The Plucky Squire Review - Up All Night To Get Plucky
All Possible Futures’ The Plucky Squire has been sitting right near the top of many gamers’ must-have lists for a couple of years now. The game proposed a blending of 2D and 3D platforming experiences, clever puzzles that pulled on the strings of both, numerous genre crossovers, and bucketloads of charm. It’s a lot for some games to execute upon just one of these pillars and yet The Plucky Squire endeavoured to execute upon all of them. After years of anticipation, numerous trailers, and lots of promises, I’m pleased to report that The Plucky Squire has succeeded where many other games have not in delivering on all facets. This one is an instant classic.
Kids love an endearing hero, and Jot has been just that across numerous The Plucky Squire childrens books. Always steps ahead of the dastardly Humgrump, Jot, along with his various friends and companions have seemingly made spot of thwarting Humgrump’s plans, but this time, Humgrump has launched an attack that nobody could have seen coming. As Jot seemingly leads the forces of righteousness towards another stirling victory against Humgrump, the evil wizard casts a spell that thrusts Jot outside of the pages of the book and into the real world. Upon learning of the ability to jump outside of the confines of the boundaries of the book, Jot embarks on an adventure to save his homeland from Humgrump’s latest, more advanced attack, utilising tricks in both the 2D and 3D planes. The Plucky Squire feels like it has gone through the same meticulous screening that any childs book would, with it giving off endearing vibes from every page you turn, and even as you explore the owner’s (Sam’s) desk, the game continues to give off the same vibes. The Plucky Squire’s 8-10 hour campaign is full of wonder and charm, is written incredibly well, and leaves you desperately awaiting more.
As a gameplay experience, The Plucky Squire also excels. While much of the game will be top down traditional 2D gameplay akin to a classic Zelda game, with Jot navigating small, contained environments littered with enemies to best, puzzles to solve, collectibles to uncover and more, numerous curveballs are also thrown at the player. From archery mini-games to block-breakers, side-scrolling twin-stick shooters, and more, The Plucky Squire keeps the gameplay feeling fresh, without ever feeling too excessive. Then there’s the 3D world of Sam’s desk to explore as well. Beyond the boundaries of the page, Sam’s desk has further collectibles to chase and simplistic action-platforming, and stealth elements that continue to keep things fresh. I’m reluctant to share every curveball the game throws at you because some of the surprises are genuinely delightful to discover for yourself.
To facilitate these various gameplay systems, All Possible Futures have designed a near-perfect playground for players to traverse. The game doesn’t challenge you excessively, doesn’t immediately hand-hold you to tell you the solution to a puzzle, and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Every inclusion feels meaningful, and the world evolves as more mechanics are made available. On a technical level there are some hiccups, with a random crash halting my progress (don’t worry though, checkpointing frequent), while some moments of sequence-breaking for puzzles were found that prompted some checkpoint reboots.
The visual language of the The Plucky Squire is wonderfully cohesive whether you’re playing in 2D of 3D, side-scrolling or 3D platforming. I was often astounded by just how seamless some transitions between gameplay systems felt, and that was largely due to incredible visual design of the game and how seamless it is to jump inside and outside of the book. The game’s 2D aesthetic translates perfectly to the 3D realm and vice versa, while the game’s soundtrack and narration from Phillip Bretherton are sublime companions to the game’s visual design. The soundtrack is sweetly, and Bretherton’s voice-over is both heart-warming and harrowing when required. Some of the game’s 3D assets, like labels on objects can look a bit low resolution at times, a simple by-product of the scale of the world that Jot is navigating, but these should be easy flaws to ignore as the game’s whimsy takes you on a ride you likely won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
Everywhere you look in The Plucky Squire, you see excellence. Excellence in gameplay, excellence in storytelling, excellence in production qualities. While not perfect, The Plucky Squire shows developers everywhere that with the right amounts of tender love and care, every game that is ambitious enough to pursue jumps from 2D to 3D, and the inclusion of multiple disparate gameplay systems can deliver in all areas. Compromises have not been made to certain pillars of the experience, and that’s what helps The Plucky Squire to stand out amongst games that have had similar ambitions in the past. An 8-10 hour experience that kept me playing long into the night, and I only wish could have lasted twice as long, I hope I’m seeing more from Jot soon.
The Plucky Squire was reviewed on PS5 with a code kindly provided by Devolver Digital
