There are plenty of different monsters that Geralt can discover across the landscape the player is presented with in The Witcher 3. Most of them are derived from various mythological belief systems from across the world, with a few of them coming from fairytales and folklore.
While the monsters are one of the main draws of the game outside of the stellar plotlines and legitimately interesting quests, some of them don’t quite make sense when considered in the context of the game or in comparison to their usual depictions in media. Here, we’ll be taking a look at everything from Crones to Cockatrices to figure out exactly where CD Projekt Red could have made some better decisions.
10 Why Don’t We Meet More Sentient Monsters?
Usually, the sentient creatures in the game belong to the monster class of Relicts, although that’s not always necessarily true. When we do have interactions with Sylvans or Godlings, they’re rather rewarding and we get to see into how some of the more oppressed and ostracized creatures live. The only issue is that the game instead decides generally to just throw Drowners and Nekkers at us instead of allowing us to delve into the lives of Higher Vampires and such.
9 Naglfar’s Building Materials
Since The Wild Hunt is a pretty major part of the story considering that phrase is the subtitle to the title of the game and all, we aren’t going to go out of our way to detail too much about them here. The only thing that can’t go without mentioning is the fact that Naglfar, the ship the Wild Hunt sail, is made out of hair and fingernails and we really can’t imagine those materials being all that practical. There’s no way that’s going to keep the water out.
8 Why Are They Everywhere If They’re Disappearing?
It’s pretty firmly established to us that there’s a pretty big thing happening across the Witcher series.
While in the span of time explored in the universe of the games the Conjunction Of The Spheres happened relatively recently (which is what brought elves, monsters, and magic into the world) they’re already on their way out for some reason. It would be odd to assume that Witchers were hunting them to death or anything like that, especially since we see them all around the world.
7 Why Don’t Cockatrices Turn You To Stone?
One of the major parts of folklore reported involving either cockatrices or basilisks (both of them are pretty much presented as synonymous in most cultures) is that they have a magical gaze, which just like the Gorgons, can turn people into stone. Since there are both basilisks and cockatrices in this game, it’s at least explained away that it’s a common misconception that basilisks can’t turn people into stone, but cockatrices don’t get the same save. It seems like CD Projekt Red just didn’t want to put in the effort to make the mechanic.
6 Noonwraiths In General
It would kind of make sense that wraiths wouldn’t just appear at night, and even in modern times during the discussion of ghosts, there’s still activity reported during the day. Maybe it’s just in fiction that ghosts are only active at night, but it still feels very odd when we learn early in the game that there are wraiths that show up specifically at noon and into the early afternoon. Aside from that, why are the townspeople even worried about Jenny O’ The Woods if she just shows up at a remote farm during the day?
5 Are There Any Other Crones?
The Crones Of Crookback Bog are probably some of the most interesting characters the player will encounter in their entire playthrough, and we’re lucky that Geralt meets them in the main questline so that everyone gets to deal with them.
They’re three old sinister witches, and their character models actually have the same bones as three different monsters. In the lore, we hear that they’ve been around longer than humans, meaning that perhaps there are other characters like them. Are there more though? Where did they come from?
4 Should There Really Be Alghouls In Such An Early Location?
There’s a quest very early on into the game that can be picked up from a bulletin board in Oreton. It isn’t the quest itself that’s the issue though. When a new player gets into the game, they’re most likely going to pick up all the sidequests they can, and even regardless of that, they’ll encounter a village filled with alghouls very early on during the main questline. If the player doesn’t know to get out of there immediately, they’ll quickly be overwhelmed and murdered time and time again by the alghouls.
3 Arachas Only Have 6 Legs
Some of the only insectoid enemies in the game are known as Arachas. The name of the insectoid creature sounds very much like the word arachnid, a class of invertebrates that includes animals like spiders, scorpions, and tons of other generally gross creepy-crawlies.
One of the biggest things that differentiate arachnids from insects is that arachnids have 8 legs, insects have 6. Therefore, despite Arachas being some pretty fearsome opponents, they just might belong in another category.
2 Drowners And Bilge Hags
Drowners are perhaps one of the most annoying creatures in the game, considering Geralt is incredibly likely to run into them pretty much any time he gets anywhere near water. Water hags and Bilge hags are somewhat less common, although they’re also still pretty frequent. The weirdest thing about these creatures is that they seem to be entirely different species of monsters, however, there are frequent rumors and even literature about how the two different species are mates. How does that work again?
1 Djinn Should Be Fire Spirits
Djinn (who are probably more commonly known as Genies in most of western culture) are actually a race of creatures that come from middle eastern mythology. They’re separate from angels, demons, and humans in their native mythology, and they’re pretty much not good or evil as a whole. They’re amoral. They occasionally perform tasks for humans, but honestly petitioning one isn’t a good idea. In The Witcher 3, they’re supposed to be air spirits, which is kind of an unnecessary change.
NEXT: The 10 Most Powerful Monsters In The Witcher 3, Ranked
