The Plucky Squire Reviews
The Plucky Squire is a cute looking game that's got a great presentation and a pretty shallow execution. It just doesn't live up to what we wanted it to be and there's very little in there that's worth sticking around for. Worst of all, the constant needless dialogues, interruptions and unasked for tips keep breaking the flow of the game and disrespecting the player.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Plucky Squire can be a bit hand holdy, but it’s something that’s also great for kids. It’s ultimately an adventure I want more of, even after the credits rolled. It leans well on childhood nostalgia and putting your imagination to good use. It’s a shame that the bugs detract from what would otherwise be a better experience. Where art and words comes together beautifully is a a page turner for some well-earned surprises, and The Plucky Squire is a delightful journey.
A Plucky Squire might entertain a younger audience, but it offers little to engage those of a more mature disposition, which is disappointing coming from a publisher such as Devolver. While the character and world design offers an intriguing playspace, the puzzle and combat mechanics are so simple that I was left unimpressed by the end of my ten-hour playthrough.
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.
Performance issues on Switch, at least at launch, bury an amazingly clever and charming adventure that we would wholeheartedly recommend otherwise. The Plucky Squire is certainly playable on the Nintendo Switch, but in no way can we recommend picking it up here if you have other means to play it. The fact that the Switch-branded trailers looked so great and that advance review copies weren't available on the platform - despite them being sent out for other systems - indicates that this version of The Plucky Squire needed much more time on the drawing board before release.
It didn’t matter how charmed I was by traveling through a dino diorama, how perfect the art-themed jokes of Artia were, how creative every unexpected genre transition was, because every step of my adventure was haunted by the fear that some technical hiccup would turn my enjoyment into frustration.
The Plucky Squire is a family friendly experience for literally all members of the family, a tale that stands out artistically like few games out there.
Review in Greek | Read full review
It’s a quite charming and lovely game, and I did enjoy my time flipping between its in-game pages and some of the more subtle gaming jokes within it. You really can tell how much creative thought and polish was put into it, but it does mean that there are points where I felt like I was simply being guided through obvious sections, rather than enjoying the discovery of them.
There is enough pleasant fun here to divert you, and there are flutters of real invention. You just wish that it ran a little further.
That context lends real stakes to the fictional pursuits of Jot and his two childhood friends: Violet, a witch who dabbles in painting, and Thrash, a mountain troll with a penchant for drumming. Their successes are Sam’s, and the player’s. The Plucky Squire emphasizes the importance of our dreams, hoping to motivate players in the same way that the book within the game aims to cheer on Sam. Creativity doesn’t have to be perfect—it just has to be inspiring. And in that regard, The Plucky Squire knows how to always pick itself up and keep going.
When it came to the end credits, the writer immediately thought: if I had a daughter or a son, I would recommend them to play The Plucky Squire in my company.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Although the game was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the actual gameplay elements of it, the story just didn't grab me. Initially, I was also deterred by the massively contrasting art styles and the finicky menus. Overall, the game is a pleasant experience, appropriate for gamers of all ages. If the story had some more flashy dramatics, it may have pulled me in earlier. The Plucky Squire is very evidently a product made with a lot of love, and you can tell that from the level of polish it has.
Still, the essential excitement of turning the page to discover what's next is so powerfully represented in The Plucky Squire, and the game retains this energy into its final chapters, even while otherwise lacking notable tension or danger. It’s an entertainingly busy book to play through, but it's a pity that many of The Plucky Squire’s best ideas are ultimately underexplored. Perhaps these are just being held back for any plucky printed new worlds to come.
The Plucky Squire is a beautiful storybook adventure filled with brilliant wordplay-packed puzzles and clever dimension-hopping mechanics, but it drags on a bit too long after it's already used up all of its best ideas.
In many ways, The Plucky Squire gave me exactly what I wanted from its core premise. It lets you seamlessly hop between a delightfully presented fairy tale and the world outside these pages, making great use of meta elements through reality-bending puzzles and genre-switching detours. The art style is cute, and everything is presented with charm. However, while it makes for a pleasant experience upfront, it ultimately wears out its welcome due to overly simplistic battles and storytelling that lacks depth. This game may take place in a picture book, but I wish it were a tad less paper-thin.
Although The Plucky Squire has become better at trusting players to figure things out, it remains a disappointingly simple trek wrapped in a killer presentational wrapper. It’s one of the coolest-looking games of 2024 and has inventive ideas I wish were more substantially fleshed out. Jot’s big adventure is presented as a children’s story, and it’s hard not to feel like a kid playing it in the best and worst ways.
The Plucky Squire has a nice art style and some clever tricks with shifting between two different perspectives on the world, though ultimately this storybook will appeal to younger players the most.
Even with hiccups, The Plucky Squire still offers an engaging experience. The positives outweigh the flaws, especially if you value an adventure full of creativity, nostalgia and innovation. However, for those who prioritize performance, it may be more interesting to try the game on another platform, where transitions and gameplay flow more smoothly. Ultimately, it's an adventure worth living — but perhaps under more stable conditions.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Despite some peaks and valleys, The Plucky Squire is a book worth getting lost in. I would certainly recommend the game, especially to families and those with little kids who might enjoy playing in the passenger seat. Even for those out there who are kids at heart, there’s plenty to enjoy—just be sure to stick it out until the end.