The Lonesome Guild Review

Cozy Only in Looks

Written by Dallas Cardenas

Posted on: October 23rd, 2025

Developed by Tiny Bull Studios

Published by DON’T NOD

Released on October 23rd 2025

Review on PC (also on PS5, Xbox Series X|S)

Ever since I was a young lad, I’ve always judged the book by its cover, and in this context I mean this by showing my interest in something by how it looked (in terms of media, don’t grab your pitchforks). Nowadays people call it showing interest by its “vibe” (please don’t age check me with that). All of this to say that The Lonesome Guild on the surface screams COZY. “Wow, a cute ARPG? Where I play as woodland critters, with skill trees, stats and loot? Oh this looks amazing!” And while The Lonesome Guild is that, it’s also so much more. It’s not everyday you come across a game so cute, yet so heartbreaking. A story wrapped in a cute aesthetic with the tale of trauma, family dynamics, sociological issues, religion, and even the disdain of others. It’s not what I expected going in, but for that I’m grateful.

I like hiding my chests at thee most scenic view points.

As far as storytelling goes, The Lonesome Guild is pretty straightforward when you start it up. You play as Ghost an entity shot down from space like a meteor, who has the ability to dive into inhabitants to give them unbelievable power. You’re immediately joined by DaVinci, a bumblebun, who agrees to help you figure out what’s going on and who you are, as Ghost has no recollection of who they are. It’s from this jumping off point that you set off on your quest, that develops over time to become one of helping others and saving everything you know.

You’ll be joined by 6 other playable party members along the way, all with their own backstory, character arcs, skill trees, abilities etc. You’ll come to really know your party, as the game is very dialogue heavy. Party members will talk while moving around the zones you venture through, they’ll chat around bonfires, as well as via your typical cutscenes. I only wish there was voice acting, as that would’ve added even more depth to what ends up being quite the emotional tale. Though this isn’t a critique, with it being so dialogue focused and with a runtime of over 20+ hours, it’d be a lot for any indie studio to have that.

Despite the lack of VO, it in no way made me care less for our party. While I did have my favorites and liked certain stories more than others, I can fully say that they all get their time to shine and develop over the course of the playthrough. From a Fox with a mysterious past, to a Granny with regret, they all have depth and nuance that can only come from their interactions with their world and other party members as well. Tiny Bull Studios has seemingly built a world, with a complex past teeming with racial issues, religion, and family trauma that all feels fully baked and realized. My only gripe coming from the pacing during certain moments that doesn’t allow for the emotional weight to fully hit. It’s “OH NO!— Anyway…” instead of allowing the characters to sit and reflect for a moment.

Don’t expect to see this kind of build til late game. Or never if you don’t like Mr. Fox ….

As I mentioned previously, you play as Ghost with the ability to dive— eh, let’s just call it what it is, possess individuals. While your main party will consist of six, your immediate party that you’ll take into the combat encounters consist of three. Early on the choice of who to bring in is easy, but as you can imagine, as your party grows it becomes tougher to choose. If you’re like me though, you’ll vibe with certain play styles more than others, hopefully making your decision easier.

Combat while simple, is enjoyable and never overstays its welcome. It’s broken up into arena’s placed around the 5 zones you travel through, and not open like your typical Diablo ARPG. Each character can have 2 abilities equipped at a time, with 4 equipment slots to boot, allowing for a fair amount of variety. You’ll earn new abilities with leveling up, but also from growing your relationship, as that what unlocks more of your skill tree with a specific character. This “RP” comes from not only chatting with your party but via the dialogue choices you make, differing choices allocate different increase’s in RP based on which party member aligns with what you said. It’s a novel way of leveling up, but if you’re wanting to level up certain characters more because you like their play style then you may have to make dialogue choices you don’t necessarily agree with.

In terms of equipment, it’s limited in scope as it’s only found in chests scattered around the world or given as a reward for quests. And once you find the party members you like and what equipment suits them, you’ll rarely switch things up. This would be fine if it were a shorter experience, but at its length I would’ve preferred for it to be deeper.

I understand this is a casual ARPG experience and should be treated as such, but I find it hard to imagine that the casual audience will see it through to completion. As I should also note that the sense of progression didn’t seem to be noticeable in my playthrough. Stats and numbers would go up, but I never saw that reflected in actual combat. Even going back to early zones didn’t have me wiping out enemies would’ve liked. So while the challenge remained from start to finish, I never truly felt powerful, and that was unfortunate.

Nothing funny to say here. Hand drawn art is beautiful to look at.

Outside of combat, you also have environmental puzzles littered throughout the zones you explore, but these are also simple and don’t require much thought as most can also be brute forced if they aren’t your jam. Still it’s fun to complete one and there’s the satisfaction of getting a chest at the end.

There’s also a QoL change I need to suggest. It wasn’t the biggest issue, but the fact there’s a “track quest” feature but no guide or waypoint to the objective or even quest giver seems like a misstep. It’ll tell you the zone its in, but that’s as far as it goes. So getting stuck running around trying to find where to turn it back in can get frustrating, albeit not for long as thankfully the zones aren’t massive.

The world of Etere is beautifully realized with a lot of hand drawn art with an almost water colored look to it. And a nice ambient soundtrack to boot, with a satisfying winning theme for each successful battle. There’s a lot of charm to its identity and I’m sure audiences will appreciate it just the same. It performed near perfectly locked at 4K 60fps, only with dips occurring once I had been playing it for hours on end.

The Lonesome Guild accomplishes exactly what it set out to do, provide a narrative based ARPG for the casual/cozy crowd. It doesn’t do anything you haven’t seen before if you’re a seasoned gamer, but it does it all well. The story is entertaining and has weight to it, the combat and puzzles while simple are still fun, and despite its repetitive nature it gives you a hefty campaign with plenty of side content if you choose to do it. I nearly hit 100% completion during my review process, and I fully intend to go back and finish as soon as I hit publish.