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Comment by bdz | Hacker News Reader

There haven't been any good video game-to-motion picture ever. What people love in games is really hard to put on screen (Witcher has the original source material books but they were never as famous or good as the games).

Honestly it's really hard to do it, to appeal to both the gamers and the wider audience who never touched the game (inc the critics)

I'm playing games since the late 80s and seen so many movies and TV shows failing.

This list is perfect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_video_g...

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>> There haven't been any good video game-to-motion picture ever.

LOL, it isn't based on video game at all. There is a series of actual fantasy books written by Andrzej Sapkowski that serves as a basis for the show. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witcher

However, they made a rookie mistake and started filming Sapkowski's source material in the order it was written, i.e. starting with short stories, which is why the show does not make sense: each episode is a separate story, not connected to previous episodes. They should have started with the 5-book saga, and maybe throw some of the short stories as flashbacks.

Show also lacks the proper introduction of characters and the world's mythology. I am a fan of the books, so it all made sense to me, but wider audience might have a trouble making sense of all Wither abilities, Law of Suprise, etc.

The Castlevania anime is really well done and can stand alone without the game but if you have played some of the games it really feels like a playthrough with a good story, though the first two seasons are based on one particular version. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania_(TV_series)

I found it quite surprisingly good! Also surprisingly gory and crude - which isn't good or bad but seems notable.

Lol, mostly agree, but can I just say.... MORRRRTAAAL KOMMMBAAAT (techno music...)

In eastern europe Witcher is THE thing kids read after they read Lord of the Rings. I think the biggest problem with the show is that they normalized/westernized the "exotic" slavic stuff. The game didnt do that. They also miss the cynicism and irony of Geralt situation. Probably because slavicsm and cynicism is not something Americans would relate to?

I'm Eastern European and I think that Netflix's adaptation is great. Sure, there wasn't such diversity in the series and the books setting as because of the middle ages of Rzeczpospolita, but anyway, the series are good.

Witcher is really well reviewed by audiences though. A good secondary indicator is that Reddit loves it.

Oh yeah that's what I meant sorry. A lot of those movies and TV shows are loved by the fans

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