Kingdom Come Deliverance 2

[00:00:09] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren and I'm joined as always by the pixel professor Jacob Price. It's April 14th, 2025. We're back to talk about video games. Special note though for our listeners.

[00:00:26] Jake and I recorded an incredible, genre-defying, deep dive, extended edition on Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 last Thursday, which was April, I don't even know, what's the date? April 10th.

[00:00:48] And that episode will now go down in Pre-Order Bonus Podcast lore. It is the first episode that is lost to computer time and space. And so that is an hour and a half of content. It's the last recording of the podcast. It will go down in Pre-Order Bonus lore. You'll never know what we said, but what we said was so profound that it just couldn't be released to the world.

[00:01:14] This was pushing what podcasting is as a medium. It was so powerful, it broke every recording software imaginable, corrupted files that have now become uncorruptible. Yeah, it is. But now it's kind of lost to... This is a conversation that Cameron and I will treasure in our hearts forever.

[00:01:44] And just won't be shared with the world. And the world will be poorer for it. If a podcast is recorded and a conversation is had, but no one hears it, did it actually happen? I think you just call that a conversation. Right? Jake and I had a great conversation the other night. We wanted you all to hear it.

[00:02:12] But so what we're going to try and do is for the next hour, we're going to try and give you basically a... Probably a somewhat abbreviated version of that. Talking about Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. So we're taking the time. We got to make this up because this is such an incredible game. We wanted to make sure that we got content out for it. So Jake on his side, he's using not only one, but two recording softwares at the same time just to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

[00:02:40] But folks, you should know that this is... It's kind of incredible. This is the first time I think this has happened in our what? Five-year podcasting history. So that's pretty insane. Yeah, it's pretty wild that it's happened. But here we are. So that also, just to be clear, podcast episodes coming out, I would say for the rest of April. I mean, we tend to not have a super fixed schedule when they're coming out in the week.

[00:03:05] But just give us a little patience, a little grace as we're kind of navigating how we're shifting recording going forward. So we still have our episodes planned for the month and we're still going to do our best to record them and get them out. But it might just be a little bit of a rocky transition to a new process. Yeah, a new process to make sure it doesn't happen again. But with that, Jake, let's dive in. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. This is one of the biggest games early in the year back in February.

[00:03:37] Right now, my front runner for game of the year. Let's dive in. Jake, how are we going to break this one down? We'll be talking about Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 again in three categories. As we do when we talk about individual games per episode. The first category will be the narrative. So we'll be talking about the story, what's going on, what happens and why we care. Next, we'll be talking about the game design. So this is essentially how the game functions and what it is that you're doing as you play and the different systems in place.

[00:04:05] Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is a massive game with many, many systems. It'll be impossible for us to cover them all. And then finally, impact on the industry. We have the benefit of covering this game a few months after launch. And so we'll be able to talk about where it sits now and what we think it will do for games in the future. Let's talk about the story. KCD 2. This is the story of Henry of Scalitz.

[00:04:33] This is a... These are all based on real places in the medieval kingdom of Bohemia. And Henry is put right in the middle of a conflict between, what, cousins, brothers, I can't remember, King Wenceslas and King Sigismund. Who are at once fighting over the throne. And them and their feuding lords. The city...

[00:05:03] So in KCD 1, the city of Scalitz, where Henry lives with his parents, gets caught up in this feud. There's a big war. There's a big battle that happens. Henry's parents get killed. And as part of that, there's the sword that Henry's so-called father is working on. It's... That he was to give to the lord of Scalitz. Like the noble who's over that kingdom. So... Anyway, KCD 1 is the story of Henry kind of trying to avenge his parents.

[00:05:31] Ultimately, in the end, he figures out that that lord... I can't remember his name off the top of my head. He's actually Henry's real dad. And so then you have this kind of two-parent situation. But basically, Henry kind of gets to the end. He doesn't... He isn't able to avenge his father in KCD 1. And so that story kind of continues into KCD 2. But by this time, Henry is kind of a much more accomplished... He's now a squire for this lord.

[00:05:57] He's accompanying Hans of Capon to go to another noble named Von Burgow to get them to come join their group. And King Wenceslas Alliance to go fight against King Sigisman. And that's where our story begins. Yeah. I would say that the first two hours of the game do a pretty good job of giving you a recap of the first game.

