Review: Throne and Liberty

Almost one year after releasing Throne and Liberty in Korea, developer NCSoft has teamed up with Amazon Games to publish the free-to-play MMORPG in the Western market. Throne and Liberty is a pretty important MMORPG to both companies as it is NCSofts first non-mobile-focused MMO in about a decade—Rest In Peace Wildstar—and for Amazon, it’s certainly hoping to help fill the hole of recently canceled Bandai Namco MMORPG they were set to publish in the west, Blue Protocol.

At its core, Throne and Liberty is a free-to-play MMORPG with a focus on guild content via massive-scale guild vs. guild PvP, and open-world public event PvE that can host hundreds of players participating at once. It’s an ambitious outing to bring the social aspects back to the genre; and for the most part, it succeeds. For better or worse, Throne and Liberty in many ways feels like a modern-day Lineage, and for many fans of the genre, that’s a breath of fresh air.

Throne and Liberty (PC [Reviewed], PS5, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: NCSoft
Publisher: Amazon Games
Released: October 1, 2024
MSRP: Free to Play

You start Throne and Liberty like most MMORPGs: creating your own character. Some would argue this is the most important aspect of an MMO. The character creators itself is pretty expansive, allowing you to customize your character’s appearance through a variety of sliders, changing things like hair and facial features. However, two key typical MMO character creation choices are missing from T&L: race and class.

Humans are the only option in Throne and Liberty; sorry, no elves or orcs here. And while class diversity is traditionally a staple point for MMOs, in T&L, your combat gameplay and diversity are instead based on your weapons. There are seven weapon types in total: Crossbow, Dagger, Greatsword, Longbow, Staff, Sword & Shield, and Wand. You can equip two weapons at once, mixing and matching the skills for each of the weapons to create your own combo builds.

I started off with Crossbow and Dagger as it seemed like a pretty deadly combo for PvE. Using a mix of skills from those two weapons I was able to burst down enemies from afar, then switch into a deadly flurry of attacks with my daggers as they got closer. As I reached the higher levels I found that I enjoyed the ranged style of gameplay more, so I replaced my Dagger with a Longbow. I know, I know, it seems like an odd choice to be using both the Longbow AND the Crossbow. But both weapon types have specific skills that complement each other, and I’ve found the synergy between the two while blasting enemies at range and kiting them around very enjoyable.

At a glance, the tab target action combat may seem rather basic. After all, this has been the pretty standard combat for MMO for a couple of decades now. But there are innovations to the system. For starters, every weapon comes with a unique defensive skill, that is bound to the ‘Q’ key on PC by default. Each of the skills lasts for a few seconds and will reduce incoming damage you take when active. However, if you’re able to execute a well-timed use of the skill, you can completely parry and negate damage while also automatically dealing damage with a follow-up attack. It creates a very dynamic and fluid real-time combat system in both PvE and PvP while still using the tab target premise.

Little innovations like this mixed with the overall high level of polish that makes T&L succeed so fun. NCSoft isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather present a very high-quality wheel with fun improvements to make the tried-and-true systems feel more fun and intuitive.

While the questing experience is rather par for the course—you know, the standard go here, kill this number of enemies, repeat—there is enough variety scattered throughout to make the journey a lot more bearable than most MMOs. Every hour there is a rotation of content throughout the entire world of T&L, which repeats every three hours.

So at midnight, every region has a special event called a Dynamic Quest that takes place, and scales players to that region’s appropriate level. Dynamic Quests are area-wide public quests that are meant to be completed by a large group of players to get the best rewards. For example, the Dynamic Quest in the region called Nesting Grounds is the Lantern Seed Festival. Players must work together to complete a variety of tasks across three different phases to successfully host the Lantern Seed Festival.

Suppose the players at the event are able to complete all three tasks quickly enough. In that case, the remaining duration of the event spawns a special boss fight that players can continuously kill until the event ends to earn bonus rewards. After the event ends, all players who participate will receive level-appropriate rewards including experience, which always makes them worth doing. These Dynamic Quests will spawn every 3 hours starting at midnight, giving players the opportunity to join in on many throughout the day as they level and reach new regions.

