This moment and some of the first opportunities to engage in a romance with Yenn take place at very different times and places. This romance is integrated extremely naturally into the story, but also has other implications that elevate it as a plotline. Just as the fireworks are lit, the player is given the timed option to kiss Triss. They attend a masquerade party, have a few drinks, and eventually wander around a hedge maze together. During the quest, Geralt meets up with Triss Merigold, who is his friend, old flame, and a sorceress. The Witcher 3 quest A Matter of Life or Death is the perfect example.
#A matter of life and death witcher 3 series
The fact that the romances in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt don’t all fall under the same structure as the romances in a series like Mass Effect doesn’t obscure that fact, and it’s still obvious when a romantic encounter is presenting itself. There are key moments of no return where it’s clear that a romantic decision is being made in The Witcher 3. RELATED: The Witcher 3 Modding Tool Being Prepped to Support Cyberpunk 2077 Some of the earliest romance options in the game, like Keira Metz, present themselves long before it's clear that any other romances will. The result makes for far more immersive decision making. Instead, opportunities for romances and one night stands present themselves naturally throughout the game’s story, and disappear as quickly as they manifest. Geralt of Rivia doesn’t have a gang of companions for him to flirt with back at his home-base – he doesn’t even have a home. In The Witcher 3, however, the opportunities for romance are far more scattered and dependent on circumstance. In order to unlock a romance option, the player needs to talk to their companion, choose sympathetic dialog options, and then talk to them again before the game’s big final mission to initiate a single romance scene. Romances in the Mass Effect series may still be among the most memorable in gaming, but the structure of them becomes pretty predictable after the first game. Yenn is not always available to Geralt like Morrigan is to the Warden in Dragon Age. Yenn has her own life in the story, and there’s the sense that Geralt and the player are never more than a couple of poorly-chosen dialog options away from her exiting Geralt’s life entirely, especially towards the beginning of the game. Morrigan might fulfill the same role of the icy and quick-witted witch that Yennefer of Vengerberg performs across the Witcher series, but despite the similarities between their characters, the romance with Yenn works far better in The Witcher 3 because it is utterly integrated into the story. This feels underwhelming because it’s so mechanical – it has very little to do with the story or roleplaying as the player character. If the Alistair Doll – which resembles a voodoo doll stuck with pins – is given to Morrigan, it will always increase her approval by 50 points on a scale from -100 to +100. These gifts, like the Alistair Doll, cost no money to purchase from Bodahn Feddic, the camp merchant.
In later patches for Dragon Age: Origins, for example, the player could buy some key gifts that would essentially fast track them to the romance dialog options with any romanceable character they’d like. It's the romance system, not just the romanceable characters, that make the biggest difference. Mass Effect has some of the most memorable characters in BioWare’s history, and yet its romance system is still overshadowed by The Witcher 3’s. This doesn't completely explain why the romances in The Witcher 3 are such compelling plotlines, however. The romanceable characters in The Witcher 3, particularly the two main options – Yen and Triss Merigold – are certainly well-written, complex characters. Geralt’s long-term lover Yennefer of Vengerberg has a particularly contentious relationship with the witcher, sometimes disappearing for months at a time, and often getting far more involved in the politics of the kingdoms she passes through than she ever does with Geralt. The Witcher 3’s romances aren’t compelling just because the characters are, in and of themselves, loveable.