Deliverance 2 Design Director Breaks Down What Makes a Good RPG

Defining what makes a good RPG has become increasingly difficult in modern gaming, largely because the genre itself has grown so loose around the edges. More and more, it seems like it doesn’t take much these days for a game to claim the RPG label, whether that’s due to its progression mechanics, dialogue system, or a simple stat screen. As a result, RPG has almost become less of a genre and more of a catch-all, applied to everything from action-adventure games to survival sims, making any meaningful discussion about what an RPG truly is harder than it should be. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, however, was built with a far more deliberate philosophy in mind, one that developer Warhorse Studios has consistently emphasized.

Ironically, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lost Best RPG to Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 at the 2025 Game Awards, despite the two games being starkly different from one another. That outcome highlights how broad the category has become, where games with vastly different priorities can be grouped together under the same label. Ultimately, it’s a misunderstanding of genre classification where having RPG elements is often treated as the same thing as being an RPG, and it’s precisely that confusion that led us to ask Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 design director Viktor Bocan in a recent interview what he believes actually defines a good RPG.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s Design Director Believes a Good RPG Is Defined By Freedom

To be fair, a game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 does have a lot of classic RPG mechanics supporting its claim of the genre’s label. Its character progression and customization, party system with unique characters, and narrative-driven format are all elements the genre is known for. The problem, however, is that it largely skips one of the most fundamental characteristics of a role-playing game: freedom. Sure, there is freedom in customizing each character, plenty of optional activities, and even a handful of moments where choices are offered. But because it is designed around its story, players can only do so much.

RPGs are labeled as such because they allow for roleplay, meaning they give players the freedom to define who they are within a world and express that identity in the way they see fit. A true RPG is less concerned with curating a player’s progression and more with offering them a world that responds to their choices, whether those choices lead to success, failure, or something in between. When freedom is limited to build options or shallow branching dialogue, roleplay becomes something that only takes place on the surface.

But when a game allows players to approach situations creatively, fail without guardrails, and live with lasting consequences, roleplay becomes the experience itself. That philosophy is exactly where Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 stands apart, as it treats player freedom as an essential feature—the foundation of what it means to roleplay in the first place. During our interview with him, Bocan echoed that sentiment:

“I personally love the feeling of progress. I want to have my character created by me, and then I want to somehow evolve during the game. And that’s something we wanted to emphasize in both KCD1 and KCD2. We really wanted you to start at the bottom with this basic guy. Make him a blank piece of paper and let players do anything they want. If you want to learn how to read, do that. If you don’t want to learn how to read, don’t. That’s perfectly fine, and you can still finish the game. It might be more complicated in some ways, but it might be easier in others. So, this type of progression, giving you the possibility to go anywhere you want and do anything you want with your character, that’s the crucial part.”

The ability to go anywhere and do anything is exactly what Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 prides itself on, and ultimately what makes it one of the purest forms of an RPG. Bocan stated during the interview that the team initially wanted to make Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2‘s protagonist, Henry, special in some way, even if was something subtle. They thought they could make him the only person in the village who could read, for example, but they eventually decided even that was too much control.

Instead, they made Henry a “blank piece of paper” that would force players to work hard if they wanted to succeed in the game but simultaneously offer them unprecedented freedom in how they built him. Bocan did emphasize that an ordinary protagonist like Henry isn’t required to make a good RPG, but it does give even more room for growth than a typical power-fantasy protagonist can.

On the topic of growth, Bocan went on to explain how important that is to an RPG. Whereas many softer RPGs might emphasize growth in a leveling or gear system that helps in combat, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 makes growth an essential part of the everyday experience, from learning how to ride a horse well to being able to hold down alcohol and apply its effects to Henry’s advantage. As Bocan stated:

“I think growth is necessary. That feeling that you can actually earn something in the game. This is what an RPG is about. It’s not that you have some special role in the story or about meeting people and talking to them. The most important part is the growth of the character, coming into their power and overcoming the obstacles along the way by your own doing.”

What Bocan describes isn’t a checklist of RPG mechanics, but a mindset. A good RPG gives players room to define themselves, accepts that some will struggle or fail, and resists the urge to constantly protect them from bad decisions. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is built around that idea, treating freedom, growth, and consequence as inseparable parts of roleplaying rather than optional systems layered on top. In a genre where the RPG label has become increasingly flexible, Bocan’s philosophy is a reminder that true role-playing starts when the game stops telling players who they’re supposed to be.

Released

February 4, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity

Developer(s)

Warhorse Studios