Kings Bounty 2 Announces Delay

King's Bounty was originally released in 1990, a defining game in the industry that would eventually inspire franchises like Heroes of Might & Magic. Now, 30 years later, King's Bounty is coming back. 1C Entertainment, with publisher Deep Silver, announced King's Bounty 2 back in mid-2019. Since then, however, the game has seen some extended delays pushing it past its original 2020 launch. Now, unfortunately, King's Bounty 2 is getting what will hopefully be its last delay, as it's being pushed back to August.

King's Bounty 2 was most recently slated for release in March. But as 1C Entertainment neared that deadline, it realized that the game wasn't quite ready. Producer Denis Maltzev confirmed in a press release that King's Bounty 2 needs the extra time for playtesting to smooth out gameplay balance and polish for the game's remaining bugs and issues. As the gaming industry has proven many times over, game delays almost always result in a better game in the long run.

Part of the reason why King's Bounty 2 has been delayed, says Maltzev, is due to 1C's ambition for the project. King's Bounty 2's open world, as well as its complex narrative, will prove why 1C needed the extra time for the game. At least, that's what 1C hopes.

In the end, waiting an additional few months for the release of King's Bounty 2 will likely be understood by fans. After all, they've been waiting since 1990 for a proper sequel. King's Bounty 2 has a legacy to live up to, even if most gamers won't remember or care about it. But that's something the developers likely know well and will strive to meet.

The fantasy genre is an incredibly broad one which intersects with many others. From JRPGs like Final Fantasy to Action RPGs like Skyrim, fantasy elements have found their way into some of the biggest games and franchises in the industry. While they are incredibly common today though, that hasn't always been the case.

Fantasy games can be traced all the way back to gaming's infancy, but it was not until the nineties that they really became prevalent. Throughout the decade can be found countless examples, many of which are still going strong today. Others may have been forgotten, but their legacy still lives on through their innovative ideas that have inspired many modern fantasy games.

To many, Loom is a masterpiece of a game that still holds up well today. Rather than begin like any other, the developers produced a 30 minute audio drama which serves as the game's prologue. From here, it expands into an incredibly complex fantasy story with an innovative mechanic that would one day become a staple of one of gaming's biggest franchises.

The drafts that Bobbin plays on his distaff work in much the same way as the short melodies used in Ocarina of Time and subsequent Zelda titles. There are 26 of them in total, with each one having its own unique effect. The original game even included a special notebook called The Book of Patterns in which players could write down new drafts so that they wouldn't forget them.