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Throne and Liberty, developed by NCSoft and published by Amazon Games in the US, has a bit of a troubled history behind it. Originally announced in 2011, it was intended to be a sequel to the groundbreakingLineageseries, built on decades of immersive online RPGs. But the project was delayed multiple times, eventually splintering off into an original piece of IP, and being rebrandedThrone and Libertyin 2017.
In many ways,Throne and Libertyplays 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.
Throne and Liberty
Already out in South Korea,Throne and Libertywas released in the US, Europe, and Japan on October 1. However, I was able to check out the single-player campaign a little early, and play through the early access period prior to launch.
UPDATE: 2025-06-23 14:05 EST BY LARA JACKSON
Updated from unscored Review in Progress to scored Review
This review was previously published as an unscored Review In Progress, as multiplayer aspects could not be properly reviewed until early access began. The following article has been updated now the content has been reviewed, with final review score.
Throne And Liberty Portrays A Beautifully Realized World
Gorgeous Environments, Sonorous Music
The first thing most players will notice aboutThrone and Libertyis its gorgeous environments. Beautifully rendered with a great deal of detail and color, it’s easy to get lost in a vista of rolling hills or craggy cliffs, or get lost down the cobblestone streets and dirt roads of its bustling towns. This carefully detailed, immersive atmosphere is aided by good, occasionally great music, with much of the game scored by lilting flute melodies that complement and elevate the visuals.
In a similar vein,many ofThrone and Liberty’s characters are memorably designed, including, but not limited to, those made with the game’s robust character creator. Beyond that, there’s a lengthy, but uncomplicated menu of craftable weapons, armor, and accessories to ensure your character is always looking their best.
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Excellent presentation aside,Throne and Libertysuffers from a mostly generic story. It’s 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 occasionally introduces some interesting concepts, like the main character’s ability to travel through time and visit pivotal events in the world’s history. But those rarely amount to anything more interesting than they appear on the surface. Unfortunately, that sort of thing is a trend forThrone and Liberty.
Throne And Liberty Includes Great Concepts, With So-So Execution
Real-Time Defense & Animal Morphing
Throne and Liberty’s gameplay is pretty typical of the genre.There are seven character classes, each of which is based around 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 glut of active and passive abilities that make up the bulk of combat. These may be AoEs, push attacks, damage mitigation, or anything else. you may have two different weapons equipped at any given time - generally one melee and one ranged - and swap between them with the press of a button.
you’re able to use skills related to your secondary weapon even when your primary weapon is equipped.
Switching character classes, too, is as easy as switching your equipped weapons and associated skills; you can save up to three different equipment and skill sets at a time. Each time you level up, you increase one of your main stats, but every single one of them is helpful for every single class. Even greatsword 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’s almost definitely inspired byFinal Fantasy FFXIV’s simple class-changing system, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.
As far as unique ideas go,Throne and Liberty’s main claim to fame is its 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’s called a Fury Attack. The larger one begins to close on the smaller one, and as long as the player presses the correct button by the time they align, they’ll enter a defensive posture for a few seconds. In this posture, they’ll deflect any attacks that come their way. Parrying one of these Fury Attacks with perfect timing usually bestows 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 could 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. That’s compounded by the otherwise stock-standard MMO combat fare - nothing to write home about.
Throne and Liberty’s morphing mechanichas a similar problem. Per the lore, certain individuals (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 hawk, and different species may be unlocked later. Again, this is a lot of fun in concept,but each morph really only amounts to a simple traversal ability- wolves for sprinting, otters for swimming, hawks for gliding. The other animals you unlock at higher levels do improve traversal incrementally, but basically only amount to 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’s a possibility for them to be expanded on in future expansions or updates, but in their current form,they fail to makeThrone and Libertyas interesting as they could.
Progression Problems Hold Throne And Liberty’s Classes Back
A Lack Of Meaningful Skill Development
Some of the leveling up inThrone and Libertyis done through experience points and increasing stats, but a lot of it is also done by crafting upgrades. You rack up a ton of crafting materials just by playing through the campaign - different materials are used for upgrading weapons, equipment, accessories, and skills. I rarely found myself having to scramble for the necessary materials to reach the next level, but did quickly discover thatyou really need to spend all the crafting materials you get in order to stay competitive.
That’s all well and good, but the problem is thatyou have more than enough skills to fill your hotbar from the very beginning of the game. You can unlock a handful more as you level up, and your base abilities do get stronger and gain additional effects as you develop them. I suppose the point is that you don’t have to use all the skills for your chosen weapon combo; you can simply pick 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 means letting some of those valuable upgrade materials go to waste.There are some options for respeccing, but they’re rare, and always come at a cost.
It’s basically the opposite problem of power creep:I got used to, and then bored of, my base abilities too quickly, and found that I didn’t gain enough more to feel like my progress actually mattered. Sure, I was dealing more damage as I leveled up, but I was using almost the same exact combos, the same tired strategies in every single battle, with only tiny changes throughout. As a result, later battles, especially the more difficult ones, felt like more of a chore; I just wanted to get through them so I could move on and explore the next locale.
Throne And Liberty’s Multiplayer Is Just Fine
Dull Dungeons & PvP Problems
During my earliest hours withThrone and Liberty, I was only able to play alone. The game did get significantly livelier when early access began, and I was able to access the game’s multiplayer features.There’s an inherent excitement to the early days of an MMO, when the world is full of other players, milling about in their freshly crafted armor and learning the game together.
Unfortunately, my excitement didn’t carry over into the multiplayer dungeons. I did appreciate that some bosses didn’t pull punches when it came to difficulty, butthose were rare bright spots in a mostly disorganized system. Classes aren’t divided into clear roles; you choose of your own accord whether you’re a tank, DPS, or healer before queueing in. While coordinated party synergies occasionally arise by accident, most dungeons just involve large groups of players ganging up on single enemies at a time, then repeatedly dying to a boss until someone accidentally discovers the right mechanic.
One thingThrone and Libertydoes have over most MMOs isa pretty robust system of PvP. There’s 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 out ofThrone and Liberty.
It definitely boosted 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 at the in-game Auction House,which has me concerned about long-term balance. A prominent guild led 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 Libertyis a pretty new game. It has its flaws, sure, but there’s still plenty of time for it to resolve 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.
Andthere are a handful of good aspects toThrone and Liberty, but in their present state, they don’t do enough to elevate itover 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 draw players away from their current obsessions. This one justdoesn’t do that, at least not yet.Throne and Libertylays a solid foundation, but it still has a long way to go.
A digital PC code was provided toScreen Rantfor the purposes of this review.