[00:06:26] I played only like the first four hours of Kingdom Come Deliverance. Because I really sucked the lock picking mechanic. And I got frustrated. And I just uninstalled the game. But I actually picked some locks in this game. But we'll get into that when we get to game design. Yeah. So, man. You just really got to like Henry. I think Henry is a really great and likable character. And I think it's kind of fascinating.

[00:06:55] Henry is probably the most relatable to contemporary cultures, European and North American cultures related to like individualism. Because the rest of this game is like really firmly couched. And this is part of the marketing from War Horse, right? Is that this is very much couched in this specific historical time period. And that includes the culture of this time period.

[00:07:19] And so, while to be totally honest, the first two hours of this game, lots of cut scenes, slow tutorialization. I was really worried that I would not really get into this game. But as soon as you are given kind of free reign of walking around the area that you're in. Man, this game gets super great. Super great in terms of the narrative as well, too.

[00:07:46] What I'm trying to get at here is that this game, there's this conversation between Henry and Sir Hans Capon. And Henry is the man-at-arms or squire to Sir Hans Capon, who is raised in nobility. And they get into a lot of scuffle. Like, they get into a lot of arguments at the beginning of the game. And Sir Hans basically gives Henry this big lecture on the three estates of man. And it's a lecture to say, listen, dude, I can't really be at fault. And you can.

[00:08:17] And Henry, the way that he responds to that, I just thought was really cool. And it does exercise this, or it does let us... Sorry, everybody. My brain's a little frazzled today. But we do get to see this perspective, this rare perspective of this time period, of somebody who is forced to juggle what it's like to be a commoner and to participate in nobility simultaneously. And there we get to see something that's like really individualized identity.

[00:08:47] And I'm so grateful that we get to follow Henry on his journey because he's constantly, throughout the story, sort of dealing with who he is and where he belongs in this world. And I just thought that that, to me, was an excellent way to write a protagonist for modern audiences to feel like they can really navigate narratively, but also understand sort of culturally and psychologically maybe what it's like to navigate this medieval bohemian culture.

[00:09:16] Yeah, I agree 100%. I think this game not only does dialogue and making you as a character feel the tension and weight of your decisions and making them challenging, like when you do have to make... And you have to make some pretty brutal decisions in this game.

[00:09:38] And it does an incredible job of making you feel like the challenge of actually making those decisions and trying to decipher between what's just and what's right. Right? And it's not very clear cut when you're evil and when it's a bad decision, when it's a right decision. And that's like the best. And there's one example I'll give. It's slight spoiler, but there's a situation in the game where you're going to raid this castle. And so you go out with your raiding crew, right?

[00:10:07] Your group of buds. And the leader of your crew is like, hey, okay, we're going to go over to the village and we're going to set fire to all of the houses. And that's going to take all the enemy troops that are inside the castle. They're going to run out. And then that's going to give us our shot to go in. And then you as Henry as the character is like, we're really going to go and kind of burn down these innocent people's homes and go do that. We shouldn't do that. Right? That's not right.

[00:10:35] But then he's like, yeah, I get that. But that's just kind of what you do in war. And if you don't do that, your buddies are going to die. Yeah. Right. They're more likely to get killed. So then you're like, ah, crap. Like he's got a point. Yeah. Right. It's like, do I maybe these people get their homes set on fire or maybe some of them die. But then what about my guys that I'm with right here? And so anyway, the game does that a lot. And it does an incredible job with that. And not only that, but this game, this is a triple A game.

[00:11:06] It's a triple A game. I don't know what the budget was, but this game has some of the best, most like fully realized cinematics and like interconnected story. I think that I've seen in a game in a long, long time. Like it is really, really, really well done. And especially if you're somebody who's really into medieval vibes, this is like, this is the ultimate medieval game.

[00:11:32] Like if you like medieval stuff, this is the ultimate number one greatest game in that space. That's, that's ever been made. Like hands down. Right. So it just does so much stuff on the story side, not only from like the cinematics, the storytelling, like the kind of basic first person linear narrative type thing, but also just all the side stuff and all the decision making is just so well done. And then tack that on with the writing. It's yeah. Yeah.

