Huzzah! What a charming adventure this one is. We followed The Plucky Squire for some time in its development stages, with indie team All Possible Futures posting regularly online about its progress.
It launched in September 2024 and is available on all consoles and PC. Totally worth your time, regardless of your age, as this magical adventure has many clever delights. It is time… to pluck!
Meta Take on Arts and Crafts in The Plucky Squire
Think of The Plucky Squire as the storybook version of Inception (the Christopher Nolan film)… of indie games. Yes, that sentence may be confusing or convoluted, but this game sure as heck isn’t.
It’s an instantly accessible fairy tale type adventure.
Players take control of Jot, a character who lives in a popular kid’s series called The Plucky Squire. However, the evil sorcerer Humgrump has had enough of reality and forces Jot OUT of the book and into our (human) reality.
Yes, then, kind of a Toy Story (1995) theme alongside plenty of nods to Nintendo’s iconic Legend of Zelda series.
The game doesn’t waste any time with its charm offensive, from the off it’s a visual delight. It blends story development segments with in-game action, which you control as if you’re reading a storybook!
The page hopping element is somewhat similar to instant classic COCOON (2023). But All Possible Futures’ game isn’t anywhere near as mind-bending with its mechanics.
If anything, The Plucky Squire is a little too easy with its game mechanics and puzzle solving. Yet whilst it isn’t a significant gameplay challenge, it’s still a fabulous time of it.
Charm just oozes from every second of the game. For kids playing this, it’d be magical. For adults, you also get that sense of genuine wonder from it. There’s just so much to love, not least with the clever on/off page hopping elements and how they tie into the game.
The main story also offers around eight hours of gameplay, with plenty of variation across this world to keep you busy. The inventiveness has to be commended.
However, there are downsides here—these do, for us, stop us from handing it full marks. It’s very ambitious with its creative ideas, but doesn’t tie them all together perfectly. For example, the off-page elements in modern 3D can be pretty dull. As nice as it all looks, they’re just not very well executed or interesting.
It’s the usual pull this thing here, dull stealth sections, jump up there kind of thing. Great for kids if they’re new to this type of thing, not so much for seasoned gamers. There is a lot of style over substance and it just isn’t a very deep gameplay experience type of title.
If that’s not what you’re looking for, and just want a graphical marvel that oozes fun and charisma, The Plucky Squire is a must play. If you want depth to a game then this isn’t for you at all.
What we must note is just how outstanding the game looks. A marvel. Behold the first half an hour in action.
The music here is vital, too. London-based composer Mike Georgiades handled the great fun soundtrack. It leans towards the twee and upbeat a lot.
But does have its melodic moments.
Overall, we thought this was great! We’ve noted the gaming press and gamers have been divisive on the title, so our advice is to go in expecting more of an interactive storybook.
Not deep on challenge, but high on visual delights. We swooned for it.
