Growing up as a kid, I was never that much into fantasy literature, instead preferring the likes of theEncyclopedia Brownbooks, even if some of them were decades old. In hindsight, that may have contributed to a lot of my favorite games later on being graphic adventure games, puzzlers, mystery/detective games and the like. But it just goes to show the influence that a good book can have on a child’s imagination or dreams, and getting back to the start, that theme is central toThe Plucky Squire,an upcoming action-adventure game from Devolver Digital and All Possible Futures. In it, our hero Jot has to stop the evil wizard Humpgrump from changing the ending to the storybook that they reside in, lest a bad ending turn off the child whose desk the book resides on, who is otherwise destined to grow up to be an imaginative and successful author of their own. And fittingly, this story itself resides in what’s shaping up to be a rather imaginative game.
At the start,The Plucky Squireresembles a standardZelda-esque top-down action/adventure game. You travel around, slash at enemies with Jot’s sword (nicely styled to look like a pen, by the way, creating a superb visual pun), defeat various monsters to pass through, and solve simple puzzles. All of this is accompanied by some rather striking visuals, with Jot and his friends depicted in an eye-catching cartoon style with an emphasis on thick lines and vibrant colors. In addition to this, the game world is also displayed on a three-dimensional book, whose pages flip ahead when traveling to a new area in a rather cool visual.
Written Out
Even before its more unique gameplay hooks, however, we get glimpses early on thatThe Plucky Squireis already willing to experiment with a little genre roulette, including some 2D platforming sections and even a boss battle against a bear that’s inspired byPunch-Out!It’s fun and impressive stuff, but then things change when Jot finally makes his way to Humpgrump, who shockingly boots them out of the book and into the real world. All of a sudden, the game now transitions to a 3D platformer, as Jot now has to explore the world of his reader’s desk. As expected for a ten-year-old boy, it’s full of a lot of clutter, and notably stands in contrast with a more relatively realistic feel and much more detail.
Said clutter also allows Jot to climb up certain areas and get around, where they can head out to find certain items if needed. That said, the full potential of these moments has yet to be seen, as the only section where you get to explore more and fight enemies with your sword in the preview build occurred near the very end. Prior to that, the only major section outside the book was early on after initially being booted out, where Jot has to use stealth to get around the boy’s beetle collection due to lack of a sword. The end of the last “real-world” section, though, did provide a sneak peek at something greater, when Jot has to leap into the world of aMagic: The Gathering-style card to combat its inhabitant and retrieve a ranged weapon. Here, the art style notably shifts a bit, again switching genres to a simplified turn-based RPG. Even when Jot brings his new weapon back into his book, it still retains its more realistic fantasy style.
The Plucky Squire Receives New Gameplay Trailer
Hopefully the final game contains even more nifty mixtures of styles and genres, especially given bits likea whole rocket-based section teased prior.But I suppose we should explain just how Jot is leaping in and out, and the answer is a bit of “metamagic” residue left on him after Humpgrump’s spell. Basically, whenever you see a green swirl on any surface, you can hop into the area via that portal. This allows Jot to seamlessly leap around whole sections, making great use of puzzles that contain multiple portals in order to get around, even giving Jot the ability to flip through the book’s pages and revisit previous sections if needed. Important sections will have a golden glow to indicate important items within that can be carried in and out of the book, including one of the most important tools needed: Words.
A Different Kind of Wordplay
Yes,The Plucky Squiredelves into a bit ofBaba Is You,as certain words in the printed narration that appears in the book can be knocked loose with Jot’s sword, allowing him to pick them up, move it, and carry over new words they find to take their place. With this, players shape the entire environment around them in various ways. For example, you need to cross a river. The narration mentions a tiny lily pad on it. Knock out “tiny,” go pack a couple of pages via portals and grab the “huge” word that you were using in a prior puzzle, then bring it back, drop it in, and voilà, the huge lilypad now spans the whole river. It’s clever stuff, moreso when it gets trickier, like swapping out “day” for “night” to manipulate the behavior of singing frogs, but moving a block in front of one beforehand so it won’t block your path afterwards.
It’s wildly-imaginative stuff and we haven’t even gotten into stuff yet like the perspective flips as you navigate papers that climb up walls in the real world, or even the final boss in the preview, which switched genres again to an archery section where you have to point and shoot bugs while trying to hit their leader in the eyes with a fully-charged shot. Honestly, even the more traditionalZeldaportions on their own are fun and could have arguably sold the game on its own, but the clever gameplay gimmicks, imaginative world and great puzzle design easily turnThe Plucky Squireinto something special. A release date announcement should be coming soon and hopefully we won’t have to wait longer to see where this potentially-stellar story leads.
The Plucky Squire
The Plucky Squire sees our protagonist Jot kicked out of their two-dimensional storybook, and venturing into the three-dimensional real world, which they’ll have to explore in order their story’s happy ending.
