After having only four class options for 28 years, the MMORPG Tibia is adding a fifth choice: the Monk class. If you’ve never heard of Tibia, you aren’t alone. The game launched in 1997 as a project for a group of German students and grew from there, but it’s been a slow growth. The game only had sound effects added in two years ago (but the main theme does slap.)
Even the game’s website feels like something worthy of the Runescape era of online gaming, but there’s a certain classic charm to the art. In a blog post on the site, the developers explained how the decision came to be. “When the idea first came up, it felt like an impossible task. Adding a new vocation to Tibia after all this time would probably be too complex and too risky. The more we talked about it, however, the more it felt actually possible as well as a natural step for the game. Why else would most bosses allow five characters to enter if not for five different vocations?”
The developers sought to add a new class that both served as a secondary off-healer and damage dealer, and finally settled on the role of Monk. In their words, “a melee combatant with a spiritual side” seemed like the obvious answer.
Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
There’s no word on when the class will officially be added to the game, but players are invited to playtest it starting on February 25. The developers say more information will be released in the coming weeks, and they hope that adding a new class to the game after so long can reignite the sense of discovery.
Tibia is free-to-play game that kind of looks like Stardew Valley meets World of Warcraft, in a good way. Besides the classic elements of an MMO, it has more modern features like the ability to rent and decorate a house or get married. If you’ve never played a game in this style, the isometric viewpoint can be a bit jarring — but if you’re interested in trying a game that hearkens back to an earlier era, it’s definitely worth checking out.
