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Although we have The Witcher 4 to look forward to, another exciting prospect is the remake of the first The Witcher that's also coming from CD Projekt Red. Details are relatively limited as of now, but a prominent writer on the original game believes a couple of alterations will be necessary, particularly around the Wild Hunt.
In a video providing commentary on The Witcher in real-time, Artur Ganszyniec, the game's lead story designer, speaks about how the current team will likely revisit the mythological group's physical form. "In the first Witcher, the Wild Hunt is more like the Wild Hunt from the legends," he says.
"We didn't know yet they are elves in armor," he continues. "We really thought of them as wraiths, and omens of death, and tools of destiny. This part will probably need to be changed a bit in the remake."
He's playing through the ending of The Witcher, where the Wild Hunt is teased as "an omen of war and tragedy." This description carries over from their mythic roots, wherein a godly entity leads a cavalcade of spectral warriors, all on horseback. Versions iterate across European folklore, and they tend to be a mixture of awe-inspiring and terrifying to think about.
This perception is woven into the lore of The Witcher - see their title on Skellige, the Wraiths of Mörhogg - but then, as Ganszyniec points out, we learn in The Witcher 3 that they're actually powerful elves who're trying to find a way to stop a magical infection known as the White Frost. Back during 2007's The Witcher, those narrative decisions hadn't been made yet.
"Here the King of the Hunt is the personification of death," he says, during a scene where Geralt comes face to face with the Hunt's leader, "and that will take some retrofitting in the remake, I think."
True enough, this version of the King of the Hunt is ghostly blue, with a hulking body and a skeletal face. Some elements were kept for The Witcher 3, but it transpires this look is all part of his armor. CD Projekt will probably aim to create more consistency in redoing the first installment.
Personally, I hope the original look is kept. He looks different because he's the King of the Hunt, what further explanation would you need?
