tHe is a lonely guild This is a single-player RPG that wants to tell a story about heroic adventures. The player assumes the role of a ghost – a spirit that has no memory of its own. Along the way, they meet a ragtag group of characters who will eventually become heroes. Technical Art Director Ruben Caliandro was kind enough to answer some of the fiery questions about various aspects of the The lonely guildFrom the variety of gameplay to replayability and the world of gaming.
What will be set in a market where there are a lot of action RPGs out there? The lonely guild Apart from the contemporary?
The heart of The lonely guild It exists in the idea that only by relying on each other can a hero overcome adversity. Individual heroes are not strong enough to face future challenges, but they can overcome obstacles through friendship and cooperation.
This pillar is deeply embedded in the game’s mechanics. Unlike many other action RPGs that focus on the power and skills of individual characters, The lonely guild It focuses on cooperation and relationships between party members. The exploration and puzzle mechanics are built around teamwork, and combat is designed to embrace a sense of unity. Rather than just controlling one hero, players must strategically switch characters and each party member combines with the power of their teammates to harness their potential.
“The lonely guild It focuses on cooperation and relationships between party members. ”
The main character’s ghost is a unique character, and he is an airy being incapable of physical interaction with the world. He is always dependent on his teammates for his normal actions, such as interacting with objects and engaged in direct combat, but his power lies in his bond with other heroes. His power allows them to become stronger, support each other with special abilities, and unleash a surge in energy thanks to the ultimate team-based attack.
How big does a story play? The lonely guild?
The lonely guildA deep, rich story plays a central role in the game! The player is immersed in the story of Etere. Etere is a world that suffers from the curse of solitude that spreads and threatens all life throughout the land, while at the same time exploring the personal journey of heroes, each with their own kind of loneliness, struggles and desires. These seemingly different stories gradually evolve and merge into beautiful stories of single stories, common purpose, and heroic friendship.
Storytelling is provided through films, dialogue, in-game balloons, HUD chats and beautifully handmade 2D cutscenes.
We want to ensure that everyone has access to the experience. Players who want to focus solely on gameplay can easily skip all story content without losing fun. For those who enjoy deep stories instead, The lonely guild It offers an immersive and engaging journey where dialogue choices can affect gameplay and allow players to strengthen relationships that affect the RPG progression system.
Action RPGs often emphasize the progression system. What do you do? The lonely guild Would you like to offer that point?
The lonely guild It relies on the progression of classic ARPGs, adding unique mechanisms that arise from the theme of unity. An interesting innovation is the strength of the relationship between the ghost and each hero, and that is the key to advance their skill tree. Through dialogue choices and quests, players can choose to deepen certain bonds than other bonds, allowing them to shape character growth in meaningful ways.
Each hero has a personal relationship-driven progression path with unique abilities and upgrades. Players can create active parties and combine them by experimenting with different builds according to their preferences and PlayStyle.
“We want to make the experience accessible to everyone. Players who want to focus solely on gameplay can easily skip all story content without losing their fun.”
Are there options for cooperative multiplayer?
As a small studio working on the first action RPG, our focus is on creating the most engaging and refined solo adventure possible. The lonely guild It reflects it as a single player experience.
The gameplay is designed around a single player who manages the entire party, tracking stats, abilities and positioning while switching heroes as needed. This experience is to ensure that not only individual characters are played individually, but also that they oversee the entire party and cooperate effectively.
Ghosts also have a central and unique role, especially in combat, making it difficult to adapt core mechanics to cooperative multiplayer settings without compromising the intended experience.
What kind of replay possibilities can you expect? The lonely guild?
meanwhile The lonely guild It’s a story-driven action RPG with primarily linear stories, but there’s still a reason why players will return after completing it.
By building different relationships between ghosts and heroes, players can unlock skills that may not have been accessible in previous runs, allow new builds and party configuration experiments, explore optional side quests, discover hidden loots, and increase the difficulty of subsequent runs if they are looking for extra challenges.
What can you tell us about the world of Etere?
Etere is a vibrant, living planet, with a diverse range 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 its era The lonely guildIt took place over literally millions of years of stories and I was impressed by the vastness and depth of lore! Etere has a complex and interrelated history, and its cultural stories have been intertwined for centuries, shaping the world we experience on the “present” day of the game.
This game simply scratches the surface of this rich lore and gives you a little glimpse into the vastness of this world, made with replaced ancient myths and religions. While much of this lore remains untold, it is always reflected in detail in detail in the ruins of an abandoned castle, the actions of the people players can encounter, the architectural style of the town, or even the whole biome.
How much etere can we explore The lonely guild?
Etere evolved deeply through a time when a thriving civilization was once upon a time when abandoned ruins remained. Once the sea was in the middle of the desert, the city now stands in the middle of the desert, surrounded by towering walls made of seas and stars.
What players can explore The lonely guild We wanted to showcase a truly diverse environment, despite being a snapshot of each biome at the time the story event took place and a mere portion of what the entire game world can offer.
“Etere is a vibrant, living planet, with a diverse range of biomes, races and cultures, each with its own traditions, customs and history.”
Each of the 19 unique regions present in the game has its own style, even within the same biome. The five biomes themselves are deeply diverse, from snowy cities to Talio near the Sorte Pipe to the sky-soaked spiral towers of Nunuit near the suit pipe-shaped peaks, to cities in the middle of the Sadatoa desert.
Additionally, players encounter six unique cultures, each with their own history, style and customs. Unlike each biome, NPCs and enemies engage in a very diverse range of explorations, dialogues and battles around the world. I feel that the world of Etere is truly rich and lives!
Are there many gameplay variety options in different weapon types form?
Yes, there are not many different weapon types, but there are many different gameplay types. All heroes have weapons and a unique set of base attacks, but the actual breed comes from a wide range of skills.
Each hero also has unique support skills with ghosts to assist the entire team in a specific way, and the power of the ghost can unleash the ultimate teamwork attacks that can be customizable through party configuration based on skill tree upgrades, independent of the specific builds chosen by the player.
There is an active team of 3 characters, selected from a total of six, and there is a variety of consumables and equipment, including legendary items introducing custom combat mechanics, providing a lot of flexibility in how players customize their party and approach combat and to further diversify gameplay.
Do you have any plans to bring it in? The lonely guild On a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2?
There is discussion about potential ports, but there are no plans to bring them in at this time The lonely guild For Nintendo consoles, and while acknowledging the game is perfect for the platform, there are important technical challenges to consider.
As a relatively small studio, our focus is now on finishing, polishing and streaming of PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 games before the deadline released in Fall 2025. Many characters, complex VFX, and enrichment of the environment all contribute to the requirements of the game and showcase the work required to want a significant amount of work.