Throne and Liberty Review 2025: Is It Worth Your Time?

Throne & Liberty is the latest free-to-play MMORPG from NCSOFT, officially launching worldwide on October 1st, thanks to Amazon. Its initial release in Korea last year was… let’s just say, less than stellar. But after some tweaks and improvements, the global version seems to be in a better place.

That said, reviews are still all over the place. But I wanted to give it a shot anyway—and honestly? It’s not bad. There’s something nostalgically fun about it, and between its technical polish and gorgeous visuals, it’s got plenty of charm.

Of course, it’s not without its flaws. So, is Throne & Liberty actually worth your time? Let’s dive in.

Story

Throne & Liberty is set in the fantasy world of Solisium which is currently under threat from Kazar, an evil overlord who wants to take all the power for himself. He’s helped by various characters such as the witch Calanthia and his army, The Arkeum Legion. 

There’s also a resistance with its own characters like Yann Junath and Clay Cartair (you’ll meet them along the way). 

Your goal and the goal of the Resistance is to collect the fragments of the Star of Sylaveth, which will help you defeat Kazar. But Kazar and his army are also looking for them across the world. 

It’s an interesting story overall and not too overwhelming. Obviously, it’s a bit generic and it won’t change your life; the characters are also not that memorable, but the narrator makes things easier. 

What’s interesting about Throne & Liberty is that there is a day and night cycle, and the weather changes as well, which is a nice touch that only improves the world. 

Server Locations

Playing on the right server is so important for seamless gameplay, so I thought I’d list where the available servers are. Amazon published this game in North and South America, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. 

Unfortunately, because Amazon can’t publish in SEA, there are no servers there. NCSOFT might partner with another publisher for that region, but there is no information about it so far. I believe the same is true for the Middle East. 

If you still want to play this game, I recommend trying with a VPN and connecting to a server closest to your location for better latency. 

But for the regions that Throne & Liberty does support, there are plenty of servers in various locations, so you should be fine unless it’s overcrowded. 

Character Customization

Once you start playing Throne & Liberty, you can create and customize your own character. It’s a pretty decent character builder, with a wide variety of options. 

The end result also looks quite good, and doesn’t stand out from the rest of the game design, which is usually an issue. It implements well into the rest of the game too. For example, when you upgrade your skills, the screen shows your character doing it. 

You’ll also be able to change your character’s appearance in the Mirror Boutique in the main menu. 

Gameplay

I found the game mechanics of Throne & Liberty fun and interesting. It’s not groundbreaking, but it does prove enjoyable and keeps your attention for a long while. 

Mounts

Instead of finding or getting a mount, you get one immediately — and it’s you. Your character can turn into a mount whenever you want to move faster across the terrain. You can choose between three already available options, and then get more through playing. They aren’t that hard to get, but there are some that you have to get a battle pass for. 

You can also glide from high points — for this, your character turns into a flying creature. This is also something you get immediately, without needing to grind for it. You can glide as a bald eagle, a wyvern and more. I found this part lacking since it would be fun to fully fly. Especially as a majestic dragon. But it is what it is. 

And then you can also swim, for which you turn into some kind of a water creature. Most options are different types of otters, but there are a few others. 

Amitoi, Guardians & More

Since you are your own mount, Throne & Liberty has a few extra different creatures that can play around you. 

First off, there’s the very adorable Amitoi. These little creatures follow you around and pick up your rewards and other things for you. So, most of the time, you won’t have to click to collect anything. You can have multiple, and while the one always follows you, the others can go exploring different areas and bring you back materials. 

Then you have the Guardians which are really beautifully designed. They serve mostly to provide some kind of set effect which helps you in battle. 

In addition to that, you can shapeshift into a bunch of other creatures like the mandrake, the goblin, skeleton, zombie, orc, boar, etc. 

Skills & Class

Throne & Liberty doesn’t force you to choose a class. Instead, it depends entirely on which weapons you choose. You can choose two to carry at all times, and this will determine what you do best. 

With the weapons come skills — and you can upgrade them pretty easily. It’s a breath of fresh air that this game doesn’t have upgrade fails. Your upgrades will succeed always, and it’s only a matter of how much. Sometimes you will get a big upgrade, sometimes a small one, but at least you’re always moving forward and not wasting resources. 

It’s also great that you can transfer your upgrades. You can, for example, have one weapon and upgrade those skills and then choose to carry a different weapon and transfer all the skill upgrades to the new one. That way, you’re not constantly lagging behind and you can try a bunch of different builds to see what works best for you. 

I played a longbow and a staff (so a cross between a mage and an archer) and it was really fun to have both those skill sets available. The skills can also combine and interact. This is also fantastic for playing with other people, because everyone can adjust to the group’s needs. 

You can also upgrade and adjust your armor, as well as your character stats. All of this, of course, requires materials of some sort, but you get those relatively easily. 

The stats you can upgrade are: 

• Dexterity — This affects your speed and crit rate (plus evasion). 
• Wisdom — This affects your mana and resistance to debuffs. 
• Perception — This affects your accuracy and other elements related to crowd control.
• Strength — This affects your health, max and min damage. 

Miscellaneous skills include fishing, cooking and expedition. 

As in most games, there’s also crafting where you can make armor, weapons, accessories and other items by combining things you loot. And naturally, there’s the cooking portion where you can create recipes that give you different boosts. 

