The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was developed by CD Projekt RED, published by CD Projekt in 2015, and for the this essay it is being played on PC. The protagonist Geralt is on a journey to find his adopted daughter Ciri who is being chased by the Wild Hunt. It is an open-world action roleplaying game where players fight monsters with swords and magic and go on quests. This essay is going to examine the Armor Crafting system and how it is linked to three earlier sources: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, 1979), Baldur 's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (BioWare, 2000), and Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix, 2006). Additionally, it will examine the visual design of Geralt and how The Witcher book series, which the game is based on, and
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Each set is distinctly different from every other in shape, color, and fit but they all fit firmly within the style of the game. The Witcher Gear armor sets also have upgrades that change the appearance of the pieces. His wolf head medallion, also from the book, is the only thing he wears that stays with him. Primarily the colors are browns, blacks, and other earth tones but Feline and Griffin deviate noticeably. All armors make use of heavy layering and a mixture of materials. The design of these armors draw heavily on actual medieval armor (Donnelly, 2015). Stan Just, director for the character artist team and the cinematic designers, talks about how in order to make the armor as realistic and authentic as possible the concept artists would often go to museums to examine real medieval clothing to see what the issues were, how they were solved, and make it visually clear how the armor was put on (McAllister, 2014). A few examples are the Feline body armor is a brigandine, the Griffin armor is a cuirass, and the Ursine armor is a long gambeson with spaulders on the shoulders/upper arms. They may all be stylized to make them look more visually interesting but their designs are all heavily based on these types of authentic medieval armor. There are many reasons the developer would use medieval armor as a source. Firstly, these armors already exist and because it likely took numerous years before they reached the stage they got to, all the issues with the design had been fixed already. Secondly, the game world is heavily influenced by Poland and, in Skellige, Scandinavian and Scotland (Diver, 2016), so having armors that are also based in the real world means they fit together more
Each set is distinctly different from every other in shape, color, and fit but they all fit firmly within the style of the game. The Witcher Gear armor sets also have upgrades that change the appearance of the pieces. His wolf head medallion, also from the book, is the only thing he wears that stays with him. Primarily the colors are browns, blacks, and other earth tones but Feline and Griffin deviate noticeably. All armors make use of heavy layering and a mixture of materials. The design of these armors draw heavily on actual medieval armor (Donnelly, 2015). Stan Just, director for the character artist team and the cinematic designers, talks about how in order to make the armor as realistic and authentic as possible the concept artists would often go to museums to examine real medieval clothing to see what the issues were, how they were solved, and make it visually clear how the armor was put on (McAllister, 2014). A few examples are the Feline body armor is a brigandine, the Griffin armor is a cuirass, and the Ursine armor is a long gambeson with spaulders on the shoulders/upper arms. They may all be stylized to make them look more visually interesting but their designs are all heavily based on these types of authentic medieval armor. There are many reasons the developer would use medieval armor as a source. Firstly, these armors already exist and because it likely took numerous years before they reached the stage they got to, all the issues with the design had been fixed already. Secondly, the game world is heavily influenced by Poland and, in Skellige, Scandinavian and Scotland (Diver, 2016), so having armors that are also based in the real world means they fit together more