This article also notes NC’s restructuring (along with the impending appointment of a new CEO).  They expect the company to see a broader shift in focus along with an expectation in increasing revenues from their non-MMO segments including some of the new projects that were unveiled at G-STAR 2023.

IMHO, I do see some headwinds for Throne and Liberty given how quickly the game has lost players in the first month.  The game is missing the broader appeal aspects that would help to draw in and also retain demographics outside of the core hardcore grinder and PvP ones.  But that was a conscious decision to try to make this game more appealing to the Lineage demographic (even though more of the old school KR players want it to be even more grindier and P2W than what currently exists).

At this juncture, the longevity of this title doesn’t look good (because even though many Koreans think this will do better in the west due to it being not as P2W as most KMMO’s tend to be domestically, I still believe the grindy nature will be attractive to a much smaller niche of players).  I’m also not expecting much from AGS (and as stated before, am leery due to who the product lead is), but I guess we’ll see.

Now the actual operational hard work with servicing the game, begins.   Western onlookers need to be wary of falling for the streamer induced hype regarding the early game (this brings to mind what I wrote about back in 2018 regarding Ascent: Infinite Realm).  Yes, Throne and Liberty is graphically gorgeous (I mentioned that before regarding it’s graphic fidelity).  This is where all of NC’s work with getting their games upgraded to Unreal Engine 4, is making a difference.  This part of the production pipeline, is going to naturally filter to other Korean design studios (should they also pursue newer PC/console MMO projects) just like how NC (NCsoft back then) played a large influence in how PC KMMO’s were designed during the VC heydays (pre-2015).

The changes to the combat system were as I suspected it would be (based on what the PD said during their “launching showcase”); not fully action combat.  They had to compromise (to make the combat feel more dynamic versus how static it was in the beta test) by working within the constraints of what existed, without incurring further development delays.  Using action combat mode, you can target with your mouse (like action combat), but your combat is still akin to tabbed targeting.  You can quickly change targets with the mouse so that the combat feels overall better, but it’s not like TERA style action combat where you can just engage with large numbers of targets simultaneously (simply put, the combat in Throne and Liberty is still slower by comparison).  I would put it in the same category as Guild Wars 2 set to its faux action combat mode.  Anyone who also enjoys ArcheAge tabbed targeting combat, will like Throne and Liberty’s combat system (especially if they just choose not to use action combat mode).  It is still magnitudes better of what existed in the KR beta (which felt awful).

The graphics eye candy of this load screen free (open world wise) game world will be a natural attractor.  IMHO, it will set a new standard as far as expectations go for high fantasy MMORPG’s.  That’s a pot shot at Lost Ark which is just one of the worst given how highly instanced its game world is.  One positive thing with Throne and Liberty finally releasing, is that it will be a new decade (2020-2030) release that could be a potential alternative for Lost Ark (which launched in Korea in 2019).  NC completely ditching the previous branded versions (Lineage Eternal and Project TL) fixed isometric camera view, was the smartest decision when taken together with the seamless/load screen free open world (an aspect I enjoyed in ArcheAge and TERA).

It’s also a good thing this ISN’T being simultaneously launched in the west.  Why?  Because they will need to make changes to the monetization.  Based on the launch showcase, I thought the game was going to move to an actual subscription model (meaning you needed to purchase a subscription for actual game time).  Instead, that turned out to be a “lost in translation” moment.  The game is free to play.  The “subscription” is the paid for track of the battle pass.  That battle pass has potentially strong pay to progress elements to it (that is yet to be determined since one has to be playing at end game for awhile to see what type of impact it has).

The other thing I mentioned that could be an issue (and will more than likely have to be changed for the Amazon Gaming version) is the auction house (which can only be used with the Lucent premium currency).  Looking at the various changes that AGS was successfully able to get made for Lost Ark, I don’t expect that to be an issue.  But AGS will need to get ahead of this by quickly putting out information in conjunction with NC, to begin addressing this (now that KR is open).

But this will bring up a really interesting dynamic given that AGS will be publishing two KMMO’s from what are competing South Korean studios (Smilegate RPG and NC).  AGS as a publisher, comes across as boring/restrained.  I also don’t particularly care for how they engage with the community via the likes of Discord and Reddit where it’s not always presented on their official web site (but that part is what it is).  Still, it will be interesting to see what type of cannibalization occurs.  I do expect Khrolan (Merv Lee Kwai) will put himself out there just like he did with ArcheAge (while at Trion), and then for ArcheAge Unchained (while at Gamigo).  He is very familiar with what worked with the western player demographic for ArcheAge which is why I have all of these red flags in my head about how this could go in this region since it will also be a future competitor for ArcheAge 2 (whenever that releases).  T&L will have a huge lead time though, and how NC handles things like the cadence of content updates and adjusting the monetization, will determine its longer term staying power.

