EverQuest Legends aims to retain its classic aesthetic while offering something uniquely new

The recently launched EverQuest Legends has a full roadmap ahead and its future suggests something that could grow beyond its classic roots.

There are only a handful of MMORPGs have that gone on for so long, there's nostalgia for the old days. While the EverQuest team is continuing to move forward with regular updates and expansions, some of its fanbase have expressed an interest in revisiting the classic days. It's not always possible to go home again, but EverQuest Legends is mixing together the original game's old-school aesthetic with some quality-of-life improvements from 2026 that players from 1999 would have given anything for. It's an admirable experiment from some of the game's biggest fans, who have gone on to become developers themselves, and there's a whole roadmap lined out for the future. To get an idea of what's coming, I stopped by to visit with members of the team at Gamescom.

EverQuest Legends can be described as "What if EverQuest retained its original look and style, but featured some key modern quality-of-life improvements?" It's a bit of an oversimplification, but the small team at Game Jawn has certainly laid out some cool additions, like a multi-class system, simpler travel mechanics, and dungeon/raid instancing. It's like the classic MMORPG with a much shinier coat of paint, as well as some additions that don't make this entirely a 1:1 remake. That can be seen through additions like the cat-like Kerran race, who were around in the original game, but never playable.

The upcoming Rulers of Kunark expansion, which is set to release later down the road, promises to add even more. Game Jawn sees Kunark as a major moment in EverQuest's history, in terms of narrative. The team will explore many elements of that first EverQuest expansion, but also look to further flesh out the world and its lore in its own way. The developers are hopeful that will be evidenced in new open-world additions like Rujarkian Hills and Nektropos Castle, which will explore regions that have never been reachable in the original EverQuest. The latter, in particular, will feature a new starting zone and a new playable race to go along with some of this new, unexplored story. That looks to be the strategy moving forward, as Game Jawn hopes to explore familiar territory while also putting its own spin on EverQuest lore, an idea briefly outlined in the Producer's Letter that went out earlier this week.

While the revamped lore and the cool quality-of-life tweaks are great, it was another upcoming feature that got my attention. Game Jawn briefly outlined its plans for a new Reincarnation feature, which basically allows players who have maxed out their character to take them back to Level 1. This allows them to raise their skill caps further and open up even more possibilities for those characters.

The ongoing EverQuest Legends mission to bring the beloved MMORPG back to a simpler era is a fascinating one. It's also one that's worth looking at on a week where Blizzard announced a similar kind of shake-up for World of Warcraft with the nostalgia-filled World of Warcraft Forever. While the developers at Game Jawn were simply on a mission to modernize their favorite game's classic experience, they may have unintentionally become trendsetters, showing what's possible by revisiting a long-running MMORPG's origins in a new and unique way.

EverQuest and EverQuest 2 continue to put out regular content, but EverQuest Legends is now available on PC. Look for the Rulers of Kunark expansion to be ready this winter.

This preview is based on an early PC build played by the development team at a behind-closed-doors meeting at Gamescom 2026.

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