The Plucky Squire launched last September. It has been lauded as a neat homage to old-school hack-and-slash adventures like The Legend of Zelda. Though the game was well-received by modern audiences, a new mode makes things a little more challenging for some players.
A ‘Streamlined Mode’ has been added to the game, but what can players expect from it compared to the standard mode of The Plucky Squire?
Streamlined Mode for The Plucky Squire
According to the original press release of The Plucky Squire (via Video Games Chronicle), Streamlined Mode removes many of the tutorials in-game for a ‘less hand-holdy experience.’ The description goes on to read:
“This trims less necessary dialogue removes or reduces camera hints, cuts out some tutorial content, and control of the game is taken away from you less often… It’s the same grand Plucky Squire adventure, just tweaked to remove some friction for seasoned gamers.”
The update includes new dialogue portraits for major characters (not part of Streamlined Mode), general bug fixes, and other minor improvements.
It’s also worth noting that the update is only available for PCs. It’s expected to come to consoles soon, but the devs over at All Possible Futures may be waiting to see what other tweaks they can make before releasing the update for consoles.
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+ 2Going Old School
Old-school video games, such as the older Zelda titles or Mega Man, have been commended for teaching players how to play without much need for dialogue boxes. Egoraptor’s take on this phenomenon in the Mega Man series is interesting.
Over the years, this kind of game design has been changed for more direct instructions. Still, since The Plucky Squire is an homage to old action-adventure games, it would make sense that the designers were trying to design the game so that players could figure things out independently without so much need for dialogue boxes and straight-up instructions. Even God of War: Ragnarok got flak for Atreus solving the puzzles for the gamers before they could figure things out for themselves.
Feeling Plucky
click to enlarge + 2The Plucky Squire was All Possible Futures's debut game. It received fantastic reviews on several platforms and was nominated for two categories at this year's Game Awards: Best Debut Indie and Best Family Game.
Though kid-friendly games may not be as trendy as they used to be, there is still a market for them. Many people were even surprised that Astro Bot won Game of the Year in 2024 over titles like Black Myth: Wukong and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
It’s unclear what the future holds for The Plucky Squire, but fans can’t wait to see what All Possible Futures has in store.
The Plucky Squire is now available for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
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