CD Projekt had to nerf Ciri for The Witcher 4 after she fully unlocked her spacetime teleportation powers in the previous game: 'Something totally happened in-between'

First reported by GamesRadar, CD Projekt Red developers have revealed that Ciri's powers of teleportation are going to be seriously toned down or even absent in The Witcher 4⁠—no more zipping around like an anime protagonist for Zireael. She'll make up for it, though, with full Trial of the Grasses witcher potion-chugging and some more impressive offensive magical abilities than Geralt's dinky signs.

In a larger interview about The Witcher 4 with GamesRadar, executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga addressed "the gap between her being totally overpowered at the end of the previous game and now, with the skill set we showed off in the trailer." Mitręga would only say that "something totally happened in-between."

"We had to delve deep to consider how we would address this⁠—we have huge respect for the lore, for both the books and for what made it into our previous games," Mitręga explained, "But this was one of the first questions we found the answer for, and it's how we were able to create this original story which starts with The Witcher 4."

As for what Ciri will offer instead, Mitręga said that "She's faster, more agile⁠—but you can still tell that she was raised by Geralt, right?" It also sounds like Ciri will have more intensive magic abilities at her disposal than Geralt's witcher signs⁠—the power she uses to zap the monster in The Witcher 4's first trailer is apparently a spell called "Bolt."

Speaking to Eurogamer, game director Sebastian Kalemba provided a similar summation of Ciri's depowering: It's a secret, but it was something they worked on extensively and that will figure in the story. "We cannot tell you exactly how," said Kalemba. "But we can tell you just, like, believe us: that was one of the things, or first things, that we were solving, to make sure⁠—the way we develop here, we do not leave anything without a clear answer. And the answer we'll provide for sure, as soon as we let you experience the game."

I found these explanations reassuring: One of my big concerns about having Ciri as a protagonist moving forward was that she was just so overwhelmingly powerful by the end of The Witcher 3, and I also didn't really enjoy how those powers felt in her playable segments from Wild Hunt. Don't get me wrong, those sections were great story and presentation-wise, and they were in a whole other league than The Witcher 2's sluggish alternate player characters, but her zippy teleporting always just felt too slippery and frictionless.

The potential for playing a more full-on spellsword Ciri has me intrigued. Lore-wise, Witcher signs are supposed to be situational cantrips, but a sign-based battlemage build made for a fun way to play The Witcher 3, with Geralt unlocking a flamethrower version of Igni, frost-empowered Aard, and (my favorite) an alternate turret version of Yrden. As for how Ciri lost her spacetime juice, I could see anything from a voluntary relinquishing of her dangerous powers, to them having faded after the defeat of the White Frost, to some nefarious entity having sapped them away.