My momentum to keep playing W3 is fading fast, and what I’ve read/heard about the game beyond what I have seen so far isn’t helping.
The main issue is that every single reviewer that liked W3 talks about how amazing the Bloody Baron quest chain was. Almost no other quest or event is mentioned, it almost always Bloody Baron. And yes, Bloody Baron was a good story, if a bit dragged out and somewhat cliche (drunk and abusive army guy with a cheating wife). The actual gameplay of the big decision point leaving you 100% blind to the choice you are actually making was awful, especially because every other dialog option and quest solution during the chain was rather clear so you could, you know, actually make a choice or guide the narrative, but yes, overall Bloody Baron was good.
Is anything after remotely as good? Already I’ve skipping most of the minor side fluffy because you can only track so many footprints or scents to find a mob that will ultimately drop you nothing of value, and return to get paid a few worthless coins. Same goes for treasure hunts; I think every single one I’ve done so far hasn’t giving me anything that would be a worthwhile upgrade.
I’ve also heard the upcoming Dandelion search is a bore, and I already hate Dandelion the character from W1 and W2. Plus the final chapter of the whole game is a few chained boss fights?
Any reason to keep going here? How close am I to finishing things up (just found out that Trist is hiding), to at least get the checkmark of having beaten the game?
Hardcore Casual 
No clue how close to done you are I’m afraid… You lasted longer than me.
Should i start playing again to see the baron storyline?
Shandren out
I’d say yes, but the annoying part of even that quest is the difficulty isn’t even, so you might have to do side stuff at one point or another. I actually started the chain about halfway into the recommended level, so it wasn’t an issue (the initial steps were trivial, the final few steps felt about right).
You have easily another ~30 hours to go. I never tried, but you might be able to skip some stuff if you just immediately start trying to do the highest-level story quests, e.g. try and bypass Novigrad, but I don’t know if it works like that (like how you can skip stuff in Fallout 3).
The Novigrad section pretty much soured my experience with Witcher 3 and represents the most egregious “time is of the essence! …nevermind, solve these dozen irrelevant mysteries” immersion-breaking example. It was kinda fun reconnecting with most of the cast of the first two games, but I lost all sense of narrative urgency and it never returned.
I was wondering if Novigrad can be skipped, because I have a quest to get a boat to Skel already. Its 2-3 levels above me, but I might try it. Novi is already a slog thanks to how randomly the travel markers are placed.
Skellige and novigrad are both mandatory, and can be done in any order, its not linear.
Skellige story was okish, and after completing both you get another good one.
In total you are at most 20% main quest completed, and i would not bother continuing. I think your dislike of the game will make the story feel worse than it is by far.
Ps: when i say movi i mean just the city. The countryside can safely be ignored.
I’d say based on your opinion of the game – dont bother, story doesnt get better (Hearts of Stone DLC is highly recommended for parts of the storyline though).
Also re: your W3 opinion post (why not leave comments open for at least 2-3 weeks if you value interaction with your readers at all? )
I actually agree with most of what you say there. However lets compare W3 to Fallout 4 that you seem to be quite fond of?
1.Story
W3: great setting, great characters, story for me is honestly good enough to not cringe constantly (i know better than to expect a good storyline out of an 2015 AAA RPG title)
F4: setting is debatable (i like post-apoc so i like it obv.). There are some charismatic characters, HOWEVER in my opinion a lot of NPCs relevant to the main story are very one-dimensional. Preston “need another settlement” Garvey being the prime example.
Also, how can you complain about W3 having markers and fed-ex quests but deal with main characters in F4 giving you literally mmo-style dailies?
2. Look/Graphics
W3: beautiful
F4: 8-year old engine.
3. Combat:
F4: zero difference to F3. I’ve played on hardest difficulty and spent most of the combat sneaking up and melee-onehitting everything from stealth, because i like min-maxing, but also because meleeing mechanics/hitboxes etc. are so bad that VATS in any challenging encounter is just mandatory.
W3:i agree that “mashing left punch” not being very interesting mechanic is a thing. Also mechanics on most boss/harder monsters boiling down to “lets teleport away every couple of seconds” are annoying.
However: on hardest difficulty there are several encounters where you cant just faceroll and actuallyhave to use other mechanics the game has to offer (dodging,rolling, blocking). I’ll admit – most of those are boss fights in the Hearts of Stone DLC,
And btw. – anyone hating on for example Dark Souls because you “mash left punch”?
4. RPG Elements
Dumbed down in both games, still nothing to complain about IMO
5. Loots/Crafting
W3: not gonna lie – hunting down gear sets and pot/oil/decoction recipes (and materials for them) did awaken that MUST FIND ALL THE THINGS feeling and was gameplay i quite enjoyed. I can totally understand if people find that boring though.
Also while “normal” crafted armors are useless, i did find quite a few crafted sword upgrades throughout the game.
F4: there is the whole Minecraft/Sims aspect of the game that i know a lot of people enjoy.
I skipped pretty much all of it, and i also cringed p. hard at the loot-based-RPG style naming of weapons/armor. Up to personal taste i guess.
Comments close after 5 days, as usually after that time its 99% spam that was taking too much of my time to clean up.
I’ve avoided doing a direct F4 vs W3 comparison as I think its a bit unfair. Bethesda had more resources, more to work with, and more experience. W3 as a game (not just a single story) IMO doesn’t even remotely stack up to F4.