Legends of Aria was supposed to follow in the footsteps of the classic Ultima Online. However, player numbers have decreased, and there has been no news about the game for months. We take a look at the situation.
What is Legends of Aria? The MMORPG from Citadel Studios aimed to immerse players in a vast fantasy world where, like in Ultima Online, they could forge their own path. The sandbox is completely open. You can explore the world, build houses, fight monsters, or pursue professions such as craftsman and blacksmith. This was meant to create a player-driven economy and a world that continually evolves.
The Early Access phase began in the summer of 2019, with the official release following a year later. However, the game was plagued by bugs, poor performance, and a lack of content.
The all-time peak of players, according to Steamcharts, was 1,150 simultaneous active users. As of February 24, 2021, that number has dropped to just 111. The overall rating on Steam from 1,480 players stands at 57%. Even the switch to the Free2Play model did not help.
MeinMMO author Alexander Leitsch believes that Legends of Aria will not survive this year.
Legends of Aria is Dying
When was the last update? The team spoke up on December 15, 2020, with a server transfer announcement explaining how the transfer would take place.
At the same time, a new season was announced, in which players would experience a new spawn event and receive cosmetic items as rewards. A mere 9 players commented on the server transfer, while 3 commented on the new season.
The comments were not particularly kind.
- Zaph wrote on Steam: “Soon you’ll announce that characters from Legends of Aria can be transferred to another game, because this one is dead!”
- Wormius says (via Steam): “Just shut it down!”
- paplows comes with a variation of the movie title Dead Man Walking (via Steam): “Dead game walking! It’s better to download Ultima Online.”
Why is there so little happening in Legends of Aria? The development team is currently working on a new game. The Sandbox Survival MMO “The End” is aimed at a different target audience.
Sandbox survival games are currently extremely popular thanks to Rust and especially Valheim. In addition, fans of action RPGs will be targeted, as The End focuses on a fast-paced hack-and-slash combat system. Spells are even said to resemble those in shooters.
It’s about survival, building, and conquest in groups of 4 players. PvP is therefore important. There’s even a permadeath system where your hero is permanently dead if they die.
The development team is currently focused on this game. There is no release date yet, but the work on this title likely means that not much more will be done on Legends of Aria.
Want to experience a new survival game right now? Then check out the MeinMMO list of the 25 best survival games 2021 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
