My first contact with "The Witcher" was about 10-12 years old. I don't remember having any contact with Andrzej Sapkowski and his life success before the screening of the Polish film. In my family, no one read this book, and my friends didn't read it, and even if they were, they were only nerds like me or people who also read books (and as it was already a recognizable title, not only in Poland, it was a bit of a more popular than others). The film did not convince me - it had the potential for a good show (quite a budget, good actors), but as it happens in Poland (and it used to be much more often then) - some money was stolen + there was no uniform idea, so we got boring, funny, generally not enough attractive production. I missed the games up to 3 parts of the game (except for cinematics, which I watched because of Tomasz Bagiński and his Platige Image studio). Today I am trying to refresh them, but I think I will limit myself to the second part - unfortunately the first one has aged poorly and the words of my friend Mariusz turned out to be true. He told me I couldn't do it because the game was too archaic if you didn't play it at launch, which you will find out if you read the recently published text. I said that I was going to go through it, but I don't think I can do it - I don't want to waste another afternoon exhausting myself with the controls, the archaic way of fighting etc. The game has a great soundtrack and a great atmosphere, but that's not enough to convince me.
This is not the case with "Wild Hunt". It was not love at first sight, but after 2 hours I liked it, and after a dozen or so hours I loved it very much, and with time I fell in love with it. I know these are too strong words (and I admit, he's a little hypocritical, because I don't like to talk about things or titles like that myself), but I can't find another word that matches my feelings for this title. The games are "Doom 1 & 2", "WarCraft 2 & 3" or "Command and Conquer 1995". Thanks to this game, I've read books that are really good, and I don't understand the criticism of a lot of people - mostly bloggers I follow or older colleagues. Sure, there are better and much better positions, I do not deny that, but Andrzej Sapkowski's saga and short stories are not so weak in comparison to them that they lower their value so much. Of course, if not for the success of the games (or rather for the 3 parts, because 1 and 2 were only a moderate success, but if it were not for the popularity in our part of the world, where they sold, the developers would not have created 3), then nothing would have happened. Books were known in a similar area as games - I'm talking about my part of Europe, which has nothing to do with other markets. Sapkowski was extremely lucky that his project grew into a large, international franchise. We have a lot of good artists in the world who also deserve their chance and they are definitely worthwhile stories to learn. The problem is, however, that there are many good authors. Lots of fucking lots. As many as there are ants in a large anthill - I can bet that if I collected in one bag cards with the titles of books, stories, visions for a good series, game, anime or comic that I would consider with my friends "at least good" (and not I'm only talking about those who have similar tastes to mine), there would be so many of them that it would have to be a gigantic sack. Sapkowski won in this lottery and Fortuna took out a piece of paper with his "The Witcher".
It is true that his work has several aspects, but it was not enough to gain worldwide recognition, as did Tolkien or George R. R. Martin. If it were not for the game, today I would be delighted with books at best. However, I will write about the game in the next paragraph. Although I compared Sapkowski's book to Toriyama's manga, it is closer to another comic - "Hunter x Hunter" by Yoshihiro Togashi. Sorry for the clickbait, but Goku is known all over the world, not Gon. I am not exaggerating when I say these words. Ie. okay, there are probably some places where no one knows DBZ, but I'm ready to put my hand under the executioner's ax, that it's a definite minority. The cartoon was broadcast in 80 countries (probably sometimes illegally - at the beginning of the 90s in Poland, some programs were broadcast without a license, such were the times), the comic was sold in 40. I assume that in other countries (or at least some of them) you could also watch it on the illegal market. After all, in Poland at one time there were a lot of pirate VHS tapes with a teacher, not to mention the groups publishing their translations for comic book chapters (from Poland, the USA, Spain, France, Italy - these are the ones I found most often on the Internet)
