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Katharine the mage snide haughty sarcastic personality makes you love her and generic medieval fantasy of Kings Bounty 2 II King's

The Mage Hates Her Job in King’s Bounty II, and That Made Me Love Her

So many medieval fantasy stories recycle the same themes and ideas to a frustrating degree and blend into a generic blob of tropes. In order for the genre to appeal to me, it needs to offer something extra to latch onto, be that the immersive gameplay of something like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or the Nemesis system in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. In the case of Kingā€™s Bounty II, the thing that hooked me was the sassy attitude of Katharine the mage.

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Katharine is one of three characters you can select as your hero in Kingā€™s Bounty II, but even her initial bio makes clear that sheā€™d rather be doing something else. Sheā€™s the countess of a land called Rigurn but has spent several years away researching magical artifacts and traveling the world. Katharine only ends up at the site where the events of Kingā€™s Bounty II begin because her home stopped sending her money under the direction of a family member who must have clearly gotten sick of her shit and tried to cut her off. Katharine heads to the Universal Assembly, a meeting of the landā€™s royalty and nobles, in order to complain to the king and get her money problems sorted, but instead the king gets poisoned. Sheā€™s summarily blamed for the incident and thrown in a remote jail cell.

You take control of Katharine a couple months after all this and are released at the behest of the prince for convoluted reasons, but under his direction sheā€™s now tasked with investigating some shady magical incidents for any chance at redemption. There is another world-ending threat at play in the narrative as well, involving chosen ones, portals, and undead monsters — things regularly used as plot points in fantasy games and media. I was put off by Kingā€™s Bounty IIā€™s mundane premise from the start and wasnā€™t looking forward to speaking with the tons of NPCs that would inevitably seek to unload their problems onto my shoulders — but funnily enough, neither was Katharine.

Katharine the mage snide haughty sarcastic personality makes you love her and generic medieval fantasy of Kings Bounty 2 II King's

She was rye in her tone, quick to lean on sarcasm, a little smug, and flippant to almost everyone she spoke with. Her backstory directly informed her behavior, and she wasnā€™t used to dealing with people; it’s possible she doesn’t really like them, or perhaps sheā€™s not used to people talking to her so casually. She was a countess after all, and sheā€™d snap at NPCs whoā€™d address her in a manner that didnā€™t fit with her own self-importance. It was both odd and delightful to watch a character share my annoyance with the world and oftentimes react exactly like I would have had I been in their shoes.

A dwarf early on in Kingā€™s Bounty II asks Katharine to follow him and run, to which she responds, ā€œIā€™m not running anywhere,ā€ before proceeding to ask whatā€™s going on. I was pulled into almost every conversation because I loved how Katharine reacted to them. There was nothing fourth wall-breaking or overtly satirical about her mannerisms; in fact, she was perfectly empathetic to people who had genuine troubles. She never became needlessly mean, but if you were wasting her time, sheā€™d let you know. That endeared her to me so strongly that I was hooked on the journey from that point forward.

Katharine the mage snide haughty sarcastic personality makes you love her and generic medieval fantasy of Kings Bounty 2 II King's

Katharineā€™s defiant nature and rejection of the situations she found herself in served as an entry point to Kingā€™s Bounty II for me. I found myself engaged in the plotlines and recognizing compelling scenarios and quality writing that Iā€™d likely have overlooked simply because my avatar in the game world, like me, doesnā€™t have time for it. Iā€™m almost certain Iā€™d have had a far more negative experience had I chosen either of the other two characters, especially Aivar the knight, who seems to have barely any personality at all. The short time I spent playing with him to see how much the characters differed showed me a protagonist who may as well have been silent, as his gruff tone of voice betrayed how agreeable he seemed to be when being ordered to do this or that.

A snarky lead character likely wonā€™t be the answer to all other overused settings, and to be fair, there are a number of games that attempt a similar attitude and roguish demeanor to varying degrees of success. A level of self-awareness in these stories can help break through the mundane, but it wonā€™t cure whatā€™s straight-up bad or broken. Katharine is a well-written and well-voiced misfit in a fantasy world that takes itself seriously while she does not.

It works because, despite being done to death, the fantasy world of Kingā€™s Bounty II has a rich history with compelling situations, characters, and scenarios. Katharineā€™s sassy antics just pulled me far enough along to see it all without checking out just based on the premise. Iā€™d still much prefer we stop revisiting the same well of swords, magic, and elves, but just like being stuck at a bad party, having a kindred spirit to help you make fun of everyone else can make for a good time.


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Image of KC Nwosu
KC Nwosu
KC Nwosu has been making video game content for nearly half a decade. He also streams with his son Starboy who has legitimately won a Mario Kart race against him.