The Siege of Novigrad didn’t make it into The Witcher 3, but the developers have talked about the cut battle. Now we finally know what it could’ve looked like

In a game as huge as The Witcher 3, it’s no surprise that some things got altered or completely cut during development. Triss almost had a wedding, one of the best quests in Blood and Wine could’ve played out differently, and even the whole ending was originally meant to be way more dramatic. But plans change, just like this one big battle of Novigrad that never made it into the final game.

Novigrad as a Winter Wonderland

A group of dataminers released a project called What Lies Unseen, revealing missions for The Witcher 3 that were left out of the final version. One of the biggest cuts was The Siege of Novigrad.

CD Projekt RED had mentioned the idea before, and while the quest script existed, it was unfinished, full of placeholder dialogue and missing pieces. Still, you can spot clear links between this cut content and actual quests in the game.

The mission would’ve started in Dandelion’s brothel, where Avallac’h warns that the Wild Hunt is coming. That leads Yennefer (or Triss) to gather the Lodge of Sorceresses to defend the city. Meanwhile, Ciri (much to her frustration) stays behind with Avallac’h as Geralt goes looking for Philippa Eilhart. Geralt could either apologize for how he’s handled things or scold her for acting childish. You can actually find echoes of this conversation in the Final Preparations quest, during Geralt’s talk with Philippa and Margarita.

Source: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt; Developer: CD Projekt RED

That part of the quest played out a lot like the final game: Philippa had been turned into an owl by a former lover and ended up with Zoltan. The original version just went deeper, including a subplot about her ex, Robert Schwarz, who was sentenced to death, with his property auctioned off. Eventually, Philippa is turned back into her human form. In return for her sight and a shot at killing Radovid, she agrees to help Geralt take on the Wild Hunt. The Lodge at this point included Keira, Fringilla, and Sheala.

So many twists. So much betrayal

Dataminers couldn’t uncover as much as they’d hoped. But here’s what they did find: during the cut battle, sorceresses fought on the front lines, Sheala died from her wounds, and Novigrad’s civilians were either running from the Wild Hunt or begging for mercy. The big finale was a showdown between Geralt and Eredin, who’d already been ditched by Ge’els.

Source: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt; Developer: CD Projekt RED

Right before going down, Eredin drops a bomb: Avallac’h betrayed Geralt and took Ciri, supposedly to launch an elven invasion. Turns out that’s not true. In this version, Avallac’h was actually trying to stop the White Frost, even if it meant sacrificing himself and Ciri.

And one last twist: Keira had a secret deal with Radovid, hand over Philippa in exchange for stopping the mage hunts. Fans might remember she did want to talk to Radovid in the main game, but under way different terms, and with a tragic ending regardless.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

May 19, 2015

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• action RPG
• CD Projekt RED
• The Witcher (franchise)