Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure is a puzzle masterpiece

Like most games, Arranger: A Puzzle-Filled Adventure The game starts with a title screen, but developer Furniture & Mattress has given its intro screen a little twist. The title screen appears when you click “Start Game,” but it's not the name of the game yet. At first glance, it's not a word at all: GER ARRAN. When you start touching the buttons, for example by moving your analog stick to the left, everything becomes clear. This is the title screen, but it's also a tutorial on how to play the game. Move your joystick four times to the left and you'll see: ArrangerA new path opens and the game begins.

Arranger: A Puzzle-Filled Adventure is, as its name suggests, both a role-playing game and a puzzle game; it comes out Thursday on Nintendo Switch, mobile via Netflix, PlayStation 5And Windows PC. In this game, you play as Jemma, a misfit magician who sets out on a journey outside the small town where she grew up. But the whole world is one big shuffle puzzle, in which Jemma moves by moving tiles around the labyrinthine grid. At the edge of the board, Jemma can loop to the other side of any row or column, as long as there is nothing in her way. It may sound complicated, but the basic principle is easy enough to understand, as long as you try it out. That's why ArrangerThe title screen is very clever: it tells you everything you need to know before you jump into its world.

Image: Furniture & Mattress LLC

Right from the start, Jemma is put through a simple tutorial that lets you test out the world's possibilities. For example, when something blocks your path, you can loop around to the other side of the grid. Try to imagine this: three tiles are aligned horizontally. Jemma is on the rightmost tile, and a stationary tree stump is in the middle. To reach the left side of the stump, you move the analog stick once to the right, which causes Jemma to rotate to the left of the stump. This mechanic works both horizontally and vertically.

The rules of movement never change ArrangerBut Furniture & Mattress takes this idea all the way through the game. Early on, it adds a sword to the mix—the puzzle is figuring out how to get the sword to the static monster you're fighting. The first boss fight pushes the idea again: the big sword is “attached” to the monster, so they move together. How do you move the tiles on the board to curl the creature around itself? It makes the game feel challenging but not frustrating, because the logic is so consistent. There's also a sense of humor: sometimes you have to take characters or other objects with you, but sometimes it's just the product of chaotic movement.

Moving tiles isn’t just something you do in the game – you can see its impact on the NPCs around you. One neighbour is fixing something using a ladder; in my attempt to reach something else, I pushed the ladder too far and my neighbour collapsed to the ground with a crash. In another instance, I knocked over a can of paint and left paint smeared for a while. Oops! Elsewhere, I keep dragging potted plants around the world with me and accidentally rearranging the street signs that are supposed to guide me around town. It creates these really satisfying moments of wonder that come from experimenting with how tiles move, even if it makes things messy. It’s a sudden burst of relief, joy, and pride when something clicks in the chaos.

Unlike a traditional RPG, Jemma has nothing to upgrade, no armor to collect, and no sword to sheathe. Everything she (and, by proxy, you) needs is on the map, ready to be moved. What you’re really collecting is knowledge of how movement works and how you can exploit it to get around obstacles or reach a new location. Each new area introduces another iteration of the game’s core idea, pushing you to think about movement issues. It also fits Jemma’s story—a story of self-discovery—in a way that makes the puzzles feel even more natural.

Directed and associated with a well-written and sincere story, Arranger is a puzzle game not to be missed — something that's clear from the moment you click start.

Arranger: A Puzzle-Filled Adventure will be released on July 25th for Nintendo Switch, mobile via Netflix, PlayStation 5, and Windows PC. The game was tested on a Steam Deck using a download code provided by Furniture & Mattress. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find Additional information on Polygon's ethics policy here.