The first Witcher has been CD Projekt's dream game, developers put their hearts and souls into this project, and it shows. The game feels like made by fans for fans ( both of early 2000-s CRPGs and Action/RPGs, as well as the Witcher books and Sapkowski's writing in general ).

Remake will be just another commercial product on a market. Moreover, after the Witcher 3 "next-gen" update fiasco, I doubt, that remake would be worth playing.

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I disagree, that rhythm-based combat system in the first Witcher could be called clunky. It is rare for Action/RPGs, but neither unresponsive nor outdated.

To the contrary, constant rolling and smashing attack buttons in the Witcher 2 and 3 is clunky by definition.

Fan made subtitles! That's brilliant!
I do understand some Polish words, but I played with with Polish VA and English subtitles on account of:
1.) Wanting to listen to the game in original.
2) I compared different VA's, and found the English one to be inferior.

I did notice that some of the words did not match, but what can you do? I understood the gist of it and was content with that.

2 things I remember sticking out.
1.) The Spymaster cursed like a sailor! (Can't remember his name)
2.) In Vizima there is factory that produces swords and armor. Geralt could passivly ask the owner what's the difference between a blacksmith and a factory. The owner would answer. After each sentence Geralt would just go ''uh-huh''. After each ''uh-huh'' the owner would get more enthusiastic. The last exchange is: ''Uh-huh, I got it... calm down...'' ''DOGS BALLS!!! 100 SWORDS A DAY!!!''

I found that exchange so funny I changed the language several times (I believe that meant having to close and restart the game) just to listen how it sounds in other voice overs! :D

It should be noted that the Goodies section actually contains several ''making of'' videos that show what stages the development process went through. Hell, I'm actually gonna rewatch them now...

RE: Topic

I did not even know Witcher1 is being remade! IMHO, the graphics still hold up to this day. And that is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about ''remasters''. Other than... taking things away...
The cards stand on a sharp edge between pornographic and erotic. They are not smut; but they are also not pure aestheticism.
It is not too far fetched that they could be removed. Witcher1 is for adult audiences, but you never know.
Combat - Witcher signs and 3 combat stances. Not too complex, and better than just spamming a dodge button. I liked Witcher 1 combat.

I spent several hours in the prologue yesterday, cyclying between czech, polish and english voices and subs and there was a ton of discrepancies/diffefences.

prologue SPOILERS!!!!

When Savolla stops you and before you fight him, in polish, he says something in the vein of:
"I will not let you interfere with my master's plans. I'll summon a demon that will rip you to shreds"

The first part, about Savolla having a master, is completely left out both in czech and english.

Or after Leo dies, Vesimir says "I've decided. We're leaving Caer Morhen". In all other languages, he just says "We're leaving Caer Morhen." This time missing out on the context that Vesimir is the one who ultimately decides what will be done.

Or when you ask Vesimir about the effects of the Thunderbolt "Grom" potion. The sentence where he says "It makes your body react as it would in the most extreme of situations." Once again completely left out.

Or Lambert says about Merigold: "I admit she has certain.. assets, but a bit too smart for my taste". In English, he just says "She's not that bad... a bit too smart for her own good".

And that's just 4 big examples from the prologue. There are tons of other things, big and small in there. You will of course get what's happening in the game in all languages, but polish is by far the richest.

Names are also weird, the monster "frightener" in english, "chiméra" in czech and "prszeraza" in polish.

And I noticed all of that even though I am no native polish speaker. Far from it actually, I definitely can't speak in polish. I can just somewhat understand the gist of it and fill in the blanks utilizing both voice, subs and polish's adjacency to czech.

Other than REMOVING THE INVISIBLE WALLS OVER EVERY 10cm SLOPE. I feel I'm in a glass labyrinth, that game is clearly from the Kotor/Fable school of characters-cannot-lift-their-feet, and proudly so given how often it shows me NPCs sliding around with no walk animations. Oh Elder Sctolls how you have spoiled us.

