Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure is a game where I love the vibes and concepts, but felt rushed through things. It doesn’t fully explain or explore some of the interesting mechanical features introduced by the protagonist’s unique skill. This means even though the vibes are great and concept is cool, it can feel unsatisfying due to the execution.
Gemma is weird! She was left abandoned outside a walled village as a baby. Raised by the folks within, it was soon discovered that when she would move, people and select items would as well. She’d also be able to essentially teleport by walking into walls, emerging on the path on the other side. This happens on a sort of tile-based system. She’s convinced answers lie outside. So, in search of answers about herself and her path, as well as hoping for a way to find a place she belongs, she sets out on an adventure.
It’s best to think of Arranger’s world as being similar to a giant sliding puzzle, only you aren’t trying to move tiles into place to create a picture. The simplest parts involve just getting Jemma from point A to point B, as there will sometimes be immovable objects or ones that can’t phase through walls blocking your way. More challenging ones can involve moving a person to a certain place, pushing a sword against a Static enemy to dispatch them, getting an item to sit on a switch, or moving multiple items adjacent to one another so they’ll combine. Things gradually ramp up and build upon each other, with different concepts coming together to help clear situations in certain cities.
Arranger can get frustrating sometimes! It isn’t because the puzzles are challenging. Rather, it is due to abilities not always being well explained, if discussed at all. Furniture & Mattress never tells you that Jemma’s ability to shift and move the world mean you can move items from inside buildings into major areas or to other locations. It first comes up within the first 15-30 minutes, when needing to get into the Mayor’s house. There’s a switch in an empty room. Unless you realize that the tiles inside the house will change and gradually pull in tiles Gemma walked on from outside, you may not realize you could bring in the broken ladder parts from Caretaker Foffy or other furniture from other places and shift them inside to flip the switch and progress.
This problem of not explaining “Jemma can do this too” goes on to become a recurring issue. Sometimes, it’s fun and narratively interesting! Once Jemma finds a place for her stuff in the introduction, you actually need to “move” it to an empty house out of the flophouse where she’s staying. It can involve new ways to move certain types of objects, which can factor into crucial situations. I learned that you can fuse certain adjacent items together by, well, having the arrows option enabled for quests on in the menu and pushing things together. When it came time to fishing, I had no idea how I made it happen for the trial since I was just moving around, and I had to relearn by doing for a quest.
While that is frustrating, and also led to a few situations in which I thought maybe I’d messed things up so badly in a boss “fight” that I’d need to save and quit, it can be satisfying when you get it right. Or, at the very least, satisfying to know you’ll never need to go through that particular type challenge again. Arranger, due to its length and design, typically only uses a new type of mechanics for a few rooms. One of my favorites involved portals being introduced. I wished it had been used more! It introduced some fun concepts, especially in terms of reaching new spaces, but it only appeared extremely briefly in a single section.
Admittedly, there were a few times in Arranger when getting things right involved my happening upon a solution without even preparing for it or learning how mechanics worked. Likewise, there were also at least three situations that involved my brute-forcing my way into an eventual solution. I suppose that may be reassuring for some! Especially since people can also use an assist feature in the menu to “solve” any problem in a space that’s getting to be a problem. However, I was also a bit disappointed when I completed an area without doing so by my own merits.
The fact that the Arranger speeds through Jemma’s adventure, even if you do go off the beaten path for some minor side quests (some of which aren’t well explained or tracked by the tracker), is a shame because the concept is so fun. Jemma is a cool character! The situations she happens upon are interesting. Some touch on political or societal issues we deal with in our own world, but in a clever way that isn’t overbearing. However, we just don’t get enough time with many of the situations. I especially felt this way about everything past the second town. It seemed like there should have been more opportunities to explore a bit or taken in the area.
I really appreciate Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure and everything it sets out to do, as the concept is great, the story fun, and some puzzles thought-provoking. I just wish that it wasn’t so rushed, concepts were better explained, and that new puzzle elements weren’t abandoned as swiftly as they are introduced. You don’t get time to appreciate all that Jemma can do or the situations around her, and you’re left to stumble into new abilities or possibilities. If there had been a few more puzzles and framework, it’d been a stronger game.
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure will come to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and PC on July 25, 2024.
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure follows the story of Jemma, a small-town misfit on a journey of self-discovery. Venturing out beyond her stiflingly cozy confines, she finds an inspiring world - but also one ruled by fear, and a strange, immovable ‘static’ force. Can she disrupt a culture of stagnation, and find a place to fit into it? Switch version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes.
I appreciate Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure and what it sets out to do, as the concept is great and some puzzles are thought-provoking.
- I really loved the section with the birds, especially when you got to the control method. It's one of the more clever puzzle options.
- There are some genuinely funny and punchy lines scattered throughout. The humor is always well-executed.
- It auto-saves, especially ahead of boss fights, which is helpful! You can go into one with a fresh start, if you feel like you messed one up.
Published: Jul 22, 2024 09:00 am