Line #8 YMMV/TheWitcher2AssassinsOfKings


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3	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The game is full with it.
4	** Is Roche a [[MyCountryRightOrWrong murderous fanatic]] who has a HairTriggerTemper over petty things and is fighting for the wrong side or a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold gruff, but honorable]] friend who does what he does [[WellIntentionedExtremist for the greater good?]]
5	** Similarly, is Iorveth a murderous terrorist who has [[HeWhoFightsMonsters forgotten what he used to stand for and become every bit as bad as the people he fought]] or a genuine freedom fighter whose dreams are an admirable goal?
6	* AngstWhatAngst: In the Iorveth path of Chapter 3, [[spoiler: Philippa Eilhard does scream when she has her eyes gouged out, but she's still remarkably composed in the following scene and doesn't seem to take long to recover.]]
7	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
8	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve63nrGxIyM "The Main Theme"]] perfectly captures the DarkerAndEdgier tone of the sequel.
9	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2AKB7g3hr0 "A Nearly Peaceful Place"]] is a sad yet beautiful track.
10	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg3L0nSZEqo "Path of a Kingslayer"]] really gets you pumped up.
11	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWHl7y1hbfI "Blue Mountaints"]] is a calm, atmospheric track fitting for the game's last chapter.
12	* BizarroEpisode: Iorveth's path ends up becoming this in as of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'', on account of the fact that [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse neither Iorveth nor Saskia show up in the third game, regardless of their story's outcome]]. Furthermore, the entire political element is largely rendered moot [[spoiler: on account of Nilfgaard conquering most of the Northern Kingdoms, Aedirn included, not long after the game ends]]. The only thing from this path that plays into the sequel is the introduction of Philippa Eilhard [[spoiler: and establishing why she's missing her eyes]].
13	* CompleteMonster: [[SmallTownTyrant Bernard Loredo]] is the thuggish Commandant of Flotsam [[IOwnThisTown who runs the town like his own personal fiefdom]], [[DirtyCop running criminal enterprises]] and [[FantasticRacism instituting racist policies against nonhumans.]] When Iorveth's men kill some of Loredo's, Loredo sends out his soldiers to incite riots against the innocent, nonhuman residents of Flotsam, leading to butchery and mass murder of nonhumans in the streets. Eventually, Loredo has the Scoia'tael members and their sympathizers rounded up on a prison barge which he plans on sinking instead of delivering to prison. If Geralt sides with Roche and kills Loredo, the Witcher will discover, [[{{Hypocrite}} despite Loredo's hatred of nonhumans]], the Commandant imprisoned, beat, and raped an elven woman for a year, eventually impregnating her. The woman was so traumatized by the events that immediately after giving birth she killed herself. Should Geralt choose to side with Iorveth and hijack the prison barge, Loredo responds by spitefully trying to burn down a building full of elven women. If Geralt chooses to save the women rather than kill Loredo, Loredo will succeed in turning traitor and selling out Flotsam to the kingdom of Kaedwen.
14	* DifficultySpike: The Witcher 2's claim to infamy, despite being an intentional choice on the part of the developers. A tutorial was eventually patched in to explain the many, many new gameplay mechanics. The tutorial can be one of the hardest bits of the game, as Geralt has very few of his abilities unlocked but enemies aren't any weaker to compensate.
15	* DracoInLeatherPants: Letho, so much. Many players seem willing to forgive him because he’s pretty nice to Geralt and wants to rebuild the Viper witcher school. But this in no way excuses him for multiple regicide, killing dozens of innocents, and plunging the Northern realms into chaos –- actions which directly lead to wars that would cost thousands of lives.
