"Throne And Liberty is one of the best free-2-play MMORPG on console, unfortunately the same cannot be said for PC, where it is just another "slightly above average Korean MMORPG" in a market full of similar and occasionally better titles."
As someone who has played an absurd amount of MMORPG’s for what many would call a ridiculous amount of time, I can say with confidence that Throne And Liberty is a very solid MMORPG with a lot to like about it.
However despite its many obvious advantages, some aspects of the game and more importantly choices made by the developer have me concerned that despite its great promise and potential, it may yet go the way of the dodo, like so many other promising Korean MMORPG before it.
Throne And Liberty’s character creator is one of the best I have ever encountered allowing players a huge amount of control over how their character will appear and supporting a wide variety of skin tones, something which not too long ago was uncommon in Korean MMORPGs.
In addition being able to choose between creating a character from scratch, modifying one of the many excellent character presets, downloading character presets made by other players, or taking advantage of the photo upload mechanic which allows players to quickly copy the appearance of the favourite actor or even their own likeness is fantastic.
I have nothing but praise for Throne And Liberty’s character creator and would love to see it become the new standard for all MMORPG in future, especially in regards to it support for various skin tones and natural hair types.
Throne And Liberty looks and feels amazing to play, and offers players some of the best combat that the genre has to offer easily on par with the likes of World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, and Final Fantasy 14.
By allowing players to essentially create their own class, by choosing which weapons to focus on, allows for some truly unique builds which help to keep both PvE and to a greater extent PvP encounters feeling fresh.
With each weapon having its own progression tree and skills, players can essentially multiclass right from level one, and while focusing on only 2 weapons is the best way to progress.
For players who have the time (or money) to invest in levelling weapons, there is no reason why they cannot become a “Jack of all Trades, Master of All”, ensuring that no matter what fight they find themselves in, they are more than up to the challenge.
I have very eclectic tastes when it comes to games from all around the world, from massive JRPGs to moody Slavic indie titles, I love playing games from just about everywhere, and yet I must admit, I am getting a little tired of Korean MMORPGs including weird cutesy characters in what otherwise would have been a very solid narrative.
When I started playing Throne And Liberty, I was impressed by the opening cutscenes, first stages of the tutorial, and the world in general, which felt like a wonderful fusion of eastern and western fantasy, and then the weird talking rag doll thing in the green witch hat entered the plot, and to be honest I lost almost all interest in the narrative.
Perhaps this was an over-reaction based upon the amount of games I have played where such characters marked a turning point in the narrative, but after wasting time and money on other titles that would go on to cast ever increasingly weird fluffy creatures in what was otherwise a mature narrative, I just could not bring myself to care about the world anymore, after finding out I was going to be forced to interact with flying rag dolls known as Amitois.
I have nothing against such characters in the right setting, but to me an MMORPG aimed at teens and older is not that place, and such characters feel more at home in a title like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon than in a combat focused title such as Throne And Liberty.
After a string of high profile blunders such which saw once flagship titles such as Crucible crash and burn, Amazon games have managed to cement itself firmly as one of the major player in the MMORPG genre with three titles currently released and in active development, with plenty of cash in hand to fund more, which gives titles such as Throne And Liberty a better chance of survival than many imported MMORPG which often are forced to rely solely on their own income during the weeks and months following a successful global launch.
While Amazon may not have endless patience, the fact they have not given up on titles such as New World during its darkest times, must be a source of great relief for developers working on other titles such as Throne And Liberty, proving that Amazon are willing to weather the storms associated with launching a new game in a highly competitive genre, as long as progress in the right direction is being made.
Battle Passes, event Passes, Season Passes, whatever you call them, they are very common in live service games, and I personally feel that when done right they are one of the most consumer friendly monetization models on the market.
However at times some titles buck trends and create their own version of this event passes, and when this happens, it normally ends up being worse for the consumer.
I personally feel the biggest issue here is the deceptive marketing, which means players may purchase a pass thinking they will be able to unlock the cosmetic items shown, only to find out they are actually a separate purchase, and I am not aware of any other mainstream title that advertises separately purchased items in this fashion.
