It turns out that The Witcher 3 could have ended quite differently, as one scrapped conclusion planned to see Geralt set off on a "suicide mission" which was "kind of inspired by Mass Effect 2."
This was revealed by lead writer Marcin Blacha in a recent interview with PC Gamer, who mentions that some of the "biggest changes" made to the game between its development and the final version were related to the titular Wild Hunt. Geralt was once planned to be "kind of like an insider," and "doing stuff pretending to be one of them."
The scrapped ending sounds particularly interesting, with Blacha upfront in saying that "Mass Effect 2 was a huge inspiration for the game." He continues: "Initially, we had an ending that was kind of inspired by Mass Effect 2… that moment when Geralt gathers a party and goes on a suicide mission.
"It was on a Skellige drakkar you were sailing into a frozen sea, and you were supposed to fight the Wild Hunt on this drakkar."
In the end, CD Projekt Red "redesigned" the ending "a little bit," having instead "decided to make this more personal ending." Clearly, the idea wasn't scrapped in its entirety, with the whole boat on an icy sea setting carrying forth to the actual ending, when Geralt takes on the King of the Wild Hunt.
No game is without its scrapped ideas, and it makes you wonder in this case how many bits of content that got edited out of The Witcher 3 could make an appearance in The Witcher 4. A recent Witcher 4 tech demo revealed that Manticores feature in the upcoming RPG, over 10 years since they were apparently cut from the last game, so that's just one example.
