MMORPGs are a genre that is hard to pull off, so have Amazon Games and NC Soft pulled off a miracle with Throne and Liberty. Only if done right will they thrive for years. You have Final Fantasy XIV, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, and The Elder Scrolls Online. These have shown what it takes to be an MMO that can stand the test of time and provide its players with plenty to keep them playing for years.
Then you have MMOs that come and go as quickly as they hit the marketplace and that is one fear I have with any new MMORPG. So, of course, I had these fleeting feelings about Throne and Liberty. After watching footage of it before release I was drawn to the combat gameplay and the world itself. Then I found out that you can transform into an otter when you are swimming in water and that was enough to get me to request a copy of the game early to cover and experience.
Normally when it comes to MMORPG I play them on the PC with a mouse and keyboard, right? But this time I took the gamble and decided to take a chance on the PS5 version and pray that it has perfected the MMO on a controller. After countless hours of playing, I confirm it has done a grand job at catering to controller players. One thing I also was hoping for was that this game didn’t have a pay-to-win element as a lot of free-to-play games do, as that is one source of income for them but thankful it isn’t that heavily influenced in Throne and Liberty.
Welcome to the vast open world of Solisium. A free-to-play MMORPG that lets you scale expansive mountain ranges, take to open skies, traverse sprawling plains, and explore a land full of depth and opportunity. Morph into animal forms to make traveling that whole lot more epic. Adapt your fight to survive and thrive through strategic decisions in PvP, PvE, or both as you encounter evolving battlefields impacted by weather, time of day, and other players. There is no single path to victory as you seek to defeat Kazar and claim the throne while keeping rival guilds at bay.
Throne and Liberty features a class-free system and instead allows the player to choose and combine two different weapons to decide their role. This was something I thought was unique as normally you have your class systems, like Tank, Healer, and DPS but in Throne and Liberty it all depends on the weapons you choose and the skills you have equipped. There are currently seven weapons in the game to combine and work with and I have found my comfort in the Greatsword and Staff.
It allows me to harness the weather during battle to summon epic fireballs and lighting strikes while also dealing even more heavy damage with the Greatsword. The amount of combos available to players is incredible and even though another player might be using the same weapons they might be running a completely different build which is brilliant.
With the main storyline being your first focus, you will then get to experience all the other wonders that Throne and Liberty have on offer. Such as the Storming The Castle mode where you engage in epic guild battles transforming into Golems to lay siege while attempting to reach the throne room and claim the castle for your guild. Not only this but there are plenty of Dungeons for you and others to partake in to destroy bosses and gain rare loot.
There are plenty of New events, contracts, and side quests to keep you busy and even if you aren’t a fan of PVP you can still get a lot out of the PVE elements but PVP is truly where Throne of Liberty is at its best.
Briefly mentioned above, yes, you can transform into a variety of creatures that allow you to move quicker across land, air, and sea. Who doesn’t love turning into a majestic Swan, a cute little otter, or a sabretooth tiger? Normally I’m used to unlocking mounts in the game not becoming them. This is one thing I think Throne and Liberty has above other MMORPGs and others should take note.
Yes, some morphs are locked behind microtransaction but currently, all the ones I have I’ve been able to unlock them by simply playing the game. No real-world money spent on morphs, yet. Not only morphs but you can shapeshift into other mobs to blend into the environment again another crazy feature that is truly enjoyed.
Combat in Throne and Liberty requires a lot of positional awareness and skill synergies. Not only when you are fighting on your own but when you are doing Dungeons, Guild events, and other huge PVE or PVP battles. You want to make sure that your team’s skills all work well with one another as it could determine whether a battle is won or lost.
Reading Mob attacks and when to parry is a huge deal to try and take the least amount of damage and to overcome the situation. It is always handy to make sure you are well prepared rather than just Leeroy Jenkins into a fight and getting defeated for it.
Graphically it is one of the most beautiful MMOs I have played. It’s not a surprise, to be honest as a lot of what NCSOFT has done in the past looks amazing. I love the audio cues in the game and of course, me being the weeb that I am playing the game in Japanese audio and English subtitles. However, that’s when I did notice a few grammatical issues in some of the sentences however nothing too major. Was still able to understand the story.
The overworld is gorgeous, the enemies are awesome and I love the level of detail you can go into with the character customisation at the beginning of the game but other all the gear you can find to make you look more like the main character in one of those many Animes that come out nowadays (cough cough Sword Art Online). It has me wanting to explore every part of the maps and not rush around. Even more so when the huge sky whale comes around and everyone tries to jump on its back. That is a view and a half.
MMOs have a lot of replay value, which is the same as Throne and Liberty. Plenty of live world events, PVP, PVE, and guild activities will keep you returning for hours at a time. Throne and Liberty isn’t too complex but enough to challenge any MMO player. The fact that you can have multiple characters means that you can play the game in different ways and with different loadouts.
The community is very friendly and from what I have experienced will happily help you when you get stuck or looking for parties for Dungeons. The game’s battlepass offers you additional quests to complete which will add to the reason for jumping in to complete events and continue the grind. One of the main things that I love about Throne of Liberty is that there isn’t a subscription to play it. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of microtransactions available which you can (if you want to) purchase but you can get on just fine without them.
There are plenty of MMOs out there that offer subscriptions to play and others that offer free-to-play and I have dabbled in both kinds in the past. I used to play a lot of Final Fantasy XIV and Guild Wars 1 and 2 on the PC and sadly over the years have just slipped out of playing them but Throne and Liberty is doing a cracking job at giving me that MMO itch again and I find myself jumping on every day since I got my hands on the game and can’t see me putting it down any time soon.
Closing Statement
With an interesting story, surprisingly good combat, and a brilliant upgrading system, Throne of Liberty took me by surprise and excelled where many MMORPGs fail right at the starting line. My biggest fear was how would the game play on a controller, naturally, I tend to play MMOs with a mouse and keyboard just because of the number of attacks, items, and equipment you can key bind and use with ease but I was so impressed with how to affect Throne of Liberty played while using a controller.
Don’t get me wrong it took me a while to get used to it but I loved having everything mapped out and easily accessible. I love the different morphs you can become and the fact that you can unlock more as you progress through the game, it’s made so much cooler that there are three available to you in the form of land, sky, and water. It is something that I haven’t seen done in an MMO before and I love it.
There is a slight concern about how they can keep you playing once you have hit your gear and max level but if they keep adding events, expansions, and dungeons then it will continue to evolve as other MMOs have done in the past. The combat is so fluent and I love the fact you are using two weapons at once in a way.
There is enough to quench your thirst with Throne and Liberty and if you can get into a good guild or hope on with friends this game is super addictive I can’t wait to see what else could be on the horizon for Throne and Liberty but for now I’m giving it a solid 9 out of 10 and highly recommend players of all genres check it out as it might be your first MMO or a new one but it is a great one.
Throne and Liberty Trailer
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