Post
The RPG where even the side quests have better writing than most games' main stories.
CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3 set a new standard for open-world RPG storytelling. As Geralt of Rivia, you tracked your adopted daughter Ciri across a war-torn continent, but the real magic was in the side content. The Bloody Baron questline alone had more narrative depth than many entire games. Choices had consequences that rippled across the world in surprising ways. The card game Gwent was so popular it became its own standalone game. Both expansion packs (Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine) were so substantial they could have been standalone releases. It sold over 50 million copies and redefined expectations for RPG content quality.
Example
The Bloody Baron questline tasks you with finding a warlord's missing wife and daughter. What seems like a simple fetch quest unfolds into a harrowing story of domestic abuse, miscarriage, and moral compromise that has no clean resolution. It set the bar for RPG side content permanently.
Why it matters
The Witcher 3 proved that quality writing in every corner of an open world is achievable and commercially rewarded. It raised the bar for RPG side content so dramatically that every open-world game released after it was compared to its standard.
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