The Witcher is rightfully an incredible piece of franchise media that very well deserves to have as many spin-offs as possible. I mean, it’s a great way to get to know more about everything going on within the Continent. However, I would argue that maybe not every single tale is really worth telling.
Reigns: The Witcher puts you into the shoes of Geralt’s longtime companion Dandelion as he tells tales of the Witcher’s travels to nobles and tavern dwellers alike. The stories are entertaining and shine a light on the less intense parts, but often feel a bit flat.
Impress Em’, Dandelion
In Reigns: The Witcher, Dandelion is traveling with Geralt and using the stories that come up as fodder for his own business dealings as a bard. With every tale spun, new stories come alive that help you meet new characters and monsters from throughout the series. After telling so many tales, Dandelion will be invited to a noble’s home to then entertain their guests by telling the correct stories according to their requests.
That’s pretty much the entirety of the game in a nutshell. Many of the stories feature well-known characters like Triss and Vezimir, while also introducing lesser-known ones to advance the narratives. There will even be times you’ll come across an enemy or two that you’ll need to engage in combat with.
When each story is said and done, you’ll earn points according to which milestones and objectives you managed to reach. This is then used to level up Dandelion’s skills, earn even more story objectives to try and hit for additional points, and have the chance to truly shine as a bard on the Continent. Unfortunately, it becomes pretty clear very early that you don’t really need to put too much focus on the stories themselves.
At the end of each tale, you’ll still earn points that help level you up. Once I realized this, the story became less important to me, and I found myself choosing things at random just to progress.
Just keep swiping, just keep swiping…
Speaking of gameplay, it acts a bit like Tinder. For every scene, you will be provided with a scenario and two responses that you can choose between by swiping left or right as Geralt. Even though I mentioned that I stopped paying attention to which answers I was choosing, you can still keep track of your choices using four symbols at the top of the screen.
The symbols represent different reactions that humans, non-humans, monsters, and sorcerers have toward Geralt in each story, and if you sway too much in either direction, you’ll be faced with a death scenario that effectively ends the story. Every decision you make earns you points towards experience, and you can earn even more by completing any of the three objectives randomly given to you before each tale is told.
However, as I had mentioned, I found myself not really caring to pay attention to my decisions because, so long as I had completed even one of these objectives, I would earn enough experience to effectively move on. This didn’t always work, but it did enough times for me to find it worth doing almost every time I had a new story to tell and no nobles to travel to.
I did find battles against monsters and cultists to be a fun change of pace. Instead of using the Witcher’s different blades to take down monsters, it’s grid-based, with attacks coming down at Geralt that he can dodge and use Signs against. These points of each story felt the most challenging, with battles only being won after Geralt attacks the enemy enough times by strategically landing on tiles with swords on them
Swing and Miss
The Witcher has always been a fertile breeding ground for spin-offs, whether it be on television or in new game iterations. There really is no shortage of stories left to tell, and stepping into Dandelion’s boots is, in theory, a clever way to explore its lighter corners.
Reigns: The Witcher certainly has its charm, and its bite-sized tales offer some fun insight into a typically dark world. But when progression undercuts the need to truly engage with those stories, the magic starts to fade, leaving something that feels more obligatory than essential.
This is a pleasant diversion for Witcher fans, but hardly a ballad that will echo through taverns for years to come.
Reigns: The Witcher (PC Review)
Reigns: The Witcher is an alright entry in the world of The Witcher that does have its charm and interesting gameplay but, ultimately, still makes it very forgettable.
The Good
- Varying objectives to play through.
- Battle gameplay is funny.
- Funny writing at times.
The Bad
- Not a very interesting overall story.
- Bland overall gameplay.
-
AVERAGE
