The Plucky Squire Review - The New Indie King?

The Plucky Squire might just be the new indie to beat.

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[ShurikanBlade]

To anyone wondering about the switch version, i bought it and played for about an hour now. Heres my thoughts: the game is a bit laggy/choppy, you can really tell when going between pages and in the real world. The opening cutscene even has some pop in. Its a bit glitchy of an experience where cutscenes freeze a bit before ending (you can tell cuz the on screen text doesnt finish all the way), the coins your supposed to collect (lightbulbs) glitched for me and i wasnt collecting them right away (i had to jump for them to actively be added to my total) and worst of all im currently softlocked. I reached a point where i get a cutscene tutorial to teach me about sneaking around in chapter 2 and my game just freezes mid cutscene. I closed the game and re-opened the save file 6 times to no avail. I think i might have to reset my data. Of course i dont think this will happen to EVERYONE who plays the switch version but this is simply what happened to me. It honestly soured my experience a lot cuz ive been looking forward to this game for 2 years now since it was first revealed. If you have any other means of playing it, ill recommend using that device instead so you can avoid any potential glitches found in the switch version. Well thats all and hopefully i dont have to reset so i can continue playing. Its a very charming game and i dont want to be soured by a few bugs.

Edit: after reseting my save, most of my issues are fixed. For some reason it didn't want to load the bug enemies for the sneak portion and so i was frozen in the sneak tutorial. I'd like to reiterate that it's still a great game and if you want to play it then get it on switch. After resetting, I did enjoy it a bit more because I saw less glitches (idk why I saw so many on my first save file). I still enjoy the game and maybe I'll update this more as i go on. I will say that this game needed more polish before releasing.

Edit 2: I dont know if im just unlucky or if the switxh version is just bad cuz I got softlocked twice more. I was able to fix one of the issues but now I can't progress again and I'll most likely have to reset AGAIN. I'm getting really fed up with this and at this point idk if I even want to finish the game. I'll keep updating yall

[Monafide]

Giving the game an 8.5 while claiming it may be one of the best indie games of all time feels a little incongruous, but maybe we just operate on different review scales lol

Edit: I feel the need to clarify at this point that I don't have any issue with the score or think that 8.5 games can't be excellent.
I just think it's odd to proclaim something as 'one of the best' when it isn't very close to a perfect score. Ratings are subjective of course and I take no issue with the review's contents otherwise.

[batofdestiny]

Just remember that this game was directed by the man who designed Shadow Lugia, aka XD001. :0

[jgodden]

If you genuinely think this game can count among the best indies ever made then I'm going to suggest you really haven't played many indies. I can think of a handful of indies from this year alone with more compelling gameplay and cohesive game design. FROM THIS YEAR ALONE.

This game's presentation and aesthetic elements are truly great. Its structure is bland, its gameplay a pale shadow of the games that have influenced it (A Link Between World, Baba is You, numerous 3D platformers), and for a game centred on the idea of creativity it does an impressively ironic job of robbing the player of agency and creative puzzle solving opportunities.

[Whirlwhind]

In a world where people think 7/10 is considered 'bad', Ya'll are really underestimating how good 8.5 is.

[denischen]

Remember that addictive is not the same as fun. A game that is addictive is not always fun, and a game that is fun is not necessarily addictive. Stay clear of games that try to manipulate you with daily streaks and randomized loot boxes. Look for games that respect your time, introduce lots of new and interesting ideas, and keeps you in control of when to play.

[austinreid]

I feel if you call a game “greatest of all time indie” it should come with a 10/10 scoring. 8.5 is anticlimactic I know it’s not a AAA game but still. You didn’t have anything negative to say about other than its short length and easy story. I think it deserves at least a 9.

[willreicher]

I've been playing on ps5. I've experienced multiple crashes, two glitches that required a hard reset to fix, multiple issues with characters flickering, and an unintentional sequence break that could have turned into a crash. The game is pretty, but it feels like there were pretty glaring bugs that were not caught in playtesting. The game is fun but also tend to railroad you. I feel like the device of being a storybook may have unintentionally created a hallway sim. I hope that this style of popping between 2d and 3d can be refined, but it just felt a bit lacking. The mini games are fun, but they also feel like a patch job to cover up weak combat design.

[The_Admiral_Angel]

Definitely a Day 1 buy from me. I only recently heard about this game last week. I saw so many articles about it before I gave in and gave the trailers a watch. Needless to say, the storybook presentation caught my interest, but the ALBW-like mechanics immediately clicked with me.

And I'm personally fine with the game only being around 6-8 hours so as long as it's enjoyable from beginning to end. I could definitely use a break from all the 100 hour-long open world and RPGs I've been playing recently. And coming off from Astro Bot was a fun change of pace.

[dycu]

11:19 Already is. Played and cried after Ys VIII. Wished there was a novel. And someone wrote one. The game was superior to the novel though. Probably because the latter is more of a summary.

[MUSQUIZanimation]

“It’s probably one of the best indie games of all time!”

8.5

[SunshineCasy]

"ONE OF" the best. As in, it is AMONG the best indie games, specifically in the best %15 of indie games. That's very good!

[PamonhasDePiracicaba]

10/10 game for me. I’m glad I waited for a few patches before buying it. The game still crashes every now and then, but the autosaving is generous. I hope they continue to release new patches. Technical issues aside, the game is absolutely charming and has been a delightful experience.

[Rubberman]

To me, "Cave Story" will forever be the "King of Indie Games" for me, just because of how impactful such a small an unassuming game ended up being and how it paved the way for the rise of indie games afterward. Still, the idea that The Plucky Squire might go down as one of the "indie game greats" alongside Shovel Knight, Undertale, Hollow Knight Cuphead, Celeste, Pizza Tower and the like is incredibly enticing! It definitely has a lot of charm to it. It helps that part of it's appeal can be neatly summed up with a few seconds of gameplay and thus can easily be shared around (not unlike Fez's core gameplay mechanic, though hopefully James Turner and All Possible Futures will be less "problematic" compared to Phil Fish).

[Fishy-Squad]

I think this game is more tailored to parents and kids, which is fine im glad theres more games, but it explains a lot of the loooong cutscenes ive been getting so far

[LWAllen]

I’m on chapter six already. Neat game.

[MissRagnarok]

Really great review and it's the one I would trust. I've been seeing others saying that it's "lackluster" or a "chore" and there's just something in me that just questioned that.

[guardian]

I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. Can’t wait to get my hands on it!

[jgodden]

Nope. The gameplay isn't anywhere near as inventive as the premise, presentation, or the game's influences suggest it could be. In a year featuring Balatro, Animal Well, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, and the early access version of Hades II (which already has more content than the first game), Plucky Squire doesn't come anywhere near the indie top spot. It's a quite underwhelming game with delightful presentation.

[crestofhonor]

I have been excited for this game for a while. I can't wait to check it out at some point