Throne and Freedom Review – Guild Up and Go

Throne and Liberty Review

Decades after games like Everquest and World of Warcraft began defining the MMORPG genre, developers are still creating new ones, hoping to divert enough players from some other game to theirs. There are at least some types of MMORPG fans. A party is made up of dedicated players who form strong, lasting bonds with a guild or group of friends and a specific game. For those people, PvP experience is key. At the other extreme are solo players looking for what is essentially an endless open world PvE game in an MMORPG. It is rare for an MMORPG to successfully satisfy the demands of both groups. NCSoft's Throne and Liberty, which began as a sequel to Lineage II, is the latest contender.

Throne and Liberty was released in the Asian market in 2023. Amazon Games is publishing it in the West, with a release date of October 1. It checks many of the familiar boxes of Korean MMOs: free-to-play, pay-to-win. , and very focused on multiplayer PvP. Players looking for a rich solo experience or lavish PvE content won't be entirely disappointed, but Throne and Liberty may not hold their attention for long.

A chance to make a first impression

In many ways, Throne and Liberty starts off strong, with exciting cutscenes and music. The narrative feels like an aggregation of fantasy story tropes with absolutely random-sounding names: Solsium (your homeland) and Kazar the Wraith of Conquest (the big bad). Your task is to collect fragments of the magical Star of Sylaveth. For a game that requires you to invest hundreds of hours into its world, I wish the story started on a firmer, more understandable foundation.

The opening cinematics give way to a relatively deep character creator that isn't as skeezy as in some Korean MMOs. There are no classes. Instead, Throne and Liberty bases character development on weapon choice. Players can choose between two: crossbow, dagger, greatsword, longbow, staff, sword and shield, and wand. Obviously, each has a wide set of upgradeable skills, and a big part of the fun of the system is creating two different builds around each one. The recent Soulslike Enotria does something similar with its skin system. I found myself using a greatsword and staff most often. The spells fired more slowly than with the wand, but did more damage.

Our character is then sent out into the world to follow the brilliant route trail from one mission to another. From the beginning you realize that one of the mechanics of Throne and Liberty literally changes the rules of the game. Your character can transform into several different animal forms to quickly traverse land, another set for air, and a third set for swimming. To be clear, this is mostly a speed race disguised as a magical transformation, but still, it's kind of fun.

World view

The missions themselves aren't particularly notable in terms of design, but they do a great job of encouraging the player to enjoy the sights and participate in a variety of tasks and events. Of course, almost all missions result in combat of one kind or another. Whether ranged or melee, magic or sword, attacks are of the automatic combat type. What sets Throne and Liberty apart is the inclusion of real-time defensive moves like blocks and parries. It doesn't turn the game into a real-time ARPG, but it helps keep the player more involved.

In addition to the main story quest and side quests, the solo player has additional content to explore in the form of world events and dungeons. There are massive battles around world bosses that transition from PvE events to free-for-all games that pit players against the boss and each other. There's a dungeon in a tower that also goes from PvE during the day to PvP at night, which certainly means death for a single player. In short, outside of the not-incredibly inspired main mission/campaign, solo players will find Throne and Liberty increasingly less rewarding. However, for guilds and groups of friends, the main mission is just the appetizer of a very complete meal.

Incredible performance

Throne and Liberty manages to be, and remain, visually stunning throughout. The world is colorful and detailed, the variety of biomes, monsters and animals is impressive, and everything works exceptionally well. Battles with dozens or even hundreds of players somehow don't technically fall apart. The high production values ​​extend to the game's sometimes-loud music and perfectly decent voice acting. Ok, the cute little Helpie character is incredibly annoying, no matter what form he takes.

Throne and Liberty is a free game with two coins. Sollant is the in-game currency earned through quests and combat, and you use it to upgrade skills and weapons and purchase consumables. Lucent is the premium currency that is purchased with real-world money. You can spend it in the cash shop on cosmetics and some basic fast track packs. You can also buy and use Lucent at the auction house, paying for higher level gear or upgrade mats that would take many hours to earn in-game. It's less like paying to win than someone paying for a Fast Pass at Disneyland. In the end, everyone takes the same trip, it's just that some people get there much faster. It's easy to imagine guilds using the system to become as competitive as possible as quickly as possible.

Long term forecast

I really enjoy Throne and Liberty's colorful world, detailed environments, and exciting combat. Although the story is quite boring, the game is technically polished and that alone is worthy of praise. But as a primarily solo player, the game is not for me long term. That's not really a criticism, because being designed for groups is not a bug, it's a feature. That was true at the dawn of MMORPGs, and sometimes it's still true. I think Throne and Liberty promises a lot of success at launch and growth beyond.