The Plucky Squire Is a Beautiful Adventure For Players Both Young and Old [Review]

Ever since its announcement, I’ve felt that The Plucky Squire was picking up the torch of my favorite Legend of Zelda title, A Link Between Worlds. Switching between planes of existence and reality, I hoped that this would fill the 3DS-sized hole in my heart. I may finally have a reason to put my favorite handheld Nintendo system to rest, however, now that I’ve had a chance to jump into this heartwarming adventure.

A Jot Between Realms

The Plucky Squire is a joy to behold in motion. Its wonderful storybook aesthetics help bring its world to life, but it’s somehow even more gorgeous in “the real world” sections. At almost any moment during my playtime, I couldn’t help wipe the grin off my face, with just every bounding step taken by Jot and company springing to life off of the pages of the fictional storybook in front of me.

By using the power of portals, Jot can escape from the confines of his paper prison and explore portions of the real world, primarily the desk of “Sam”, the boy who writes the Plucky Squire novels. No matter which portion of the world I found myself exploring, careful detail and incredible texture work helped push The Plucky Squire to new graphical heights.

Everything about The Plucky Squire just oozes charm, from Moonbeard the DJ Wizard who just wants to drop sick beats, to the colorful and expressive environments. Chapter 5, in particular, is a highlight of the extreme care and detail that All Possible Futures put into creating an engaging world.

It’s also the type of game that can be enjoyed by everyone. No matter if you’re watching someone play The Plucky Squire, or pushing the buttons yourself, its humorous writing, interesting visual style, and breezy encounters will keep everyone happy and ready to reach the next point of their adventure.

Simple Puzzles Keep Things Moving

The Plucky Squire features some inventive puzzles, but none that will have you scratching your head until it’s raw. Utilizing the storybook aesthetic for more than just looks, there were times that I needed to rearrange the words of the story that were unfolding around me rather literally. By swiping my sword at a list of words, I could snag a piece of the story and swap it with other parts around the map.

After obtaining a variety of powerups, I could also hop out into the real world and mess around with the storybook. The variety of puzzles kept things interesting enough, with the storybook utilization being put to good use. Hopping outside of the book and exploring the real world was when the Link Between Worlds inspiration hit its full stride.

While exploring Sam’s desk, there would be times that there were spots that I couldn’t reach by more “traditional” methods. Thankfully, there were always just enough sticky notes and bookmarks that would make the journey outside even more memorable than ever. The unique traversal methods employed by Jot and his newfound powers, even swapping between pages, are exciting and unique in many ways I can’t explain without going into spoiler territory.

Combat is surprisingly solid, with a variety of upgrades available in exchange for Bulbs. While Jot may only have a single swipe at the start of his adventure, a spin attack, a throw, and more are unlocked as the story continues to progress. Offensive upgrades are also purchaseable, making sure that Jot is as powerful as he can be on his journey.

For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow

The Plucky Squire is just a joy to behold. A fantastic musical score, paired with incredible visual design helps set it apart for literally anything else available to play on any console or PC. It’s just a game that made me smile throughout my whole playthrough, even when things were looking tough for Jot and his pals. Humgrump is a great villain, channeling the Saturday morning cartoon vibes to a comical extent, and humorous writing throughout the roughly 10-hour playtime made it just the perfect length for another playthrough.

There’s a lot to love about The Plucky Squire, just as Sam loves the character and world that he’s created. Creativity litters every square inch of the page and the desk surrounding the world of Mojo, and every moment within its world is a thing of pure euphoric joy. It’s also optimized extremely well on PC, which is a blessing considering the number of botched PC ports we’ve been seeing lately.

The Plucky Squire is a relatively linear adventure, holding your hand throughout even its most challenging of moments, but it has more heart than just about anything I’ve played in recent memory. Indies are always one of my favorite genres to visit, as they’re the type of games you’d never see AAA studios attempt to touch, and The Plucky Squire reminded me once again why games like this deserve the spotlight.

We need more games like The Plucky Squire out there, games that aren’t afraid to take themselves too seriously. To push fourth wall boundaries past their normally just referential limits. It feels and looks incredible, the story never feels as if it’s dragging on, and it’s just a joyful experience to see firsthand or to play with anyone of any age. It’s a tale for the ages, and I’ll be singing the praises of The Plucky Squire to anyone willing to listen for a long time.

Verdict: Recommended

The Plucky Squire is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC. A code was provided by the publisher for the sake of review. Reviewed on PC.