While everyone argues about Game of the Year candidates, a tiny indie game called Our Adventurer Guild has been quietly delivering one of 2024’s most addictive strategy experiences. YouTube creator Triple Iris called it a “hidden gem masterpiece” in a video that’s racked up 12,000 views, and forum users admit the game has “absolutely eaten my life for the past several weeks.” Yet this charming tactical RPG about managing an adventurer guild remains virtually unknown outside dedicated strategy gaming circles. If you’re tired of soulless AAA bloat and want something genuinely engaging, this might be exactly what you’re looking for.
What Makes This Game Special
Our Adventurer Guild puts you in the role of a new Guild Master inheriting a declining adventurer’s guild from a recently deceased friend. Your job is simple in concept but deep in execution: recruit adventurers, accept quests, manage personalities and relationships, lead tactical turn-based battles, and grow the guild’s reputation before it collapses completely. It’s like if XCOM, Darkest Dungeon, and Fire Emblem had a cozy, management-focused baby.
The game launched in early access on April 11, 2024 via Steam and has been receiving regular updates ever since. Developer feedback suggests a passionate small team continuously refining and expanding the experience based on player input. The price point sits at around $15, making it accessible for anyone curious about trying something different.
What immediately hooks players is the blend of systems that all feed into each other:
- Turn-based grid tactical combat with positioning and terrain advantages
- Guild management simulation where you upgrade facilities and recruit trainers
- Relationship systems where adventurers form friendships or rivalries affecting performance
- Mood tracking requiring you to manage adventurer mental health and happiness
- D20 skill check system for exploration events with character modifiers
- Permanent party formation allowing strategic team compositions
- Bravery System that lets adventurers push beyond limits at risk of breaking under pressure
The comparison to Darkest Dungeon comes up frequently, but Our Adventurer Guild takes a notably less punishing approach. Where Darkest Dungeon revels in crushing player spirits with permanent death and psychological trauma, Our Adventurer Guild maintains challenge while staying cozy and encouraging. You still face consequences for poor decisions, but the game doesn’t actively hate you.
The Gameplay Loop That Hooks You
Each day in Our Adventurer Guild follows a satisfying rhythm. You wake up, check your available quests, assign adventurers to various tasks, and decide which party you’ll personally lead on the main quest. During quests, you navigate grid-based maps encountering story events that trigger D20 skill checks. When combat begins, you engage in tactical turn-based battles using positioning, character abilities, and the unique Bravery System.
The Bravery System represents one of the game’s most interesting mechanics. When pushed to their limits, adventurers can tap into reserves of courage for powerful actions. But push too hard and they might break psychologically, becoming less effective or even needing time to recover. Managing this risk-reward creates tense moments during difficult battles where you must decide whether that extra push is worth potential long-term consequences.
Between quests, you return to the guild to manage relationships, upgrade facilities, train adventurers, and recruit new members. The randomized adventurers come with procedurally generated backgrounds, personality quirks, stat distributions, and relationship predispositions. Their little anime portraits and dialogue snippets begin feeling like distinct characters despite being randomly generated, which speaks to clever writing and design.
The party system evolves as you progress. Early on, you can throw random adventurers together and send them out. About a third through the game, you unlock formal party creation allowing five (later six) permanent team members whose traits and stats complement each other. Building these synergistic parties becomes a satisfying optimization puzzle.
One minor complaint from players is that you can only personally lead one party at a time on main quests. You can assign adventurers to “assignments” generating passive income, but these don’t provide the same rewards or engagement as main quests. As your guild grows and bills increase, this limitation can create cash flow pressure that feels artificial rather than challenging.
Why Nobody’s Heard of This Game
Our Adventurer Guild suffers from every marketing disadvantage indie games face. No publisher backing means minimal marketing budget. The game launched in early access, which often signals incomplete or buggy experiences that scare away players. The anime art style immediately pigeonholes it into a niche category despite the gameplay appealing to much broader audiences. And the crowded tactical RPG space makes it easy to overlook yet another grid-based strategy game.
The lack of voice acting further contributes to its invisible status. Modern players often associate quality with cinematic presentation, but Our Adventurer Guild commits fully to text-based storytelling. The writing is actually quite good – concise with genuinely touching moments that make you care about your adventurers’ fates. But in an era where games like Baldur’s Gate 3 set new standards for cinematic presentation, text-only experiences struggle for attention.
Steam Deck compatibility represents another barrier. Players report the game is technically playable on Steam Deck using touchscreen and trackpad for mouse controls, but it’s far from optimized. Most of the game requires just mouse input, so it’s manageable without hotkeys, but the experience isn’t smooth. For a portable-friendly game by design, this seems like a missed opportunity.
The Demo Nobody’s Trying
One of the most frustrating aspects of Our Adventurer Guild’s obscurity is that it offers a comprehensive free demo on Steam. This isn’t a 15-minute teaser – it’s substantial enough to provide genuine feel for the gameplay loop, systems, and progression. For anyone even slightly curious, the demo eliminates financial risk entirely.
Yet demo downloads remain low compared to games that generate buzz through marketing spend or influencer partnerships. The developer clearly believes in their product enough to offer generous trial access, but without visibility mechanisms to drive traffic, even great demos go unplayed.
What Players Who Find It Say
The small but passionate community surrounding Our Adventurer Guild consistently praises specific aspects. The progression feels rewarding, with clear goals about what to upgrade or unlock next. The guild growth provides tangible improvements – new trainers join your guild, facilities expand capabilities, and your adventurers visibly grow stronger both mechanically and narratively.
