Following a 20-minute session with Lumines Arise, the Enhance team posed me with a challenging dilemma: “We still have around 20 minutes remaining. Would you prefer to use this time for questioning us, or would you rather continue playing?” Despite my eagerness to delve into interviews and gain insights from the creators behind Humanity, Tetris Effect, and Rez Infinite, my inner child’s excitement proved too strong to resist.
“Would you mind if I do just a couple more levels?” I asked.
In that instant, as the portion of me captivated by games prevailed over the part dedicated to preserving a writer’s finesse, I acknowledged my true affection for Lumines Arise. Despite spending time talking with game director Takashi Ishihara and creative producer Mark MacDonald, which was delightful, I departed the event yearning for the next installment of Lumines to magically appear at my hotel, installed on my Steam Deck, ready for me to resume playing it.
In other words, despite having access to only a limited playlist during the preview event, Lumines Arise proved to be an enjoyable, visually appealing, and engaging experience for me. The mode I played appeared to let players create their own setlists by choosing songs from the main story, which I experienced out of sequence without the context provided in the full story mode. However, even without the complete story context, the songs were still fun to play.
If you’re not familiar with Lumines, it shares a lot of similarities with Tetris in terms of gameplay, but with some key differences. Instead of tetrominos, you work with square-based constructs that can contain up to two different types of blocks. Your goal is to arrange these squares so they consist of the same block type, and as you clear larger squares from the board, the game continues. Unlike Tetris, where forming lines clears the board, in Lumines, “topping out” (reaching a point where there’s no more space for new blocks) means the game is over.
After creating a square on the game board, you have until the moving “Timeline” reaches it to expand the square, with the time between its creation and the Timeline’s passage being a race to grow your block into a 3×3, 4×4, and so forth. The Timeline doesn’t necessarily relate to the track’s speed, but it does help highlight the rhythmic aspect of the game and boosts your internal tempo. Additionally, Arise introduces an innovative twist with its Burst meter. This meter gradually fills up over time, and when full, you can use it to secure a square on your grid for multiple passes of the Timeline, giving you more time to add to it and clearing more of the board in the process.
Despite appearing straightforward, it proves challenging in practice. As I delved deeper into understanding my actions in Lumines Arise, the tasks became progressively more complex. Luckily, every aspect of Arise – its music, visuals, and gameplay – invites you to achieve a harmonious flow state that the game itself embodies. Everything flows smoothly, elegantly, and captivatingly. However, there’s an inherent tension associated with these puzzle games, which can escalate quickly with misplaced pieces. Nevertheless, this complexity adds depth to Lumines Arise, not just mechanically but also narratively.
Although I didn’t experience Arise’s Journey mode, one of the levels I did play stood out for its more somber atmosphere, hinting at potential directions for the game’s storyline. Instead of the usual rhythm of pulsating lights and electronic beats, there was an oppressive quietness and eerie mechanical noises. Rather than arranging flashing circles and colorful boxes, I was tasked with manipulating harsh metal box fans and empty white containers to create squares. Within a brief moment, I found myself feeling quite anxious, which I expressed to the team with a nervous chuckle.
As per creative producer Mark MacDonald, the main purpose of the game Arise is to portray life’s ups and downs, and the struggle to find a balance between good and bad experiences. Since the game doesn’t have a traditional narrative, it can be challenging to convey these themes. However, incorporating songs with lyrics in the game serves as a kind of shortcut, helping players understand their emotional journey better, even though lyrics are often symbolic or abstract. The team primarily relies on creating the right atmosphere to communicate these ideas, similar to how Lumines influenced Tetris Effect’s environments and storytelling. In turn, they drew inspiration from Tetris Effect to shape Arise.
McDonald stated, “One difficulty with our games lies in the fact that they narrate stories in unique, abstract ways. Lumines paved the path for Tetris Effect, and now it seems that Tetris Effect is influencing Lumines Arise, creating a cycle of inspiration between the two.
Immediately following our encounter, the strange, single-colored stage began to disintegrate and finished. Then, I found myself facing a pair of lively chameleons, clearly enjoying themselves, while a rapid tune played in the background. These stages truly offer an artistic and intriguing portrayal of life’s ups and downs, but they are undeniably thrilling as well.
With each rhythmic sway, I found myself immersed once more, and it seemed Takashi Ishihara, our game and art director, couldn’t help but feel elated as the ambiance his team had designed appeared to be achieving its intended effect perfectly.
Ishihara remarked, “Many individuals shed tears upon completing Tetris Effect, leaving us astonished by this reaction. In my opinion, those who appreciate art and music deeply, and who are in tune with their feelings and attentive to ambiance, will find Lumines Arise particularly resonant.
Without a doubt, players seeking an enjoyable new puzzle game in Lumines Arise won’t be disappointed. It’s entertaining, captivating, slightly nerve-wracking, visually stunning, and continues the delightful smoothness that Enhance is known for. Overall, I can hardly wait to delve deeper into it when it launches on PS5 and PC later this year.
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2025-06-12 19:39