Still a long way to go

Throne and LibertyDeveloped by NCSoft and published by Amazon Games in the US. It has a bit of a troubled history behind it. Originally announced in 2011, it was intended to be a sequel to the groundbreaking Line series, building on decades of immersive online RPGs. But the project was delayed several times, eventually split off into an original piece of IP and rebranded Throne and Liberty in 2017.

in many ways, Throne and Liberty Plays like a typical MMO. Players explore a variety of different fantasy environments, fighting a variety of different monsters with a variety of different class-specific abilities. There’s an extensive main quest, side activities like crafting and fishing, multiplayer dungeons, competitive player-versus-player matches, and everything else you’ve come to expect from the genre. It has a handful of unique ideas, but they don’t always go far enough to carry an otherwise generic MMO.

Already published in South Korea, Throne and Liberty was released in the US. US, Europe and Japan on October 1. However, I was able to check out the single-player campaign a little early, and play the Early Access period before launch.

Throne and Freedom depicts a beautifully realized world

Gorgeous environments, sonorous music

The first thing most players will notice Throne and Liberty Is its gorgeous environments. Beautifully rendered with plenty of detail and color, it’s easy to get lost in a vista of rolling hills or craggy cliffs, or lost down the cobblestone streets and dirt roads of its bustling cities. The carefully detailed, immersive atmosphere is aided by good, sometimes great music, with much of the game scored by lilting flute melodies that complement and elevate the visuals.

in a similar way, Many of Throne and LibertyS letters are memorably designedIncluding, but not limited to, those made with the game’s robust character creator. In addition, there is a long but uncomplicated menu of craftable weapons, armor and accessories to ensure that your character is always looking its best.

Excellent presentation aside, Throne and Liberty Suffering from a mostly generic story. It is a perfectly suitable fantasy framework to hang a game on, but little more, mostly centered on a group of chosen ones (the player characters) and a war against those who would exploit their powers. It sometimes introduces some interesting concepts, like the main character’s ability to travel through time and visit pivotal events in the world’s history. But they rarely amount to something more interesting than they appear on the surface. Unfortunately, that sort of thing is a trend for Throne and Liberty.

Throne and Freedom includes great concepts, with so-so execution

Real-time defense and animal morphing

Throne and LibertyIts gameplay is quite typical for the genre. There are seven character classes, each of which is based on a particular weapon type: greatsword, sword and shield, daggers, crossbows, longbow, wand and staff. Each is also associated with an auto-attack and a defensive skill, as well as a host of active and passive abilities that make up the bulk of combat. This could be AoEs, push attacks, damage mitigation or anything else. You can have two different weapons equipped at any given time – generally one melee and one ranged – and switch between them with the press of a button.

Switching character classes is also as easy as switching your equipped weapons and associated skills; You can save up to three different equipment and skills at a time. Each time you level up, you increase one of your main stats, but each one of them is useful for each class. Even great sword wielders need mana, and even spellcasters need strength. For someone like me, who tends to be indecisive when it comes to RPG builds, This kind of flexibility amounts to a quality-of-life feature. It was almost definitely inspired by Final Fantasy FFXIVIt’s a simple class-changing system, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.

As far as unique ideas go, Throne and LibertyIts main claim to fame is the addition of real-time attack counters to typical MMO combat. Occasionally, in battle, a pair of concentric purple circles appear around an enemy in what is called a fury attack. The larger one begins to close in on the smaller one, and as long as the players press the correct button when they line up, they will go into a defensive stance for a few seconds. In this posture, they will deflect any attacks that come their way. Parrying one of the fury attacks with perfect timing usually grants an additional buff, which is weapon-specific.

This is a really cool concept and offers something different from the usual AoE-avoiding that comprises your average MMO’s sole defensive maneuver. With the right application, this parrying system can make certain battles more exciting, but ultimately, It just amounts to another piece of UI you have to keep an eye on. It can be distracting from the offensive aspects of combat, and doesn’t live up to its fullest potential in the current version of the game. This is compounded by the otherwise camp-standard MMO combat fare – nothing to write home about.

