Getting absolutely demolished by a video game enemy can be infuriating. You know you should be able to win, but every attempt ends with you eating dirt. Then something clicks. You recognize an opening that you didn’t notice before. Maybe you sudden learn how to dodge an attack you used to fall to. Finally, you land a hit that sends your tormentor packing. That victory feels incredible because you remember every miserable attempt it took to get there.
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In Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (KCD 2), the protagonist, Henry, goes on a journey of earning self-respect. It isn’t about immediately becoming the baddest warrior in the land. It’s about learning, and slowly becoming someone who can hold his own. It is an approach that taps into something I wish more RPGs would embrace: the joy of earning your competence. I don’t just want a character who gets stronger because a bar filled up or a number went from 12 to 13. I want to feel the difference. I want to look back at the poor fool I was ten hours ago and wonder how I ever survived long enough to get here.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Understands That Power Has to Be Earned
A lot of RPGs are eager to make players feel special. You’re the chosen one, the legendary warrior, or the one person standing between the world and certain doom. The prophecy of old foretold your arrival, great hero. Eh. Sometimes, you’re all three before you’ve even finished the tutorial. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a grand power fantasy, but when a game hands you that feeling too early, it has less room to make your growth meaningful. Ther need to be time for your to feel that build-up to power. When its rushed, you don’t get the chance to departmentaile anything, so it often just feels flat when you level up.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 takes a different approach. Henry’s limitations are part of the experience, and getting better requires more than watching a number climb on a character sheet. The world pushes back, and players have to learn how to handle it. As a result, progression feels connected to the journey rather than a reward screen announcing that you’ve accumulated enough experience to become somebody new. It keeps you invested, not just in the storyline, but your own personal growth. KCD 2’s melee system is not easy to pick up, by by the end, you’re practically a sword saint, and the build-up to that is awesome.
There’s something satisfying about a game that trusts players to appreciate the distance between where they started and where they end up. You don’t need a grand speech about becoming a hero when the experience itself lets you recognize the change. The payoff comes from understanding what once seemed impossible and realizing it no longer does. And when victory is earned this way, its much easier to savier each progressive win.
Starting Out Useless Makes Every Victory That Much Sweeter
Think about the last time a difficult boss made you reconsider your entire approach. Maybe you kept attacking when you should have backed off, or perhaps you were so focused on dealing damage that you forgot to defend yourself. Losing forces you to confront those mistakes, especially if your goal is to eventually win. Self-reflection is a powerful teacher, but more than that, the encounter that caused it becomes engrained in the back of your mind.
That same principle can make an RPG’s entire progression system more compelling. When a character begins with real limitations, every improvement has room to matter. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is an appealing example because its grounded approach makes the gap between struggling newcomer and capable adventurer part of the fantasy itself. The journey isn’t simply about reaching the next artificial milestone. There’s an aspect about changing how you approach the world along the way.
Of course, struggle alone doesn’t make a game good. There’s a difference between a challenge that teaches you something and one that willing wastes your time. But when a game gets that balance right, it creates a kind of satisfaction that instant gratification can never ever replicate. The concept of the earned victory. If an RPG can make me feel completely useless before giving me the tools to thrive, or earning them through my own efforts, then that eventual power spike and following fantasy becomes much more worth fighting for.
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