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Did you know that Darkrai is part of a pair of Pokémon? The shadowy and sinister Darkrai has a foil in the form of the glittering Lunar Pokémon Cresselia. Yet while Darkrai is the main character of the upcoming Pokémon TCG Pitch ****** expansion, there's absolutely no sign of Cresselia at all. Read the full story on Wargamer: Darkrai is the star of the Pokémon TCG's Pitch ****** expansion, but Cresselia is nowhere to be seen View the full article

The Tiny Tim Evolution is part of the Asia+Oceania objective set in FC 26, and we can use it to upgrade one of our attackers. The evolution significantly boosts the stats and playstyles of the chosen card. Let’s find out the best options to use in this evolution based on the requirements and offered upgrades. Table of contentsFC 26 Tiny Tim Evolution requirementsFC 26 Tiny Tim Evolution upgradesBest players to use in Tiny Tim Evolutionhttps://embeds.beehiiv.com/a8d62108-86ed-4039-bf49-44877ba62c15 FC 26 Tiny Tim Evolution requirements Here are the requirements of the Tiny Tim Evolution in FC 26. Overall: Max 91 PlayStyle: Max 10 PlayStyle+: Max 3 Not Rarity: World Tour Silver Stars Position: ST FC 26 Tiny Tim Evolution upgrades The evolution has five upgrade levels, each with specific conditions to meet. Level 1 upgrades Overall: +25|93 Aggression: +40|97 Finishing: +35|95 Reactions: +35|95 Volleys: +35|96 PlayStyles+: Low Driven Shot|3 Level 2 upgrades Acceleration: +15|91 Agility: +25|90 Heading Acc.: +40 Long Shots: +30|93 Weak Foot: +4 PlayStyles+: Enforcer|3 Level 3 upgrades Balance: +25|90 Jumping: +40|97 Positioning: +30|93 Vision: +30|91 Positions: LM, RM Level 4 upgrades Ball control: +25|92 Short Passing: +30|93 Sprint Speed: +15|93 Strength: +30|94 PlayStyles: Finesse Shot, Incisive Pass|8 Level 5 upgrades Dribbling: +25|92 Shot Power: +35|96 Stamina: +30|92 Composure: +35|95 PlayStyles: First Touch, Precision Header|8 Level 1 upgrade requirements Play 1 match in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Level 2 upgrade requirements Play 1 match in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Level 3 upgrade requirements Play 1 match in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Level 4 upgrade requirements Play 1 match in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Level 5 upgrade requirements Play 1 match in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Best players to use in Tiny Tim Evolution Here are some of my best recommendations to include in the evolution. Rashford Winter wildcards Ousmane Dembele Ultimate Scream Griezmann Knockout Royalty Endrick FC Fantasy Vinicius Jr. TOTW Demirovic Showdown Thierry Henry Winter Wildcards (combine with more evolution) Rafael Leao Ultimate Scream (combine with other evolutions) Neymar Jr. (combine with other evolutions) Gabriel Silva World Tour Inaki Williams FUT Birthday While the evolution doesn’t offer remarkable playstyle+, the same can’t be said about the stat upgrades. Hence, try to use cards that already have three meta playstyle+ to make the most of the upgrades. /wp-content/themes/destructoid2025/assets/img/icons/likes-off.png0 The post Best players for FC 26 Tiny Tim Evolution appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Six Steam games are free to play this weekend, which means you have just 24 hours left to check them out. You can get lots of free games on Steam, if you know where to look. Some games are free-to-play from the very start; others are free to keep if you claim them within a limited timeframe; and still others get the occasional "free weekend." View the full article

The Fallout franchise has been in a bit of a limbo ******* ever since the second season of the official Fallout TV show finished airing, with fans eagerly awaiting more updates about the potential development of Fallout 5, or the surprise release of a remake for one of the older entries in the series. While we unfortunately didn't get any new game announcements over the last week, Bethesda did have one surprise offering for fans to enjoy. View the full article

Xbox Game Pass has been keeping fans busy with plenty of new releases, but after the latest slate of updates, it looks like the best might be yet to come. Recently, Ultimate and PC subscribers have been treated to day-one games like Forza Horizon 6, Mixtape, and Vampire Crawlers, to say nothing of older releases joining the monthly selection and long-term Game Catalog. View the full article

