If you're wondering how The Witcher 4 is supposed to surpass the excellence of The Witcher 3, you're not the only one, but the RPG's narrative director says that a "mathematical" comparison shouldn't shape your viewpoint.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, The Witcher 4 narrative director Philipp Weber said that he's aware of online discussions that ask, "'Witcher 3 was one of the best games ever made, how are they going to top it?'" In fact, it's a concern he shares - "I'm like 'yeah, how are we going to do that?'"
Thankfully, he says he's been able to talk himself from that position by acknowledging that "I don't see video games as mathematical." The acclaim experienced by The Witcher 3, he says, is "subjective" for many people, which means that attempting to follow or surpass it "mathematically" isn't really an option.
"I think the way we want to do justice to the legacy of The Witcher 3 is to take the philosophy we had during The Witcher 3 - how to make a game, how to really care about these things, how to tell stories - and keep that philosophy. At the same time, there are new questions we want to answer, because this is supposed to feel like a true sequel, not just redoing what we did before. And I think it's really trying to have that healthy mix of really moving forward and also trying out some new things, but doing justice to what was there, not trying to beat it.
To further illustrate his point, Weber explains that his favorite Witcher game remains The Witcher 1. "I know many people have problems with that but I love it," he says. That subjective love for a game that many people would argue is objectively worse than its successors is a key part of Weber's approach to the next game - "just make sure that some people will really love The Witcher 4, and hopefully those should be the people that love The Witcher 3, because the philosophy we had - how we make games, how we make quests, what The Witcher means to us - it's the same one."
