I see nothing about Geralt that is “well-rounded”. His personality is not, as that would require “fully developed in all aspects” (that is the definition) - by his own admission. I’m sure the original writer would agree. He has almost the opposite of a “well-rounded” personality, in that he is quite narrowly focused on certain parts of his personality and thinking. He is not a “man for all seasons”. He’s basically a man for one season - winter, who can, on occasion, rise to being for what I guess you would say is a very mild summer. This is something I not only think the original writer would agree with, but something the writers of the game would say - Geralt is often uncomfortable or barely able to deal with social situations, particularly where others are being emotional and the solution isn’t just “being brusque and bossy” (which Geralt is okay at). Sometimes he manages, but it’s often more the effort of the another person to work around him.
His personality is also inconsistently expressed. Part of that is the natural functionality of an RPG, but part of it is clearly writers with inconsistent opinions about what’s going on under the facade. It’s particularly problematic when he has lines available that just seem wildly out of character. I would offer that TW3 has a worse problem with this than any other major AAA CRPG. Like, people complain about that in the ME games, but here’s it’s much worse (when it happens), because you usually only have two dialogue choices (aside from the occasional “go back” or “tell me more”-type choice), and if one of them is “Agree completely with asshole” and the other is “Say something nasty and out-of-character” (as is the case on a number of occasions), that’s pretty awful.
Also, can I just say I find this idea to be actively juvenile and practically worthy of Top Gear:
That’s the worst, cheapest kind of faux-macho strawman, and given you’re not Jeremy Clarkson or one of his little pals, it’s sad to see it. Obviously no-one is suggesting that they want a “lovey-dovey caricature”, are they?
Sadly somewhat true. You could definitely argue “Space Marine with a Heart of Gold”, but that’s really up to the player, because he can just be “Space Marine who is a Total Twat”. Either way his inconsistent stoicism/lack-of-affect robs him of much impact as he could have. On the upside for the game’s success, I think it helps him with a less mature, less self-aware male audience is who are somewhat scared of emotion, particularly of men showing emotion. By keeping him in the safe zone, he remains palatable and doesn’t get “too real”.
Re: being a twat, the line Shadoko brought up is a good example of twattitude and inconsistent writing - the idea that the Baron and his wife are “the same” is beyond a joke, and in context, isn’t even a manuever or something, it’s just a really stupid and odd thing Geralt is allowed to say.
There’s a bunch of that, particularly in the earlier portions of the game. Sometimes it’s not well-indicated by the dialogue shown, either - I remember selecting one option when dealing with Keira Metz, which seems a straightforward “I don’t really agree”-type options, but which was actually a vicious and venomous rebuke - but the only other option was to agree with something rather silly.