Dan Houser doesn’t care that much if you get all the way to the story credits on his games, as long as you’re having fun in the worlds he’s created. “If someone enjoyed a game, that's great,” the Rockstar co-founder and Grand Theft Auto/Red Dead Redemption writer said at a panel at the Tribeca Festival in New York City on Saturday. “If you can’t finish a story, but you loved it in other ways: Great, I don't care. I mean, I would like it if you finish the story because I spent ages on it.
If you enjoyed it, that's enough for you.” Houser’s longtime creative partner Lazlow — who founded the multimedia studio Absurd Ventures with Houser after leaving Rockstar in 2020 — also sat on the panel, adding: “We also love burying very deep Easter eggs and games. Sometimes they take one or two years or longer for players to discover. I mean, we love burying stuff so deep that sometimes three or four years goes by, I'm like, ‘Maybe this makes it too hard to find.’ And somebody finds it and then it blows up on Reddit, and we're like, ‘Yay.’” Just earlier this year, Red Dead Redemption 2 players discovered a spiderweb mystery that had gone unnoticed for seven years since the game’s release. “The whole point of an open world game is we provide guides,” Houser said. “We want you to experience the story. Our goal was always — from GTA 3 onwards — to try and get more and more people to finish the story. And the numbers went up and up; they used to be pretty level.
But ultimately, that's up to the player. The players enjoy being in the world, mucking around, doing whatever they want to do, messing with the systems. The most fun thing about the game isn't any rubbish we write, it's the systems that we make. “[What’s] always gonna be the most fun is being in this world, seeing what happens when you jump off this building, when you punch that person, you drive that car, when you interact with this thing, or that thing, whatever way,” Houser continued. “That's always gonna have a sort of magical quality to it, and we are on some level on the story side, just the icing on the cake.
We can't be precious about what they do. We can encourage them to play it the way we want them to play it. But we have to give them agency.” Lazlow also spoke to the difficulty of creating fleshed-out satirical worlds that, when they’re crafting them, seem patently deranged until reality catches up to their fiction. (It's something that The Boys also recently dealt with in its fifth season). “We would set out with a massive list in every game of all the media that we wanted, be it a phone that you can disappear into, just like you do in the real world,” Lazlow said. “I mean, we're basically like an in-house ad agency because there would be a billboard for a brand, you'd hear a radio commercial from the same brand. You can see a TV commercial for the same brand, and then you get a pop-up on your phone for it, but it's all got to be this hyper-ridiculous satire that also speaks to the tone of that place and the vision that [Houser] has for how he wants you to experience that world.” Lazlow specifically recalled creating GTA 5’s Jock Cranley: “The thing that became difficult as the projects took longer, is making ridiculous characters, brands, products, situations so that the world doesn't catch up with you. I remember we had a politician that we came up with in GTA that was an ex-stuntman who was running for governor, and a Hollywood guy, and he came out with this campaign ad saying that he hates the elderly, he hates crippled people, he hates the military. We're like, ‘Ha ha ha ha, this kind of crazy ***** will never happen in real life.’” Since its founding, Absurd Ventures has released the comic series American ****** via Dark Horse Comics, and the novel A Better Paradise along with an audiobook adaptation. An animated series of shorts, Absurdaverse, first premiered at the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival, and an unnamed AAA open-world sci-fi action-adventure game set in the A Better Paradise universe is in development with South Korea’s Smilegate as publisher. View the full article

