Been Drastically Reduced For The Game
The Witcher 4 Executive Producer Małgorzata Mitręga revealed that Ciri’s powers have been drastically reduced between the ending of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and The Witcher 4.
In an interview with Games Radar, Mitrega shared, “The gap between her being totally overpowered at the end of the previous game and now, with the skill set we showed off in the trailer… something totally happened in-between.”
She elaborated, “We had to delve deep to consider how we would address this – we have huge respect for the lore, for both the books and for what made it into our previous games. But this was one of the first questions we found the answer for, and it's how we were able to create this original story which starts with The Witcher 4.”
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While her power has been reduced, the fact that she is a Source grants her greater magical abilities that she will be able to use in her profession as a monster hunter.
Referencing the newly released trailer that shows Ciri’s battle against a Bauk where she casts multiple spells including a lightning attack as well as enhancing a chain whip with fire, Mitręga explained, “What you've seen is a tease, but it's there for a reason. You can see the swords, you can see the chain, and you can see her using magic too, and how she uses them all against the boosted monster she encounters. It's there to show you what our ambition is with The Witcher 4.”
She also noted that Ciri is “faster, more agile – but you can still tell that she was raised by Geralt, right?” The trailer shows Ciri wearing a Lynx medallion rather than the wolf that Geralt wears indicating she likely received further Witcher training and underwent the Trial of Grasses from someone other than Geralt.
Game Director Sebastian Kalemba was also asked about Ciri’s abilities for the game while speaking with Eurogamer.
He was asked, “One interesting part of featuring Ciri here is that there's now maybe some concern, or more like speculation, that you might need to kind of 'nerf' her in some way, right? That she has to go back to 'power level one' at the beginning of an RPG - and obviously she finished The Witcher 3 as pretty powerful, right? Like she's one of the more powerful entities in the world at that time. How are you trying to handle that? Can we expect a low power Ciri at the start of this?”
Kalemba responded, “No, we cannot tell you exactly how. But we can tell you just, like, believe us: that was one of the things, or first things, that we were solving, to make sure - the way we develop here, we do not leave anything without a clear answer. And the answer we'll provide for sure, as soon as we let you experience the game.”
Kalemba gave a similar answer when asked about her powers in an interview with the Skill Up YouTube channel.
He said, “I cannot tell you precisely how are we going to make it yet, for sure. But definitely, we starting Witcher 4 a few years after Wild Hunt. Will refer to Wild Hunt ending. So definitely players with the sentiment will spot details here and there even really nuanced dialogue pieces sometimes here and there referring to the past. Nuanced, also, because we don’t want to spoil and destroy the experience for newcomers, right? But I believe there’s going to be plenty of depth that you’ll be able to spot it. And it’s a few years after Wild Hunt.”
Mitręga then shared, “Also, I think that what is a huge challenge for us is on the one hand we want, of course, to go with the player with sentiment, right? Feel them going home at the same time showcase new stuff, a new experience, and amazing game to push the boundaries of the quality and storytelling and then go to the new audience.”
She continued, “I already read the comments that people are afraid of, ‘if you go to everybody it will be a mix, do we still got it?’ So you need to trust. We are storytellers. This is our priority always. And we go in-depth with that. We are going with the universal experience of the storytelling and she is just a character that will give us more opportunity to do that.”
“And, yes, we want to go to both players that know us already and for the new audience because you can start the game without having any knowledge actually about the previous [games] even about the world. You can just start it as a new entering and it will be an introduction to The Witcher world. So it’s totally fine. You can, of course, go back to The Witcher after. But I think that we do have an idea for that, you just have to wait to experience that,” she concluded.
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Kalemba added, “I can even add just to calm some people down is that we trust the process. We are storytellers. The most important thing and I believe you can experience this in the trailer is that the very core motivation behind making this trailer was actually to make it in a way that you will care. That you will at some point care about Mioni, about Ciri, about this final feeling of, ‘oh my god, I did my best but I couldn’t control everything. Dumb people followed by superstitions. Bloody hell. And then I couldn’t save her.’ This is the way. We trust the process. We make emotions. We pay so much respect to characters we create. We make them believable alive. Characters that will stay with you forever. So those are like real people. This is the way we make stories.”
He then reiterated, “So I can calm everyone down here there’s going to be an amazing story had and we’ve created emotional stakes that are not coincidental whatever, very well thought out.”
What do you make of their confirmation that Ciri will be getting a massive power downgrade?