Hardly anything is known about The Witcher 4 besides Ciri being its protagonist and the upcoming game’s tone being fairly similar to that of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s. Both revelations were discerned by The Witcher 4’s Game Awards 2024 cinematic reveal teaser, and it’ll likely be a spell before more is officially shared about it, as the Unreal tech demo was precisely that, a tech demo, and not necessarily realistically demonstrative of what the game may even look like.
That said, it wouldn’t be at all alarming if The Witcher 4 wears additional Witcher 3 influences, and CD Projekt Red did already unceremoniously announce that gwent will play a role. Gwent being a playable minigame may beget its own tournament nonetheless, for instance, but it would be wonderfully nostalgic if Ciri was able to buy into the same high-stakes gwent tournament Geralt joins in Novigrad’s Passiflora.
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has continued to be a standard for RPGs, and the 10-year anniversary is the perfect time to revisit.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Gwent Tournament Truly is ‘High Stakes’
Whether players’ triumph is born purely from RNG or not, The Witcher 3’s infamous gwent tournament and “High Stakes” quest are purposefully punitive and challenging. It is also brilliantly enmeshed with a genuine quest that players can pursue, making the tournament far more exciting. Some players may sweep every opponent on their first try, and yet the thought of losing the tournament in a fell swoop would be arresting if not for how easily players can save-scum it. For example, losing the impromptu fistfight against Finneas thankfully doesn’t erase progress in the tournament and simply reloads an autosave.
The Witcher 4 Needs Its Own Quest-Related Culmination of Gwent
Like in The Witcher 3, the only variable a tournament for gwent in The Witcher 4 would need to guarantee is that players can scum a previous save and infinitely reload to it if they are beaten by any opponent in the tournament and wish to retry. Save-scumming balances an alarmingly severe difficulty spike, especially when miscellaneous merchants exhibit such lackluster opponent AI, and ensures that the tournament retains its bite.
Of course, players are free to enroll in the tournament and abide by whatever fortune—or misfortune—fate has in store for them. That said, because one unlucky hand can forfeit the whole tournament, it would be deeply regrettable if players truly only had one opportunity to compete.
As much as this shatters immersion, save-scumming is the favorable choice and one that players can elect to ignore if they feel strongly enough about only having one attempt at winning, as the tournament rules mandate. Being able to save between all four matches in The Witcher 3’s illustrious and anxiety-inducing gwent tournament would surely defeat the purpose and ironically extinguish any ‘stakes’ it’d have.
Still, save-scumming to the beginning of the tournament is hardly different. It’s arguably more fun, though, to wade into the tournament and not be at the mercy of egregious RNG when confronted by preposterously high-tier decks that no amount of Spy or Scorch cards can combat.
Ultimately, it’s unknown precisely how gwent will be folded into The Witcher 4’s open world, let alone if there will be a tournament of sorts, be it one with a high likelihood of failure or not. Regardless, knowing that the minigame will be reprised is wonderfully compelling, and it should hope to be as arresting as it is in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
