The Lonesome Guild is a beautiful RPG that explores themes of loneliness, love, friendship, grief, and loss. It takes a bit of time to hook you in, but it is fantastic from that moment on. Completion takes around 20 hours, it has one missable collectible.
Approximate time to 100%: Around 20 hours
Estimated achievement difficulty: 2/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Is there a good guide available: I used this guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=35961...Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: Yes, the achievement for finding all the flowers is missable because you only have the chance to enter the Mayor's house in the snow city during one side quest. Be sure to pick up the flower on the second floor during the side quest "Stop the Presses" in the second area of the city covered in snow.
Grinding Achievements: No
DLC-Only achievements: No
Speedrun achievements: No
Time-gated achievements: No
RNG-achievements: No
Does difficulty affect achievements: No, you can play on easy and still unlock all the achievements
Unobtainable/glitched achievements: No
Gamepad or mouse and keyboard: I preferred to play with a gamepad
The Lonesome Guild is a story about people feeling lonely, even when surrounded by others; it is still possible to feel alone. It takes a bit of time before it gets interesting and hooks you in, but it does a fantastic job of exploring all kinds of feelings and highlighting how important it is to be yourself around friends, and to be honest when they ask you how you're doing.
In some way, The Lonesome Guild reminds me of the game Ni No Kuni, but I can't put my finger on why it does. If it is just the artwork that is a bit the same, or if it is even more than that. However, the artwork is beautiful. And it was nice to see the bottom of the loading screen change as you progress further into the story.
In combat, you control one of 3 characters, but you'll be switching between them to do more damage and unlock a special skill. Each character can also equip two skills. I waited too long to use those, but they make the combat so much better. What is nice is that team members not currently in the battle, or those who have died, still receive experience points. So, you can really experiment with different team members to determine which combination you prefer.
Another nice quality of life feature is that you'll unlock the option to warp between save spots quite early on. This option becomes available around the end of the first "area". I would say this is a few hours into the game. A bit challenging is the lack of a map inside the game. There are maps, but they are in fixed places inside the world. This makes you pay more attention to the details in the area, and when you see the map, I understand the choice, but I still kinda missed it.
The thing I struggled with most was the many white screens. When story scenes occur, the screen turns white and gradually gains color. This also happens when you start the game. Lately, I have had days around my migraines when I'm light-sensitive, which made it a struggle. I tried to adjust the colors to a darker setting, but then the general areas became difficult to navigate. So in the end, on those days, I closed my eyes the moment a story cutscene started and waited till it got color before opening my eyes again to read the text. I understand why they choose for the white color, it makes sense with as one of the characters being a ghost, as well as white giving more the feeling of "pure" and "holy" and before I had migraines I don't think it would have bothered me at all, but now it does and I somehow wish it was optional but I don't think that is possible as it is in every separate cutscene, which are a lot. So, forget about this if you don't struggle with light sensitivity, but if you do, keep this in mind and maybe avoid playing this game on those days.
Achievement-wise, the game has no grindy achievements, and most things aren't missable. There is only one collectible missable, and that is a flower on the second floor of the mayor's house in the city covered in snow (the 4th city). This flower is only available during a specific side quest. All the others you can go back and collect, even after finishing the story, as you'll be back right before the last battle. However, I highly recommend mainly exploring with Ghost, so you won't miss memories. And keep an eye out for flowers. Completion takes around 20 hours or so.
I give The Lonesome Guild 4.5 out of 5 stars. A lovely RPG with an important message!
4.5