Some foes players will face in The Witcher: Monster Slayer, such as strigas, will only appear at night. The upcoming mobile game based off of The Witcher intellectual property is an augmented reality experience in the vein of Pokémon GO and will launch for free on July 21, 2021.
The goal in The Witcher: Monster Slayer is explained plainly in the game's title. Players become expert monster slayers by learning about and tracking creatures before engaging them in battle. Not all fights will be the same, however, and players will be given the opportunity to prep for each one by choosing their weapons and armor and brewing Witcher potions. The real world will also play a major factor in The Witcher: Monster Slayer as things like weather conditions and even the time of day will affect which monsters are on the prowl at a given time.
During the WitcherCon stream, which can be found on Netflix's YouTube channel, there was a demonstration of how real time affects The Witcher: Monster Slayer. The creature being hunted in the showcase is a striga, which is a human woman that has been transformed into a monster via a curse. Strigas, however, only come out at night in Witcher lore and therefore they do the same in The Witcher: Monster Slayer. That means that in order to hunt a striga, or any other nocturnal creature for that matter, a player will need to wait until nightfall before facing off with the monstrosity.
The developers behind The Witcher: Monster Slayer seem intent on sticking pretty close to the source material when it comes to monster lore and while that seems good in theory, it might be not be as practical in execution. Strigas in Witcher lore, for example, only appear during a full moon. While that could make for an interesting monthly in-game event, it might not be in the developer's best interest to stay too close to the lore in that instance. Currently it is unclear just how closely The Witcher: Monster Slayer will follow the rules established by the books and games.
When it comes to these mobile augmented reality games, the thing that seems to drive their success is how collecting certain in-game elements interacts with the real world. Much of Pokémon GO's appeal, for example, comes from finding different types of pocket monsters depending on where one actually is in the world, as well as the charm that comes with interacting with an adorable Pokémon in the real world through AR technology. The Witcher: Monster Slayer does have some collectable aspects in the form of trophies earned through battles, and only time will tell if that has enough of a draw to keep the player base thriving.
The Witcher: Monster Slayer will be free to download on iOS and Android devices from July 21.
Source: Netflix/YouTube