Search

Search only in certain items:

The Witcher
The Witcher
2019 | Action, Fantasy
I learned of The Witcher through the video games. When I heard Netflix was making a series about it, I was ecstatic. I will say the series doesn't disappoint!

The plot and other story lines in this are solid. There is plenty of action with a tiny bit of romance thrown in. This series follows the books very closely. The sword fighting scenes are epic and are choreographed brilliantly! One of the things that I found very confusing though was the timelines taking place. It's all over the place, and you don't really know whether you're watching something in the present or something that happened previously in each scene. It would have been nice to have something on the bottom of the screen saying "10 year earlier" or something similar.

The acting is spot on in The Witcher. Henry Cavill plays Geralt perfectly. While the actress who plays Yennefer is a great actress, I don't think she's a great fit for Yennefer. Yennefer is supposed to be very beautiful, but Anya Chalotra is a bit too plain. There are so many actresses they could have had to play Yennefer, yet they go with the one who's not very striking. The man who plays Jaskier was also a good fit, and Freya Allen (Ciri) was also perfect. I also thought Triss was also perfectly casted. (In the books, Triss' hair is a chestnut/auburn color. It's only in the games where she has red hair.)

I hate waiting over a year for the next season, but it is what it is. I will definitely be watching though!
  
40x40

Mothergamer (1514 KP) rated the PC version of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt in Video Games

Apr 3, 2019  
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
Role-Playing
I was excited to play Witcher 3 Complete Edition as I had never played it before, yet I had read all the books about the Witcher Geralt and liked them a lot. I have not played the first two games, but they are both on my to play list. Geralt's world is interesting filled with complex characters, fantastic monsters, and great storytelling. All I can say is that I have a ton of games to play and some things get backlogged. I still have a stack of PS3 games to play and of course, I'll be playing the remastered Skyrim for PS4 when it comes out and that's another game I haven't played yet, but for this moment let's discuss how much I loved Witcher 3.

 Yes, I loved Witcher 3. I stayed up way too late many a night playing this game because I was having so much fun running around killing monsters and helping people in need. My vision of Geralt was someone who did his best to do the right thing and that sometimes that meant siding with the occasional monster because there were times when humans were the real monsters. The story drew me in right away and these were characters and lore I was familiar with so I was thrilled to explore the entire world in the game. Truly, I unlocked entire maps because I just had to know what everything was. The areas that were too high a level for me at the time I made a note of where they were and came back later. I think it's great when a game makes exploration fun and it definitely helped having Geralt's horse, Roach to help that exploration go a bit faster.

The environments in Witcher 3 are amazing. I would find myself stopping and just looking around at the scenery whether it was roaming through a forest or wandering the streets of a city. The attention to minute details was quite impressive. The gameplay is great. The gaming controls are fine tuned to make battles fun without feeling frustrating and the camera angles are spot on which made a terrific gaming experience for me. The music for Witcher 3 is beautiful. My favorite music was for the area of Skellige. Skellige was also my favorite place to explore because it was so pretty there with all the wild flowers and forests. I genuinely liked the people there too because many of them did not treat Geralt with complete suspicion or call him a freak the way they did in cities like Novigrad. They respected him and what he did; the fact that he was a Witcher and had cat eyes didn't really come up much. I felt that showed a lot of variety in the thinking of the people in the different areas.

There are mini games to play as well. I enjoyed the horse races because those were fun and worth the time and effort. They gave some great rewards such as saddle bags that increased my inventory space and saddles that increased my horse's stamina and speed. Then there's a card game called Gwent which you can play with various people ranging from innkeepers to some of Geralt's friends. I really tried with Gwent. It was a bit confusing for me and I found myself looking up videos on YouTube just to try and get the gist of it, and it helped a bit. However, a huge shout out to my friend Danny for giving a simple explanation of how it worked and the best strategy to winning because that helped more. I mainly just wanted to finish the Gwent side quests I had and I managed to do that. After that, I no longer bothered playing Gwent. It just wasn't my thing, but I will say graphics wise it was a well designed mini game and while it was a tad frustrating for me, I understood why many of my friends enjoyed it. There's also fist fights tournaments (think Fight Club) that Geralt can participate in. I aced the heck out of those and won all those prize coin purses. My favorite fight was the Rock Troll because it was interesting and I got to learn his name at the end; a reward for winning the fight.

