The Plucky Squire Review – A Storybook Ending

The Plucky Squire Review

Every once in a while, an indie title garners a significant amount of hype, and most of the time, it falls short of reaching its full potential. The Plucky Squire is one such title that is highly anticipated and for the most part, meets its expectations. While the game may not be perfect, it for the most part lives up to the hype as a vibrant, unique experience.

The Plucky Squire puts players in the role of Jot, the famed Plucky Squire. Jot is the main character of the book The Plucky Squire set within the game. Through a series of events, Jot is jostled from the confines of his story, pulled into the “real world”, and must find a way to set the story straight. Joining Jot on his journey are a number of colourful companions such as Moonbeard, Violet, and Thrash.

Destiny Awaits

On the surface, the narrative of the title is relatively simple and does a good enough job of pushing the narrative forward. Looking into it a bit more deeply, the story plays on the themes of destiny and perspective, providing players with a more intricate story. Overall, the story gets players to think but is easy enough to follow if you don’t want to use more brain power than necessary. Where the game’s narrative stumbles a bit is how many cutscenes there were, taking the action out of my hands while a short story component played.

The gameplay of The Plucky Squire typically involves combat with enemies, various puzzles, and one-off-styled gameplay sections in which new mechanics are constantly being utilized. While this helps to keep things fresh for the most part, this also means that the systems are not explored on a deeper level, which left me wanting more of certain gameplay elements. Furthermore, combat within the game is a bit easy, but depending on the player, that could be either a good or bad thing.

In my preview of the title, I mentioned that the game felt a bit simple. While that holds true for the portions I had experienced at the time, the game continues to open up and pick up momentum over time. In particular, the portions immediately after the preview portion of the game felt exponentially more engaging than the previous parts. Puzzles and gameplay elements that I found repetitive or simple were slowly replaced with new gameplay elements that I enjoyed more.

Across The Metaverse

Additionally, the meta elements of the game, namely the portions in which Jot is able to leave the storybook, interact with the outside environment, and affect the book itself, really allowed for some outside-the-box thinking and expanded gameplay elements. This part of the game really pushed The Plucky Squire from a solid indie title to a great one while probably also allowing the developers to push the limits of their creativity.

The aesthetic of the game clearly catches a lot of attention. This expands from the in-book portions to the real-world portions, and everything in between. The character designs were among my favourites of the year so far and the vibrant aesthetics across the various “dimensions” and “planes” were a joy to watch Jot jump back and forth from. Even these inter-dimensional aspects of the game were a joy to experience.

The Plucky Squire is an exceptional experience that I would recommend to most gamers. While the build-up is a bit slow and the story portions break up the gameplay a little too much, the title is still a worthwhile experience. As one might expect from a book though, the replay value feels a bit limited with this game. I don’t know that I would want to experience the early portions of the game again, but chapter selection does help to alleviate that issue. Overall, The Plucky Squire is one of the best indie titles of the year so far, and we would recommend giving it a shot.

*** A review code was provided by the publisher ***