History VideoGame / KingdomComeDeliverance

* ObviousBeta: The initial release of the game included quite a number of bugs and visual glitches. The performance of the PC version also received criticism, as depending on each computer's build and components it could range from "somewhat acceptable" to "utterly horrifying". The game developers inmediately set out to correct these issues, releasing several patches within the month which dealt with the most severe annoyances. After patch 1.4 the majority of problems had been fixed and the game was stable and mostly enjoyable, although a few irritating quirks still remained.

** While you need to use your own herbs, the aprocathy stations will never run out of basic supplies.

* TheFaceless: [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Sigismund]] , king of Hungary, Croatia, brother of Wenceslas IV. Is seen only once, from behind in a helmet so all we can see of him is a little part of his [[EvilRedhead signature haircut.]]

* CorruptChurch: The game purposefully goes out of its way to portray diverse members of the church in different degrees of light. Simon, the former priest of Rovna, is compassionate to the point of being naïve (and grieving due to an unfortunate event of the past). Godwin, the priest of Uzhitz, regardless of his "debauched" ways proves to be really kind-hearted and gets a pass from his fellow citizens due to living a humble life despite his noble upbringing. The monks of the Sazau Monastery are mostly decent people in spite of their aloof relationship with the outside world. The trope is played full straight with the Vicar (an intolerant zealot with BurnTheWitch tendencies) and the priest of Rattay (a cynical, unscrupulous hypocrite). Overall, most of the townsfolk Henry meets have a negative opinion of the clergy, considering them to be corrupt, greedy and power-hungry. TruthInTelevision to a good degree, as the 15th century was pretty much the prelude of the religious reformations[[note]]1409, the year the game is set in, was the peak of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Schism Western Schism]], with the Catholic Church being split between ''three'' popes, each considering himself the one and only due to personal power-plays and purely lay politics - and it took electing a ''fourth'' in 1417 to sort this mess out[[/note]] and turmoil of the 16th, with a less-than-exemplary clergy and growing criticism against the ecclesiastical hierarchy. On top of it all, the game is set just a couple of years before the [[UsefulNotes/JanZizka the Hussite Wars]], where supporters of Jan Hus simply decided they had enough of greedy churchmen meddling into their lives and went to arms to defend the reformist teachings of Hus with force - while in game many characters declare admiration to Hus and his teachings.

* LivingProp: Henry's mother, since '''she doesn't even have a name'''. There is a single, opening conversation with her, and that's it. For contrast, Martin at least gets ''some'' characterisation (no matter how [[FlatCharacter flat]] the end result is). But both characters are treated as those big, pivotal, and important figures in Henry's life... except we don't even know what her name is or what person she was. It makes Henry's angst and desire for revange hard to take seriously in the long run - doubly so when he keeps having nightmares and pangs of SurvivorGuilt through the whole game.

* CorruptChurch: The game purposefully goes out of its way to portray diverse members of the church in different degrees of light. Simon, the former priest of Rovna, is compassionate to the point of being naïve (and grieving due to an unfortunate event of the past). Godwin, the priest of Uzhitz, regardless of his "debauched" ways proves to be really kind-hearted and gets a pass from his fellow citizens due to living a humble life despite his noble upbringing. The monks of the Sazau Monastery are mostly decent people in spite of their aloof relationship with the outside world. The trope is played full straight with the Vicar (an intolerant zealot with BurnTheWitch tendencies) and the priest of Rattay (a cynical, unscrupulous hypocrite). Overall, most of the townsfolk Henry meets have a negative opinion of the clergy, considering them to be corrupt, greedy and power-hungry. TruthInTelevision to a good degree, as the 15th century was pretty much the prelude of the religious reformations[[note]]In 1409, there were ''three'' popes, each considering himself the one and only - and it took electing a ''fourth'' to sort this mess out[[/note]] and turmoil of the 16th, with a less-than-exemplary clergy and growing criticism against the ecclesiastical hierarchy. On top of it all, the game is set just a couple of years before the [[UsefulNotes/JanZizka the Hussite Wars]], where supporters of Jan Hus simply decided they had enough of greedy churchmen meddling into their lives and went to arms to defend the reformist teachings of Hus with force - while in game many characters declare admiration to Hus and his teachings.