The Golden Spirit Evolution, part of the Asia+Oceania objective group in FC 26, is an excellent upgrade option for one of your wide attackers. Available for free, the evolution offers significant boosts for your chosen card. Let’s go through the best options for this evolution based on the requirements and offered upgrades. Table of contentsFC 26 Golden Spirit Evolution requirementsFC 26 Golden Spirit Evolution upgradesBest players to use in Golden Spirit Evolutionhttps://embeds.beehiiv.com/a8d62108-86ed-4039-bf49-44877ba62c15 FC 26 Golden Spirit Evolution requirements Here are the requirements of Golden Spirit in FC 26. Overall: Max 91 PlayStyle: Max 10 PlayStyle+: Max 3 Not Rarity: World Tour Silver Stars Not Position: CB, CM FC 26 Golden Spirit Evolution upgrades The evolution has five upgrade levels, each with specific conditions to meet. Level 1 upgrades Overall: +30|93 Acceleration: +30|95 Long Shots: +25|90 Penalties: +25|93 Vision: +25|92 Volleys: +25|92 Level 2 upgrades Finishing: +25|94 Positioning: +25|94 Shot Power: +25|90 Sprint Speed: +30|94 PlayStyles+: Rapid|3 PlayStyles: Low Driven Shot Level 3 upgrades Ball control: +35|93 Crossing: +25|94 Dribbling: +35|95 Short Passing: +25|93 Free Kick: +25|92 Composure: +35|95 Level 4 upgrades Agility: +35|92 Curve: +25|93 Long Passing: +25|92 PlayStyles: Pinged Pass|8 Level 5 upgrades Balance: +35|92 Reactions: +25|92 PlayStyles+: Quick Step|3 PlayStyles: Finesse Shot Level 1 upgrade requirements Play 1 match in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Level 2 upgrade requirements Play 1 match in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Level 3 upgrade requirements Play 1 match in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Level 4 upgrade requirements Play 1 match in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Level 5 upgrade requirements No task. Best players to use in Golden Spirit Evolution Here are some of my best recommendations to include in the evolution. Endrick FC Fantasy Cristiano Ronaldo Time Warp Inaki Williams FUT Birthday Thierry Henry Winter Wildcards Kvaratskhelia Knockout Royalty Kadidiatou Diani Leroy Sane Answer the Call Gervinho FC Fantasy Hero Valera Showdown Emerdin Demirovic Showdown Oyarzabal TOTS Hoenes Prime Hero /wp-content/themes/destructoid2025/assets/img/icons/likes-off.png0 The post Best players for FC 26 Golden Spirit Evolution appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

WWE 2K26 is officially adding a brand-new version of one of the wrestling promotion's most iconic female wrestlers, introducing a Trish Stratus variant from her debut year. The new addition to WWE 2K26 calls back to Stratus's first appearance in a WWE ring. View the full article

When the average person thinks tabletop RPG, their minds inevitably wander to Dungeons and Dragons. This popularity means a huge playerbase, but it's a double edged sword. Every alternative TTRPG fan knows how tough it can be to move players away from the D&D system. That's how you get things like Cyberpunk 2077 in DnD 5e, despite Cyberpunk already being a TTRPG itself. This is the dilemma faced by TTRPG publisher Renegade as they shift to DnD 5.5e products. Read the full story on Wargamer: DnD 5.5e set to replace the Essence 20 system for Renegade after poor sales View the full article

Many tabletop RPGs thrive on being power fantasies. You can unwind and be someone else, preferably someone with the ability to smite undead with divine light. Everyone knows that no matter the struggle, the heroes always win in the end. At least, that's how usually it goes. But what happens when even the most powerful party of heroes, at the very last second, fails to save the world? Read the full story on Wargamer: The tragic TTRPG about heroes failing to save the world deserves your attention View the full article

The RPG includes a narrative campaign spanning 4 chapters, designed for both one-hour sessions and long evenings of cooperative play. View the full article

The Oxygen Tank Evolution is an excellent upgrade option in FC 26 you can get from an objective. You can then use it to improve an item of your choice as long as it meets the requirements. It’s a quick set of upgrades that will help your card improve in every department. Let’s find out the best choice for the evolution based on the requirements and offered upgrades. Table of contentsFC 26 Oxygen Tank Evolution requirementsFC 26 Oxygen Tank Evolution upgradesBest players to use in Oxygen Tank Evolutionhttps://embeds.beehiiv.com/a8d62108-86ed-4039-bf49-44877ba62c15 FC 26 Oxygen Tank Evolution requirements Here are the requirements of Perfect Poise Evolution in FC 26. Overall: Max 91 PlayStyle: Max 10 PlayStyle+: Max 3 Not Rarity: World Tour Silver Stars FC 26 Oxygen Tank Evolution upgrades The evolution has two upgrade levels, each with specific conditions to meet. Level 1 upgrades Overall: +7|93 Pace/Diving: +7|91 Shooting/Handling: +7|90 Passing/Kicking: +7|93 PlayStyles+: Quick Step|3 PlayStyles: Relentless|8 Level 2 upgrades Dribbling/Reflexes: +7|93 Defending/Speed: +7|92 Physical/Positioning: +7|91 PlayStyles+: Tiki Taka|3 PlayStyles: Press Proven, Incisive Pass|8 There are no tasks to complete. Once you unlock the evolution, you can immediately use it on a player of liking to apply the upgrades. You can find the evolution in the rewards section after redeeming it. Best players to use in Oxygen Tank Evolution Here are some of my best recommendations to include in the evolution. Neymar (combine with other evolutions) Alex Pfeiffer Ultimate Birthday Saibari TOTW Rios Star Perfformer Andrea Barzagli Trophy Titans Charles Showdown Hjulmand Road to the Final Joao Cancelo FC Fantasy Alderete Showdown Stones End of an Era This is an excellent evolution that you can use in two different ways. You can use this to create chains with low-rated cards. Then, you can use the evolved version in another evolution to get more upgrades. However, you can also use the evolution as a finishing step for a previous chain you might already have in Ultimate Team. /wp-content/themes/destructoid2025/assets/img/icons/likes-off.png0 The post Best players for FC 26 Oxygen Tank Evolution appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

