I found more problem in DD than any Bethesda game, The Witcher 3's issues got ironed out in weeks and perfected by the expansions. Even Dark Arisen was a janky mess, full of bugs and quests breaking. 

The funny, The Witcher 3 is usually the cure for clinical depression. 

No. That's SEGA Dreamcast

Witcher 3 absolutely falls under the category of Action RPG. There aren't many games I'd consider here, the only others I can think of offhand are the Seiken Densestu series and Terranigma, but not Illusion of Time, which is more an action adventure similar to the Zelda series, except more narrative based.

What makes Witcher 3 so great?
For me it's because its beautiful (even on Switch), and how it keeps topping itself again and again and again.

It starts out with White Orchard, a tutorial zone that really doesn't feel like a tutorial. I really enjoyed that, particularly compared to how hand-holdy a lot of RPGs have been recently - I am not a fan of that. Breath of the Wild is the only other game I've played that's done tutorials that well, no other RPGs have.

While some people say the Velen part is their favourite, I found it a bit on the quaint side. For me, the game picked up tremendously once it hit Novigrad. Don't get me wrong, Velen is great with its own flavour, dark and soul crushing to everyone and everything involved there. The war zone, and battle between Novigrad and Redania. The cities just beyond reach.

But when Geralt hits Novigrad! Things really pick up. It's a rough city filled with vices. Shops to sell goods at a high price. Liquor, whores, and Gwent!!! It feels much like a World War 2 city, those Nazi groups working to exterminate minorities (elder races, mages, and so on). And you can fuck them up. Going to shows and helping to build up Jaskier/Dandelion's tavern is great. Putting on plays and dealing with the underworld gangs. A tryst with Triss, and her mission to help mages escape... that  reflects the Scandinavians working to rescue Jewish people from the Nazis during WW2.

And when the city becomes too familiar, off to a Viking adventure in Skellige! The region has a few smaller cities, and the villages tend to be larger than those in Velen on average.

But after Skellige, this is where the story really begins. It's kind of like Terrangima, another favourite game of mine, where there's a lot of great spots before, but it's really some time into the game that the story really kicks into high gear. Xenogears, my favourite game of all time, is kind of similar in that the story really takes off later on. But back on Witcher 3, a lot of stuff about the weapon of the elves (digs back into the books), and battling against the apocalyptic force.

But after the ultimate end of this long story, there's more. Hearts of Stone is, IMO, the best story section of the entire game. It's much more refined than anything to that point. It takes place in Redania and brings life to Oxenfurt. The main villain of Hearts of Stone is one of the most interesting villains in any video game I've come across. Interesting how they breadcrumbed him in earlier.

Then, for me this is the best part of the game: Toussaint, a whole new area as part of Blood and Wine, with one of the largest and most beautiful cities in the history of RPGs: Beauclair. But before getting into that there are knights with their stereotypical valour and the world of chivalry. And you even get to run your own wine barony and deal with the other wine producers of the region. This place feels more properly medieval than the rest of the game, but also a far more pleasant country. You also get to go into a fun fairytale land, which is yet another world with dark comedic versions of some famous fairytales. Then underneath all of this, VAMPIRES, and these are quite a bit darker than the Anne Rice style vampires. These vampires are dark and evil beasts that will tear people to shreds... a deep history, they have it carved into their ruins... where they often sleep... ruins you find in this game date back to a time when they ruled over people, and were deciding how to best handle humans... Also, if you're a fan of the 1992 Dracula film, this has the armour of Vlad Tepes!

But Beauclair:

And then there are stories, yes, a lot of dealing with nobility and feudal ties.

An overhead view of Corvo Bianco, it's quaint, but it's yours. This, like Zelda, allows you to display stuff, art, decorations, and your favourite weapons and armours on display.

Now, I really hope that the Xenoblade team is paying attention to Witcher. There are a lot of parallels, and IMO, Witcher 3 is strong in some of Xenoblade Chronicles (particularly the last couple of games) are weak in:

