1 player
Available on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC.
We all know the famous duel between reading and video games. “Put down your game ; pick up a book!”, many parents will surely have said since the 1980s. What if we found a way to combine the two? You will forgive this demagogic lapse; the opportunity was too good, since this is a game inspired by children’s literature.
The Plucky Squire, or Le Vaillant Petit Page in the language of Joël Dicker, is an adventure game reminiscent of the early Zelda games, with a top-down view of the world (isometric perspective). You play a squire (note the pun linked to the literary theme) called Jot, who fights goblins armed with his quill-pen sword. The wordplay is abundant! Our hero has got into the habit of recounting his exploits in books that the kingdom’s inhabitants adore. Icing on the cake of this mise en abyme, the squire and his friends are themselves characters in a children’s book in the “real” world, that of a small child who loves reading about their adventures.
Following a curse cast by the vile wizard Humgrump, the squire finds himself thrown out of the book and must find a way to change the course of the story to stop it ending with the wizard’s dictatorship coming to power. A bit like a cousin of the film Last Action Hero (1993). As he progresses through the game, Jot acquires new powers that let him influence what is written. Whether by swapping words to change the meaning of a sentence, or by stepping out of the book to turn its pages and fetch an object elsewhere and bring it back to where it will be useful.
I really enjoyed The Plucky Squire for its cheerful, light tone, its humour (special mention for the mountain trolls who are fans of metal music), its irony and the way it plays with the conventions of writing and literature. It represents what a children’s game should always be. For while adults will enjoy its many nods and winks, I think they will see everything it has to offer a little too quickly. That was my case, as the game did not put up much resistance. But children can safely be left to explore it, as an initiation into the world of video games, but also to make links with the pleasure of reading (or being read) stories. My only complaint is perhaps a few slightly messy passages where the solution to the puzzles is a bit convoluted. The developers at the studio All Possible Futures said they wanted to make an “old-school” game and I can quite see how that translates into the feel of play: well thought out, not too long, with no additional purchases, and with an enjoyable plot and subtext. A game to play as a family from start to finish!
Watch my video presentation of the game
A child’s bedroom means dinosaurs, of course!
The book sometimes changes orientation for sections that call for more dexterity
You have to play with words to change the environment.
A book within a book within a game!
