Throne and Liberty

The world of MMOs is one of the deepest dives any gamer can take in the modern realm of gaming. I’ve played a lot of them, and a few have been developed by NC Soft, including the Lineage games, Guild Wars 2 (developed by ArenaNet) and Aion. I have a complicated relationship with these games, because almost every MMO follows a similar formula and it’s tough to separate them from each other. So here we are again as I dive into yet another MMO that tries to solidify itself as a go-to game in the genre, Throne and Liberty.

Solsteim is in danger! Get the star fragments!

That basically sums up the story of Throne and Liberty: Your character is trying to seek out the power of what are called Star Fragments, which are broken off of the Star of Sylaveth. Think of it this way: the stars basically give power. Your character isn’t born with special powers but, rather, the opening of this game establishes that a star fragment is in your character’s possession and this is what is providing the gasoline to your proverbial engine. It’s less X-Men and more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in that aspect: Power given, not birthed. There’s nothing wrong with this! There should always be an explanation as to why the people running around a gigantic world, cutting down enemies left and right, have the ability to do so. 

The world of Solsteim is gorgeous. I’ve never worried about NC Soft delivering stunning graphics, and the Korean developer does not disappoint here. Anyone wanting to truly experience this game will want a beefy system because it’ll be tested on max settings. My system is not even a year old and when doing world bosses, even my framerate drops with my Ryzen 7800X3d and RTX 4070 Ti. This is really the only time I noticed a loss of quality in the gameplay, and that’s because there’s roughly 200 characters firing off skills left and right at a boss. Any system is going to be taxed with that, so the game gets a pass.

The other thing to point out is that this game has some bonkers things going on. Sure, there’s the standard bit of killing wasps and goblins early on, but there’s also fighting gigantic scarecrow-type creatures called harvesters. You get your own little pet that follows you around and helps you gather up goodies that have dropped! Oh, did I mention there’s a gigantic whale you jump on the back of that flies in the air? Yeah, that’s a thing, and it’s called the Gigantrite. It’s also pretty important in the game, which also adds to how bonkers it is because you mine ore off of the back of it. Yes, you'll see hundreds of players gathering up to jump onto the back of a flying whale and pull out pickaxes to mine precious metals off of it. This is a very normal thing in this world.

Classes? We don’t need no stinking classes.

Okay, so…that’s kind of misleading. There are classes in this game, per se. Since everyone in the game is blessed with a star fragment and power courses through your veins and all that fun stuff, players are free to change their class by simply changing weapons. It’s a little complicated and confusing early on, and you might need a guide to remind you what class is what, but it breaks down into three categories: Tank, Support, and DPS. It’s a tried and tested system but sometimes going with the status quo is the best way with some wrinkles.

For example, let’s say you fire up Throne and Liberty and you want to be a tank. That means your choices are pretty limited. You’ll want to grab a Sword and Shield as your primary weapon, but your backup weapon could be a Greatsword, a Staff, or a Wand. Yes, you read that right: A tank has a magic wand, and it’s pretty rad. These classes all have specific names, such as the Greatsword/S&S combination is called a Crusader. The S&S/Staff combo is called a Disciple. Again, it takes time to learn these names but ultimately when you’re looking for help in dungeons, the names don’t matter too much. You’re looking at the weapon combinations.

For my journey in this game, I’ve opted for the Liberator class, which is Longbow/Staff. It means firing off arrows at a quick pace while occasionally dropping fireballs on an enemy’s head. There’s nothing in that sentence to hate, but the beauty of the system is that early on, you can get a feel for things and freely swap around weapons. The tutorial also guides a player through the game pretty well, and while a lot of people are just going to smash that F key to skip through, new players should be reading these. They help immensely, especially if testing out new weapon combinations in the training ground of the cities. There’s something for everyone. 

Despite all of these combinations, this is where things get complicated…

Leveling up is overall good, but it’s entirely possible to break your build.

Let’s start with the good: The stat point system is simple and easy to understand. Throne and Liberty utilizes four primary stats: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom and Perception. Your base score for each of these stats is 10. Every level up, you’ll pick up a stat point until you hit level 50. You’re free to level up as you see fit, and each point will make your character stronger. Every stat has a focus. Strength is important for adding max health, health regeneration, max damage and defense. Dexterity increases quickness and critical attacks. Wisdom is needed to increase mana and mana regeneration. Perception is needed for accuracy, crowd control effects, and increasing max damage.

