Clarification on Geralt's amnesia

Listening to the bombcast and remembering the huge amount of people asking about this ther last time around the Witcher 2 was released, i wanted to clarify something to both Patrick and anyone alse who migh be asking this in the future. Mostly because it was not quite well explained by Vinny on the bombcast either.

Witcher 1 starts with Geralt having amnesia. He finds out that it's due to the fact that he kinda died (this is not a spoiler, this is something that happened before the games take place and explained early on in Witcher 1, and likewise mentioned several times in the second game in passing). During the course of the first game he starts remembering a lot of the stuff from his past, some in bits and pieces, other stuff is just re explained to him by friends from his past

This is done for 3 reasons:

1. Spoiler from last witcher book At the end of the original witcher books Geralt dies.
2. They also needed a way for the game to introduce players to the world.
3. The second game expands on this a bit further that his memory problems might have also had something to do due to his contact with the Wild Hunt, but again don't worry about this, not important and is vague

Basically consider Geralt to be mostly in the know about everything going on in the land and countries by the start of 2. His amnesia is not new in Witcher 2. It is simply a continuation from the first game. He does not get it again or anything. He doesn't keep forgetting stuff. It's is a one time occurence at the start of Witcher 1.

Except now he is mostly a ok with current stuff.

But there are still bits and pieces missing from his personal memory. Hence the flashbacks when he recalls them due to certain events.

Hope this helps some of you dudes out.

@Tennmuerti said:

1. Geralt is actually a 58 year old man in a coma in 1970s Luxembourg, and the entire story is a dream.

Cool spoiler bro.

People probably just get confused because of that flashback that opens up the game.

I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE ENTERED THIS THREAD!

Aww well shit happens.

@Binman88:

Can you remove it from your reply please?

Sorry I will edit the post. Just didnlt think many people would be bothered to read books. It's already mentioned on the bombcast and is not a game spoiler per se.

@Tennmuerti said:

1. At the end of the original witcher books Geralt grows wings and saves the universe from the Reapers.

Cool spoiler bro.

Vinny already talked about Geralt's death and resurrection in the bombcast, anyway.

@TaliciaDragonsong: @TaliciaDragonsong: @IAmNotBatman:

People please relax this is not a game spoiler.

You find this out in the very early stages of Witcher 1. It's talked about several times during both games.

Unless you were all planning to read the books. Then for that i apologise and have put the spoiler in the tags. But both games mention this fact anyway.

@Tennmuerti: I know it's not a huge spoiler, and it was my mistake for quoting it (which I've edited). The books are in English, by the way; I'm reading through The Last Wish now.

@TaliciaDragonsong: Both of the games reveal this point pretty early on. Unless you planned on reading all of the books before playing the games (most of them have never been translated into English) it's not much of a spoiler.

@Dallas_Raines said:

Vinny already talked about Geralt's death and resurrection in the bombcast, anyway.

Yeah he exaplined the death part. My issue is more that he did not explain properly how his amnesia works. it's not a recurring thing like they talk about or a witcher trope.

@Tennmuerti: @WinterSnowblind: I'm planning on reading the books, yep. And Witcher 1 didn't explain to me that Geralt died, (only in the slums of the city part), just that he had a bad case of amnesia after some battle.

@Dallas_Raines said:

Vinny already talked about Geralt's death and resurrection in the bombcast, anyway.

Yeah he exaplined the death part. My issue is more that he did not explain properly how his amnesia works. it's not a recurring thing like they talk about or a witcher trope.

guys by the time we get to the point where the final book is in english, you'll have forgotten anyway. Gonna be like 2016 or something crazy like that

Yeah this is one of the anti-fact checking things that was bugging me a year ago on the Bombcast.

@TaliciaDragonsong:

It's talked about with your past friends, they will outright be suprised etc ...

Again it's a totally minor thing and completely irrelevant to the main plot or overall events. It's mainly away to reintroduce the world to the new audience.

As far as the books go, they would have been spoiled to you anyway by the game :)

@Tennmuerti said:

@TaliciaDragonsong:

It's talked about with your past friends, they will outright be suprised etc ...

Again it's a totally minor thing and completely irrelevant to the main plot or overall events. It's mainly away to reintroduce the world to the new audience.

As far as the books go, they would have been spoiled to you anyway by the game :)

I think it was the bard dude (name is failing me right now) who said he saw Geralt die.

@TaliciaDragonsong: I don't know what game you played, but in my playthrough they basically told Geralt he was killed with a pitchfork.

@Tennmuerti: Is the dreaming spoiler actually true? Fuuuuuuuuck.

@valrog: Not sure what you are referring to?

Wild hunt in relation to memory? I think it's either mentioned in cartoon cutscenes or your talk with L.

I've always thought of the amnesia as more of a design decision than a story device. That is to say, The Witcher 2 would be even less of an RPG than it is already if Geralt remembered everything from his past. Whereas a "traditional" Western RPG asks the question "what kind of hero would you be in a fantasy world?", the theme of the Witcher games is "what kind of person would you be if you were a hero in a fantasy world, and you had amnesia?"

@TaliciaDragonsong: Have you met Zoltan yet?

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

@valrog: Yeah, saved him from those bandits outside the town.

And he didn't mention anything? Shocked, that Geralt stands before him? That's strange.

@valrog said:

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

@valrog: Yeah, saved him from those bandits outside the town.

And he didn't mention anything? Shocked, that Geralt stands before him? That's strange.

Afaik Zoltan talks quite a bit about Geralt being alive etc. Strange that you did not experience that?

Didn't he also have amnesia in at least one of the books?

@Enigma777: No shur about that, im reading through the books atm =)

@Dallas_Raines said:

People probably just get confused because of that flashback that opens up the game.

There was the confusing flashback, then tits, so it was okay.