15 Biggest WTF Moments In The Witcher Trilogy

13. The Disappearing Whale

For the most part, The Witcher 3 is a highly polished and exquisitely detailed experience. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few technical deficiencies that break the immersion every once and a while. Such is the case with the whales you often encounter while sailing the high seas.

When out in the ocean, you’ll periodically see a whale break the surface; its fin passing beneath the waves mere seconds after you spot it. Naturally your first inclination after such a sight is to dive under the water for a better look, and while you may actually see the whale in its entirety, this sight will be fleeting, as the whale quickly fades into the ether like a ghost.

In fact, sometimes you might not see anything at all, as if that fin you saw was a sentient entity all its own. You’ll likely do a double take after this encounter, wondering why you aren’t able to interact with the whale a bit more.

The fact of the matter is that the whale is window dressing; a technical shortcut meant to give off the illusion of an ocean teeming with life when in fact it’s quite empty. Such tricks and shortcuts are of course used all the time in every video game, so it's not fair to criticise The Witcher 3 for it, but they still stand out all the more here precisely because everything else in the game usually feels so seamless and natural.