[00:12:01] What I would like to add about the narrative is that this game is a really slow burn. And, you know, when I first started playing this game and Cameron's right to point out that you have to like medieval stuff. And I just want to clarify, you want to like medieval stuff and not fantasy. This game has zero ounce of fantasy in it. And there's no magic here. No magic, no wizards. This is crucial though, because I feel like if you go into KCD2, like I did kind of expecting

[00:12:29] a high, high fantasy type adventure, then you will sorely be disappointed. This game plays. And I think the game that it reminds me most of is Red Dead Redemption 2. We're talking hyper realism. We're talking slow trudges through beautiful countryside. We're talking lots of deep, drawn out conversations with lots of different people, systems that might feel somewhat cumbersome, etc.

[00:12:54] And I just feel like narratively, you know, going into this mindset that this is a slow burn, that what you were initially presented with is going to evolve quite a lot. And to be clear, I didn't finish this game. But I do plan on finishing this game this year because I was super intrigued by... I have, I think I last checked, 25 hours in this game. And there's a lot of...

[00:13:21] The way that the politics especially evolve and the way that characters are always trying to manipulate you to achieve their own ends, there is a lot of narrative juice in here. But it is something... It takes a little bit of time to get cooking. But man, does it present something that's really fascinating. And I apologize for the vagary because we're trying not to spoil anything. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:47] And what I would just say is talking in this game is actually one of the greatest things that you can do to play this game. I also kind of went into this game thinking, all right, I'm going to get better at the combat from the first game because I wasn't... I didn't have a super good grip on it. But like all that stuff is really important and it's really fun and engaging. But talking with the characters and improving your speech stats and getting to know the lives of these individual people. Like you cannot...

[00:14:14] I would highly discourage anybody from mainlining this game because you miss out on a ton of what the game is building towards. Yeah. Super strong narratively. Yeah. 100%.

[00:14:34] The other thing I'll just mention is dealing with the impact of your decisions, not only kind of in the wider world, but reconciling what it means, like the pursuit of revenge and kind of the implications of that and what it means like to get revenge and if that's satisfying or not.

[00:15:03] And like, what are the implications of doing that? There's this conversation around like your soul in this game, right? Yeah. There's sort of... There's sort of some... A little bit of like some religious kind of spiritual elements that are pretty interesting and the game does go pretty heavy handed, which is... I think very much fit with the...

[00:15:29] So it does a really good job, just to like rephrase what I'm saying. It does a really good job of making you feel the culture of the time. And it doesn't... Like, I think of the dialogue, sometimes it does feel maybe a little bit... Especially in the beginning, it can feel like a little bit bro-ish or like too modern for lack of a better term, right? But that quickly turns over and you get into a place where it's like, okay, these people

[00:15:59] are talking like the way that I talk, but very much rooted in the culture of the time. And they do a really good job of making you feel what the implications of that are. How people think differently in this time, especially... And we talked about this before, but especially in the people's relationships with nobles and kind of how that plays out. I think the game just does a really good job of making you feel that. And I think that authenticity goes a long way. Yeah, I agree. I think you could really...

[00:16:29] If you want to, you can nitpick and get caught up in the moment to moment dialogue. Sir Hans, for example. Uh, oftentimes I was just kind of like, this guy, man. The way that he talks maybe felt a little too modern sometimes. But I would say that overall, there are a lot of really great conversations. Let's see. In the beginning of the game, you're tasked with Sir Hans to meet Sir Otto von Burghal.

[00:16:57] And I actually really liked that character and the writing there. And with a lot of the nobles in his court in particular. Um, and then kind of as you expand and meet characters, um, the, the Semin family as well, too. Uh, really enjoyed kind of those conversations and how they played out.

[00:17:15] And something that I tell students quite often, um, when I'm teaching courses that expand sort of across art history is that a lot of times, uh, it's, it, you'll see a lot of parallels between these artistic movements and that humans are, have kind of always been the same. But the, the technologies and power structures have changed over time. And so I think that is where I found the best moments of relatability in this game.

[00:17:45] And oftentimes it was through Henry, but through some of these other characters where I was like, you know what? This is a tough SOB. And, you know, this, this, this type of guy has existed forever. And, but this is just how it kind of plays out in this particular power structure. And so I think like intellectually, that was, um, some of my favorite, some of my favorite moments in kingdom come deliverance to were those types of conversations.

[00:18:09] Let's move into the mechanics because I think it'd be one thing if this game just did story and decision making really well, but this is a masterful creation of a medieval simulation. And the fact that they were not able, not only able to do writing story characters, decision making RPG decision making, right.