South Park has teamed up with gaming gear maker SteelSeries to release a new line of South Park-themed mouse pads and a gaming headset, and they look utterly brilliant. The lineup's limited, with just two choices of mouse mat and one headset, but all three nail the brief. Read the full story on PCGamesN: This new South Park gaming gear from SteelSeries looks exactly as fun as you'd hope View the full article

8 Dragons, an upcoming competitive horde-building strategy game from developer Wonderbow Games, takes the appeal of dragons in a decidedly cozy direction. In addition to a bold yet gentle art style and emphasis on the lighter side of fantasy, 8 Dragons also promises a set of mechanics that genuinely intrigues me - enough to make its new Kickstarter campaign worthy of our attention. Read the full story on Wargamer: Fantasy board game 8 Dragons promises cozy charm in new Kickstarter View the full article

With Warhammer 40k's new edition beginning its digital rollout, Games Workshop has opted to support its move to this brave new era with a slate of standalone physical releases for the Core Rules, the Combat Patrol Companion, and other supporting materials. These products are now available for pre-order, meaning that those looking to play 11th Edition using physical rulebooks won't have to shell out for the pricey new Armageddon box set. Read the full story on Wargamer: Essentials for 40k's new edition are now up for pre-order including the slim new core book View the full article

Version 1.0 in 33 Immortals has eight different weapons for players to wield. There are four classes and two further options for each (barring Tank). While the number of options at first will be limited, you can unlock using Eternal Shards from the starting area. Let’s find out which are the best weapons to use and which ones are best avoided. Table of contentsBest weapons to use in 33 ImmortalsS-tierA-tierB-tierhttps://embeds.beehiiv.com/a8d62108-86ed-4039-bf49-44877ba62c15 Best weapons to use in 33 Immortals To differentiate between the weapons, I have used three different tiers. S-tier choices are the top meta, followed by A-tier options. B-tier choices aren’t bad, but they’re difficult to master, and you’re better off without them. Disclaimer: I haven’t taken the co-op abilities into account since they can simply get wasted unless you’re playing in a party of friends. Screenshot by Destructoid S-tier Bow of Hope: The Bow of Hope is strong thanks to the Guiding Light ability. Thanks to this ability, all the arrows you fire can be recalled (acts like an ammo refill). However, the arrows do stun and deal damage to enemies if they’re in the path. If it’s the Heavy Arrow (shot using Q), it will only do damage. While your mobility is limited when you’re using the ability, I love how you can shoot-reposition-shoot with this weapon. It’s easy to use and master, making it an ideal choice. Glaive of Temperance: This is a complex weapon that’s absolutely worth learning if you want to excel at killing more monsters. Press the LMB to combo light slashes, and press Q twice to combo heavy slashes. Finally, press the RMB to do a Backstep and gain Temperance. Once you know how to generate Temperance, the glaive becomes a butchering tool. Whenever you have more than half of Temperance filled, you’ll deal more damage. However, you’ll always want to be a bit distant from the enemy since the edge does more damage. As I said, it’s complex but rewarding at the same time. Crossbows of Pride: If you want an alternative to the classic bow, the Crossbows of Pride is an outstanding choice. The core mechanic involves using Pride to do more damage. The mechanic is so simple that I used it a lot as a beginner. You use the RMB to brand an enemy. When you hit it with the LMB (Light Bolt), you gain Pride. You then hit it with your Heavy Bolt (Q) to consume the Pride and maintain a barrage. Whenever an enemy is Branded, it will take more damage automatically. There’s really nothing complex to master; just remember to Brand an enemy first. A-tier Sword of Justice: The Sword of Justice has a steep learning curve. You have to generate Justice by hitting enemies with your basic attack (Sword Slash). You get 10 Justice every time you hit an enemy. Furthermore, you can then use the same Justice to either perform a Heavy Slash or Guard. The former uses Justice to stagger enemies along with inflicting a stun, while the latter makes you immune to all incoming damage. While the weapon is pretty powerful and works well with a fighter, you’ll need to learn how to cycle the use of Justice. Staff of Sloth: The Staff of Sloth generates six Sloth when you hit an enemy. If you perform the charge attack, you’ll generate orbs that deal stun buildup and create more Sloth. You can then use your Torpor ability to use the Sloth and slow down enemies in an area. The ability is absolutely brilliant, but you’ll always need to be around your teammates. Hooks of Gluttony: Once you get the hang of this weapon, the Hooks of Gluttony is a pretty simple (and fun) choice. You do the main damage with your basic attack and use your Hook (press Q) to throw out a projectile. You pull yourself towards the enemy to do more damage; if you have Gluttony, you can land an extra attack. You can also use Parry to prevent incoming damage and trigger Gluttonous that raises damage and allows you to generate Gluttony. It’s not a remarkable weapon, but it’s fun to use and doesn’t require hours to learn. B-tier Daggers of Greed: This is an extremely aggro-styled weapon that’s quite complex to use. You can use the basic attack to generate Greed. You can also use Stun Slash to generate a heavy stun on hit that creates more Greed. When you perform Takedown (special ability), you’ll lunge forward to hit the enemy. Doing so will consume all Greed and scale up the damage and stun. Mastering Lunge isn’t only difficult, but you can find yourself in trouble if you mistime the attack. It’s also crucial to use the correct class, which is again determined by the weapon you’re using. I have yet to ascertain the qualities of Scepter of Charity, and I will update it on the guide as soon as I have used it enough. /wp-content/themes/destructoid2025/assets/img/icons/likes-off.png0 The post Complete 33 Immortals 1.0 weapons tier list appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Capcom has shared technical details for the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Onimusha: Way of the Sword. View the full article

