We need a Play as Ciri DLC with at least 20 hours of gameplay. My money is ready.I finished last night, I played on the second to hardest difficulty, did every quest I could possibly find, failed one quest early on and another that I apparently didn't get to before doing something else. Not sure what happened there because I was babysitting my quests at that point and trying to make sure I did the lowest leveled ones first. I got all but two of the Qwent cards. One I missed in the beginning with the inn owner and the game progresses to a point where you no longer have the option to play her. When I realized I couldn't get that one I didn't bother trying to get the other missing leader card. I completed all the fist fights but got bored with the horse racing so didn't finish those. I played about 250 hours and just absolutely loved this game! I was feeling a little burned out by the end but a lot of that was because of all the minor side quests because there was so much to do in this game!
This story was just fantastic, the character animation and the voice acting was some of the best I've ever seen in a game. I never played the first Witcher game, the second one was just okay to me, didn't think it was bad, didn't think it was great and Geralt was kind of dull to me and Triss was even duller. I went with Geralt and Yen - loved the banter between the two, loved how I ended things with Triss on good terms. Loved all the secondary characters but, wow, Ciri, just loved, loved, loved her - especially the interactions between her and Geralt. I wish it hadn't taken so long into the game to finally reunite them because that pairing was the best in the game. I also thoroughly enjoyed playing as Ciri and wish their had been more of that. Her character and abilities would be worthy of a stand alone game with an appearance or two of her surrogate dad! This game had me laughing at times and crying at times. Best game I've ever played! I'll most likely play through again when the DLC content comes out and try and play some stuff differently. If I wasn't feeling so burned out by all the side quests and trying to do everything I'd hop back in. Next time I may just play it on the storymode setting and just enjoy the story!
On a side note, I think time is ripe for a Story & quest Witcher 3 discussion (spoiler warning) thread.