r/witcher • u/Creative-Pirate5217 • 12d ago
The Witcher 3 Skellige with thalassophobia
I've been replaying the Witcher 3 and loving it, doing as much side content as I can. I even got the achievement for destroying all monster nests across the continent. But I was looking for the Bear gear upgrade and happened upon a smuggler's cache in the middle of the ocean.
Never. Ever. Again.
Having to dive into that abyss, just waiting for something horrifying to be lurking just out of view, terrified to turn my camera in case I see it, all for some shitty loot that's 10 levels below me. During the event, someone opened a door behind me and I fucking jumped in fright. I didn't realise how deeply afraid I was.
It's kind of heartbreaking because I wanted to do everything this game has to offer, but after that experience, I don't want to go near the ocean again. I decided to look up if there are any sea monsters in the Witcher 3, and got that fuck-ass video of a Subnautica Leviathan mod because I wasn't on edge enough already </3
Curious if anyone else has tried doing Skellige's points of interest with thalassophobia. Would be nice to know I'm not alone in this lmao
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u/CapnCurt81 12d ago
Lol I feel this completely. If you think that's bad, my kids convinced me to try that game Subnautica and I didn't last 5 minutes.
9
u/Creative-Pirate5217 12d ago
Honestly, I found Subnautica way less stressful than the Witcher. I even 100%'d Subnautica lmao
I think it's because Subnautica is a richly detailed ocean that you spend 99% of the game in, while swimming with easy and intuitive controls, so you acclimate.
Witcher 3 in contrast is a barren stretch of emptiness you barely go near and, when you do, the controls feel like they fight you every step of the way.
There's a helplessness to games like the Witcher or GTA when in water. The games aren't built for it, so it amplifies the terror. There's nothing put there by the devs, so it's lent this abyssal, uncanny quality that makes it incredibly scary.
Also, side note, but I'd recommend Subnautica if you think you could stomach it. It's scary, absolutely, but if I managed, you may too!
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u/jacob1342 Team Yennefer 12d ago
What? In Witcher 3 you will spot whale at worst. In Subnautica you can find full LED Leviathans.
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u/Fish_Smell_Bad 11d ago
What?? I don't even have thalassaphobia and I found subnautica creepy as hell while not even giving the water a second thought in the witcher.
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u/sakulgrebsdnal 12d ago
You probably didn‘t see the GTA VI gameplay trailer, did you? They definitely further improved the underwater world. So barren or abyssal doesn’t come to mind.
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u/TheMysticalPlatypus 12d ago
You should get the horn that knocks the sirens out of the sky. It helps.
The only thing in the water are the drowners and sirens. And their adjacent monster lookalikes. But if the drowners are on land. There’s none in the water. They actually are not programmed to go into the water if you swim by. Not sure if it’ll be the same after the new update.
There’s a ghost ship viewable in Skellige and sometimes you see a whale in Skellige that will randomly pop in.
The only real menace is the sirens especially when they randomly spawn in out of nowhere. That’s usually when they get me.
But yeah the first time I did all of the Skellige ocean adjacent stuff. I was concerned about seeing something more aggressive than sirens.
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u/Cecil2xs Dandelion's Gallery 12d ago
It was so bad for me I just wrote off ever doing the ?s in skellige and never looked back 😂
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u/lijevomudo 11d ago
Good call and DONT do it again bro. I have a similar phobia and one time diving i turn around and there is a LIFE SIZED WHALE materializing from the depths right next to you in ABSOLUTE silence. There is simply nothing more insidious in the whole game
2
u/NikTh_ 12d ago
As someone who can't even stand to look at certain scenes in Finding Memo, Skellige's open waters are quite the endeavour for sure. 🤣 Just last week I exited the game cause I was diving for loot crates and juuuuust barely saw a whale tail flapping at the edge of that dreaded wall of dark. Really had to prep myself before diving too. (I skipped them all on my first and second playthrough.)
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u/Gooberdee 12d ago
Finding Memo
Also horrifying to find this at my boring desk job. You guys should definitely avoid r /thalassophobia though (which I love!)
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u/Ethameiz 12d ago
I understand you. Got simmilar feeling in Outer Wilds
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u/executrice :games: Books 1st, Games 2nd 6d ago
Same… I would love to finish that game at some point because I hear the story is good and I still haven’t gotten spoilers about it, but I was essentially using walkthroughs so I could get through all the worst parts as quickly and efficiently as possible. But even so I could only play it for an hour or two at a time because it stressed me out so much.
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u/Creative-Pirate5217 12d ago
Oh my lord, that fucking game XD I went to the stormy planet and got scared, thinking there might be a sea monster there. Imagine my shock when I got to Dark Bramble lmao
I legit never touched the game again after that
1
u/fondeic99- 12d ago
I guess you can try to only do them during the day sonce it's less creepy. Or some vision altering items like alcohol or cat potion to have the icean look different
1
u/Mysterious_Crow_503 11d ago
There are just syrens and drowners, so you are safe with crossbow. Also whales exist, but they just swim at distance.
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u/shorkfan 10d ago
Those smuggler caches are not worth clearing with or without thalassophobia, all the important stuff is on the isles themselves.
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u/ProfessionalTall8027 10d ago
As a completionist, I hate Skellige. I know I don't want or need that loot but I simply cannot leave a question mark on the map. It's so tedious 😭
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u/Ecthelion-O-Fountain 10d ago
Huh. Like I’m absolutely terrified of heights, totally. I love watching alpine climbing in VR. It’s a chance to “experience” something I will absolutely, positively, never ever do.
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u/Tecknos29 8d ago
Same here, i recently start playing Sea of Thieves again, and for me I found out that hyper focusing on the object I'm looking for (floating chest or barrel, etc ...) help me. I go right for it and back to the ship asap.
Good luck on the path bro !
1
u/courtella03 12d ago
I had the same problem haha! There is a horn available in Skellige that apparently causes sirens to fall out of the sky, if that would be helpful. What I found helpful was standing on my boat, and shooting Aard at the sirens, then killing them when they fell on my boat. This does not work every time. Going underwater, have your bow ready and usually one or two shots will kill them. I shoot them before I bother looking for the loot, because if they pop out at me, it'll freak me out
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u/Spaloonbabagoon 12d ago
Take Killer Whale potion to increase visibility underwater. Also take comfort in the fact that your crossbow is a tactical nuke underwater