9 years later, The Witcher 3 modders discover a brutal extended Yennefer ending that was cut from the RPG's climactic sequence
Jul. 1, 2024It’s bad news for the Lodge
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Nine years after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launched, its recently-released modding kit has allowed players to uncover a cut portion of its ending in which Yennefer actively causes the downfall of the Lodge of Sorceresses.
The Witcher 3 Redkitwas made available in May, granting players full mod support overCDPR’s sprawling RPG. It wasn’t long before Redkit was being used tocreate what might prove to be a pretty good early look at The Witcher Remake, but the tools have other uses too, like uncovering content cut from the very end of the game.
In a new video (viaPCGamer), modders Glassfish and xLetalis outlined their discovery of unused files which they were able to reimplement in a debug mode of The Witcher 3. Those files differ from the final game, in which the fate of the Lodge of Sorceresses - an influential group of female magic users - is never really discussed. Geralt defeats Eredin and heads off to save Ciri from Avallac’h, while Sorcs don’t really get a look in.
That wasn’t always what was planned, however. The extended scene finds Geralt waking up post-boss fight in a Niflgaardian army medical tent before reconnecting with Yennefer, where he discovers that Ciri is missing. Several cutscenes play out, and there’s a chance to speak with a number of characters as Geralt explores. The biggest change, however, is a section where you take Yennefer to the Lodge. The animation isn’t complete, but it seems as though Geralt’s goth gf sabotages a ritual that’s taking place, allowing several high profile Sorceresses to be discovered - and later killed - by Nilfgaard.
The scene isn’t entirely complete - no great surprise since it never made it to the full game - but it’s surprisingly far along. Voice acting, player choice, and exploration all suggest that this was a pretty late cut, likely one intended to preserve the pace of the game’s finale. I’m reminded ofThe Last of Us 2’s Lost Levels, which explained howNaughty Dogput sections of the game together, and why they eventually cut them from the game. Given the sheer size of The Witcher 3 (and just how little time RedKit has been available), I imagine we’ll see plenty of similar discoveries - which should tide you over untilThe Witcher 4.
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I’m GamesRadar’s news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I’ve run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam’s latest indie hit.
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