Kingdom Come: Deliverance was heavily inspired by Oblivion – and now I can’t ignore it anymore

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Stephan
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The lead developer of the medieval role-playing game shares how much Oblivion influenced Kingdom Come 1 back in the day. For better or for worse.

Oblivion and Kingdom Come: Deliverance have much more in common than you might think at first glance. Sure, one is a high fantasy role-playing game, while the other focuses on medieval realism without any magic.

But apart from the setting, they are very similar: the dynamic world, the sandbox elements, the NPC daily routines, the leveling-by-doing system, and so on. This is by no means a coincidence, as KCD director Dan Vavra explained. According to him, Oblivion was the strongest influence in the creation of Kingdom Come.

And since I read that, I’ve noticed it even more. Among other things, in the UI. Let’s go through Vavra’s most interesting statements on the subject.

“Loved and hated things”

The information comes from this X thread (in which Vavra once again takes a wonderfully clear stance on hate comments against same-sex romances in KCD, but that’s another topic):

Back in Oblivion 🙂 This was the game that influenced KCD the most. In a good way (things that inspired me) and in a bad way (things I hated and did differently). Definitely one of the most influential games ever (…).

He gets a little more specific in the comments. For example, on the topic of User Interface The developers of KCD used Oblivion as a basis for this at the time – and even though the end result is different, you can still see it. Especially with the Compass

Personally, I notice the similarities mainly in the interactions with the world. What Oblivion (and Morrowind before it) started, Kingdom Come has mastered in my eyes: making the world and its often quirky inhabitants feel truly alive. It’s a phrase that many open-world role-playing games use in their advertising, but in my opinion, they rarely live up to it.

Both game series also have the courage to be silly at times. Or to include quests that work completely differently from the rest of the game – think of the color trolls from Oblivion or the Sasau monastery in KCD. And of course, both feature completely absurd NPC interactions, although KCD comes across as much more believable.

In my opinion, the differences are also very clear: KCD focuses much more on an exciting and entertaining main quest. And with Heinrich, it also focuses on a game character with a fixed role in the world. Oblivion gives me more freedom, but pays for it with far fewer personal moments.

This is not meant to be a criticism of either approach, they are simply different. And that’s wonderful!

What similarities do you see between Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Elder Scrolls – specifically the original Oblivion? Which differences do you like and which approach do you personally prefer? Let me know in the comments! If someone put a sword to my chest and forced me to choose, I would choose KCD. Köter is just a strong argument.