I really enjoyed The Plucky Squire, an action-adventure game in the vein of classic Legend of Zelda titles. It’s got not one, but two, whimsical art styles: one reminiscent of children’s picture books, and another in which the hero is presented as a miniature toy that comes to life in a child’s bedroom. The game is most often presented in the former, where screen transitions are accompanied by the turning of a page, and the middle of most stages appropriately folds where they meet.
The eponymous hero goes on many adventures with his friends Violet and Thrash, who each embody noble and righteous virtues, while triumphantly defeating the forces of evil time and time again. At the close of these journeys, the Plucky Squire comes home and writes about it all, because naturally he’s also a bestselling author in the land of Mojo. It’s a game with all the fixings of a kids’ classic, something that can be shared with the children in one’s life to encourage them to dream big and boldly.
As I played the game, though, I did find myself wishing that The Plucky Squire actually believed in its audience as much as it claims to. See The Plucky Squire on Humble Bundle – G/O Media may get a commission You see, The Plucky Squire falls prey to one of modern gaming’s most well-intentioned, but still utterly annoying, sins and overtly tutorializes everything. When it deigns to allow the player to pop out of their storybook for a 3D platforming level, the camera pans across the en.