* CorruptChurch: The game purposefully goes out of its way to portray diverse members of the church in different degrees of light. Simon, the former priest of Rovna, is compassionate to the point of being naïve (and grieving due to an unfortunate event of the past). Godwin, the priest of Uzhitz, regardless of his "debauched" ways proves to be really kind-hearted and gets a pass from his fellow citizens due to living a humble life despite his noble upbringing. The monks of the Sazau Monastery are mostly decent people in spite of their aloof relationship with the outside world. The trope is played full straight with the Vicar (an intolerant zealot with BurnTheWitch tendencies) and the priest of Rattay (a cynical, unscrupulous hypocrite). Overall, most of the townsfolk Henry meets have a negative opinion of the clergy, considering them to be corrupt, greedy and power-hungry. TruthInTelevision to a good degree, as the 15th century was pretty much the prelude of the religious reformations and turmoil of the 16th, with a less-than-exemplary clergy and growing criticism against the ecclesiastical hierarchy. On top of it all, the game is set just a couple of years before the [[UsefulNotes/JanZizka the Hussite Wars]], where supporters of Jan Hus simply decided they had enough of greedy churchmen meddling into their lives and went to arms to defend the reformist teachings of Hus with force - while in game many characters declare admiration to Hus and his teachings.

* CorruptChurch: The game purposefully goes out of its way to portray diverse members of the church in different degrees of light. Simon, the former priest of Rovna, is compassionate to the point of being naïve (and grieving due to an unfortunate event of the past). Godwin, the priest of Uzhitz, regardless of his "debauched" ways proves to be really kind-hearted and gets a pass from his fellow citizens due to living a humble life despite his noble upbringing. The monks of the Sazau Monastery are mostly decent people in spite of their aloof relationship with the outside world. The trope is played full straight with the Vicar (an intolerant zealot with BurnTheWitch tendencies) and the priest of Rattay (a cynical, unscrupulous hypocrite). Overall, most of the townsfolk Henry meets have a negative opinion of the clergy, considering them to be corrupt, greedy and power-hungry. TruthInTelevision to a good degree, as the 15th century was pretty much the prelude of the religious reformations and turmoil of the 16th, with a less-than-exemplary clergy and growing criticism against the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

-->'''Henry:''' I noticed all the targets. Are you an archer, by chance?
-->'''Archer:''' I noticed you're asking a lot of questions. Are you the Inquisition, by chance?"

* LivingProp: Henry's mother, since '''she doesn't even have a name'''. There is a single, opening conversation with her, and that's it. For contrast, Martin at least gets ''some'' characterisation (no matter how [[FlatCharacter flat]] the end result is). But both characters are treated as those big, pivotal, and important figures in Henry's life... except we don't even know what her name is or what person she was. It makes Henry's angst and desire for revange hard to take seriously in the long run - doubly so when he keeps having nightmares and pangs of SurvivorGuilty through the whole game.

* LivingProp: Henry's mother, since '''she doesn't even have a name'''. There is a single, opening conversation with her, and that's it. For contrast, Martin at least gets ''some'' characterisation (no matter how [[FlatCharacter flat]] the end result is). But both characters are treated as those big, pivotal, and important figures in Henry's life... except we don't even know what her name is. It makes Henry's angst and desire for revange hard to take in the long run.

