The Plucky Squire is the best kind of kid-friendly game
REVIEW: A breeze to play and well-suited for playing with children. But by building such a whimsical world, it left me wanting more.
This is a repost of the review from the end of last week’s edition. Each week I write one main story and finish the newsletter with a game review that I’ve played. If you are new here, and like what you’re reading, well, the button below is for you.
Playing The Plucky Squire feels like watching a Pixar movie. On the surface, this game looks and plays as if it was designed for kids. Then, out of nowhere, mature references and jokes crop up that will likely go over any child's head. It's this ebb and flow that makes The Plucky Squire well-placed to be a unique pass-the-controller game that parents can safely play alongside their kids while still finding their own enjoyment in it.
That doesn't make it a pushover as a standalone adventure for solo mature players. It's perhaps just a little short compared to other games of a similar genre—giving full grace that this is an indie title and not a AAA adventure game—it just left me wanting more. The Plucky Squire is the debut title of Australian studio All Possible Futures, which turned heads by being one of the few Australian developers to earn a nomination for Best Indie Game at The Game Awards late last year.
The game is largely based inside a children's storybook, aptly named The Plucky Squire. The main villain, Humgrump, somehow learns that he's trapped in a book and is destined to be eternally defeated by Jot the Squire. He discovers magic that can interact with the world outside of the story and uses it to thrust the Squire out of his own book. Suddenly, the cute 2D adventure, which plays out beautifully contained on the pages of the book, morphs into a stylistic 3D platformer. This is the main thrust of the game: 2D, top-down platforming similar to a retro Zelda game, mixed with more open-area 3D segments. The Squire gains similar abilities to manipulate the book as you progress on your quest to defeat Humgrump.
The world design deserves special mention. The Plucky Squire is a beautiful game, with plenty of love poured into making its world both unique and memorable. Action adventure games aren't generally known for humour, character development, or world building, but these elements are here in spades—at a level usually expected from a much denser role-playing game.
There's somehow space in the story for Jot's companions—Violet the witch-in-training and Thrash the Mountain Troll—to have their own smaller stories contained within the short game. The same goes for DJ-aspiring wizard Moonbeard, Jot's neighbour and mentor, who largely drives the plot. It's enough that I wish they were playable, or at least interacted more meaningfully with the bulk of the game. They're key to the story but largely passengers when it comes to gameplay.
The majority of The Plucky Squire plays out inside the book. You progress from page to page, solving puzzles and defeating enemies with Jot's somewhat limited-but-effective array of sword abilities. Puzzles usually require you to rewrite the reality of the book by shifting words contained within its pages. Later on, they require you to manipulate the book entirely, literally tilting it on an angle or stealing words from earlier pages to progress.
This is punctuated by minigames that essentially replace boss battles. The Plucky Squire borrows elements from shooters, rhythm, and puzzle games to create memorable encounters. These are also the only points at which you can play as Jot's other team members. These games aren't pushovers either—there's an option to skip them, and after failing several times, it's tempting even for seasoned players. It's yet another hint that this title is kid-friendly, designed to minimise player frustration.
The 3D areas of the game are more generous and expansive. Given the difficulty of some puzzles, they can also be some of the most child-oriented areas of the game. Some employ stealth mechanics, but the vast majority focus on exploration.
Coming in at around the 10-hour mark, just as the game starts to hit its stride, it sunsets towards its final chapter. The ending feels abrupt and—like a children's storybook—somewhat predictable. There is a twist before this, which leads to a rather funny—albeit grim—final segment that I won't spoil. It's also a shame that some of those memorable minigames featuring your allies are repeated—albeit on a harder difficulty—for the final boss, rather than shaking things up with newer content.
The quick conclusion, contrasted against the impressive world-building, oddly had me questioning the genre choice after my playthrough. I could see a world where The Plucky Squire plays similarly to Paper Mario—which supports a similar ensemble cast and direction for world-building. That would also mean deeper game systems that work your brain a bit more.
But then, this would abolish its charm as a game that both adults and kids can enjoy, and as a title you can pick up and play with very little friction. It's evident that despite setting out to make an accessible adventure game, All Possible Futures has a knack for world-building. In this instance, accessibility won out. But with more budget and runway, I'm keen to see what the studio comes up with next.
Reviewed on: Steam Deck
Worth playing if you like: Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Death’s Door, Yooka-Laylee
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, GeForce Now, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows
I preordered the physical Switch copy. Very excited to play it!