The older we get, the more complicated life becomes. Books shed their illustrations, puzzles grow from 10 pieces to 10,000, and everything in the world seems to demand so much more from us. As such, it's refreshing to see forms of simple childhood positivity that can still engage adults.
The Plucky Squire is an utterly charming puzzle adventure game targeted at all ages, and which revels in the wholesome power of friendship and picture books. Developed by indie studio All Possible Futures, it isn't out to issue a challenge, or frustrate you with searching for strategy guides or climbing leaderboards. It's just here to offer simple, straightforward fun — albeit with a metatextual twist.
The Plucky Squire tells a tale of adventure and art
The Plucky Squire follows the titular squire Jot as he embarks on a quest to defend the land of Mojo from the evil wizard Humgrump. Guided by DJ/sorcerer Moonbeard, Jot is also accompanied by his two childhood friends: artist/trainee witch Violet and drummer/mountain troll Thrash.
It seems like a relatively standard children's story. That is, until Humgrump discovers that they're all characters in a picture book, one whose narrative dictates that he will always lose. Thus, in order to break free from his story, the sorcerer breaks out of the book, spilling his minions onto the messy desk of creative 10-year-old boy Sam.
Jot's fight to defeat Humgrump isn't merely a matter of protecting Mojo though. It's also about saving the eponymous book The Plucky Squire, so that its pages can continue to inspire the young child who owns it.
Simple, straightforward Squire swordplay
Like many good adventure games, much of The Plucky Squire's gameplay involves running around and whacking things with your sword, whether they be enemies or foliage. Doing so yields light bulbs you can use to purchase new attacks, weapon upgrades, and development art to fill out your gallery.
I ended up with a surplus of light bulbs before the game's end, having maxed out all of Jot's attack skills by brutally assaulting every bush I saw. Even so, I only really used half of these skills, either throwing my sword or delivering a good old-fashioned blow to the cute rotund goblins that wished me harm.
Dispatching enemies in The Plucky Squire is a straightforward affair, requiring little skill or tenacity regardless of whether you're in the book's top-down 2D world or have ventured out to the 3D environment that is Sam's desk. I barely had to turn my mind to factors such as attack patterns or dodging, as swinging my sword with reckless abandon was effective enough.
This will undoubtedly be a boon to tired office workers who just want to feel like they're making decent progress in their limited gaming time.
Though the game has two difficulty options, I found its hardest setting still incredibly easy, and it never felt as though I was in any danger. Even when I took damage, I'd inevitably find a health-replenishing heart within seconds by whacking some bushes or a few more enemies.
There are no real consequences if you die either. If you're in the book, you'll be shown a page about Jot picking himself up to try again before you're returned to the fight (often with the enemy still missing whatever health you chipped off them). If you're outside of the book, you'll be placed back before the obstacle that killed you so you can have another run at it.
This keeps the game casual and stress-free, placing the real focus on The Plucky Squire's puzzles rather than its swordplay.
The Plucky Squire revels in minigames
The Plucky Squire crams in a veritable smorgasbord of gameplay ideas into its short, nine-hour runtime, yet they never feel overwhelming or out of place. Instead they lure players along with the promise of new discoveries, maintaining a delightfully playful atmosphere.
The game does of course involve platforming, with Jot having to navigate both side-scrolling environments in Mojo and wooden block constructions on Sam's desk. You'll have to sneak around at times to avoid enemies as well. However, some of The Plucky Squire's most interesting puzzles involved word games within the storybook's writing.
Similarly to 2019 game Baba Is You, The Plucky Squire allows you to reshape Jot's world and solve puzzles by literally swapping out words on the page. Creatures may change from tiny to huge or obstacles from metal to wood depending on how you alter the sentences describing them, allowing you to surmount impediments and continue on Jot's journey.
Jot eventually gains the ability to manipulate the book from the outside as well, turning pages, tilting it, and otherwise influencing the land of Mojo like an extradimensional god. This not only lets you move objects, but also pilfer nouns and adjectives from entirely different pages (though you're unable to stray from your current chapter).
I could have happily spent most of my time just jumping between pages and playing with words. Yet The Plucky Squire is further filled out with a plethora of minigames. From boxing to rhythm games to side-scrolling shooters, The Plucky Squire is like a sampler plate of all the arcade-style games you know and love. The game constantly introduces new minigames and mechanics even during its later chapters, with some only used two or three times before they're shelved in favour of the next shiny gameplay trinket.
These minigames do assume some knowledge. You're provided with no instructions before being flung into a bubble-matching game for example, with The Plucky Squire trusting you to identify the game's style and know what to do. Even so, failure is forgiving enough that it's fine if you take a moment to figure it out. The Plucky Squire has also put notable effort into making itself accessible, with minigames entirely skippable via a prominent option in the game's menu.
Each minigame is uncomplicated enough that the fun few minutes you spend with each should be enough to leave you satisfied. Even so, I would still have liked the ability to revisit the minigames from the main menu. The aforementioned element-themed bubble game was a shot straight at my Neopets Faerie Bubbles nostalgia.
The Plucky Squire breaks out of its story yet stays within it
In addition to The Plucky Squire playing with its storybook setting via word puzzles, the game's premise is thoroughly sold by its art style. The world of Mojo is drawn in thick lines and bold, bright colours which evoke children's book illustrations, a distinctive look which contrasts with the more realistic and lineless art styles used for elements outside Jot's book. This in-universe discord is made even more apparent when said elements make their way into the book while still retaining their clashing art style.
The Plucky Squire has fun with its metatextual themes, even briefly nodding to the fact that it's a game at points. However unlike horror titles such as Doki Doki Literature Club or Inscryption, The Plucky Squire never gets truly unsettling or digs around in your game files, retaining its innocuous child-friendly spirit throughout.
The awareness of the nature of their universe doesn't daunt Jot and his companions either, who largely take it in their stride that the plucky hero can jump into a different dimension and manipulate their world from outside it. Issues of existentialism, fate, and the meaning of life do hover in the periphery, as the story's characters acknowledge that they are in fact characters — and most of them merely side ones at that.
In this respect, Humgrump's refusal to succumb to his written role could easily be interpreted as inspirational if he were a more pleasant individual.
Still, The Plucky Squire sticks to a simple script of clear good against evil, briefly acknowledging deeper issues but making clear that existentialist matters aren't the focus. This is a fun, lighthearted game about storybook characters escaping their book, and we aren't going to look too closely at the less sunny implications.
Recalling childhood wonder
The Plucky Squire isn't a particularly challenging game, or one that entices players to spend hours diving into its lore. You don't need to be a skilled gamer, or a Myst-level puzzle solver either.
What you do need is a willingness to simply enjoy wholesome, childlike pleasures. The Plucky Squire is a clear appeal to adults who wistfully recall their days of crayons and cardboard, before the world seemed to get so dark and complicated. References to childhood classics such as Doctor Who and The Lord of the Rings sit alongside cheeky nods to the capitalist mechanisms underpinning children's media, finding joy in the same way Jot's friends continue to despite knowing the true nature of their world.
Not only are parents unlikely to mind their kids playing The Plucky Squire, they'll likely be the first to pick it up themselves for a dose of undemanding positivity after a long, hard day. The puzzles and combat may be relatively simple, but sometimes simple is exactly what's needed. And with a runtime of just nine hours, it'll only take a few after work sessions to play through to the end.
The Plucky Squire is out today on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Topics Gaming Reviews Video Games
