The developer NCSoft has announced two major updates for the MMORPG Throne and Liberty, which Amazon is bringing to Europe for PC, PS5, and Xbox. The action online role-playing game is set to undergo a fundamental overhaul. There is talk of a “rebuild.” The first update will launch this week in Korea.
This is the story of the MMORPG Throne and Liberty:
- Throne and Liberty was supposed to be the new flagship MMORPG for NCSoft, the next game in the extremely successful “Lineage” series (Part 1 was released in 1998, Part 2 in 2003). The MMORPG has been in development since 2011 and was on the verge of release in 2017, then known as Lineage Eternal.
- At that time, mobile MMORPGs became popular in South Korea and the development of Throne and Liberty was restarted as Project TL. Ultimately, the MMORPG was released on December 7, 2023, in South Korea. A release in Europe is planned for September 17, 2024 by Amazon.
- However, Throne and Liberty is not performing well in South Korea. It is doing so poorly that the revenues were concealed at the financial conference. NCSoft is already feeling the pressure from shareholders.
Leap Update aims to save Korean MMORPG
This is set to change: The “Leap Update” is scheduled for July 24 in South Korea, which aims to fundamentally overhaul Throne and Liberty. Another update is expected in August. The update will bring:
- Multi-level dungeons
- New life skills – fishing and cooking
- A boost server
- General quality of life improvements and game enhancements
- A new skill system, allowing players to specialize
New skill system aims to make gameplay more dynamic and better
This is the key feature: The new skill system is seen as the important feature. Starting at level 30, players can begin to allocate 100 points into various enhancements and weapon skills.
This leads to a different playstyle. Players can now use area attacks and new debuffs with their respective weapons. Or move during combat, whereas before they had to remain stationary. The update is expected to add 12 skills to each weapon.
The goal of the update is to provide players with multiple builds to choose from, all of which are “viable,” meaning they are well playable.
Additionally, there will be an option to save 3 sets of how players have allocated their skills in Throne and Liberty.
According to a YouTuber, our version of Throne and Liberty will launch with this new improved system when it goes live on September 17. However, this has not been officially confirmed yet.
The YouTuber Whelp explains the skill system:
Throne and Liberty and NCSoft are in crisis, now trying to turn it around
Here’s what it’s about: This is a major overhaul to make the MMORPG more action-packed. Whether all this will actually go live in Europe on September 17 is something to be skeptical about. It also seems questionable whether the PS5 and Xbox versions will run optimally at release.
In South Korea, Throne and Liberty is a pure PC game.
What the update makes clear: NCSoft believes in Throne and Liberty and is willing to invest more resources into the game to bring it to better waters. Because the initial reaction to Throne and Liberty apparently fell far short of expectations. After a strong phase 5-6 years ago, NCSoft has recently gambled with too greedy MMORPGs in South Korea and is now facing fierce headwinds: Guild Wars 3: Finally, a new MMORPG has been announced, but the announcement was terrible
