I actually think they're kind of going for a noir detective vibe with his speech...watch a crime movies from the 50's and you'll see a lot of people talk this way. Kinda think it's a stylistic thing, plus when you think about it he really is like a detective in the game.

There has been much already stated in this forum, but I'll say this: his way of speech makes him much more distinct and memorable within the game. Got no problems with it.

Nail on the head, I think. I think it's more from the style of writing in hard boiled fiction than the films it inspired, necessarily (which often have very rapid, witty sort of dialogue - almost screwball comedy style). If you read a Dashiel Hammett novel, then the way Geralt speaks makes a lot more sense.

I really think those parallels run deep, and that's probably what they are going for. The thing that really stuck out to me was how he's caught between the two worlds (modernising humanity and magical monsters etc.) and how clearly that maps onto the private detective in Noir - who will often be suspected of wrongdoing by police, but is himself set against crime because he is an honest man.

I felt that the whole thing with the Crones felt a lot like that sort of thing - Specifically it felt a lot like Kiss Me Deadly, in that Geralt has to go into this place because he's the people he's working for don't have the wits or the access to the things that need to be unraveled, but in so doing he encounters something much larger and scarier than he thought he was.

Speak like this also.

I hope at the end Geralt winds up in a room with like 15 Godlings.

Is it the same reason he can't fall off a five foot ledge without shattering every bone in his legs

That sounds more like Mordin than Geralt.

Does Geralt speak like this to other people? I'm playing through the second game right now, and it seems he really only speaks in fragments when he's talking to himself.

@ghost_cat you wily piece of trash!

I have never had a problem with his speech, but that aside: everyone in basically a medieval society has perfect grammar? Or hell, in our modern society? It's not a big deal.

He's a no nonsense guy who gets to the point, for the most part. He is weary of the world. It all fits in his character. I agree with @counterclockwork87 about the noir inspirations as well.

@artisanbreads: Yep, you pretty much summed my feelings up too, I don't see the problem. Although I do find the level of nitpicking about this game to be kinda funny to read though.

@poisonjam7:

As a Pole I might offer some level of insight... this actually may just be a case of imperfect translation. You see, in the Polish language version of the game, Geralt certainly has no trouble with constructing proper sentences. He talks not unlike any other educated person in the world. He does tend to converse without needless chit chat, but not to the point of using some bizarre grammar structures.

Regarding the case of Geralt omitting subjects when referring to himself ("See what I can do" instead of "I'll see what I can do"): in Polish, the information about the grammatical person/subject in a sentence is conveyed in the verb itself, used in the proper form; similarly to how, in English, the verb also conveys the tense (have-had). In Polish it conveys both the tense and the subject, so in Polish Geralt saying "I'll see what I can do" (or "Zobaczę co mogę zrobić") would be redundant, since the information about the subject - Geralt, or 'I' - is already present by using the verb 'see' in the proper form ("Zobaczę" literally means "I will see").

I guess the best comparison would be to the archaich English forms such as 'sayeth' or 'makest'. 'Sayeth' already tells you that you are using the verb 'say' in third person singular and present tense. So the phrase 'he sayeth' only gives us the gender of the subject as a new piece of information. If you somehow could convey this information by further manipulating the word - such as 'sayethe' for male, 'sayether' for female, and 'sayethet' for it - it would turn out that you don't even need to say 'He says you shouldn't smoke' anymore, you can just say 'Sayethe you shouldn't smoke'.

Hope that helps.

I don't really have a problem with it, the writers are clearly going for a specific archetype.

Some people have brought up the noir inspirations in the writing, but I tend to see Geralt as a fantasy version Eastwood's Man with No Name - he's a laconic stranger who doesn't really fit in anywhere. He follows the same pattern for the most part too - he rides into town, stays only long enough to complete a bounty, and then rides on. Bonus points if he gets accosted by some local toughs and needs to beat the stuffing out of them.

I don't think this person was claiming Geralt has no emotions, just that he tries to hide them. Geralt even says at one point that he was trained to suppress emotion.

@imsh_pl: thanks for the insight! I was hoping someone who speaks Polish would weigh in on this subject. Unfortunately, this doesn't answer the question of why Geralt is the only one who talks this way. Surely all the other characters are speaking in the manner you described in the original Polish version, yet they have all been translated properly. I guess someone on the English translation team decided to make Geralt talk this way, and I'm assuming it's because they wanted him to seem like the "cool, gritty cop/detective" others have mentioned.

Unfortunately I don't think it makes him seem cool at all. Quite the opposite, actually. I think it makes him sound dumb and socially awkward. But we're at the mercy of the translators when playing games that were originally written in different languages. Dont get me wrong, I like Geralt - I just don't agree with his speech patterns.

I think he always sounded this way, and I have always enjoyed it

He learned human interaction from Tumblr and Twitter.

It doesn't have anything to do with localization. They know what they're doing by this point and the dialogue is all excellent in English and well realized. He speaks differently than other characters. It's a choice.

He's a monster hunter, not a diplomat. People spit on him in the street. Grammar is not his chief concern.

@poisonjam7: Almost everyone Geralt meets is either a dumbass peasant, an jerk nobel, or someone he's paying to bang. He just wants to get through the talking bits, do his business, and GTFO ASAP.

@jaqen_hghar: not a decade

At the beginning of the game, if you talk to vesemir before getting the kill griffin mission, they talk about how old Geralt is.

Later in the game when you go to the cave where they test children before mutating them, you will get how old Geralt or any witcher should be when they became a witcher

I don't speak in full sentences in real life either, so it doesn't bother me. I also think that's just part of his character? Nothing seemed different (to me) about him between the first two games and the third.

I have no issues with Geralt as a character - I actually enjoyed playing as him rather than my own created character. Usually I don't put a lot of thought into who my RPG characters are - they end up just as generic, boring archetypes (I know many people play it differently).

For Geralt, I suppose I put my own impressions onto the base that was provided. I saw him as mostly cool and reserved - who does feel anger and frustration but is limited in that - he has a deep love for Ciri and is conflicted when it comes to others such as Yennefer (though in my playthrough I thought they were 'fated' to be together so I played it that way).

For the most part Geralt tries to stay neutral unless there is a clear choice or one that he deems to be the right course of action (killing Radovid was one of these cases for me) He works Witcher contracts for money and negotiates as hard as he can - he'll take lots of money from those who can afford it. For those who are impoverished, he has the same standards, but is willing to forego payment after the contract is completed (he needs to know that people are willing to pay up front - doesn't want word getting around that he is an easy mark).

Man I enjoyed the Witcher 3 a lot.

I don't remember commenting in this thread, but I think the way Geralt speaks matches his character pretty well.

I would never have noticed the fact that Geralt's American accent sticls out if it had never been pointed out to me.

Like them French fried potaters. mmmhmmm

He is Batman and Snake and Sam Fisher and all the other action guys, end of story.

life isn't always grammatically correct

Because he is a videogame protagonist.

Now why are there semi filled water pits where Geralt can get stuck and force you to reload a checkpoint to get out of, I have no idea.

No offense OP but have you ever had a conversation in real life? If so you would realize how hilarious this thread is.

People don't talk perfect English. No where no how. If you do, you're probably kind of a bummer :S

Geralt's English is actually way better than half the poor schlubs he talks to, which is actually one of the characterizations I really love about the world.

Pretty sure all Witchers are North American sounding (not US specifically, just not British), regardless of school. Nilfgardians and Redanians are "Assorted United Kingdom" and Skellige is "Light Scandanivian Accents".

Talks in clipped sentences. Common thing. Witcher's work isn't bard's work.

*sigh* Students.