* SympatheticAdulterer: ZigZagged. The game ''tries'' to do this with [[spoiler: Lady Stephanie]], who is married to a much older man via ArrangedMarriage and, to make things worse, her husband spent years in captivity, further driving them apart due to simply never really having time to learn and know each other. However, [[spoiler: [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale she takes full advantage of Henry]] (he would be in ''deep'' shit if the affair would ever come up) and is quick to simply drag him into her own bed - something that's ''very'' poorly hinted at, and when the act itself happens in the game, it's a pretty jarring conclusion of an unrelated FetchQuest]]. This is further made weirder by the fact that in every other situation, [[spoiler: Lady Stephanie]] is portrayed as simply ''lonely'', while doing absolutely ''nothing'' to get close with [[spoiler: Sir Divish]], who, as various interactions with him show, clearly loves and cares for his wife, but lacks the proper way of showing it. The end result is a character that, at the same time, comes off as trapped in a loveless marriage (and that's clearly portrayed as sympathetic) ''and'' a cheating TrophyWife that's just looking for a young stud to fuck with right next to her husband's chamber.

* SexStartsStoryStops: The quite infamous conclusion of the very early side-quest, [[spoiler: ''At Your Service, My Lady'', where Henry ends up in bed with Lady Stephanie]]. It comes off as gratuitous, being merely hinted at that [[spoiler:Stephanie has a crush on Henry]]. It is also further contrasted with just about any other sex encounter, not to mention romancing Theresa.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Convenient timing saves Henry big time when [[spoiler:Zbyshek]], of all people, pulls this one in [[spoiler:Vranik]]. He does it mostly out of fear for his own life (playing with the bad boys can be dangerous when you're the youngest and weakest of the bunch) and also wants to get some coin out of it, hoping to dissappear and quietly begin anew somewhere else.

* SexStartsStoryStops: The quite infamous conclusion of the very early side-quest, [[spoiler: ''At Your Service, My Lady'', where Henry ends up in bed with Lady Stephanie]]. It comes out of the blue, nothing even suggests it's heading in that direction and is both gratuitous ''and'' disturbingly out of any context, to the point of it can come off as [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale rapey]] ''[[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale on Henry]]''. It is also further contrasted with just about any other sex encounter, not to mention romancing Theresa.

* UnwantedAssistance: When Henry is helping Johanka take care of the wounded Skalitz refugees in the Sasau monastery, he learns that the Custodian, count Sebastian vom Berg, is trying to woo her, despite being a married man... except Johanka herself ''doesn't mind at all'' and will react weird whenever Henry tries to "protect" her. All while the Custorian is a genuinely slimy and slippery bastard.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: It is perfectly possible to play Henry as an unrepentant murderous psychopath. Enter homes at night and silently stab/choke the sleeping denizens to steal their goods, or just for fun. Make wandering merchants smile by paying them an extra, backstab them after the deal is sealed to get your money back. Make promises in order to get what you want from people, then backpedal and betray them at the first chance. Drop a Bane potion into that cooking pot when nobody is looking, come back later to loot the corpses. Almost all characters in the game can be killed - although some may respawn - and the possibilities are almost endless.

* BigDamnHeroes: At the end of the prologue, [[spoiler: when Henry is about to be killed, Theresa gets attention of Runt and his gang. Then Robard of Talmberg arrives with knights and they save Henry's life.]]

* BodyHorror: Not too much in the game, but a few specific examples do qualify. [[spoiler:Limpy Lubosh]] may have been a thief and a rascal, but noone deserves something like that.

* BoringButPractical: Maces and hammers. The amount of available combos is quite lacklustre if compared to the swords' (both short and long) flashy repertoire, but they are extremely effective when dealing with plate-armored opponents, whom after a while are the only real enemies worth worrying about.
** The Master Strikes themselves, due to combining defence and offence in a single motion, and usually leaving opponents open for an additional strike in the inmediate aftermath. They require a bit of practice to master, but once the player begins to get the timing right, they become much more efficient than the AwesomeButImpractical combos (whose attack patterns can include up to four different motions). Also TruthInTelevision according to many historical european fencing treatises - the german tradition held the "hidden" or "master" strikes in a very high regard.

