The Plucky Squire is a puzzle-adventure sport for the Nintendo Transfer. It includes a twist at the vintage storybook narrative, taking characters out and in of the actual global as they paintings to avoid wasting their very own land. It’s a contemporary manner that works properly, turning in a unusual, fast paced tale filled with attraction.
All of it starts with a ebook. The nature of the Plucky Squire is known as Jot, a tender sword-wielding champion (now not not like Hyperlink) who at all times saves the day. Sadly, for each hero there’s a villain, and on this case it’s the evil mage referred to as Humgrump. When Humgrump discovers a method to expel Jot from the storybook, it kind of feels like a brand new finishing is in retailer. Naturally, our intrepid adventurer steps as much as save the day as soon as once more.
This opens up two distinct gameplay modes. Issues start inside the ebook itself the use of an isometric top-down point of view—once more, similar to Hyperlink’s personal outings. The tale actually unfolds web page through web page, with a voiceover narration for every new scene. As Jot, you’ll be able to waltz in the course of the pages, preventing foes and gathering mild bulbs (this sport’s type of foreign money).
As soon as Jot is ejected from the ebook, he learns a method to traverse between every global by way of a distinct portal. Each worlds are exquisitely designed with pretty but distinctive visuals. The true global is gifted in a shiny 3-d aesthetic that enhances the flatter cartoony visuals of the ebook model.
The tale unfolds by way of chapters. Alongside the way in which, Jot meets many attention-grabbing characters, from a hip outdated wizard (now not not like Dumbledore) to a tender mage-in-training. Trolls, fish, snails, and extra have interaction within the fast paced narrative, offering an entertaining romp as you’re employed your approach towards preventing the villain from profitable the day.
The audio is any other standout. The tunes range between settings, whether or not you’re within the swamps or within the mountains. There’s a powerful connection between the visuals and the soundtrack. For instance, the trolls choose rock tune, and the background amps up accordingly whilst you’re in that space. It provides to the whole atmosphere to lend a hand stay you engaged.
Fight is at the easy aspect, which is okay. You wield an upgradable sword and liberate different guns, too. This isn’t a hard sport, and it’s now not supposed to be. It’s now not infantile, however there’s a quite linear trail laid out ahead of you and transparent hints whilst you run into hassle. Extra complex gamers might in finding issues too simple. However, this accessibility permits gamers of any age to benefit from the sport. It additionally means that you can center of attention at the tale with out getting annoyed, taking part in the narrative and puzzles. It creates a sport that feels such as you’re a part of an interactive kids’s ebook.
It’s now not a brief sport, despite the fact that. There are ten chapters to play thru, every taking as much as an hour. This offers masses to do, with the addition of collectibles to stay you busy. Those come within the type of thought artwork, viewable through a neat artwork gallery at any time. They’re well-hidden, including a minimum of a slight problem for the ones searching for extra to do.
There are puzzles aplenty in The Plucky Squire. Those generally contain swapping explicit phrases at the web page to create a brand new sentence, and due to this fact a brand new scene. For instance, swapping “night time” and “day” permits sure items to transport, granting you get entry to to any other space. Doorways would possibly wish to be opened or closed, water would possibly or may not be provide. You get the theory. It’s a “novel” method to manner puzzles, and breaks up the fight effectively.
The Plucky Squire isn’t with out problems. The sport iced over a couple of occasions whilst loading a brand new web page, forcing me to reset all of the Transfer. It saves routinely, however now not in each web page, that means I needed to repeat the previous few sections. I handiest misplaced 5 mins, however after 3 separate incidents, I used to be beginning to twitch as each new web page loaded in case it iced over. I additionally spotted important slowdown throughout one of the 3-d sections, even supposing it wasn’t steadily, and restarting the Transfer perceived to repair that, too.
General, The Plucky Squire is a breath of clean air. It takes a storybook atmosphere and guidelines the whole lot on its head, with lush environments, amusing puzzles, and funny discussion. Except for a couple of technical system faults, this can be a sport that captures the creativeness and is price trying out.