A game I really like is Gorogua.
It doesn’t have a clear newcomer tutorial, but let the player discover themself how the game is to be played. I would say it’s an implicit loop, because at the beginning, those puzzles are really easy to guess, figure out and solve. It does allow the player to learn the basic mechanics of the game.
Arcs are also involved, but also not that explicit neither. When I first played it, I only focused on the puzzle solving perspective, and didn’t notice the story-telling part or the evocative content. Then, when I played it several times afterwards, I did receive more feedbacks from the game, and then started to notice more.
Overall, I think the architecture is the use of levels. At the beginning there are very simple puzzles to solve, and not much story or meaning behind the puzzles. Later, we know that the main character is going to collect the 5 fruits, so we’re entering each “chapter” to collect each different fruits. Afterwards, then main character is growing old, and before he dies, we’re helping him to recap the memory of his entire life by recollecting the different fruits. It’s shorter and more concise than the previous tedious step, and also has many repetitive scenes as before. The story enters different levels as the game progress, so I think it’s level.
