CD Projekt Red says Ciri ‘deserves’ a great story in The Witcher 4 and Andrzej Sapkowski (sort of) approves

Ciri is the star of The Witcher 4, and CD Projekt Red’s game director Sebastian Kalemba and narrative director Philipp Weber say she deserves a ‘great’ story in the RPG

CD Projekt Red

Ciri is the star of The Witcher 4, and CD Projekt Red’s game director Sebastian Kalemba and narrative director Philipp Weber say she deserves a ‘great’ story in the RPG. Kalemba and Weber made the comments in a recent interview with Eurogamer following The Witcher 4's reveal, where they also said Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski supports their vision for Ciri. Ish. In his usual hands-off way, at least.

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Kalemba said CDPR has a strong relationship with Sapkowski, who, he says, is quite happy with the work the studio does. Eurogamer asked what he specifically thinks about making Ciri a Witcher and the star of The Witcher 4, and Kalemba had this to say

“I can actually give you a very good answer, because it's the answer that Andrzej Sapkowski usually gives: the answer is in the books,” Kalemba said. “And in the books, Andrzej Sapkowski called Ciri a witcher multiple times, and Geralt called Ciri a witcher in the books too. So I think that basically says what Andrzej Sapkowski thinks about the topic.”

The duo said they started preparing the way for Ciri to take over from Geralt by introducing her as a second playable main character in The Witcher 3. The Witcher 4 is her time to shine, and, more importantly, to grow. Weber said that part of what makes Ciri an interesting protagonist is that, unlike Geralt, she’s not set in her ways. She’s still learning.

“Ciri still has to make many of those experiences [like Geralt’s],” Weber said. “She has to go through so many of these things. So in a way, even though Ciri is, of course, a defined character, with her, players will have the opportunity to still define her quite a bit more, specifically define the path that she will take on her way to becoming a witcher, and basically also what kind of person that will make her.”

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CDPR stopped short of saying how player choice might influence Ciri in The Witcher 4, but they did say choices from previous games will have some effect on the world state. Presumably, those will include the Ciri-specific choices from The Witcher 3, such as Ciri’s meeting with the Lodge of Sorceresses, and some of the other big ones, like how the war ends. That’s just conjecture, though. CDPR is keeping details close while development continues on The Witcher 4, though that’ll likely change as we get into 2025 and work on the sequel progresses.