The first time I met Arranger: Role Playing Puzzle Adventure At the Netflix booth at Summer Game Fest. Get familiar with the demoI was impressed with the game’s concept and clarity of purpose: you’re a little girl named Gemma, and you move objects together as you navigate a world of columns and rows of tiles. The puzzle shenanigans are, if you’ll pardon the pun, Make arrangements The object will definitely appear.
Arranger “Ahh…” ohIt’s a puzzle game like “Puzzle Game!,” which at first glance seems simple, with a clear goal: use the pressure switch to unlock the door. However, the simplicity of the game’s presentation hides some cleverly designed puzzles that tested my spatial awareness to the limits, and I found myself being overwhelmed by the game’s lack of clarity. loved Every second.
That flash of recognition, that “eureka” moment, happens early and often, an irreplaceable jolt of excitement.
Early in the game, I was in an empty room with a pressure plate and a blocked door. When I stood on the pressure plate, the door opened on its own, but when I moved away from the plate, the door closed in my face. I tried every possible way. Make arrangements (Sorry, this happens a lot) I myself jumped off the plate and considered getting in before the door closed, but to no avail. Frustrated, I headed back the way I came, thinking I’d missed some important item from an NPC, and there by the door were… 2 potted plants.
Before I entered the room, the potted plant was just a disposable decoration. As soon as I left the room, I understood its purpose. Arranger It’s like when a baby first discovers that a square block goes into a square hole. It’s not that the game is too easy; rather, it’s like you can feel yourself learning something new in real time. That flash of realization, that “eureka” moment, is an irreplaceable jolt of excitement that happens early and often.
As you play, the clicking of tiles as Gemma moves slows down as she gets closer to her goal, making you mutter, “I think I can do this.” You know what you have to do: To defeat this centipede boss, you must press its spiked tail into its eye, but for every tile the tail moves closer, the eye moves one tile further away. snake. But there are stones in the boss arena, and you can push the centipede around the stones…
These moments are rewarding, but the opposite also happens. The enemy in this game is an obstacle called “Static Electricity.” Any object caught in this obstacle essentially acts as a barrier. Gemma can’t move the obstacle like other objects, so she has to think of a way to get around it. The static electricity also creates monsters that block her path, which can only be defeated by shoving her sword into them. Arrangerpuzzles have you moving a sword, gemma, or mission-critical item around “static” objects.
In one puzzle, I had to reassemble pieces of a broken record, rotating the record to fill in a hole. It seemed easy. But when Gemma moved, all the movable objects on the same axis moved with her. So when I pushed the last piece in, another piece on the other side popped out.
Many of the puzzles in the game are easy from start to finish, but then you suddenly get a curveball at the end. Believe it or not, those moments were satisfying. With the record puzzle, I couldn’t help but giggle when I saw the pieces pop out.SPORT MODE” This puzzle was harder than I expected, so it’s time to concentrate. (Don’t worry, there are settings that allow you to skip puzzles that are too difficult, settings that make the puzzles harder, and a multiplayer mode where you can help your friends move things around.)
However Arranger is a puzzle game, but it effectively uses its mechanics to build an interesting world and tell a lovely story. Gemma’s mobility makes her unique, and she goes on adventures to find people like her, using her powers for good along the way. When Gemma reaches the end of a row or column, she warps to the other end. She uses that ability to help a teenager who is locked in a room by his strict parents escape by simply pushing him into the opposite wall. In another area, she saves a town whose residents were dying inside their homes because they relied too much on communicating through their blue mechanical bird.
Arranger is the video game equivalent of a book to take on a beach vacation. Perfect for Switch, Steam Deck, or tablet. Pleasantly short, I only made it to the final area and played about 4-5 hours total. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can extend your playtime by solving optional puzzles sprinkled throughout the game. I love this little game more than any I’ve played recently.
To really let you understand how fascinating and seductive it is. Arranger I’ll leave you with a short story. It was 11pm on a weekday. I Arranger I only have 30-45 minutes at most before I go to sleep. When I put the Switch down to check the time, it was 1:51am. 2 hours I didn’t feel the time passing. And I didn’t care. The game had never made me do that. Even the ones I lovedin recent or distant memory. I felt like a kid again. Arranger Here’s your chance to do so.
Arranger: Role Playing Puzzle Adventure is available now on Switch, PlayStation, PC, and mobile via Netflix.
