Review: The Lonesome Guild

Developer- Tiny Bull Studios

Publisher- Don’t Nod

Platforms- PC, PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series S/X

Review copy given by the Publisher

You know that warm, cozy feeling where you’re so relaxed you just kind of start melting into the couch? Well, the Lonesome Guild is essentially that feeling distilled into an RPG form. Instead of solving all of my problems with the business end of a giant hammer, in The Lonesome Guild, I saved the day with the power of friendship and camaraderie, and also a giant hammer.

The Lonesome Guild is a party-based RPG that’s all about adventuring with a ragtag group of characters, solving puzzles, and more often than not, just enjoying the lovely scenery. That last part is what initially drew me to the game, because while the raw graphical fidelity isn’t the greatest, everything and everyone just look so cute and cuddly. Even Mr. Fox, a character that’s supposed to be a bit misanthropic and edgy, is just adorable with his big, fluffy ears and an even bigger, fluffier tail.

Because everything is adorable, even when the characters were fighting for their lives, I never really got a sense that I should be genuinely worried. The whole game got that Sunday morning cartoon vibe where the big threat is kind of nasty, but you just know it’s all going to be alright by the end.

The story follows a very similar trajectory, as it’s all about overcoming adversity by coming together as a team. More specifically, it’s about a magical comet that crashes into the forest, leaving behind an ever-expanding and seemingly deadly red mist, as well as a mysterious creature known as Ghost. Your goal from that point onward is to help get everyone to safety. You also need to figure out what exactly Ghost is, how he relates to the mist, and why he seems to have intimate knowledge of past events. A fairly standard premise, but it works well as an excuse to go out on a grand adventure with a variety of eccentric characters that would otherwise never really interact.

It’s not tedious to sit through, and there were quite a few moments that gave me a sensible chuckle, but overall, it’s a bit too juvenile to be truly captivating. However, I can’t exactly complain about that, as I intentionally chose a much lighter game than I usually prefer. What I can complain about, however, is the hand-drawn cinematics and flashbacks. 

Not because they were badly drawn, mind you, but rather because someone decided that every single image should be accompanied by a lengthy fade to white. And as it turns out, getting constantly flash-banged while trying to read about a capybara knight is kind of irritating.  

As you wander around, you’ll occasionally run into or get ambushed by groups of enemies. Once that happens, the game will lock you into an arena until one of you is victorious. The actual combat that happens afterward is fairly simple. You can hit enemies, dodge away from their attacks, as well as use powerful abilities that recharge by hitting stuff. Things get slightly more complicated thanks to Ghost as he’s able to power up individual characters, but only for a short amount of time.

The fight will start with him already buffing one guy, but as the battle progresses, different characters will request his assistance. If you swap to them when this happens, they’ll get a sizable boost to their damage output, thus encouraging you to constantly swap around instead of just sitting on one character. This works really well in practice, as by the time you cycle back to your original character, you’ll have all of your abilities ready to go. I think using the entire party is not only the most fun way to play the game, but it’s also the most optimal.

Considering how rarely that happens in the RPGs I play, I feel like that’s well worth praising. If you’re wondering what happens when you swap control from one character to another? The AI takes over and does a surprisingly effective job at both avoiding and dishing out damage. Unless you directly bait enemy attacks onto your allies, or swap right as they’re about to get smacked over the head, I’m fairly certain the AI can just keep dodge-dancing around enemies forever.

So as long as you’re careful, your successes and failures should be entirely down to your actions. This is despite the numerous characters running around on screen, and that is another thing I greatly appreciate. Besides the passive buffs, simply fighting alongside Ghost will also fill up your ultimate meter. Once full, it’ll let you unleash a massive blast that clears the entire screen of enemies, which I’ve always found to be a bizarre ability in any game it showed up in.

If the combat is too tough or too tedious, surely you could just reduce the difficulty. Speaking of difficulty, there are three modes to choose from, and none of them is particularly hard. Even on the highest level, I found the combat challenging enough that I needed to pay attention and keep myself engaged. However, they were simple enough that I didn’t really need to try hard.

Considering how The Lonesome Guild is going for a relatively chill vibe, I think they’ve managed to strike a pretty good balance with the combat. As is the case with any RPG, there is also a fair bit of exploration to be had. There are two relatively large maps to comb over for loot – both of which were quite linear, though with a few branching paths and secrets sprinkled throughout to spice things up.

Calling them secrets might be a bit of a stretch, however, as many of the hidden locations are going to be blatantly obvious to anyone who is even remotely paying attention. The level design, in general, felt a bit too obvious and practical to me. The rest of the game gets much more elaborate and exciting as the story progresses.

Final Fantasy XIII style ‘exploration’ isn’t really my thing. The same thing goes for the puzzles. All of the ones I encountered were simple enough that I could not only solve them within seconds, but could also brute-force them since they had so few moving parts. Having super challenging puzzles in an otherwise action-heavy RPG could really kill the mood and bring in a lot of frustration. I know this from experience because Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, an RPG I genuinely love, has some hour-long puzzles that just grind the action to a halt while you sit there flipping buttons around.

I don’t envy the developers for trying to balance the puzzles out. It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. What I did like a lot, however, is the scenery. Much like the characters themselves, a lot of effort has been put into making the environment pleasant to look at. 

I think the Autumnal theme did a lot of work here, at least for me, because all these warm colors and piles of fallen leaves gave off such a cozy and welcoming atmosphere. I also have to commend the numerous tiny details sprinkled throughout the levels that really help bring them to life. This is even in areas that you might see for only a fraction of a second before scampering off to open a nearby treasure chest. Since I brought up treasure chests, I should mention that the loot was right up my alley as well.

A whole bunch of permanent stat upgrades you can distribute to your characters as you wish, as well as a plethora of seemingly powerful gear. For a tutorial area that was a surprisingly large amount of customization to mess around with.

I think The Lonesome Guild takes you into a wondrous world and unpacks relatable themes through its narrative, but while the combat, storytelling, and environments are serviceable. The Lonesome Guild may be a bit simple in its combat and puzzles, but its world and meta-narrative are incredibly touching. Some minor technical issues were noted in preview builds, but the developers are working on them. The audio presentation is described as subtle and effective, with a gentle and whimsical soundtrack. The game generally runs smoothly with low hardware demands due to its non-realistic art style. The Lonesome Guild is out today on PlayStation 5 for $24.99.