Since its announcement two years ago, The Plucky Squire has been near the top of my list of anticipated games. The action-adventure title, developed by All Possible Futures and published by Devolver Digital, promises a cutesy fantasy quest in the form of a childrens’ book. The twist comes in the form of a fourth wall break when Jot, the titular squire, leaps out of the pages of his book to continue his journey. After some hands-on time with the game I’m excited to see what else lies in store for Jot and his two-dimensional friends, though my excitement isn’t without some concerns.
From the start of Jot’s adventure, players are transported into a fantasy book for children. The vibrant colors and illustrations make the world feel like it belongs in any child’s library. After some quick exposition establishing Jot as the land’s go-to savior, he was free to start his latest quest. When Jot’s wizard friend Moonbeard needs some beeswax for his records, he sends Jot off to retrieve some from the nearby hive. This small task is just the first step into a larger epic, but it’s a good introduction to combat and exploration.
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Armed with his sword, with a blade that resembles a fountain pen nib, Jot is able to swipe at enemies and chop grass along the path to the mountain peak, with each map section represented by another turn of the page. Although Jot is only equipped with a few simple attacks and dodge roll at first, players are able to upgrade their repertoire of attacks, making combat feel a little more fleshed out as the adventure unfolds.
At the mountain peak, Jot’s and Moonbeard’s bee acquaintance is being harassed by an angry badger, so a boss battle ensues! Instead of a traditional battle, with Jot maneuvering around the badger’s swipes and swinging his sword when an opportunity presents itself, the game instead placed Jot into a boxing mini-game. True to his nature as the story’s hero, Jot is well equipped to handle the creature, and the mini-game is a fun diversion from the usual combat. This is not the only time in my session where a mini-game served as a boss battle, and each occasion felt a little silly, but appropriate.
Shortly after, a larger threat appears, pushing Jot and his friends into a larger quest to save the kingdom. Along the way, strange happenings are afoot; boulders rolling downhill toward Jot suddenly spring out of the page, turning into fully three-dimensional objects. To the player, it’s obvious that the boulders have escaped the confines of the book, but to Jot and company, they appear to have simply vanished, having no concept of a dimension outside their own.
When Jot finally does confront his repeat nemesis Humgrump, the villain explains that they and the kingdom are all a part of a child’s story, and he intends to change the ending. Unfortunately, the next step of his plan is to kick Jot right out of the pages of the book into the real world! Jot, now a 3D character, finds himself in a child’s room – the child that owns the book in which Jot and his friends exist.
The Plucky Squire was a fun and novel experience up to this point, but this meta exploration into the “real world” was an exciting twist that elevated the rest of my time with the game. Jot’s adventures in the real world are slightly different from his storybook exploits, but his abilities are largely the same, allowing him to traverse the toy environments and leap in and out of illustrations to traverse the messy room. Additionally, as the story moves along with Jot and company in the storybook, the owner of the book will rearrange segments of their room, keeping exploration feeling interesting and providing new story objectives.
Shortly after returning to the book, Jot gains the ability to use Humgrump’s portals to leave the book at will. This creates opportunities for Jot to traverse his world in a flash by leaving through a portal on one page and entering another portal elsewhere. He can also rewrite segments of the book, in one example turning a tiny lilypad into a massive, makeshift bridge with which to cross a river. The ability to swap words to change the logic of the world isn’t a completely original idea, but it fits perfectly into Jot’s growing toolset.
The Plucky Squire feels clever so far, and it’s as creative as it is light-hearted. The second boss mini-game mentioned earlier turns Jot into a bare-chested, camo-slathered muscular archer, akin to Rambo, as players shoot down bugs in a shooting gallery themed mini-game. It was so absurd I couldn’t help but laugh, but it somehow felt consistent with the rest of the game. The Plucky Squire still manages to create a fun and beautiful aesthetic without relying too much on these sort of absurd or referential moments.
Still, for all the good, there are a few concerns about the full release. With all the exposition required, The Plucky Squire is a surprisingly wordy game, though given the book setting it should be expected. Traversing from one page to the next feels longer than a simple screen shift, since the page-turning animation plays out each time, and in one segment where I fell into a pit, it was treated as a game over. This didn’t set me too far back, but once again it took longer than I expected to get back into the action. Ultimately, the opening hours of the game will require some patience to get things moving at a fun pace.
Overall, The Plucky Squire looks like a fun, meta adventure, with potential to tell a truly unique story. If the first few hours are any indication, players are in for some bizarre boss fights, mind-bending puzzles, and some solid jokes along the way.
The Plucky Squire will be released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