[00:18:35] But then also have this plethora of systems that take a whole bunch of ideas that they tried in KCD one. And in KCD two really take pretty much all of them to a fully fleshed out workable form that just, it's, it's really quite insane.

[00:18:57] The amount of systems that they have here and how they all interact everything from super fleshed out crafting systems that force you to slow down and like immersively actually perform the act of crafting outside of a menu. Uh, literally blacks, taking the hammer with your blacksmith and turning that into a mini game that I think in any other game would feel like a chore and a slog. But for some reason, this game becomes like this meditative experience.

[00:19:23] And I'm not sure why, uh, same thing with potion making literally standing at like a, uh, a pocket apothecary station that they have scattered around the world and moving and like boiling and putting the ingredients in and grinding ingredients.

[00:19:41] And it just, it does this similar thing that I've read dead redemption two does where it takes the time to immerse you and what you're doing, which there's this idea in video games of removing friction between the player and like what you're trying to do in the game. And this game actually adds friction in for the purpose of helping you feel more immersed in the experience.

[00:20:05] But while in some games it feels like a slog and I think probably a lot of people who play this maybe will feel like it's a slog. I think people have that feedback on, on RDR too. But for some reason for me, and I think for a lot of people who play this, it just helped me feel more immersed. And in that immersion lent to how I felt about the mechanics in general. I think for me, um, some of those crafting mechanics, they are pretty slow and they're meticulous.

[00:20:33] But the reason why I found them enjoyable is, um, sound design, especially when it was blacksmithing items, really great sound design. And I played this on PS5, really get great use of the DualSense controller. Um, those, I feel like, uh, the more I play specific games with a DualSense controller, the more that I'm coming to realize that that controller when used correctly, or I shouldn't say correctly, but when just taken advantage of like the different capabilities that it has,

[00:21:02] it really does allow for something like crafting to feel, um, much more immersive. Just the way that the haptics are kind of rumbling and the sound is going in your hands. But yeah, there's something that's just super, I mean, you just gotta take, you gotta take it down a few notches. You gotta slow down as you're working through this game systems. And I would say a part of why you need to do that is because this game has systems out the nose. Do like maybe too many systems.

[00:21:31] In fact, I would probably... Maybe too many. It's a lot and a bunch of these systems are not explained. Um, you gotta spend some time in the menus looking at the stats. And that's, again, I'm gonna say this several times throughout this episode. Do not mainline this game. It's the worst way to play it. Um, and that's, that's why I didn't finish the game in time. So I was like, you know what? I'm mainlining and it's making my experience worse.

[00:21:57] And part of this was like, if you're gonna go, for example, um, we'll talk about this is, this is kind of our narrative reference point and we won't spoil beyond this. But when you're preparing to go to the wedding, which is introduced relatively quickly in the beginning of the game, um, you need a dress for that occasion. You can't go covered in blood and mud and in your armor with a giant sword on your waist, you know? There are systems in place where people respond poorly to that.

[00:22:23] And so I, um, spent some time, a lot of time. I, I don't know how much time, but a lot, probably an hour, just kind of gathering resources and materials and money. So I could go to the tailor and I could meticulously look at all the different things that they had for sale, see how they impacted my stats, because what you're wearing is going to impact your stats significantly when you're talking to people. And this is a wedding. And at this wedding, we're trying to speak to some nobles.

[00:22:52] And so we can't just look like and act like total scrubs when we go. And so that's what I mean by systems by systems. I can't imagine how many numbers in, you know, are worrying in the background doing calculations, um, because they're everywhere in your action. Something that one of the, this is actually a tip on the screen and I tested it out. If you walk around town at night without a torch, so people can't see your face, villagers get afraid.

[00:23:21] And your overall reputation will tank. And just everybody is responding to who you are as a person and your actions and what you're doing. I mean, I loved this, um, but it is crazy meticulous. Washing yourself in a trough is not the same thing as going to the bathhouse and taking a full bath. And you need to know that before you talk to nobles or you're going to fail all your checks like I did. And they're going to make fun of you relentlessly. But it.

[00:23:50] So many deep checks, so many deep checks, like stealth. And people have probably heard this one before, but like stealth, right? Like if you don't take a bath and you smell, if you try and do stealth sections, guards can smell you. And that will like mess up your stealth. Like your people like discovering you, uh, your clothes that you wear can help you blend in the shadows more. So if you wear darker colored clothing, the game doesn't explicitly tell you this by the way, but it's just like baked into the systems. If you're dirty, that also helps your stealth.

