Before the beta of Chrono Odyssey starts on June 20, 2025, the developers of the MMORPG are revealing more and more details and gameplay. MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz is particularly happy about one thing.
For a long time, it was difficult to grasp what exactly Chrono Odyssey is going to be as an MMORPG. Although the release on PC and consoles is planned for 2025, there were only a few trailers over the years, which made it uncertain if we were actually seeing real gameplay.
Additionally, this is the first game from developer Chrono Studio, and it is supposed to be an ambitious AAA MMORPG that will launch simultaneously worldwide on multiple platforms. Accordingly, I was quite skeptical in our MMORPG talk during the FYNG show at CAGGTUS in Leipzig:
The Moment of Truth
Just before the start of the first major beta, which will run from June 20 to 22, 2025 on Steam and is expected to attract about 1 million interested players to the servers, the picture has become clearer. Thanks to interesting developer insights, comprehensive interviews, and an extensive gameplay presentation.
Don’t worry: Before the beta starts next week, we will provide you with a fresh overview of all the known information about Chrono Odyssey so far. But first, this should be about the reasons why my skepticism has almost completely evaporated.
There is Surprisingly Much Soulslike in Chrono Odyssey
In the past months, I have repeatedly noted that the scenes from the trailers remind me of Dark Fantasy Soulslikes like Lords of the Fallen or the iconic titles from From Software – which also show influences from cosmic horror and sci-fi universes like Starcraft.
In one of the new interviews, the developers also explained that they were heavily inspired by Elden Ring when designing the open world. Exploring the regions plays an important part in the player experience. Instead of a minimap, you only have a compass available for direct orientation. Distinct Points of Interest will guide you through the world, where various unpredictable encounters are expected – just like in Elden Ring.
A lot of Souls-like flair is also radiating from the freshly shown gameplay of the MMORPG. From a third-person perspective, you control your character, with the camera being quite close to your figure in all shown scenes – just like in Dark Souls and Co. The scenes also quickly clarify: Targeted dodging and blocking is vital for all classes to survive the fights. This is not going to be a walk in the park.
The Berserker in Action:
The Important Foundation for Success
Even just watching conveys the skills of the swordsman, ranger, and berserker a palpable force and dynamism. The transitions of the animations flow smoothly into each other. The current gameplay makes comparable action combat systems from MMORPGs, where players can switch weapons at the push of a button (like in New World or Guild Wars 2), look ancient.
All of this excites me tremendously, as the combat system of Chrono Odyssey must be fun to encourage players to dive repeatedly into activities like world quests, battles against world bosses, solo challenges, or group dungeons.
I also find it great that for group challenges there will be the Holy Trinity of tank, healer, and damage dealer, with tanks and healers having access to damage options through their three available weapons. The paladin can even play a tank/healer hybrid.
However, it remains to be seen whether there will be the build/meta diversity promised by the developers.
Time as a Factor in Combat
For a long time, it was an open question how much the time manipulations would affect the combat. It was known that players could freeze enemies and rewind maneuvers. The first skill controls your victims for a certain period, while the second skill allows you to plunge from a height onto a target, only to hop back to safety afterward.
The new gameplay reveals even more time manipulations:
- You can summon a being from another time that will fight at your side.
- You can manipulate time to float through the air or make a great leap to overcome high obstacles.
Can there be more? Hopefully! Generally, I find what has been shown so far promising. What remains unclear is in what form players can manipulate time within the open world. However, it is clear: like all weapons, your time-manipulating Chronotector has its own talent area that you can level up and expand to further enhance your skills.
Some skills from the swordsman:
The Anticipation for the Beta Reaches Its Peak
I must admit: All of this seems more fun, higher quality, and more polished than I expected from the newly founded studio for Chrono Odyssey. This is certainly also due to the fact that I enjoy playing action RPGs from a third-person perspective – like Souls games – very much.
Additionally, Chrono Odyssey is taking a completely different approach compared to Throne and Liberty and focuses on content for solo players and small groups, despite being an MMO world. Thus, I could even imagine playing this new MMORPG with a controller.
For the new gameplay scenes and information also make it clear: The battles were designed primarily with consoles and controller input in mind. If they work great there, according to the devs, porting to PC should be relatively easy.
Testers like Kanon are reporting, however, that the user interface of the PC version still needs quite a bit of work. So it’s not a given.
But no matter if with mouse and keyboard or controller: I am now very much looking forward to the upcoming beta. This MMORPG should definitely be on the radar of all genre fans. Of course, I will report on my testing experiences once I receive an invitation. Until then, you can find out more about Chrono Odyssey here: The biggest and most beautiful new MMORPG 2025 finally reveals how it wants to captivate you
