A Witcher 3 dev just released a mod bringing one of the RPG's best quests closer to what it originally looked like during development

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(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)

A Witcher 3 developer has gone back to the quests he developed nearly a decade ago and modded them with CD Projekt's own modding tools.

The 'Redkit' modding software for The Witcher 3 only just launched its playtest relatively recently for PC users, allowing players to completely change up quests, locations, enemies, and more in the huge RPG. As first noted by VG247, this was enough to send CD Projekt narrative director Philipp Weber back to work on The Witcher 3, which he originally worked on as a quest designer.

In the tweet below, Weber reveals he used Redkit to put out an alternate version of the 'Beyond Hill and Dale' quest in The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion. If your memory is a little hazy, that's the part of the excellent expansion where Geralt ventures into the mystical fairyland and confronts fantastical creatures like the Big Bad Wolf and Rapunzel, among others.

"This mod aims to show an alternative version of the fairy tale land from the quest 'Beyond Hill and Dale', transforming its lighting and environment," Weber writes about the mod over on NexusMods. "I worked on the quest 'Beyond Hill and Dale' for Blood and Wine years ago, and wanted to use this as a little experiment to check the new Redkit myself, trying to see if I still remember all our tools," Weber adds.

"When the quest was originally designed, there was a vision of making it a melancholic representation of the classic fairy tales from the Brother's Grimm set in a dying forest, illuminated by a setting sun. In the end, instead of a dying forest, we chose to make it a more vibrant fairy tale land, still showing more of the beauty the land originally had, when it was created for Syanna and her sister Anna Henrietta," he reveals.

So Weber has revisited Beyond Hill and Dale in an attempt to bring it closer to the original vision of CD Projekt's developers. "This is not supposed to be a replacement for what shipped in the game, but an interesting alternative that shows what could have been," Weber adds, cementing the fact that there's no bad blood or anything concerning the final version of the quest in the Blood and Wine expansion - he's just curious.

Now that The Witcher 3 has proper mod support, one dev says you "can't complain anymore" that you can't romance the Crones because you can "make it yourself."

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.