Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure Review

Jemma, be a dear and drag me to the top of the hill thank youuuuu ♡

It’s pretty hard to come across games with unique mechanics nowadays. Mostly everything has been done already, but when you do come across something totally new and unique it’s a magical experience. When I saw Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure for the first time I knew I had to play it. Not only did I like how it looked, but the gameplay was very interesting and unique. I was so excited when a demo was released for it and, after playing the demo, I was excited to play the full game. So, how did Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure fare after the first chapter?

Arranger starts with us playing as a mysterious woman with a destination in mind and the ability to shift the tiles that build the world. As she gets closer to where she wants to go, it’s revealed that she’s holding a bundled up baby. However, once she arrives at this big door, she ends up saying a tearful goodbye and leaves. It even seems like she’s being chased with how frantic she looked. As control shifts to the baby and we lay there helpless, some creepy shadow-y something, which must have been chasing what you can only assume was the mother, rushes you. Luckily, right before it would have gotten the baby, the door opens and she was saved from whatever that was. Fast forward and we get to meet that baby all grown up now. Her name is Jemma and she has been dying to get out of the stuffy walls of her hometown (which I’m pretty sure the name wasn’t revealed). Jemma never felt like she really belonged, partly due to being the only one not born within the walls and mostly due to her having the ability to shift the floor around her just like her mother. Some don’t mind, but some do find it annoying and can’t wait until she leaves and her unique chaos is gone. To be honest, I definitely understand why they’re annoyed (imagine being moved or having to move your things back to where they were every day).

Anyway, today is the day Jemma finally leaves her hometown. She may not have been ready the previous time (or maybe times), but she is now. After totally not storing her things in an abandoned house and saying goodbye to her caretaker Susie, her friend Rody, the adorable cat, and some other residents that just tolerate her, she makes her way to opening the gates. However, she finds a worrying predicament. The Static that has somehow gotten into the town is even worse than anyone thought. Static is basically an antagonistic force which can stick to objects, people, and even accumulate to become Static Fiends or Beasts. Its aura also indicates objects or people that can’t be moved. While you’ll learn more on what causes Static later on, you do know that a structure called The Hold (which I thought was Jemma’s hometown name during the demo haha) is supposed to contain it. The people in this universe even worship The Hold in some capacity. Jemma was able to solve the situation, but it ended up making a bigger mess that a lot of people weren’t too happy about.

Jemma may have been kicked out of her hometown even though it was not her fault (this time) and she saved not only Nimbus but the whole town, but she was finally able to make it outside of the walls of her hometown and into the Wilderness. Being able to smell the fresh air, see the fauna and wildlife, hear and feel new things like the crunch of leaves or the stickiness of spiderwebs. Not only that, but she ends up meeting a bunch of new people and get to see other settlements located in the Wilderness. Jemma will be able to talk to these guys, maybe befriend them, help them and their town out, clear out the Static, and get closer to finding the answers she’s seeking.

Arranger’s story is pretty good. I did find it was a bit too obvious that it was sending you from Point A to Point B, but I was interested in the questions that the game brought up. Like why Jemma was left at her hometown as a baby, if there were and are people like Jemma and her mother, what the symbol was on Jemma’s baby blanket, what the heck is the Static, what is The Hold, and what was out there in the Wilderness. I was also pretty surprised with the revelation that gets revealed as you approach the point of no return and then how it gets confirmed as you go into the last area. I thought it was going to go in a different direction and honestly didn’t expect what that last area had in store.

While we’re still on the story, I do want to mention that I did enjoy the writing style of Arranger and the humor. It does well with having short dialogue and I really liked the jokes that the various characters say. The only thing is that when it’s going for a message or a lesson, it can be a bit on the nose and out of place.

Arranger’s gameplay is actually really unique. Instead of walking around like you normally would, Jemma has the weird ability of shifting, or arranging, the world around her instead. To Jemma, or at least to us the player, the world is made up of a grid of tiles. She can only move in the cardinal directions tile by tile. Not only that, but when she does move, everything that happens to be in that column or row moves with her. Even more interesting is that if you’re at the end of a column or row you can loop around to the other end, which is very helpful for traveling and in puzzles. Not everything will move along with Jemma though, as certain objects or people will have an aura around them indicating that it’s immovable or static (which definitely plays into them most likely being covered in Static). Jemma won’t be able to move past them, nor will she be able to move if there’s an object hitting it when you’re trying to move. The movement system is easy to get the hang of, and I’d say easy to master too, and the various puzzles you’ll run across all throughout the game builds on this movement system. You don’t have inventory, so you move things with you and have to figure out how to position it as you’re traveling and when you get to where it needs to go.

The puzzles here more or less challenges you to figure out a way to get an item in position so the path ahead can be open for you to pass through (or loop into). However, it’s not as easy as you think. There’s immovable objects, the layout of the location can work against you, there might be a time aspect like being on a time/move limit, and it can be quite hard to work around having to get multiple objects to stay where they are while also positioning yourself. There are some more mechanics that are added, like the surprise you’ll get when water comes into play, but trust me. I may not have explained it that well, but the puzzles here can be trickier than you think and will surprise you with how many ideas they came up with to keep this game fresh.