Then, every three hours starting at 1AM, unique World Bosses spawn throughout all of the regions. In the lower-level regions, several portals open up at the World Boss spawn locations, allowing players to form massive groups before going in and attempting to take down the boss before the timer runs out. In the higher level regions, World Bosses will spawn in either a Peaceful or Conflict phase. In peaceful, the encounters are the same as the lower-level ones; make a group and go kill the boss. But when a World Boss spawns in the Conflict phase, the area around the world boss is open PvP, meaning you’ll have to fight with other players while also trying to kill the boss. It’s a unique experience, albeit a bit of a hectic one.

An important element to any F2P MMORPG is its monetization. Throne and Liberty is in a unique place compared to similar releases in the genre. There are two main types of currency: Sollant and Lucent. Sollant is essentially Gold, earned by killing enemies, completing quests, doing dailies, etc. You’ll use Sollant when upgrading or crafting new equipment, leveling up skills, or buying consumables from the vendors.

Lucent, on the other hand, is the “premium currency”. You can purchase Lucent directly with your hard-earned cash—currently ranging from $9.99 for 500 Lucent up to $99.99 for 6,000 Lucent—or can obtain it by completing various in-game activities. You can even get rare drops simply from killing mobs that you can then sell on the auction house that other players can buy with Lucent.

That’s where things get a bit weird when it comes to the “Pay to Win” discussion that plagues all F2P MMORPGs. Directly in the cash shop, the things you can purchase with Lucent isn’t too bad. There’s a battle pass with a free and paid track, with the paid track costing just 500 Lucent. You’ll get a handful of upgrade materials, skill growth books, and a couple of cosmetics. Nothing too crazy, and all farmable outside of the pass other than the cosmetics. Outside of the pass, you can only buy cosmetics, dyes, rename scrolls, and server transfer tickets.

But where things get a little dicey is the auction house. With the Auction House using the premium currency of Lucent, paired with the option to just swipe to buy Lucent, players can in theory buy a ton of Lucent and just buy all the gear and upgrade materials they need to power level their gear without having to actually play to get such upgrades.

The argument most will make in regards to monetization is that it’s “Pay to Skip” rather than “Pay to Win”. There’s a ceiling to how high you can upgrade even the best gear the game has to offer, and even someone playing completely freely will be able to farm out the materials to reach that ceiling. The difference is that someone who throws a ton of money at the game will be able to reach it quicker. It’s a hard balancing act because obviously an MMORPG has to make money, and lots of it; they aren’t cheap to develop. Going the F2P route makes things even trickier, as the developers can’t rely on subscriptions to fund future content releases. That’s probably a discussion for another day, but it’s also something very important to mention as for a lot of people the decision to play an MMORPG is often influenced by its potential future. No one wants to invest a ton of time into their online character if the future isn’t bright.

I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve done in Throne and Liberty so far. The combat is fluid and fun, and the world is massive and beautiful. Whether it’s working with my guild to complete guild activities, grouping with randoms to complete dungeons and world bosses, or even just exploring the world, I’ve had a good time. It’s been a long time since I’ve logged out of an MMO and immediately looked forward to logging back in.

Throne and Liberty feels like a step back in the right direction for MMORPGs, reviving a lot of the social features that seem to be missing from modern entries in the genre. While you can certainly still play solo, T&L gives you the opportunity to socialize and play with others in every aspect of its gameplay, even while leveling. It’s a refreshing feeling for the genre that reminds me a lot of the classic days of MMOs, comparable to EverQuest and the original World of Warcraft release.

Like most MMORPGs, the fate of Throne and Liberty will rely heavily on the decisions NCSoft and Amazon Games make in regard to future content. Nothing beats a solid MMORPG launch; and so far, at least the Early Access launch has been incredibly smooth. But the ability to keep meaningful and fun content coming is what keeps players logging in and overall making the MMO feel worth playing. In its current state, you’ll be hard-pressed to find an F2P MMORPG with as much content and polish as Throne and Liberty. If you’ve been looking for something that puts the MMO back into MMORPG, this could be just what you’re looking for.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}