CD Projekt RED announced that the third and final addition to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt entitled “Songs of the Past” is intended to “complete” the story of the game, giving due attention to Dandelion. Developers clarifiedthat the addition will not become a bridge to The Witcher 4as is said regularly, will close a chapter that the team felt was missing from the original game.
We always wanted to give Buttercup the attention he deserves. We knew there wasn’t room in the original game to do him justice. That’s what I wanted to say: give Jaskier his due.
Jakub Rokosz, head of Fool’s Theory studio and game director of “Ballads of the Past”
“Ballads of the Past” will make Jaskier the central character of Geralt’s final journey to The Witcher 3. Players will explore Letten, the bard’s homeland, and solve yet another supernatural mystery.
We knew that at some point we would want to explore this topic, because Jaskier is a very important character in Geralt’s life. There is a misconception that he is just comic relief and this is his only role in the series, but this is not true.
He is a deep and intelligent character. He was a professor at the Oxenfurt Academy and writes beautiful poetry, so we want to show players what is behind the mask of the jester, where he comes from, what his family is like and what the world was like in which he grew up.
Senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki added that it doesn’t matter how many years have passed since the release of the original game, the main thing is to tell the full story.
For us, the important thing is not whether it is worth releasing an expansion after 11 years, it could be 20 or 100 years. It is important that the story we tell is complete. This is part of the Wild Hunt, and it felt like one chapter was missing, like something was missing. One more thing we wanted to tell you.
And Dandelion’s story was one of them.
The developers noted that the team returned to Sapkowski’s original novels and used the source material to create something that could “captivate the fans” and “passionate the team itself more than anything else, because that was a difficult question when the idea was first presented to the developers.”
Geralt’s voice considers Jaskier to be the witcher’s true soul mate
Anetaki explained that the team needed to find a reason why Geralt “came back from retirement”, and a reason significant enough for a full-fledged addition. This reason was Geralt’s best friend, Dandelion.
Once we identified that big thing, everything came together and it became obvious: yes, we need to make this expansion because it really excites us as Witcher fans, and I hope players will feel the same.
The exact release date for “Ballads of the Past” has not yet been announced; the release is scheduled for 2027.
