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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650

u/we_are_sex_bobomb 9h ago

It’s hard to make a video game where you’re not special or chosen in some way because it’s hard to believe an ordinary person could fight like 500 guys and survive over the course of their mission.

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u/ProperGrape 8h ago

Far Cry 3 did it right. A guy just trying to survive, eventually just gets good at it.

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u/red_sutter Switch 6h ago

The MC had magic tattoos and the personal blessing of the island’s leader or Demi-goddess or whatever she was though

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u/KangarooKurt 5h ago

[ tatau intensifies ]

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u/ulimn 6h ago

So in the end he turned out to be a kind of chosen/special one.

If he wasn’t he’d be dead in the first 15 minutes.

29

u/tlollz52 8h ago

Not something i think people really think about

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain 6h ago

Kingdom Come Deliverance does it really well imo, because in my first playthrough I often died when fighting 1-vs-many. I eventually got good enough at the combat to handle it, but it required me to basically run away so that the enemies ran at me in a line and it was briefly a 1-on-1 so I could get a hit in safely, then run and repeat.

Like yeah it's pretty crazy that Henry can kill like 4 armored soldiers by himself, but I often felt weak despite that.

1

u/Rapierre 2h ago

But KCD is still a bad example. What you're talking about is gameplay. But in the plot, Henry does have an effect because he is literally the son of the right noble.

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u/NerrionEU 5h ago

Dark Souls series kinda uses that trope where you start as a regular random undead.

5

u/GoodGrades 5h ago

Sure, but you are literally the Chosen Undead

10

u/1v1mecaestusm8 2h ago

The chosen undead bit is a prophecy though, many before you have been called the chosen undead and failed at some point. You are the chosen undead because you succeed, you don't succeed because you're the chosen undead.

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u/GoodGrades 2h ago

Yeah, you're right, so it's not really a traditional chosen one as in "only this one person can accomplish this task"

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u/Angelusthegreat 21m ago

Wait if I recall right the chosen undead was a fake prophecy right have not played ds since more than decade

1

u/3MetricTonsOfSass 14m ago

My favorite fan theory is that many of the hollows you fight also believed that they were the chosen undead, because the charecters that every person who played the game but never finished are those hollows

33

u/ThirdRevolt 8h ago

You don't need to be ordinary, being one out of many special people in a given setting is fine. What I am so tired of is being The Chosen One and being the most specialest special person in a given game.

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u/RedHotChiliCrab 8h ago

For me it's just realistic because my mom says I am super special

1

u/3MetricTonsOfSass 13m ago

I don't know how to tell you that she didn't mean that kind of special

23

u/VeryNoisyLizard 8h ago

Skyrim is the biggest offender I can think of in this regard. you are the dragonborn. youre are also the archmage, the harbinger, the guildmaster, the listener, nightingale, ....

4

u/Steamcurl 5h ago

Morrowind got part of this right when you discover the cave of the fallen "chosen ones" that came before you and failed. It puts the idea that you're not totally special, although you are the best chance right now. But if you fail there will be others and you'll get added to the list.

1

u/Acamality 4h ago

I like Dragon Age: Origins for that. You ARE special in that you survive the ritual… But you’re just one of the many special people and every decision you make you can also make another Warden do.

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u/TheDuckOnQuack 7h ago

I think this is a big reason why some stealth and horror game genres become popular, even if they’re typically not the big AAA titles.

10

u/Phantom-_-Wizard 7h ago

Helldivers 2. You play as a disposable rag doll with access to a gun and bombs

24

u/I_Was_Fox 6h ago

Is also not an RPG so not really relevant

1

u/fake_user_34 6h ago

The beauty of Helldivers 2 is that you can make any story you want for your character and it will be slightly canon. My dude gets cloned so his ship has so many copies of the same dude. He will die, live, rinse, repeat for Super Earth.

•

u/3MetricTonsOfSass 5m ago

Just saw a video where they theorize that the Hell Divers are basically flash clones, meant to die within days, and thr SEAF soldiers you see are the actual citizens

1

u/JLixxx 6h ago

Give me an entire war campaign like the intro to Battlefield 1.

1

u/No_Future6959 5h ago

Its not hard to believe because most people suspend their disbelief when they play videogames.

The character never has to justify why they are the player character.

1

u/Joraiem 4h ago

It's also just a matter of... The player is the only one with agency. Unless you don't let them make choices to affect anything or take that agency away in other ways (coughcoughKCD2 with its five forced defeats and capturescoughcough) then it makes more sense to say "yeah, actually, you are kind of special," because it blends gameplay and story.

1

u/Antique_Hawk_7192 4h ago

You just need better writers.

觅长生 plays this way. You can try to insert yourself into plots, but you can fail them or ignore them and the world goes on. You can even completely ignore/fail the main quest line. Some quest rewards are necessary if you want to "win", but with a bit of min-maxing you can do without as well.

1

u/Chowder110 3h ago

I mean you could do that through strategy instead of brawn. Imagine a game where you have to almost play like rambo setting up traps and doing political finess to win a battle. But it would get boring not
To actually fight anything lol

1

u/Cory123125 2h ago

You can be not special, as in, not 1 of 1, but you do have to be more powerful than average.

That being said, look at the average uber wealthy. They are doing that in real life and there are multiple of them.

1

u/Kiriima 2h ago

You are mistaking gameplay for narrative.

1

u/Professional_Pear849 1h ago

Generation Zero did it. You hid out and collected supplies for ages before finally trying to mount an attack and fight back.

Day Z does it too.

1

u/Shot-Possibility-399 45m ago

Well that's why Henry works, he is no one, but he practiced and gets better as you play. He's not destined by the gods or whatever. 

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u/Meattyloaf PlayStation 1m ago

I mean Star Wars Outlaws is like this. You play as someone who is good at getting into places they shouldn't be in. Your antics in the game are such a blip that the Empire at large doesn't care about you.