Press Start may receive a commission when you buy from links on our site at no extra cost to you.
Tetris is arguably the most famous puzzle video game ever to exist, shifting Game Boys several decades before it’d be perfected by Enhance with Tetris Effect, a sublime cocktail of Tetris’ tried and true gameplay fundamentals and a powerful, transcendent synesthesia audiovisual presentation that felt like lingering, detached from my corporeal form, in a celestial fever dream of music and lights.
And although I don’t have a touchstone with Lumines, hearing that Enhance would be plying their unique trade with another much-beloved series filled me with an expectant joy and a wanderlust to return to those same stars they once transported me to. And so Lumines Arise has arrived, buoyed by the very same care Enhance took with transforming Tetris, for me, from a frantic, panicked line-clear rush into a beautiful, picturesque zen garden, of sorts. It’s all in the vibes, but don’t get me wrong, there is a learning curve to Lumines that initially feels severe, and failure is sure to greet the uninitiated; however pleasant it may still be. Fortunately, Enhance has included all manner of tutorials, challenges, and back-end toggles to help players either practice or set the game to their own pace.
For those who, like me, knew more about Enhance than Lumines coming in, the game’s loop is rather simple. Like Tetris, there’s a variety of 2×2 blocks that you’ll be able to drop into the field of play. These blocks will be made up of a combination of two patterns, which vary from stage to stage; however, the goal is to match pairs of squares to make larger blocks, which’ll be wiped from the field after every measure of eight beats. The loop is intrinsically tied to rhythm and sound, and there’s a timing to it all that’s a little harder to grasp because paired blocks don’t immediately clear like lines in Tetris, but once I managed to lock in, I really grew to appreciate what this game does and how it differentiates itself from contemporary puzzle games.
You’ll gradually gain charge as you play, and once fifty percent or higher, you’re able to activate Burst. Although I didn’t always find it useful as a survival tactic, it is key to racking up high, leaderboard-topping scores for those who’ll hunt a stage’s S rank threshold. All stages are multi-phase; later levels have up to five individual boards to make it through. Things do tend to get a bit hairier in the second half of any given level, and the sense of escalation is sold beautifully through the abrupt shifts in audiovisual flourishes.
There are some staggeringly jaw-dropping effects on display throughout Lumines’ roster of stages. I do question whether it’s as tonally consistent as Tetris Effect level-to-level, although I felt the peaks in Lumines Arise were higher, with some of the images now being burned into my mind forever. The canvas to each stage is one thing, but Enhance got very cute and creative with how the 2×2 blocks would morph to suit a stage’s theme, whether it meant they were mixes of fruits and vegetables, eggs and feathers, or shells. I appreciated the effort to make each phase feel special. There were just a few stages where I did find the differences too subtle, and that lack of readability did dent the enjoyment just a tad, though these were as rare as hen’s teeth in the grand scheme of things.
The game’s soundtrack, once again composed by Hydelic, who returns after Tetris Effect, is a buffet of moods. While the visuals are undoubtedly spectacular, they’re but one half of a truly special combination, and the immersion that comes from chucking on a pair of headphones and entering the daydream that is Lumines Arise is, in a word, magical.
Much like Tetris Effect, one of the game’s central pillars is its Journey mode, where you’re tasked with clearing the aforementioned multi-phase stages in an effort to, for lack of a clearer explanation, restore the light. Depending on your skill set, it’ll likely be a source of frustration to get through, but, no matter who you are, it’s an affecting, emotional experience—one that Enhance can proudly hang their hat on. Of course, there are other modes there to keep you occupied after you roll credits, including a survival mode where you’re expected to, without failing, play each of the story’s stages in sequence.
This kind of sorcery is beyond my comprehension, so I’ve not even considered taking a run at it.
With the Journey mode itself only lasting me somewhere in the realm of six to eight hours, you’d hope that it’d be the extra challenges and robust multiplayer that will keep players coming back days or weeks afterward, and give it the legs needed to build its community up as Tetris Effect did. Sadly, I don’t think the offering at launch is much to write home about.
Perhaps it’s simply due to how restrictive the puzzle loop is, but only having custom and ranked Burst Battle modes does feel awfully underwhelming, and it does concern me about the game’s long-term prospects. Granted, it’s fun in its own right, but I just don’t see a singular competitive mode forming the basis of a thriving community.
Similarly, I’m a bit disappointed with Lumines Arise’s approach to player expression; the Loomii avatar customisation is a bit so-so, and the way you unlock things through a gachapon-style lucky dip does tend to take away a little bit of the individualism in how you present your avatar as I tend to slap on whatever the latest thing I’ve unlocked is, whether it’s what I’m wanting or not.
Parsing through between the locked and unlocked items in your inventory is also a bit of a nightmare; there’s no means to filter, and items scroll in no particular order at all. Although I’ve seen some pretty cool avatars wandering the online lobby, I’m content enough with my hexagonal head and title to not delve too deeply into the loot treadmill that is the Lumines gacha machine.
Despite an inability to deliver what I feel is a worthwhile multiplayer aside, I do think the team at Enhance are the absolute masters of what they do in delivering an overwhelming, cathartic, zenful experience that hoists you from your body and takes you on a damn near spiritual voyage all in the guise of a near-perfect puzzle game. Lumines Arise is that, and I can’t recommend it enough for those who felt an adoration for the originals or Tetris Effect, because there are few better than this.
The PC version of this game was played for the purpose of this review. A digital review code was provided by the publisher.
