Last month at Gamescom, CD Projekt Red unveiled a first look at its upcoming expansion for its decade-old, beloved video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, bringing players back to the Continent for one last adventure with Geralt of Rivia before he passes the torch to his adopted daughter Ciri as the new lead in The Witcher 4. On top of that, the game studio announced a remaster of The Witcher 3 that will be free to anyone who already owns the game, which, realistically, is probably most of us who are excited about this thing. It's nigh unheard of for a single-player game this old to get this kind treatment, but if any deserves it, there's little doubt it's CD Projekt Red's fantasy masterpiece.
On top of that, we've got a new Witcher book that came out last year from Andrzej Sapkowski titled Crossroads of Ravens, and Netflix is still hard at work putting the finishing touches on the fifth and final season of The Witcher television show. Has there ever been a more exciting time to be a fan of this saga?
Despite the ever-growing media empire around Sapkowski's dark fantasy world, the talk right now is all about Songs of the Past, the upcoming expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which is slated to release sometime in 2027. And while there are plenty of reasons to be excited about it, from its new monsters to its new location, additional weapons, returning characters, and, obviously, more Gwent, the thing that has me most looking forward to playing Songs of the Past as a longtime fan of The Witcher Saga is one thing in particular: the expansion's focus on Geralt and Dandelion.
While much ado has been made over the years about Geralt's romantic prospects like Yennefer of Vengerberg or Triss Merigold, and Ciri will always take center stage whenever she's involved in a Witcher story, it all started with Geralt and Dandelion. The witcher and the bard met all the way back in Sapkowski's short story "The Edge of the World," which was first published in The Last Wish short fiction collection in 1993. Geralt may have had adventures with plenty of companions over the years, but for many fans, he and Dandelion remain the original duo of the series.
Over the course of the decades since The Last Wish was first published in Poland, Geralt and Dandelion's odd-couple friendship has remained a core part of The Witcher in all its various iterations, from subsequent books, to adaptations, and of course the games. Even Netflix's adaptation, which many fans have criticized for how loosely it handles Sapkowski's source material, managed to totally nail the Geralt-Dandelion friendship.
Unfortunately, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt didn't spend very much time on Geralt and Dandelion, because there was simply too much else going on. This is something the developers at CD Projekt Red and Fool's Theory — the studio that took lead on the expansion — are seeking to rectify with Songs of the Past.
Geralt and Dandelion's friendship is at the heart of Songs of the Past
While Songs of the Past is a totally original story set in The Witcher world, Fool's Theory CEO Jakub Rokosz told EuroGamer that the team "always takes a lot of inspiration" from Sapkowski's books. CD Projekt Red senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki explained a step farther, detailing how Geralt and Dandelion's relationship became the focus of this new expansion, which is set in the bard's homeland of Letten.
"The story is original, but I would say what we took from the books was Geralt and Dandelion's close relationship, and we didn't have the space in Witcher 3 to explore that because there were so many other topics to focus on — namely, Geralt's relationship with Ciri," Anetaki said.
"So this expansion was a great opportunity to actually talk about Dandelion and make him a more fleshed-out character," she added. "[In the base game], we didn't have that much space to explore him, and now we have the space to explore him, tell his story, and see him more fully. In the books, for example, he has these more philosophical conversations with Geralt — now we get to actually see a deeper side to Dandelion in the game, too."
Why Songs of the Past made the right call to center Dandelion
As a longtime fan of the franchise, this is all music to my ears. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was indeed so full to the brim with other stories and character dynamics that it didn't spend much time at all on Geralt and Dandelion. That didn't particularly bother me at the time because those other stories were so good, but if we're going to finally put a pin in Geralt's story and pass the silver sword on to Ciri as the new face of the video game series, one last outing with his best friend the bard is the perfect way to do it.
Of all the traveling companions Geralt shares the road with in Sapkowski's Witcher books, there is no doubt that Dandelion is the best of them. The two have an utterly iconic rapport, which shifts effortlessly between jokes, philosophy, dreamy musings, and grumpy retorts. Anyone who has read or watched The Witcher knows these two are the true heart of the series. While I never felt their absence that keenly in The Witcher 3 video game, now that we know we'll be seeing more of them together in Songs of the Past, I can't help but feel like this is absolutely the right way to end Geralt's saga.
Sure, a vineyard in Toussaint is sublime, with wine and Gwent enough to keep a wandering monster hunter satisfied till the end of his days. But what is that to the companionship of his oldest and most loyal friend? It's time we see more of Geralt and Dandelion, and Songs of the Past is going to give it to us while simultaneously delving deeper into the bard's backstory than we've ever seen, even in Sapkowski's writings. I don't want to get too hyperbolic, but it really does feel like a dream come true and a wonderful way to close out one of the best video games of the modern era.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Songs of the Past releases sometime in 2027. We'll have our ear to the ground and our eyes on the Path for more updates.
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