There’s even combat here where you need to move a sword to kill the Static Fiends blocking your path. The Static Beasts are this game’s bosses and it challenges you to a puzzle to defeat them. It acts like in other games, where there are multiple phases and the puzzle gets harder and a bit more complicated after each one. Honestly, I’d say the boss puzzles were my favorite part of Arrangers. Also, while there is also no health and no death, there are hazards. If anything would have caused Jemma to be injured/die, the game just spawns you a tile back.

I really loved the gameplay here and the puzzles that were presented. This may sound a bit strange, but I loved the new experience of having to think about how I’m moving. I also liked the chaos you make as you drag items, all the different puzzle types you encounter, I loved how the game leaves you to figure out how to play, and I loved how this game managed to hit that perfect puzzle difficulty. It’s not too easy, but it’s also not too hard. It’s just enough to where you know what you need to know and it will take a bit to figure out how to achieve that. There are also some tricky puzzles thrown in which you may end up taking more time on (one which I had to come back after getting some sleep). Still, I didn’t end up being stuck on a puzzle as I always ended up figuring it out…or stumbling on the solution. I also loved how you can just zip around in locations that allow you to (like when there’s a twisting corridor).

What I really enjoyed about Arranger is that not only did it make you think about how you moved, which you wouldn’t have in any other game, but how all the puzzles build upon the foundation of how Jemma moves herself and the things that happen to be on the same row or column as her. It allowed Arranger’s puzzles to add something new, adding more variety, and have you already know what to do. Even the side content has unique puzzles. It’s great. I also think Arranger was the perfect length. For me, I got to the last puzzle sequence right when I was getting a bit tired of it.

Aside from the main quest line, there are some side content that you can do. There are some optional actions you can do that will unlock achievements, like feeding a duck or stealing a toilet. There’s also a lot of optional conversations you can have. There are required conversations, of course, but there are characters you don’t have to talk to and characters will have new lines when you progress past certain points in that area. Although, the main (side) attraction has to do with the weird arch and structure that the three Wilderness areas have. If you decide to explore the area before you do the main quest line or after, you’ll come across some side areas that host side puzzles. Each Wilderness area has three of these side puzzle areas you can find and complete, which will open an eye on the weird arch upon completion. When you complete all three, it’ll open up the way to the weird structure, which you’ll learn are temples, and you’ll get some additional lore.

These side puzzles and temples are basically the side quests of Arranger. The side puzzles you do to open the temples are themed based on the area you’re in, like the first area has you play matchmaker for animals (so cute btw). Though, they can be a bit hard to find. You can go back to these areas to look for them before the point of no return, but if you feel you’d rather finish the game and then go for them in your next playthrough, Arranger does have an option that makes it easier. There is an assist option that gives you an option to skip puzzles. I don’t recommend this on your first playthrough, but it does help on your second and I do like how it doesn’t automatically skip the puzzle since you have to the highlighted tile and confirm that you want to skip it. I love the puzzles in Arranger, don’t get me wrong, but there are some tricky puzzles in here that I would want to skip when I’m just trying to hunt for achievements.

Honestly, I don’t think there are any negatives against Arranger, or at least none that don’t sound like nitpicks from me or what I misunderstood. Like, I was a bit confused on the lore in the beginning since I thought Jemma’s hometown was called “The Hold” but The Hold is a whole other thing.

Other than that, there are a lot of missable achievements, with a handful being ones you won’t be able to go back and get. This one will depend on whether you’re someone that goes for all the achievements and if you care about replaying. Though, there is a silver lining with the skip puzzles options that does make it easier to replay the game just to get the missing achievements. Personally, I don’t mind considering I did end up liking Arranger a lot and I can skip the tricky puzzles.

Lastly, I do think that Arranger was missing something during the ending and that something is going back to Jemma’s hometown. Considering the message the game went for and the speech Jemma had at the end of the game, it felt like we should have went back and helped them open up too. I wanted to talk to Susie again and see her reaction to Jemma’s retelling of what happened. Not to mention that the achievement for completing the game is called “Made Susie Proud”. I also think the final boss could have been more than it was, especially considering the context, but I didn’t mind as I was already pretty satisfied with the amount of puzzles in the game.

To wrap this up, I do want to mention that the music here is absolutely wonderful and I loved the art style and direction they went for the game. The art style works well both in the overworld and in the art pieces and I loved the direction they went with how the game would look. It was a great idea to put a focus on the tiles, having sparse and needed details in the overworld, and have the bigger details shown in the artwork that surrounds the edges of the world’s grid. It does a great job in putting the emphasis on the tiles without drawing away focus as it gives you a sense of the world. I also really liked how cutscenes were handled; being a series of images that perfectly displayed what happened without dialogue and layering over itself which creates some interesting visuals.

Verdict

I knew I would really enjoy Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure and I’m so happy to say that I did. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The developers did an amazing job not only making a unique puzzle game, but also bringing the world to life. Aside from some personal nitpicks and wanting some more from the ending, I loved everything about Arranger. The story and writing is great, I loved the art direction and music, loved how unique this game was and how it made me think about how I was moving around, loved the puzzles and how the game manages to keep it fresh by adding something new, the puzzle difficulty was perfect, and I especially loved the boss battles. Plus, this game felt like it was the perfect length, to me at least, as it could have easily overstayed its welcome. I enjoyed Arranger so much I’m even going into a second playthrough to grab the achievements I missed.

For me, Arranger was damn near perfect and I would definitely recommend checking it out. Especially if you’re planning on doing everything the game has to offer.