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Before The Witcher IV, the essentials are straightforward: Ciri is the protagonist, the story takes place a few years after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and the game begins a new Witcher saga rather than continuing Geralt’s story as its central thread. The reveal trailer offers a short moral conflict, while a later Kovir presentation is explicitly a technology demo—not a promise of final gameplay.
Who is the main character in The Witcher 4?
Ciri is the lead. CD PROJEKT RED describes her as “the heart of the story,” and the official Witcher IV site says players take on her role. She is Geralt’s adopted daughter, but this is not presented as a new game starring Geralt.
The shift also changes the perspective on witcher life. In a December 2024 Xbox Wire interview, narrative director Philipp Weber described Geralt as someone whose experience has shaped a personal code, while Ciri is still working out how she will respond to difficult choices. That distinction sets up a new protagonist and a different outlook, not a guarantee of particular quest outcomes.
How does the story connect to The Witcher 3?
CD PROJEKT RED revealed The Witcher IV on December 13, 2024, as the first game in a new saga and the successor to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It had previously been known by the development codename Polaris. Weber told Xbox Wire that the new story takes place “a few years” after the end of The Witcher 3.
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The developers know that The Witcher 3 has multiple endings and say they intend to honor player choice. They have not explained how those endings will be handled or which details will carry forward. Geralt is confirmed to return as a character, but his role remains undisclosed; there is no official basis here for calling him playable or a co-protagonist.
What does the reveal trailer establish?
The cinematic reveal presents a self-contained witcher contract, not a full plot synopsis. Ciri reaches a remote village whose people prepare a young woman for ritual sacrifice to appease a monster. She tries to save the woman and confront the creature, but the villagers’ fear and suspicion complicate her intervention. CD PROJEKT RED frames the scene around prejudice, superstition, and the idea that monsters can take many forms.
Xbox Wire identifies the settlement as Stromford, the woman as Mioni, and the monster as a Bauk in its discussion of the trailer. Those are useful names for this revealed sequence; the interview does not establish them as broader lore about the wider world.
Rank #2
- Trained from early childhood and mutated to gain superhuman skills, strength, and reflexes, witchers are a counterbalance to the monster-infested world in which they live.
- Built for endless adventure, the massive open world of The Witcher sets new standards in terms of size, depth, and complexity.
- Take on the most important contract of your life: to track down the child of prophecy, the key to saving or destroying this world.
Game director Sebastian Kalemba put the new saga’s focus plainly: “We’re kicking off a brand-new Witcher saga, this time with Ciri as the heart of the story!” Weber’s description of Ciri captures the moral tension suggested by the trailer: “Ciri is someone who won’t accept that fate is just given to you, you always have to fight back, and sometimes that’s the right thing to do,”
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What is known about Kovir and the technical demo?
On June 3, 2025, CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games presented a technical demonstration following Ciri and her horse, Kelpie, through mountains and forests in Kovir to the port town of Valdrest. The studio says Kovir makes its first appearance in the video-game series in this title.
The presentation highlighted Unreal Engine 5 systems including Unreal Animation Framework, Nanite Foliage, Mass AI crowd scaling, FastGeo Streaming, and ML Deformer. CD PROJEKT RED reported that the demonstration ran on PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second. That figure describes the demo, not the finished game’s performance across platforms or play scenarios. The official site labels the presentation “Not Actual Gameplay,” so its scenes and showcased features should not be treated as a guarantee of final gameplay.
Rank #3
- If you buy this game, you will receive a free next-gen update on December 14th!
- Play as a highly trained monster slayer for hire.
- Built for endless adventure, the massive open world of The Witcher sets new standards in terms of size, depth and complexity.
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year edition brings together the base game and all the additional content released to date.
Do you need to read the books or play earlier games?
The official Witcher IV site says, “The Witcher game is set in the universe created by Andrzej Sapkowski in his series of books.” The novels provide background to the setting, but the cited official material does not prescribe a reading order or say that any book is required before playing The Witcher IV. It also does not establish that every detail in the books and games follows identical continuity.
The developers have framed the game as a new beginning that can suit newcomers while also aiming to respect choices made in The Witcher 3. The exact way it will accommodate those earlier choices has not been revealed. Reading Sapkowski’s series or playing the earlier games is optional context, not an established prerequisite.
What remains unconfirmed?
- The precise way the game will address each The Witcher 3 ending.
- Geralt’s role beyond his confirmed return as a character.
- A complete plot, map, quest-system description, or final performance profile.
- A required book-reading list or a definitive account of book-versus-game continuity.
The sources cited here do not establish a release date or final launch platforms. Treat details beyond the confirmed story premise and clearly identified presentation material as unannounced.
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