Ciri is not just another story character thrown in there for you, Geralt, to hunt for. There are several instances where you play as Ciri, rather than as a flashback to show how events involving the woman occurred (along with allowing you to make some dialogue choices). We enjoyed this unique story telling aspect as it let us connect more with Ciri, not to mention see what she is capable of herself. It is a good change of pace as Ciri plays completely different than Geralt. For instance Ciri only has one sword rather than two, she has a special sword that was given to her in the novels that she has grown accustomed to. It allows her to dispatch whatever enemy she faces, how it’s effective against monsters like silver sword, we’re not quite sure. It was forged with dark iron, so we will chalk it up to gnomish ingenuity. Ciri does not have access to any Signs, she has no access to ‘normal’ magic at all ever since she tapped into the fire element and nearly went mad with power (novel backstory). Instead she has the ability to charge up an attack that lets her do several hits in a short period of time without being able to be hit. She also does not have a dodge or a roll, rather she can teleport through or to/away instead. Her health also regenerates in battle unlike Geralts as she does not have access to an inventory and cannot use potions. In the novels she never underwent the mutations which would allow her to safely use witcher potions as those secrets were lost years ago. She is ‘meant’ to feel more powerful in combat then Geralt as she truly is, with her ability to travel through space and time, not to mention some other abilities you see throughout the game. As known in the novels she is “The child of prophecy, a key to save or destroy this world.”
As for replayability, we definitely could see ourselves playing this game through several times. This would be to try different specs, to try different armor sets, different play styles, even different choices. There are three possible endings you can get based on choices you make throughout the game. Seeing as unless you look up online what those select choices throughout the game are that shape your ending, replaying it another time would yield potentially a different ending. Unlike the Witcher 2 which we stated we’d probably pick the game back up in a year or two to replay it, IF we had the time we would replay this game tomorrow, due to all the reasons previously listed, our addiction with Gwent playing different decks through those quests lines (we favored one of the four faction decks), and how open world the game is, allowing you to play the main quests in slightly different ‘orders’ at times.
