MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz extensively played the beta of Chrono Odyssey on Steam and sees primarily one thing that makes this MMORPG better than many other online role-playing games.
While you can find all the currently known information about the new MMORPG on our overview page for Chrono Odyssey, this should be about a personal first impression: what did I really enjoy during my countless hours with the beta version and where do I see potential stumbling blocks?
Unfortunately, there are more than enough construction sites. After the preliminary reports from various content creators, I had already gained the impression that Chrono Odyssey perhaps should not be aiming for a release in 2025. This assessment was reinforced by the beta.
If this wasn’t a several-month-old beta build that all players with an invite tested over the past days, a lot of work still awaits the developers. Chrono Odyssey urgently needs optimization and fine-tuning in graphics, animations, AI, and performance.
The latest trailer from the Summer Game Fest 2025:
Apply, polish, apply, polish …
What worries me particularly is that the challenges and activities on one hand are tough and demand quick reactions and precise movements from us players. On the other hand, the gameplay does not have enough polish to even allow that. As a result, Chrono Odyssey can be quite frustrating at times.
Be it because you get stuck on edges or the inputs for jumps, dodges, and blocking are not responsive enough. Be it because the stuttering animations of the enemies are sometimes hard to read, or because the frames per second drop at the wrong moment.
Here, it unfortunately becomes very clear that the game comes from a new studio that wants to launch an ambitious AAA MMORPG across multiple platforms with their very first project and is likely to be overreaching.
A touch of Betweenlands
But the truth is also that despite the numerous flaws, I had fun with Chrono Odyssey. The main reason for this: the game world and how motivating and rewarding it feels to gradually uncover it.
This starts with the setting, which mixes fantasy, science fiction, and cosmic horror. This mix is not only expressed through the story and the design of the creatures, but also through some impressive areas and structures that feel wonderfully alien and already have a strong pull from afar.
As a result, Chrono Odyssey does a great job of guiding me not just through symbols on the map or on the compass but also through the distinctive “Points of Interest” – similar to how its great model, Elden Ring, succeeded in the Betweenlands.
Exploration worth it
But it is not only important how players are guided through the world, but also that exploration feels rewarding. Chrono Odyssey can score points here as well. What I particularly like is that at every corner, you might stumble upon stronger adversaries that are tough but promise good rewards in return.
In a forest area, I encountered a giant spider that was currently engaging with some undead. I took advantage of the distraction to land a few hits on its back. However, not much happened to its health bar; I was still poorly equipped. However, I got caught by its poison cloud. Argh. Dead. Back to the next respawn point.
I marked the location and returned later to take revenge on the spider. With success, although it was a tedious fight. At the last percentage points, another player even helped me. The reward was a hefty armor upgrade. Cool! 10 out of 10. Would do it again.
And if it’s not a special opponent that you find while exploring, it might be a dynamic world event, an NPC that turns out to be a quest giver, the entrance to a trial, a time portal or a labyrinth, or a hidden treasure.
Sometimes you have to read dialogues and quest texts carefully to know exactly what you need to do and where. If you always skip conversations, you might quickly miss an NPC’s hint that there are dragon eggs on a nearby hill, for which you can earn a reward – an extra quest that can be tracked is not started through this info.
This mix of an unusual setting, exciting “Points of Interest,” and motivating exploration makes Chrono Odyssey much better than most other MMORPGs, where you often just work from quest hub to quest hub.
Concerned look at the launch in 2025
But that alone will not be enough for Chrono Odyssey to captivate a sufficiently large number of genre fans at the global launch. Therefore, I hope the developers take the time to address the uncovered construction sites and conduct further tests.
If this then leads to a release in 2026, it would be a shame (because a poor MMORPG year in 2025 would become even worse), but from my point of view, it would still be a step in the right direction. There have been enough mediocre online role-playing games over the past decades that quickly disappear into obscurity.
Another MMORPG hope is supposed to appear this year, at least in the Asian region, and also places a strong emphasis on PvE content. Fingers crossed that it doesn’t flop either: Aion 2 is considered a great hope for theme park MMORPGs, explaining now what’s all in it
