The Plucky Squire: PS5 Review

Developed by All Possible Futures
Released by Devolver Digital
Platform: PS5

The Plucky Squire is a strong contender for Game of the Year, thanks to its simple story and wonderful execution that makes for easy play.

You play Jot, the Plucky Squire, a hero of his own storybooks and a hero in the land of Mojo where he lives. When the kingdom one day is pitched into darkness by Humgrump, the eternal loser of confrontations with Jot, it's upto Jot, his friend Thrash and Violet and mentor Moonbeard to try and save the day.

While there are plenty of elements of The Plucky Squire which feel like a LittleBigPlanet clone (cutesy storytelling, narrative voiceover, platforming basics), The Plucky Squire develops a style of its own as it lets you flip between 2D gaming and 3D environments.

With simple controls (swirling, throwing your sword), the gameplay is pretty easy to pick up and play. There are challenging moments that require a bit of intelligence, and while it's occasionally frustrating that you can't target when hurling your sword, the game's simplicity makes for easy wasting of time playing.

But if that sounds like it's dismissing The Plucky Squire, it's not. 

The story is charming, the execution sweet and adorable and the banter between characters in the world fun. As the story progresses through its own book, the pages are colourful, vibrant and a pleasure to spend time in.

Little minigames are peppered throughout, and while they're not exactly difficult, it does add a degree of difference to the gameplay as the sub-10 hour story continues. But it's the jumping between worlds that impresses most. From going into portals a 2D character and coming out the other as a chunky 3D cute character, the game switches effortlessly through the world around it.

It's a story that's best experienced as it happens, rather than through a spoiler-heavy review, and while there are some parallels between Jot's character and something in the real world, the connection feels human and tangible, rather than just being a person in a video game that we're forced to care about.

Perhaps most importantly, The Plucky Squire is about fun more than anything.

It makes you use wordplay to solve puzzles, looking at situations from different angles and allows brains not brawn to progress. It's a wonderful little indie title that's up there with the best of 2024.