I’m 100% for Ciri being the main character and I’m also complaining “what about the lore”. You can do both at the same time. There’s a vocal minority of people who’ll use the lore argument to be sexist assholes, but people who have actually read and understood the books can have some valid concerns (ie where and how did she go through the trials, why can she use magic again, where did she even find how to do the trials, and just… why? She didn’t need them and it’s a bit of a character regression. She was basically already a witcher by title.)

Yeah, exactly! I’m not married to the lore to the degree that I won’t give the devs a chance to explain how this came to be, but I’m worried it’s going to just be a cheap “well we needed to keep the signs and the potions as mechanics but Geralt is retired, fuck it, let’s say they found instructions on how to safely make more witchers in Vesemir’s cupboard somewhere.”

(Lore nerd rant ahead, tl;dr: Ciri being the protag is 100% fine and I expected it but her being a full witcher is weird)

There’s exactly one somewhat valid complaint to be had here, and it’s that Ciri in the books explicitly didn’t go through the Trial of the Grasses (aka one of the main mutation processes that makes you a witcher or, as it often happens, just straight up kills you), so idk how they’ll justify her being able to use witcher potions and stuff now. And (also in the books) she has lost her access to magic at one point, so using witcher signs is strange too.

I can see her wanting to take the plunge and go through with the trials, but I’m also certain that Geralt wouldn’t want that for her bc of how much it fucks you up + most of the secrets of the trials have been lost.

I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and wait and see what explanation they come up with for her being a full witcher, but it better be good.

So, from lore perspective, I have no objections to her being the protag but I don’t love her being a full witcher. I liked what they did with her gameplay sections in W3, I hoped they’d have just expanded on that gameplay idea more.

…no? This is specifically referring to things like fanfiction. Haters rarely actually write fanfiction - you’d have to be really dedicated to despise a work enough to devote hours of your life to writing in its universe. Fanfiction is generally quite earnest and made with love for the original work.

Maybe Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente? Her Orphan’s Tales have some interesting cities too, but that’s a bit of a stretch.

Again, not just one city, but take a look at Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino - it was a direct inspiration for Fallen London.

China Miéville might be worth checking out - go for either the City and the City or for Perdido Street Station.