When it comes to game events like today’s Summer Game Fest, I typically only become interested in around one or two announcements. This certainly remained the case with today’s Devolver Digital showcase. Most of the event consisted of strange skits that featured groan-worthy meta humor and Goichi Suda doing random stuff. But it also showed off two new games that genuinely intrigued me. One of these titles came in the form of The Plucky Squire, a cute little action adventure game featuring an aesthetic similar to that of the Link’s Awakening remake from 2019. Players can expect to pick up this intriguing new game sometime in 2023.
The debut trailer begins with the camera depicting a child’s bedroom before zooming in on a small, pink storybook. At first, the gameplay shown in the trailer takes place entirely within this storybook, which depicts a young hero named Jot doing the kinds of things that heroes normally do. These gameplay sequences boast an impressively clean 2D art style brimming with color and animated flair.
A whole new dimension
Soon enough, however, the trailer shows Jot traveling outside of the storybook into the real world, where he turns into a tiny three-dimensional figure. The end of the trailer contains incredibly brief snippets of gameplay that depict Jot doing all kinds of things, from battling cute yet hostile knights to exploring a desert painted on the sides of a mug. Switching between 2D and 3D environments serves as one of The Plucky Squire‘s main selling points, and it certainly looks like it will lead to plenty of interesting, varied gameplay scenarios.
All in all, this initial trailer of The Plucky Squire leaves a strong first impression, and the game may be worth playing just for the aesthetic alone. Although Devolver Digital’s stream wasn’t that great overall, that didn’t take away from how much of a pleasant surprise this game ended up being.
