The Plucky Squire – quite literally jumps off the page (Picture: Devolver Digital)

Part top-down adventure, part 3D platformer, The Plucky Squire may just be the best game from the PlayStation Showcase.

We’ve made it no secret that we found last night’s PlayStation showcase to be thoroughly underwhelming. If there’s one positive to take from it, though, it’s that Sony shone a spotlight on a variety of smaller indie projects that may have otherwise slipped under peoples’ radars.

One such example is The Plucky Squire, a charming looking adventure game that had already been announced a few months ago, but one that we doubt many of you had heard of before now.

While it has renowned publisher Devolver Digital backing it, this is the debut game of All Possible Futures, a small studio co-founded by James Turner, who previously worked at Pokémon studio Game Freak.

Turner’s credits include director on lesser-known Game Freak projects like HarmoKnight and Tembo The Badass Elephant. Pokémon fans best know him as the art director for Pokémon Sword & Shield and for designing a handful of pokémon across the series, including those awful ice cream ones from Pokémon Black & White.

We won’t hold that against him, though, since The Plucky Squire’s new trailer makes for a great first impression, boasting gameplay that looks like a mix between A Link Between Worlds and the 2D sections of Super Mario Odyssey.

The aesthetic also has similar vibes to the homemade visuals of RPG Time, with the game set in a storybook and the action taking place across its pages.

It starts off looking like a simple top-down adventure game, like a retro Legend Of Zelda title mixed with some side-scrolling, but then main character Jot leaves the confines of the storybook and starts walking around in the real world like a 3D platformer.

He can then run around the desk the book rests on, as well as the surrounding bedroom and even flatten himself against various surfaces to traverse. Just like the key ability in Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

The game lacks an exact launch date for the time being, but All Possible Futures is aiming to have it out by the end of 2023. Also, despite appearing at the PlayStation showcase, it’s scheduled for other platforms too.

The Plucky Squire launches for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC later this year.

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Part top-down adventure, part 3D platformer, The Plucky Squire may just be the best game from the PlayStation Showcase.