Sometimes you think you say the right thing, but you didn't, and you'll have to live with the consequences. This is a major part of the Witcher games, that your actions have possibly unforeseen consequences that you'll have to live with.

Accept that Triss has made her choice. If you don't want to be with Yen, then don't be with anyone, that's completely fine.

Don't go back. Geralt's relationship is... complicated. Personally I'm a Yennifer fan, mostly because of Geralt's history with Triss. Triss knew that Geralt's memory was gone a while back and took advantage of that, even though she knew that Geralt really was with Yennifer. So... I was always salty.

That being said, this is a game I recommend playing again someday. So just choose Triss next time. Enjoy Yenn, IMO they compliment each other well vs Triss who is just obsessed. Triss' relationship isn't as healthy

Totally fair gripe, and I have the same one with choice trees in most games. I don't mind little stuff that doesn't affect the longer game, but holy shit, if choice A or B is going to wildly change the outcome of the game / who I'm dating / if a character lives or dies / etc, either make it super obvious or flat out tell me! I'd LOVE to have a little info icon next to dialog choices that would say "FYI if you choose this option you're straight up rejecting any future romance with this char" or something. Immersion breaking? who cares! so is save scumming and a ton of other game mechanics. It's all for fun anyway, I'd rather know what I'm doing and not waste time.

Sorry, rant over :D

I think this criticism is fair to be honest and is one of the things that's sort of swept under the rug a bit in discourse about Witcher 3. I definitely think the pacing is off just as you mentioned. I've heard other people regret their choice of Triss because they had basically locked in her romance already by the time you start doing stuff in Skellige with Yen and start seeing what she's like.

Personally I think the Yen/Geralt dynamic is a lot better than with Triss, although it's got its own troubles (nobody is perfect). I like the banter between them and they feel more like a proper couple.

The game as a whole also flows better with Yen as your romance choice in my opinion and to me it feels more like the Triss romance is an afterthought yes. A bone thrown at those who desperately can't stand Yen.

Geralt (in the books) is deeply in love with Yen and is also bound to her by literal Djinn magic, so it makes sense that he's always hot for her in the game and I think the attention paid to the Yen side of things is a desire by CDPR to anchor their game in the preexisting lore.

If you're not dead set on Triss or wildly opposed to Yen I'd say go with it and do the Yen romance. It's very suitable for a first time playthrough imo.

So do I go back to end of now or never and change the answer? Do I go back further and leave novigrad when it was in chaos? Even further before the questline began?

If you think that you'd like to play The Witcher 3 more than once, one suggestion:

• The first pass through a game is the only time that you can play the game without foreknowledge. You can never experience that again. If you're going to play without guidance from a wiki or anything like that, really sit in the main character's shoes, I'd do it that time. Just don't worry that much about getting your ideal outcome, because you can do another run. Maybe it'll give some interesting variety, have you experience something you wouldn't normally have done, with foreknowledge of the consequences of decisions.

• Then in subsequent runs, you've already experienced a number of "spoilers" from your prior runs, and you can try to use that knowledge (as well as knowledge from wikis or forums or whatever) to guide the plot to your desired outcome.

Earlier this year, I was in a similar predicament. I actually told Triss that I loved her. However, that only works if you take advantage of her while she's drunk at the party. (She falls down while drunk and after you catch her, you can randomly kiss her.) I didn't and locked myself out of romancing her early.

I would have lost many hours of progress by going back and frankly, I didn't want to go for that choice. I cut my losses and went with Yen. Since then, I finished the whole game, DLCs included, and I don't regret my choice. She gets a lot better later on and I came to appreciate her. Her quests are good. I just think the game does a poor job introducing her. I don't care for either the books or the show and I've only played Witcher 2 once on release. With my first playthrough of Witcher 3 only starting last year, I knew literally nothing going in. Up until I could romance Triss, Yen was annoying and arrogant.

Commander Shepard tried for both Liara and Ashley at the same time.