Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure is a puzzle game developed by Furniture & Mattress LLC available on Steam, Epic Games Store, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Netflix Games from 25 July 2024.
The title marks the debut of this new four-person studio. The developers have previously worked on other indie games such as Celeste, Guacamelee! 2, Braid and ETHERNAL, among others.
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure, a deep journey
In Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure, we will play the role of Jemma, a young orphan girl who has the desire to explore the world and get out of the cage.
Cage is an enormous structure that protects people from static. But as she travels, Jemma discovers that the static has gone wild and wants to investigate.
Her investigation brings her into contact with her past. She discovers that she is part of the resistance against the static.
Extreme Puzzling
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure has a niche gameplay. Moving Jemma around the level is like playing the 15 puzzle. Each level is structured as a giant puzzle in which each element is placed on a different tile. If we move Jemma vertically, all the tiles on the vertical axis move with her, and the same goes for moving her horizontally.
This made us think about moving an object from one tile to another. Also, some elements in the scene are contaminated with static, making them immobile. Sometimes these obstacles block the exit of the level, and our goal is to avoid them.
The combat system is quite different from other games. In fact, to defeat an enemy, you have to move a sword towards them. Easier said than done. Often the sword is placed in a narrow area with other objects nearby, so we have to move properly to get it close to the monster.
Boss fights are also puzzles, but they are not the same as monster fights. Each boss fight has a different puzzle to solve. The one thing that every boss fight has in common is the three hit cliché. In order to defeat the boss, we will have to solve the same puzzle three times, with the challenge increasing each time.
We can’t lose, we can’t get hit, but we can get stuck in a level, especially in the later part of the game when the difficulty rises. If we get stuck and we are a bit frustrated, we can activate a function in the game menu that will allow us to skip the puzzle.
Stunning art style
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure has a polished and coherent style. The soundtrack is never intrusive and the art style is 2D hand-drawn.
The controls are very simple and the game is fully controller compatible.
The cutscenes are a few hand-drawn panels that show a snapshot of what is going on. The game’s artwork has a dual-layered foreground and background. In the foreground we have the levels and dynamic element like main character, enemies and object. The background is static and it will change when we change the area.
Avoid “static”
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure is not a simple puzzle game, it carries a deep plot about cultural stagnation and greed.
It took us about 5 hours and 40 minutes to complete main story. Only in the last part of the game do we have to use the help to solve two puzzles that cause us some frustration.
There are also side quests that can be done, which can extend the game.
We would have liked more storytelling to learn more about the resistance and how Mog and Jemma are related.
Despite our complaint about the lack of storytelling, the game manages to convey messages that we personally interpreted as a critique of the isolation and manipulation of people caused by social media. There is also, in our view, an important message about the way in which the more privileged classes can exploit this phenomenon for their own power and advantage.
It also emphasises that life should not be wasted by indulging in static, but that every single moment should be exploited by filling it with personal and shared experiences.
Unfortunately, we cannot add more to our personal view, for fear of spoiling the plot.
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