Ever since Umamusume: Pretty Derby took the world by storm when it released globally last year, the series has received no shortage of updates, adaptations, and spin-offs, offering countless hours' worth of content for players to enjoy. It's hard to imagine a new game being able to usurp Umamusume's unprecedented success, but there have already been several attempts at recreating the popular experience. View the full article

Palworld's irreverent 'Pokémon with guns' conceit won it all sorts of buzz, but also attention from Nintendo's infamous lawyers—Palworld developer Pocketpair was sued by the big 'tendo back in 2024 over a few Pokémon patents for around $66,000 in damages—a small payout for such a big company, but with an apparent aim to bleed Pocketpair for millions more just fighting the suit... Read more.View the full article

Although it's pretty much confirmed, the next Fallout game is still a long way off. Based on the little we know about the future of the Fallout franchise, we may have to wait until anywhere between 2028 and 2040 to see the next installment in the beloved post-apocalyptic shooter. View the full article

The new Marvel MTG crossover is gracing us with all sorts of powerful comic book characters. But for Vintage and Legacy players, the star of the show isn't a cosmic threat like Thanos or Galactus. Instead, the card to watch out for in the game's two most powerful formats is The Fantasticar, a three mana vehicle from The Fantastic Four Commander deck. Read the full story on Wargamer: Could this comic book car break MTG's most powerful formats? View the full article

We're still just over a month away from the release of the next Pokémon TCG expansion, Pitch ******, which will come out on the 17th July. We can now see all of the cards in its Japanese counterpart, Abyss Eye, though. Being a set focused on dark type Pokémon, it's a lot grittier than most sets, and as a result, it includes what may be one of the edgiest Pokémon cards ever put to print: Gladion's Showdown. Read the full story on Wargamer: This new Pokémon TCG trainer may be the edgiest card in the game View the full article

It's no secret that the release of Undertale and the currently ongoing Deltarune have made Toby Fox one of the most influential indie developers of our generation, standing alongside other legendary developers like ConcernedApe and the minds behind Team Cherry. Although Deltarune fans got a first look at Chapter 5 during this month's Nintendo Direct, coming far sooner than we thought, there's still a bit of a wait to enjoy it. View the full article

Gears of War: E-Day has pulled the curtain back on its pre-order bonuses and its $300 Collector's Edition. Gears of War: E-Day was the starring game at the latest Xbox Games Showcase, with Microsoft not only showing off an extended gameplay presentation to kick off the show, but a full-blown Direct dedicated to it afterward. View the full article

