After two modestly successful games in the series, CD Projekt Red decided to pull out all the stops for the final chapter in Geralt’s story with The Witcher 3, and the end result is undoubtedly their magnum opus by a country mile.
The fact of the matter is that The Witcher 3 has easily proven to be one of the greatest video game experiences of all time, and this is in no small part due to the brilliant characters featured in this game. One such character who was introduced in the last game yet managed to steal everyone’s hearts anyway is definitely Ciri. An integral character in the books, CD Projekt Red did a brilliant job of faithfully recreating her character in The Wild Hunt.
That being said, there are still some major differences between both iterations of Ciri, and this list will take a look at ten of the biggest discrepancies in this regard.
10 Her Looks Have Been Augmented Quite A Bit In The Game
CD Projekt Red has beautified pretty much every character in The Witcher to make them more marketable and appealing to gamers all over the world, and Ciri is no exception to this. Ciri’s transition from the pages to the games is certainly quite striking, to say the very least of it, but it does fall a wee bit short of being accurate to the source material. Whether that tracks as a negative or a positive is entirely up to the fans.
9 The Scar On Her Face Is Not Nearly As Disfiguring As It Was In The Books
In the books, the scar on Ciri’s face is so massive that it’s pretty much permanently altered her face for good. However, in the game, Ciri’s scar almost seems like it was intentionally placed in that manner to make her look somewhat hard-boiled. Regardless, it’s safe to say that the game’s iteration got off a bit easier than her literary counterpart when it comes to this disfiguring injury.
8 She Seems To Have More Self Control In The Witcher 3
In the books, Ciri goes through a rather edgy phase where she decided to join a gang of bandits and gleefully partakes in the killing of humans. However, none of her actions are as unhinged as when she kicks a god in a fit of rage.
We’re glad that Ciri has left this phase behind in The Witcher 3, although it is quite suspect that she never shows glimpses of this history in the game.
7 She’s Pretty Much A Combat Expert In The Game
Just like everyone’s looks, CD Projekt Red decided to give every major character in the game a massive power boost when it came to their skills. While this might’ve been done in order to make the moment-to-moment gameplay and the various set pieces feel all the more amazing, this did come at the cost of making these characters feel incredibly overpowered.
One need only control Ciri in combat to understand this statement — her powerful sword slices coupled with the abilities of the Elder Blood turn her into an absolute powerhouse in combat who has the ability to mow down waves of enemies without even breaking a sweat.
6 Tends To Be A Bit More Selfless Than Her Book Counterpart
If Ciri was true to her character in the books, she would’ve never opted for the option to become an Empress at the end of the game, effectively sacrificing her happiness in the process. She would’ve stuck with Geralt no matter what since that is where she felt right at home.
5 Less Arrogant In The Witcher 3, Compared To The Books
One might argue that it’s a good thing that Ciri isn’t all that true to her character from the books. After all, she’s shown a penchant to be arrogant time and time again in the novels, which would’ve been quite grating for players to deal with in a game that is already a hundred hours long, if not more.
4 Eager To Learn And Open To New Ideas In The Game
Unlike the arrogant and headstrong character featured in the books, Ciri is way more open-minded in the game and is willing to listen to new ideas. This is a great tweak to her personality, making her infinitely more charming and endearing to people who are witnessing her character for the very first time.
3 More Of An Endearing Troublemaker In The Wild Hunt
Ciri tends to be way more unlikeable in the books in general, so it seems that whatever tweaks CD Projekt Red made to Ciri’s character were ultimately smart moves in terms of making her relatable.
Turning Ciri’s character from a dangerous, unhinged individual into a playful troublemaker might be somewhat jarring for fans of the books, but one can’t deny that this certainly plays into the narrative that CD Projekt Red is trying to tell.
2 She’s On Surprisingly Good Terms With Triss
For someone who was insanely jealous of Triss as a child, it’s surprising how cordial she is with Triss in The Wild Hunt.
Perhaps Ciri finally grew out of the attitude that arose from her illogical jealousy of Triss and Geralt in the books, which was definitely somewhat disturbing given her headstrong nature and demonstrated taste for violence.
1 Her Relationship With Yennefer Is Quite Lacking
Out of all the changes CD Projekt Red have made to Ciri’s character, nothing comes close to the massive change in the dynamic between Ciri and Yennefer. In the books, Ciri is pretty much Yennefer’s daughter, and both of them share an incredibly deep relationship. Meanwhile, in the games, Ciri and Yennefer barely interact after reuniting, which is quite a shame indeed.
What makes this even worse is the fact that Yennefer is incredibly driven concerning her search for Ciri in the games, only for both of them to share a singular defining moment before their relationship takes a permanent backseat to the events of The Witcher 3.
NEXT: The Witcher 4: 5 Reasons Why Ciri Should Be The Main Protagonist (& 5 Reasons Why It Needs To Be Geralt)
