Ciri is the main protagonist of CD Projekt RED's next big open world, single-player role-playing game.
That's something made abundantly clear by the reveal trailer for The Witcher 4, which was one of many highlights during the Game Awards 2024 livestream. It's something I got dead wrong, as I really wasn't expecting her to be our next playable character in the new Witcher trilogy. I don't often get something quite so heavily wrong, but I'm seriously happy to have been off about what to expect here.
My reasoning beforehand revolved around the fact that Ciri is ridiculously powerful, and since CD Projekt RED had emphasized wanting to start a new saga, having a fully customized player character (perhaps starting a new Witcher school?) would've made sense for something of a clean slate. With that path clearly not taken, I'm all for continuing to explore the Continent as Ciri. She has always been the secondary protagonist of the saga as a whole, and her taking on the mantle of a new Witcher feels right, allowing her to continue in Geralt's footsteps while still trodding her own path.
I'm curious to see how CD Projekt RED has gone about making her feel balanced, but we can already infer a few things from the reveal trailer, where Ciri moves and strikes like a traditional Witcher, eschewing the dimensional hopping she wielded in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that allowed her to move between worlds with ease.
During her fight with a massive Bauk, she utilizes the Quen sign like we've seen Geralt do a thousand times. However, she does still tap into a magical Source, something a normal Witcher can't do, which makes this a direct confirmation that she still has some magical talent. That's an interesting point of separation, and I wonder how it'll play out in the actual game design.
Speaking with IGN, game director Sebastian Kalemba confirms that Ciri has undergone the Trial of the Grasses, which is interesting on multiple levels. This would make Ciri the first woman to ever survive the process in-universe, possibly due to her Elder blood lineage, but it also means that there's someone still alive to administer the procedure.
After all, a major plot point in the books and games is that following a major pogrom against the Wolf School, no one left has the knowledge of how to create more Witchers, even though the mutagens required are still around. So, did going through the trial change Ciri's powers? And who even gave her the trial in the first place? I'm excited to find out the answers to all these questions.
Most of all though, I'm excited by the potential that role-playing as Ciri will provide. CD Projekt RED notes that while there are some similarities, she's not Geralt, she's not as jaded as he is and as a result is far less willing to remain neutral in the face of two evils. The possibilities for what that could mean in forging Ciri's legend have my mind racing.
I know it's still early days, but I'm excited to learn more about Ciri in The Witcher 4 in the months and likely years ahead. What other kinds of new monsters are in store? How will the combat and exploration systems evolve? What kind of magic does Ciri still have access to? What kinds of hard choices are we going to have to make? Will Ciri have her own roster of sorceresses to chase after? I mean, like father, like daughter, right?
The Witcher 4 is currently in development using Unreal Engine 5. The game does not a have a release date.
