A cute platformer that jumps from one dimension to another
The Plucky Squire
Developer: All Possible Futures
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Platforms: Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC (Previewed)
Release Date: 17 Sep 2024
Price: – TBA
If there’s one thing where you have to respect Devolver Digital, they know how to pick their games. So far they have grown their catalogue of enticing releases made of unique and creative titles. They also make some damn fine trailers to drum up the hype for the upcoming games and The Plucky Squire is no stranger to that.
Take a look at this trailer above, for example. On the surface, it’s made to merely reveal a release date but it also shows you a glimpse at some gameplay mechanics, puzzle mechanics, and a bit of story. I got to be one of the lucky ones to get access to the preview release of the game and while I can’t spoil much and talk about everything in the game, let me at least tell you why The Plucky Squire should be on your release radar in September.
At the core of it, The Plucky Squire is a simple 2D platformer. You play as Jot, on his quest to defeat the evil wizard Humgrump (gotta love that name) and free the realm of his terror. Being a hero as he is, Jot succeeds. Again and again and again. After all, that’s how the story (and the book you’re in) is written. The wizard finally realizes that and he’s had enough so he kicks you out of your realm (the book) into the strange unknown world of 3D! And that’s when the game begins.
While on the quest to fix what the evil Humgrump has ruined, you’ll be accompanied by a plethora of side characters but make no mistake, the game is played entirely from the perspective of Jot. That’s what I could at least tell in all four chapters of the game of this preview. At the start, you are offered a choice of two difficulties, adventure and story mode. Adventure can be considered the normal/default mode of the game while the story mode is the one that you’ll use when you just want to focus on the story and breeze through the enemies. While the 2D and 3D sections of the game contain your usual hack ‘n’ slash gameplay, the boss fights in this game tend to have some of the most outlandish mini-games. For example, you’ll have to defeat a badger in a boxing match or pretend to be a Robin Hood to defeat another boss.
The game is also filled with a bunch of collectibles, secret areas, and items (I still have no idea what is the purpose of some Glitchbirds that I’ve found but I’m keeping them anyway) and you can also upgrade your weapon with the coins you find all over the world. And I do mean all over it. It pays off to slash every bush, shake every tree, and squeeze into every passage for that precious coin. You can upgrade your attack power, buy some new special attacks, or just buy an art scroll or two if you find yourself with too many coins. The puzzles in the game so far follow one pattern. Since you are playing a character in a book, you’ll occasionally find a sentence in the area that will say something like “It was a rainy night that day” and guess what, you need it to be day and sunny to cross a certain bridge. What you usually do is find hidden words around the level such as “sunny” and “day” and replace them in that sentence before so you can change the level layout and open some new path(s). Things get a bit more challenging later once you learn how to jump out of the book at will and flip the pages to go back to the previous level and take different words but I assume we’ll have more of that in the final release of the game.
Recommended
While this preview version of the game is considerably short (only 4 chapters and it can be completed in 2 to 3 hours), it did its job to interest me in the game. So far, I’ve been impressed with pretty much everything in the game, from the visuals, level design, quirky characters, and ridiculous bosses, and the whole gameplay aspect of jumping from 2D to 3D and vice versa never feels overused. If anything, this preview build is a sign of great things to come and I can’t wait for what’s in store for me once the full game drops. Keep an eye out on this one, folks!
