The Plucky Squire Review "Pure Wonder and Joy"
The Plucky Squire Review
Mario revolutionized the platformer genre numerous times, first in 1985 with Super Mario Bros, and then again in 1996 with Super Mario 64. The argument could easily be made that all other platformers have been evolutionary, and stem from these two games. The Plucky Squire feels like another pivotal moment for the genre.
The Good Stuff
The Plucky Squire feels effortless, which it clearly wasn't as you can see from all of the concept art found in the hidden scrolls around the world. It’s obvious that every pixel and every line of dialogue was tirelessly obsessed over, but it all just feels organically cool and unforced.
You play as Jot, the hero of a fairly tale, who must travel through the chapters of a book and defeat the evil wizard Humgrump. With each page turned brings something unexpected. Sometimes it’s a new location, complete with a new color palette and new score to pair with it. Other times it’s new skills to learn or abilities to find that help you defeat all of the new enemies in your path. It could be the puzzles that have a wide range of difficulty that cleverly utilize everything from the words on the page to the multiple dimensions.
In addition to all of this, there is the constant changing of perspectives with the obvious 2D adventures within the book and 3D ones in the “real” world and finally, there is a huge moment about two thirds of the way through. The Plucky Squire never leaves you with a dull moment. You literally never know what’s on the next page.
However, the best pages of this fairy tale were discovering the new gameplay mechanics that are inspired by some of the greatest gaming experiences dating back to the 80’s. The inspirations range from the obvious Nintendo classics like Zelda and Mario to things like Duck Hunt, Contra, Donkey Kong, Punch Out, Tetris, but even more modern games like Resogun. Every single one of these moments were incredible and always ended too soon.
The Plucky Squire is a delight for the senses, which you likely assumed, but the attention to detail is astounding like when the sun comes in from the window and hits the black on the page, it makes black look more reddish. There is also incredible use of negative space, minimal colors at times and bold contrasting. Techniques like this make The Plucky Squire jump off the page, literally.
The narration was phenomenal that it made me wish the whole game had voice acting, as All Possible Futures clearly had the vision for all aspects of this game locked in. The score was also subtly excellent and was loaded with all different types of fairy tale melodies that always created strong immersive moments.
As adorable as Plucky Squire is on the outside, it has a surprisingly touching story on the inside about courage and about not giving up in the face of adversity. How you can change your destiny because the pages of your book aren’t written yet.
The Downsides
The biggest downside with The Plucky Squire was the lack of difficulty. There are only two difficulty modes: Adventure and Story. Adventure is the default and story mode removes a lot of the combat challenges. The problem is that I wanted more challenge from the combat as the puzzles offered the right amount of difficulty.
Even on default, the game is quite breezy. Throughout our 12 hours, we only died about 2-3 times and once was on purpose, as it seemed like a funny area for an achievement. Adding in a harder difficulty post launch seems like it could be a easy fix.
A few other minor issues was that occasionally the dialogue sections went on just a smidge too long, and the other thing was the incredible moments that paid tribute to the classics of gaming were spoiled in the trailer. They still put a huge grin on my face, but I cant even begin to imagine my reaction if more of them were a surprise. They also didn’t explore those gameplay mechanics, instead they usually
THE VERDICT
Jot’s adventure is filled with child like wonder and joy. Experiences like The Plucky Squire are the reason I fell in love with gaming in the first place decades ago. Adventures that feel new and exciting like The Plucky Squire are few and far between.
There were 2D and 3D sections in Super Mario Odyssey, but not like this. Everything about Jot’s advnture is built around solving puzzles, manipulating both dimensions and moving between them. It might not have the same high level of polish as the plumber, but with this much charm and originality, The Plucky Squire is a magical experience.