Zelda-Inspired Plucky Squire Shows What Happens When A Game Doesn’t Trust Its Players
Zelda-Inspired Plucky Squire Shows What Happens When A Game Doesn’t Trust Its Players
by Turbostrider27
28 Comments
pokemonplayer2001
It’s adorable and fun, but it’s not a challenge at all.
Blvd_Nights
I was so excited to play this after a few years of anticipating it, but with so many reviews mentioning how it feels like every time you take a step forward, the dialogue slows you down and takes away from the momentum really took my foot off the gas on my excitement.
Still would love to check it out just for the sheer visual creativity even if it’s just a “fun in the moment” kind of game.
Kusobarashii
I’m 4 chapters in, just started playing tonight. The presentation is great. I’m not vibing so much with the words and placing them mechanic. I’ll finish this game. But yes IMO it does slow things down.
NoNefariousness2144
Sounds like a perfect “wait for sale” game.
Lostboy1986
It definitely looked more interesting in the trailers than it feels to play through it, not a bad game but the potential fun it could have been is not quite there. (I played on playstation with it being “free” on subscription to extra)
bearquat3
Too much hand-holding killed the Mario and Luigi RPG series for me.
RayDeezNutz
Boring and slow
Gameday45
I’m in chapter 7 and I think the game could be over by now. I like it, but what everyone is saying is how I feel too. They basically give you the answer for every puzzle.
timespacemotion
This is why game design is so important.
n8bitgaming
Absolutely this. I want to fall in love with the game. The premise, picture book ideas, art style, charm, and word puzzles are great, but the pacing and flow are completely jacked by constant interruptions to explain what you’re already looking at.
They often explain how to do something, freeze the game to reexplain something, pause the game to show you a door opening, etc. So much of the game could just communicate this through UI or some other detail vs constantly taking control away from the player.
For me these extreme hand holding elements are rough because most other aspects of the game are incredible. I just want to lose myself in the game vs encountering constant interruptions to my enjoyment of it
micromolecules
I absolutely loved the style and presentation of this game, but it didn’t really hook me as much as I’d like. I went in pretty blind, I only heard about the game in name and saw the cover art and thought it would be a cute, cozy game. I know kid me would’ve been enamored by it. It really is cute and cozy, and the first 2D to 3D transition where Jot pops out of the book was really cool to me since I had no idea that would happen.
I got to try the game through PS+ and I’m in Chapter 6, but I’m probably not going to finish it. Maybe another time when I just want something easy going and cozy, but I’ve got other games that are holding my attention more at the moment.
My only gripes for it is that the start felt really slow, it took maybe 40 minutes just to see the main gimmick of the game where you pop out of the book and interact with the world outside to get something you need before entering the story again. This game is definitely for a younger audience or for someone who just wants something chill and cozy. I still commend it for the style and the idea though, it really is very neat.
jojozer0
It feels like you’re playing a super long tutorial
B-Bog
It seems to me like the whole “problem” with this game is that it is almost exclusively aimed at very young kids without having the “fun for all ages” appeal that most Nintendo games or titles like Astro Bot and Tinykin have. And the marketing of the game, IMO, made it look like it would have that.
I don’t mind playing colorful, somewhat easy games, quite the opposite, but I do mind being stopped dead in my tracks every few seconds to get berated with some of the most braindead and superfluous dialogue ever, and I also mind when a game makes almost nothing of a core idea with lots and lots of potential, purely for fear of possibly overwhelming or even just challenging anybody.
toonfuzz
Not sure if it falls on developers and marketers for creating specific expectations or if players’ expectations are simply too high, but perhaps this game is not intended for adults.
I started playing The Plucky Squire with my 7-year-old and she loves it. Reinforces reading, learning new words, solving puzzles – seems great for her age range. For me? Definitely too easy – but we get to play together and enjoy the art style and breezy story.
I will agree with the reviewer that certain aspects should be toggled within accessibility settings to move things along. But I’m not going to say this game should be tailored to adult gamers by any means – let it be a kids game that adults can enjoy.
EDDsoFRESH
That website is fucking trash
twovles31
I’m 4 or 5 hours into it, I’m enjoying the game so far. Granted it was a playstation plus game, so I didn’t go out of my way to buy it.
jjmawaken
I heard the Nintendo Voice Chat people describe some dialogue like this… That gate over there is closed. If we open the gate then it will be open. We can walk through it if the gate is open…. like 4 -5 lines of dialogue that spell out exactly what you are supposed to do in a repetitive way. I was really looking forward to it because I love the idea but it does seem too easy for adults. I may still pick it up on a cheap discount because the 2D/3D book mechanic is really neat.
