Witcher fans are waiting for the release of Witcher 4 with bated breath. While Witcher 3 is one of the greatest RPGs of all time, there are many improvements and additions we’d love to see in the next game.
Many of these suggestions have been hot topics on Reddit, with players believing that incorporating them could make Witcher 4 as or even more successful than its predecessor. Inspired by these discussions, here’s our wishlist of 11 features for Witcher 4.
Table of Contents
- Include Zerrikania and Kovir As Explorable Regions
- A Fleshed-Out Companion System
- More Options For Taking The Neutral Route In A Conflict
- Meaningful Unique Weapons That Aren’t Tied To The Player’s Level
- Unique NPC Routines
- A Faction & Reputation System
- A Better Alchemy System That Can Take Inspiration From Past Games
- A Greater Variety Of Immersive Minigames
- Meaningful Difficulty Options
- Better Underwater Combat
- A Fluid, Rewarding Combat System
Include Zerrikania and Kovir As Explorable Regions
Each region of Witcher 3 is masterfully crafted, with a wide variety of vibes, cultures, and color palettes to create an immersive experience. It’s easy to see why areas like Zerrikania would be a much-welcome addition to a new Witcher game since its forests, deserts, and towering mountain ranges would be a fresh contrast to the Northern Kingdoms.
The mountainous region of Kovir will also be a good inclusion, given how important this location is in the Witcher books’ lore.
A Fleshed-Out Companion System
Most players love having companions in an RPG, and it’s a shame that Geralt flew solo for the bulk of his adventures in Witcher 3. While witchers are used to being on their own, fans won’t mind it at all if the new game features a companion system that can aid the moment-to-moment storytelling, gameplay variety, and everything in between.
More Options For Taking The Neutral Route In A Conflict
The first game in the series emphasized the witchers’ code of neutrality. With the Order of the Flaming Rose and the Scoia’tael in conflict, players could remain neutral for a large portion of the game. This aligns with the witcher ethos, even if it conflicts with Geralt’s personality.
In The Witcher 3, choices often felt more binary, limiting the option to remain neutral. We’d like for The Witcher 4 to offer more chances to stay neutral, enhancing both the role-playing experience and replayability.
Meaningful Unique Weapons That Aren’t Tied To The Player’s Level
A problem that plagued both Witcher 3 and the early iteration of Cyberpunk 2077 was the inclusion of “unique” weapons that were usually lower than the player character’s power level. CD Projekt Red was aware of the issue, given that they updated Cyberpunk to remove the level-tied nature of unique weapons.
So, it’s likely that the new Witcher game won’t repeat this mistake and offer valuable weapons as rewards that remain powerful throughout the game instead of being relevant for a few hours at best.
Unique NPC Routines
For a game to feel immersive, its inhabitants must feel like living, breathing people instead of NPCs controlled by lines of code. The Witcher 3 certainly had unique inhabitants who added flavor to the world, but there’s room for improvement here.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a great example, with NPCs following detailed routines where they wake up, perform the tasks they’re assigned, and make slow but steady progress, all of which can be witnessed firsthand if you tail one such NPC.
A Faction & Reputation System
Games like Fallout: New Vegas do a great job of showing why being able to side with different factions is a very fun RPG mechanic. This feature was actually cut during Witcher 3’s development (and brought back with a mod), so we’re hoping it will make a comeback in Witcher 4.
A fleshed-out faction and reputation system can give more meaning to the player’s actions and make the game feel more immersive. This can also lead to unique quests that can only be accomplished with a low or high reputation with certain factions.
A Better Alchemy System That Can Take Inspiration From Past Games
Players who favor The Witcher 1‘s alchemy system appreciate its depth and strategic elements. In The Witcher 1, gathering ingredients, crafting potions, and using secondary ingredients required careful planning and gave you options for customization. Players had to balance potion toxicity and prepare for fights in advance.
In contrast, The Witcher 3 streamlined alchemy, automatically replenishing potions with meditation and removing secondary ingredients. While this made the system more accessible, it lost the challenge and realism of The Witcher 1‘s approach. Many fans hope The Witcher 4 will bring back this complexity, emphasizing preparation, risk, and resourcefulness.
A Greater Variety Of Immersive Minigames
Gwent is one of the unexpected successes of Witcher 3, with this addictive card game being such a fun distraction that players could sink dozens of hours into it. It’s a shame that the other side activities in Witcher 3 are nowhere near as engaging, with both fist fights and horse races feeling more like an exercise in patience.
Hopefully, Witcher 4 will bring back Gwent and let players engage in a greater variety of immersive minigames and side activities. Some options include drinking contests from the first game, arm-wrestling from Witcher 2, and original inclusions like fishing & knife-throwing, to name a few.
Meaningful Difficulty Options
Although Death March certainly makes Witcher 3 more difficult, all it really does is increase enemy health and damage. These tweaks feel underwhelming and we’re hoping to see more meaningful difficulty options in The Witcher 4.
For example, in Baldur’s Gate 3, higher difficulties introduce smarter enemies with expanded movesets, new abilities for bosses, tougher enemy placement, and more complex quest objectives. These changes require players to adapt their strategies, making the experience more dynamic and challenging—something The Witcher 4 could emulate for deeper difficulty options.
Better Underwater Combat
One of the most underwhelming aspects of Witcher 3 was its barebones underwater combat, which felt rushed and poorly implemented. It made no sense for harpies and drowners to die in a single hit from a crossbow bolt underwater when the same act could take ages on land.
Hopefully, Witcher 4 will spend more time refining this part of the game so that it feels like less of an afterthought. We’d love to be able to use swords and perhaps even signs in the water.
A Fluid, Rewarding Combat System
While the combat system of Witcher 3 has a ton of variety and is visually appealing, it’s certainly one of the game’s weaker points, especially when compared to games like the Souls series.
It may be an unfair comparison, but there’s no reason Witcher 4 shouldn’t make combat feel more rewarding and responsive. Better hitboxes, tighter dodge mechanics, and telegraphed attacks to aid parries would make combat feel like a skillful ballet instead of a clumsy dance.
I’m a passionate gamer with a soft spot for RPGs who has been writing about all things gaming for seven years and counting. The Witcher is one of my favorite franchises that I can’t get enough of, with Geralt’s adventures embedded in my brain ever since the first Witcher game blew my mind!