1. Slicker gameplay. Xenoblade Chronicles has become bulky in the latest two entries, it feels like they're moving toward intrusively bloated battle systems that are feeling less and less about controlling the combat. Witcher 3 has a lot of simple commands/actions that have more complex possibilities than Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - now, in terms of an RPG of the more traditional sense that do this well, Chrono Trigger! Xenoblade could be made much better by slimming down the input, and expanding the output, move toward Chrono Trigger.
2. Show, don't tell. Witcher 3's Tutorial doesn't feel like a Tutorial. It gives the player a number of challenges and problems that give them the tools to surpass them - IMO, Death March is the only way to play this, as it drives the player to discover all sorts of things and why they're important. In fact, the first time I played, I played the easy mode, and because of that, didn't really learn to play, and then I was fighting the wild hunt in a cave, and I was stuck. However, I came back to the game later, after putting the difficulty up (as recommended by fans) to what I believe was the second most difficult mode :) And then I learned the game, and KICKED THE WILD HUNT'S ASS when I came back knowing many more tips and tricks, having upgraded some of my oils and such. I believe I had better gear as well.
3. Cinematic approach. Be better with the voices. While I don't mind text, the constant switch between text and voice is really jarring. A Witcher-like approach is best for Xenoblade, have all the characters voiced... And Tetsuya Takahashi should know this, as he's a pioneer in making early ambitiously cinematic video games! He should not let another team's ambition outshine his own. Xenosaga Episode 1 was the game that made me fall in love with the more cinematic approach. This changed the way I looked at games. I want Takahashi to regain that spirit, and ignore the people who give him bad advice about what a game can be. At the very least, we get a game like Xenoblade Chronicles that feels much more polished (Polished? :D)

Witcher 3, easily my favourite game of this decade and the last. I dream of a day when I can the Xenogears universe with the Xenogears-level story, with the 3D world philosophy of the Witcher 3 mixed with Xenoblade Chronicles X, and the cinematic approach of Xenosaga Episode 1, all those mixed together.

I love overpowered Ciri. I can't describe the vibe I get when I target six people and five I hit. Kidding... Ciri always hits all her targets

You forgot Kaer Morhan which has the best mountains in the game and the best theme music and can we talk about the music in the game, it is some of the best if not thee best and certainly the most emotional instrumentals in gaming. Without this music the areas of the game would not be the same at all. 

What are your favourite quests? You mentioned the fantasy book world in Blood and Wine and I think that's a highlight, the best quests are by far the DLC stuff but from the base game what stands out? The Jin mission with Yen stands out to to me, the quest where you trick the Hymm by throwing the baby in the fire and that poor cursed werewolf that is constantly hungry but the food turns to Ash in his mouth. Oh and the one where The Witchers get drunk and prank the lodge with the megascope 😆.  

I'm playing this magnificent game again, slowly and even though it is showing it's age it's still remarkable. It excels in every area, even the minimalistic combat is fun and exceeds most other Open world RPG games. The microscopic gameplay from moment to moment within an over arching gameplay loop that is captured within a larger questing structure is just perfect, you're always doing something immediate that is fun and rewarding while goaling towards medium and very long goals. It's the best adventure structure in an RPG game and not to mention the miriad of smaller goals that intertwine like going after gear crafting through master weapon and armour quest lines, gathering stuff for potions along the way given an excuse to buy into the ingame economy with gold and every item actually meaning something to treasure hunts for specific gear sets with bonuses to Gwent. It's all so perfectly woven together and expertly paced in a world that is extremely (even though it's aging graohically) beautiful and full of strong vibes. Music as if it were made by God for his personal playlist. Characters that are so deep and interesting. Moments that tug on even my jaded heart strings that come often and thunderous. Traversal and exploration so free and fun to doing with no goals in mind. A big bad villain in The Wild Hunt and Iridan that is actually scary even though they are only elves in cool armour. Choices at hand that you accept as yours and even if you get a bad branching narrative point that you could save scum you don't feel the need cause it feels as if it was meant to happen, good or bad.

..man I could go on and on. It is a miracle this game exists and a wonder that some people don't vibe with it. I feel bad for the people above who don't understand this game or couldn't get it to gel. It's as close to perfection along with Larian games and Red dead 2 that we could get. Not perfect but close to perfection in enough areas to make it practically earn the phrase A Perfect game. 

@Jumpin just to add to the above post. 

It is indeed fantastic open world action-adventure...but that's the thing, for most part it's open world action-adventure. As open world (or otherwise) RPG, it's nowhere near as good. No wonder a lot of RPG fans don't even consider it to be an RPG (I'm not one, as I said, I find it to be THE edge case between action-RPG and action-pseudo-RPG).

I don't find comparing it to Larian's work is really flattering - their games are good, or even great at certain specific things, but as actual full-fledged CRPGs they are quite lacking and pale in comparison to subgenre pinnacles like Arcanum, Planescape, Fallout 1/2, BG2 and some of the Ultimas (which Vincke is so fond of, and eventually he might just get it right).

The combat is so much fun in TW3, I'm convinced people who don't like it just suck ass at it then.

Yep. It's basic for sure but idk how that means it's not fun to people. It really shines in groups and in some monster fights that require specifiic signs but it really, really has to be put on at least the second highest difficulty so you have to use signs, bombs, crossbow etc and I think this is where people are failing to see the combat for what it is, Rocksready Batman/Shadow of mordor combat without the QTEs. 

Heading into a camp of enemies to liberate it is supper fun while you juggle them.