Throne and Libertys morphing mechanic has a similar problem. According to the lore, some people (mostly the player characters) have the ability to transform into various animals. At the beginning of the game, these are a wolf, an otter and a falcon, and different species can be unlocked later. Again, this is a lot of fun in concept, But each morph is really just a simple passing ability – Wolf to jump, otters to swim, hook to slide. The other animals you unlock at higher levels improve traversal incrementally, but are basically just cosmetic differences.

Much like the time travel concepts introduced in the story, real-time defense and animal morphing are unique ideas, but they don’t go as far as they could. There is a possibility for them to be expanded in future expansions or updates, but in their current form, They fail to make Throne and Liberty As interesting as they could be.

Progression problems hold Tron and Liberty’s classes back

A lack of meaningful skill development

Some of the level up in Throne and Liberty is done through experience points and increasing stats, but a lot of it is also done through crafting upgrades. You get a lot of crafting materials just by playing the campaign – different materials are used for upgrading weapons, equipment, accessories and skills. I rarely found myself scrambling for the necessary materials to reach the next level, but I quickly discovered that You really need to spend all the crafting materials you get to stay competitive.

That’s all well and good, but the problem is that You have more than enough skills to fill your hotbar from the start of the game. You can unlock a handful more as you level up, and your base abilities get stronger and gain additional effects as you develop them. I guess the point is that you don’t have to use all the skills for your chosen weapon combo; You can simply choose your favorites and invest all your upgrade materials in them. But for the most part, if you don’t radically change your build at some point, you’re performing the same five or ten moves throughout the entire game.

And radically changing your build medium lets some of​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​a​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​down in down down down down it to down, it, some of those valuable upgrade materials go to waste. There are several options for respectBut they are rare, and always come at a price.

It’s basically the opposite problem of power creep: I got too quickly used to, and then bored of, my base abilitiesAnd found that I didn’t gain enough anymore to feel like my progress really mattered. Sure, I was dealing more damage as I leveled up, but I used pretty much the same exact combos, the same tired strategies in every battle, with only tiny changes throughout. As a result, later battles, especially the more difficult ones, felt like more of a thing; I just wanted to get through them so I could move on and explore the next premises.

Throne And Liberty’s multiplayer is good

Boring dungeons and PvP problems

During my earliest hours with Throne and LibertyI could only play alone. The game was significantly livelier when early access began, and I was able to access the game’s multiplayer features. There is an inherent excitement to the early days of an MMOWhen the world is full of other players, mill around in their freshly crafted armor and learn the game together.

Unfortunately, my excitement didn’t carry over into the multiplayer dungeons. I do appreciate that some bosses didn’t pull punches when it came to difficulty, though These were rare bright spots in a largely disorganized system. Classes are not divided into clear roles; You choose of your own whether you are a tank, dps or healer before you queue. While coordinated party synergies occasionally arise by chance, most dungeons simply involve large groups of players ganging up on one enemy at a time, and repeatedly dying to a boss until someone accidentally discovers the right mechanic.

One thing Throne and Liberty Has over most mmos is A pretty powerful PvP system. There is a spark of brilliance in the chaos of it all, especially the massive guild raids. Being surrounded by 360 degrees of bloody struggle, trying only to stay focused on my own objectives and stay alive, was the most thrilling experience I got Throne and Liberty.

It definitely boosts the otherwise pretty bland combat with an extra layer of excitement, but you have to go through a lot of PvE grinding to get to the point where you can be competitive in PvP. It is, however, possible to skip much of this grinding by spending premium currency to purchase upgrade materials in the in-game auction house, Which has me concerned about long-term balance. A prominent guild run by a few big spenders could easily dominate an entire server.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

6/10: A solid foundation, but not much more

At the end of the day, Throne and Liberty is a beautiful new game. It has its flaws, sure, but there’s still plenty of time for it to solve its issues with progression with more mechanically complex classes, to add new morphs that actually make a difference in gameplay, or to renew its focus on the thrilling PvP .

And There are a handful of good aspects to Throne and LibertyBut in their current state, they are not doing enough to elevate Over similar games in the genre. Most MMO players are pretty entrenched in their favorite games. When a new title comes along, it has to offer something special enough to pull players away from their current obsessions. Just this It doesn’t, at least not yet. Throne and Liberty Lays a solid foundation, but it still has a long way to go.