Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure (NS) - Review
by Evan Norris , posted on 06 August 2024 / 1,809 Views
There's a common saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. There couldn't be a better motto for Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure, the debut game from Furniture & Mattress. It's ideal because the adventure is literally about the protagonist Jemma stepping left, right, up, and down on a grid, and because it speaks figuratively to her journey of self-discovery. Indeed, the game in general is unusually adept at finding the nexus between the literal and symbolic.
Arranger starts in a sleepy hamlet on a pivotal day for our heroine Jemma. She has finally decided to leave the peace, security, and stagnation of her adopted home to explore the outside world and, maybe, learn a little about her origins. Despite a few starts and stops, she finally exits the town and enters the vast lands beyond. There she finds friends, puzzles, revelations, and, everywhere she goes, a strange, immovable force called "static", which has interrupted many lives.
The story in Arranger is sweet, if a bit undercooked. It doesn't fully unpack its mythology, and it only briefly touches on several threads that could use more unraveling, but it should keep your attention throughout. The star of the show, Jemma, does a lot of heavy lifting here. She's a charismatic, nuanced character who is filled simultaneously with optimistic hope for the future and a nagging sense of self-doubt. The friends and hangers-on she meets along her adventure are similarly interesting, if, again, a tad underdeveloped. Each has a unique personality and an honest, understandable reaction to the world around them. Then there's the plot, which is decent on its own but more effective as a metaphor. Ultimately, Arranger is an allegory for the importance of keeping active, leaving a mark on others, and exploring the world and oneself.
The game’s mechanics reinforce this message. Everything takes place on an interconnected grid and whenever Jemma moves, the world literally moves with her. The controls are simple and snappy. All you need is do is press the d-pad and Jemma will move in one of the four cardinal directions along the grid. And if you move toward a dead end, you’ll emerge on the opposite side of the row or column. This simple locomotion system sets the stage for dozens of small bite-sized puzzles.
The spatial puzzles in Arranger are fairly good, with a gradual difficulty curve. Things start simply, as you push a sword toward a static monster or cross a river atop a raft. Eventually the rules and expectations become more complex. Jemma must move objects by remote control, travel through linked portals, and move in tandem with another individual. Some of the simpler puzzles feel like busy work, but the rarer, more involved ones — the ones that force you to put down your controller for a second and think "okay, what do I need to do here" — scratch the right itch. Some of the best revolve around boss battles, where you need to move pieces around a large map to topple the beast.
Arranger fancies itself a "role-puzzling adventure", but that's really only two-thirds correct. There are no role-playing systems at work here, apart from incidental things like towns and monsters. This is a pure adventure game focused on story, exploration, and problem-solving.
Judged on those metrics, it’s satisfactory. Exploration is probably the least enticing of the three, mostly because the adventure is quite linear and guided. To be fair, there are three optional challenges in the game where you need to unite mating animals, collect gems in a mine, and track down forest sprites, but the rewards aren't really worth it, and it only tacks on about 90 minutes to the six-hour runtime. Arranger would benefit from more optional challenges, more rewards, more secrets, and maybe even additional endings. The game is just a touch too straightforward, as is.
While Arranger is a tad short on rewarding content, it's incredibly generous when it comes to accessibility options. It offers two optional assists: one that always points you toward the current objective and one that allows you to skip (most) puzzles. If, conversely, you want to make things harder for yourself, you can activate hard mode, which inverts the controls. There's also a co-op mode where player two controls a floating fairy that can point the main player toward objects of interest. It's superfluous, but cute.
Cute doesn't begin to describe the artwork in Arranger. Designed by David Hellman of Braid fame, the artistic assets are lovely to behold. There's a bright, cartoonish vibe that makes the game incredibly inviting. The only minor downside is the presence of hand-drawn inserts in certain environments, meant to replicate what Jemma sees on her periphery as she travels the world. It's a neat technical effect, but it calls attention to the artifice.
As for music, it's equally enticing. The soundtrack, composed by Tomás Batista, is a collection of whimsical, lo-fi tunes heavy on acoustic guitar and charango. Along with Hellman's art, it's arguably the highlight of the entire game.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This holds true for Arranger but also for the studio behind it, Furniture & Mattress. Thanks to a charismatic protagonist, some engaging puzzles, and lovely art & music, it’s a fairly good freshman effort from the developer. With a deeper narrative, a larger world, and more opportunities for rewarding exploration, it would be even better. Still, even with a few underdeveloped components, the game is very much like its heroine Jemma: charming and hard to ignore.
VGChartz Verdict
6.5
Decent
This review is based on a digital copy of Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure for the NS, provided by the publisher.
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I remember scoping out a trailer for this game earlier when it first came out, though I ultimately bypassed on it in favor of Nine Sols at the time. I think I made the right call, but still, this lucid review makes me a bit curious about what I missed. I remember being instinctively drawn to the novelty of the game play concept, but also thinking that the dialogue bits included in the trailer felt a bit on the nose and wasn't sure what to make of that. I also know that I definitely have a favorite puzzle game this year-to-date (Lorelei and the Laser Eyes) and a favorite year-to-date narrative adventure as well (1000xRESIST) and while Arranger doesn't immediately strike me as realistically on par in either category, I am in a bit of a gaming lull at the moment and more interested in the game than before after reading this review. Think I might just have to play it next. Thanks! :)
Great looking visuals and I really appreciate the banners you post for your article.
Not my genre even when I played more games.
Impressive for a new developer team!
Essay Pro