I don’t regret the nine hours I spent with The Plucky Squire, but one of my most anticipated indie games of the year is getting a little rough once again.
This is a rather depressing result, as September saw a slew of pretty hot AAA releases, as well as some well-marketed and beautiful indie games that ultimately left me disappointed (Wild Bastards and Caravan SandWitch being the most striking example). However, I may be in the minority again, so this is my attempt to examine why and how this little dare didn’t live up to my expectations.
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With the underlying technology and killer visual presentation all figured out, Brave Squire seems like an easy winner. It pays homage to classic Zelda games and 3D platformers, with some fresh ideas straight out of LittleBigPlanet. For the most part, the story succeeds in capturing that innocent, simple energy, and despite the meta elements, the story never descends into weird territory. I wholeheartedly recommend this game to most anyone looking for a little gaming experience, especially the youngest gamers.
In fact, All Possible Futures actually nails the audiovisual elements – which blend into a truly gorgeous game – while the conventional but incomplete plot only makes the “game” side of things harder to follow. . Its gimmicks often allow the plucky protagonist to jump off the page and interact with the story as some sort of transgressive god, making the most of it if you will… It’s good to have the road ahead of you. For a game that spends a lot of time talking about rewriting the story and thinking outside the box, it’s a very limiting experience.
Narratively, there’s more going on in this game than meets the eye. There are some really solid character arcs and beats here, and its themes are very clear but presented in an earnest way rather than the cheap subversion that so many artists go for with a silly basic premise. But these bold shifts don’t translate into the game itself, and aside from the introduction and mini-games for each new ability, these are absolute highlights and cast doubt on Brave Squire as a smaller, more direct homage. The game would be better, an independent Astro Bot, not dependent on a single brand.
For example, the early promised “brave squire” will be able to leave the book and interact with the world in the book in a unique way, which heralds a free-flowing adventure that encourages creative thinking and is more in line with the style of immersive simulation games. Despite the overall action-adventure/platform structure. Of course, such an overall design creates a host of development challenges that “all possible futures” may encounter. But that’s the implicit promise at the heart of the story, and the mechanics introduced once the game begins.
Instead, progression through the levels’ many enemy encounters, mazes, and puzzles always only allows for one possible solution, and that solution usually has a neon sign pointing to it (not literally, but almost). If you think having a companion character in a AAA game spit out the solution to a puzzle after 10 seconds of doing nothing is counterproductive, then you’ll probably hate the little wizard that appears on almost every page because it gives you the most clues I’ve ever seen The fewest hints ever seen in a video game. Not only does The Brave Squire make things too simple, violating its central premise, but it also actively wants you to stick to the script, which is the opposite of what the story wants to tell anyone.
Of course, Brave Squire has to work with kids, too, but let’s not kid ourselves: At this point, the vast majority of people seduced by these nostalgia-fueled romps are adults who haven’t yet murdered their own Inner child. And, even if you have a kid playing with this, he’ll most likely be fine without excessive guardrails. I mean, their victory in Fortress Heroes BR was like nothing. I don’t think it’s necessary to make things too simple.
Since the developers seemed unconsciously uncomfortable with making Zelda-esque sections (the actual bulk of the game) that weren’t reduced to basic arenas, puzzles with more than three steps, or chore-filled hubs, it actually It’s the 3D part that brings them more joy. The controls are never precise enough, but Brave Squire’s brief excursions into the real world are easier to enjoy because the game feels noticeably more confident then. Just don’t get past the invisible parts that fail instantly. Please don’t do this.
Still, there’s plenty of fun and memorable antics in Brave Squire: its mini-games (mostly boss fight-related) are a nice change of pace, and the writing is tight and entertaining without being overly point. In fact, I would say that despite the above issues, there was a lot of progress in the second half of the journey.
The introductory game to All Maybe Futures may not have fully formed into a dimension-warping adventure game that makes full use of the systems, mechanics, and text it’s built into, but trust me I’ll be returning to Mojo land with the lessons learned.
