Zelda-Inspired Plucky Squire Shows What Happens When A Game Doesn't Trust Its Players
kotaku.com
This charming adventure could afford to take a few steps back

You see, The Plucky Squire falls prey to one of modern gaming’s most well-intentioned, but still utterly annoying, sins and overtly tutorializes everything. When it deigns to allow the player to pop out of their storybook for a 3D platforming level, the camera pans across the entirety of the stage outlining the intended path before you’ve even really set foot in the world. Even within the confines of the 2D world in the book, The Plucky Squire will often deploy humorous narration via onscreen text and a corresponding voiceover, which adds flavor to the game but also explicitly communicates what is expected of you at every turn.

At just about every step of the way, the game lacks any faith in your ability to figure out solutions and paths forward for yourself, preferring to bludgeon you over the head with answers before you can even be afforded a chance to think for yourself. It’s a frustrating wrinkle in an otherwise charming tale.

  • coyotino [he/him]@beehaw.orgEnglish
    17·
    3 months ago

    Ideally, it would be an optional thing, but oh well.

    Yeah tons of games ask you at the start of the game, like “have you played this kind of game before?” Def seems clumsy for a game that otherwise seems pretty well thought out.

    • DdCno1@beehaw.org
      4·
      3 months ago

      I have seen people (in person and on the Internet) click tutorials away, proceed to utterly fail at the most basic tasks only to then blame the game and the developers, including in reviews. I don’t blame developers for trying to prevent this from happening.

      • coyotino [he/him]@beehaw.orgEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Idk if that’s a useful example case. Streamers are under pressure from their audience to be entertaining, so they will frequently skip tutorials against their better judgment bc tutorials aren’t fun to watch. I can’t speak to your irl examples, but it’s possible that there was a similar dynamic happening there. At least, I can say that I have personally felt a similar pressure when playing games while other people are watching me.

        Edit: user reviews are good example, though. I could see a dev over-tutorializing bc they are anxious about negative user reviews.