If all of this sounds like I am giving T&L more benefit of the doubt (considering all of my previous “stick a fork in it” comments), I am.  While they didn’t completely scrap the underlying core design with the combat, they made needed changes to it.  They also removed Astro Hunting (auto combat); a move I didn’t believe they would do given how it was core to the game design).  But they managed to adjust the combat to make it more dynamic within all of the original design constraints, and have plans to continue to tweak it.  Would I have personally preferred an actual overhaul to make it fully action combat ala TERA?  Of course, but I don’t think the (further) delays would have worked in the games favor.  So it’s enough changes (from listening to feedback), that keeps me watching how this progresses in Korea (the next crucial part to observe is how the entire end game loop plays out).

The change is another outcome of feedback they received during the recent closed beta test where play testers were allowed to preview the season pass (consisting of cosmetic items) while the build had RNG type items/mechanics removed (what the translated article refers to as “draw items”).  The question here however is how much of the in-game mechanics were functionally removed COMPLETELY from such RNG cash shop based mechanics (which most KMMO’s tend to be heavily designed around), or if just the actual items were disabled (*).  The feedback was favorable towards this battle pass type of implementation.  Note however that details of the cost for both the subscription and premium battle pass, are unknown at this time.  One issue that ArcheAge Unchained had (with its original buy to play and Archepass business model, was that the premium cosmetic track proved to be unprofitable as time went on; with Kakao Games Europe taking over the publishing and changing it from buy to play to subscription, that number also dropped off as retention became a problem).

The article also notes NC’s acknowledging of the business model used by Smilegate RPG for Lost Ark (which includes a combination of a battle pass with focus on cosmetics for the premium track, and with RNG type mechanics; though for the Amazon Games version, players can just outright purchase battle/rapport items, honing materials; card boxes are one of the key cash shop items that have some level of RNG associated with them).  NC also acknowledged that their removing RNG lootbox style mechanics, will require them to achieve a higher number of subscriptions.  IMHO, I don’t believe NC executives really understand just how challenging that is (especially when their core design/development teams are heavily focused on the domestic design elements they are more attuned with).  To put it more directly, if Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2 had been designed/developed in Korea, it likely would not have the following it has today.  Having a western studio subsidiary (ArenaNet) with its own western based design team, is a huge reason why the game has continued to thrive in that western market (and that’s even with all of the miscues).

A lot of these dynamics are really based on how the publisher deals with their player customer base in addition to how agile the developer is to their respective regional markets.  The reality is that most KMMO design studios, don’t really understand the non-Asia demographic except at a cursory level (which is often why there is a lot of lip service when it comes to the PR aspect when targeting the west).  Part of NC’s business model change was to address the global market side (acknowledging the wests dislike of RNG cash shop mechanics).  Again, that’s at a macro level; what they don’t really understand are the micro level reasons WHY western players have this dislike for what is often times distilled down to “pay 2 win”, gacha/RNG loot box mechanics, etc.  Personally, I am still throwing caution to the wind given who is handling Throne and Liberty for Amazon Games.

(*) The reason I put it this way is game systems that are designed heavily around some cash shop mechanic (that you can “buy” back that functionality/further enhance those systems), have a tendency to reveal those shortcomings unless completely removed.  Everything is affected; loot tables and their drop rates, experience gains, combat/skill mechanics, any form of enchanting system used for gear, etc.  NC’s earlier acknowledgement of their decision to remove Astral Hunting (auto combat), also plays into this (players experienced the grindy nature of the design they played during the closed beta test).  Part of the cash shop mechanic was pets that had to use potions (cash shop items) in order to sustain things like auto-healing.  And I am sure there are more layers to this (including pet effectiveness, quality level of potions, etc).  Something like Astral Hunting was core to the design where its removal also plays into this decision to eliminate RNG based items (which again, is normally also a part of the core design in KMMO’s).  When you are making these type of major changes, I don’t see how it won’t have an impact on the actual feel of the entire game play loop (as based on what they had originally envisioned and designed).

