The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past’s First Gameplay Demo Showcases Geralt’s New Weapon and Deadly Enemies

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CD Projekt Red and co-developer Fool's Theory have shown the first gameplay footage of Songs of the Past, the forthcoming expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, at Gamescom. Arriving some eleven years after the base game's original release, the expansion is due out in 2027 and can already be wishlisted. It takes Geralt to Letten, a quiet, pastoral corner of the Continent far removed from the wars and politics that dominate the main story, and centres on a deeper exploration of Dandelion, the witcher's long-time bard companion, whose family and childhood home take centre stage.

Accounts of exactly how the plot kicks off vary slightly between previews. One version has Geralt recovering Dandelion's stolen lute from a man at a dockside before travelling to the bard's family estate, where he meets his cousin, Lilla, and begins to sense that something is badly wrong. Another describes the story beginning with Dandelion going missing shortly after Geralt's arrival in Letten, turning what should be a simple search into altogether more dangerous work. Either way, demo attendees agreed that Geralt spends time getting to know Dandelion's extended family, including Lilla and a grandmother figure, and that the writing, humour and cutscene direction remain distinctly true to the series' style. Geralt and Lilla go on to investigate a strange, overgrown location known as the garden of thorns, or mysterious grove, whose unnatural, maze-like design conceals hostile creatures.

Combat has also been expanded for the new content. Geralt gains a new chain-based weapon capable of yanking enemies towards him from a distance, which proves particularly useful against two newly revealed monsters: the Thornbloom, a tall plant-like creature that attacks with ranged acid, and the Swarmion, a ghoulish humanoid shielded by a swarm of hornets that the chain can strip away to open up finishing moves, including a particularly brutal decapitation. The demo also featured a boss encounter with an undead knight, with fights woven between stretches of exploration through the thorn garden. Overall, previewers described the moment-to-moment gameplay as very much in keeping with the structure CD Projekt Red established with the Blood and Wine expansion: a new region, fresh quests, new adversaries and a mix of familiar and new faces.

Several outlets also picked up on hints of a new romance option in Lilla, Dandelion's cousin, after journalists spotted dialogue choices during an emotional moment in the demo, including the option to comfort her with a hug. When pressed directly on whether Lilla would be a romanceable character, Fool's Theory chief executive Jakub Rokosz declined to confirm or deny it, saying the studio wanted players to discover such things for themselves, while a CD Projekt Red content strategist speaking separately said only that more romance options for Geralt were coming. On the story's origins, Rokosz and CD Projekt Red senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki explained that Songs of the Past is an original tale, not adapted from Andrzej Sapkowski's novels, though it draws on the books' portrayal of Geralt and Dandelion's friendship, a relationship the base game had little room to develop alongside Geralt's search for Ciri. The story was reportedly conceived years ago within CD Projekt Red by writers Ola Motyka and Philip Weber before being shelved and later revived once Fool's Theory, the Polish studio behind The Thaumaturge, was brought on to help develop it further.

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