It must be incredibly weird to play a game and constantly hear your own voice popping off—especially when that game is as long as The Witcher 3. But that didn’t stop the best version of Geralt of Rivia, Doug Cockle, from playing through the entirety of the game and netting himself the best ending.
Chatting to GoatedSynro on YouTube (cheers, GamesRadar), Cockle said he’s played through the game once, “I don’t have enough time in my life to find all the endings”, but that he got the ending he wanted the first time around.
“I knew the ending that I wanted. I didn’t know all the endings, I didn’t know exactly what CD Projekt Red had in store for us depending on the choices we make, but I knew that one of the possibilities was that Geralt would end up with Triss and that Ciri would be a witcher and everybody lives happily ever after. And that is the one I got. I was working towards it, but I couldn’t remember all the choices, I didn’t know the choices that would lead me there. I just made the choices that I thought would be helpful in getting me toward that ending.”
Ciri becoming a witcher is usually considered the most favourable ending, though there’s more of a debate over what romantic partner Big Gerry should end up with. Though I’m with Cockle, here. Yen’s a bit of a bully, and he has a lot more fun with Triss. They’re besties. Also, there’s the hair: “I’m partial to red heads,” he said.
Surprisingly, though, Shani beats out both of them for Cockle’s favourite romance. Triss comes in at number two, and Yen at three.
Cockle also ranked all the areas, and Skellige is his favourite: “I loved the whole Crach an Craite thing,” he said. “I love the whole place; I just thought it was a brilliant area to explore.” And he’s got a soft spot for Kaer Morhen, which comes in at number two. “I liked exploring Geralt’s home,” he said, “and so many fun things happen in Kaer Morhen. Kaer Morhen is where they all get drunk and dress up in women’s clothes, and stuff like that. So that’s good fun.”
While it features The Witcher 3’s best quest, he placed Velen closer to the bottom, behind Toussaint and Novigrad. He liked the area, especially Crookback Bog, but the Bloody Baron quest drove him “bonkers”.
“The Bloody Baron, that quest drove me bonkers in the beginning, because it was before I had access to, or before I discovered the ability to fast travel in the world. So I was just riding my fricking horse up and down that hill. And you have to leave Roach and some point, and then you’re just running up the hill. And it was just up and down, up and down, it drove me crazy.”
Unfortunately fast travel wouldn’t have made a difference, as the fast travel point isn’t quite close enough to the titular baron to let you avoid running up and down that hill.
I don’t think I’ll ever tire of listening to Cockle talk about The Witcher—and thankfully he doesn’t seem sick of talking about it, either. And it’s also a treat to listen to a performer enthuse about the game as a player, rather than just as someone who worked on it. It’s well worth giving the video a watch to hear his full romance and location rankings.