This is why I have doubts they will be able to launch this game in the revised timeframe they had previously mentioned unless they just launch without any further public facing tests.  I guess we will see if NC still intends to do their Q4 KR launch (which is part of this November 2nd launch showcase).  If they don’t get their KR (domestic) launch right, it’s going to definitely place a huge “?” on the AGS version.

Kwai was originally the producer for the western version of Wizardry Online which Sony Online Entertainment was the official publisher for in NA/EU (the original Wizardry franchise; the turn based game from Sir-Tech, is what got me into RPG’s in the first place).  The game was online in the west for only a short time from January 2013-July 2014 (so he didn’t have what you would call a lot of experience overseeing a substantial game up to that point).  Shortly after that, Kwai jumped to Trion Worlds, where he took over as executive producer for ArcheAge (taking over post-launch for Victoria Voss who moved on to working on securing the publishing rights for Devilian in the west).  At Trion, Kwai was best known as Khrolan or Khro for short and occasionally as Merv (where there were also accusations of unethical in-game favoritism on his part in terms of providing some players inside information that gave certain players/guilds an advantage; and no, I am not referring to this one which he dispelled by noting all of that info would be released publicly).

And we all know how ArcheAge devolved from 2014-2019 under Trion (while he was the executive producer), and then 2019-2021 under Gamigo (where Kwai was one of the few Trion holdovers where he became an SVP that oversaw ALL of Gamigo’s library; a library which didn’t fare well especially after Kakao Games took over the publishing rights for the western ArcheAge IP).  I have an Incompetence label/tag that along with the Gamigo one, which highlights my distrust of Kwai in this sort of lead role (which I noted about early on when ArcheAge Unchained was first revealed).

He made an incredible pitch for ArcheAge Unchained (“no tricks, no traps”; I remained on the sideline until the very last minute before I decided to give it a chance (eschewing my own “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” take).  Once Unchained launched, he disappeared from livestreams and even his own social media presence.  In retrospect, it was a clever PR/marketing campaign to hoist a Premium version of ArcheAge that was being readied for eventual release in KR (and didn’t last very long since that version got merged into the original business model server quickly), onto the western base as a test market.  The version did do fairly well at launch (requiring at least 6 servers for each region), but bled players once questionable changes began making its way into the Archepasses.

So when I see him being the lead person behind the western version of Throne and Liberty, a whole bunch of red flags just went up because I know this is one of the KMMO’s that is trying to target ArcheAge players (and we have someone with a long history with the ArcheAge franchise who is now overseeing this title for AGS).  Throne and Liberty was already far down on my list of anticipated games; this aspect just puts it 6-feet underground as far as I’m concerned.

Back in August, they announced (via their financial earnings conference call), that the game was going to be delayed (thus pushing the launch schedule for KR and AGS’ western release back by several quarters) in order to make adjustments to the combat system to make that more dynamic (but they were still evaluating the Astral Hunting system).  With this latest announcement that it is going to be removed, I’m expecting NC’s next earnings conference call will have them confirming a much longer delay.  I’ve been saying this for awhile now ever since the game was initially called Lineage Eternal; they might as well stick a fork in it.  I also called it with Project TL (not falling for the hype) and then when it was rebranded (yet again) to Throne and Liberty (that it would be a fools errand to hype up this game).

Each design iteration has shown they really have lost any vision they had for the game.  Lineage Eternal was supposed to be their follow up to Lineage II (and to supercede Lineage III and all of the drama that occurred with that when part of the development team left NCsoft to form what became Bluehole, and utilized portions of Lineage III to create TERA).  And that title (Lineage Eternal) initially played off the Diablo III announcement in 2008 (where several Korean studios were cooking up Diablo-inspired MMO-ARPG versions with Devilian, Lineage Eternal, and Elite Lords of Alliance being some of the earlier projects.  Smilegate RPG teased their initial trailer for Lost Ark back at G-STAR 2014, but also started development work around this same 2009 timeframe.  Webzen threw their hat into this ring a little bit later with MU Legend).

I was highly skeptical when NC put out a teaser for the “directors preview” of Throne and Liberty in December 2022 where a few days later, they published the full cut.  And it was uninspiring and underwhelming with a bunch of lifeless talking heads reading off a script.  And they weren’t initially going to even do the usual sort of CBT marketing either, instead choosing to do an in-house limited scripted playthrough (which they called, “Final Test for All”) where players who won an invite, would only get to play what NC chose for them to get access to at their R&D headquarters.  And the feedback from even that limited scripted play testing, was bad enough where NC had no choice but to do an actual closed beta test (which like the 2016 Lineage Eternal CBT, had less than stellar feedback).

