first time i met Arranger: RPG puzzling adventure at the Netflix booth during Summer Game Fest. Moments after being introduced to the demo, I was struck by the clarity of the game’s conceit and purpose. You are a little girl named Gemma who, as she moves around a tiled world of columns and rows, moves objects along with her. Puzzle shenanigans involving – if you’ll excuse the pun – arrangement objects will undoubtedly arise.
Arranger is “Oh… Oh!” kind of puzzle game. It’s deceptively simple, with clear objectives no more complicated than “use the pressure switch to unlock the door.” But the simplicity of the game’s presentation belies the cleverly designed puzzles that tested my spatial awareness to its absolute limit and I loved every second of it.
That spark of recognition, that eureka moment, is a priceless jolt of excitement that happens early and often
At the start of the game I was in an empty room with a pressure plate and a blocked door. Standing on the plate naturally unblocked the door, but when I backed away from the plate it slammed in my face. I tried every way arrangement (sorry, this will happen often) myself, thinking I could quickly jump off the plate and into the open door before it closed—but to no avail. Frustrated, I went back out the way I came, thinking I’d missed some key NPC item, and next to the door… there were two potted plants.
Before I walked into this room, these potted plants were throwaway decorations. Coming out, I immediately understood their purpose. I’m playing Arranger it feels like the first time a baby discovers that the square block fits into the square hole. That’s not to say the game is too easy; it’s more like you feel like you’re learning something new in real time. That spark of recognition, that eureka moment, is a priceless jolt of excitement that happens early and often.
When I play, the clicking of the tiles as Gemma moves gets slower as I mutter “I think I got this” the closer I get to the goal. I know what has to happen. To defeat this centipede boss, I have to stick its sharp tail into its eye, but for every tile the tail gets closer, the eye moves a tile away like a game of Snake. But the boss arena has rocks and I can trap the centipede around the rocks and…
As rewarding as these moments are, however, they also work in the opposite direction. The game’s antagonist is a suffering called “staticity.” Objects affected by it essentially act as barriers. Gemma can’t move them like she can other things, so if they’re in her way, she has to figure out a way around them. Static also spawns path-blocking monsters that can only be defeated by pushing a sword into its space. A lot ArrangerPuzzles involve moving a sword, Jemma, or mission-critical items around “static” objects.
In one puzzle, I had to reassemble the pieces of a broken plate by rotating the plate and filling each hole. It seemed easy enough. But when Gemma moves, any moving object on the same axis moves with her. So when I pushed the last piece, another piece on the opposite side popped right out.
Many of the puzzles in the game start out just like that, easy until the end when the curve appears out of nowhere. But believe it or not, those moments felt good, too. With the records puzzle, as soon as I saw this piece pop up, I started giggling. It was a similar feeling to putting your Crocs in ‘sport mode’. This puzzle was harder than I expected, lock time. (And don’t worry, there are settings to let you skip puzzles if they’re too hard, settings to make puzzles harder, and a multiplayer mode that lets a friend move things, too.)
However Arranger is a puzzle game, it effectively uses its mechanics to build an interesting world and tell a sweet story. Gemma’s ability to move makes her unique, and she sets out on an adventure to find others 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 this feature to break out a teenager trapped in their locked room by strict parents by simply pushing him against the opposite wall. In another area, she saves a town whose residents are dying in their homes because they relied too much on communication via blue mechanical birds.
Arranger is the video game equivalent of a book you’d take with you on a beach vacation—perfect for your Switch, Steam Deck, or tablet. It’s nice and short — I’m in the end zone and have been playing for about four to five hours total. If you’re adventurous, you can extend this playtime by completing the optional puzzles scattered throughout. I love this little game unlike anything I’ve played recently.
Really driving home how charmingly seductive Arranger well, let me leave you with a short story. It was 11pm on a weekday evening. I decided to play Arranger before going to bed – no more than 30-45 minutes. When I put my switch down to check the time it was 1:51am. Two hours it passed and I didn’t even feel it. Besides, I didn’t care. No game has ever done this to me, not even ones I’ve adored in recent or distant memory. I felt like a kid again. give Arranger the chance to do this with you.
Arranger: RPG puzzling adventure is now on Switch, PlayStation, PC and mobile via Netflix.
