Highlights

  • The Witcher spin-off Thronebreaker, built on Gwent gameplay, offers an engaging narrative backdrop with high stakes and critical acclaim.
  • Queen's Blood in FF7 Rebirth showcases a fun and addictive mini-game with strong narrative progression and satisfying quest chain structure.
  • The Witcher 4 should learn from FF7 Rebirth's Queen's Blood questline by incorporating interconnected Gwent storylines for a more engaging experience.

As CD Projekt Red ramps up for the next era of The Witcher, it's not clear what will happen with spin-off properties like Thronebreaker, a strategy game set in Sapowski's fantasy universe. For most fans, this probably seems like a fair trade-off, but it's still a bit disappointing. That said, there's a way that The Witcher 4 could revive the spirit of the dormant Thronebreaker, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth offers a great template for this.

Though it wasn't exactly a runaway hit commercially, Thronebreaker earned widespread critical acclaim for its strong writing and surprisingly dramatic gameplay built around the card game Gwent. The spin-off offers a compelling, high-stakes narrative centered on the war between the Nilfgaardian Empire and the Northern Realms. Since battles are represented as games of Gwent, Thronebreaker is perfect for anyone who loves the in-universe card game just as much as The Witcher's enthralling fantasy world-building. In other words, the game offers something that can't be found in The Witcher 3 or the standalone Gwent game: a narrative backdrop.

the-witcher-yennefer-sorceress
Related
The Witcher 4: Why a Larger Time Jump Could Be Essential To Shake Up One Group

If CD Projekt Red wants to avoid certain characters in The Witcher 4 it needs a big time jump because of this faction's characteristics.

The Next Witcher Game Should Learn from FF7 Rebirth's Queen's Blood Quest

The Queen's Blood Questline Is Among FF7 Rebirth's Best

Queen's Blood is one of FF7 Rebirth's best mini-games, with spin-off potential similar to that of Gwent. The game itself has a number of qualities that make it fun and endlessly addictive: it's deceptively complex, fast-paced, and flexible enough to encourage improvisation and spontaneous thinking. But its narrative progression is what really makes it stand out.

While Gwent is mostly just a side activity in The Witcher 3, Queen's Blood is the subject of a major quest chain with its own surprising twists and turns. This lends a satisfying sense of overarching accomplishment to each Queen's Blood victory, as players are continuously getting closer to a narrative conclusion while growing stronger with new cards.

There are technically side quests tied to Gwent in The Witcher 3 , but they are disconnected from one another, with fairly low narrative stakes. Moreover, the quests usually aren't about Gwent itself. The card game is just used as a plot device or distraction.

Translating the Queen's Blood Quest to The Witcher 4

It's hard to say what the future holds for Gwent, but it's likely to appear in The Witcher 4, in some capacity. CD Projekt Red could simply rehash its Witcher 3 approach, featuring Gwent as a casual side activity that isn't linked to anything greater, or it can up the ante, learning from FF7 Rebirth. The latter option would, of course, be more challenging to implement, but it would also be infinitely more interesting.

Perhaps there could be a series of quests built around a mysterious Gwent prodigy who has a rivalry with the player-character, culminating in a gratifying face-off between the two. Or there could be an obsessive Gwent player who follows the protagonist throughout the course of the game and compulsively challenges them to matches. Whatever the specifics, The Witcher 4 should double down on Gwent with some sort of interconnected story or quest chain, learning from the successes of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Queen's Blood.

Thronebreaker proves that great things can happen when Gwent gameplay meets a well-written story, and while a sequel to the spin-off game doesn't seem likely, that doesn't mean that the combination can't see a reprisal of some sort. Just like how FF7 Rebirth can take notes from The Witcher by making more standalone Queen's Blood experiences, so too can The Witcher 4 borrow from FF7 Rebirth, integrating Gwent in a more holistic, expansive way.