Today, NCSoft confirmed during its quarterly earnings call that the MMORPG Throne and Liberty will launch in Q4 2023 in South Korea, while the Western release has been delayed to 2024.
The reason for the delay is to improve the combat system. Indeed, while Throne and Liberty was originally presented as a ‘next-gen MMORPG’ featuring dynamic time of day and weather that impacts the gameplay (when shooting a bow, the direction and strength of the wind affect the range, and if you use lightning-type magic when it rains, a skill that only attacks a single target when it is sunny is changed to a wide-area skill), the combat turned out to be a disappointment when players got their hands on a South Korean beta. The current version of combat was based on the tab target system seen in old MMORPGs like Everquest or World of Warcraft instead of more recent action based MMORPGs like Elder Scrolls Online or Black Desert Online. Moreover, it wasn’t even possible to move while attacking, which led to a very static combat experience. This is being changed; here’s the relevant quote transcribed by the South Korean website Inven.
The good points were the large-scale war and the open world, and there was positive feedback about the business model. The regrettable part was the early growth experience and the need to improve the combat system, but this part has now made a lot of improvements.
In the case of the combat system, the response speed has been improved to enable dynamic combat, as well as attacks while moving, and improvements have been made by reducing simple repetitive content and increasing the growth rate so that you can enjoy growth.
NCSoft is also preparing the global Closed Beta test in conjunction with Amazon Games, which publishes Throne and Liberty in North America, South America, Europe, and Japan. The MMORPG, powered by Unreal Engine technology, will be released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X with crossplay between all platforms.
