Citadel Studios is the developer of the MMORPG Legends of Aria. However, the game is unlikely to have met the studio’s expectations. They are now pivoting and working on a new sandbox survival MMO called “The End”.
What is wrong with Legends of Aria? In 2014, Citadel Studios announced the new MMORPG Shards Online. It was marketed as the successor to Ultima Online and was intended to offer a very special sandbox experience. Later, the title was renamed to Legends of Aria and entered Early Access on Steam in the summer of 2019.
However, both the player numbers and the reviews have not been favorable:
- In August 2019, an average of 560 players logged into the MMORPG. The all-time peak had only 1,150 simultaneous players.
- In the last 30 days, only 113 players logged in on average. The peak didn’t even reach 200 players (via Steamcharts).
- Out of 1,376 reviews, only 56% rated the game positively (via Steam).
Legends of Aria currently seems far from being a “successor to Ultima”, even though it is now Free2Play, celebrated its full release in summer 2020, and even released its first DLC. Although a new PvP season started on October 12, it is unlikely that the MMORPG can survive with this number of players long-term.
What has happened now? The developer Citadel Studios has announced that they are already working behind the scenes on a new MMO. It is called “The End” and is intended to be a “Dark Fantasy” survival MMO.
The colleagues from PCGamer have already received some detailed information from the developers. However, the game is still in an early stage of development.
Hack’n’Slash Combat System and Area Conquests
What kind of game will this be? The End is set to be a hack’n’slash action RPG with an open world where players can fight each other. Magical skills are supposed to be fired like in a shooter, with splash damage and AoE effects taking precedence over precision.
Players are expected to form a group with up to four friends in the new MMO to conquer areas in the game together. To do this, a “Fehde-Stein” will be summoned, which can declare war on another group for the territory.
The system sounds similar to the wars in New World, but on a smaller scale.
Permadeath and PvP: The End relies on a permadeath system. When a character dies, they are dead forever. Nevertheless, you should be able to unlock progress on your account. For this, there is the “eternal saga”, which players can constantly expand and track. It will document all battles, territorial conquests, and killings of mythical creatures.
As the developers emphasized to PCGamer, they are great fans of Norse mythology. Thus, the idea of the saga comes from there, which can always be followed despite death.
Throughout the game, PvP will play a significant role. However, restrictions on groups to a maximum of 5 players should prevent a player organization from solely dominating the game’s content.
When will The End be released? The developers cannot yet provide a release date or an approximate timeframe. It is still too early in development for that.
If you are now in the mood for a survival game, we can warmly recommend these 23 titles.
