Welcome Kelpie: An Unreal Tech Showcase gives us a First Look at Ciri's Horse in The Witcher 4

As part of the State of Unreal 2025 event, CD Project Red showed the world exciting new material from their upcoming fantasy RPG The Witcher 4. Initially announced in December 2024, the fourth game in the Witcher series will move on from previous main character Geralt of Rivia to his adopted daughter Cirilla of Cintra.

The Tech Demo shown at State of Unreal introduces Ciri’s equine companion Kelpie, named after the mythological water horse. Let’s take a look:

UPDATE: Also check out this article from Rock Paper Shotgun: Could The Witcher 4's Kelpie be the best video game horse yet? We asked an expert

Before we start breaking down Kelpie’s looks, it’s worth pointing out that what we see in this video is described as “a technological showcase set in the world of The Witcher 4” . It’s in effect an advertisement for the tool(s) that the game is being built with, and may not accurately reflect what the game will look like (or perform like) when it releases. Still, I think it is fair to assume that the setting and characters introduced here so prominently will be in the game itself. A release date for the game has currently not been announced, we only know that it most likely won’t be finished before 2027.

Meet Kelpie

When she’s introduced in the books, Kelpie is described as a black mare with a “dolphin-like neck; straight and slender, but powerfully muscled, the small shapely head with it's concave forehead, the high withers and her build of delightful proportions.” The game adaptation takes a little bit of liberty with this and bases her on a Friesian horse – a breed overrepresented in movies in settings where it doesn’t belong, but generally appreciated for its consistent solid black color, thick and wavy mane and tail and feathered feet. We can assume that medieval horses bred for similar purposes would not have looked all that much like modern Friesians (horse aesthetics have evolved a lot in the past few hundred years), but it definitely isn’t a glaring inaccuracy either, especially considering the fantasy setting: Perhaps this type of horse came with the Conjunction of the Spheres.

she is beauty, she is grace, she’s stuffing grass into her face

In the minute or so of footage the tech demo shows us of Kelpie, I find a lot of detail to appreciate:

We see Kelpie move at a trot and canter in a a generally anatomically correct and possible fashion. The bar is low for game horses, but it’s an absolute joy to see a digital horse without any obvious major anatomy problems like the often present s-curved forelegs.

The demo treats Kelpie like a character rather than a bicycle: Ciri calls her name and the horse reacts and canters up to her and Ciri gives her a little pat after mounting. Whether that will translate into the game itself in the form of including the horse in cutscene action and giving us petting or caring interactions remains to be seen, but it sure gives me a bit of hope that the horse gameplay in The Witcher 4 is getting some additional attention compared to its predecessor. Don’t get me wrong, I love Roach, but her inclusion in the story is very limited.

Some of the animations, like Kelpie trotting up and turning look just incredibly good to me, and were most likely either motion captured or animated by someone who really knows their horses, and seeing it is balm on my soul.

The demo then goes on to show off Kelpie’s coat texture and muscle simulation at a gallop in slow motion. I’ll be honest and admit that I got tears in my eyes the first time I watched this out of sheer “oh my god they’re taking the horse seriously” awe. On repeated watches – I may been obsessing over this for the past twenty hours – this shot is also where we notice a few flaws in Kelpie’s anatomy though: Her left fetlock is awkward and stiff in how it comes forward, her left hock has a strange downward bend and the sense of weight and propulsion is a little bit lacking. While we’re being pedantic, I’ll add that the head shake shown at the top is made a little bit awkward by the fact that horses shake their head in more of a “rotational” way than strictly moving side to side.

But all in all, the horse nerds appear to be in agreement: we’re nitpicking on a very high level here, and what we see in the Witcher 4 tech demo is easily one of the overall most impressive and well put together game horse animations ever seen, even if it isn’t literally perfect in every way.

Real life example: Friesian horse galloping.

A later section of the tech demo shows us Kelpie at a trot, which looks very good– again I cannot overstate how rare it is to have no wrongly bent knees in a simple trot animation – but feels a bit slow, as many in-game-trots do. I also think it looks very odd to show Ciri enter a busy market street at a canter rather than slowing down, that just seems impractical as all hell. Many games could do with making their walk and trot more useful for navigating tight spaces rather than making a canter the only viable movement speed. But considering the nature of this tech demo, movement speeds may not be all that representative yet, so I am holding off on judgement.

In any case: I am very excited to see more of Ciri and Kelpie. I love the Witcher books and universe and I had good fun with the games and TV show, for all their flaws. And if this first showcase of the horse tech is any indicator for the care CDPR will take with the equine companion this time around, then I think we horse-loving gamers may be in for an absolute treat.

Note: Some of the insights, critiques and references in this article were crowdsourced by the TMQ Community on Discord. Join us there if you too would like to over-analyze horse movements the moment they get revealed.