Today marks the release of The Witcher 3 Remastered, a big update to CD Projekt Red‘s monumental RPG. On the heels of this, we’re also getting an expansion, Songs of the Past, next year – only 12 years into the game’s life. Why? Well, because the devs simply felt they had more ground to cover.
“It was a great opportunity to tell something new about already established characters and to show them from a different angle,” Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz, creative vision director at CDPR support studio Fool’s Theory, tells VGC.
“What I mean is, this is still a fully-fledged expansion and a richer story first and foremost, but then we have Geralt’s best friend with us, who also faces some important stuff in his life, right?” she adds.
She’s referring to our old musical companion, Dandelion, whose backstory forms the backdrop Songs of the Past. You’re visiting his home region of Lettenhove, where our monster-hunting hero winds up uncovering and slaying some nasty pieces of work.
Creating an entire slab of DLC sprang from wanting to dig into Geralt’s supporting cast just that much deeper, and seeing what emerges. “We always wanted to say more about the people who are important to Geralt,” Kuzia-Rokosz adds. “So, it isn’t like we wanted to strongly conclude something, more that we still believe that there is still more to say about Geralt.”
This is as true mechanically as it is narratively. The new chain weapon is actually something CD Projekt Red tried to implement in the base game, but couldn’t. Geralt of Rivia’s misadventures around the Continent have already given us hundreds of hours of entertainment, and it seems we’ll get to enjoy plenty more before his shift is over and we get The Witcher 4.