The Plucky Squire

Every now and then a game comes along with a premise that sells itself. In The Plucky Squire, you play a character from a book, in a book, who must travel between his flat homeland and our three-dimensional world to fulfil his mission. It's simply a great idea, and whether it makes a good game is a question of whether the developer manages to execute it. Fortunately, the folks at All Possible Futures has done so for the most part and have developed a game that is bursting with creativity.

Jot, the name of The Plucky Squire, is the hero and protagonist of a famous and beloved children's book. In this book, he always saves everyone and has defeated the evil wizard Humgrump by the time the last pages have been turned. Of course, Humgrump is a little tired of this, and using a type of magic he has found, he manages to throw Jot out of the book and rewrite it the way he wants. With the help of his friends, Jot must now travel between the real world and the world of the book and try to set the story straight.

As a player, we're working on a mental layer that could quickly become overwhelming. Fortunately, it's not as complicated as it sounds. Outside of Jot's story, it is indicated that the book is owned by a boy named Sam. He's a creative little chap who has sketches and toys scattered around his desk, and Jot is told that if he doesn't save the story, Sam will lose his inspiration and take a wrong turn in life. It's a bit Pixar on a budget. Kids aren't lost because they lose interest in a picture book, but it's a simple plot that we can all understand and the story never gets much deeper than that. Along the way, the game tries to break the fourth wall, and the characters hint that maybe they know that we as players are out there helping too. It's an enjoyable universe that all these layers build up, but the story never really climaxes or surprises to a degree that you might hope for, given the premise. But it's enchanting and quirky.

The book's universe is presented with a simple dynamic line in the style of classic Franco-Belgian comics such as Tintin, Splint, and Asterix, but without much detail and it lacks a little originality. It was probably necessary to keep the style simple to make it easier technically to design the game. Jot has to be able to jump seamlessly between 2D and 3D worlds, and he can, but it's hard to imagine that a creative kid big enough to sit at his own desk and paint and draw and build would find his greatest inspiration in this universe. That sounds negative, but it's mostly to emphasise that the style is simple and childlike. But it doesn't matter, because it's well executed and charming throughout. You just don't find any dramatic or surprising designs throughout the game. On the other hand, this style makes for some pretty impressive gameplay when Jot starts travelling back and forth between worlds. The book that the story takes place in is set on a desk as you play, and it literally looks like an illustrated book where the drawings have come to life. When Jot jumps out of the book and back in, you can't help but get excited. So while it may not be the most dramatic or groundbreaking visual design, it works perfectly and is technically wonderful to look at.

My hope was that The Plucky Squire would be able to generate and use fresh and unique gameplay elements and design choices, and for the most part it does. However, as with both the story and the visual design, it plays within a safe framework. The Plucky Squire is more of a puzzle game than anything else, but that's not what it looks like when you first get started. The gameplay is initially reminiscent of games like Cat Quest or 2D Zelda games, but as the pages turn, we visit a variety of genres. There's platforming, arcade shooter, a boss to defeat as if it were Punch-Out! for the Super Nintendo. However, all these different styles eventually come to seem a bit like a gimmick because when all is said and done, The Plucky Squire is a puzzle game.

Jot has the ability to move words around, travelling out of the book in one place to travel back in another. He can flip through the book and tilt the pages to manipulate objects in the book. These are the central mechanisms that run throughout the game and the central driving force. Along the way you get new tools to affect things on the pages, but the majority of the puzzles must be solved by moving a word or tilting a page to create space to move forward. An example would be a large monster blocking the route out. It is described in words on the page, so if you could instead put the word "small" into the sentence, the monster suddenly shrinks. Or, conversely, you could make the monster big to be able to roll it into a wall. There are a lot of fun ideas, but eventually the puzzles become monotonous and it's only towards the end of the game that there are some dramatic changes that shake up the formula a bit. The game doesn't stick with a new mechanism long enough for it to get beyond seeming like a gimmick. Still, the way the game utilises 2D and 3D is a bit ingenious. When you're in the 3D world, you can jump into different sketches and notes that are on the table, or you can jump into an illustrated cup or a column that's drawn on, which is a completely different universe. It's a great idea, but it's not utilised enough. Although the game is solid and holds up throughout, you're left wanting more. The game could have explored the premise and possibilities even more.

That said, The Plucky Squire is an example of playful and imaginative creativity that we rarely see outside of Nintendo or games like Astro Bot. Unfortunately, it doesn't reach the same heights as similar games. When you're done, it's hard to think of a specific section of the game that was really fun to play. It maintains the same level throughout, and it's a high level, but it never becomes as fun and interesting as you could have hoped for.

Despite my criticisms, The Plucky Squire deserves a lot of praise. It's a great game, based on a great premise, and it's well executed throughout. The way the main character can travel between the world of the book and the real world makes the game a little technical gem. However, the basic idea lends itself to a lot more crazy ideas than we see here, and it lacks some sections that are simply just really fun to play. It's as if you're relegated to an intellectual admiration of the game from afar, but never really allowed to be a part of the universe. Let's hope it's a big success and we get a sequel that's twice as big and twice as crazy.