The Plucky Squire reminds me of a childhood filled with imagination, and then that has it all come to life. All Possible Futures have crafted a game that is as colorful as it is wonderful. There are few bugs and sequence breaking events that required restarting chapters, but all-in-all, is a highly enjoyable adventure for all ages. The Plucky Squire offers a great blend of 2D and 3D with puzzles and action, where words are power.
You play as the titular “Plucky Squire”, named Jot. He who is drawn by his creator, and is luckily also a writer. This all comes into play rather shortly. He’s highly successful in banishing the big bad known as Humgrump, several times now. And the world has been living blissfully in his absence, until he unfortunately returns to threaten the people of Mojo once more. This is where things kick off and Jot springs back into action to put a stop to Humgrump, for good.
The Plucky Squire plays from the viewpoint of storybook where everything is hand-drawn, to includes the words on the page. Words will have to be used in order to solve puzzles for some clever wordplay. While it’s not a surprise, the game does not only exist in 2D, there are times where you can leap out from the pages into the real-world, in 3D to explore and further solve the game’s puzzles. It’s then that there’s a late tutorial about how to go between 2D and 3D is oddly placed, because by the time it comes up it’s something I was already doing. Combat is pretty simple with basic attacks, and dodge rolling. You can upgrade abilities later on, with things like jumping attacks and throwing your sword for some ranged attacks. What’s here is simple, both in combat and puzzles, but rather satisfying as there’s minimal friction.
Often there are overt homages to classic NES games like The Legend of Zelda, Punch-Out, and Super Mario Bros, and they exist in the main game and even the mini-games which serve as boss fights and challenges in order to complete quests. One of my favorite mini-games was one where I had to catch a fish with my bare hand, and you had to get the timing exactly right – there’s even an achievement for doing it on the first try. Other mini-games include shooting a bow, where the longer it’s charged, the more damage it does. And then there was one where it played like Resogun, and was highly enjoyable throughout.
You’ll traverse creepy forests, swamps, and castles across the games ten chapters. There are two difficulty modes: Story and Adventure – I played on Adventure, which is the default and claims to pose a challenge, but really doesn’t. Story mode would be best served for children, or those who don’t game often, and are sure to enjoy it. There are accessibility options that can be thought of as cheats that enable one-hit kills, an invincible Jot, and so more so that there’s nothing that prevents you from enjoying your time with the game. It’ll take about ten hours to see the end credits, and lasts just as long as it needs to for a linear game with little exploration.
Light bulbs are the currency and collectibles of this game. They can be found in bushes, taken from enemies, There is a vendor that appears on certain pages where you can purchase upgrades. The store items include increased damage for your sword strike, the ability to throw your sword, and so on. As you progress, and collect enough bulbs, you can upgrade existing abilities up to three times. And while the combat doesn’t demand these upgrades, it does give a sense of progression and power.
Now, it’s one thing seeing everything like the light bulbs, and enemies in their 2D environment. But when you leave the pages and see these same things, now in 3D, is so cool. The sound effect for collecting the light bulbs even has more depth when you’re in the 3D space. It’s really clever stuff when in 2D, but traversing the 3D world like on a zipline is where the game really shines.
Often times the game throws logic out the window. You’d think the fact that Jot is leaving the 2D world and existing in the 3D world would be a bigger deal. But no one reacts to this, though this could be due to the fact that magic exists in this world. A mid-game item lets you turn the pages, and tilt the book while in the 3D world. It does not allow you to turn the pages to the end of the game, but that would be a funny aside.
While there are bugs to slay in-game, there were a few too many bugs with the game itself that . There were a few times where Jot and friends were in a conversation with someone, only for me to be able to walk away from that conversation with a duplicate Jot while the camera stayed locked to the conversation on-screen. Then there were soft progression blockers where I accumulated the number of items I needed, but the game wouldn’t let me back to the area with them. And if you need to restart a chapter, you can’t; I had to replay a previous chapter to start the current chapter over.
Despite the game’s visual styling, there’s lots of effects to adjust like: texture quality, antialiasing method, effects, shadows and post processing. You can enable or disable ambient occlusion, view distance, screen space reflections, and bloom. The game even has ultrawide support, which even better appeals the storybook nature of the game’s art design. It’s a gorgeous game no matter what settings you use, and it’s so fun to look at.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
The Plucky Squire can be a bit hand holdy, but it’s something that’s also great for kids. It’s ultimately an adventure I want more of, even after the credits rolled. It leans well on childhood nostalgia and putting your imagination to good use. It’s a shame that the bugs detract from what would otherwise be a better experience. Where art and words comes together beautifully is a a page turner for some well-earned surprises, and The Plucky Squire is a delightful journey.
A Steam code was provided by the publisher for review purposes
