The Plucky Squire Preview: Absolutely adorable

You can't play this without having a smile plastered on your face.

The Plucky Squire melted my heart when it was first announced back last year and it’s done the same in a recent hands-off preview connected to Gamescom 2023.

Locally made by All Possible Futures, The Plucky Squire is quite a lot of things. Playing as the titular hero — real name Jot — you begin as a hero of a children’s book, armed with courage, bravery and a sense of all that is right. Your skills come in handy against the tale’s villain, the polar opposite of all you are… and also the reason why you always emerge victorious in any battles of wits or brawn.

The tide turns one day when the baddies realises they’re a character in a storybook, and armed with new magic, ejects you from the tale to thrive. Fighting your way back into the book, and to your loyal friends, what follows is a multi-faceted experience that’ll take you from the page to the desk of the child that reads it, and back again.

The Plucky Squire is bursting with creativity on and off the page. Inside the storybook, our hero will shift from a top-down view and gameplay reminiscent of running through Pokemon‘s towns, to a side-scrolling adventure out of Mario, before jumping into mini-games that’ll task you with catching a flying fish, felling spooky bugs with a fearsome bow, or even something developer Jonathan Biddle described as “disco stealth”.

Off the page, our hero shifts into 3D, venturing through a makeshift castle made of cardboard, construction paper and felt — adorned with doodles and cartoons made by the child as decoration — and fighting fully-formed versions of the enemies that were once flat on the page in front of you.

No matter the perspective, there’s always something to do. If you’re not platforming, you’re engaged in combat. If not that, you’re engaging in delightful puzzles that have you rearranging words that actually appear inside the storybook, effectively changing the story.

Is a gate that you need to travel through closed? No matter! On that same page, target the word “closed”, whack it with your sword to dislodge it, and head to another page to liberate the word “open” in order to swap them out. It’s a simple little trick, but equally as neat as when you pop between the 2D and 3D worlds; in short, it’s heartwarming and very much reminded me of innocent, simple times found within the likes of Scribblenauts.

While Biddle — an veteran with titles like Stolen, Stealth Bastard Deluxe and The Swapper under his belt — has been let loose to tackle The Plucky Squire’s mechanics, mini-games and functionality, co-director James Turner —  another vet responsible for myriad Pokemon games dating back to 2003 — is responsible for artistic creativity. Turner is the talent behind the cutesy, endearing look-and-feel of proceedings, and is clearly having a blast in doing so.

Finishing up a quest to obtain a bow and arrow, Turner animates our hero with crazily buffed-up biceps to drive home the heroism that’s surely to follow. It’s not only a funny sight, but one that’s perfectly suited to what’s being presented; you’re basically playing make believe, so the muscles fit.

Biddle explained that The Plucky Squire is all about accessibility; if a youngster in your home is wanting to pick up a controller and play, challenge can be dialled way down. Moreover, handy helpers exist in both the 2D and 3D realms, offering subtle hints if you’re stuck by a puzzle, and straight up answers when you’ve had enough. The same is true for hardcore types — simply dial that challenge way up.

If you’re after a heartwarming, feel-good time, The Plucky Squire is for you. I can’t wait to get my hands on it upon its 2024 release.

Expect The Plucky Squire on Windows PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS5 and Switch.

Stevivor travelled to a venue in Melbourne at its own cost to preview The Plucky Squire. Refreshments were provided at the venue through a representative of Devovler Digital.