With the KR CBT back in May, some of the players hypothesized the design was intentional by NC in order to cater to hardcore Lineage players.  That was something I found to be completely asinine because no major company (especially one that is a publicly traded one like NC on the KOSPI) is going to spend this much amount of resources creating a game that has gorgeous 2023 high fidelity graphics with 90’s style grinding as its core game play loop.  The graphics team did a phenomenal job with Throne and Liberty’s game world.  The issue are the actual game designers; like so many other studios, the excellent graphics ends up getting marginalized by really poor designs/systems.  And in the case of this title (spanning all of its iterations and rebrandings), every team (except the initial Lineage Eternal one) has been throwing darts blindfolded to see what sticks.

I think what is mindboggling is how Lineage has its defined universe which each of these different development teams that have taken stabs at over the years, have managed to miss the mark so widely on.  You would think every designer, would be a lot more cognizant about what has worked and what has failed across their industry (and to try not to keep making the same mistakes over and over again).  Yet, this is what they are managing to do quite well to where they keep topping themselves when it comes to incompetence in game design.  From my point of view, it seems like a lot of the talent and brain trust that NC once had (the ones who designed the earlier Lineage titles, Aion, Blade & Soul) when it came to PC MMORPG’s, has been greatly diminished.  It wouldn’t even surprise me if this ends up going dark for awhile with another future rebrand.

The delay however is what could be construed as a good one since they are revamping the combat system to make it more dynamic (remains to be seen if it is still tabbed targeting) which includes the ability to move while attacking.  They are also making the leveling experience a bit less grindy.  I gave my thoughts about it during the Korean CBT (as well as opining on the auto-combat system).  Yet again, feedback from a CBT drove the decision to address serious deficiencies (resulting in the inevitable delays).  What’s astounding is the constant inability for the various teams that have been tackling this game throughout all of its incarnations and iterations, to come close to even hitting the target.

This delay pushes the KR launch to Q4 2023, and the global launch (for Amazon Games) into 2024.  The changes they are making are necessary ones (IMHO) to make the game more appealing to a wider demographic (the CBT design was something that would end up catering mainly to hardcore grinders; basically nonsensical in todays world where the objective is to try and capture as large a demographic as possible).  Whether the discussed changes actually translates into game play that actually feels fun and decently paced, remains to be seen (since we’ve seen this many times before where the changes mentioned, did not necessarily result in a satisfying experience).

The auto-combat is therefore meant to supplement that boring grind (the 8 hours of offline play with the battle pass is a hat tip to the mob grind botting that occurred in Lineage II).  I’m therefore sort of ambivalent about the system since it isn’t the most effective way to play (plus you need a lot of consumables for auto healing by your pet since you really don’t want to die due to the punishing XP loss).  I view it as a system that allows you to take care of other things while it does that mundane grind.  And it’s not going to be the primary way to play when doing actual meaningful content (the focus of which is larger scale sieges and GvG).

But yes, I do get why a lot of people (especially the opinions coming out from western content creators) are absolutely negative about it since “auto” is viewed as a mobile game mechanic (and in the western market, there is a very distinct gap between PC and mobile gaming unlike in Asia where mobile gaming is much larger compared to PC/console since a lot of this demographic does not own either of those devices).  I also don’t see this system being removed for AGS because it’s core to the games design (we’re talking about how quests work, mob aggro, loot tables, etc).

Furthermore, there is also a distinct grind element in KMMO’s that doesn’t resonate with the western demographic (similar to how the “P2W” argument always comes into play in the west, versus how convenience items are readily acceptable in Asian regions).  Throne and Liberty as is, will be a turn off to a larger segment of this western demographic who don’t like old school KMMO style grinds, don’t like straight up cash shop mechanics, and don’t like mobile crossover systems like auto combat.  And this being mostly a PvP centric design, will further limit the reach.  But the design of the combat is what will be a major turn off since it feels bad (especially melee; range is a bit better since you can begin moving after casting, though kiting isn’t always going to be a play style conducive to many mob types).  I guess we will need to see how AGS decides to proceed with getting NC to make changes to the game outside of the usual localization and cash shop changes.