The narrative, despite lacking voice acting, delivers emotional beats that resonate. Players report feeling genuinely sad when the story concluded because they wanted more time with the characters. That’s remarkable for a management simulation where characters are randomly generated rather than hand-crafted protagonists with predetermined arcs.
The difficulty curve on normal mode starts gentle but increases as you progress. The deep customization systems ensure challenging encounters require strategic thinking rather than just grinding levels. Multiple difficulty modes including “Very Hard Ironman” options provide replayability for players who master the systems and want to test themselves.
Forum discussions highlight how the game respects player time. Sessions can be as short or long as you want – complete a quick quest in 20 minutes or sink into a marathon session optimizing your guild for hours. The bite-sized tactical encounters mean you’re rarely stuck in lengthy battles when you need to stop playing.
Influences You Can Feel
Our Adventurer Guild wears its inspirations openly. Fire Emblem’s influence shows in the tactical combat and character relationship systems. XCOM’s base management and mission selection structure provides the strategic layer. Darkest Dungeon’s stress and personality mechanics inform the mood and relationship tracking. But the game synthesizes these influences into something that feels cohesive rather than derivative.
The D&D-style attribute checks during exploration events add randomness without feeling unfair. You see the D20 roll, the target number needed, and your character’s modifier before choosing who attempts the check. This transparency lets you make informed decisions about risk, and even failures often lead to interesting narrative branches rather than punitive dead ends.
The cozy aesthetic contrasts sharply with Darkest Dungeon’s gothic horror while maintaining mechanical depth. You’re building something positive – helping adventurers achieve their dreams while growing the guild’s reputation. That optimistic framing makes repeated playthroughs feel rewarding rather than masochistic.
Who This Game Is For
Our Adventurer Guild appeals most to players who enjoy management sims with strategic combat. If you loved the base building in XCOM but wished it integrated more deeply with character relationships and progression, this delivers that fantasy. If Fire Emblem’s relationship mechanics appeal but you want more control over party composition and guild development, this scratches that itch.
Strategy RPG veterans will appreciate the tactical depth without needless complexity. The grid-based combat remains readable and approachable while offering enough positioning options and ability synergies to reward mastery. It’s not trying to be the next chess – it’s trying to be fun tactical combat in service of a larger management experience.
Players seeking narrative experiences might initially doubt a game with randomly generated adventurers and no voice acting. But the writing quality and emergent storytelling through relationship systems create surprisingly memorable moments. You’ll remember the adventurer who overcame their cowardice through friendship, or the rivalry that pushed two fighters to new heights.
FAQs
What is Our Adventurer Guild?
Our Adventurer Guild is a tactical RPG and guild management simulation where you play as a new Guild Master inheriting a declining adventurer’s guild. You recruit adventurers, accept quests, engage in turn-based grid combat, manage relationships and moods, and grow your guild’s reputation.
When did Our Adventurer Guild release?
Our Adventurer Guild launched in early access on Steam on April 11, 2024. The game has been receiving regular updates from the developer and is also available on PlayStation Store. The price is approximately $15.
Is there a demo for Our Adventurer Guild?
Yes, Our Adventurer Guild offers a comprehensive free demo on Steam that provides substantial gameplay to understand the systems, combat, and progression. The demo is lengthy enough to determine if the game suits your preferences without financial commitment.
What games is Our Adventurer Guild similar to?
Our Adventurer Guild draws inspiration from XCOM’s base management, Fire Emblem’s tactical combat and relationships, and Darkest Dungeon’s adventurer management. However, it takes a notably less punishing, more cozy approach compared to Darkest Dungeon while maintaining strategic depth.
Does Our Adventurer Guild work on Steam Deck?
Our Adventurer Guild is technically playable on Steam Deck using touchscreen and trackpad for mouse controls, but it’s not optimized for the platform. The experience is manageable since most gameplay requires only mouse input, though it’s not as smooth as native controller support would provide.
How long is Our Adventurer Guild?
Playtime varies based on difficulty and playstyle, but players report the main story campaign provides dozens of hours of content. The game respects player time with bite-sized tactical encounters that can be completed in 20-30 minute sessions or extended marathon play sessions optimizing your guild.
Why hasn’t Our Adventurer Guild gotten more attention?
Our Adventurer Guild lacks marketing budget, launched in early access which often signals incomplete experiences, uses anime art style that pigeonholes it into niche categories, and competes in the crowded tactical RPG space. The text-only presentation without voice acting also makes it harder to generate buzz in an era of cinematic games.
Conclusion
Our Adventurer Guild represents everything frustrating about indie game discovery in 2024. A passionate small team created a genuinely excellent tactical RPG with deep management systems, satisfying progression, and emergent storytelling through clever design. Players who find it consistently praise it as a hidden gem that consumed weeks of their lives. YouTubers call it a masterpiece. Forum users admit they have trouble pulling themselves away from it. Yet it remains virtually unknown outside dedicated strategy gaming circles because it lacks the marketing budget, cinematic presentation, and viral momentum that drive modern game discovery. The comprehensive free demo eliminates any financial barrier to trying it, but without visibility, even great demos go unplayed. If you enjoy tactical RPGs, management sims, or games about building something meaningful through strategic choices, Our Adventurer Guild deserves your attention far more than most $60 AAA releases. For $15, it offers more depth, charm, and replayability than games costing four times as much. The question isn’t whether Our Adventurer Guild is good – it demonstrably is. The question is whether enough players will discover it before it gets buried under the endless avalanche of new releases fighting for attention in an oversaturated market.