This is where things get complicated, but nothing outlandish. Each one of these stats offers a boost when hitting 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70. For example, getting Perception to 30 means your hit chance increases by 100, while the same level on Dexterity will increase your critical hit chance by 100. The challenge is finding ways to increase these levels when you hit max level because stat points get difficult from that point forward. Also, stat points will cost more above 30, 40, etc. This is where the familiar NC Soft grind starts to kick in. Honestly, it’s a nice change because normally NC Soft MMOs are notorious for a difficult grind to max level. In Throne and Liberty, if you’re skipping anything story related and just smashing the F key on every cutscene, you can get to level 50 in just a few hours if you have the path mapped out. The grind is raising your stat score.

An important element to the stat system is the score at the bottom left. That number is your overall gear score, and this is where the grind kicks in and runs you over with a tank. It goes without saying that gear is important in any RPG, whether it’s an MMO, Action RPG, or JRPG. In Throne and Liberty, grinding for gear is a long process and it’s one that I’ve barely scratched the surface on despite having over 50 hours in the game for this review. That sounds like a lot to someone who has never played an MMO. To everyone else? It’s nothing, and that number is going to grow if you’re dedicated enough to try and earn the best gear. The standard system of rarity is in place here, with the progression being Gray >> Green >> Blue >> Purple. When a player hits Level 50, it’s time to start grinding out dungeons. There are different ways to get the weapons and armor needed, whether it’s getting a bunch of dimensional shards and crafting the gear yourself (I do not recommend this process) or just constantly doing the dungeons you need and praying to the MMO gods for the drop you need. This is nothing new for MMO veterans. I could write an entire multi-part article about the pain of grinding out Dynamis in FFXI for my Paladin AF2 gear. Hint: It took over a year.

I mentioned in the start of this section that it was possible to break your build. That might be a little overblown, but here’s what I mean by it: Skill books are your bible when it comes to building up damage output. For example, here is an important skill in the Longbow tree, Flash Wave:

Raising the level of skills is paramount because, as you can see with the Level 1-5 growth, the damage increases exponentially with the final level being 430% of base damage + 470 on top of it. If you want to further complicate things, there are skills that will stack the damage up when you use it first, such as Deadly Marker. This is where it becomes crucial to understand what build works best, and not just for PvE! You need to focus on multiple builds for PvE and PvP because this game has both, not just in modes such as Arena which is straight up team PvP. There are times when an area will switch from Peaceful to Conflict, meaning that PVP is open in that area and players can attack each other. It’s the added wrinkle that does spice this game up a lot.

So how do you break your build? Let’s say you get to 50 and you think you have a good build in place, but then you realize that one or two of your active or passive skills doesn’t actually work all that great and you need to level something else to maximize your output. It’s not a total loss, but you may have to transfer your skill levels from one skill to another. Unfortunately, you can’t just yank those points out. It becomes this tedious game of whack a mole where you might have to juggle skills around. Keep in mind, this is only if you screwed up your skills for a weapon combination you like! Let’s say you want to completely switch from a DPS to a tank. You need to get skill books for those to build up those skills as well. Remember what I said about grinding? You better get to it.

So, if that wasn’t enough to confuse you, I could probably go deeper. This sounds like an indictment of a bad game but honestly? It isn’t. It’s there to offer customization and freedom for players. You can easily reset the stat points for free at any time and you can transfer leveled gear tiers from one to another for the small price of destroying the old gear. There are ways to game this system that, honestly, is meant to be gamed. It’s a free to play MMO, so the only thing you’re losing is time if you don’t want to spend any money on it.

That being said, “pay to win” can be a thing here, but you can still enjoy it.

While I won’t say this is the elephant in the room to talk about because NC Soft was very up front about this game’s system, it’s more like a wild boar or some small to mid creature. You get the idea. Regardless, Throne and Liberty is free to play for anyone. Find it, download it, and play it. If you don’t like it, no harm no foul. But if you hit 50 and you’re ready to start grinding away, this is where the Auction House comes into play and you can see how people can simply pay for the best gear quickly.

Throne and Liberty has multiple currencies. The main one is Sollant, which is basically your gold. This is the money you’ll acquire from just playing the game normally. You’ll need this to do crafting, buying supplies, etc. There’s nothing earth-shattering about this explanation. After Sollant, you have Ornate Coins. These are acquired by doing the Collection Codex, which an example is below:

It looks complicated, but it’s not. This is the standard quest progression of the story. The game will ping you multiple times to check it out and get your rewards from each. This is where you’ll get the bulk of your skill books as your character progresses. It’s worth pointing out that Throne and Liberty is extremely well paced with leveling. I never did feel like I was grinding for levels.

After this are Guild Coins. You’ll want to join a guild as quickly as possible because doing donations will grant you rewards and currency that can be used to buy supplies without tapping into your Sollant bank. It’s a boon to have and the higher the guild level, the better the rewards.

Finally, there’s Lucent. This is the currency that can be purchased with real-world money. The cash shop in this game isn’t anything crazy. There’s skins, leveling assistance, dyes and threads to customize the look of gear, a battle pass to earn extra rewards and growthstones to build up your character’s gear. There are limitations on these, such as 20 per month for each type of growthstone. While this is minor pay to win, this isn’t where it’s truly felt.  

The Auction House in Throne and Liberty is where Lucent is maximized. Rare weapons, armor, accessories, and various items can all be put up for sale and traded between players with Lucent. There’s an upside and downside to this. This means that weapons that drop in dungeons, if you don’t need them, can straight out be sold on the Auction House. It means that you don’t have to put a dime into the game and having some good fortune with drops will let you get the real-world currency that lets you buy other things.

The downside is clear here, though: Those with money can simply buy what they want and hit higher gear scores faster. Yes, we can talk about the advantage this gives those players and how they’re skipping the grind, but again: NC Soft has been up front about this. Players who log in know what they’re getting themselves into, and this goes without saying: Do not spend money if you truly cannot afford it. At the end of the day, this is a video game. I played a game that was free to play with a cash shop called Perfect World International many years ago, and it was well known that there were players who dropped dollar amounts in the five and even six figures to max out their gear. 99% of people understand that this is not something anyone should do, so please do not max out credit cards playing this game. There’s so much to enjoy here without putting yourself into a financial hole.

There’s a lot to talk about, isn’t there?

There’s so much, and I could keep writing about this game and feel like I haven’t scratched the surface after twenty pages. Look at this settings screen!

I could do an entire section on this without an issue, but I’d be here all week typing this up instead of playing the game. Does it have it’s challenges and issues? Of course it does. Any MMO does, but there’s just so much here to keep someone interested. If it hooks you, you’ll be here awhile.

The important things to point out in that screen are too numerous, but the Secret Dungeons and Co-Op Dungeons are a couple of the most important ones. The Secret Dungeons are more meant for solo play while the Co-Op Dungeons are where you’ll grind for endgame gear. The Leveling Log gives you missions to earn rewards. The Lithograph Book is another place where you can turn trash gear that you have no desire to use into useful items by simply destroying it to create the record in the book. 

It is honestly absurd just how much is crammed into this MMO, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Okay, seriously: Is it worth getting?

It’s free. Free as free can be. Even if you’re against games that have a pay to win element in them, it’s FREE. Yes it’s absolutely worth getting and at least trying if you want to dive into an MMO.

Let’s wrap it up, shall we? 

I’m not sure how to even summarize this, honestly. MMOs are plentiful nowadays. Final Fantasy XIV and World of Warcraft still seem to be the gold standard in the MMO landscape but there’s so many others out there that are still fun like Guild Wars 2 and Old School Runescape. I have no idea what the staying power of Throne and Liberty is going to be. It follows a more traditional system that has worked far more often that not. My only concern is servers getting overrun by a handful of guilds with pay to win players that make it difficult for standard players to enjoy the game, especially when there is open PvP at times. While making this game fully free to play I think was the correct move, it also means that players who get frustrated after hitting 50 don’t have much investment in it and can wash their hands of it when they hit their breaking point.

That being said, with 50+ hours into Throne and Liberty, I can say that I’ve enjoyed my time and will continue to play it. I don’t believe I’m going to be logging into it every single day like I did with other MMOs back in the past, but it’s still fun and there’s still so much to tap into.