16	** That said, he is a [[TheStateless witcher]], thus not a subject or sworn in loyalty to the Northern realms or monarchs who likewise hadn't intervened to help the School of the Viper after the Usurper destroyed it and the south was persecuting his kind. Thus, Letho was looking out for his fellow witchers when nobody else was, as well as likely facing death from Emhyr [[AnOfferYouCantrefuse if he refused to go along with the plot]] and was between a rock and a hard place. He was also only in said position with Emhyr because he tried to repay Geralt for saving his life, and had he not gone along with it [[ManipulativeBastard Emhyr]] would have almost certainly simply executed him and his brethren unceremoniously and found someone else to do it. And all the while he and the Kingslayers were being watched and followed by the Nilgaardian Secret Service, until Letho is potentially able to escape their grasp in the chaos of the ending. Either way, [[TheUnfettered Letho]] is [[IDidWhatIHadToDo utterly unrepentant]] for carrying out the mission the Nilfgaardians gave him:
17	-->'''Letho:''' Kill as many rulers as possible. Lay the blame on the sorceresses. Breed chaos. Prepare the North, soften it before the invasion.\
18	'''Letho:''' And you know what’s incredible? We could not have imagined more fertile soil.\
19	'''Letho:''' No matter what the war’s outcome, the Northern monarchs’ll accuse one another, pursue their god-given rights, seek vengeance, and be at each others’ throats for years to come.
20	* GameBreaker: [[GameBreaker/TheWitcher Has its own page]].
21	* MagnificentBastard: [[GeniusBruiser Letho of Gulet]] is a talented Witcher who joins with Nilfgaard to create a homeland for his fellow Witchers. Letho becomes the Kingslayer, a [[ProfessionalKiller feared assassin]] who uses his wiles to position himself close to the rulers of the northern kingdoms and assassinates them, provoking chaotic reactions in order to weaken the north so Nilfgaard will be able to invade. Against Geralt, Letho shows himself to be a crafty, skilled fighter who even considers the White Wolf a friend [[VillainRespect worthy of the greatest respect]]. [[FaceOfAThug A brutish looking man]], Letho also uses the appearance of DumbMuscle to his advantage so none know how truly intelligent and dangerous he is until it's too late, playing both the Lodge of Sorceresses and the Scoia'tael alike like a fiddle for his own ends.
22	* MemeticBadass: Vernon is an in universe example. One character notes that he's heard that Vernon cuts off the ears of elves and eats them.
23	* MoralEventHorizon:
24	** The deciding factor for most players killing or sparing Henselt is probably whether or not [[spoiler: they can stomach the thought of him living after raping Ves and gloating about it right in front of Geralt and Roche.]]
25	** Depending on the playthrough, Loredo has a few potential moments where he may have crossed it; exactly when depends on the player. The first can be when he arranges for riots and mass murder of innocent nonhumans in Flotsam. The second can be when Geralt sides with Roche and discovers Loredo [[spoiler:has kept an elven woman as a SexSlave for a year]]. The third can be when Geralt sides with Iorveth and Loredo personally sets fire to a house full of innocent elven women just to spite the Witcher.
26	* {{Narm}}:
27	** The fact that in English dub, Letho seems to talk in an ''extremely'' Southern accent seems rather out of place in the setting and makes some of his dialogue hard to take seriously. This doesn't match up with the original Polish dub where he's voiced by an actor associated with playing and voicing die-hard badasses, without any accent, which blends flawlessly into the character.
28	** Nekkars make obvious stock jungle cat noises whenever they spot you. The soundbite is so recognizable and obvious, it sounds hilariously jarring coming from a humanoid, undead creature.
29	* NarmCharm
30	** On the subject of Letho's voice in the English dub, Letho reveals at the end of the game that ObfuscatingStupidity is pretty much his standard MO. Anybody who comes across him is NOT supposed to take him seriously. Many of the other witchers also have American accents, and Letho's southern one, virtually unheard of in the medieval fantasy genre, also serves to make him stand apart from them and from everyone else, adding a uniqueness to his character.
31	* OneSceneWonder: The Draug.
32	* PolishedPort: Barring lower graphical fidelity and visuals, the Xbox 360 port made many significant improvements over the PC original. The controls were revised for the controller and introduced a new tutorial that thoroughly explained the mechanics of the game. The port also tweaked the game's difficulty curve of the prologue mission, meaning that players would no longer have to worry about being stuck as a result of attacks being interrupted mid-swing by an enemy hitting Geralt from the side. As if that wasn't enough, people who purchased the port received a game guide, a world map, concept art, interviews, a soundtrack, four hours of additional gameplay, and a code to redeem a separate PC copy from GOG.
