Artur Ganszyniec, lead story designer on the 2007 game The Witcher, recently completed a playthrough and revealed that the story team was minimally involved in its final cutscene, calling it a mistake. This decision, made by higher-ups at CD Projekt Red, created inconsistencies that influenced the narrative direction of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Ganszyniec also noted that elements like the Wild Hunt will need adjustments in the upcoming remake due to evolving lore.
Artur Ganszyniec, who served as lead story designer for The Witcher released in 2007 by CD Projekt Red, shared insights from a 26-episode, 40-hour playthrough he completed recently. In the final moments of the playthrough, as the game's ending cutscene played, Ganszyniec explained that the story team had little involvement in its creation. "The script for this…it was created not really involving the story team. So it was sort of, we weren’t really paying attention. And that was a mistake, I think," he said.
The ending depicts the attempted assassination of King Foltest, where Geralt uncovers a fellow witcher as the culprit. This sequence leads into The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, with Geralt imprisoned for his suspected role. However, Ganszyniec highlighted a disconnect: the narrated section poses an open question about Geralt's future—"What then happened to the witcher?"—while the animated cutscene provides a definitive answer. He attributed this to a decision by the board or co-founder Michał Kiciński to include an animated outro, which inexplicably returns Geralt to Vizima.
This oversight, according to Ganszyniec, necessitated a complete redirection of the story in the sequel. Separately, he addressed the upcoming remake by Fool’s Theory, stating that the portrayal of the Wild Hunt will require changes. During development of the original game, CD Projekt Red had not yet established them as elves in the lore. "This part will probably need to be changed a bit in the remake," Ganszyniec commented.
Despite the issues, Ganszyniec expressed optimism about the remake. "Let’s hope that the remake will be a really good game," he concluded his playthrough.
