This is just my take on the lack of transitional characters from the first and second witcher and the major choices seemingly forgotten. Please read and discuss.

Secondly Iorveth, now Roche mentions that the Scoiatel are not imporant anymore but that means nothing other than he is focused on the human kingdoms now. The scoiatel still exsist and seems to me that after two games with them playing a major role now there is perhaps 2-4 loose and unimportant encounters?

I don't know about you but im kind of annoyed that there is not enough from the previous playthrough carring on. The game is great and all but considering all the content from the previous games none of it appears to have made a difference except Letho + Roche bearing in mind its the same outcome with Roche.

Shani who is a major npc in TW1 is mentioned oddly enough though she does not feature in the 2nd Witcher but has more rererences than either Iorveth or Sigfried in TW3 Wild hunt.

Finnaly there are the Gwent cards, So its not like the devs forgot them but seems very odd they are not involved.

Discuss, and please feel free to tell me they are in the game but ive trawled around and it seems to be nothing on any characters.

We all hope for them to be included in future dlc, but seems to be very very odd that they were not included in the first place.

(WITCHER 2 SPOILERS AHEAD)

I generally agree but for me the most important thing in Saskia ... it was kind of a big decision either to kill her or not and she barley get mentioned in the game.

Even Letho quest is pretty small, I let him leave in W2 just because I wanted to see if he can be a companion on W3 and maybe restore his witcher school

I guess it is set in a different part of the world. But would have liked to have more Witcher 2 decisions feature in Witcher 3. Maybe the add-on packs will add some more details, hopefully.

I'm pretty disappointed, too. But honestly, I expected that the savegame import would barely matter, as the import for witcher 2 is rather irreleveant as well.

Consider what import did in W2:
a few swords and raven's armor would be transferred.
You get a journal entry as to why Geralt broke up with Shani, if you romanced her in W1
You don't get the package from Thaler, if you killed him in W1
You get a single line about Adda being alive or not.
You meet Siegfried, if you followed the order path in W1.
That's pretty much it.

Witcher games are so rich in choice & consequence, but but between games, almost every decision you made is either thrown out the window or rendered irrelevant, which is certainly disappointing.

I'm pretty sure, you'll meet Thaler in W3, even if you used a save, where he died in W1. I think, Letho was implemnted pretty well, if they put this much effort into other old characters and into making your choices matter more between games, it would be fine.
Most disappointing thing for me though, is that they just killed off Kalkstein, I was so looking forward to meeting my favorite alchemist again only to hear, that he got burned at the stake offscreen. Shani has only been mentioned as a small comment during a side quest, too.

Yeh, sadly Dulkan the witcher 1 choices were small in comparison to the fact that and I wont lay too much detailed spoilers however "assasin of kings" speaks for itself. They were pretty hefty and large impacting choices compared to the first witcher.

I even kept the Kaedweni king Henselt alive and was meant to be very powerful yet they throw this to the window as well.

Even keeping the Princess alive in TWII roache mentions nothing other than serving for Redania. I mean where is she?

Oh and the LaValletes do actually have more of an impact in TW3, another odd choice.

It seems just like after such a huge political shuffle, its gone all generic in TW3 to a certain extent (of course wild hunt/ciri should be most focus).

True, but they should have done it more GoT-like. I mean the White Walkers are the biggest problem, but they still take time to continue the other stories. The political world doesn't stop because of the dead army!

Yep, I expected them to curb the choices from W2, as the import from W1 to W2 was already very poor.
They essentially homogonized everything, by making your choices irrelevant. Kaedwen exists? Radovid runs Henselt over. Temeria saved? Crushed by Nilfgaard anyway. At the end of W2, Roche leaves with Anais, she isn't mentioned at all
There are also many inconsistencies. The Geralt in my game followed Roche's path in W2, yet he knows a lot about Philippa Eilhart and Dijkstra, despite never meeting either in W2. Despite confessing true love to Triss in both W1 and W2, he apparently left her as soon as he heard Yennefer was back.
The La Valettes are another thing, I didn't kill Aryan, saved him in the dungeons and met him later in Loc Muinne. In W3, you'll meet Luisa, who seems to recognize Geralt, despite never meeting him and Aryan isn't mentioned at all.

I'm really feeling this too. Similarities with the Mass Effect series in choices becoming irrelevant, sometimes very obnoxiously. Like Iorveth's path seemingly not even affecting anyone even in just conversation or any nonhuman encounters with Geralt. Triss suddenly just a "friend" that has already been mentioned was really glaring to me as well.
I betrayed Roche, yet we're still best buddies? It would be good to have the period between 2 and 3 at least explained for the inconsistencies.

Honestly probably the only thing that's disappointing me but it's a big one. I was expecting more depth to handling past choices, there's such impressive branching and decision making in the game itself however.