After Part 3, one wants to avoid a certain type of quests in The Witcher 4. Instead, one should feel overwhelmed after each quest: Like after a good book.
What kind of quests did Witcher 3 avoid? In the open world of The Witcher 3, you encounter many people who need help. Even if these matters are sometimes resolved quite quickly, they are never simple “Fetch Quests”.
According to Philipp Weber, the new Narrative Lead of The Witcher 4, this is supposed to remain the case.
“We don’t do fetch quests”
What are “Fetch Quests” anyway? These are quests that boil down to nothing more than “Kill 6 wolves” or “Collect 10 healing herbs”. These quests usually do not tell stories – they are just there to occupy you. The term originally comes from the MMORPG realm, but even large single-player RPGs fill their game worlds with them.
In The Witcher 3, however, you will search in vain for such simple fetch quests: Every little side quest tells a story, some with unexpected twists. What sounds like a simple task at the beginning may turn out to be significantly more complicated at the end.
“We don’t do fetch quests”: When Philipp Weber was brought in for The Witcher 3, this was one of the first pieces of feedback he received from the studio. And according to an interview with GamesRadar+, Weber does not intend to deviate from this philosophy.
In the same interview, Pawel Sasko also spoke. He was also a quest designer for The Witcher 3. According to Sasko, the goal was to overwhelm players – like when they just finished reading a good book.
Speaking of books: The Geralt from the games advises everyone to read the Witcher novels. They are really good – and those who think The Witcher could not work without Geralt as the protagonist will be proven wrong. You can read more about it here: “Read the damn books” – Geralt comments on complaints about Ciri as the protagonist of The Witcher 4
