Lonesome Village Review

Game: Lonesome Village
Genre: Puzzle, Adventure, Simulation
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam, Windows, Xbox & Xbox Series X)
Developers | Publishers: Ogre Pixel
Age Rating: US E10+ | EU 7+
Price: US $19.99 | UK £17.99 | EU € 19,99
Release Date: November 1st, 2022

Review code used, with many thanks to Player Two PR.

Lonesome Village is a non-combat puzzle adventure game developed after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2021. Now the game is ready for release on Nintendo Switch, Steam and Xbox.

Village of Ubhora

Many years ago, there was an old village called Ubhora with a mysterious tower, the Temple Ruins. Unfortunately, one day the tower vanished and took the town and all its people with it. Legend has it that The Cult, a group of wizards, wanted to control the world by summoning dark powers, but their dastardly actions didn’t go as planned.

Years later, a village was rebuilt in the same spot as Ubhora, which isn’t the brightest of ideas to my mind. Anyway, the mysterious tower has reappeared, and now all the villagers are missing. But fear not; you are about to come to the rescue when you take on the role of Wes the coyote and puzzle your way up the tower and rescue the villagers as you go.

Mysterious Tower

After the opening cutscenes and the storyline’s initial telling, you find yourself as Wes in the forest outside the village. After a visit by Coronya, who gives Wes a magic mirror so Wes can communicate with Coronya, she advises Wes to visit the town. Here you discover the tower, a mysterious black wolf and the tale of the missing villagers.

Lonesome Village combines puzzle-solving, adventure, and social simulation elements. You work your way up the tower solving puzzle rooms, and once a puzzle room is solved, a few villagers are given the freedom to return to their homes in the village.

You then return to the village and speak to the resident you have just rescued. They give you a heart in reward for saving them and ask you to perform a quest such as fetching five sticks of wood or fishing for a few fish. So that’s the general play loop of the lonesome village that you will repeat. However, it’s a pretty chilled game to play at your own pace.

Magic Glass and Tools

You have various tools at your disposal, such as a Magic Glass to discover hidden secrets, a spade to dig up cracks in the ground, and an axe. Although the magic glass given to Wes at the start of the game felt a little underused to me throughout the game. You do use it, but less than the fanfare when you get the magic glass would have you believe.

There is also a guitar that you learn to play a few songs on. Some of the songs you are taught might sound familiar, like the Song of Rain and the Song of Wind, which lets you teleport to various locations on the map.

Plenty of Puzzles to Solve

There are plenty of puzzles to solve; none are overly complicated. That’s just as well, as there isn’t a hint or help system in the game. If you get stuck on a puzzle, you’re on your own. Puzzles range from the old familiar pull levers in the correct order type of puzzles to sliding tile puzzles and more. If you don’t like solving puzzles, Lonesome Village would not be a game for you, as the game is ninety-five per cent puzzling.

Since the main objective is to help the village, the game reminds me of various other games. Such as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley with the social interaction between the protagonist and the community, though it’s less deep or expanded on in Lonesome Valley. Whereas the puzzles remind me of the older Zelda games, you can certainly see what games have influenced the developers.

Visuals

Lonesome Village looks gorgeous on the Nintendo Switch with its cartoonish style graphics. Though the game is primarily linear, there are different areas on the map to visit. From the forest to the desert, all the areas are well represented.

The game runs reasonably well, though it did freeze on me once while playing it. Unfortunately, in the version I played for this review, there wasn’t a quick equip system, which means a lot of clicking through the menu to equip the Magic glass and such. That’s a bit of a drag and takes too long to do, so a quick equipment system is needed.

The sound effects and music are enjoyable to listen to. What isn’t so pleasant is the constant beep beeping when you navigate the menus, which you can’t turn off without turning all the sounds off, including the music.

I also spotted quite a few grammar mistakes. For example, some words have the wrong spelling, and the turn of phrase is incorrect in some places. I wonder if games are no longer proofread before they are released to the public.

Conclusion

Lonesome Village is a sweet, wholesome adventure game; the standout feature for me was all the puzzles I enjoyed. The game took around 6-7 hours to complete, but I think that will depend on how quick you are at solving the puzzles. It is suitable for all ages to play, even though younger children might need help completing some puzzles.

Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot