‘The Brave Squire’ (★★★★): Once upon a time there was a video game

The brave squire

★★★★✩
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch
​Developer: All Possible Futures
Directors: James Turner and Jonathan Biddle

Browsing in the children’s literature section of a bookstore is like entering a world without rules. The books have absolutely different sizes and formats, the colors are shown without any type of shyness and the visual styles are so varied that they make adults look like monotonous and simple beings. This sensation is precisely what the video game wants to capture. The brave squire a children’s story that is read with a controller in your hands.

Jota is the hero referred to in the title, a child adventurer and writer, who stars and writes the most popular book series in the kingdom of Moyo. However, everything goes to waste when the malevolent Grumpy, his archenemy, realizes that he is the villain of all the stories and decides to use a powerful spell to expel the protagonist from his own story. Thus begins this game of exploration, combat and puzzle solving set in the pages of a book, a two-dimensional world reminiscent of the first adventures of The Legend of Zelda but that, in reality, is only half of the experience.

Outside the pages of the book, the hero must explore a three-dimensional world that represents the story reader’s room full of toys. This shift in perspective is the most surprising feature of independent studio All Possible Futures’ debut game, an original way to break the fourth wall and make the player have to figure out how to move the plot forward. For example, tilting the book itself to make the objects drawn on its pages move from one side to the other, or exchanging words to modify the environment.

Delightful in its artistic design, The brave squire It is a game that enters through the eyes, but also through words. The Spanish localization of the texts and the narrator’s voice are a very good adaptation that does not skimp on veiled jokes for the accompanying parents. Likewise, we appreciate the efforts of the developers in providing the game with a set of accessibility options designed so that those with less experience in video games can advance easily. Concise and tremendously original, it has every chance to win over the most sincere and demanding audience.