The Plucky Squire (2024) [PS5] critique

Calling Plucky Squire a Cal Arts-style Link Between Worlds would be unfair to the charm of a game about aspirations and inspirations. Veteran players will quickly burn through this storybook and its wordplay swordplay, a-bridging 2D to 3D to solve adventure puzzles at an easy pace, but antics with semantics undertaken by our scrivener squire involve thinking outside of the box. Fourth wall-breaking humor is a tired trait in indies but here it’s mechanical. Not quite a page-turner with instantly dated dialogue and so-so minigames but bookmark it for its message of creativity in an uncreative industry. In the world of All Possible Futures, it doesn’t seem so childish or naive to dream up unique plays and foils upon old, entrenched traditions. The future is not so bleak.

The 8-bit Review

Visuals: 7.5/10

Audio: 6.5/10

Gameplay: 7.5/10

Accessibility: 8.5/10

Difficulty: 6.5/10

Replayability: 5.5/10

Uniqueness: 8.5/10

Personal: 7/10

Aggregated Score: 7.2

Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage or Mage Cast.