Reviewed On: PS5
Also Available On: Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, and PC (And Day 1 on PS+ Extra)
Price: Digital – $29.99 USD / Physical – $34.99 Standard or $54.99 Deluxe
Developer: All Possible Futures
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Release Date: Digital – September 17th, 2024 / Physical – February 21st, 2025
Please Note: A review code was provided for this review but does not influence the opinions stated here in any way.
First revealed in June 2022, I have been eagerly anticipating The Plucky Squire for a while. We kept seeing more and more without release dates and I kept saying I just want to play it. Eventually, a release date was revealed earlier this year and I knew I needed to play this game as soon as possible… and thankfully I didn’t need to wait too long! James Turner, who used to work at Game Freak on different Pokémon games and was Art Director on Sword and Shield, left the studio and formed All Possible Futures, who are the creative masterminds behind this project. This project was published by a leader in the indies games world, Devolver Digital, and boy oh boy did they both deliver on this experience.
The story was deeper than I anticipated and explored some themes that we have seen time and time again. Themes like friendship, bravery, hope, [redacted for spoiler], and much more scattered throughout the story. The main story revolves around Jot, The Plucky Squire, who has defended their world from the evil Humgrump. Unfortunately this time though, Humgrump has learned some new tricks that involve the world outside of theirs and he wants to take over the entire world. Jot must team up with Violet and Thrash, his childhood friends, along with the mentor Moonbeard to save the land of Mojo and the world beyond! You will explore different levels and you learn of Humgrump’s plan and who Humgrump actually is. It isn’t the deepest story that I have played this year, but the story is nice regardless and it kept me interested with the different twists and turns. Some of which I saw coming, while there were others that I was thankfully surprised about.
In the game, it is a mixture of different styles for the gameplay. Part of it is an action adventure where you will be fighting enemies using your trusty sword, exploring different maps, and finding collectables. You can get upgrades for Jot over time from the shop where you can use bulbs, the currency in the game. Art pieces are one of the collectibles in the game, and there are 50 of them in total. These are things like concept art from the game, some of which isn’t in the final experience so I thought that was cool to see what could have been. If you use video game logic and really look for them, they aren’t too hard to find. The Glitchbirds are another collectible, and I unfortunately couldn’t find all 10, and I looked everywhere I could and still am missing one of them. The other part of this game is more puzzle solving, and these puzzles range from item puzzles to word riddles. Below is an example of one of these word puzzles where you first see it as a forest, but to complete the task at hand, you need to change it to a ruin.
You will be in the world of Mojo probably 60% of the time in the game, but you also have to explore the other world in order to save yours by finding bigger key upgrades throughout the game. You will be going from the 2D world to the big 3D world many times, and while there are times when I like to be in the 2D world, the 3D world has a lot to love in it. There are enemies out there, but unfortunately they are the same as those from the book, minus a few surprises sprinkled in there… Here is an early example of using the 2D world and the 3D world to solve puzzles using items. There are also some surprises in terms of mini games involving different things I was definitely not expecting, but was cool to see. I am not going to spoil any of these, as I think they are great to see in your own playthrough. The gameplay was solid and tight all-around from platforming, puzzle solving, action combat, and more.
There is some voice acting in the game where a narrator navigates you through the story and the bigger plot points, which I think adds to the flair of the game. There is no voice acting in the game for the characters, but I actually do not mind that since they usually only have engaging conversations or just describes what you need to do in the game. In terms of the audio design, it is good from the movement of the character to the sound effects when you find some of the collectibles or currency in the game. On top of that, the music is varied and terrific from rock sounds on the mountain, the jazz on the beach, or the eerie sounds in chapter 2 when you exit the book for the first time. I think it was well crafted, and never really stays its welcome for too long!
