The Witcher 3’s Love Triangle Was a Last-Minute Addition—CDPR’s CEO Now Calls It a Brilliant Move
The Witcher’s hottest fight won’t die: Yennefer or Triss? The fandom’s loyalty test still ignites timelines, floods polls, and turns comment sections into battlegrounds.
Here is a fun behind-the-scenes curveball: The Witcher 3, a generational RPG everyone basically agrees on, almost shipped without the thing fans argue about the most. The whole Triss vs Yennefer love triangle? That was a late addition.
How the triangle actually happened
CD Projekt co-CEO Adam Badowski told PC Gamer that the romance path we all love to debate was not part of the plan early on. The team eventually realized the story needed a more personal tug-of-war for Geralt beyond the high-stakes stuff with Ciri. In plain English: the game had heart, but it needed some mess.
"This decision was made pretty late, but it was great."
- Early development: no love triangle in the romance design
- Midway reality check: despite the Ciri storyline, they felt a lack of personal conflict for Geralt
- Late change: bring Yennefer fully into the picture and make the player choose
That tracks if you remember how Yennefer, barely present in the first two games, storms into The Witcher 3 and immediately turns Geralt's life into a beautiful disaster. Beyond adding drama, it also makes this finale feel like Geralt is tying up old business and, dare I say, finally growing up.
Why it works (and why people still fight about it)
For a pre-defined hero like Geralt, a love triangle is kind of the perfect headache. He has history with both women, and you cannot pretend it did not happen. That is why The Witcher 3 romances still get debated the way Final Fantasy 7 fans have been sparring over Tifa vs Aerith since dial-up.
It is also a nice tonal counterpoint on the current RPG spectrum: more intimate and character-rooted than Baldur's Gate 3's maximalist thirst, and certainly not as chaste as Avowed appears to be. Both approaches are valid; this one just hits different.
Where the dev lands on Team Triss vs Team Yen
"My choice will always be Yennefer."
That is Badowski planting his flag. And yes, if you try to romance both, the game gleefully punishes your indecision. You end up with neither. Actions, consequences, etc.
Bonus tidbit: someone had to fight for swimming
While we are on late-stage decisions, Badowski also pushed for swimming because the world had so much water it would be ridiculous not to let you dive in. His note from those days, as he tells it:
"Where's swimming?"