* BreakableWeapons: Weapons, armor, clothes and certain tools (repair kits, lockpicks) degrade with use. Weapons and gear merely become less efficient (i.e. getting diverse maluses to the damage/protection they provide) while repair kits and lockpicks will eventually "break" completely and need to be replaced. Upon release, no matter how damaged a weapon or a piece of armor was, it could still be wielded/worn by Henry and used indefinetely. This was eventually changed via patches, so when an item falls beyond a certain durability threshold, it cannot be equipped again until repaired back to an usable condition.

* ChangingClothesIsAFreeAction: Played straight under normal conditions. Henry can completely change his outfit (plate armor included) in the blink of an eye. [=NPCs=] will enter a room at night, closing the door behind them, then instantly come out with their sleeping clothes on. Averted while in combat; as long as the game considers you're in fighting mode, no change of attire is allowed, which can force bandits and cumans at camps to fight you without any armor on

* CityGuards: Present in pretty much every noteworthy settlement. Each town has its own force, and keeps track of the player's dastardly deeds independently. This means the guard of Rattay will never try to apprehend Henry for crimes committed in Sasau, and viceversa. They can be also found sometimes on the roads, battling against bandits and Cuman raiders.

* {{Combos}}: One of the features of the combat system. They are delivered by correctly following an specific attack pattern, and many of them are named after real techniques of medieval and renaissance european martial arts systems - in example, the ''Zorn Ort'' or "Wrath Strike" finished with a thrust, from the german tradition. [[DrillSergeantNasty Captain Bernard]] will teach Henry one longsword combo during their training and sparring sessions, the rest are perks to be unlocked after leveling up each weapon skill. Unfortunately, by-and-large these will go unused, as stated above, due to their AwesomeButImpractical nature compared to the Master Strikes which are BoringButPractical.

* CutsceneIncompetence: Downplayed. Most cutscenes depict only dialogues, with the whole fighting left for the player to deal with. The few ones which include some action [[spoiler:like the beginning of the duel agains Runt in Pribyslavitz]] tend to depict Henry as fairly competent. There are a few exceptions however. After finding the bandit fortress in [[spoiler:Vranik, Henry is surprised and caught off guard by Istvan Toth's appearance, thus allowing a mook to knock him out from behind.]]
* CycleOfHurting: Since maximum stamina is linked with health, taking a lot of damage during a fight results in lower maximum stamina, making it harder for Henry to mount an effective defence, since attacking and sprinting both use stamina.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Herman, the executioner in Rattay is, as was traditional for an exectioner, a social pariah, seeing as he kills people for a living and has very few qualms about it. However, any interaction with him reveals that he is a very caring, polite and selfless individual, and takes offense at the very notion of using his skills in an illegal manner.

** During the ''Next to Godliness'' quest, Henry is asked by a noble to fetch some wine from an area that restricted to commoners. Normally, many players would pick the lock then go in and the dialogue would later reflect the trouble Henry has to get into to acquire the wine. Except, if the player simply take the key to the area from the noble and get the wine without trouble, Henry will bring up this fact and the noble will compliment Henry for being crafty. If the player is caught by guards in the area, there's an option to show the key as proof that Henry was sent by the noble. None of the above is mentioned or suggested anywhere by the quest.

** An early quest which requires Henry to escape a castle has the local noblewoman suggesting Henry to [[DressingAsTheEnemy steal some guard's armor]]. However, this approach has another problem: the guard at the gate does not recognize you as one of his fellow guards and immediately ask who you are and thus requiring a speech check (by pretending you are an envoy from a nearby town of the same lord) or a bribe. Conversely, if you win him over with an argument before getting the armor, he'll let you out once you obtain and equip it.

** If you get arrested in Skalitz, there's a custom game over cutscene where the siege occurs, and Henry dies in jail, unable to escape.

* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: The player character's main level, as well as all stats and skills, cap at level 20. And they are not balanced against each other - some can be maxed out while still in Skalitz (even without any cheesy strategies), while other will require a tedious grind. Plenty of sidequests, exploration, combat and 'extracurricular' activities will be needed to bring several stats and skills to the max, with Speech and Horsemanship being the biggest offenders. If you stick to the main questline and pay little attention to secondary tasks and StatGrinding, it's perfectly possible to finish the game without even coming close to the level cap, but it ''will'' make the game incredibly difficult, especially in the combat department, as Henry will be severely under-leveled to face the late-game enemies.

** Combat training allows you to improve every single combat-related stat in less than an hour of randomly flailing your weapons. All it takes is for the plot to progress enough for Captain Bernard to become Henry's trainer. As a result, any semblance of game balance is out the window. Similarly, it is perfectly possible to extend the initial training session with Miller Peshek beyond raising the skill to 2 and going all the way to 5, or even 10 if the patience is there, allowing one to avoid EarlyGameHell for sneaking and thieving grind. This leaves but a few stats that take a long time to increase, and none of them is crucial.

-->'''Henry: '''Unless they burn him at the stake first. [[labelnote: explanation]]... after Hus was burned at the stake for herecy. [[/labelnote]]

* TheUpperCrass: Sir Hanush is loud, foul-mouthed, illiterate, distrustful of clergy, but also quite egalitarian when it comes to dealing with lowborn people.

* ArmorIsUseless: Averted. Armor is ''crucial'' to guaranteeing your survival in combat. This extends to enemies as well: unarmored bandits and highwaymen are almost trivial to handle in a fight, whereas a fully armored knight or mercenary can be almost impervious to damage, requiring you to use the correct weapons or techniques to handle them instead.

* AttemptedRape: Three Cumans attempt to rape Theresa during the [[RapePillageAndBurn sacking of Skalitz]], which Henry can avert by either distracting them long enough for her to get away or outright ''killing'' them. If he doesn't intervene, [[spoiler: Theresa later reveals that she managed to free herself by stabbing one of them with a dagger before retreating inside]]. If Henry does save Theresa, it's later reflected with in the dialogue with Lady Stephanie.

** Weapon combos, specially the most complex ones which include up to four different motions before the blow is struck. They're still somewhat useful in one-on-one fights and duels, and there is no denying how satisfying it can be to pull them off against a smug opponent. But getting the whole attack pattern right is just too much of a hassle when dealing with several enemies at once. In such cases, the BoringButPractical master strikes are more useful due to combining offence and defence in a single motion. Somewhat TruthInTelevision, as fighting more than a single adversary at once can always be a challenge, and in such cases flashy and complicated techniques are out of the question.

* BathtubBonding: Henry and Hans Capon in the "Next to Godliness" quest visit the Rattay bathhouse together, with Hans sneaking out of the castle and Henry meeting him there later. Has invites Henry to join him in the tub, and this represents the point that the two of them really start to open up to each other as friends after their rocky earlier meetings. The rest of the evening is spent drinking, throwing dice, and Hans sending Henry off for some caper-like drunk errands that earn his admiration and trust.

* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: The player character's main level, as well as all stats and skills, cap at level 20. The game is, however, finely balanced in this regard. You will need to put quite a lot of effort (and/or [[BribingYourWayToVictory money on skill trainers]]) to reach level 20. Plenty of sidequests, exploration, combat and 'extracurricular' activities will be needed to bring several stats and skills - and therefore the main level, which is dependant on these - to the max. If you stick to the main questline and pay little attention to secondary tasks and StatGrinding, it's perfectly possible to finish the game without even coming close to the level cap.

* CombatDiplomacyStealth: All three play styles are represented in the GameSystem. While Henry can become proficient in all of them, it generally won't happen unless the player purposefully grinds. The game also offers player some traits that give bonus to skills related to the chosen playstyle while debuffing skills of unchosen playstyles.