Article, Interviews The Lonesome Guild Interview – Story, Replayability, Gameplay Variety, and More Technical art director of upcoming RPG The Lonesome Guild was kind enough to answer a bunch of our questions about the game. Posted By Joelle Daniels | On 24th, Apr. 2025 The Lonesome Guild is an upcoming single-player RPG that wants to tell a story about a heroic adventure. Players will take on the role of Ghost – a spirit that has no memories of its own. Along the way, they will meet a ragtag group of characters that will eventually become heroes. Technical art director, Ruben Caliandro, was kind enough to answer some of our burning questions about various aspects of The Lonesome Guild, from gameplay variety to replayability and the game’s world. In a market that has plenty of action RPGs out there, what sets The Lonesome Guild apart from its contemporaries? The heart of The Lonesome Guild resides in the theme of togetherness, the idea that only by relying on each other the heroes can overcome adversity: individually, no single hero is strong enough to face the challenges ahead, but through friendship and cooperation they can overcome any obstacle. This pillar is deeply embedded in the game’s mechanics. Unlike many other action RPGs that focus on individual character powers and skills, The Lonesome Guild is centred on cooperation and relationships between party members. Exploration and puzzle mechanics are built around teamwork, and combat is designed to embrace togetherness: rather than controlling just one hero, players must strategically switch between characters, ensuring each party member takes advantage of their potential in combination with the power of their teammates. "The Lonesome Guild is centred on cooperation and relationships between party members." The protagonist Ghost is a unique character and being an ethereal entity he cannot physically interact with the world. He constantly depends on his teammates for ordinary actions such as interacting with objects or engaging in direct combat, but his strength lies in his bond with the other heroes, as he can merge with his allies to enhance their abilities. His power enables them to be stronger, to support one another with special abilities, and to unleash a surge of energy thanks to a team-based ultimate attack. How big of a role will the story play in The Lonesome Guild? The Lonesome Guild’s deep and rich story plays a central role in the game! Players are immersed in the tale of Etere, a world afflicted by the curse of loneliness which is spreading and threatening all life across the land, and at the same time the game explores the personal journeys of its heroes, each one carrying their own kind of loneliness, struggles and desires. These seemingly separate stories gradually evolve and merge into a single narrative, a shared purpose and a beautiful tale of heroic friendship. The storytelling is provided through cinematics, dialogues, in-game balloons, HUD chats and beautifully handcrafted 2D cutscenes. We want the experience to be accessible to everyone, allowing players who prefer to focus solely on the gameplay to easily skip all the narrative content without losing the fun. For those who instead enjoy deep narratives, The Lonesome Guild offers an immersive and compelling journey, with dialogue choices also influencing the gameplay and allowing players to strengthen relationships that impact the RPG progression system. Action RPGs often emphasize their progression systems. What does The Lonesome Guild offer in that regard? The Lonesome Guild relies on classic ARPG progression while adding unique mechanics that arise from the theme of togetherness. An interesting innovation is the relationship strength between Ghost and each hero, which is key for progressing through their skill tree. Players can choose to deepen certain bonds over others through dialogue choices and quests, shaping character growth in a meaningful way. Each hero features their personal relationship-driven progression path, with unique abilities and upgrades. Players can match them together by composing their active party and experimenting with different builds according to their preferences and playstyle. "We want the experience to be accessible to everyone, allowing players who prefer to focus solely on the gameplay to easily skip all the narrative content without losing the fun. " Will there be any option for co-op multiplayer? As a small studio working on our first action RPG, our focus has been on crafting the most engaging and polished solo adventure possible, and The Lonesome Guild reflects that as a single-player experience. The gameplay is designed around a single player managing an entire party, switching between heroes as needed while keeping track of their status, abilities and positioning. The experience is not just about playing individual characters separately but about overseeing the party as a whole, ensuring they work together effectively. Ghost plays a central and unique role, especially in combat, which also makes it difficult to adapt the core mechanics to a co-op multiplayer setting without compromising the intended experience. What kind of replayability can we expect from The Lonesome Guild? While The Lonesome Guild is a story-driven action RPG with a primarily linear narrative, there are still reasons for players to return after completing it. By developing different relationships between Ghost and the heroes, players can unlock skills they may not have accessed in previous runs, allowing for new build and party composition experiments, and they can explore optional side quests, discover hidden loot, and increase the difficulty level for subsequent runs if they’re looking for an extra challenge. What can you tell us about the world of Etere? Etere is a vibrant, living planet, with a diversity of biomes, races and cultures, each with its own traditions, customs and history. I remember the first time our writer told me the history of the planet from its formation to the time The Lonesome Guild‘s story takes place, spanning literally millions of years, and I was struck by the vastness and depth of the lore! Etere has a complex, interconnected history, with the stories of its cultures intertwining across centuries, shaping the world we experience in the “present” day in the game. The game only scratches the surface of this rich lore, offering a tiny glimpse into the vastness of this world made of ancient myths and religions that have been replaced, where traces of long-lost beliefs can still be found, and ancient ages and deeds occasionally emerge. Most of this lore remains untold, but it is reflected constantly in details like a wall painting in the ruins of an abandoned castle, the behaviour of the people players can encounter, the architectural style of a town, or even the shape of an entire biome. How much of Etere will we get to explore in The Lonesome Guild? Etere evolved profoundly through the ages, where once a thriving civilization stood, now abandoned ruins remain; where once there was an ocean, now a city stands in the middle of a desert, surrounded by towering walls made of sea and stars. What players can explore in The Lonesome Guild is a snapshot of each biome at the time the events of the story take place, and even though it is just a small portion of what the entire game world could offer, we wanted to showcase a truly diverse range of environments. "Etere is a vibrant, living planet, with a diversity of biomes, races and cultures, each with its own traditions, customs and history." Each of the 19 unique areas present in the game has its own distinct style, even within the same biome, and the 5 biomes themselves are deeply varied, ranging from the snow-capped city of Tallyoh near the organ-pipe-shaped peaks of the Sootpipes to the sky-reaching Spiral Tower in Nunuit, a city in the middle of the Sahduat Desert. In addition, players will encounter 6 unique cultures, each with its own history, style, and customs. NPCs and enemies are distinct to each biome, making exploration, dialogue, and combat highly varied across the world. The world of Etere truly feels rich and alive! Will there be many gameplay variety options in the form of different weapon types? Yes, there will be plenty of gameplay variety, though not through different weapon types: all heroes possess a weapon and a unique set of base attacks, but the real variety comes from the wide array of skills, as every character can unlock up to 4 skills and equip 2 of them at the same time, with the 24 total skills offering a large variety of possible builds. Each hero also features a unique support skill powered by Ghost which aids the whole team in a specific way, and Ghost’s power can unleash an ultimate teamwork attack, available independently from the specific build chosen by the player and customizable through the party composition based on skill tree upgrades. With an active team of 3 characters, chosen from the 6 available in total, we try to offer a lot of flexibility in how players can customise their party and approach combat, and to further diversify the gameplay there’s a variety of consumables and equipment, including legendary items that introduce custom combat mechanics. Are there any plans to bring The Lonesome Guild to the Nintendo Switch or the Switch 2? While discussions around a potential port have taken place, there are currently no plans to bring The Lonesome Guild to Nintendo consoles, and while we acknowledge that the game would be a great fit for the platform, there are significant technical challenges to consider. As a relatively small studio, our focus is now on finishing, polishing, and delivering the game for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 before our release deadline in Fall 2025. 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