In my “normal” career, I work for a publishing company. I won’t name it but let’s just say if you think of a very famous British dictionary, you can probably make an educated guess. A part of the company also publishes children’s books, including picture books aimed at toddlers. One fairly recent one was “Super Magic Happy Forest” by Matty Long; a colourful fairytale adventure book of a number of heroes on an epic quest across a busy world of magic and wonder. The Plucky Squire from British developers All Possible Futures is absolutely pulling from a similar aesthetic, alongside other influences such as the cartoon series “Adventure Time”. Featuring marvellous visuals and some innovative “on-page, out of the book” gameplay, this is a classic quest which you’d be a fool to ignore.
You play as Jot, the titular Plucky Squire, who lives in the Land of Mojo; a storybook world populated with colourful animals, monsters and magic. He also literally lives within a story book, also called “The Plucky Squire” by E.N. Arthur (sounds suspiciously like “an author”), although Jot at first does not realise this. One day, while following through the typical storyline where Jot is destined to heroically defeat the dark wizard Humgrump, the wizard decides to turn the tables on the usual order of things. Humgrump uses magic to banish Jot from the book, throwing the world in disarray and thrusting Jot into the real world of a boy’s bedroom. Jot must then navigate the world to get back into the story, also gaining the ability to jump between the book and the desk in the process.
The story is deliberately simplistic and written in a picture book manner, but delivered in an engaging way with the characters using modern slang. There’s a great deal of character in everything the game does, from the cool and hip Wizard Moonbeard and his small doppelganger Minibeard, and Jot’s best friends Violet the witch and painter and Thrash the mountain troll, who likes to rock. Likewise the Narrator’s dialogue (voiced by Philip Bretherton, the only voice acting in the game) is gloriously evocative, reminding me of the many audiobooks I’d read as a child.
This is predominantly an isometric adventure game somewhat in the mould of original Legend of Zelda, although with a lot more puzzles. As you venture across the pages of the book (literally turning the page each time as you jump across levels), you’ll encounter and fight a variety of different enemies using Jot’s trusty sword, including some very Goomba-like goblins. In between, you’ll also be regularly jumping out of the book to do battle across the boy’s desk, surrounded by paint pots, pens, pencils, notepads and other bits of desk detritus.
The puzzles vary across each area; some might have you need to pick up a word from the page, and rearrange it with another word in order to alter the world. For example, one area starts off at night-time, with the large frogs awake and singing, blocking your path. By returning to the previous page of the book, Jot can pick up the word “day”, and swap it for “night”, causing the entire world to shift and the frogs to fall asleep. Other puzzles may be more traditional, such as moving around objects in the world, or bringing a key to a locked door.
Often you might need to defeat a number of enemies in a zone to allow the barrier to the next area to clear. Battles are straightforward and via gradually collecting lightbulbs by defeating foes and slicing bushes, you can unlock new attacks with the sword including a ranged throwing ability, or a heavy attack whirlwind. Most chapters also end with a boss-fight, each of which is unique. For example the first boss pitches you in a pretty accurate recreation of Punch-Out!! while a later one has you engage in an archery mini-game. The variety is nice and thankfully if you’re not dexterous enough, the boss fights can be skipped without a penalty. The difficulty overall is fairly easy-going, as perhaps was to be expected given the children’s storybook style, although some of the boss fights requiring specific timing were a bit of a challenge.
The visuals and music are where The Plucky Squire absolutely shines. This game isn’t just gorgeous; it’s honestly probably one of the best looking games ever made. The 2D artwork on the pages of the book is easily good enough to be featured in real storybooks, while the 3D realisation of the child’s bedroom is brought expertly to life, even down to some very detailed British coins laying on the desk. Each new area is just a joy to explore and the cutscenes, with the pages flipping over smoothly as the story unfurls, perfectly puts you into the game’s jovial mindset. Likewise the jaunty and upbeat music from Mike Georgiades, with plenty of plucked classical guitar and glockenspiel is certainly inspired by “Adventure Time” but without being merely a pastiche.
The act of seamlessly shifting between the flat picture book world of Mojo and the real world of a kid’s bedroom absolutely gives The Plucky Squire a very “Toy Story”-like quality, particularly as you interact with other characters within the real world, exploring the various toys and constructions scattered across the desk. Thanks to the immaculate aesthetics, glorious soundtrack and gentle gameplay, The Plucky Squire is a delightful light-hearted adventure full of whimsy and charm which both adults and children should enjoy.
