I guess they REALLY wanted you to appreciate the game’s narrative.
It is kind of a weird move from CD Projekt Red to not give you the option to manually disable these recap cutscenes. Load times are already long enough in Witcher 3, and the mandatory story recap narration that play whenever you manually load a game file gets really old, really quick. Trophies effects actually make sense given the enemy they come from and now are more useful instead of offering relatively cosmetic effects. For example, instead of only giving a +10% chance to dismember enemies, slyzard trophies now give you a 16% buff to your Igni sign, 20% burn resistance, and +5% damage to draconid enemies. This mod makes each trophy’s effect unique, and adds in a bunch of more useful and varied effects. They are then strapped to your horse Roach and give extra buffs in combat or exploration. Trophies are parts of monsters that you harvest after completing a witcher contract. So, if you have ever felt like embracing a more traditional RPG tank-style approach to combat, then this mod is for you. The mod includes over 40 different shields to use, each lore-friendly and naturally integrated into the game world. This mod allows Geralt to equip a shield, so he can block enemy attacks, deflect arrows, and give enemies a gnarly shield bash.
Geralt is not your typical witcher, though. Witchers are not known for using shields, instead preferring to use their agility and quick reflexes as a defense.
As a shout out to the great community of modders out there, here are 22 fan-created mods for the Witcher 3 that make the game that much more fun to play. Most importantly, mods can be used to make the game more enjoyable, whether by giving new ways to approach combat, adding new content, or by adding some quality-of-life improvements. Mods have all kinds of functionality, from changing the graphics to overhauling large portions of the game. So it should come as no surprise that modding communities have dedicated countless hours to creating mods for the Witcher 3, ranging from the serious, such as graphical updates and bug fixes, to the more light-hearted, such as this mod that puts helmets on chickens. And its no secret that they also love Witcher 3.