As for the pinup cards, the issue isn't how graphic they are (they aren't really, plus I've had two or three love scenes so far and they're quite modest - thankfully so, my eyes still bleed from Dragon Age's attempt at 3D eroticism). The issue is with the principle itself, the "girls collection" mindset. It's a bit creepy in itself, it's odd after an intro about how much and passionately and profoundly these Triss and Gerald characters are supposedly in love with each other, and it adds an awkwardly comical Leisure Suit Larry element to the grimdark medieval fantasy. It's no big deal, but it's like a parodic minigame (pokemon with tits) in an otherwise self-serious RPG, like random item collection in GTA games. But with... people and intimacy, used as game score currency ? Classy.

As I said, feels more dated than the game itself (Moore-era James Bond dated), so would work better in an Austin Power adaptation.

I played the original when it was given for free... And it was a "force myself to finish it" kind of deal. The ONLY part of the game I actually enjoyed was in the first act when you're at the Inn taking missions all over the swamp and such. After that, it became a snore-fest for me...

My advice: force yourself out of the starting area (which is nothing but the tutorial) and see what comes afterwards. If you still don't feel it... then dump it and wait to see if the remake is more up your ally. There's too many games and too little time to play something you don't enjoy.

So many differences in the prologue alone?! Ouch! Fan made subtitles would be more than brilliant then! :<

Seriously?! Ouch! Halfway in the game you will get to wander around in meadows, who are somewhat constrained, in that there are fences... which make sense in the area. Otherwise I remember being able to wander around freely!
Have honestly absolutely NO recollection of invisible walls! Hope your enjoying other parts of the game though. :<

Ah, with that mindset - yes, I agree. It does not fit either Geralt's character, nor... he's sterile anyway.
Even a cursory research, for one who knows/knew nothing about the witcher universe reveals that Yennefer is supposed to be Geralt's one true love.
I view it as such - since that is there first game - CDPR did not know what their audience would be like. So they added that as bait. Witcher might have mature themes, but might as well add something to attract a different target demographic.

Yeah. I also tried running through the prologue by pointing Google translate in my phone on the polish subs and spit out english and those were by far the best results. The few mistakes that come up can be quickly auto-corrected in your head and at least you can be sure that everything said is mentioned in the machine translation, which is definitely NOT the case in english, czech or any other localization.

If I could run the polish subtitle files through google translate and put them back in the game somehow instead of the original english subs, it'd be great. But no idea if that's possible.

EDIT:
Another pretty big omission - Triss thanks you for listening to her in the courtyard and going to the lab after you heal her. Absolutely no mention about that in english or czech.

Oh I'm enjoying the flaws themselves. First of all, they're funny in the context of an "enhanced" edition (the mind boggles), then it's a knowledge I'm haapy to get. I can see many obvious things to correct in a remake, but I would have missed not measuring the difference, or ignoring how the (semi-)original was.

Beyond bugs (oh these sliding NPCs) and design choices (I suppose invisible walls allow for a small map to feel larger by stretching the paths ?), I like the tone just enough to get disappointed. "Oh this is a cool low fantasy medieval folklore thing, so different from the usual DnD/Tolkien stu... oh nevermind here are the dwarves and the elves", "oh wow this dialogue is cool and brutal, a rare sense of righteous misanthropy... ok well less cool the 47th time you've got to re-click through it because it then propels you through three cutscenes before a boss fight you had absurdly no chance to prepare for, with no way to save inbetween"...

I'm baffled by how it got its reputation upon release (didn't it get all the prizes ever and instantly fill the banks accounts of cdpr ?). Yet it's full of little things that make me go wow (didn't expect to have go go fight drunk, Gerald's walk is just fantastic there, and having people run to shelter when it starts raising was really nice) inbetween the facepalms.

Plus I really don't mind the minimalist combat system, so there's also that. When it works (not sure that absolutely all the valid clicks register).

Edit :
Stuff. I meant stuff. Wouldn't have said "stupidity". I love Tolkien's work, and I have nothing against high fantasy in general. I just like to be in a different, more historically grounded folklore at times. Where the supernatural is more transgressive and unnerving.