The Witcher 4 developers explain how Ciri will fight differently than Geralt

The Witcher video game saga began in 2007 with CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher and introduced the gaming world to Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s mutant monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia. Geralt is the lead protagonist in the series of 8 books by Sapkowski (the 8th being a prequel). CD Project Red decided to continue his storyline in their video games, out of which The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2014) earned the most renown. Now that the Geralt trilogy has ended, it is time for Geralt’s understudy, Ciri, to follow in the White Wolf’s footsteps in The Witcher 4, with one key difference: Ciri’s fighting style will differ from Geralt's.

On the AnsweRED Podcast’s Episode 15, senior communications manager Pawel Burza directs our attention to one scene in The Witcher 4 Reveal Trailer where Ciri uses a chain to trap a monster (a callback to Geralt doing the same to a Striga) and then somersaults while moving away from it as it charges towards her, with the chain tightening around its neck. Ciri ultimately hacks off its head with her sword after imbuing the chain with fire. That particular shot where Ciri evades the attack in an acrobatic fashion is an indication of how Geralt’s surrogate daughter will move and fight differently than him in The Witcher 4.

"You don't see Geralt doing these things," Burza says in the podcast. "He's nimble, but he feels like a block, in some sense. She's like, liquid, compared to him."

Sebastian Kalemba, game director, The Witcher 4, notes how "she moves like she was raised by wolves in Kaer Morhen," which "comes from her personality, her posture and stuff."