The Lonesome Guild Review

The Lonesome Guild by Don’t Nod is a single player top down ARPG all about banding together and getting things done in the toughest of times.

You embark on a heroic adventure as Ghost, a spirit who wakes to find they hold no memories, and you are on a journey to understand why the world of Etere is full of doom, gloom and shadows and bring light and hope back. Entre large and vast and set up in a way where you become invested in each area brimmed full of quests and side quests that encourage you to explore the beaten path and help out the few citizens left.

I was very invested wanting to know more about what happened to the locations you roam which you slowly uncover as Ghost who has the ability to recover fragments of memories from some of the characters you later meet or unfortunately met their fate by the red mist that rampages the land and destroying villages

Along the way on your adventures and helping the people of Etere you encounter unlikely friends that eventually come together during your adventures uncovering the many corners of what this world has to offer.

There are so many cool areas to explore each with their own story to explore, from an abandoned castle held up by bandits, a cave full of mechanically engineered robots and a bazzar full of people banding together for survival. When going through these breathtaking places you’ll be able to recruit other characters that each bring their own story, quirks, motives whilst taking the many quests along the way.

When walking around Entre on your adventures you can switch seamlessly between your party members during exploration to help solve puzzles in the world to help navigate hidden areas and get loot in chests that either aid or power up your characters. In combat each character has it’s own skill tree and attributes that you will find a combination that works for you.

The basics are X is to base attack and B to combat roll to avoid being hit by pulling these off you then get LT and RT attacks which depending on the character and skill tree unlocks can stun, attack from range or pile massive damage. As you progress the combat gets harder with the variety of enemies, all with different attack patterns and finding big bosses to take down with resistance to either physical or magical attack damage making your character combinations / choices a worthwhile investment.

Speaking of investment, once everything has calmed down you sometimes find yourself at camp site scattered amongst the chaos to replenish health and take time to get to know the characters and talk about the events that have just unfolded.

Whilst not voice acted, its emotional dialogue is fantastic, and you get rewarded for learning about each characters emotional behavior and replying in conversation a certain way will create RP (Relationship Points) by earning trust and RP you slowly unlock new skills within each characters skill tree.

Whilst the choices you make don’t effect the conversation you gain a sense of understanding of why they act and behave a certain way and adds to your understanding and wanting to fight alongside them. Whilst at the campfire it’s great time to spent looking at the skill tree and seeing what you would like to invest in as well as using items found exploring which may give buffs to stats or certain play styles.

The Lonesome Guild is also visually stunning in a way that immediately sets it apart from most indie ARPGs. Its hand-painted 2.5D aesthetic that blends warm colors, soft edges, and expressive character animation to create a world that feels alive but scary and reflects in every aspect of the game from the exploration, combat and cutscenes. Every scene looks like it could have been lifted straight from a storybook not overly fancy but distinct enough to make you pause and take in the details.

Some of the most impressive visuals you get is when Ghost stumbles across memories in the world and you get treated to these beautiful artistic cutscenes which paint a picture of NPCs and characters you later meet. On top of that the soundtrack compliments the direction of art by carefully crafting the soundscape to what environment you find yourself in the music and sound effects really help set the mood and tone with the pacing.

If you are looking for a charming Indie with plenty of emotional moments, witty humor and a amazing overworld brimmed full of secrets and adventure then look no further!