[00:24:20] But like, you don't want to be too dirty because you'll smell and then the guards can see you. So you want to be dark and like dirty. And then the other thing is like crazy combat curve where you have sort of this deep combat system where you've got Perry's blocks, uh, different directions that you can swing your attack and then different weights to different weapons. But the thing the game does really well is it makes you feel like a bumbling idiot when you start.

[00:24:51] But then the progression is really, it's a really deep. And what I mean by that is like you start out feeling like a weakling. But as you, when you get something super leveled up, you will at the end of the game, it's way more satisfying because you start out like I can barely fight people. I'm dying. By the end of the game, I was like Aragorn, like in Lord of the Rings, just like ripping people up with a two handed sword.

[00:25:19] And it takes a long, there's this like curve to get there. But once you get there, you feel it and you feel kind of the power fantasy. Um, yeah, combat. I barely even scratched the surface with combat. I kind of pick swords and just went all in on swords. But you can take a bow, you can do crossbows, you can get super good with a bow. You start out with a bow, you can barely shoot it. Yeah. It's insane. It's insane how challenging it is. Honestly, you play the game, you're like, I will never shoot the bow because it sucks.

[00:25:48] If you level up the bow, you get to a point in the game where like your mouse, you don't even have to move your mouse. It's like automatic, like first person shooter, you know, bow style thing. And you can just snipe people from 100 yards away. And that's, that's just another cool thing that the game offers from like a combat perspective. Yeah, I grew to fall in love with the combat, the melee combat. It's immensely satisfying. But yeah, you suck.

[00:26:13] And I remember just kind of going out and they've improved the save system in this game. It's much easier to find save points and you can just save and quit. But you can also, if you want to save scum like I did, you can drink the save your snaps, right? And so at the beginning of the game, that's kind of what I did. I encountered like a bandit or two with quicks or I would save before they noticed me. And then I go into combat to really hone my skills.

[00:26:40] And man, if somebody had a shield, I was afraid because I was like, dude, it is really hard to land hits on somebody who's got a shield. Combat is really methodical and it's, it's wild because it's simple. Like it is not that hard to wrap your head around. There's a block, there's an attack, and then you can press a direction on the D pad to kind of select which kind of attack you're going to make at any given point. So it's not all that complicated.

[00:27:09] And sure, it gets more complex from that because there are different combinations that you can do in your attacks. But what, you know, just from the get go, it's really like, what direction are you swinging in? And can you make that land? And can you block when somebody attacks you? And this is a battle of stamina, really, especially the beginning of the game where it's like, okay, if I take a swing, that takes up stamina. If I block, that takes up stamina. But if I land a parry, then I might even get a stamina boost, right?

[00:27:39] And so I don't know. I loved it because it just made me stop and think, okay, what is the most strategic way to take this guy down? And it's real time. And it's you and this, you know, a lot of these are 1v1s. And you're kind of like shuffling back and forth waiting to see who's going to take the first strike. But it's all about reading your opponent and then reacting. And then as soon as you can break an advantage, you just wail on them, right? And then that's how you can win a lot of victories.

[00:28:05] And so a lot of the combat and there's amazing battle set pieces. There's one fairly, let's see, pretty close to the big halfway point. And I'm just going to say it like that. Where I started learning like, hey, if I have somebody on my side, if I have my dog with me or if I'm fighting with somebody, you get a 2v1. And that's the best way to take down an enemy. And you can start kind of mowing your way through a battlefield, right?

[00:28:32] Because if you take, if somebody takes a swing at a guy, I mean, in this it's hyper realistic. So somebody takes a swing at a guy with a shield, he blocks. But as he's lifting his arm and you're to the side, you do a thrust attack right into that guy's ribs or like right, you know, towards his kidneys. Then he staggers. And one of the amazing things about combat is every time you land a hit, like build and fatigue builds up in the other character or on you if you're getting absolutely whaled on.

[00:29:01] So what I noticed with tougher battles is like I was wearing a bunch of these people down. If I landed like two hits, they might be hunched over and they might be bleeding and they might expose more openings for me to go for. And so it's this really cool dynamic of like sit, watch and know when to react and strike. And then you can land a big combo, kill a guy or make progress, etc. I don't know. I fell in love with it.

