The Plucky Squire

he Plucky Squire is a multi-layered adventure. You start off thinking it's a simple game about transitioning from a book to the real world, but soon find yourself in a universe where every well-placed word can alter the course of the story. The success of Pontinho determines the fate of a life.

Only some incredibly infrequent and immensely minor technical hiccups interfere with Jot’s wonderful debut adventure. Here’s hoping there’s more to come.

All told, Jot’s maiden adventure is a resounding success, a confident melding of mechanics, personality, and charm, all executed with a degree of confidence that few developers can match for a first release. The seams of its ambition are seldomly seen, certainly not to the degree where it would overly detract, and as result within the eye-catching pages of The Plucky Squire lies a story that everyone should give a read.

The Plucky Squire is absolute magic, and a page-turner, from beginning to end. From its first, boisterously narrated word, the game packages so much heart and character within a rather novel, wildly creative notion. It takes what Pixar did for toys and applies it to storybooks.

Over the past year, I’ve been looking for more games like The Plucky Squire. In a market that feels oversaturated by live-service, free-to-play fodder, The Plucky Squire is a breath of fresh air that reminded me of just how inventive and unique video games can be.

The Plucky Squire does a lot of things right. It pairs a delightful animation style and fun game mechanics with childlike wonder and a set of life lessons that, while not subtle, are well delivered. However, the most remarkable achievement is not found in a review, but somewhere in my heart. With each page and puzzle, I forgot more and more about the world around me. And there, in the land of Mojo, I was ten years old again, if only for a moment.

With gorgeous visuals, an identity overflowing with youthful vivacity and a delicious metalinguistic that mixes gameplay and narrative, The Plucky Squire seeks to draw inspiration from past legacies to create a unique amalgam. The low challenge may seem like the great ideas were not properly used and fail to please part of the audience. However, others will find that the joy of fun will be all that matters in Jot and his friends' adventure.

The Plucky Squire is a creative and beautiful adventure game that has not yet reached its full potential.

Charming, gorgeous and tonally perfect, The Plucky Squire is easily one of the indie highlights of the year.

A magical book that literally transports you to the action, exploration and puzzles inside, with transitions to the realistic world outside. One of the most beautiful and fun games you'll find.

The Plucky Squire is both a familiar and predictable, and gorgeously ambitious and creative title. At its best, it's a dimension-hopping romp with excellent meta-writing, standout set-pieces and mini-games, and undeniably creative puzzle mechanics. However, the game does suffer from an aggressively accessible approach, which makes the moment-to-moment combat and exploration feel like a derivative Zelda-clone at times. Plus, each puzzle mechanic feels like an intriguing concept that has not developed to its full potential. That being said, The Plucky Squire is an undeniably feel-good and wholesome indie title deserving of your time and attention, and while some minor bugs need to be ironed out, the trade-off for the seamless blend of 2D and 3D is well worth it. It may be the best 2D/3D mash-up since Fez. High praise indeed.

The Plucky Squire does a great job of hopscotching you across worlds and genres whilst keeping the gameplay simple and understandable at its core. It's a real life fairy tale full of wit, charm and a smidge of meta cynicism, that's only bolstered by its fantastic hand drawn art style - overall outshining my complaints of low stakes and technical issues.

The Plucky Squire is an absolute blast from start to finish and one of the more well-rounded indie games we’ve seen in some time. While we have our nitpicks, it’s a worthwhile adventure for fans of all ages.

The Plucky Squire is a delightful adventure that surprises with fun ideas in every chapter. The world within the book offers unique puzzles and challenges, which is compounded by Jot's ability to leap from its pages into the third dimension. Though the combat's kinda flat, and some elements deserve to be used more often than they are, there's an undeniable joy to the game's constant imaginative ideas. It's a short but sweet game that'll win over players of all ages.

The Plucky Squire has some weird crashes, but it stands out mainly because of the playful and clever design of the game world and the variety of boss fights. The childish story is also well written, which is especially noticeable in the dialogues of the colorful characters. However, more could have been done with the creative mechanism with which the game initially draws attention.

The Plucky Squire knows how to always pick itself up and keep going.

Once upon a time there was a little hero who, wanting to be appreciated by all, arranged himself in the manner of the lords of his time. Charming as a prince, he invented specialties with eloquence, “a mind as sharp as a fist” he promised. But behind his pleasant features, our adventurer had a hard time hiding his limits. “Stop trying to swell up, or you will die” a lady who saw through his game said to him. That day, he understood: if he did not become a new revered ambassador, he would remain this valiant little esteemed page.

At its heights, The Plucky Squire is a beautiful Zelda-inspired adventure filled with brilliant wordplay-packed puzzles. Jot’s ability to manipulate his own storybook from both the outside and within result in clever dimension-hopping mechanics and solutions that make each problem a joy to unpack. While genuinely funny at times, its wordy script often gets in the way of the action and occasionally spoils a puzzle’s solution before it even begins. It also drags in its drawn-out final act, as the adventure continues a couple hours after it’s already used up all its best ideas. But prior to that late stumble, The Plucky Squire is full of surprises, breaking up its puzzles with cute minigame homages to classic video game genres and fun sections that take Jot outside of the pages of his story.

I wish that The Plucky Squire was a smoother and more challenging experience because it certainly has a clever premise and game world.

A beautiful but shallow experience that beguiles with its presentation and bores with its listless combat and long-winded puzzles.