GamerEscape

It’s kind of a well-worn trope at this point to have a game that is set inside of a storybook of some sort. Lots of games have done it now, usually with the best of intentions. That doesn’t make it bad, but it does mean that you kind of need to do more than just present a storybook aesthetic and assume it’s off to the races. Which is why The Plucky Squire is trying to go the extra mile to make this not just an aesthetic conceit, but a narrative one as well… albeit in a somewhat odd way.

I got a chance to play a preview of The Plucky Squire and came away feeling pretty impressed by what the game has so far. Obviously, this is a preview, and it’s entirely possible for the full game to have some new elements that surprise me… but even with what the game already has in place, I found the experience charming and fun, albeit with a handful of stumbles.

Plucking Strings

Rather than being a direct adaptation of an actual storybook, The Plucky Squire aims to feel like an arch recreation of countless storybooks, and as the game opens you are playing as the eponymous squire himself, Jot, in a book literally just called “The Plucky Squire.” Jot is the hero of the land of Mojo, who along with his friends Violet and Thrash and the good wizard Moonbeard seeks to protect the reign of Queen Chroma from the manipulations of the evil wizard Humpgrump. So far, so basic.

Until Humpgrump finds a book… the same book that Jot and his friends are in. And Humpgrump starts using a new kind of magic that destabilizes the very membrane between the book and the real world, reasoning that if he can’t ever win so long as Jot is in the story, he’ll just take him out of the story.

This sounds like it might have the potential to become very serious or downright tedious, but thankfully that’s not what the game is aiming for. Characters are arch stereotypes, but the point here isn’t to put them out of their comfort zones so much as to have fun with a children’s storybook character going out into the real world and even other stories to have adventures. This is the right choice, as it keeps the story feeling light and also fun.

As Jot learns a bit about the boy whose desk he’s occupying, he gets a little bit more in the way of stakes, but really the stakes remain low all the way through. Your adventures are simple yet fun, but they’ve been pushed into a larger stage, and that in and of itself is reason to enjoy the adventure. Especially since the whole thing stays light, breezy, and fun.

Plucked Play

In its broadest strokes, The Plucky Squire is kind of a Zelda-style game from the start. Jot can jump, swing his sword, or do a quick dodge roll as he moves about in an overhead view. Your jump is rarely all that necessary on the overhead screens, and at first it’s just a simple matter of slashing foes and moving objects.

What you’ll quickly start to see, though, is that the game is more about a series of setpieces that have broadly unified mechanics. For example, when Jot is on the real world desktop, his jumping feels much more like a 3D action game (complete with being able to mantle up on ledges he can almost jump atop). Sometimes the page layout goes into 2D adventures. Sometimes you’ll encounter a boss fight, and then the game might give way to being an entirely different style of minigame as you fight your way through it.

None of this is particularly difficult, but it captures a kind of impetuous spirit of moving back and forth through styles. The majority of the game is contained in the top-down puzzle-and-slash sequences, including several fun bits where the idea is to move words around through various bits of narration to change what’s going on. A closed gate becomes an open gate by adding the word. A woodland that bars your passage becomes a set of ruins that you can traverse.

There’s also the fun of jumping in and out of books and other things you find across the desk, giving you another way of experiencing the world and another small gameplay moment. It’s just unified enough to avoid ever feeling like it’s somehow an egregious collection of minigames, and the various minigame setpieces almost completely manage to stay fun. (There is a mandatory stealth section and… yeah, I know, you got an eye twitch when I mentioned that. It’s short, but your eye twitch is accurate. Sorry. I promise it gets better.)

Pluck of the Polished

Most of the audio work is being done by the narration of the book, which is consistently high-class; it’s not quite as organic as, say, the narration of particularly meta games like The Stanley Parable, but what is? It helps the whole experience feel charming, and that is even further supported by the fact that the game very consistently shows its world as a series of real, physical objects with weight and a tactile sense.

Even before you jump out of the book, the book is shown as a book, complete with pages turning for new scenes or new areas. There’s a crease down the middle of the book, even. The obstacle courses on the desktop may feel oddly assembled for something that is very obviously not a real desk, but it feels like a fake desk made up of pieces of real things. The 2D animations of the storybook are outstanding, with a great sense of detail and weight, but the 3D feels just the right level of uncanny; like it’s not quite the real world you’d expect, almost as if you’re seeing it through the eyes of characters who aren’t sure what they’re looking at.

Music is also well-polished, with all of the tunes being lighthearted bops that you’ll find yourself humming along to as you explore the various maps and areas. It also fades to a lower volume outside of the book, which feels particularly fitting.

Plucky Break

I think the full version of The Plucky Squire has some big shoes to fill; it’s a light thing so far, but it’s a consistently fun game, and I enjoyed my time with it during this preview. There’s a lot to like here, and thus a lot of the game’s overall charm is going to depend on what happens with the full runtime available. And that’s something I can’t do much more than speculate on.

However, if you’re a fan of visually charming games, classic Zelda titles, or just looking for a bit of a lighter adventure? This looks like it’s going to be a good time to remember. I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.

Review copy provided by Devolver Digital for PC. All screenshots courtesy Devolver Digital.