In addition the ability to purchase high end crafting/upgrade materials, and experience tomes is yet another way that paying players are given an edge over free players, regardless of how relatively insignificant these rewards may be in the long run.
While Throne And Liberty has its fair share of voluptuous female characters in less than combat worthy attire, compared to many other titles in the genre, it is actually rather progressive when it comes to its portrayal of female characters, with many female characters wearing situation appropriate armour and clothing, with female player characters in particular having access to a wide variety of armour that is no more sexualised than the equivalent armour set worn by their male counterparts.
While some dismiss the sexualization of female characters in video games as a non issue, causing others to lust, and in fact, lusting after even fictional women is not only unhealthy but is damaging spiritually, with Jesus Christ having this to say on the matter.
And with that in mind, I commend the developers for at least giving female gamers, who wish to play as a female character the choice of wearing modest situation approximate appropriate clothing, instead of forcing them to run into battle wearing lingerie.
While Throne and Liberty is a breath of fresh air for console users, on PC, Throne and Liberty is little more than “yet another Korean MMORPG”, placing the responsibility for its long term survival almost exclusively on the success of its console version.
While this sounds dire, it is not entirely a bad thing as we have seen other titles cross platform titles in other genres thrive solely on the strength of a single platform or platforms, that said, due to the PC centric nature of the MMORPG genre, many people will look at Throne and Liberty’s Steam numbers and assume that represents the majority of the playerbase, even though in the case of titles such as Throne and Liberty which cater to an under represented console niche, while being also part of an over represented PC niche.
What Do I mean by that last statement? Its very simple, there are dozens of MMORPG active at any time for PC players to choose from, and while most of them are not as active as the biggest names in the genre, they have large enough communities to ensure development continues, and new players continue to trickle in.
A very different situation exists on console, where with the exception of the a few of the “big players” very little competition and choice exists, especially for those not interested in Final Fantasy 14 or Elder Scrolls Online.
As someone who has played MMORPG for thousands of hours, I must admit that Throne and Liberty did not overly impress me on PC, It was pretty, and combat was excellent, but I have played plenty of other Korean MMORPG that were equally pretty, and had equally good combat.
However when playing on console, I found Throne and Liberty to be above average, and could see myself playing it a fair deal, with one major change.
Throne and Liberty needs robust cross progression, as someone who owns multiple consoles and gaming PCs, i need to be able to access my progression where ever I go, and titles which do not allow me to take my progression with me, often get relegated to the bottom of the pile, while I dedicate more time to times that respect my time and progression, regardless of what platform I am using.
A perfect example of this would be Fortnite, which I have played since its launch in 2017, across multiple platforms including, PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and most recently Nintendo Switch 2.
I like Fortnite a great deal, but It is very unlikely that I would have played it even a 10th of the time that I have, if I was forced to maintain separate profiles and progression on each platform.
Its the same reason I am not playing Marvel rivals right now (despite being a huge MCU fan) and why I barely played amazing titles such as Deceive Inc ↪, despite finding it one of the most interesting new games of 2023.
In short, I commend the developer for implementing robust cross platform multiplayer, however that alone may not be enough if they do not implement equally robust support for cross progression, which I feel I vital for the long term success of any live service titles in 2025 and beyond.
Throne and Liberty is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role playing game developed by NCSOFT and published by Amazon Games, released on 7 December 2023.
Throne and Liberty is available on the following platforms: PC, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Throne and Liberty supports:
Throne and Liberty offers the following matchmaking options:
The Throne and Liberty in-game store sells:
Throne and Liberty supports the following peripherals:
Throne and Liberty is rated PEGI 16+ and contains:
I like Throne And Liberty, it looks fantastic, has amazing combat, and while it has some issues with its business model and narrative, it is without question one of the better free-2-play titles on console.
Unfortunately a lack of cross progression for me is a deal breaker, And I do not see myself playing it very much.
However for those intending to play it exclusively on a single platform, I feel it is definitely worth playing, even if only to experience Throne And Liberty’s exceptionally good combat and stunning visuals.
We found Throne and Liberty to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
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