Arranger: A mind-bending character adventure Furniture & Mattress, from developer Furniture & Mattress, is a delightful genre hybrid that words can feel inadequate to describe when it’s easier to follow in action. Yes, telling you that this is an adventure game where you navigate through a grid that moves the environment with you is technically accurate, but that doesn’t sum up the easy, intuitive way to traverse it. How or why the world and accepting its inherent limitations creates scratches in my mind.
Sometimes when I’m playing Arranger It’s not an exaggeration to call it the “perfect” video game, as Furniture and Mattress conveys an idea so succinctly without making it overly popular, repeating itself, or becoming boring. The team weaves its clever puzzle design into the game’s themes and has some truly captivating writing throughout. At the heart of it all is the touching story of Gemma, a small-town outcast who is born with the ability to change her surroundings as she walks. If she moves to the left, the entire x-axis opposite her moves with her. This means that anyone or anything that happens to be on that line will be dragged along with her, cycling between edges until she leaves that line and enters another to start the process again.
Feeling she doesn’t quite fit in in the town, Gemma decides to leave, uncovering hidden truths about the world and powers her lifelong neighbors would never understand. Arranger All of this is conveyed through writing as clever as the puzzle design, but even as I was engrossed in Gemma’s self-discovery and desire to leave the claustrophobia of her small town, Navigation ArrangerThe puzzle-driven world itself was enough to draw me in.
ArrangerThe core idea of Gemma moving around the world while walking was considered the most stupid inconvenience. She crosses the town square and knocks over the ladder on the other side of the sidewalk because she has no control over her powers. But it also proves to be her greatest asset, as she explores new, uncharted places and you master her abilities. arranger There’s combat, but it’s accomplished by manipulating the environment to push your sword toward enemies. Often, however, they’re positioned so awkwardly that you can’t stab the beast through the heart with a blade. This is where the puzzle piece comes in Arranger With your movement pushing the entire path, but only in the x and y axes, it’s perfectly instinctive to limit, Arranger is constantly evolving.
Each new area Jemma reaches adds unique mechanics on top of the core loop. Some are simple, like avoiding obstacles in the path of a laser beam’s trigger, while others are complex, like controlling two characters at once who aren’t on parallel paths. arranger Never direct any new ideas, but rather leave it to yourself to solve each new obstacle as it appears in your path. Still, the game’s visual communication is so concise that solving these new obstacles feels almost innate, like something built into your muscle memory. While the game’s movement can limit you in some ways, there are also ways it can liberate you. Discovering that I could quickly cross a long path by looping from one side to the other was an incredibly satisfying moment when I realized I was navigating ArrangerThe world has the same in-area precision and awareness that I associate with games Tetristhere are moments like this right up to the end.
Arranger It’s a brisk adventure, but it’s filled with so many clever, perfectly executed ideas that by the time it was over, I just wanted more. Jemma’s story may be over by the end, but I’d love to see Furniture & Mattress add new puzzles in future updates, as the team has a perfect and smart eye for what makes puzzle games so satisfying. Now I’m just waiting for my memory of the game to fade away so I can go back and try to solve the puzzles again with fresh eyes.
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