last remnant and bloodborne are better

I'm almost through the Blood of elves. The translation was a bit lacking in the last wish, and it's still not the best in blood of elves. I would have expected Dandelion to speak with a lot more flair for example. It might be part of his writing style too, explaining things through dialogue which often doesn't feel all that natural. Sometimes it makes the characters sound like teenagers. The story is good anyway, even though the execution is a bit lacking. Action sequences are described very well and often put the game mechanics to shame. I get far more immersed with the books than I did with the game.
It's a good read, not as epic as Wheel of time or equivalent, but also a lot easier to get into.

The controls were just passable to me and sometimes got in the way in fights. Camera getting stuck behind trees, Geralt getting stuck on terrain, trouble to scale a simple wall in places, akward hill climbing, lock on feature that keeps losing lock. The horse near fences was almost impossible to steer. While sailing the camera always looks right into the sail, can't see where you are going. Backing up the boat was a pain. Swimming up or down was frustrating, especially while trying to get into a ship or other small spaces. It was certainly playable, yet all the little annoyances kept adding up.

Decade? Eh, I'd probably give that award to Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy XII, or Persona 4: The Golden... actually Persona 3 FES was also released within the decade too, right? Some might also argue Xenoblade Chronicles and Valkyria Chronicles too.

I just finished Witcher 3 some days ago and its a good rpg but not more.

there are to many little things that prevent it from beeing "awesome".

For everybody who want a really awesome RPG and dont care to much about graphics i can only recommend the GOTHIC series (Gothic 1-3). The Combat System is very "special" in the first 2 games, you need to get used to them.

Here are things that the 15 year old GOTHIC games are doing better then a modern aaa-Witcher 3.

- World

The World in the first 2 Gothic games is alot smaller compared to the vast open world of witcher 3. Nonetheless the world is alot more compact and filled with alot more live. You can talk to every side npcs and ~50% will have individual dialoges. In Witcher 3 you can only talk to ~5% of the npcs.

Witcher 3 have dozens of villages where you can mostly just get 1-3 quest per village. So each village feel very exchangeable and random. In Gothic you will find alot less villages/camps but those will be offer alot more content. You get dozens of individual quests in each camp, you will get to know the inhabitants of each camp, their behaviour, rituals and much more. You will identify yourself which each camp and with alot more npcs.

Gothic 2´s biggest City "Khorinis" is compareable to Novigrad. Khorinis may be just ~10% of the size of novigrad, but it will offer the same content.

In Khornis you can enter every building and you will find something special in every 2nd building. In Novigrad 90% of the building cant be entered and dont have any importance. I would never have a problem to orient myself in khorinis (the game doesnt even have questmarkers) but i have alot problems in Novigrad.

In Gothic most npcs will have their own little story, worries, wishes and more. In Witcher 3 most npcs are just "soulless zombies" like in assassins creed. they have no sense gameplay whise, they are just there to give you the feeling "the world is alive". But its just a facade, while in gothic its real.

In the World of GOTHIC every monster do have their own strengh. You will start fighting Scavangers, later wolves, then Lurker, then snapper and so on. So if you meet a lurker your first time it may kill you, but some hours later you can take revenge. In Witcher 3 you will fight the same type of monsters just with different levels (Wolves/drowned deads level 2,4,6,8, etc.). 

In Gothic my character will open chests before he loot them. He will bend down to pick up a plant.

- Character Sytem

In Gothic you will start as a nobody. Every npcs will be stronger then you. Nobody does know you. But when you progress in the game, people will start having respect for you. You will be stronger. You can beat people who were bad to you later. You can decide what kind of  weapon/magic you will use.

In Witcher 3 my character isnt evolving at all. Even at level 35 i feel almost the same as on level 1.

To get better in Gothic i have to find a trainer, who will practise with me. In Witcher I can skill in a menu. I can even craft/use alchemie in a menu. Everythig more realistic in gothic.

I will start having a complete crap weapon like a branch or a pickaxe. But as stronger i get i will get better weapons, which arnt just "better" but also look alot better. In Witcher 3 my level 34 swords almost look like my level 1 swords. 

Training special fighting moves will give more and better fighting animations in gothic.

- Story

The Main story of witcher 3 wasnt special at all. Nothing hit me by surprise. 60% of the main plot i was just looking for people.

In Gothic you will be suprised alot, believe me ;) Dont want to spoiler so thats it.

Dont get me wrong, Witcher 3 was still a good Rpg. But if you never tried Gothic, i can just recommend to try those games. Dont be afraid because of the old graphics and unconventional controls. 

fatslob-:O said: Why am I the only guy who despises The Witcher franchise so much ? I feel like I'm left out of the party ...

I am 100% on your side.  Imo the gameplay is incredibly shallow, and the story is convoluted and uninteresting.  Bloodborne, Skyrim, and more sh!t all over this series.

Ah, another Gothic fan, always nice to see that.

I completely agree of course, for me Gothics are better open-world RPGs than Witcher in almost every aspect, but "specialness' of their melee combat, as well as age, can put a lot of people off.

I do feel slightly dissapointed that Witcher 3 is not as brilliant as I hoped for - after all, Gothic was major influence on devs and I hoped they would make something comparable, while retaining good stuff from W2. In the end, it was still pretty good game and honestly, in this climate, I can't blame CDPR for trying to make bit more mainstream game, but I'm hoping that CDPR, now that they went through first open-world game, will revisit fantasy setting sometimes in the future and dig a bit deeper - both metaphorically and literally (given how horizontal W3 tends to be in certain areas).

Best RPG in the last decade? (from 1995)....

- FF6-10
- Chrono Trigger
- Ni No Kuni

...just to list a few that I feel are far better.

yeah i do agree. I read a interview with some developer from cdProjectred 1-2 years ago where they also said that they took alot inspiration by the gothic series. The Gothic series was a big thing in east europe ~10 Years ago. Most of CdProjectRed developers do know/played the series.

But at least they included some important things that where typical for the gothic series and still uncommon for many modern action-rpgs (quest design, no loading screens in buildings, No leveling monsters, no respawning monsters, dark fantasy world setting, day/night and dynamic weather system, swimming and diving).

But Witcher 3 was alot like Gothic 3 for me. many things i didnt liked in gothic 3 (compared to gothic 1&2) are the same i dont like in Witcher 3. Its just impossible to make an vast open world as interesting as a smaller world like in gothic 1&2. That was also a reason i never really liked the elder scrolls series.

Unfortunaly the Gothic Developers didnt do as awesome games in the past (the risen series was mediocore at best). They are working on a new game called "ELEX" at the moment and it will be shown at gamescome next week. im very excited!

Witcher 3 is great. Best RPG? Probably a question of taste.

As for me, i think that the Souls series including Bloodborne is plain boring. Some friends just love it.

This is all opinionated, and you can have your opinion. :)

But many will say it doesn't pass Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii like myself