Level grinding was not a chore for me in the game because there were so many quests and Witcher contracts which involves hunting specific monsters or investigating things that might involve monsters. These offer good experience and a lot of money for Geralt. There are times when the leveling feels a bit uneven because sometimes the main story quests give more experience than a few of the contracts and side quests. It's not a big deal, but it is noticeable. The skills menu for unlocking Geralt's Witcher abilities and upgrading them is easy to navigate and quite user friendly. My favorite skill was an upgrade of the Axii skill known as Puppet which could make enemies fight each other. The cutscenes and voice acting are superb; while the loading times are practically seamless which made me very happy.


First of all, I don't like anyone telling me what to do. Ask my parents. There was a time when I was told to eat my vegetables when I was a kid and instead of doing that, I stealthily put them under my chair and claimed my plate was clean because I wanted to go play with my friends. Hey, I was four. What the heck did I know about being a mastermind? My parents bought it for two minutes until they discovered it and yes, it was wrong of me to think that I didn't have to listen and tried to fool my parents but this gives you an idea about how long I've been like this. Don't get me wrong, if you just have a conversation with me and we have a healthy discussion I will listen to what you have to say. What I don't respond well to is comments like, "You should NOT be playing that game because of this, that, or the other thing." Ultimately I like to decide and think for myself and I think everyone should be able to decide for themselves whether or not they want to play a game, read a book, or see a movie.

While playing Witcher 3 two things came up about this which were I should not play the game because there are no people of color in it and that it was sexist to women. I honestly did not know there was a huge hullabaloo about these things when the game was first released because honestly I get busy with things going on in my life and I tend to just choose games that pique my interest. I thought the game looked interesting, so I bought it. That's really all there was to it.


As for the second aspect regarding the game being sexist towards women, I just find myself wondering where this comes from. There are several, I repeat, several strong female characters in the lore of Witcher and in the game. How is any of it sexist towards women? Look, I understand not liking all the boobies in the brothels and the sexual scenes in the game. It's not for everyone and some folks are just not down for it. It never bothered me and some of those sex scenes have some amusing humor in them. The argument that Geralt feels no emotions so it's sexist towards women is utter crap. If a person takes the time to actually read any of the books, read the lore, or actually tried to play the game they would know that Geralt can not express emotions on his face because of all the mutations that Witchers go through. Geralt actually feels very deeply especially when it comes to people like Yennefer who is his true love, Ciri who is like a daughter to him, and of course Vesemir who is a mentor/father figure to him. The fact that he can't physically express those emotions due to him essentially being a mutant shouldn't count against him.

The issues with things like Ciri being called a bitch by men or Yennefer being called a whore; those are things that happen in the real world and they sure as hell happened way too often throughout history. Part of the storytelling of many artistic things is that it finds a creative way to discuss real world issues and inform you hey, this kind of thing happens open your eyes. The part I loved is that these women did not need saving. They handled it themselves. The man who called Ciri a bitch? She broke his nose and she stuck up for herself. Yennefer handled the man who called her a whore and she held her own very well. These are not wilting flowers. These are strong, intelligent, and brave women in the story and I was thrilled that a fantasy game had them. Honestly, as soon as I heard the sentence, "Feminist Frequency said..." I felt my eyes rolling because this is such a stretch. I'm not saying that they're not entitled to their opinion because they are, but I did not see any evidence of that in the game at all and I disagree.

Games are meant to be fun and for me Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt was so much fun and one of the best games I've ever played. The story, the open exploration, and the diverse characters were amazing and I enjoyed it immensely. Now, I'm going to play through again on new game plus because the completionist in me wants to get all the different endings and the game is worth playing multiple times if one wishes.
  
40x40

Ross (3282 KP) rated Season of Storms in Books

Apr 23, 2018 (Updated Apr 25, 2018)  
Season of Storms
Season of Storms
Andrzej Sapkowski | 2018 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
7
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Some good short stories contained within (0 more)
2-d characters (2 more)
fantasy-by-numbers
Frequent incongruent Latin/French phrases
More a set of short stories than a novel in its own right
* I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review. Formatting issues (many) have not been factored into the review *