During my time with the game, the game had a strong performance and was pretty solid with only minor frame drops that I experienced. In terms of the visuals, I think the game is absolutely beautiful in every way. The art that is in the game is clean from the characters, environments, backgrounds, and everything in between. The colors that are used from the dark blacks to the bright reds and greens really stand out in their art direction that was done. I am not just saying the 3D world is beautiful, which it is, but in some ways and locations, I think the 2D world is even prettier on occasion. The light reflections, colors, character models and designs, and everything else in between is just all around beautiful!
Unfortunately, there are a bunch of bugs and glitches that I found, along with other issues that I had in the game. First let me start with the bugs and glitches that I had in the game. I unfortunately had 4 crashes for the game, and while that isn’t that big of a number in all honesty, two of them occurred when I was replaying the game in chapter replay mode. Since there is no saving during chapter replay mode, I would have to completely replay the levels all over again each time it happened, so eventually I gave up on checking out the replay mode, on top of the other problems I have with this specific mode.
One of the big issues that I encountered happened when I was trying to collect all of the Glitchbirds in the game. The game simply bugged out on me, and my count reset for the number of Glitchbirds I already obtained. Then when I tried to re-obtain them through chapter replay, the game wouldn’t register I saved it each time I tried, so I had to play the game a whole second time and restarted the count. The game is fun enough where I didn’t seriously mind it, but it is annoying to play the game twice through. There were also a few audio bugs that I encountered from in the game. One of them was when I turned the sound off in the options menu, there was still sound effects coming from the 3D areas outside of the book when collecting bulbs. Not massive deal, but still is a bug that should be addressed hopefully soon!
The third issue that I considered to be big, was the entirety of chapter replay mode. Chapter 7 is completely glitched and you cannot get past the starfish stuck in the sand at the beginning of the level since the dialogue will not play, which means, you cant replay that level if you want to find missing collectables. I tried this in both of my save states, and they both are the same exact issue so I know it wasn’t just an issue with one of the playthroughs I did. On top of this, there are missing dialogue scenes, characters not appearing, missing shop, and more bugs throughout different chapters from chapter replay mode.
Personally, I think having chapter replay mode is very important for games with collectables. Saying this though, I don’t believe it is enough to offer this without indication in any way shape or form of where collectibles you are missing are located. I am missing a single Glitchbird in the whole game, and I have searched thoroughly through all of the chapters (minus 7 because of the bug mentioned previously), and I cannot find it. If they game said, oh here is the chapter you are missing it from, it would help a huge help… but sadly it doesn’t. It also doesn’t show information about other things like the art pieces, but I found all of those thankfully without issue. I will get the last one, unless it is in chapter 7 where I cannot check again until hopefully a patch comes out, once guides come out. Almost 18 hours from both playthroughs and multiple chapter replay searches, and I still came up short.
Saying that I had a bad time in Plucky Squire would be an absolute lie, regardless of the bugs and issues I have with the game. I was sad when I finished Astro Bot, but thankfully I knew The Plucky Squire was so close, and I am glad to say that I had an absolute terrific time in Jot’s world! The story was better than I anticipated and made some surprising twists and turns. The gameplay has more variety and is deeper than what it appears to be, with some surprising minigames that I wasn’t expecting. The beautiful visuals, solid performance, awesome soundtrack and audio score, and the overall vibes in the game was just terrific. Yes there are bigger bugs and annoying issues, but those shouldn’t deter you from having fun with the whole experience. I am excited to get the physical edition come February next year, because the game and the developers deserve to be supported for their first experience that has so much love put into the title!
Review Score: 8.5/10
UPDATE 1.006 (SEPTEMBER 17TH): This update fixes the issues regarding bugs and soft locks from the chapter replay mode. From testing, in chapter 4, the characters and dialogue now appear in replay mode unlike during the review period where it didn’t. The shop still is missing in chapter 4 replay mode. Thankfully, I also obtained the platinum thanks to the patch since I was missing the last Glitchbird from Chapter 4. I looked in the spot a guide said it was, and I didn’t have anything there previously before this patch. Chapter 7 is also fixed as well now, which is good. The audio bug with sounds all the way turned down is still in the game. Score stays the same based on my experience during review period.
