Throne and Liberty – The Great Hope for 10 Years
Genre: Action MMORPG | Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X, PS5 | Release: 2nd half of 2022
This is Throne Liberty: The action MMORPG was supposed to continue the glorious Korean MMORPG series “Lineage” in the 2010s. This series is even more significant for MMORPG fans in Korea than World of Warcraft is for MMORPG enthusiasts in Europe.
The original idea for “Throne and Liberty” was for players to run through a mob-packed world in isometric perspective, like in Diablo 3, and take them out. However, the game has now switched to a classic 3D view.
It was supposed to be an action-packed MMORPG that combines hack-and-slash and MMORPG elements to transfer the “old, rather static MMORPG formula” into a new, faster era. A new, fast Lineage for a fast, new world.
Well, there was no more release in the 2010s for Throne and Liberty.
This is how development has gone so far: The game was announced in 2011 as “Lineage Eternal”. At that time, it was a hybrid for PC and mobile. NCSoft was supposed to lead it into the future.
At that time in Korea, PC giants NCSoft and Nexon were being challenged by new mobile companies that seemed to be on the fast track and were already pumping out mobile games while NCSoft was still focusing on PC games.
In 2015 Lineage Eternal was actually already announced, also for Europe, and was on the verge of starting a beta. All 13 classes had even been presented.
But then NCSoft canceled the development at almost the last moment. The Koreans pulled back Lineage Eternal, announced a reboot as “Project TL”. They even gave Project TL a new engine (Unreal Engine 4) and a new leadership team.
Afterward, everything became chaotic:
- The new game should then actually start beta testing in 2018 and be released in 2019 (definitive release 2019, it was said in May 2018)
- Then there was almost a year and a half during which NCSoft said nothing about Project TL
- In June 2021, it was said: A major test was planned for the second half of 2021. The game should also come for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC.
- In November 2021, the news came that Project TL should be released worldwide in the 2nd half of 2022.
- It was not until March 2022 that NCSoft presented the game in its new form and introduced “Throne and Liberty”: From the MMORPG in isometric perspective like the now globally successful Lost Ark, it switched to a classic MMORPG with a focus on story, environment and action.
This is Throne and Liberty at best: At best, “TL” can breathe new life into the PC MMORPG genre and become a high-quality AAA blockbuster that focuses on story and immersion, fully pulls players into the world, and impresses with spectacular boss fights.
If a company can be trusted to develop a “strong new MMORPG,” NCSoft is on a short list with companies like Blizzard (WoW), Pearl Abyss (Black Desert), Square Enix (Final Fantasy XIV), and maybe 3 or 4 others.
This is Project TL at worst: A flop similar to Bless, which just never came together but continued to be developed simply because so much money had already been poured into the game.
Project TL has been in development for 10 years, once stood on the edge of release, and has hardly been heard of for 5 years. These are not good signs.
The new version looks exciting, but whether something truly outstanding will come out after so many radical changes seems questionable.
This is planned for 2022: NCSoft has a terrible communication policy regarding Project TL. Actually, a release was already certain for 2019. Later it was said that the beta would come at the end of 2019 – but that was also swept under the rug. 2020 and 2021 saw virtually nothing exciting happen regarding the project. Only “internal tests” were announced.
A release is now planned for the 2nd half of 2022.
