The Plucky Squire (2024)

A day one release included in the PS+ subscription. Graphics looked interesting and i liked the idea of the game. That made me wanna test it.

The story is about a guy called Jot. He is the hero in a book called ”The Plucky Squire”. This book belongs to a kid (Sam) who loves The Plucky Squire franchise.

The villain in the story is Humgrump. When he realized that, he uses his magic to physically kick Jot out of the book. Humgrump wants to rewrite the story and become the hero himself.

When Jot is thrown out of the book he find himself in Sam’s room. From there you will try to restore the books happy ending. You can then magically transfer yourself from the 3D adventure in this room, to 2D in the book. There is puzzles, riddles, minigames and some combat with your sword to advance in the story.

You’ll get help from your two best friends. Violet, who is a trainee witch and artist. Thrash, a mountain troll and heavy metal drummer. You also get help from Moonbeard, a wizard and a DJ.

I really like the graphic style of it all, the idea of the whole book and story. When Jot reach the end of the page, the page is turned. A narrator is also telling the story as you progress. The combat is quite simple but it’s ok! Puzzles and all the rest is a bit high and low.

It takes around 9-10 hours to finish. I had some fun with it, worth to try it as it was included in the PS subscription. Maybe it had a unlucky release date with 1-2 weeks after Astro Bot. This felt like a big step down in quality from that game.

This was the developers debut game. It will be interesting to see what they will be up to next. The game had some really good ideas.

Rating: 🌲🌲🌲+

just now This might be the biggest disappointment in gaming for me. I was pretty damn excited to play this game. It just looks cool and the core idea is fantastic.

Let me say I still beat the game but it almost felt like it was to spite it. It did feel like a chore to do.

The games story is very basic and the characters feel paper thin. Yet the game is LOADED with text. Every page you stop and talk. It feels like every time you do something you stop and talk. The balance from puzzles and combat to text is wildly off.

I wasn’t really into any of the characters, we get violet who’s the outcast magic user, her mini story might be my favorite? And Thrash or whatever the Viking drummer side kick. I did like the mouse when he would have his cut scenes.

But holy hell did the mini games drag this game down too. Talking about Pip the mouse, his stealth missions towards the end of the game just pissed me off. The input lag or just the way they made the animation was hot trash. I can’t tell you how many times I lost just cause i apparently pushed the stick too hard and this went forward too much.

The boxing one was classic easy punch out stuff which was OK. The drumming was OK but just felt so lackluster. The violet bubble buster was my favorite hands down.

The power up stuff felt very gimmicky since it didn’t feel like we used them much. The stamp and the bomb stuff. It was only used in the key points really. They didn’t fluff out the world or map to make things feel explorable?

The page turning and tilting when using it was kinda neat but at times the features would again be pointless or just for story advancement.

I did like the scribblenuats kinda stuff with replacing the words. That was my favorite and the one area that felt like they added some details.

Outside of the book was cool when exploring or well just looking around to see how the room changed over time.

But in the end all the ideas and mechanics fall extremely flat. The game also just drags on.

So disappointing. I’m not sure if I’d bother with a sequel or not. But here’s hoping it is flushed out more if anything.

Ya I don't have a ton to say about this game. I did enjoy it! It's a nice ride, akin to playing a Kirby game. I try not to judge this game too harshly for not being what I expected it to be: a more open adventure allowing you to use a variety of unique abilities to traverse, fight, and solve puzzles.

What this game actually is is pretty fun! It manages really well with telling a fun lighthearted story and presents a very cute world. The setting and even gameplay is constantly changing and nothing overstays its welcome.

My only gripe, and what I consider a straight up flaw in the design, is the game's approach to puzzles. It has some decent puzzles it presents to the player, but basically every puzzle is prefaced by just telling you the solution. Suddenly this makes would-be-fun puzzles into more of a light obstacle that doesn't prompt any amount of critical thinking. I realize this game is aimed at kids, but I think kids are certainly smart enough to not need every puzzle spoiled for them.

Regardless, the game we actually did get it is very cute, a lot of fun, and I have a ton of appreciation for all the artists involved! 3.5/5

The presentation is doing most of the heavy-lifting, and it actually elevates the game. I especially appreciate how the storybook aesthetics bleeds into the gameplay and drive the puzzles. Manipulating words in the book and the book itself leads to some clever, even challenging puzzles. I few had me stumped, which I did not expect.

The combat is laughably easy, but The Plucky Squire makes up for that by mixing the gameplay with mini-games and boss fights that break away from the button-mashy swordplay.

Some bugs did hurt my time with the game, and I had to reload an early save a couple of times, which was annoying and I hope they fix those soon.

That said, I enjoyed the game for what it was, even if it won't be anyone's "game of the year." I think the devs have an interesting future ahead of them (one of many possible ones).