[00:29:27] And yeah, I stuck with swords because swords get really dope. There's some perks that you can unlock that are incredible. I think if I had one criticism on the combat would be that Master Strike is OP. Master Strike is so good. So like if once you get Master Strike, it's kind of all you do. I think so that I think that means I think that makes it like a teeny bit overpowered in my mind. So because there are other ways to fight.

[00:29:56] But once you get Master Strike, it's like, why would I use anything else? And that's kind of all you do because it's so powerful. But I mean, it's still fun to do. So I'm not good. It's like is it as exciting as the Makiri counter in Sekiro? No. No. But few things in life are. Few things in life are. Yeah, dude. So many systems here. I mean, we could go on and on.

[00:30:22] There's a whole scholarship system where you can learn to read and people can tell like how good of a reader you are. I decided to level up my scholarship a ton. So I became very scholarly and like knew how to read well. So that gives you a ton of different new dialogue options. The game is not afraid to punish you when you don't engage in the systems. So if you don't, if you're not smart, quote unquote, you will lose the opportunity to do dialogue and you will just be a bumbling idiot that gets into fights more.

[00:30:52] And the game will just be like, yeah, you're not reading. You're not winning conversations. So you are not going to have good speech skills. So, yeah, I just I love the fact the game just punishes you if you don't. And for whatever you don't want to engage in, there's a tradeoff. Right. If you don't want to do this one thing, then there's going to be some tradeoff in some other part of the game. Yeah. A big part of that is several side quests that I took.

[00:31:21] I simply did not have the speech that to convince some people to do things that I needed them to do. And the game is like, OK, what are you going to do about it now? And so a lot of times if you don't have a high speech stat and there are several of them, there's like persuasion, charisma, intimidation, and you level those up in different ways. But if you can't get through to somebody, oftentimes it's like, well, are you going to pickpocket them? Are you going to just try to rob them when they're away from the premises?

[00:31:50] Are you going to just straight up fight and kill them? And I like that in a game that is designed in this way. This kind of open world, you can tackle a lot of different quests many different ways. Because it is like Cameron says, it's just very the game is very quick to close a path that you are not suited or prepared to go down to solve a side quest.

[00:32:16] And so I ended up stealth killing a lot of side quest NPCs to get an item that they would not give to me. So my stealth got really high, actually. But that's just how the game played out. And I don't know. I found that to be really well done here. And I was very receptive to it precisely because the game gives you plenty of opportunity to level up all these stats.

[00:32:43] And it really boils down to the player's impatience or not. If you're impatient and you want to get stuff done, then you have to deal with those consequences of being impatient and not having the right stat before you go into a scenario. You can't really fudge your way into a passive no kill run of this game or whatever it is if you don't invest in those skills. So I don't know. I liked it. Yeah.

[00:33:12] Let's talk about the impact on the industry for KCD2. I think this is a AAA game. Warhorse. They are owned by a much larger conglomerate. In fact, I think it's Embracer Group, which is pretty hilarious. I think this game did super well from a financial standpoint. I don't think it sold like 20 million copies. I think it sold at least 2 million copies.

[00:33:40] At least a couple, maybe even a few million. And I think it's considered like a really strong success. This game also has DLC, so it's going to have legs. I think it was a huge hit on Steam. So this game is going to be around for a long time. It's going to be like a big Steam seller, I imagine, for years to come just because it has so much stuff in it. And it's going to continue to have more content.

[00:34:07] I know they're planning multiple DLCs to add. And the last game has like a ton of extra content. So this game will end up with just a ton of stuff in it. It's an interesting one to talk about because it very much feels like... And I didn't make this comparison when we did our lost episode. Our episode that is now lost to time and that you'll never hear.

[00:34:34] But it feels like the... Almost like a Bethesda's first game but in 2025 situation. Does that make sense? So like... Okay, you think about Morrowind, right?

[00:34:54] You think about Oblivion and how Bethesda created this genre of open world RPG with a billion systems in it. And all this stuff. This game does something similar but 2025-esque where they go even deeper with the systems and deeper with the simulation. And they don't go kind of the fantasy RPG route. But they very much go the sort of realistic take...

[00:35:22] Semi-realistic take on like a medieval experience. It's something that on paper... It's like why would you fund this, right? Because it's... Why would you make this game? It's not... It seems like it's going to be really complicated to make. It's probably not going to do well on the market. Like who... Nobody really wants... No one wants like a realistic medieval game. But it's one of those few games akin to like a Bouldersgate 3 type situation where the developers had this singular vision.