To my knowledge, the books of The Witcher are split into the short story collection prequels (one of which I have read) and the full books (which I have not read). This book is somewhere in between being neither strictly a collection of short stories nor a focussed standalone novel in its own right. Chronologically, this book falls in between the stories contained in The Last Wish) though it is impossible to say quite where it falls (as mention of the stryga is made near the end, which begins the Last Wish I have to assume it comes after the flashback stories from that tome but before the overarching story linking them all).
It may be because I haven't read the full novels, but I find the Witcher to be a thoroughly bland and unexciting character and I have no connection with him. He has next to no personality and contributes nothing to the dialogue of the book. Similarly, all other characters are very disposable - they are either supposedly strong-willed sorceresses (who smell of flowers and throw themselves at the Witcher and are bedded instantly) or they are otherwise instantly forgettable.
I think Sapkwoski was trying to give the sorcerers a sense of academic snobbery but they frequently use Latin phrases, which just gets irritating very quickly. Similarly French words and phrases are thrown in willy-nilly without translation which gets annoying as well. This seems even more unusual when you realise the story was written in Polish and translated into English, with some parts kept in French or Latin. And then further when it is meant to be in a different world where French wouldn't be a thing.
The story essentially follows Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher) who loses his swords and goes on a quest to get them back, and just happens along the way to meet people who need his skills (like on Neighbours where one character leaves and another comes in through the door at exactly the same moment). This aspect makes me think this was meant to be a series of short stories stitched together. But unfortunately here those short stories are not finished up within themselves and you have a number of unsatisfying loose ends in the back of your head throughout.
As with The Last Wish, I found the ending very confusing and had no idea what had happened. It may be that other works fill in the gap and I will have that filled in time, but if so that makes this not a satisfying read in its own right.
Overall, I don't mind Sapkowski's writing in general, other than a few irritating bad habits and I like the overriding idea of the stories but find the execution, character development and overall world-building somewhat clumsy and throw-away. But as I say, this may be because (I think) I have read these in chronological order, rather than published order. I will fill in the gaps and work out if that is the case.
  
40x40

Emmy (14 KP) rated The Witcher in TV

Dec 31, 2019  
The Witcher
The Witcher
2019 | Action, Fantasy
The score, the aesthetic, most of the acting, the stories, the format (0 more)
Few of the acting, the rhythm, some moments (0 more)
Very entertaining!
I was very entertained watching the serie version of The Witcher. [Context: I have played the games and I haven't read the books.] I enjoyed discovering the "real" story, the first stories, that created the games later on. I really enjoyed the format because it was, to my opinion, an echo to the short stories format, while having a bigger plot line, and without falling into filler episodes. The choice they made in mixing the time lines was interesting and I personally liked it. However I can't imagine how someone who didn't have any knowledge of the universe understood anything as lots of the details and mechanics of the society and kind of people was barely explained; as someone who "knows how it works" I enjoyed not having too much exposition. I recommend!
  
40x40

Chloe (778 KP) rated The Last Wish in Books

Jul 18, 2020  
The Last Wish
The Last Wish
Andrzej Sapkowski | 2008 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.5 (14 Ratings)
Book Rating
Characters (1 more)
Stories
Long to get into (0 more)
Interesting
The first of the Witcher books that covers him meeting Yennefer.

I expected to be wooed by this book as the series was really great and I had heard great things about the book too. Until the final two chapters I was quite underwhelmed, the book is similar to several short stories and these were not in order. I found this a little frustrating.

Geralt seemed to lack a personal connection and I was finding it hard to enjoy this book. Fortunately, the last two chapters are brilliant, I devoured them very quickly and cant wait to read the next one. I really hope the following installments have a longer story but I don't know if that will be the case. Either way I will probably finish the full series as I niw feel invested in the characters.
  
The Last Wish
The Last Wish
Andrzej Sapkowski | 2008 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.5 (14 Ratings)
Book Rating
<a href="https://amzn.to/2Wi7amb">Wishlist</a>; | <a
<a href="https://diaryofdifference.com/">Blog</a>; | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/diaryofdifference/">Facebook</a>; | <a href="https://twitter.com/DiaryDifference">Twitter</a>; | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/diaryofdifference/">Instagram</a>; | <a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/diaryofdifference/pins/">Pinterest</a>;

#0.5 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3150137897">The Last Wish</a> - ★★★★

<img src="https://diaryofdifference.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Book-Review-Banner-59.png"/>;

For me, The Last Wish is the perfect introduction to start the Witcher series and meet Geralt of Rivia.

<b>Synopsis</b>

The Last Wish is the prequel to the Witcher series. In this book we are introduced to Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher - a man whose magic powers and strength training made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. 

However, Geralt is not an ordinary killer. He hunts the monsters that bring fear to people and creatures that attack the innocent. 

