For eleven years and counting, millions upon millions of players around the world have ranted, raved, and spun entire conversations around The Witcher 3's epic Bloody Baron questline. The writing is flawless. Choices, unforgettable. The voice performances are suitably sublime.
That last part is a reasonable touch of irony in light of Geralt of Rivia's own voice actor's recent comment. As it turns out, the brilliantly talented Doug Cockle was overwhelmed by a sense of sadness in the game at this pivotal point in his playthrough, giving a comical little flourish to the sequence that stuck Cockle's terrific line deliveries in our minds for over a decade.
Bonkers
“I was just riding my crazy horse up and down that hill,” Doug Cockle told YouTuber GoatedSynro (link below) in a recent interview. Cockle wasn't yet able to fast travel at that point in his playthrough, and, unlike real freaks like yours truly, he apparently doesn't subscribe to the time-maximizing trend of eschewing fast travel whenever possible in favor of a more immersive experience. Maybe because a guy like Doug Cockle is doing a lot more in his day-to-day than I am; Not going to lie.
“The Bloody Baron, that quest drove me bonkers to begin with.” – Doug Cockle
The context for Cockle's insight comes from the core of GoatedSynro's challenge: Geralt's VA was tasked with ranking every region and every romance in The Witcher 3. (Whelan finished fifth.) “You have to let go of the roach at some point, and then you're just running with the perfection of that delivery line,” Cockle the Sulter line. the role “It was just up and down, up and down, up and down. It drove me crazy.” I'm glad Doug will never attend my little “I'm going to grind to level 20 at the beginning of Xenogears for literally no reason” replays of old-school JRPGs.
You can check out the full interview below, and credit to GamesRadar+ for bringing it to my attention in the first place. It would have been completely missed.
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