Since December 2023, Throne and Liberty has been available in South Korea, with the launch in the West planned for September 2024. Now, a well-known YouTuber and streamer has drawn a conclusion after “thousands of hours” with T&L. Is the MMORPG from NCSoft and Amazon Games worth recommending?
Who has played Throne and Liberty extensively? The YouTuber and Twitch streamer Kanon has been regularly publishing videos about Throne and Liberty for many months now, as well as other online games like Blue Protocol, Diablo 4, Lost Ark, and Path of Exile 2.
In January 2024, MeinMMO already reported on a video by Kanon that discussed the monetization of the Korean version of Throne and Liberty. In his latest work, the guild leader of an alliance with more than 600 members and “thousands of hours” of gameplay draws his conclusion.
The new trailer for Throne and Liberty sets the stage for the upcoming MMORPG:
Half a year after launch – what is Throne and Liberty worth?
What does Kanon report?
- Many contents of Throne and Liberty are unlocked as soon as the character reaches the corresponding milestone. According to Kanon, to unlock all the MMORPG’s content, one must play regularly for about one to two months.
- The vertical character progression in T&L involves dungeons, crafting equipment, and guild content. If you’re lucky, you can also stumble upon item upgrades while defeating monsters in the open world. The equipment pieces have a base level and must be gradually upgraded, similar to Black Desert or Lost Ark.
- The best equipment pieces are currently found in dungeons. Arch bosses from guild challenges drop the best weapons in the game once a week (these weapons can also apparently be sold to other players via the auction house).
- Every day, a specific number of dungeon points is available to you, which you use to open the chests waiting for you at the end of a dungeon. In the current state of the Korean version, the points are enough for two dungeon loot runs per day – each run is said to take about 15 to 20 minutes. The points can be accumulated to a certain extent.
- Through the optional, paid “Aura” Solisium’s Blessing ($10 for 21 days), you receive various bonuses, including more dungeon points (for a third dungeon loot per day), an increased number of quick slots, and cheaper fast travel.
- In addition to the optional subscription, there is also a Battle Pass with a free and a paid path ($20 per month), through which one can earn consumables, materials, cosmetic goodies, and currency.
- Every day, you can complete up to ten contract quests – these are the daily quests of Throne and Liberty. Here too, it is possible to save dailies for other days, with a maximum of 60 daily quests stackable per day. Through the dailies, you mainly earn upgrade materials.
- Weapons can best be leveled in the so-called open-world dungeons, as you can find countless mobs for grinding there. At night, these areas turn into open PvP zones.
- The powerful arch bosses and the regular world bosses that spawn multiple times daily come in PvP and peaceful (i.e., without PvP component) variants.
What are the strengths of Throne and Liberty?
- The combat system has improved significantly due to extensive revisions and resembles ArcheAge in the endgame.
- The items in Throne and Liberty come with special effects that noticeably impact gameplay. While classes in Black Desert and Lost Ark play quite similarly from start to finish, the playstyle of a character in T&L continually evolves. Even two endgame characters using the same meta-build are said to feel different.
- Similar to Final Fantasy XIV, you can focus on a single character in T&L and learn and level all playstyles with this character. You can always freely combine the passive and active skills of two weapons in your skill bar.
- Unlike Lost Ark, equipment upgrades in T&L do not involve frustrating random elements that can completely block progress.
- In the past six months, NCSoft has significantly improved the framework of T&L through numerous updates.
Here you can watch Kanon’s 28-minute video review:
What are the weaknesses of Throne and Liberty?
- At the beginning of the adventure, the combat system can feel rather sluggish and undynamic since you start with only a few skills and quickly run into resource shortages. Kanon compares the player experience to low-level warriors in World of Warcraft.
- For the events and endgame content in the game world, there are set times. Finding the optimal balance here is difficult. Initially, the rhythm of the content was so high that even ambitious players had no time to focus on other tasks like daily quests. NCSoft has adjusted the rhythm in the meantime, but some now complain that there is no longer enough to do.
