Potential is a hard thing to quantify. Everything has potential to be great but explaining how is often very hard. My measure of potential is this: if, by the end of a game, I am thinking about all the things that could have been done, rather than the experience I just had, then I know it needed something more.
The Plucky Squire is an action adventure platformer, set in the colourful land of Mojo. Our main character, the titular plucky squire Jot, battles Humgrump, a wizard who discovers their world is a picture book and that he has always been destined to lose every encounter with Jot. Unhappy with that outcome, he decides that he’s going to write the story from here on and uses his magic to cast Jot from the book. Since magic is never an exact science though, this gives Jot the power to jump in and out of his book, able to reshape events himself as well. Together with his friends, Jot chases after Humgrump to stop him from making the story more boring, causing their book to be shelved, never to be read again.
The game generally plays in a top-down 2-D format. You battle enemies and solve puzzles, collect currency and find collectables. Zelda titles are a clear inspiration. But being a game about jumping between media, the game isn’t shy about switching things up, often moving to side-scrolling perspectives or jumping out of the book into a 3-D environment, either to interact with the book or explore the area of the desk.
The puzzles are mostly well-crafted, Jot can jump out of the book at points marked by green glowing portals, and you can manipulate this ability to work things out or take items out of the book and re-insert them elsewhere. He can take words from one sentence and insert them into others, and the devs have cleverly allowed you to do some strange stuff, like turning everything into cheese.
The graphics are exceptional. No two ways about it, a clear emphasis was put on the visual style and feel of the game. The thick lines and bright colours of the picture book and the toy-like style of the 3-D models are very well done. There’s also a lot of visual references, often to famous artists which made me chuckle.
A shoutout has to go to the narrator of the game, who genuinely adds so much to the experience of the story, especially in the third act. I’d honestly recommend this game just for his voice acting, if nothing else.
I think my main problem with this game is it doesn’t fulfil the great potential it had. A character being able to jump between worlds and settings is a great concept, but it’s severely limited by the scope of the game itself. You jump in and out of your own book, but when you explore outside, it’s limited to a few small encounters and puzzles, maybe a mini-game or two. You do jump into other settings, but it’s often for a very short time, and you’re out before you have a chance to really get into it.
There’s also limited crossover between the 2-D and 3-D worlds. Sure, you move things between the pages, but what about moving something from the real world into the picture book? There was some of that at the beginning of the game, but it feels like it was forgotten for most of it. Once I finally started feeling the puzzles were getting to the point where they might start challenging me a little, forcing me to use all the tools I had collected, there were basically no more, the game gearing up for the final battle.
Another big issue is the lack of character in our supporting cast. Our friends in-game, Violet and Thrash, feel one-note and literally just stand to one side while the player does their thing. While they do get screen time, any character arcs are only hinted at, so it doesn’t feel earned when they push past some personal barrier that was only implied to exist in the first place. This is really noteworthy when they say something like ‘‘I’m going to help you fight’’ and do, only to later go back to just standing on the side and watching.
An interesting problem with being able to jump in and out of the book and move things around is that it can be possible to softlock yourself, finding yourself in a situation where the game is still playable, but you cannot progress. I found one such softlock when I exploded a bomb that was holding a bridge open and couldn’t get back. This only sent me back a few minutes, but replaying any part of a game due to something that wasn’t explicitly my fault is always a blow to fun.
The Plucky Squire is a short, sweet game that I think would benefit from more experimentation with it’s premise and scope. Of course, I understand that The Plucky Squire is almost certainly not for me. It seems geared towards a younger audience, but I can’t say there’s nothing to enjoy for older players. It’s amazing to look at, has a good sense of humour, is paced well and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. If you are looking for a more simple game, check it out.
By Michael Robertson
