r/gaming • u/Asianboiforwhitedad • 10h ago

Kingdom Come Deliverance studio co-founder says a lot of RPGs are 'still games for teenagers,' and that he's 'tired of all the RPGs where you are this chosen one'

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/kingdom-come-deliverance-studio-co-founder-says-a-lot-of-rpgs-are-still-games-for-teenagers-and-that-hes-tired-of-all-the-rpgs-where-you-are-this-chosen-one/
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286

u/pdpi 9h ago

This was something I quite liked about Oblivion, where Martin is the actual "chosen one", and you're just kind of there for the ride.

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u/Lemonpierogi 9h ago

The Prisoner (so a protagonist of most TES games) is ALSO the chosen one. They're the being chosen to affect important events. Ans they're the only one to be able to affect their destiny

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u/nhalliday 8h ago

To my knowledge it's left somewhat up to interpretation whether or not you're important in Oblivion. Like you could've been placed by the divines in that prison, just popped into existence, and that's why the guards didn't know you were there. Or it could've really been a mixup with the watch - which is apparently "usual".

The Emperor saw your face in a vision, but did he see you because you are important or because you were the first domino in helping someone else achieve their destiny?

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u/phoenixflare599 7h ago

Yeah literally one of the conversation lines is "what happens to me now?" And the emperor is like

"How the fuck would I know? I'm about to die"

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u/fake_user_34 6h ago

Thing is, the player character is ALWAYS important in elder scrolls games. But not be the main chosen one but they are a chosen one. The Prisoner is an actual phenomenon in the elder scrolls lore that gets very meta. And I do mean meta in a Captial M sort of way.

The Prisoner is a person who can see beyond the bars of the prison, the prison being the game. The prisoner is the game character and we are the ones looking in from outside, us the player, we can see behind the bars.

Yes, Elder Scrolls gets stupid meta like that when it comes to the lore that, us in real life, are part of the lore. We take control of the prisoner and change things that the game, the prison, never expects.

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u/meowtiger 2h ago

Yes, Elder Scrolls gets stupid meta like that when it comes to the lore that, us in real life, are part of the lore.

the elder scrolls also has the in-lore concept of CHIM, which could be described as a character in the game glimpsing the fourth wall

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u/verumvia 7h ago edited 6h ago

TES storybuilding follows a general pattern when establishing people and things of divine connection, and the player character is always a part of this pattern: Lore:Walking Ways - UESP Wiki, the second walking way of The Endeavor. There's a key part of it called mantling where power is garnered and then taken either willingly or unwillingly; more often the latter occurs, but in TES IV the former does while the hero is the catalyzing force.

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u/Giovannis_Pikachu 6h ago

Unless you explicitly avoid the main plot you are literally The Hero of Kvatch at the very least and if you do the best quest, the arena? BY AZURA BY AZURA BY AZURA. ITS THE GRAND CHAMPION!!!

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u/rieldealIV 5m ago

That's just you earning a title through your actions though. There was a Grand Champion before you and there'll be a different Grand Champion after you.

Hero of Kvatch is a bit more of a unique title but the funny thing is it's not really that impressive of a feat by the end of the story. It involved closing a single oblivion gate (while potentially assisted by an guard from Kvatch) and then helping the remainder of the guard clear out the city. Later on you teach Captin Burd how to close gates, and then he and the Bruma guard are stated to be closing gates as they pop up around Bruma up until the Battle for Bruma where they stop doing it so the great gate can be opened so you can get the great sigil stone.

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u/cbftw 4h ago

I mean, no matter what, you're the Hero of Kvatch. You're important in some fashion

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u/ThrowawayPersonAMA 44m ago

To my knowledge it's left somewhat up to interpretation whether or not you're important in Oblivion.

The player's character is literally Sheogorath. They're a god. It's not up for interpretation.

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u/nhalliday 7m ago

No, you become important. That doesn't mean you start as important. A chosen one is a person who was selected by some higher power or destiny or whatever to become great because of that selection, people who go out and earn their power are not "chosen ones".

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u/obscurakin 9h ago

Witcher's story is somewhat similar in this regard. Geralt may be the primary protagonist but Ciri and her powers are what it's all about.

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u/fawkie 9h ago

It’s why dragon age 2 has my favorite story of the three

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u/KingOfTheSouthEast 9h ago

Hawke is the “chosen one” in dragon age though or am i misremembering

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u/Gregregious 8h ago

No, he's just a refugee who saves Kirkwall from one crisis and then fails to save it from another. The futility is kind of the point with how dark a game DA2 is with the themes of oppression.

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u/KingOfTheSouthEast 7h ago

yeah now i remember, the Qunari for Act 2 and Templar v Mages in Act 3 right?

