The Plucky Squire is a great adventure that combines 2D and 3D.

The brave knight It’s a game that literally jumps off the page. It’s set in a story world rendered in two dimensions, beautifully thanks to co-director and former director Pokemon artist James TurnerBut at certain points, the heroic main character can venture out into the real world and solve puzzles that blend 2D and 3D in creative ways. Sometimes, she’s moving objects between dimensions; other times, she’s rearranging words in a book to create new outcomes. It’s cute and creative, and it’s Sony’s approach. Astro robot What looks like a very good year for family-friendly games.

The game puts you in the role of Gut, a brave man with the unusual ability to exist outside the book he stars in. The two worlds are very different: inside the storybook is bright, colorful, and simple, while the real world is dark and appropriately realistic. The two worlds are different, but through Gut, the worlds intersect as he sets out to save the book from an evil wizard. Solving puzzles involves flipping pages to pull items from the past, using language to overcome obstacles, and occasionally throwing a bear into a box. It’s silly and honest, and at times reminiscent of 2D installments 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 Pokemon He had been working on Game Freak but hadn’t started working on All Possible Futures, the studio he co-founded with Jonathan Beadle. “I left Game Freak, and I had nothing to do,” he says. The Edge“To fill this void, I started drawing a web comic.” That comic, called Bewhich included a number of characters and ideas that would eventually find their way into The brave knight Her comic strip also took its final form.

For Turner – who publishes frequently – funny illustrations Who designed such notable Pokémon as Poltigist — One of the goals of the game was to create a unique clash of styles. Not only should the dimensions be in The brave knight Jot should have a different gameplay, but his appearance should be different too. It’s an idea that came up early in development; initially, when Jot jumped into the real world, he was shaded to maintain his cartoonish style. However, it eventually became clear that a more realistic, almost toy-like version of the character was better.

“It reduced the realism of the outside world in a weird way,” Turner says of cellular shading. “Even though the outside world was very real, if the object you were looking at 90 percent of the time was [isn’t]“It starts to affect how you see the rest of the world,” he adds. “The idea of ​​contrast was really important to the game.”

There is a good example early on in The brave knight When Gut searches for a bow and arrow to complete a task. This involves jumping through a portal into the real world, navigating through a very messy office full of obstacles, and then jumping into a torn card from Magic: The Gathering “To fight an elf. When Goat finally reaches his destination, three distinct art styles appear on screen: 2D storybook-inspired art, realistic 3D art, and detailed fantasy art. “I thought this clash of styles would be the most amazing,” Turner explains.

Beyond its visual images, The brave knight The game also boasts of being an experience suitable for all ages. The game has enough depth and excitement to be satisfying while not being too scary for younger or less experienced players. It’s like a simplified game. Zelda It’s an adventure game, with some great quality-of-life features, like an optional hint system that doesn’t reveal much. It’s a style of gameplay that might be hard to find outside of something Nintendo has produced (which includes the upcoming Echoes of Wisdom). But titles like Astro robot and The brave knight They show that it is possible for other developers as well.

“There are a lot of people who want to play these games, but they haven’t been given the attention they should have,” Turner says. “There seems to be a big gap outside of Nintendo where it would be nice to have these games on a regular basis. There’s a need for them.”

The brave knight The game is now out on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.