Hard not to fall in love with The Plucky Squire, a video game of intelligence and generosity that constantly shines on the screen. Long live 2024.
I think I fell in love with The Plucky Squire since the very first day. And how can you blame me? This video game, developed by All Possible Futures and published by Devolver Digital (which seems to unearth the nuggets), takes the gamble of mixing 2D and 3D for an adventure with multiple inspirations. We were able to discover this strong concept a little closer thanks to a presentation organized at gamescom. And we still love it so much.
The Plucky Squire is sort of a two-in-one game. On the one hand, we evolve in a book, within 2D environments with a view reminiscent of the first Zelda. On the other, you can walk around a desk full of interactions. Naturally, the two experiences communicate to force players to switch between them when the need arises. It’s a smart split, even though it forces developers to see double (and succeed in double, by extension).
The Plucky Squire offers so much with so little
What strikes with The Plucky Squire is this desire to offer so much with so little. This philosophy forces All Possible Futures to be very smart. The book that offers sets for two? It is the materialization of flat images, in square format. In terms of design logic, you can’t do better. 3D sets? They are limited to the desk on which the book is placed, but it will evolve according to the chapters, depending on the time of day. The Plucky Squire teems with ideas and its goal is to surprise every five minutes. We are all the more caught up in the fact that the graphic design is cute as anything, with a humorous reinterpretation of the tales. As a bonus, the animations are really charming.
At one point during the presentation, the hero was stuck in the 2D world because he was missing a key object (a bow). The solution was then clear: teleport into the 3D world, via a portal, to go in search of the object in question. This quest ended with a fight against an elf archer, trapped in what looked like a Magic card on top of a castle. The confrontation itself was very much reminiscent of Pokémon, with attacks made on a turn-by-turn basis. The Plucky Squire is full of references to the best of recent years. Some will see it as a pure copy, but the assembly is too clever for this proposal to be condemned.
The Plucky Squire aims for ten chapters, which will offer a directive adventure. The story promises to be tasty: realizing that he is the villain of a book, Ragecuite – nice pun with rage quit — expels the hero in order to draw all the cover on him and reverse the course of his destiny (which is to always be beaten by the good guys). Torn between two opposing worlds, Laïus will face many challenges, materialized by various and varied mini-games. The gameplay promises to be rich, hoping that the developers have not had eyes bigger than their stomachs. They could quickly fall into the trap of zeal, for lack of sufficient resources to meet too lofty ambitions.
For now, The Plucky Squire has no specific release date and, on the Steam page, there is only a vague “2024” to inform about the launch period. Originally, it was planned for this year. It will be available on PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and PC. And we can’t wait to play it.
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