In mid-June 2015, I happened to start my first playthrough of The Witcher 3 using nothing more than an AMD HD 6670, 6 gigs of DDR3 RAM, and a Pentium G2030 dual-core CPU, all the while running the game itself on a hard drive. That never stopped me, and neither did the 12 fps cutscenes where the dialogue sped ahead of the animations and forced me to skip a lot of them once conversations concluded. What followed were hundreds of hours of mindless fun and enjoyment, which only got better once I had a stronger PC. But having discovered that love for The Witcher‘s third entry, I had to go back, and thankfully, GOG was selling copies of The Witcher 1 for pennies. I remember vaguely playing through that first area where you fight the spectral green dogs, the Barghest, as well as reaching either the late stage of that level or somewhere up in the swamps. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going, and using any proper mods to make my experience better never seemed to cross my mind. [Hidden Content] All roads lead to Vizima. Screenshot by Destructoid The combat felt odd, the performance wasn’t all that great, and little in the game appealed to me in the same way as it did in The Witcher 3. I felt like a headless chicken wandering around the game, trying to find the goals of my quests. And I never did find them, but wound up stuck in the corner of some swampy place with no brain power there to help me get to where I was supposed to go. This created somewhat of a dislike toward the game. I warned people off it; told them it was too old and archaic and that they should wait for some fabled remake if it ever came to be. But oh, how wrong I was. Ten years down the line, I decided it was finally time to play through the entire trilogy back to back. No excuses, no complaints. In the meantime, over this long decade, I had gotten a penchant for archaic and old-school RPGs, from Baldur’s Gate to Planescape Torment, so the baseline was much better than way back when. It would turn out that The Witcher 1 is actually a pretty smashing game. The combat, while simple, is incredibly addictive, especially when you fight large groups of enemies. The systems in place made you truly feel like a witcher, as alchemy and leveling up required many a different prerequisite that were simply not present in The Witcher 3. Gathering herbs and specific monster-sourced materials was a necessity, one that often saw Geralt risking his neck deep in the swamps. The story itself wasn’t all too great, and much of the game felt nonsensical and disconnected, both from the books and the trilogy as a whole. In fact, some parts were disconnected from themselves, and transitions from one scene to the other were, to put it mildly, really bad. While the plots and stories weren’t the best, every piece of dialogue and writing was just pure peak. Screenshot by Destructoid However, everything you did in the game echoed somewhere down the line. All choices had severe consequences, either on Geralt, the characters involved, or even third parties in the area where the choices were made. And the game practiced this design philosophy of “every choice is wrong,” giving the world a much darker tone than would appear in later installments. This is to be expected given that Witcher 1 was built on BioWare’s engine, the same one used in another choice-and-consequence RPG, Neverwinter Nights. A lot of old-school RPG inspirations exist in this game, and everything you do carries deep meaning. The backtracking and having to go on foot across huge areas are quite a drawback, but since you’re doing it for good reasons, the tediousness often disappears. I would even go on to say that The Witcher 1 is, in many ways, the best game in the series. It has the worst plot and the worst “canonical” feel of the three games, but its RPG side is by far the most polished and meaningful. I felt sad when I realized that many of the choices you make in the first game don’t even matter in the second (the Shani romance, for example) and that a lot of the first game is essentially annulled by the sequels. Now that I’ve mentioned it, Shani’s romance is truly the best romance path in the trilogy. It gets a lot of cool cutscenes and Geralt ruminating about his position in the world as a witcher, juxtaposed between the Path and settling down with the person he loves. Shani loves Geralt, and he loves her back, the lost memories notwithstanding, and there’s a real philosophical conundrum the character goes through during just this one sequence. So, yeah, I was very, truly, really wrong about The Witcher 1. Playing it as an adult with a lot more experience on my shoulders really gave me a different outlook on the game, both from a design and a gameplay standpoint. And many of the aspects found here need to make a comeback, especially when it comes to every choice hitting you in the face either immediately or hours down the line. The Witcher 4 stands to learn a lot from this game, and I can’t wait to see if CDPR went back to its beginnings to figure out what went so well. /wp-content/themes/destructoid2025/assets/img/icons/likes-off.png0 The post I played The Witcher 1 as a kid and bounced off—turns out I just needed a fully developed frontal lobe appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article