PvE

The PvE aspect of the game is dominant while you level up. The max level at the moment is 50, and once you reach it, you can play more PvP. Until then, you’re mostly playing PvE quests and dungeons, though you can join a guild, do team dungeons and some global events. 

Quests

While the questing is pretty standard in Throne & Liberty, I found it generally all right. The main perk is that there’s always something to do so you’re never really idle. But are the quests kind of generic? Yes, they are. 

However, there’s a variety of them. Sometimes you’ll have to slay a monster or a creature, and sometimes you’ll have to carry something from one NPC to another.

The regions you get to travel through make it more interesting, as well as the combos you can get with switching weapons. The mob variety is also quite decent. 

I’d say the only thing that is kind of annoying and repetitive is that you can’t auto-path between locations until you unlock all of them. And for that, you have to explore — a lot. There’s tons of just walking around and moving between places and quests. 

But again, the scenery does make it somewhat better, and I guess this is great for people who love to roam around the map. This way, you can also stumble upon the more unique or interesting tasks. 

Combat

While not supremely flashy, the combat in Throne & Liberty is fun. I’ve seen many people call it generic, and I would agree, with the caveat that I genuinely didn’t have a problem with it. Yes, it has tab-target, but your skill is also very important, especially when playing in a group. 

The part that makes it more interesting is that you can try different skill and weapon setups easily. So, every battle can have something fun and new, or you can always play exactly what you’re comfortable with. 

Some animations are a little buggy, especially if the server is overcrowded, though. But it does run smoothly even in massive world events like the world boss fight. 

PvP

This is probably the most important aspect of Throne & Liberty, and the one most players are having issues with. Here’s why — they expected PvP combat to be available everywhere at all times. 

But this is just not the case for this game. 

Instead of being able to kill other players whenever, you have peace and conflict zones for different events. The “conflict” lasts for a certain amount of time, but then it goes back to peace. You can check near the map when this is happening. But everywhere else is safe, like in cities and areas that generally don’t have events. 

This is fantastic for players who prefer PvE or even softer PvP, though. So, in my opinion, whether the PvP element is good enough or not is mainly in the eye of the beholder. 

Here’s a list of PvP events: 

• Open-world dungeons — If you head to one of the dungeons during night time, you’ll enter the PvP mode. Usually, it will have the conflict tag if this is possible. 
• Boonstone Fights — These are guild events where you can get Boonstone (helps with stats and resource production). These also happen on a schedule. 
• Riftstone Fights — These are similar to Boonstone fights, with the difference being that you can get the Riftstone which allows you exclusive access to a boss. So, you don’t have to wait for it to spawn, you can just fight it whenever you want if you have the Riftstone. 
• World Boss Fights — These can also become PvP at certain times and you can check the schedule on the map screen. 
• Arena Matches — Once you reach level 50, you can fight in the 3v3 arena. You win if your team reaches 200 points or if you’re ahead after 5 minutes. 

Keep in mind that this element is still expanding and there will be many more PvP events implemented later on. 

Graphics & Audio

There’s no denying it — Throne & Liberty is a stunning game. The colors and details are super rich and vibrant, and there are some truly spectacular views. I love how pretty everything looks whether you zoom in or not. There are tons of different regions with different looks so it pays to explore this world just to see what’s next. 

I did, however, run into bugs many times where a castle wall or a hill looks like a shapeless blob of color. It kind of pulls you out of the game, but it does resolve itself quickly. 

The audio that accompanies the general gameplay is also enjoyable. With the soft nature sounds and low instrumentals, you’ll find yourself relaxing into the gameplay. Combine the imagery and the sound together, and you get a truly lovely experience. 

I’ve already mentioned the narrator, and I have to commend them again — it not only sounds great, but it makes an otherwise generic story interesting to consume. 

Is Throne & Liberty Pay to Win?

If you’re interested in Throne & Liberty, you might be wondering if you’ll have to pay to win. At the very least — will the whales win every time? And the answer is: it depends. 

There is a shop where you can buy things for real money. The top players on every server for the first few weeks will be those who are willing to spend tons of money on the game. But that’s just it — it takes a lot of money to buy you any sort of difference.

To me, personally, nothing in the shop screamed Pay to Win, nor were any of those items attractive. So, it’s there, I guess, for those who want it, but you don’t really need it to enjoy the game.

Even if you do pay, you still have to grind — this is an MMORPG, after all, the grind is inevitable. But it also gives you great rewards and cool items, so you won’t have any issues playing or enjoying this game as an F2P player.  

Where Can You Play Trone & Liberty? 

You can play Throne & Liberty on PC — this is where I’m playing and it’s running well enough. From what I’ve seen, it’s great on Linux, and the players are loving it. It’s also optimized for consoles, so you can get it on PlayStation and Xbox as well. 

Final Thoughts

I’m still having fun playing Throne & Liberty so I would say that my experience is generally positive. There are a few issues here and there but nothing huge. 

However, I wouldn’t recommend this game to everyone, at least not right now. If you played and loved all of the big MMOs like Lineage 2 or WoW, Throne & Liberty certainly won’t be enough for you. You’ll find it lacking in comparison. But if you’re interested, it doesn’t hurt to try since it’s completely free. 

Of course, there’s lots of room for improvement, and those updates are coming, just maybe not as quickly as some players are expecting. And I believe that the updates will make or break this game — it’s a shiny new toy now, but it needs to stay shiny in order to stay relevant. 

But for now, I’d say it’s fun and I’d recommend trying it. Again, it’s fully free so it doesn’t cost anything at all to give it a try. 

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