However, a very different, but equally excellent storyline acts as the foundations to Blood and Wine, re-affirming the stance that the Witcher excels within it's story-telling and development of a great plot.
This final instalment sees Geralt travel to the new land of Toussaint, called upon by the Duchess of Touissaint, Anna Henrietta, to fulfil a contract against a seemingly unstoppable Vampire killing off members of the Royal Guard. The investigation into these string of murders takes numerous twists and turns along the way, culminating in multiple endings depending on the various paths the player can take through to the end of the questline.
The Hearts of Stone story was great, but Blood and Wine was even better for me personally, and made for the perfect end to a game that just seemed to keep ascending in quality right up until it's finale.
As previously mentioned, the similarities between both DLC packs lie within the trophy list, with a solid offering of 13 trophies again here, and as before too, a handful of these trophies are missable, relating to certain choices or moments within the main story quests that you'll have to keep on top of in order to make sure you potentially don't miss them.
This has been a consistent theme throughout the Witcher 3, including the main list, and is probably my only real criticism of the game. It's a shame for a title that contains such great stories that are a joy to watch unfold, that you have to read into the trophy descriptions if you're wanting to make sure you grab everything without the necessity to play through the story again for the fear of missing something.
This has led to me understanding certain plot points ahead of time as a consequence, which is something I would ideally loved to avoid entirely, but this game is long, and as I've mentioned before in other reviews linked to this game, I want to minimise repetition where possible for games that contain considerable length.
Of the 13 trophies here, 6 of them are missable, and of these 6, 4 of them relate to the main story arc, requiring you to perform certain actions which, if not fulfilled when required, will be bypassed entirely, with the only remedy being to hope you either have an earlier hard save to load up from, or just by simply starting again from the beginning.
Two of these trophies also split at the final quest, where you get the option to choose to approach the ending of the story through two different ways and thus, granting a trophy for experiencing each ending separately. You'll need to make sure you retain a hard save right before you make this choice, and since it occurs at the very end of the game, failure to be aware of this will require an entire second playthrough, and even just the main questline alone is around a 10-12 hour experience.
Both branches are a good 2-3 hours each, and they both offer unique quest paths with great endings, so it feels right to do them justice and include separate trophies for them within the list.
Away from the main story, the remainder of the trophies are fairly standard. Some of them are attached to the new side quests on offer which introduce some expansions to the game, including the addition of a new Gwent deck named after the Skellige region, where you'll have to collect all cards, and experimenting with the new mutations feature, which also awards a trophy once you've completed the relevant side quest.
One final thing worth noting, obtaining any set of the new Witcher gear available throughout Toussaint will also grant you a trophy, but you'll also need about 30,000-40,000 in coin to be able to afford/craft all 5 new Grandmaster Witcher sets, so watch out for that and be prepared for the possibility of selling everything you own for the sake of the trophy, which is exactly what I had to do.
There is a possibility that you might need to purchase the crafting items, which will save coin, but some of these crafting items are expensive if you don't already own them, and each of the 6 items needed for a full set has a crafting fee on top. Luckily, I had alot of items hoarded in my inventory with enough value to afford all this, but I'm completely unsure what the contingency plan would have been had I needed to raise the majority of this money.
Overall, an excellent way to end the Witcher 3. It's one of the most polished and complete games I've ever played, and despite the missable trophies, not just here within this DLC offering, but across the game, being a little bit too frequent, it doesn't do much wrong.
This package floats somewhere within the 25-30 hours range, given the amount of side content the trophies away from the main story will require you to explore, as well as having to complete the game to 2 different endings. As long as you're aware to not miss anything that could set you back, especially before making the final decision of the story, and you've got enough coin/valuables to be able to afford a full set of Grandmaster Witcher armour, it's a fairly relaxed experience.
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