Throne and Liberty shows off its updates, changes, and weapon skills with new information straight out of G-STAR.
Throne and Liberty Shows Weapons and Letter from the Producer Ahead of Korean Release
G-Star, the annual video game trade show in Busan, Korea held many reveals and info dumps. Specifically, we get to take another look at Throne and Liberty, an upcoming MMORPG with some jaw-dropping visuals and flexible class systems. The MMO’s spotlight mainly featured the updates and changes that the developers have made in response to fan feedback. We got a shiny new CGI trailer, footage, and skill info on the game’s seven weapons, as well as another (probably heartfelt?) letter from the producer.
There’s a lot here, so let’s jump in!
The Throne of Liberty Facelift
NCSOFT was one of the major presenters at this year’s G-STAR event in Korea. One of the first things they showed off was a presentation that detailed some of the major changes between the beta in the summertime, and now. One new encounter is the dungeon called Taedal’s Tower. It is a gauntlet of challenges that will have players race up the tower, only to be confronted with increasingly difficult encounters. Players will fight off different enemies, puzzles, and bosses on each floor. It looks as if it might be similar to Lost Ark’s Tower system, as they even share similar names.
Next are various updates to Throne and Liberty’s user interface. Previously, players could only use the number keys 1 through 9 to assign to their skills. A very welcome change is the ability to bring skills to the Q, E, and R keys as well, in addition to the original 9. This should give players much more flexibility in the accessibility department.
Speaking of skills, the entire Skill Menu itself has received some changes to make things more clear and intuitive. All your active skills are clumped on the left side of the screen, while the passive ones are grouped up on the right. The developers also confirmed that you can have a maximum of 12 active and 8 passive skilled assigned to your characters at any given time.
A Group Boss Encounter
What’s an MMORPG without some good old instanced group content? Well, Throne and Liberty has this already in spades, as outlined in some of our earlier coverage. However, Throne and Liberty’s G-STAR conference showed off some specifics this time around.
It looks like the smaller group dungeons should have 6 players participating in them. The developers will rely on the traditional “holy trinity” of tank-healer-DPS in order to assign players a specific role. Each boss will have their own attack patterns and strategies involved in order to take them down.
Another is “Guild Bosses”, which are a specific type of major encounter that guilds can participate in. These are an alternative to the timed world bosses that players might not be able to encounter due to scheduling concerns. The Tevent Guild Boss in Throne and Liberty also makes good use of the game’s dynamic weather systems. It has a curse attack that players can wash away by bathing in some nearby cleansing waters. However, when it rains, there is much more water available, making the cleansing part much easier to perform.
Armed to the Teeth
Another big reveal was through several trailers that re-introduced the game’s seven weapons: wand, dagger, staff, crossbow, longbow, longsword, and two-handed sword. Each video (though in Korean) details each of the weapons’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as some of the abilities available to them.
The Two-Handed sword, for example, has a charge ability that will offset a warrior type’s lower mobility. It will let you instantly connect with an enemy, opening them up for follow-up attacks. It can also stun enemies, giving you even more opportunities to deal out punishment.
Magic wands are the support character’s weapon of choice. They can either restore your allies’ health or corrupt enemies entirely. They won’t be pure healers, it seems, as they can dish out as much damage as they restore.
All of the weapon trailers are available on the game’s official Korean YouTube channel.
A Letter to the Throne and Liberty Community
Lastly, is the fifth letter to the community from the Throne and Liberty producer, Ahn Jong-ok. The biggest reveal was that the game will be officially launched in Korea on December 7, 2023, at 20:00 KST. Ahn also shares a small anecdote that the team decided on that specific time as it is “after dinner” and usually the best time to sit back with a drink and play video games. The pre-load for Throne and Liberty will be on December 4th, at 11:00 AM KST, which Ahn compels players to take advantage of in order to free up some bandwidth on the actual launch day.
It also seems like the Character Creator is also online in some capacity, or will be before the game’s release.
Ahn talks about a Solicium Pioneer Package that contains mostly cosmetic items that will help support the future development of the game. He then closes it out with another round of appreciation for the fans looking forward to Throne and Liberty. He hopes everyone is in good spirits, stays healthy, and will enjoy the game.
In other news, check out Nightingale’s Playtest Exceeds 12K Prepping for Early Access, and Enotria: The Last Song an Italian Folklore Soulslike Closed Beta Announced.