HxH is more suited to this comparison as both titles share similar characteristics. For example, more human characters - those who are not Supermen, have weaknesses, generally as in life they are neither white nor black, only gray. They are often guided by profit and loss, cynicism, myopia, emotions or underlying reflexes. There are no perfect figures here, each one carries some scars - visible or not, masked or visible). It is the same with the atmosphere of the story and its plot - it is neither overly positive nor too dark. Or a power system that is not based solely on the amount of power you have, but on the use of your strengths (wizards are not over-power and can be defeated by ordinary people if they have undergone special training, or Witchers who can defeat strong monsters or creatures with dwarves or Elven squads, not to mention). Besides, coming back to clickbait - if I called this text "Witcher - Polish HxH", fewer people would associate it, and when writing about DBZ, more people would understand the reference to this analogy. After all, also people from our parents' generation watched DBZ or at least watched their children, who later played in the yard, recreating things that they saw on TV. I don't think any anime can compare to DBZ in this field, maybe "Pokemons", but it's also mainly thanks to the games. It is true that "The Witcher" is far from recognition of Toriyama's comic, but I think that Netflix and CDPRed can change that. The first season of the series (however you might judge it) was a gigantic success. Probably each of us remembers memes related to it, for example the famous ballad of the bard Dandelion, which has been reworked thousands of times. If Netflix airs the entire series and doesn't screw it up, popularity will either increase or remain at an equally high level. Edit: I wrote this line before the premiere of season 2, now we know that they fucked up the task. The third season will be the last test for many viewers - if the level does not improve, then I bet most fans of games and books will leave. As for CDProject, it is enough that the fourth part of "The Witcher" will repeat the success of its predecessor. They don't even have to rush it, because the third part is still selling well. It is enough that both media make good use of what Sapkowski wrote, and the creators of "Wild Hunt" added - multiculturalism (including Slavicness - contrary to what some rave about saying that Sapkowski did not touch upon elements of our culture or society. He presented them, but more he focused on English or German culture, relatively aspects that will be appreciated more by them than Poles. the medal has two thrones, everything has advantages and disadvantages. Or a criticism of racism, xenophobia, etc. but in a good way, and not as many representatives of the progressive left do.
True, the developers of the game made an excellent adaptation of the book. In some aspects they even improved it, but let's not forget that Sapkowski touched on many of these things in his work, but did not develop them too much - e.g. introducing us to this world, an extensive history of vampires, elves of other races, or Regis, who has power level like Raditz from the beginning of DBZ and if he wanted to, he would have fucked Geralt's head against the wall like an egg. Yes, statistically, he's more of a late DB Goku, but he has other abilities to add to that that add to his combat value. The books did not show us his power, you can even get the impression that they weakened him (the point is that, among others, Geralt described him as a super-powerful creature, which was not 100% used during his 1vs1 fight with Vilgefortz). Or the expansion of Slavic elements. The author simply did not need to develop it for the purposes of books. Nevertheless, the success of this title is due both to the creator Geralt and the programmers. Because with all due respect, I don't think CDProject Red would be able to come up with so many things, if it were only their original project. It's been over 6 years since the premiere of the 3 parts, and yet it is still great to play, which is confirmed by players around the world. The subject of games is not my industry, so I will not provide statistics that I will not be able to correctly interpret anyway. But I can see on various YT channels that players are still wandering around the world of Sapkowski (I mean Steam, GOG, Epic Game Store, Playstation etc.).
Overall, I am proud to see tons of memes from games, Netflix and more in various places on the web, and I know this is "our Dragon Ball". All these memes, opinions of people from completely remote places in the world who sometimes mentioned Poland, praise for the Polish work ethic (so much gaming content for such a small price) and many more. I will read them again when most interested people watch the second season of the Netflix series (edit: oh my, how was I wrong), and then play the improved version of the game on PS5. After all, Poles have their global phenomenon - well-established, confident, which, despite so many years on the back of the neck, is still popular. And the best years are yet to come. It is a pity that Sapkowski's son did not live to see those times, because it was largely thanks to him that we got this title. Mr. Andrzej wrote his first short story for him - for his joy and money to support him. I know that I have omitted a lot of things in this text, and that I have just licked some of them gently, but it's already too long. Nevertheless, as I am a fanboy of this franchise, I will definitely write at least a few more articles about it.