Seven years may have passed since The Witcher 3‘s last big expansion, but Geralt (and the game) will still remember what you did or didn’t get up to during his prior expansion escapades when The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Songs of the Past DLC arrives next year.
The upcoming expansion takes place after the events of The Witcher 3’s two previous expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. Those who wrapped up Geralt’s vineyard-touring Toussaint adventures in the latter will recall that the grizzled and gravelly voiced warrior settled down to retire at the end of it. Or so we thought. Songs of the Past will see him pulled back into action one last time as a favor for his best bard buddy Dandelion.
If you haven’t gotten around to The Witcher 3’s existing expansions (and you really, really should), that doesn’t mean the new story will be off limits when it arrives. Though its events may play out at a later date, Songs of the Past won’t demand that players have beaten Hearts of Stone or Blood and Wine before jumping in. But it will account for whether you have. So long as you’ve wrapped up The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s main quest, Geralt and Dandelion will be ready to set out into the new region of Letten.
Speaking in an interview with VGC, Fool’s Theory creative vision director Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz and CD Projekt Red’s Paweł Sasko outlined how the new storyline will fit in with everything Geralt has or hasn’t accomplished so far in a given player’s game.
“We, of course, continue the story depending on whether the player has finished the second expansion or not,” says Kuzai-Rokosz. “We carry that in the story, in dialogue, consequences, and so on. But you do not have to finish previous expansions to start Songs of the Past.”
How Songs of the Past will adjust based on your choices in the other expansions remains to be seen. Presumably Geralt will be a whole lot grumpier when pulled out of wine-swilling retirement in his personal villa. I know I certainly would be if Dandelion wandered into my personal orchard.
So while Ciri might be taking the lead in The Witcher 4, old man Geralt of Rivia’s work isn’t quite finished just yet. In fact, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered giving Geralt and Ciri’s journey a fresh look (provided your PC can handle the system requirements) and bringing a suite of other adjustments, poor Geralt may have hundreds of hours left on horseback yet before the Toussaint sun beckons.
The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past expansion is due to release in 2027. The expansion – which arrives 11 years after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt first released – is being developed in partnership between Fool’s Theory and CD Projekt Red.