The special, almost intangible loveliness of the Plucky Squire isn't down to either the game design itself or the way it's presented. It's down to both of these things, combined so thoroughly, and with such imagination, that it's hard to stir them apart.

To put it another way, it's not just that this is a fantasy-action game in which your hero receives a bow and arrow from a beautiful elf. It's that, to win that bow and arrow, the hero first has to venture across the authentic wilderness of a child's cluttered bedroom desk, and into a cardboard castle. There, at the top of a tower formed by a stack of beloved books, the hero and the elf must do battle inside the stiff confines of a knock-off Magic: The Gathering card.

This completely rules. And that's just one moment from the preview build of the game I've been playing over the last few days that has elicited such a gasp of wonder and delight. A battle inside a battling card! And then I walk away from it with a golden bow. Yes please, Plucky Squire. Yes please.

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The Plucky Squire, one of Eurogamer's most anticipated games of the year, will launch for PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X/S on 17th September, publisher Devolver Digital has announced.

It'll also be a day one launch via PlayStation Plus, for anyone signed up to Sony's subscription service.

An innovative 2D and 3D platformer based in and around the pages of a picture book, The Plucky Squire is the first project from All Possible Futures, the indie development studio set up by former Pokémon artist James Turner.

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The Plucky Squire's release date has been revealed and its coming very soon! Best of all, PS Plus Extra users get it for free!

The Plucky Squire stars a 2D sword-slashing protagonist so plucky he busts out of his storybook confines and into the fully 3D world of a kid's bedroom. You'll then spend your time hopping between these various planes on a grand, cartoon adventure.

It now has a release date: September 17th.

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The Plucky Squire stars a 2D sword-slashing protagonist so plucky he busts out of his storybook confines and into the fully 3D world of a kid's bedroom. You'll then spend your time hopping between these various planes on a grand, cartoon adventure.

It now has a release date: September 17th.

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Joy is a bit underrated, I reckon, but at Summer Game Fest this year it felt like the closest thing to a running theme. Astro Bot and Lego Horizon Adventures were both a breeze, playful, ebullient family games that put all their focus on simply being a good time. The Plucky Squire, an action game with a domestic dimension hopping twist, however, probably just pipped them to the position of first, in the race to be the most joyful experience I had all week.

In fact, it was one of the most joyful I've had in video games for a little while. The Plucky Squire is a delight.

The setup here involved an opening sequence in a 2D part of The Plucky Squire, the main storybook. What's striking is how the edges of the pages, while always visible, seem to just melt away here. You are in this, playing a top-down Zelda-like adventure, whacking little enemy blobs with your sword or using a nice little throw-and-recall system for it like a manually-summoned boomerang. You hop ledges and chasms from set, green swirls in the ground, which take you to corresponding green swirls on the other side. Then you hit an obstacle - a big spinning mincer that seems rather gnarly and, frankly, suspiciously out of place for this twee little pastel-hued tale - and hop on another swirl and - oh! - you've jumped right out of the page.

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