Summary

  • The Plucky Squire features Zelda-like combat and puzzles, with its core gameplay mechanic inspired by Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
  • Players will navigate both 2D storybook environments and 3D realms, similar to Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
  • The Plucky Squire's combat style, featuring real-time and turn-based battles, draws inspiration from Zelda but has its own unique charm.

As far as top-notch Zelda games go, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is almost as good as it gets. Not only is A Link Between Worlds one of the highest-scoring Nintendo 3DS games of all time, according to Metacritic, but it is also widely recognized as one of the best Zelda games ever made. That's what makes one of the PS Plus Extra and Premium games for September 2024 so special, as it has Zelda: A Link Between Worlds written all over it. The game in question is The Plucky Squire, an action-adventure title by indie developer All Possible Futures set to launch on September 17 alongside the rest of this month's PS Plus Extra and Premium lineup.

The Plucky Squire is not a Zelda game by any means, but it utilizes a core gameplay mechanic of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and features straightforward sword combat that would feel familiar to any fan of the longstanding Legend of Zelda series. With such a kinship to The Legend of Zelda, The Plucky Squire is landing on PS Plus at the perfect time, just a little over a week before the launch of the next mainline Zelda installment, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

The Plucky Squire Features Zelda-Like Combat and Puzzles

According to what's been revealed so far about The Plucky Squire, it features fairly simple Zelda-like combat, in which players control a character who wields a sword and what appears to be some kind of boomerang as well. For the most part, The Plucky Squire' s combat is done in real-time, but occasional turn-based battles have also been confirmed for the game. That may be The Plucky Squire's most significant deviation from Zelda's combat.

As players make their way through each level in The Plucky Squire, they will also be tasked with solving a wide variety of platforming puzzles that impede progress until they are solved. This type of gameplay loop has always been a major aspect of The Legend of Zelda, even though Zelda's puzzles may be a bit more complex than The Plucky Squire's — at least, judging by what has been shown so far.

Where The Plucky Squire begins to look specifically like Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is in its regular transitions between 2D and 3D environments. Certain sections of the game see players traipsing across the pages of a storybook similar to Paper Mario, with storybook illustrations to boot, defeating enemies and progressing the story, all from a top-down point of view. Once those moments are over, however, players then emerge from the book and enter The Plucky Squire's 3D realm, which is viewed from an isometric perspective. In The Plucky Squire's 3D realm, players solve unique platforming puzzles, occasionally jumping in and out of the game's 2D space when necessary.

This gameplay mechanic is identical to Zelda: A Link Between Worlds' most prominent gimmick, which sees Link regularly becoming a 2D, painted version of himself to solve puzzles and reach otherwise unreachable areas. In light of that, it's difficult to ignore The Plucky Squire's obvious fondness for Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, though there's no justifiable reason to classify that as a bad thing. After all, the feature fits the storybook world of The Plucky Squire perfectly, so it's hard to fault it for imitating one of the best Zelda games ever made. At the very least, it gives Zelda fans a placeholder for Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom until it arrives, although The Plucky Squire still seems charming in its own way.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image
The Plucky Squire Tag Page Cover Art
8 /10

The Plucky Squire
Display card tags widget
Platformer
Display card system widget
Systems
super greyscale 8-bit logo PC-1 PlayStation-1 Xbox-1
Display card community and brand rating widget Display card open critics widget
Top Critic Avg: 82 /100 Critics Rec: 84%
Display card main info widget
Released
September 17, 2024
ESRB
E10+ For Everyone 10+ // Fantasy Violence
Developer(s)
All Possible Futures
Publisher(s)
Devolver Digital
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start Display card media widget end

WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Genre(s)
Platformer