[00:35:51] And they really, really fulfilled on that vision. And because they were able to really, really fulfill on that vision and they had a strong one. And they had the benefit of kind of eking by with Kingdom Come Deliverance 1. Which a lot of people liked but wasn't majorly massively popular.

[00:36:14] Did well enough though was one of the jankiest games I've ever played from just a polish and a system standpoint. I mean it is a mess like from a polish and like a bug standpoint. But that was like their base hit that they needed to then make this. Which is sort of like their coming out party. And so it's just fascinating to see right. It's just this singular thing that exists on its own that does so many different things in such interesting ways.

[00:36:43] That shouldn't work but when it all comes together it works so well. And like I mentioned in the beginning. I think for that reason it's my front runner for game of the year for me. Yeah I think until Donkey Kong. Yeah. Then everybody get out the way. Man what I would say about this game in terms of impact on the industry. Is that games need second chances. Right? Like Kingdom Come Deliverance had a really really rough long. Well maybe I'm not.

[00:37:13] Maybe I'm misremembering. But I mean it sold really well initially. Because there was a lot of hype built up around it. But it was a rocky launch. It was a janky game. It was mired in you know online discourse controversy. You know and the list kind of goes on and on and on. But that game was able to in the studio. Were able to persevere. Put out a bunch of DLC. And kind of turn its reputation around. And we love kind of those comeback stories.

[00:37:41] And then they were able to follow up with this wonderful sequel. Which if you listen to a bunch of reviews of this game. And people who loved and even hated the first game. They're like you know what? They absolutely refined the vision that they had for Kingdom Come Deliverance. And this game nails it. It does what they set out to do. And this is the type of story that I want to hear more of in this industry. Where some studio can launch a game.

[00:38:10] And it gets six or seven out of ten across the board at launch. But that they're not just totally axed. So they have a chance to learn from those mistakes. And make a better version or a new game. With this experience that they have. And so that's what I would love to see to happen. We're in a pretty rocky tumultuous time in the games industry. So these opportunities are a little more rare. And so I think it's happy.

[00:38:38] And it's a good thing to celebrate these types of victories for sure. That being said. I think I mentioned this. I can't remember what other episode it was. Like Cameron has said here. This is a pretty singular vision. And there's a lot of. You can tell that War Horse really wanted to make a specific type of game. And you need that kind of goal when you're making your games. But it doesn't have to be. Okay. Now we need a bunch of Kingdom Come Deliverance. Clones. I think that would be the wrong way of going about this. Yes. It's like.

[00:39:07] This is more like. Hey. This is inspiration to that. Maybe the game that I think is too hyper niche. Or hyper specific. No. Maybe if I just execute it well. Which you know is a funny. That's a very armchair dev phrase. Right. But like. If you really refine. And focus in on a specific goal. You can find an audience. And you can find success. Yes. And that's what I. That's kind of my hopeful. Take from looking at Kingdom Come Deliverance too. Yeah.

[00:39:38] Armchair dev is. It's you know. It's Fenn's speech. Larian's game director. Owner. Yeah. Whatever. That he gave at the Game Awards last year. Right. It was like. The next game of the year. The next big hit. Is a developer. Right now. That. Again. He talks about having a vision. He talks about like. Like. Not creating. Your game. Based on market feedback. Based on like. A survey.

[00:40:07] You know. Following the trends. But figuring out like. A vision that you're excited about. That you're passionate about. That does something interesting. And then executing on that vision. Yeah. Really well. And the execution. Obviously super hard. Because there's tons of games with unique visions. That don't bring out. Okay. So you have to have the execution. There's no question about that. You have to have the technical chops. The engine. The. Making sure it runs well. Graphics. Like all that. That's all important. But that vision.

[00:40:37] Like has to be there. No question. No question about it. Or you will not. You probably won't succeed. Right. So. I think that's a big takeaway. From a game like this. Is this game going to do. Billion dollar well. Probably not. But I think it's going to do. Great. Right. It's going to do well enough. For the studio to succeed. To pay their employees. For the company to make. Make some profit. And then they can make. Go. Go make KCD3. Or whatever it is.