But not everything is as seems, as some monsters are not evil, and not everything fair is good. In every fairy tale, there is a pinch of truth.

<b>My Thoughts:</b>

I loved the introduction of Geralt in this book. I have known Geralt from the video games, and then I watched the TV Show. Usually I am more attracted to the book characters rather than a movies/TV Show character, and this was no different. Even though, I have to admit that the video games and the TV Show are also extraordinary, when it comes to their characters. Geralt in this book is vivid and brave, and I was happy to follow him on the various adventures he went on. 

The book is written in multiple chapters, each containing a call for a quest, and the following chapter containing the quest itself. Each quest is a completely different topic, all featuring Geralt, and many side characters joining him as we move along in the story. 

Each chapter was magical on its own, and we get to meet various stories. We meet a girl that turned to a striga because of a curse. We encounter a beast hidden in a castle, a story that resembles the Beauty and the Beast. There are also stories that resemble the Snow White and Cinderella, all significantly darker and much more graphic in their retellings. I love how the author took those storylines and managed to create something much more sinister and cruel. Some of the stories also reminded me of the traditional Slavic folk tales, which brought back some nice feelings from my childhood too. 

The last few chapters were the ones I enjoyed the most. Especially the moment when we get to meet Yennefer for the very first time. I cannot wait to read more about her in the books. 

A truly beautiful and adventurous fantasy novel by Andrzej Sapkowski and published by Gollancz. I definitely recommend The Last Wish. 
  
The Darkslayer: Brutal Beginnings
The Darkslayer: Brutal Beginnings
Craig Halloran | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A fun short introduction
This 40 page novella is a good, fun introduction to the world of the Darkslayer, similar to a Witcher: a man who wanders the wilds slaying evil creatures for payment. Here we are introduced to Venir (and briefly his companion Melegal), a hard-drinking brute of a man who we find is known as the Darkslayer. He ventures out from the city of Bone into the wilds, partly to earn his keep slaying the wild Underlings (nasty little wild creatures who kill children and keep giant spiders as pets); partly to escape the morning-after realisation of who he slept with.
Not exactly high-brow literature, but a well told, axe-swinging, action-packed tale of one man against the wilds.
As with other series, this introduction was written some time after/during the main series and intended as a nice little introduction. I am expecting to meet some of the characters again as I continue with the main series.
  
The Witcher - Season 2
The Witcher - Season 2
2021 | Action, Adventure, Drama
Not having played any of the games (although I have read some of the earlier books) one of the key problem's with Netflix first season of 'The Witcher', I found, was the way it jumped around timelines with no real clear 'this is set in <period>' shown.


That aspect, thankfully, is almost entirely done away with in the second season which, as a result, means it is far easier to follow just what is going on!

Set in the aftermath of the Battle of Floden field, with Geralt and Ciri now reunited and with Geralt also believing Yennefer to be dead, this season also introduces more members of the group to which he belongs; that is to say, more Witchers.

I found the season overall to be a bit hit and miss: when the episodes were good, they were very good, but when they were bad ... they were bad.

None the less, still interestied to see where this goes!
  
40x40

RhinocerRoss (16 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt in Video Games

Feb 24, 2020  
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
Role-Playing
No prior experience of the Witcher world is necessary but it also gives more to someone with the back ground knowledge. (3 more)
There are lots of ways to play the game and many different ways it can ultimately end.
With an easy setting it is great for someone who wants the story ornis looking to spend more time in this world after watching the Netflix series. For those wanting a challenge it can give that aswel
A lot of bang for your bucks
If you like like RPGs it's not an issue but if you don't you may not get on with the game. (2 more)
For a casual gamer with not much time to spare you may not be free to immerse yourself as fully as others.
Tis game is Thjs game
Deep and cultured fantasy world you feel involved in
  
The Witcher - Season 1
The Witcher - Season 1
2019 | Action, Drama, Fantasy
I love the Witcher series having read the books and played the games. It was interesting the way they had the time jumps, but I can see how that would be confusing for people new to the series. It was really well done and they got it right with Henry Cavill because he got Geralt's mannerisms and voice down perfectly. I know people have commented about that low monotone voice, but the thing is that is how Geralt talks in the games and the books. Witchers are basically mutants and one of the things that changes is how they show emotions, they can't emote very well in their face and voice. Henry Cavill got that right. I feel what they did with Fringilla's character is a little odd, but I get why they did it that way and Yennefer's story arc was very interesting. I hope to see more of her in season 2. Overall, very well done.