Hello everyone, Steve Esposito here, the world’s busiest gaming nerd with a review of the much-anticipated Lumines Arise from the studio that previously brought you Tetris Effect: Connected. First released on the PlayStation Portable or PSP back in 2007, Lumines became an instant cult classic. But, after a prolonged absence, we are back with new songs, new visuals, and a new mechanic. This isn’t quite the Lumines you may have fallen in love with, but it is one that you will grow to adore. So, let’s look at how Enhance brought their talents to a game that certainly deserves the love.
Blocks Be Droppin’
While the gameplay itself hasn’t changed because you can’t improve on perfection, they did add a few new features. Lumines’ design is quite simple. Square blocks made up of two different colors or images drops from the top of the screen and you must guide the blocks downward. The idea is to match like colors in a 2×2 formation. While the blocks are in their “claimed” phase, you can add more blocks to boost your score. As long as they create some sort of square or rectangle, you will score points. While you are planning on where to drop your blocks, there is a persistent vertical line going from the left of the playing field to the right. Any blocks locked in the claim mode disappear once the line reaches the end of the area.
Aside from giving you a visual indication of when your blocks disappear, it also syncs with the music. Of course, there are some special blocks denoted with a special crosshair like symbol which is located on one of the two colors. This means that any block linked to that one through a chain of adjacent blocks will also disappear when the horizontal bar passes over them. In an effort to be more interesting and break the mold a bit, Enhance created a Burst mechanic. This briefly changes the stage setting and sounds, allowing you to build up a massive square of blocks. When the time is up, all the blocks disappear, and you get a ton of points. It is a consumable feature that slowly refills over time, so don’t sit on it and wait for the perfect moment.
Like I said, you can’t improve on perfection and Enhance damn near tried to without breaking the flow. The Burst mechanic does feel quite natural and doesn’t break my immersion at all. It’s quite difficult to add something new to a game that has already the best design of a block drop game, and in this sense, I feel like less is more.
Touch and Feel
This is one of the rare cases where I actually find the DualSense controller to be a huge benefit. Instead of feeling like a gimmick, internal actuators match the pulsating beats of the music. It vibrates, shakes and rattles to the music in a way that bridges the gap between the player and the game. Music, graphics, and now touch are finally working together to deliver an experience unlike any other.
Of course, there is one other way to experience the pure majesty of Lumines Arise and that is with a VR headset. Using my wife’s Quest 2, I was able to experience the game in ways I didn’t expect. Sure, I was sitting in my chair, watching as colorful, vivid shapes explode just mere inches in front of my bloodshot eyes. I love it when games get this sort of treatment as opposed to a free-roaming, third dimension feel which tends to result in my stomach churning over and over again. Here, I feel like I am playing on an infinite screen. I feel one with the music and the graphics.
…WHICH MAKES IT WORSE FOR THE SPIDER LEVEL! Yeah. There is a spider level. Prepare yourself for it.
It is All About the Music
What we have here is the culmination of talents: a studio that can create breathtaking backdrops with impressive visual effects and Hydelic, a band that is able to deliver a soundtrack that is unique, emotional, and uplifting. From the deep thumping of some tracks to the chaotic blips and beeps. Some tracks start off rather slowly, eventually leading to a cascade of musical whimsy. Of course, they weren’t alone in this soundtrack as they also feature talented artists to help lend some vocal depth to the tracks.
While you are living in the moment, sending blocks down to create squares upon squares, you are contributing to the music.Sound effects meld into the score. Every action result in a sound effect that somehow always meets the measure of the game. You become entranced by the mix of music and spectacle, making you believe that you are contributing to the music.
Tracks like Dreamland deliver this deep bass, trance-like tone complete with low horns that feels inspired by Middle Eastern signatures. The way the track goes from a fast beat to a slower pace around halfway through only to create a transition that revisits the opening moments of the track, it feels energetic and full of life. Meanwhile, Only Human has a less rave style tone to it, opting for something that feels just short of a top 40 hit. But that isn’t what the song is clearly aimed towards especially in a post Golden world.
Only Human acts as the reminder that we are all people, connected, have different wants and needs that help us get by. It is an examination of the human condition, how we falter but hold onto hope. It is a song about the journey rather than the destination; a concept that drives Lumines Arise. It only stands as a reminder of the age we live in, one that might be surrounded by political deviousness, intense culture-war ideology, and a non-stop battle that overtakes our bones, shaking us to the core. It is a song that, to me, speaks volumes and it isn’t the only one. The entire soundtrack is rife with songs about what it means to be a person and experience wafts of heartfelt emotion. One would say that it is the theme of the entire game, getting in touch with the thing that makes you feel the most human.
I couldn’t help but focus on how the tracks in Lumines Arise retread these themes of humanity while also giving a metaphorical slight towards the world of AI. While I was playing, I became fully aware that this is a game made by humans, with tracks composed by humans, and songs sung by humans. You can’t help but hold a mirror up and wonder if the commodification of our daily life is slowly being encroached upon. We are falling victims to the age of technology to a point where we are forgetting the importance of human interaction and being in touch with our own feelings. This is not necessarily a weighing point on the game and instead an underlying theme. In a world of technology, Lumines Arise remains as a game that wants to anchor you.
A Few Flat Notes
All in all, I find that Lumines Arise is an incredibly emotional ride that holds onto you tightly and doesn’t want to let go. Of course, I am fine with that but there are some other areas that I wish I could see improvement on. Transitions between songs doesn’t feel too natural as the past games did a slight fade from one track to the next, Arise makes a big show out of it. Lumines Arise, as much as it is about presentation is also about the visual stimuli, and I am fine with that. After playing quickly and hard, my thumbs could always use a break. I also don’t find the multiplayer to be all that compelling. Others like the competitive aspects but it just never works well for me.
Also, in lieu of traditional menus, we are a little avatar that can be customized. While it is fun to float around and unlock additional customization options the more you play, I would have been just fine with something that felt a bit more akin to the classic days. But this is Enhance after all and visuals are certainty their strong point. Honestly, not a huge sell for me, but I can see where the fun is in changing your little dude up.
I also couldn’t find the classic infinite mode that lets you play through all the levels until you’re down. There is a survival mode that allows you to play through all the tracks as well as another mode where you create your own playlist; emphasis on the play. These are nice to have as they were more or less the gold standard back in the heyday. Once again, not the end of the world, just kinda wishing for something a bit more.
Honestly, I don’t know what else I could say about Lumines Arise. It is a fantastic game that will pull in all sorts of fans, and I can’t wait till they experience the serenity that is this game. I for one am eagerly awaiting the soundtrack to drop on my music streaming platform because I will be blasting these songs directly into my ears the second they are available. If you are a fan of the past games or the work that Enhance has done, then you’ll absolutely adore Lumines Arise.
Thank you to our PR partners at Enhance for review access to Lumines Arise. You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review policy here.