[00:41:06] That they want to make next. So. Yeah. I think that's a big takeaway. From a game like this. Yeah. And it's just. I wish that. And we say this all the time. But it's. It bears repeating. I wish more studios. Had the leeway. To kind of go this path. Because even though. It would probably lead to more. To less games getting made. I think that it would lead to more. Successful games getting made. Right.

[00:41:36] A quality over quantity. Kind of. Kind of scenario. Yeah. Yeah. The other thing I would say. Is that. Again. I really did fall in love. With the combat. This game. Is that. You can make. Offbeat combat systems work. You really can. Sometimes it's a matter. Of trusting your player. And I think sometimes. It's a matter of just. Allowing there to be. The right kind of progression. For people to. Have mastery over a system.

[00:42:06] And I think. I don't know. That's just kind of a final thought. I'm tacking on there. At the end. And I think it's a super wonderful game. Like I said. I haven't finished it. I have 25 hours. With the playtime right now. And my goal is to finish it. By the end of the year. And not to mainline it. This is one of those games. That absolutely. Is stifled. I think if you're just doing the mainline. And in part. You just simply won't develop. The skills that you need. To unlock some of the more. Interesting conversations. Or moments in the game.

[00:42:36] So yeah. Awesome game. I can see why this is your front runner. For game of the year. Well Jake. Any other thoughts. Worth discussing on KCD2. Obviously. Unfortunately. Well. Maybe not unfortunately. I feel like we probably had an extra. 30 minutes of conversation. In our last episode. But I think most of that was. In discussion of the Switch 2 price point. That's true. We did talk about that quite a lot. We can.

[00:43:05] We can have that discussion. Another time. But. Any final thoughts on KCD2? I think check it out. I think even if. This is a type of game. I mean. Wait for it to go on sale. I mean. That's fine too. But. But. You have to be in the mood. For a big sprawling. Open world game. If you're gonna pick this one up. I know. I've been seeing a lot. On social media. That some people. Are kind of burned out on that. Then definitely wait. To pick this one up. But. If you wait. Then. it'll be on a bigger discount so

[00:43:35] definitely keep it in the back of your mind so CoCarnage made a video that I really liked I recommend you watch it's on YouTube it's called A Love Letter to Gamers and it's about this game and he really calls out just all of the elements in this game from the story to the cinematics to the systems to the RPG elements to like the living world and the simulation as just being like a really high level fulfillment of what

[00:44:05] gamers like him which are variety gamers kind of like us I think we're pretty similar to Co in many ways like on how we he plays a ton of different games so do we if you're that type of gamer who just enjoys video games as a genre not just and I'm not judging or putting down any of you know any of you out there who are just like you know you're jumping on every night to do Fortnite or do Apex or do Call of Duty or like or Minecraft or whatever it is right and that's that's a huge portion of the gaming audience

[00:44:35] but for those gamer gamers who are jumping around and playing a lot of different titles I totally agree with with him that this is a love letter to anyone who's just plays video games in general nice yeah and with that ladies and gentlemen this has been our episode on Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 like I said front runner for me for game of the year Jake also really liked it

[00:45:03] yeah go check this one out if you haven't leave us a comment on the discord and the patreon wherever to let us know how you feel about it what your thoughts are what you liked what you didn't like stuff that we missed do that you can do that at the discord you can do that at the patreon you can join us and support us on patreon.com slash period or cast you can go sign up for a premium edition of the show which gets you a whole ton of extra content of your choice

[00:45:32] you can also follow us on Blue Sky links to those are in the descriptions and most importantly please if you have not leave a review for the show if you like it helps people find us helps the show get bigger thank you so much for listening oh and don't forget to check out we always I always forget to mention this Jake Jake streams Jake breakdown give us what's your stream name what's your stream schedule we want people to go check out Jake is streaming now pretty consistently chip

[00:46:01] twitch.tv slash chip debate that's right so I'm typically there Tuesday Thursday Friday mornings mountain time and then Tuesday evenings Tuesday evenings I'm doing right now slow play of Final Fantasy 4 which dude might crack I mean I haven't played a bunch of Final Fantasies but it's one of the best ones I've played by far wow yeah big words big words this week I'm doing lush foil photography sim during the day because during the day I do oh did that come out

[00:46:30] as of this recording tomorrow very cool very cool go check that out we are cooking up some special stuff that might I may may make an appearance on the stream stay tuned may is going to be exciting some exciting stuff at the works folks so lots of stuff coming your way if you like what we've got more to come thanks so much for listening and have a great night