My_Bwana
Played for a couple hours yesterday. No doubt it is an extremely well made game and a lot of love was put into it, but god damn it is so slow
thedude213
This is ultimately what killed MegaMan X games, later games in the series you’d get new dialogue every 2 steps, it was so annoying.
kp729
I’m enjoying the game so far. It’s close to a visual novel in many ways. It’s a great break from my usual style of games (fromsoft).
I don’t mind the handholding as I’m playing it like reading a book. And as I’m on PS5, the visuals are great.
Man_Bear_Pig25
It was fun for a bit but I have no drive to finish it. The constant stop and start gameplay is obnoxious.
RosemaryCroissant
Is there a back story for who is promoting this game? I check BBC news on my laptop daily, and they’ve been pushing an article they wrote that is nothing but a fluff piece for this specific game- right along side news of war and natural disasters.
GalexAlipeau23
James Turner, ex-GameFreak worked on this, so in my mind it makes all the sense in the world that it’s too hand-holdy even for children lol. I really liked the aesthetic though!
Scorpy_Mjolnir
The sneak mechanic is absolutely terrible.
NoteBlock08
I don’t get why devs keep putting puzzles in their game if they’re gonna be so afraid of their players getting stuck on them. Just what do they think the *point* of a puzzle even is?
citoxe4321
I got to the Wizard chapter (3 or 4) and I *still* felt like I was in a tutorial. Like maybe the game will pick up soon. Then it didnt.
For a game all about creativity they really missed the mark IMO. And the dialogue is just dreadful. “Oh man, we should go over there! If we go over there we can continue forward. Yes, we [went over there]! We can now continue forward Jot!”. Not even Dora the Explorer has dialogue that bad.
OkMixture5607
The dialogue stopping me every 10 metres really is annoying.
Djura-00
The trailer made me think it would be a bit of a different game. I was expecting a 3D adventure (similar to It Takes Two) where you go into creative 2D environments to complete puzzles and progress. I thought you were kicked out of your book and had to go on an adventure to figure out how to get back.
Instead, the majority of the game is in the book where you play the very linear 2D adventure game, and while there are some very fun and creative uses of the 3D aspect, more than 50% of the time, the 3D world is just glorified teleportation around a 2D level. And the 3D sections, while fun, are really short and sprinkled in few and far between.
28 Comments
It’s adorable and fun, but it’s not a challenge at all.
I was so excited to play this after a few years of anticipating it, but with so many reviews mentioning how it feels like every time you take a step forward, the dialogue slows you down and takes away from the momentum really took my foot off the gas on my excitement.
Still would love to check it out just for the sheer visual creativity even if it’s just a “fun in the moment” kind of game.
I’m 4 chapters in, just started playing tonight. The presentation is great. I’m not vibing so much with the words and placing them mechanic. I’ll finish this game. But yes IMO it does slow things down.
Sounds like a perfect “wait for sale” game.
It definitely looked more interesting in the trailers than it feels to play through it, not a bad game but the potential fun it could have been is not quite there. (I played on playstation with it being “free” on subscription to extra)
Too much hand-holding killed the Mario and Luigi RPG series for me.
Boring and slow
I’m in chapter 7 and I think the game could be over by now. I like it, but what everyone is saying is how I feel too. They basically give you the answer for every puzzle.
This is why game design is so important.
Absolutely this. I want to fall in love with the game. The premise, picture book ideas, art style, charm, and word puzzles are great, but the pacing and flow are completely jacked by constant interruptions to explain what you’re already looking at.
They often explain how to do something, freeze the game to reexplain something, pause the game to show you a door opening, etc. So much of the game could just communicate this through UI or some other detail vs constantly taking control away from the player.
For me these extreme hand holding elements are rough because most other aspects of the game are incredible. I just want to lose myself in the game vs encountering constant interruptions to my enjoyment of it
I absolutely loved the style and presentation of this game, but it didn’t really hook me as much as I’d like. I went in pretty blind, I only heard about the game in name and saw the cover art and thought it would be a cute, cozy game. I know kid me would’ve been enamored by it. It really is cute and cozy, and the first 2D to 3D transition where Jot pops out of the book was really cool to me since I had no idea that would happen.
I got to try the game through PS+ and I’m in Chapter 6, but I’m probably not going to finish it. Maybe another time when I just want something easy going and cozy, but I’ve got other games that are holding my attention more at the moment.
My only gripes for it is that the start felt really slow, it took maybe 40 minutes just to see the main gimmick of the game where you pop out of the book and interact with the world outside to get something you need before entering the story again. This game is definitely for a younger audience or for someone who just wants something chill and cozy. I still commend it for the style and the idea though, it really is very neat.
It feels like you’re playing a super long tutorial
It seems to me like the whole “problem” with this game is that it is almost exclusively aimed at very young kids without having the “fun for all ages” appeal that most Nintendo games or titles like Astro Bot and Tinykin have. And the marketing of the game, IMO, made it look like it would have that.
I don’t mind playing colorful, somewhat easy games, quite the opposite, but I do mind being stopped dead in my tracks every few seconds to get berated with some of the most braindead and superfluous dialogue ever, and I also mind when a game makes almost nothing of a core idea with lots and lots of potential, purely for fear of possibly overwhelming or even just challenging anybody.
Not sure if it falls on developers and marketers for creating specific expectations or if players’ expectations are simply too high, but perhaps this game is not intended for adults.
I started playing The Plucky Squire with my 7-year-old and she loves it. Reinforces reading, learning new words, solving puzzles – seems great for her age range. For me? Definitely too easy – but we get to play together and enjoy the art style and breezy story.
I will agree with the reviewer that certain aspects should be toggled within accessibility settings to move things along. But I’m not going to say this game should be tailored to adult gamers by any means – let it be a kids game that adults can enjoy.
That website is fucking trash
I’m 4 or 5 hours into it, I’m enjoying the game so far. Granted it was a playstation plus game, so I didn’t go out of my way to buy it.
I heard the Nintendo Voice Chat people describe some dialogue like this… That gate over there is closed. If we open the gate then it will be open. We can walk through it if the gate is open…. like 4 -5 lines of dialogue that spell out exactly what you are supposed to do in a repetitive way. I was really looking forward to it because I love the idea but it does seem too easy for adults. I may still pick it up on a cheap discount because the 2D/3D book mechanic is really neat.
Played for a couple hours yesterday. No doubt it is an extremely well made game and a lot of love was put into it, but god damn it is so slow
This is ultimately what killed MegaMan X games, later games in the series you’d get new dialogue every 2 steps, it was so annoying.
I’m enjoying the game so far. It’s close to a visual novel in many ways. It’s a great break from my usual style of games (fromsoft).
I don’t mind the handholding as I’m playing it like reading a book. And as I’m on PS5, the visuals are great.
It was fun for a bit but I have no drive to finish it. The constant stop and start gameplay is obnoxious.
Is there a back story for who is promoting this game? I check BBC news on my laptop daily, and they’ve been pushing an article they wrote that is nothing but a fluff piece for this specific game- right along side news of war and natural disasters.
James Turner, ex-GameFreak worked on this, so in my mind it makes all the sense in the world that it’s too hand-holdy even for children lol. I really liked the aesthetic though!
The sneak mechanic is absolutely terrible.
I don’t get why devs keep putting puzzles in their game if they’re gonna be so afraid of their players getting stuck on them. Just what do they think the *point* of a puzzle even is?
I got to the Wizard chapter (3 or 4) and I *still* felt like I was in a tutorial. Like maybe the game will pick up soon. Then it didnt.
For a game all about creativity they really missed the mark IMO. And the dialogue is just dreadful. “Oh man, we should go over there! If we go over there we can continue forward. Yes, we [went over there]! We can now continue forward Jot!”. Not even Dora the Explorer has dialogue that bad.
The dialogue stopping me every 10 metres really is annoying.
The trailer made me think it would be a bit of a different game. I was expecting a 3D adventure (similar to It Takes Two) where you go into creative 2D environments to complete puzzles and progress. I thought you were kicked out of your book and had to go on an adventure to figure out how to get back.
Instead, the majority of the game is in the book where you play the very linear 2D adventure game, and while there are some very fun and creative uses of the 3D aspect, more than 50% of the time, the 3D world is just glorified teleportation around a 2D level. And the 3D sections, while fun, are really short and sprinkled in few and far between.
It’s a good game, but I expected more.