Gothic's spiritual successor you say? I need to check it out then. Thanks for the tip.

HOLY SHIT! nobody called germany and poland cousins. well... you did!

Risen is from the same developer. They lost the gothic rights to jowood and after they broke up the had to start a new series.

Gothic is more closely related to Oblivion than The Witcher. The Witcher is more like Two Worlds or Divinity II in its gameplay and combat.

Gothic II & Risen are brilliant

/raises hand

Gothic/Risen = complete open world, do what you want.
Witcher = big linear world(s), hiding it's linearity (is that a word?) very good.

When playing witcher, I constantly wish for Risen 2 and it's open world, it has such a great atmosphere. But then again comes the next Witcher 2 cutscene/story development/awesome fight and I continue playing :)

The only difference I see between the worlds of gothic and witcher was the fact, that the witcher chapters were secluded worlds, while in gothic new chapters either changed the world or opened up a new one while still leaving open "the old world".

But concerning those world parts both games are like some kind of guided open worlds, the witcher worlds are just as open as the gothic ones and in both you really get directed by quests into different areas.

Definitely. Engrossing quests, herb picking 101! Mind you, I found melee combat in Gothic 2 slightly more challenging. Each Orc was a challenge to fight 1 on 1. Then again, Severance: Blade of Darkness had challenging melee combat too, yet that was more of a simple hack/slash, albeit well done.

Seriously? WTF
Piranha Bytes did not lose rights to Gothic. By contract Jowood had the rights for Gothic up to number 4 with 1 expansion, Piranha Bytes then can make Gothic 5 and beyond, cause they actually own the Intellectual Property, not Jowood. There is an interview some where where this is stated by PB themselves.

Probably the biggest reason why Risen has changed its format of being fantasy Medieval setting to more Victorian style setting with pirates for Risen 2 is because they wanted the 2 franchises to be more distinct from each other since they will more then likely make another Gothic game. Lets just hope they starts Gothic 5 at the end of Gothic 3 and take Gothic 3 expansion, and Gothic 4/expansion out of the cannon.

I know, I just wanted to make a short explanation why other developers did gothic games now and PB did Risen. PB lost the right to do G4 because of PB and Jowood splitting up after the G3.

Maybe, yes, I said Witcher is like the polish cousin of the german gothic games. And this I based on story, gameplay and setting.

Witcher > Gothic/Risen , in story and atmosphere

Gothic/Risen > Witcher , in open world emergent gameplay

And I totally twisted it. More so, I totally twisted it when in actuality I was having the same thoughts on my own. I sincerely apologize. Hey, has anyone read Heinrick Sienkiewickz books here?
He was Poland national hero.
There's a game on steam based on one of his books.

Ugh! Gothic II = brilliant, Risen = horrific failure!!

And to compare Witcher with TW or Divinity II? Nooooo. Those are wayyyy easy in comparison. And very bright and lighthearted in comparison to the dark world of The Witcher.