Asmongold praises ‘badass’ new MMO despite problematic movement mechanics, lack of pay-to-win

Although he has issues with the limited movement functions, lack of mounts, and pay-to-win features, Asmongold has been enjoying Throne and Liberty, mainly due to the Guardians you can unlock, and claims the game just gets better the more you play it.

In Asmongold’s latest Throne and Liberty YouTube video, the content creator expressed his issues with the title but still claimed that it is “badass” because of the Vampire Slayer Ezekiel Guardian, who you can unlock in Chapter Five quest, A Sacred Pledge of Blood.

Guardians are one of the more exciting combat aspects in Throne and Liberty, and it’s easy to see why Asmongold thinks they’re awesome. This is because you can transform into a Guardian you’ve unlocked for a short duration. As Asmongold discovered, when transformed into Vampire Slayer Ezekiel, your defense gets boosted, you damage nearby hostile enemies for a percentage of your maximum health, and it restores health based on a percentage of the damage you dealt to your targets. Each Guardian offers unique bonuses, which can be a fantastic tool in boss fights. And they look epic.

Another feature everyone, including Asmongold, seems to love is that most of the content is voice-acted. So, if you like to smash the skip button and avoid reading, you’ll often hear the essential information you need to know regarding the quest or story. Because the narrator’s voice and enchanting style remind me so much of the narration from Baldur’s Gate 3 and, for others, Fable, you can’t help but want to skip reading just to listen. It’s that good.

Interestingly, Asmongold hasn’t had many negative things to say about Throne and Liberty outside of its generic graphics and okay combat (Guardians excluded). In saying that, though, he has a bone to pick with the devs about the scarcity of movement abilities, like being unable to jump and then move and the lack of a double jump. These would be amazing features to add, particularly for those who like to explore every nook and cranny of the world. And, while he knows that the devs did this purposefully as a stylistic choice, he really wishes they had mounts instead of morphs.

But the most surprising comment from Asmongold during this stream was when he talked about level boosts and lamented, “There’s not as much pay-to-win as I wish there was.” And he’s right. There are no instant-level boosts or experience bonuses you can buy, like in World of Warcraft. So, it forces you to play the game to level, which is a nice change of pace from other MMOs that offer these types of microtransactions.

The downside is that as this is a new game, knowing how to get and farm for experience is tough, and a lot of content, including parts of the main campaign, is level-locked. Players like Asmongold had to try various strategies to earn experience just to level up. And they, unfortunately, discovered that some of these strategies, like the blue side quests in low-level-compared-to-you areas, were just a waste of time. If you’re struggling to get past these level locks, the best ways to gain experience are through dungeons and tower floors (if you have access) or codex quests in the highest-level areas you have access to.

Although there are no level-boost or experience buff packs, these microtransactions may be introduced down the line as more content and areas are unlocked, similar to how Smilegate and Amazon Games introduced power passes for each continent as they were introduced in Lost Ark.

Throne and Liberty has a lot of potential for growth. It’ll be exciting to see how far this MMO can go and whether it will continue growing.