- If you do not indulge in the Battle Pass and the optional subscription, you miss out on a lot of stuff that gives a significant boost when combined. The fact that you can also buy in-game currency with real money is a bit much.
- Similar to Lost Ark, bots are also a huge problem in Throne and Liberty, and with the Free2Play model and real money component, this is likely to await all Western interests.
- In addition, there are cheaters who take advantage of auto-blocking in PvP in the open world to gain an unfair advantage. Many of the cheaters have not been punished according to Kanon to this day.
Is Throne and Liberty Pay2Win?
The YouTuber once again addresses the question of how fair Throne and Liberty’s payment model is. In his opinion, the MMORPG clearly deserves the “Pay2Win” label. In T&L, there are two currency types, corresponding to silver and gold in Lost Ark.
With the gold counterpart, you pay in the auction house for equipment and upgrade materials. With the silver counterpart, you can afford just about everything else. Gold is harder to farm than silver. Both currencies can be bought with real money.
You can spend money to stock up on equipment and upgrading stuff in the auction house. This offers a significant advantage right at the beginning of the adventure. However, if you play in an ambitious guild and regularly participate in content that rewards with the gold counterpart, you should not have any reason to invest real money in the medium term.
Kanon believes the biggest Pay2Win element lies in the so-called traits, as it is extremely time-consuming to farm the equipment pieces with the best traits (additional effects). If you simply buy these, you save an incredible amount of time and enjoy a huge performance boost.
Kanon provides two disclaimers for this assessment: On one hand, he feels that almost every current MMORPG has a Pay2Win component. On the other hand, it has been extremely rare in the Korean version for the powerful weapons from arch bosses to be sold through the auction house. Due to the limited number of drops, guilds prefer to distribute these to their members.
In addition, NCSoft has already made changes for the Korean version to mitigate the Pay2Win elements. Many of the best equipment pieces currently come from dungeons, and these cannot be traded in the auction house. Also, trait slots now need to be unlocked first, which somewhat lessens the time advantage for real-money investors.
What conclusion does Kanon draw?
Despite his Pay2Win conclusion, Kanon emphasizes that many other MMORPGs have unfairer payment models, and that one can absolutely enjoy Throne and Liberty as a free-to-play player.
Many of his guild members spend nothing on the Battle Pass, subscription, and currencies, yet still find themselves regularly at the top of the evaluation charts. Additionally, his alliance was able to prevail in a prestigious guild conquest and thus master the game’s current biggest goal.
But is Throne and Liberty even worth it? Kanon is sure that the MMORPG will not captivate a wide audience in the West in the long term. The focus on guilds and PvP is simply too strong. Solos and fans of small group PvE content will have a disadvantage.
One must also assume that every server will be dominated by a few guilds, and that rivalries will arise between the communities. Beef, drama, and troll moves are likely to be part of the daily routine in the West, just like in Korea.
However, those who are looking for precisely this gaming experience and can cope with bots, cheaters, and the mentioned Pay2Win elements are likely to have a lot of fun with Throne and Liberty, according to the YouTuber’s conclusion.
How does MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz evaluate Kanon’s report? Based on the scenes shown in the video, I am quite certain that the YouTuber has indeed spent a lot of time with Throne and Liberty.
Especially because his report aligns with the experiences of various other players who have already checked out the Korean version. Since Amazon Games is currently emphasizing that Throne and Liberty has been developed with an eye on the Western market, we should not expect too many changes for the launch in the West. Currently, I am most concerned about the bots and cheaters.
How negatively these can affect the player experience and how challenging it is to combat them sustainably is exemplified by Lost Ark. And in T&L, the problem may even worsen due to the open-PvP content. What do you think? More information about the game: Throne and Liberty – All important details about launch, classes, gameplay, open beta, price, and platforms
