Almost three decades ago, I was left with a certain sense of wonderment when Pixar proposed the idea that toys adhere to the “when the cat’s away” philosophy and spring to life when nobody is in the room. All Possible Futures, an Australian-based developer, has reframed that concept through picture books, their lesson-full tales of light versus dark, their heroes and villains, and, page-by-page, has left me with that very same sense of childlike astonishment. For me, The Plucky Squire isn’t just a game for kids, it’s a time machine for big kids like me to relive a little bit of that youth.
Jot, the titular squire with a daring disposition, is the hero of his story, and with his ragtag friends Violet and Thrash he frequently bests the nefarious sorcerer Humgrump, saving the good people of Mojo all the while. That tireless loop of gallantry remains the status quo until Humgrump learns to harness the power of metamagic, which ousts Jot out of his colourful tome and into the world that exists on Sam’s desk.
Within the confines of the page, Jot is a flat, two-dimensional squire who adventures with a sword in hand, not unlike many of the classically-inspired action-adventure titles we grew up with. Out in the “real” world, Jot takes a plump, three-dimensional shape I’ve, in the past, likened to Homer Simpson after he explores the peculiar, rendered space in the nook behind his bookcase. It’s a shame that, thanks to the necessity of advertising, this detail wasn’t able to be kept under wraps, because when Jot is first forced from his papered home it’s a spectacular upending of everything the game had sold us to that point.
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As Humgrump desperately tries to keep the trio at arm’s length, and the roadblocks in their path grow greater, the core loop of The Plucky Squire settles into a rhythm of exhausting the problem-solving potential of the tools you do have before having Jot venture outward into the relative danger of the desktop plains to collect the next plot device that’ll help them plough through their obstacle. Said plot devices tend to grant Jot near omnipotent control over the book, though you start by modestly retreating back to prior pages and plucking certain words from their place and giving them new context elsewhere.
That said, by the end you wield all-powerful gauntlets and stamps that let you mess with the book’s properties and physics from above, from freezing items in place to transferring certain items from page-to-page. And with each new ability, it added layers to how you’d need to combine them to meet the increasing complexity of the puzzles. It kept ramping up just enough to remain engaging throughout.
Make no mistake, the puzzles might be crafty and undeniably wholesome, however they’re definitely designed to be intuitive and the game hand-holds quite a bit, which never took me out when I considered the intended audience. Ultimately, the solutions are one-track and while experimenting with different words can offer moments of levity, punctuated more so by the game’s pleasantly couth, and very British narration, it’s unfortunate the way forward is such a straight line.
No matter the dimension you’re occupying, the game’s swordplay feels simple and accessible. Lunging ground pounds and swirling spin attacks, which can be upgraded at vendors throughout, keep the combat from being entirely one-note though it never quite evolves from its ‘see a creature, whack a creature’ approach. Fortunately, the way the game incorporates Jot’s newfound powers into fights helped supplement what is an ultimately rudimentary attack system.
The game geniusly subverts expectations over and again over the course of its ten decently-sized chapters. Similar to It Takes Two and its teams willingness to implement a fun, off the wall gameplay idea for a two-minute bit, The Plucky Squire juggles its aforementioned swordplay, which already feels like an homage to Jot’s capped contemporary in Link, with so many neat moments that they feel like carefully composed, copyright-evading love letters to so many other games. I couldn’t help but grin big enjoying the nods to Punch-Out, match-three games, and even Lunar Jetman. What’s great is that, while Jot is the titular hero, the story isn’t solely about him, both Violent and Thrash, through these mini-games, get their small pound of valour on offer.
Put simply, The Plucky Squire is pretty as a picture book. It’s bold, colourful, and through James Turner’s stint at Game Freak, the similarities to something as instantly recognisable as Pokémon is clear. Creature design is fun, though I love how rich and saturated the art style is, with bold-stroke outlines and full, vibrant colours filling every inch of the page. Jot has all the makings of an instantly iconic mascot, and although the game jokes about The Plucky Squire penetrating other media, I definitely believe it could. With sections that’ll have you fighting top-down, side-view or in three-dimensional space, animation and movement remains crisp regardless of perspective.
I did play the game in full on my ROG Ally, and the game ran smoothly for the most part, I did definitely notice an amount of slowdown during transitions from book-to-desk, which isn’t exactly surprising. Having two separate instances running simultaneously, one still on the page and the other happening all around Jot, feels like magic in its own right. The only other problem I encountered occurred when I managed to break sequence and skip a fight altogether which led to some unfortunate fatal crash errors. To the developer’s credit, their autosave system made it super easy to revert back only a handful of minutes to avoid the same mistakes on a prior save.
The Plucky Squire is a darling experience that I’m so glad exists. It’s yet another earned feather in the squire’s cap belonging to Devolver Digital, and it’s a wonderful achievement for games development down under. It isn’t quirky or weird like many of the publisher’s other gambles, The Plucky Squire simply answers the call of anyone who has wished for a charming, family-first adventure game that’s oozing with creativity.