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u/GT-Alex74 4h ago

And also technically failing at getting rid of Corypheus, which triggers the events of Inquisition. My Hawke dated Isabella, then Anders. She saw her brother and her mother die, her sister having to become a warden, and her stance pushing a foreign noble into waging war on her city. In her mind, she's just constantly failing and responsible for everything fucked up in the world.

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u/Buca-Metal 9h ago

Actually, none of the 4 Dragon Age protagonists are the chosen one

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u/brey_wyert 8h ago

True. Being the Herald/Inquisitor was an accident, if you're an elf you can even be reluctant about the whole thing. Rook fucked up and had to clean up their big mess lol

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u/Buca-Metal 8h ago

And the Inquisitor thing was also a thing a spirit did during the explosion. The spirit could be something related to Andraste/Maker but unless they ever confirm that the Inquisitor doesn't fit the chosen one.

Rook is a lot like Hawke in "wtf is happening" kind of way.

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u/crxsso_dssreer 1h ago

technically no, but you're still made grand inquisitor of whatever and the world does revolves around you in game... so it's kind of a literary device that leads to the same thing.

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u/fawkie 6h ago

I mean 1 and 3 are chosen one stories. You’re the last grey wardens and only ones who can stop the blight or randomly chosen as the inquisitor to save the world from basically also the blight

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u/Buca-Metal 5h ago

In DA1: You are one of the two (actually at least 4) last Grey Wardens but just in Ferelden, there are hundreds or a thousands more left in world. Any of those could do what main character does, doesn't have any special skills. The Darkspawn would have been defeated eventually what the main character does is stopped before it gets bigger just because he was closer to it.

In DA3 is actually someone else who places the inquisitor in that position and even then someone else would have taken the mantle (maybe Hawke).

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u/Fluffy-Ad7165 4h ago

Larp larp larphur

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u/crxsso_dssreer 1h ago

"champion of kirkwall" === dragon borne.

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u/fawkie 1h ago

The champion of Kirkwall title is earned. You arrive as a refugee that no-one wants there and build your place in the city.

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u/crxsso_dssreer 52m ago

The champion of Kirkwall title is earned. You arrive as a refugee that no-one wants there and build your place in the city.

yeah, "earned", it's not like Flemeth shows up to help right from the start out of "nowhere" or anything... earned my ass...

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u/LotharVonPittinsberg PC 5h ago

Oblivion main story: Go find the Chosen One and do his bidding. He needs to literally save the world and you just happen to be here at the right time.

Oblivion side quests: You are the only one both capable and with enough morals to fight this drug cartel taking over the guilds.

Oblivion DLC: So you went on a bad trip and became a literal god. My favourite is that this is canon.

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u/ba123blitz 4h ago

Kinda underselling the fact the player is canonically Sheogorath

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u/Qweasdy 4h ago

It opens with the emperor greeting you with “you are the one from my dreams” lol

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u/greeneagle692 21m ago

World of Warcraft did this. You're just another person that happens to be around when shit happens.

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u/WM_ 0m ago

And how in Lord of the Rings you help the Fellowship behind the curtains.

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u/brey_wyert 8h ago

I mean Patrick Stewart declared it in your face at the first five minute in the game that you're the one.

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u/DzekoTorres 6h ago

You’re so “there for the ride” the emperor himself tells you he had a vision of you in his dreams with the first 2 minutes of gameplay lol

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u/noscul 8h ago

I like how open ended oblivion lets you be, even starting as a prisoner lets you make for a lot of different backstories. It does give some chosen one vibes with how the Senior Septim describes you in his dream.

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u/MaimedJester 8h ago

Morrowind has a good start too where you can roleplay it like you were the master spy being sent to morrowind under the guise of a freed prisoner in rags. 

You immediately are sent to the local Spy Master is with a letter of introduction by the fucking emperor.  

Or it was just prophecy he found one random farmer to morrowind.

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u/MrHoagieman 7h ago

The prophecy of the Nerevarine was also created by Azura because she wanted to destroy the Tribunal temple.

When you finally meet her and she tells you that you're the reincarnated spirit of Nerevar a bunch of other failed incarnates show up to tell you how they failed the quest. So really, Azura may very well have just been going through random mortals, claiming they're Nerevar reincarnated, until she found one who actually got the job done, i.e. the player.

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u/MaimedJester 7h ago

Yeah I've done that Madoka Magicka trick on my Dnd Group before. And that was before Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy came out,  but I saw that devil incarnate reveal ahead of time... because I first saw it in a Japanese Magical Girl subversion. 

Maybe I guess I saw the Matrix Reloaded first? But I dunno if kid me really understood the architect scene.