Everything I have learned about Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, I have learned against my will. I was keen on it at first, thanks to its elevator pitch of being a gritty medieval RPG with realistic combat, period-accurate language, and a colorful cast of characters – but as soon as I heard how testing the opening hours are, I grew hesitant.
There are so many excellent new games of 2025 coming out in the coming weeks that I just don't think I have it in me to sit down and explore Bohemia right now. Still, though, the green eyed monster of FOMO has firmly dug its claws in, and I'm desperate to get in on the action somehow. Then, after reading up on how the first few hours of the game – specifically regarding how tough it is to simply survive – I realized that it sounded oddly… familiar. I've decided to take matters into my own hands and with a little help from The Sims 4 and the Rags to Riches challenge. Presenting: Henry of Henford-on-Bagley.
Simdom Come
First things first: I had to recreate KCD2's protagonist in The Sims 4. This was a little tricky as someone who has never played either RPG, but that's what Google is for. But perhaps the hardest part was to try and find appropriate attire for my medieval hero.
In the end, I went for a pirate costume –the closest thing The Sims 4 has to medieval Germanic villager gear. After fine-tuning his facial features as best as I could, it was time to move Henry into his new digs. I already knew that I would be basing him in the quaint village environs of Henford-on-Bagley, a Sims 4 neighborhood featuring charming cottages, wild foxes, off-grid and simple living house traits for an electronic-free existence, and plenty of space to someday acquire his very own Pebbles. In fact, my journey to getting Pebbles would go on to shape the rest of my experiment, but first, I'd need money.
A key component of the Rags to Riches challenge is to start on a large vacant lot with 0 household funds. You can make money however you like as long as you remain unemployed. I'd thought about giving Henry a potion-making aspiration in line with what I've heard about what to do first in KCD2, at least as far as making money, but decided to make use of the Kleptomania trait instead. This allowed me to lean more on the thievery side of things, especially given that only Spellcasters can brew potions and that is a little more high fantasy than Bohemia is known for. Sadly, there were no lutes to pilfer in the Gnome's Arms pub. There was, however, a sofa. One successful swipe later, I made my first 500 simoleons from selling it.
The most lucrative money making strategy I found? Catching and selling frogs. I discovered this by accident upon a visit to the local park, initially with thoughts of food-pilfering in mind to sate my hero's empty belly. An accidental click on a pond nearby the picnic tables brought up an interaction menu – including the option to "look for frogs".
Rolling in it
There's nothing more medieval than living off the land – even if that land is public property.
As soon as I sold my first leopard frog for a cool 30 simoleons, I was hooked. I sat Henry by that pond for hours, filling his activity queue with "look for frogs" and promptly selling them all. Countless ribbeting friends later, Henry was sitting on 600 simoleons. It was time to finally build a semblance of home.
Henry's starter home was a humble affair: a hay bed, a wooden tub (no more showering in the rain!), and a single chair. A gas lamp in the middle of the space offered the only source of light, enough to keep that pesky Tense moodlet from rearing its head as a consequence of living in the dark. In lieu of an expensive toilet, I opted for a nice bush in the garden to pee in. Proud though I was of having racked up enough money to afford all these luxuries in a short space of time, the whole thing felt a little bit lonely. It was time to rack up enough dosh to acquire Pebbles the horse, at last.
I learned of Pebbles through my colleague Heather. I thought I'd messed up at first – it would certainly have been easier to make Pebbles from scratch in Create-A-Sim – but after doing some research, it actually sounded like a more authentic experience to cough up the cash and travel on foot to "retrieve" – in this case, spend 1,000 simoleons on – my horse. After another lengthy frog-catching session and napping on another park bench until the equestrian center opened, I was able to select a Pebbles-like to purchase. Unfortunately for Henry, he is not a very good rider – but at least now he has a friend to accompany him on many more acts of thievery.
I'm enjoying my Sims-ification of Kingdom Come massively at the moment, though I can't help but feel like the frog thing was a bit of a cheat. Essentially, though, there's nothing more medieval than living off the land – even if that land is public property, and even if I have to hurriedly cancel Henry's every attempt to play games on his mobile phone. Perhaps I should have given this a whirl in The Sims Medieval instead?
Could Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 become one of the best RPGs of 2025?