33	* ScrappyMechanic:
34	** While it's much better than in the first game, there are still various problems with the combat (one example being a lack of a hard target lock, a feature that was perfected [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime 13 years before Witcher 2]]).
35	** The fistfighting went from an easy, yet still skill and reflex-based, venture in the first game to an easy, long, and boring series of ActionCommands.
36	** The dice rolling now has a manual swing function, which causes dices to roll off the board (and count as nothing) quite often if you aren't ''very'' careful.
37	** There's also the fact that you're not given the option to overwrite a save file, with the game instead creating a new save file ''every time you save'' including autosaves. So, in order to prevent the game from slowing down, you have to manually deleted loads of save files on a regular basis, especially if you tend to use SaveScumming or are just cautious enough to save every few minutes.
38	** [[UselessUsefulStealth The stealth sections]] are horribly clunky and unintuitive with [[TheAllSeeingAI enemies able to spot Geralt with ease]]. Mercifully, most of them aren't mandatory and stealth is done away with for [[VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt next game]].
39	** You can only drink potions while meditating, which means you can't use them during combat. Worse still, the effects continue to wear off during cutscenes, meaning if you drank some in preparation for a boss fight and don't skip the cutscenes, you can find yourself with only seconds left on the potions you just drank and no way to drink any more.
40	* SignatureScene: The romance scene with Triss in the elven baths is remembered by many players for [[BestKnownForTheFanservice obvious reasons]].
41	* ThatOneAchievement: The achievement called "Madman" involves beating the game on [[HarderThanHard insane difficulty]] which is FinalDeathMode. Since the game is already difficult, you truly have to be a Madman to pursue this achievement.
42	* ThatOneBoss: Vandergrift/the Draug can be a very brutal boss since you will not have any time to drink any potions before the battle. His melee attacks hit very hard and he can block and counter most of your attacks. He also calls in archers and trebuchets to fire upon you for good measure.
43	** The first encounter with Letho. He spams powerful shields, and while you're patiently chipping away at his health you must never, ever let him hit you, because he'll take you out in three blows.
44	* ThatOneLevel: The [[EarlyGameHell prologue and the first chapter]]. While the game was designed to be difficult, the opening went too far for many players and caused them to give up on the game. There isn't any kind of tutorial for the new mechanics, and the player has too few abilities unlocked against enemies that can make short work of them. It was so bad that it needed to be patched to make the game easier.
45	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Anaïs La Valette. She is one of the two bastard children Foltest is fighting a war over at the beginning of the game, and is his only surviving heir by the end. She goes through a lot of [[BreakTheCutie offscreen trauma]] that implicitly leaves her [[DumbStruck unable to speak]], and is also the ''only'' witness to her father's death, which you expect would make her a key factor in proving Geralt's innocence once she finally finds her voice again. Unfortunately, that never happens. She serves as a LivingMacguffin at the end of Roche's path, doesn't factor into Iorveth's at all, and receives a grand total of ''one'' off-hand mention in the third game.
46	* TooCoolToLive: [[spoiler:King Foltest. Then again, the title of the sequel is ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Assassins of Kings.]]]]''
47	* UglyCute: Many people want to give the troll from the "Troll Trouble" DLC a big hug. Besides the random hostile ones, every troll in the second game is absolutely adorable.
48	* WTHCostumingDepartment:
49	** Saskia's armor shows a lot of cleavage over providing protection to her heart and lungs. Potential FridgeBrilliance however, as [[spoiler:she doesn't need the protection anyway, given that she's actually a dragon; her ability to heal is epitomised by quickly recovering from impalement at the end of Chapter 3.]] Also, the sexy look could help sway the peasantry to her cause (as evidenced by one stolen dream you recover being a peasant having a sexual fantasy of Saskia).
50	** Ves wears what is mostly a practical outfit for combat, barring an egregious ImpossiblyLowNeckline. [[VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt Lampshaded in the next game by Roche]] who notes that she should be wearing proper armour.

Context YMMV / TheWitcher2AssassinsOfKings