The Lonesome Guild Review – Combat Can Frustrate, But Story Shines

Lonely Guild Review

I like to be surprised. Let me clarify. I don't like finding suspicious stains on the carpet or being surprised when my car battery dies when I'm late for work. But I love it when games surprise me by being a little more than they seem. Lonely Guild looks like a family RPG. And so it is. But it's also an exploration of some pretty timely and profound themes.

Fog and Opportunity

In The Lonely Guild, a red, decaying mist began to spread throughout the kingdom of Etere. Corruption is existential rather than physical, leaving people feeling lonely, disconnected and powerless. The main character is a spirit named Phantom who awakens in his disembodied form with no memory of who he is. The ghost begins to meet and gather friends. First there is a rabbit inventor named Davinci and Mr. Fox, who is more of a warrior. They discover that, united, the power of their friendship begins to dispel both the fog and their loneliness. As the game progresses, the group grows by adding playable characters. Ran Tran Thrum, punk rock capybara; Mauen, wish-fulfiller; and Sarangalin, the witch. Each of them brings special abilities and talents to the group.

The narrative becomes wider and deeper. Besides ending the influence of the fog, the main theme and challenge is for the ghosts to regain their memories and identities. Secondly, the group explores the wider conflict in Ether between the various factions and the backstory of each party member. In other words, there's a lot going on. The theme of a society corrupted by isolation and lack of communication is a bit heavy-handed, but certainly relevant.

The story's effectiveness is somewhat diminished by the many unexplained elements that feel less mysterious than obtuse. Much of the dialogue is more wordy than it should be. Unfortunately, due to the lack of voice acting, the vibrancy of the diverse characters isn't quite felt. Throughout the film, I wanted the narrative to be more direct because I loved the ideas and the characters.

Loop

There are games where the narrative barely supports the action. Kudos Lonely Guild for making him at least an equal partner in the game. The main loop of the game consists of solving some environmental puzzles to progress through the world, a combat encounter or boss fight, and another piece of narrative or character development.

The puzzles themselves are interesting, relying on using the abilities of the Ghost and multiple party members to simultaneously manipulate switches or move objects to access treasure or open a path. Overall, I liked the accessible design of the puzzle. Occasionally, clues in the form of murals and found text would hint at a solution, and sometimes they were a little vague. As with all puzzle games, it's hard to shake the inherently counter-intuitive conceit that there are so many elements of the supposed real world hidden behind the puzzles. I always feel sorry for residents that opening the door requires a well-coordinated team and manipulation of several objects. This is no way to live.

While the puzzles themselves are very interesting, the game's fixed camera and lack of an always-available map are hampered. Maps are only viewable in certain locations, meaning players should prepare for some unnecessary wandering.

Fight on

Like the game's puzzles, combat in The Lonesome Guild has a solid foundation and some frustrations. Individual characters have special attacks, as well as a variety of weapons and abilities, which they level up through conversations and interacting with each other around campfires. This is a great theme boost, but in practice it slows character development down a bit since rest points are quite rare.

Combat animations, especially dodging, feel smooth and responsive for several frames. This makes it frustrating to deploy AOE attacks, for example. On the other hand, using the Ghost's abilities in battle and teaming up with another party member is very satisfying. Combat can be quite challenging, especially boss battles.

One of the rather annoying shortcomings in The Lonesome Guild is the lack of a save mechanic anywhere (like before bosses) and widely spaced rest points. Long reload times and having to replay sections or replenish supplies before a fight are never the best times.

Cute as a picture

One area where The Lonesome Guild shines is its colorful storybook art style, which features a lot of detail and a lot of variety as the characters move through different biomes and environments. The character designs are also good, although it can sometimes be difficult to identify characters in combat when there are a lot of enemies. There's no voice acting and the overall soundscape is pretty muted, but the music is very effective.

Putting aside the sometimes sluggish combat controls and a few frustrating mechanics, there's a lot to be excited about in The Lonesome Guild. With beautiful artwork and a much-appreciated theme of connection and communication, The Lonesome Guild should appeal to fans of puzzle-heavy RPGs looking for narrative depth.

***PC code provided by publisher for review***