Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure from developer Furniture & Mattress is the kind of cool, genre-blending game that words can feel inadequate to describe when it’s so much easier to understand in motion. Yes, telling you it’s an adventure game in which you navigate through a grid that moves the environment with you is technically correct, but that doesn’t sum up how or why this easy, intuitive way to move through its world and to embrace its inherent limitations scratch. an itch in my brain.
There were times when I was playing Arranger where it didn’t feel hyperbolic to call it a “perfect” video game, because Furniture & Mattress so succinctly delivers an idea without letting it hold up too well, get repetitive, or ever come close to tiring. The team weaves its clever puzzle design into the game’s themes, as well as some really charming writing along the way. At the heart of it all is the heartwarming story of Jemma, a small-town outcast who was born with the unintended ability to change the environment around her as she walks through it. If it moves to the left, the entire x-axis in front of it moves with it. This means that any person or thing that happens to be on that line will be pulled along with her steps, going back and forth between the ends until she’s off that line and onto another to start the process all over again.
Xema, feeling like she doesn’t fit in with this small town, decides to leave and discovers hidden truths about this world and its powers that her lifelong neighbors could never understand. Arranger delivers all of this with writing as clever as the puzzle design, but even as I became invested in Jemma’s self-discovery and desire to leave the claustrophobic confines of her small town, sailing ArrangerHis puzzle-driven world was enough for me.
ArrangerJemma’s essential mind about the movement of parts of the world as she walks through it is presented as the thickest concern. She walks across the town square and falls down a staircase on the other side of the walkway because she can’t control her abilities. But it also proves to be her greatest asset as she navigates new, unfamiliar places and you master her skills. Arranger there is combat, but it’s done by manipulating the environment to thrust swords into enemies. Often, however, they’ll be positioned awkwardly enough that you can’t drive a blade through a beast’s heart. This is where the puzzle piece Arranger Pushing all paths along with your movement while only being able to move in the x and y axes is the perfect, instinctive constraint that Arranger is constantly being built.
Each new area Jemma reaches has a special mechanic added on top of the core loop. Some are as simple as avoiding laser beams that cause barriers in her path, while others are as complex as controlling two characters at the same time who are not on parallel paths. Arranger it never tutorials any of these new ideas, instead making you figure it out for yourself as each new obstacle appears in your path. However, the game is so concise in its visual communication that discovering these new obstacles seems almost innate, like something built into your muscle memory. And while there are ways in which you’re limited by the game’s movement, there are ways in which you’re freed from it as well. Realizing that I could quickly traverse long trails by rolling from side to side was an incredibly satisfying moment in which I realized I was navigating Arrangerworld with the same kind of precision and awareness within the area that I associate with games as Tetrisand there are such moments until the end.
Arranger it’s a fast-paced adventure, but it’s packed with so many clever, perfectly executed ideas that by the time it was over, I was just left wanting more. Jemma’s story may be over by the end, but I’d like to see Furniture & Mattress add new puzzles in future updates because the team has such an impeccable and clever eye for what makes puzzle games so satisfying. Now I’m waiting for my memory of the game to fade so I can go back and try to solve those puzzles with fresh eyes one more time.
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