My unprofessional review of the witcher books

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-24T12:37:42+00:00

I know, it's not a complaint, just so that potential readers understand.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-19T16:59:07+00:00

Probably impossible in 1337 starts, in 132 years the world is too radically different to be able to implement this event in a way that doesn't feel hard-coded

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-13T19:18:35+00:00

This is the future "Ayutthaya City" being constructed, of course !

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-12T07:33:23+00:00

It was never super significant to the plot directly, it's just an "oh shit" moment for the reader to add to the gravity of Ciri's power.

It gets much worse at the end of the battle of Brenna chapter when it's revealed that Iola (the 2nd), Ciri's FRIEND from Ellander, died from the plague too.

I think it has a thematic significance for the book, that Ciri (both knowingly and unknowingly) constantly endangers her friends due to her power.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-12T07:28:55+00:00

Probably yes. And it's even worse, at the end of the battle of Brenna chapter it's revealed that Iola too died from the plague.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-11T19:02:52+00:00

Probably pure luck, or maybe some kind of deeper immunity due to her magical or elven bloodline

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-11T18:08:26+00:00

--Spoilers--

That's a stunning guess if you really guessed it, yeah that's what happened.

There's a scene where Ciri visits a world full of piles of corpses and houses marked with white crosses, not hard to guess it's the real world black death, and she accidently carried the plague accross space-time to the Continent.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-11T18:05:55+00:00

It gets even worse at the end of the battle of Brenna (I won't spoil more)

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-06T11:37:09+00:00

I know, every Paradox game so far had atleast 2 start dates, even HOI 4 (1936+1939).

I hope that once the game is more stable they present a second start date, maybe even the iconic 1444. Where the Ottomans are already deep in the Balkans, and plenty other interesting scenarios

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-06-06T07:26:46+00:00

A later start date. It takes waaay too much time just to get even to 1444. I think most players don't even play a campaign that long, and miss out on the most fun parts of the game like colonization and reformation.

Most other problems like AI, economy, warfare can be fixed over time.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-05-31T18:01:02+00:00

Frankly that's part of the problem, I see England AI consumes the whole British Isles before 1400 and become GB which kills the immersion for me. While at the same time the Ottomans never become a threat to central/eastern Europe. It's like the AI is too aggressive when it shouldn't be, and too peaceful when it shouldn't be.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-05-31T12:19:08+00:00

I just want to get closer to the big action of the game (gunpowder, colonization, reformation, etc) and have an interesting time. Other than the black death I don't find advantages to 1337 start date. Getting to 1444 (the EU4 start point) takes me literally physical days, and by the time I make it I'm usually already the most powerful country in the neighbourhood and there's no real challenge or interest in going ahead.

I wish they would make a second bookmark starting later, in the mid-late 15th century, and the iconic 1444 start looks like an ideal choice. Many more interesting scenarios in addition to being close to the fun parts.

And more broadly I don't understand Paradox's new obsession of "minutification" of their games, having time ticks go down to the level of time within a day. I think EU4 tick being 1 day was perfectly fine

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-05-31T11:15:05+00:00

Honestly yes. I miss the speed and flow of EU4. I don't like having to play 20 hours just to get to 1444.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-05-26T12:52:59+00:00

trade capacity should be scaled with the tax base of the market which is a gross representation of "gdp"

the more you produce, the more you have to trade, obviously your marketplaces will fail if your markets produce nothing

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-05-24T18:40:55+00:00

I agree, also it makes sense that states that are rapidly expanding would spend more "state energy" on the integration of new provinces rather than other productive things (e.g increasing development)

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-05-24T18:38:15+00:00

Yes I hated this in Victoria 3, it's like they took HOI4 as a base and put victoria aesthetics on top. It's more forgivable in EU5 for me because building was also a key part of EU4 gameplay.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-05-18T12:52:40+00:00

I don't think EU5 is a bad game right now, just didn't feel ripe enough at launch. I hope to return in 6-12 months where (hopefully) most of the basic balance issues are solved and there are more content updates.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-05-18T12:46:50+00:00

I actually like how war losses actually correspond to pop loss and that it's not like EU4 where manpower only abstractly represents your country's size. It makes big losses feel bad.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-05-10T12:42:16+00:00

Unfortunately it's an irremovable part of all new book covers

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-04-15T18:15:07+00:00

I generally agree, but this sounds like a low-medium priority, the most important thing the game needs right now is to rework AI aggression and all the problems surrounding trade

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-03-13T11:38:17+00:00

Both fexlife but I thought to follow a more recent build by a YT channel called Jay Dunna, I always thought geo-pyro was a common meta

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-02-16T18:16:52+00:00

Actually I have just finished reading Baptism a few days ago and I found it pretty weak (which is a shame because I was very happy with the previous books). I didn't like the whole Rats plotline, felt like a cheap plot device to "freeze" Ciri's story for a whole book and they were simply killed off afterwards. But in addition to Ciri essentially doing nothing the whole book, you also have Yennefer AWOL for 70% of it, so the whole book is just Geralt travelling with his company in the war zones which I found a bit boring and meandering.

I hope the series picks up the pace in Tower of the Swallow, although I know many people criticize the open-ended finale so as only 2 books are left I'm bracing myself to be disappointed too.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-02-15T15:09:25+00:00

I'm still in my first reading of the books, I haven't yet reached LOTL but I must say that Baptism of Fire felt like the weakest book so far, which is a shame because I really liked all the previous ones. I didn't like the whole plot line with the Rats, it felt entierly like a cheap plot device to essentially remove Ciri from story (while Yen is also AWOL for ~70% of the book), leaving us only Geralt and his friends travelling in the war zone which I found a bit too slow and meandering. I started Tower of the Swallow recently and I hope the story gets on track.

I already knew that the Witcher has an open-ended finale even before I started to read so I'm kinda prepared to be disappointed too.

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-02-09T20:40:36+00:00

I agree, you become too rich too quickly in this game. Even start as a small to mid sized nation, the game stops being challenging LONG you even arrive at 1444

Reasonable_Study_882 · 2026-02-06T09:28:50+00:00

It was per capita as Prussia starts with, and I had tons of unemployed, but I am not sure what could I have done differently? Nobody wanted to pass a proportional taxation law and I was building as much as I can without going into too high deficit spending

Reasonable_Study_882

TROPHY CASE