Every now and then a game comes along with a premise that sells itself. In The Plucky Squire, you play a character from a book who must travel between his flat home and our three-dimensional world to complete his mission. It’s just a great idea, and whether it makes a good game depends on whether the developer can execute it. Thankfully, the folks at All Possible Futures have largely managed to do that, creating a game full of creativity.
Jot, the name of The Brave Squire, is the hero and protagonist of a famous and popular children’s book. In this story, he always saves everyone and defeats the evil wizard Humgrump by turning the last pages. Of course, Humgrump gets a little fed up with this and, using some magic he found, he manages to throw Jot out of the book and rewrite it the way he wants. With the help of his friends, Jot must now travel between the real world and the world of the book and try to put the story in order.
As players, we’re working with a mental layer that can quickly become overwhelming. Thankfully, it’s not as complicated as it seems. Outside of Jot’s story, it’s pointed out that the book belongs to a boy named Sam. He’s a creative little guy who has sketches and toys scattered around his desk, and Jot is told that if he doesn’t save the story, Sam will lose inspiration and take a wrong turn in life. It’s a bit of Pixar on a budget. Kids don’t get lost if they lose interest in a picture book, but it’s a simple plot that we can all understand, and the story never goes any deeper. Along the way, the game tries to break the fourth wall, with characters hinting that they might know that we as players are out there helping, too. It’s a beautiful universe built from all these layers, but the story never reaches a climax or surprises to the extent that you’d expect given the premise. Though it is charming and quirky.
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The book’s universe is presented with a simple dynamic line in the style of classic French-Belgian comics like Tintin, Splint or Asterix, but without many details and without a bit of originality. It was probably necessary to keep the style simple to make the game design technically easier. Jot needs to be able to switch seamlessly between 2D and 3D worlds, and he can, but it’s hard to imagine that a creative boy old enough to sit at his own desk and paint, draw and build would find his greatest inspiration in this universe. That sounds negative, but it’s mainly meant to emphasize that the style is simple and childish. But that doesn’t matter, because it’s well implemented and charming throughout. You just don’t find any dramatic or surprising designs throughout the game. On the other hand, this style makes for some pretty impressive gameplay when Jot starts traveling from one world to another. The book in which the story takes place is placed on a desk when playing and literally looks like a picture book with the drawings coming to life. When Jot jumps out of the book and back in, you can’t help but get excited. While it may not be the most spectacular or groundbreaking visual design, it works perfectly and is technically wonderful to look at.
My hope was that The Brave Squire would be able to generate and utilize fresh and unique gameplay elements and design choices, and for the most part it succeeds. However, like both the story and the visuals, it plays within a safe framework. Brave Squire is more of a puzzle game than anything else, but that’s not what it seems at first. The gameplay initially recalls games like Cat Quest or 2D Zelda, but as you scroll through, you find a wide variety of genres. There’s platforming, an arcade shooter, and a boss to defeat like it’s Punch-Out! for the Super Nintendo. However, all of these different styles end up feeling more like complements, because at the end of the day, The Brave Squire is also a puzzle game.
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Jot has the ability to move words from one place to another by leaving the book in one place and re-entering it in another. You can flip through the book and tilt the pages to manipulate objects in the book. These are the core mechanics that run through the entire game and are the central driving force. Along the way, you’ll gain new tools that allow you to affect things on the pages. Most puzzles, however, have to be solved by moving a word or tilting a page to make room to move forward. An example would be a large monster blocking the exit. It’s described in words on the page, so if you could insert the word “small” into the sentence instead, the monster would suddenly shrink. Or vice versa: you could make the monster so big that you could roll it into a wall. There are a lot of fun ideas, but it’s not Baba is You and eventually the puzzles become monotonous and it’s not until near the end of the game that there are some drastic changes that shake up the formula a bit. The game doesn’t stick with a new mechanic long enough to stop feeling like a passing invention. Still, the way the game uses 2D and 3D is somewhat clever. When you’re in the 3D world, you can jump to various sketches and notes lying on the table, or you can jump to an illustrated mug or a drawn pillar, which is a completely different universe. It’s a great idea, but it’s underused. While the game is solid and holds up throughout, it leaves you wanting more. The game could have explored the premise and possibilities further.
Still, The Brave Squire is an example of playful, imaginative creativity that we rarely see outside of Nintendo or games like Astro Bot. Unfortunately, it doesn’t reach the same heights as other similar works. By the time you’re finished, you’ll have a hard time thinking of a specific section that was actually fun to play. It maintains the same level throughout, and it’s a high level, but it never gets as entertaining and interesting as you might have hoped.
Despite my criticism, The Brave Squire deserves a lot of praise. It’s a great game based on a great premise and well executed throughout. The way the main character can travel between the world of the book and the real world makes the title a little technical gem. However, the basic idea offers much crazier ideas than we see here and it lacks some sections that are just much more fun to play. It’s as if you’re forced to intellectually admire the game from afar, but are never really allowed to be part of the universe. Let’s hope it’s a big success and we have a sequel that’s twice as big and twice as funny.