The Plucky Squire is bursting with so much joy and celebration of the medium that you can’t help but adore every minute you spend holding the controller.
It’s a literal storybook adventure where the pages cleverly twist and turn your experience while challenging you with unique puzzles that could give even the most seasoned player moments of thought. The passion and skill that’s gone into crafting this experience can be felt from the outset, and it doesn’t let up until the last page.
The opening moments and core loop feel distinctly Zelda-esque – more specifically the 2D entries of the series, with quaint towns, muddy swamps home to talking fish, and caves to explore – and the game wears its inspirations on its sleeve.
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However, the adventure shifts as Jot, the titular Plucky Squire, discovers he’s actually the main character in a children’s book. The villainous Humgrump, archenemy of Jot and his friends, expels him from the pages in an effort to rewrite this colourful story into a drab tome lacking any and all imagination.
Thankfully, this leads to all kinds of revelations and abilities that Jot can use to fight back.
You can explore the desk of the book’s young owner, fight off beetles while traversing dollhouses and mazes made from knick-knacks, and interact with other print characters like a magical elf huntress from a card game. You’ll also be able to fight the book’s big bads from outside.
From stopping powerful machines blocking your path to dropping bombs onto unsuspecting tanks drawn in from other stories thanks to some magical rubber stamps, your plucky powers are something you’ll need to always bear in mind for those tough moments.
It’s not just all attack and no brainpower here, though. The added perspective heavily comes into play with the game’s puzzles, which will on occasion leave you scratching your head somewhat – not necessarily because the answer is impossible to guess, but often because there’s a fair few solutions to your problem at hand.
You can tip the book to move objects from one end to the other, close pages to stamp inky problems across, and even leaf back through the story to pinch items you once had and need again. These seemingly straightforward powers open up your imagination to some crafty puzzle solves.
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Words have huge power, too. You’ll find enemies and items described rather specifically by words that can be hammered and replaced. Want those mushrooms on the wall to be made of cheese or glow brightly? Just change a word here and there. A huge bug blocking the path? Why not make the nearby frog bigger instead!
As with most things in The Plucky Squire, the fundamentals are simply so well-baked, every win feels satisfying in a way you’ll likely remember as a child the first time you mastered The High Road in Crash Bandicoot.
Boss battles have an almost Adventure Time flavour to them. Jot’s muscles burst from his sleeves as he preps for a Punch-Out!!-style brawl or needs a bow to dispatch bugs in a shooting gallery.
There’s even a rhythm-based fight that pops up, requiring the team’s resident drummer Thrash to whack scraps at an evil bird in time with the music. Coincidentally, our favourite level was exploring Mount Trarrg – home to a nation of heavy metal-loving Viking trolls and rock bunnies with all the cliché devil horns, lightning bolts and metal riffs you can imagine.
The passion and care that’s gone into this project from developer All Possible Futures is palpable.
Every moment and action is meticulously thought-out, the art style is beautifully tactile as you can almost feel the pores of each page of the book, and with characters like Moonbeard always a joy to interact with, The Plucky Squire is a classic we can only hope to see more of.
Platform reviewed on: Xbox Series X
The Plucky Squire is out now on PC, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
