The Plucky Squire – a 2D character in a 3D world (Devolver Digital)
Devolver Digital’s gorgeous new indie release is literally a storybook adventure, with homages to The Legend Of Zelda and more.
It’s a problem as old as video games themselves: a new title is visually amazing, with a previously unseen standard of graphics, and yet it doesn’t play anywhere near as good as it looks. Most commonly these are games striving for photorealism, but not always. The same inequality of qualities can also apply to more cartoonish art styles and while The Plucky Squire looks amazing it certainly doesn’t play that way.
What’s so frustrating about The Plucky Squire’s faults is that the game does not suffer from a lack of ambition or imagination, or even a preoccupation with its presentation. There are many clever and surprising gameplay elements and while most are borrowed from other games some are genuinely unique. The problem is that a lot of them just aren’t much fun.
The main gimmick is that the game starts with the titular plucky squire (real name Jot) moving around and fighting in a 2D world, very much like the original The Legend Of Zelda. He’s in a literal storybook, to the point where you can see the edges of the pages and the desk it’s placed on. As the story progresses it becomes clear the evil wizard of the story has realised he’s in a book and banishes Jot to the real world – where he suddenly becomes a 3D character.
The visuals used to portray all this are amazing, not just in the sense that the real-world sections look very realistic but that the overall presentation consistently goes above and beyond to keep reinventing itself and presenting unexpected details and diversions.
From the artist town populated by everyone from Andy Warhol to René Magritte, to numerous mini-games riffing on everything from Punch-Out!! to Crypt Of The Necrodancer, The Plucky Squire is a clever and imaginative game, that it’s impossible to think anything ill of in the opening hours.
It doesn’t take long until the cracks start showing though, in part because the combat in 2D Zelda games is very simplistic and this does nothing to compensate for that, with some very rote and unexciting fighting that is no more exciting or complex when you’re doing it in 3D (albeit from a fixed camera perspective).
The story also never goes anywhere, and we were reminded of Bayonetta Origins, as the family friendly storytelling feels like it’s building towards a tonal shift but never gets there. The script is fine, and there are a few good jokes, but only a few. For most of the time the plot plods along in a workmanlike manner, merely getting you from point A to B. It also wastes the presence of Jot’s two childhood friends, who are often following him around but never do or say anything interesting.
The Plucky Squire – the 2D section are at least two-thirds of the game (Devolver Digital)
Source:: Metro
