IMO a game playing as Ciri would have been better as a non-mainline spin-off. I don't have a big problem playing as Ciri, but The Witcher -- for me -- is Geralt. If you want a spin-off with Ciri, sobeit, but... if you make a mainline The Witcher game, I want to play as Geralt (even if there's some creative mental gymnastics done to get that to happen!).

I'll just say I have very little interest in The Witcher iV. But then I had almost no interest whatsoever in Cyberpunk 2077, so since The Witcher III, CDPR really hasn't been making games that excite me (yes, even though I grew up watching BladeRunner and reading Shatter and William Gibson's Neuromancer among others).

The Witcher IV's direction really makes me want to look into Sapkowski's recent return to that world.

Or, you don't know the lore very well:
https://the-witcher-fanon.fandom.com/wiki/Female_Witchers

That's a fan fiction wiki.

Speak for yourselg, I am not

Should have just licensed Star Engine from Cloud Imperium Games.

Yeah I am thinking similarly. By that trailer, I am not getting a strong sense of... that thing... in many other games. The trailer seemed pretty cool and it had a similar gritty feeling to it as the previous (e.g. TW2 and TW3) trailers, like how she couldn't save the life of the girl because of some superstition bs going on in the town.

I can't really say whether the game seems to twist the lore and canon and whatever, I haven't dwelled that deeply into it to care enough. Similarly like all the discussion about Star Wars lore, what the jedi power really is and who can have it and how old some sidecharacter in a movie really is etc., goes well over my head. As well as all the Marvel/DC bs about alternate realities colliding and what Superman did in some cartoon from 1947 and how it makes it impossible what he did in a 2021 movie or something...

Still the books never stated that women can't be witchers because of some hard gender-specific requirements. Only that they just gave up trying to make them at some point due to mortality rate. Safe to assume that nobody investigated the subject more thoroughly in centuries, so there's no reason to believe it would be entirely impossible and against the established lore.

No expert here either, but doesn't the lore as presented in the trilogy deviate quite a bit from the books' lore anyway?
Just like the abomination that is the Netflix show took highly questionable liberties (black elves, etc.) and strayed away from the path as well?

While there is not a word about black, green or blue elves in the books, there is a very clear statement from Geralt how he hates not being clean shaven, so Netflix show is obviously more faithful. Not surprising as it got Sapkowski's blessing, unlike games.

As far as I'm concerned it's not any different than with other franchises and their various iterations in/adaptations to different media - I consider them their own distinct parallel universes (to the original universe), that do share and adhere to the fundamental, hard-coded and established aspects but deviate in other, not as fundamental regards, for the sake of fitting the translated-to media or format, for instance.

Hence I wouldn't be opposed to (adult) females being able to survive the trial in CDPR's Witcher universe. Might turn out that Ciri is the sole exception anyway, and if other normal women were to undertake the trial they'd still die after all.

It includes examples of female witchers in the canon lore.

Yeah, I agree, but I was just pointing out that was information from a non-cannon wiki and didn't really have much to do with the book lore since it's "Fanon."

Personally I am exited to see an older and more experienced Ciri walking the path of a Witcher. Contrary to some people here I am not particularly upset to see Ciri as a full blown Witcher that has taken the Trial of Grasses.

As far as I know it's not really against the general lore And before you ask - Yes I own and read all the books in this series, and can actually look at them from here where they sit cozy on my book shelf. But let's be fair - Even Gerald and Jeffifer being alive in itself is already completely against that lore, so in principle all Witcher games are non-lore games (funny how that works).

Anyway - I have always seen the Witcher games as taking place in the Witcher universe, but not a one-to-one translation of those books to game form. They borrowed some things, but also leave out a lot of stuff. In general it's a story, based on a original story, but not the original story itself. So in the end fantasy and creative story telling is more important than being blindly copying the original. And that has worked very well in the past games, and I am sure it will also work well in the upcoming Witcher 4.

As for Ciri being older and a badass. I like that. Mayby some people that cannot handle strong women start crying and hide themself, trembling and all, under some rock. But I am not one of them. Ciri has grown from a uncertain teenager to a full mature woman. I like that, because that is what she wanted, and that is what she has become. I see nothing wrong with that.

Loosing a part of her abilities can be a result of fighting the White Frost. That was a calamity that threatened to destroy worlds and as such was immensely strong, so stopping that would have cost her a lot. I can imagine she took the Trial of Grasses to at least win some of that lost power back. She certainly is not a part of the School of the Wolf, so the other school probably had another trial that was far more fitting to women. And her elder blood would have pulled her trough stuff that would have been lethal to "normal" people. And of course that trial will change her body, face and capabilities.

I can also imagine that Ciri goes on a journey to restore her former capabilities that she has lost to the White Frost. And lastly - Do not forget Ciri can live for a long time. Who knows how may years have past since the previous game. It could be a few decades, but also more than a hundred years. A LOT can happen in such a amount of time.

Sure - The above is a lot of speculation, but it would explain (at least for me) what is going on.

Anyway - I am going to buy this game. I have bought and played all previous games, so I have no doubts about that.

It doesn't, because there are none.