The Plucky Squire preview: the most gleefully inventive game I’ve played in years

Every now and then a video game comes along that gleefully and unashamedly embraces the medium. Super Mario Galaxy 2, Psychonauts 2, Astro’s Playroom - not so much love letters to video games as they are love letters to joy itself, to the very act of playing. Of having fun.

Having played through the first four chapters of Devolver Digital and All Possible Futures’ new adventure game The Plucky Squire, I can say with no small amount of confidence that it’s one of the most dazzlingly inventive and refreshingly irreverent games I’ve played in a very long time.

On the surface, The Plucky Squire is a Zelda-inspired top-down adventure set within the confines of a storybook, which in itself is already a killer concept for a game.

Devolver Digital

The first chapter introduces us to protagonist Jot, and tells us of his many battles with the evil wizard Humgrump. We’re quickly shown the basics - swing swords, push blocks, roll to dodge - then it’s off to fight the wizard and save the day. Standard fare.

The Plucky Squire doesn’t just make its world and characters look like they’re from a storybook by plonking us into a world full of hand drawn characters and calling it a day. For one thing, we can see they’re in a physical storybook sat on a desk in the “real world”. But there are a wealth of gorgeous, intricate details that constantly remind us where the game takes place.

The book - and by extension the game’s world - has a stunning glossy, shiny quality to it that gives it a tactile feel. Pages turn as you exit one end of the screen and enter a new area. Attacking enemies brings up delightfully satisfying onomatopoeia bubbles. Truly, it’s one of the best-looking games I’ve seen in a while, and yet more proof that coherent art direction wins out over games with the most realistic reflections any day of the week.

If you’ve been following The Plucky Squire at all, you’ll know, of course, that there’s more to the game than the storybook. It’s not long before events conspire to tear Jot from his 2D world and into the real world. Ultimately, Jot learns to jump between the two realms, and this is when the real meat of the adventure kicks in.

Devolver Digital

Like the very best Nintendo games, The Plucky Squire has based its entire DNA around one very simple concept, mining it for a wealth of unexpected puzzles and bizarre scenarios. Being able to leap from the pages of the book and into the real world means Jot can quite literally think outside the box when it comes to passing obstacles.

For example, one early puzzle saw my progress blocked by an impassable river and what the book described as “a small lily pad”. Using my new dimension-hopping ability I was able to leap out of the book and turn back to an earlier page to find the word “giant”, which I then pilfered and took back to the lily pad to make a massive plant I could use to cross the river.

There are plenty of word puzzles like this in the first few chapters of The Plucky Squire, and playing around with them is a ton of fun. Clearly All Possible Futures knows we want to screw around with certain word combinations and not just go straight to the correct solution, which is no doubt why when I placed the word “empty” next to a giant bug blocking the way forward, it immediately deflated like a cheap balloon. Not even close to the solution, but hilarious all the same.

Exploring the 3D world outside the book is also just as much fun as staying inside the book. This is a child’s bedroom, and All Possible Futures absolutely runs with the concept to create a genuine playground filled with adventure. Jot can leap into post-it notes to reach new heights in a very Link Between Worlds-inspired move, for example. During my preview there was one particular section in which I had to climb inside a Magic: The Gathering-style trading card for an RPG showdown with the elf inside to claim her magic bow.

Devolver Digital

This seamless mish-mash of different genres and art-styles is a huge part of what makes The Plucky Squire such a pleasure to play. In the first four chapters alone I had a Punch-Out-style fight, engaged in a boss battle clearly inspired by Duck Hunt, and engaged in 2D platforming torn straight classic Mario games.

The Plucky Squire is, in short, a sublime piece of work packed full of touches designed to put a big, dumb smile on your face. It’s a game that manages to throw out surprise after surprise, and I already can’t wait to see what else The Plucky Squire has for me when it launches next month. Believe the hype: this one is a real GOTY contender.