Devolver Digital’s gorgeous new indie release is literally a storybook adventure, with homages to The Legend Of Zelda and more.
It’s a problem as old as video games themselves: a new title is visually amazing, with a previously unseen standard of graphics, and yet it doesn’t play anywhere near as good as it looks. Most commonly these are games striving for photorealism, but not always. The same inequality of qualities can also apply to more cartoonish art styles and while The Plucky Squire looks amazing it certainly doesn’t play that way.
What’s so frustrating about The Plucky Squire’s faults is that the game does not suffer from a lack of ambition or imagination, or even a preoccupation with its presentation. There are many clever and surprising gameplay elements and while most are borrowed from other games some are genuinely unique. The problem is that a lot of them just aren’t much fun.
The main gimmick is that the game starts with the titular plucky squire (real name Jot) moving around and fighting in a 2D world, very much like the original The Legend Of Zelda. He’s in a literal storybook, to the point where you can see the edges of the pages and the desk it’s placed on. As the story progresses it becomes clear the evil wizard of the story has realised he’s in a book and banishes Jot to the real world – where he suddenly becomes a 3D character.
The visuals used to portray all this are amazing, not just in the sense that the real-world sections look very realistic but that the overall presentation consistently goes above and beyond to keep reinventing itself and presenting unexpected details and diversions.
From the artist town populated by everyone from Andy Warhol to René Magritte, to numerous mini-games riffing on everything from Punch-Out!! to Crypt Of The Necrodancer, The Plucky Squire is a clever and imaginative game, that it’s impossible to think anything ill of in the opening hours.
It doesn’t take long until the cracks start showing though, in part because the combat in 2D Zelda games is very simplistic and this does nothing to compensate for that, with some very rote and unexciting fighting that is no more exciting or complex when you’re doing it in 3D (albeit from a fixed camera perspective).
The story also never goes anywhere, and we were reminded of Bayonetta Origins, as the family friendly storytelling feels like it’s building towards a tonal shift but never gets there. The script is fine, and there are a few good jokes, but only a few. For most of the time the plot plods along in a workmanlike manner, merely getting you from point A to B. It also wastes the presence of Jot’s two childhood friends, who are often following him around but never do or say anything interesting.
A pattern soon emerges, where you travel to a new area on the map and carry along in the 2D world before being ejected out into the real world, to retrieve a necessary item. These objects slowly add to your repertoire, as you’re able to not only jump in and out of the book but also turn its pages; lift them up, in order to slide objects up and down; or close the book completely, to move an object from one page to another. This is in addition to more Zelda-esque abilities, such as being able to freeze objects or use bombs to blow up walls.
The puzzles making use of these abilities are mildly clever but since everything takes place across only a maximum of two pages they never get very complicated. More importantly, they’re of the style of puzzle where you very quickly realise what you’re supposed to do but the actual process of doing it is often long-winded and uninteresting. Some of the puzzles are a real slog to get through, as you come in and out of the book at different points, going through the motions of a problem you solved some time ago.
This is particularly true of a recurring puzzle element seemingly inspired by Baba Is You, where you can swap one word in the various sentences that appear on the storybook page. For example, taking the word ‘huge’ out of one sentence and replacing it with ‘tiny’ from another one, sees a giant sleeping bug shrink down into a miniscule one. That’s clever in theory but you have to laboriously move the words around manually, sometimes by entering and leaving the book at different points, which always seems to take far too long.
There’s some light platforming but the handling in 2D is awful, with Jot proving to be absolutely frictionless and jumping so high in the air he seems almost entirely weightless. We guess that’s supposed to be a reflection that he’s just a drawing, as the controls and physics are much more ordinary in the 3D sections.
There’s also the occasional bit of stealth but none of it has any depth to it and everything is just a bit… boring. It’s not so dull that it’s going to have you snoring on the sofa but equally it’s never as engaging as you feel it should be, even in the quickly reached finale.
In terms of presentation The Plucky Squire is almost without criticism. There’s some slightly distracting texture pop-in with the 3D sections but other than that this is a near perfect visual experience. From the stylish interstitials to the idyllic view out the real-world window, of the child’s bedroom the book is in, the game looks absolutely stunning.
Unfortunately, as flawless as the presentation first seems there are some serious bugs at launch. We experienced hard crashes and the camera getting stuck, forcing us to reload, but most unforgivably we got halfway through the game before we realised we couldn’t proceed because the necessary object had disappeared from the game world. The game doesn’t allow for manual saves, and the auto ones only go back a few minutes, so we had no option but to start the whole thing again (so apologies if this review is late).
We’ve tried not to let that calamity influence the review but the gap between what the game is presenting itself as and the reality of playing it was obvious long before then. Like many a storybook, The Plucky Squire is amazing to look at, with gorgeous illustrations and interesting ideas, but in the metaphorical sense at least, this is no page-turner.
The Plucky Squire review summary
In Short: A beautiful but shallow experience that beguiles with its presentation and bores with its listless combat and long-winded puzzles.
Pros: Incredible presentation, creating one of the best-looking games of recent years. The central gimmicks, especially those revolving around manipulating the storybook, are very clever.
Cons: Simplistic combat and puzzles, with the latter always going on for far too long. As varied as the gameplay can be all the concepts come from other, better games. Serious bugs made worse by an inflexible save system.
Score: 6/10
Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £24.99*
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Developer: All Possible Futures
Release Date: 17th September 2024
Age Rating: 7
*Free on PS Plus Extra and Premium
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