A Year Later, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Has Cemented Its Place In RPG Gaming History

One of 2025’s biggest gaming successes was easily Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Released one year ago today, the sprawling Middle Ages RPG reintroduced players to Henry of Skalitz, an average man in the 15th-century who finds himself at the center of a historically accurate recreation of the era. With an immense depth of worldbuilding and tight role-playing mechanics, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was the perfect game for RPG fans and history nerds.

However, even the developers at Warhorse probably couldn’t have expected the truly massive response the gamer fanbase had to the title. Quickly earning back its budget within a few days of release, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II became one of the definitive titles of the year, with phenomenal sales, terrific reviews, and a slew of award nominations to its name. A year after it debuted, ComicBook spoke with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Lead Designer, Prokop Jirsa, and Warhorse Studios Communications Director, Tobi Stolz-Zwilling, about the game’s development, their reactions to its rapturous reception, and what they intend to bring from this experience into Warhorse’s future.

The Life And Times Of Henry Of Skalitz

Even compared to other sprawling role-playing games, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was a big swing. Building on the already massive world established in the previous game, players take Henry on a journey that spans the countryside and growing cities under the banner of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Exploring Deliverance II for the first time can be genuinelly stunning, with players lost in the tight world-building and compelling storytelling. It’s a far cry from most other entries in the genre, even if the development team doesn’t see their rivals as anything to simply dismiss.

“I don’t really believe there’s such a thing as a ‘standard’ RPG,” Prokop Jirsa noted. “Every studio is aiming for something different. For Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, we deliberately pushed for immersion because it fits a historically authentic setting especially well. The more grounded and coherent the world feels, the easier it is for players to forget the systems and just live in it.”

That undeniable humanity at the core of Deliverance II is a key element of what drew players so thoroughly into the experience, giving them the ability to take Henry in all sorts of directions that never leave that realistic presentation at the core of the experience. That realism was central to the game development and narrative growth of the title, something that Jirsa was especially proud of in retrospect.

“What I’m most proud of is that, despite everything Henry goes through, he still feels like a real human being. He experiences and even shapes major events, but he makes mistakes and doesn’t always have the right answers. From both a design and storytelling perspective, it was important to us that when he finally comes out on top, it feels earned, like a person shaped by those experiences, not just a hero who was destined to win.”

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II began development in 2019, with Warhorse Studios spending over half a decade at work developing the world and characters. With over 2.2 million words in the game’s total script, the title became one of the largest RPG settings the genre has ever seen. In the process, Warhorse delivered on their ambitions of creating one of the biggest games ever.

Henry’s journey didn’t come into existence without warning, though, with Jirsa noting that “there’s no defining change” that fully drove the team or changed the development cycle.

“After the success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, we knew we had the resources to fully commit to our vision and see it through properly. The biggest evolution was having the experience and time to do that consistently, so the final experience feels complete and polished rather than just ambitious.”

Part of that polished experience involved delivering the most authentic 15th-century experience possible. There are hundreds of game mechanics for players to discover and master, a litany of skills reflecting the real-life talents that people have spent their entire lives honing. On top of that, the depth of the world design allows for NPCs who feel like genuine people, something that Jirsa was especially proud of from a game development perspective.

“I’m especially fond of the smaller systems that quietly hold the experience together. Things like NPCs picking up clothing or armour and actually wearing it if it fits their role. Most players won’t notice it directly, but it makes the world feel more alive.”

A Blockbuster Of Historical Proporations

It’s hard to understate just how big a hit Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has been. In a medium where quick-action multiplayer experiences like Fortnite are typically the name of the game, the massive narrative-driven single-player campaign proved to be a hit with players and critics alike.

With an impressive 89/100 score on Metacritic for the PC release (and console versions just a single point behind it), Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has earned comparisons to legends of the genre like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The immersion, mechanics, story, and especially the visuals were singled out as uniformly impressive. On top of earning several major award nominations (including three from The Game Awards), the game broke even within a single day of release. In less than a year of release, the game has sold more than four million copies across all platforms.

Reflecting on the impact of the success on Warhorse, Tobi Stolz-Zwilling joked that “we threw a legendary Warhorse Studios party or two.” However, Stolz-Zwilling was quick to note that the entire team at the developer was “incredibly proud of the success and the ongoing hype. For many of us, the global reception is still something we’re processing, but it definitely raises both confidence and healthy pressure when thinking about what comes next. What I’m personally most proud of is that the team stays together. We have a surprisingly low turnover rate, with many veterans like Prokop and myself who’ve been here for over 12 years, alongside a lot of young talent who joined Warhorse specifically to work on games like ours.”

The success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is inevitably going to have an impact on the future of Warhorse Studios. Both externally and internally, expectations are likely to be sky high for the future of the developer. One of the biggest lessons that Stolz-Zwilling and the rest of the team are taking from the success of the release is “how much our long-term relationship with the community paid off. From the Kickstarter campaign for the original title back in 2014, all the way to the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and beyond, we’ve always treated players as part of the journey, not just the audience at the end of it. That approach shaped how we communicated, how transparent we were, and how we built momentum over time. The biggest lesson we’re taking forward is that staying close to the community creates trust that carries a project through launch and long after. That mindset will absolutely stay with us for whatever comes next.”

Closing Out Deliverance II And Looking Ahead To The Future

After the launch of Deliverance II in January 2025, Warhorse Studios released three DLC add-ons – “Brushes with Death,” “Legacy of the Forge,” and “Mysteria Ecclesiae” – that expanded the world. When asked why it was important to conclude the experience with a narrative-driven story addition like “Mysteria Ecclesiae,” Jirsa explained that “for us, it was important to close the journey in a way that reflects what Warhorse does best – strong characters, atmosphere, and grounded storytelling. Opening Sedletz Monastery had been a long-term goal, and combining a major new location with a story at that level, including proper cutscenes, takes a lot of time. That’s why it made sense for Mysteria Ecclesiae to be the final DLC.”

While the players are still discovering just how deep Kingdom Come: Deliverance II really was, attention has already turned to Warhorse’s future endeavors. Looking at what he hopes to expeirment most with most in their next games, Jirsa singled out his desire to “rethink dialogue systems. For decades, dialogue has mostly meant stopping the game and switching modes, and I think there’s room to better integrate it into moment-to-moment gameplay.”

Looking back at the accolades the game has received, Jirsa explained how “it’s honestly hard to even grasp the impact the game has had, especially in the Czech Republic. Seeing something so rooted in our history resonates with so many people still feels a bit unreal. What I’m most proud of, though, are the small moments, reading posts on Reddit or Discord where players share little stories about what the game meant to them. Those quiet, personal reactions mean more to me than any headline or score.”

When asked directly about any prospective plans for a third entry in the series, Stolz-Zwilling responded with a cheeky “nice try!” The Communications Director for Warhorse then explained that “what I can say is that we absolutely want to keep making RPGs in our very distinctive Warhorse style, games where players know what they’re getting into the moment they hear our name. If someone talks about the next big Warhorse Studios RPG, it should already come with certain expectations attached, even before we say anything official.”

“We definitely have a few community surprises lined up for 2026,” Stolz-Zwilling teased, before explaining that “our main studio focus right now is on shaping what comes next and making sure we announce it at the right time, in the right way, but yeah, that’s probably a topic for another interview.” Hopefully, those surprises and news come sooner rather than later. Henry’s journey might be over, but Warhorse’s journey is far from over.