The Plucky Squire is an adorable adventure game that mixes 2D and 3D

Courageous landowner It’s a game that leaps off the page—literally. It takes place in a story world rendered in two dimensions, an adoration for co-director and former Pokemon artist james turner. But at certain points, the heroic main character can enter the real world and solve puzzles that mix 2D and 3D in inventive ways. Sometimes, you’re moving objects between dimensions; other times, you’re rearranging words in a book to create new results. It’s as creative as it is cute, and it follows Sony’s Astro Bot This year is turning out to be a great one for family-friendly games.

The game puts you in the role of Jot, an adventurous landowner who has the unusual ability to exist outside of the book he stars in. The two worlds are very different: the inside of the storybook is bright, colourful and simple, while the real world is appropriately dark and realistic. They’re separate, but through Jot, the worlds intertwine as he sets about saving the book from an evil wizard. Solving puzzles involves flipping pages to pull up objects from the past, using language to circumvent obstacles and occasionally punching a bear. It’s silly and heartwarming and, at times, reminiscent of 2D segments in Nintendo classics Super Mario Odyssey And The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds,

For Turner, the initial idea for the game came during a lull when he had just left the house. Pokemon He had started working at developer Game Freak, but hadn’t yet started work at All Possible Futures, the studio he co-founded with Jonathan Biddle. “I left Game Freak, and then I had nothing to do,” he says The Verge. “To fill that void, I started making a webcomic.” The name of that comic was CosmicIt contained many characters and ideas that would eventually make their way into Courageous landowner As the plot of its story took shape.

For Turner — who posts frequently funny mashup illustration and who designed notable Pokémon such as Polteageist — One of the goals of the game was to create a unique clash of styles. Not only in dimensions Courageous landowner Jot needs to play differently, but he also needs to look different. This is an idea that came up early in development; initially, when Jot jumped into the real world, he was cel-shaded to maintain his cartoony style. Eventually, however, it became clear that a more realistic, almost toy-like version of the character worked better.

“It diminished the reality of the outside world quite a bit in a weird way,” Turner says of cel shading. “Even though the outside world was very real, the object you were looking at remained real 90 percent of the time. [isn’t]It starts to affect how you see the rest of the world.” He adds that “the idea of ​​contrast was really important to the game.”

A good example is at the beginning Courageous landowner When Jot is looking for a bow and arrow to complete a quest. This involves jumping into the real world through a portal, navigating a very messy desk filled with obstacles, and then jumping into the card Magic the Gathering to fight an elf. When Jot finally reaches his destination, three different art styles appear on the screen: storybook 2D, realistic 3D, and detailed fantasy art. “I thought the clash of styles would be the most shocking,” Turner explains.

Besides its visuals, Courageous landowner It’s also notable for being an experience that’s really good for people of all ages. The action and puzzles have enough depth that they’re satisfying and not intimidating for younger or less experienced players. It’s like a well-paced game zelda Adventure, with some nice quality-of-life features, such as an optional hint system that doesn’t give away too much information. It’s a genre of game that might be hard to find from anything other than Nintendo (including the upcoming echo of wisdom) but titles such as Astro Bot And Courageous landowner Showing that it’s possible for other developers too.

“There are a lot of people who want to play these games, but they’re not given as much exposure as they should be,” says Turner. “It feels like there’s a big gap outside of Nintendo, where it would be nice if we could play these games on a regular basis. They’re needed.”

Courageous landowner It’s now available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.