Secchan's Corner: The Witcher 3 DLCs: Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine

Tuesday, 27 September 2016

The Witcher 3 DLCs: Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine

This was just going to be a blog post about Blood & Wine to begin with, but then I realised I hadn't even made a post for Hearts of Stone, so I'll put this one in here too!

It's been over a year since I last played The Witcher 3, and thus also over a year since I played Hearts of Stone. I remember being very excited about it solely because Shani would be there. Shani who my Geralt romanced in the first game. I was seriously hoping that something would happen between him and Shani in the DLC since I had botched every romance available in the base game for 3. That didn't happen unfortunately. The main story of the DLC was ok. When I first met Olgierd von Everec I thought he was an ass, but the more I learned about him the more I pitied him. Especially during the quest that went inside his wife's painting and I found out how he came to be indestructible and in the debt of the Master of Mirrors. Almost none of what happened to him was his fault. He wanted to provide for his new wife and prove himself worthy to her father. But he did a mistake turning to the Master of Mirrors for help, and the Master just kept stringing Olgierd along until everything he had worked for came apart. So yeah, I decided to kill the Master and save Olgierd. The quest in the Master's realm was epic, but slightly annoying. Before I realised how the area worked I just kept on dying. As soon as I realised how it worked the quest was extremely easy. I was happy with how things turned out for me in this DLC. I especially remember the party quest with Shani, that was a lot of fun :3

Most recently I played Blood & Wine. That was epic! A whole new zone, with lots of side quests etc. I spent almost 40 hours on this DLC so it was basically a whole new game! When I started it up, my main feeling was that it had been a whole year since I last played - how do?! And then the first thing that struck me was once again that this game is so beautiful I don't even know what to do with myself. So Geralt is called upon by the duchess of Toussaint (is that a pun for All Hallows? Because that would be funny), who's got a contract for him to kill a beast that's been terrorising her capital. He accepts and travels south to Toussaint where it soon becomes obvious that the culprit is a vampire. Before doing anything about that, though, I completed the map! I did every single side quest (I especially liked the one where I got to save people from curses, like the one with Vivienne who turned into a bird woman, and the one with Marlene who had been cursed into a wight), and also every single question mark on the map. As soon as that was done I continued with the main quest and it soon became so very complicated. The vampire didn't kill of his own volition, he was blackmailed into doing it in the hopes of saving his love who had been kidnapped. Except it later turned out that his kidnapped love and the duchess' missing sister and the blackmailer were all one and the same. The vampire is (understandably) distraught and releases hell upon the capital Beauclair. The city is overrun with vampires of all kinds and Geralt, along with his friend Regis (who's also a vampire), decides to get Syanna (the woman who caused all this and played three roles) out of the prison her sister has put her in. Except this prison is the Land of a Thousand Fables. A fairytale world inside a book. It was the best part of the whole DLC. I laughed out loud at the little girl who used to sell matches and flint, but nobody bought them so she branched out and now she sells drugs. I encountered the Pied Piper of Hamelin and his rats. I found a rat, cat and dog riding on a horse. I played Little Red Riding Hood with the Big Bad Wolf. I discovered Goldilocks' and Rapunzel's fates. I ran into Will o' Wisps, the naked Emperor and the Puss in Boots. It was amazing xD And then towards the end I ran into a bonfire straight out of Dark Souls xD Oh, and I recieved a contract from a goose, who gave me a Golden Egg as reward upon completion. Easily the best part of the DLC. When we got back from that world we went straight to the main boss battle. AND IT WAS EPIC! Holy shit. I've never been so scared of running out of healing stuff as I was right then and there. And holy shit that vampire O_o Wow. In the end I managed to get a happy ending where everybody lived. That made me smile. Then I felt sad that it was all over. The Witcher-series is done. Goodbye, Geralt ♥

And now for some screenshots! I'm a tourist when I'm playing Witcher. It's so beautiful *_* But I'll just post the funny and/or sad ones :P The ones of beautiful scenery is better experienced :)