[KCD2] Vostatek the Gamekeeper has one of the best dialogues I’ve seen

Spoiler:

After the wedding and completing his quests you can go and sit with Vostatek. I initially thought this would be a small thank you conversation or maybe a task but instead I was immediately blind sided by the question “how do you cope?” from an unusually somber Vostatek

This one conversation adds so much depth to Vostatek, who for the rest of the game is more of a comic relief character and the question as to why he drinks doesn’t typically matter for the fools of stories; however, here he reveals it. He doesn’t hunt just animals for Von Bergow but also disposes of problematic people, including a young blonde girl who was with child, a child would have the misfortune of being Jan Von Bergow’s illegitimate child - something his father, Otto, would not tolerate.

The line “when you shoot a deer and it doesn’t make a sound you know you did a good job, it didn’t feel any pain. But this girl, she shrieked like a banshee” followed by how Vostatek sees her face in his dreams still just put the final puzzle piece together for why this broken man drinks away his sorrows, why he deals with the shame of his son not respecting him, and it’s hidden behind you as the player remembering that he asks you at the wedding to come talk to him

Of course he would want to talk to Henry because Henry is probably one of the only men that Vostatek has met who is (probably depending on how you play him) a good man in Vostatek’s eyes but also - a taker of life.

PTSD and the mental consequences of war, death, and killing is a consistent theme through this game but man, did I not expect to get hit by it by the same guy who was just a few days prior ordering me to take him to the tavern while he was slung over my shoulder in the woods

Amazing game