Lumines Arise Review: Gorgeous Puzzler That's Better In VR

Lumines Arise is the puzzle series’ best entry since the original PSP game, channeling Tetris Effect with a stunning presentation. Here’s our full review.

For all the incredible things VR developers have achieved across the years chasing immersion and embodiment, it’s a testament to Enhance’s design that Tetris Effect remains a regular fixture in my VR library. This transcendent transformation of the classic 2D puzzler blew me away years ago with a wonderful audiovisual experience. Now, Lumines Arise walks a similar path.

Lumines has always been its own series ever since the 2004 PSP game, which ironically owes its existence to series creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi being unable to secure Tetris’ licensing rights. Calling Lumines Arise a spiritual successor to Tetris Effect feels strange in that regard, yet it’s very difficult to avoid directly comparing them. The parallels are screaming, especially in its slick presentation.

Make no mistake, VR is the definitive way to experience Lumines Arise. VR lets these stages truly come alive, providing a stronger sense of depth and presence in a way flatscreen platforms can’t achieve. Each stage packs unique animated effects that show clear VR focused design, delivering memorable visuals ranging from rhythmic geckos to the giant man in shadow as its arresting soundtrack goes on.

Journey Mode is the heart of this adventure, normally offering four or five levels per area that play in a continuous sequence. Arise delivers a great range of unique stage designs, though stage transitions don’t always feel like a natural continuation of each other. Game Over means you can retry from the beginning or continue from your current stage; the former is preferable for high score chasers, since continuing resets your score.

Beating Lumines involves forming 2×2 squares of matching colors, dropping blocks of the same size with different patterns onto your grid. Matching patterns then disappear as a line goes across the screen, the speed of which matches the soundtrack’s tempo. Easy to learn, difficult to master, and so satisfying when it lines up perfectly, earning extra points with larger squares.

Every block placement is crucial since being careless is a fast track to failure, which is easier said than done to avoid. You can’t switch out squares, so you’re stuck placing whatever comes your way. Fortunately, there’s a helpful new Burst mechanic you can activate at 50% charge to temporarily slow time. Useful for clearing out the grid quickly with its focus on one specific color, though I faced some very infrequent framerate drops during this on PS VR2.

Another handy tool here is a connecting block symbolized by a crosshair, which clears all blocks of the same color directly touching each other. These infrequent appearances can be a major lifesaver if grids start stacking up high, and watching dozens of squares immediately disappear brings an immediate sense of relief.

Impressive DualSense integration benefits Arise’s gameplay well on PS5, with haptic feedback feeling like a crucial part of experiencing each song as you get into the rhythm. I do wish the Burst move had adaptive trigger support for that little bit of extra feedback, though it’s a minor issue when the rest feels this good.

I’d recommend using DualSense (or a gamepad on Steam) since gameplay really doesn’t need motion controllers. Having a D-pad is a massive help for precision when the speed increases, something the Sense controllers lack. On a related note, it’s great to see Lumines Arise lets you adjust the sensitivity for the left and right analog sticks. More on that in the comfort section below.

There’s a welcome strategic challenge that rarely overwhelms even when quick decisions are needed, yet its inherent gameplay design leaves Lumines Arise feeling slightly trickier than Tetris Effect. It’s a captivating experience in its own right; both are great games, and Arise boasts an even stronger presentation that’s more expressive than its predecessor in chasing synesthesia.

Perhaps it’s unfair to overly compare the two despite the obvious similarities. However, Lumines’ core mechanics fall slightly short of those same highs for me that Tetris Effect provides. If we’re purely talking gameplay, the older title remains slightly more compelling. What’s here is still highly enjoyable though, and this is very much a “your mileage may vary” situation.

Completing Journey Mode unlocks an endless Survival mode, which tasks you with beating the entire campaign in a single run. It’s more challenging given that stages don’t reset the blocks each time. If anything, it’s a fine excuse to go back through Hydelic’s incredible songs again – Arise, Serpent Clash, Autumn Fall, and Sunset Beach are some personal highlights. This electronic soundtrack has a wonderful range, and it’s hard not to feel captivated in these moments. You can feel the emotion poured into this.

Clearing stages and other tasks earns currency that unlocks customization items for your character, Loomii, who represents you in the multiplayer hub. That same hub also features a 1v1 ranked mode called Burst Battle with crossplay support, and its only major difference from solo modes is that clearing squares sends additional blocks to your opponent. It’s a great inclusion for playing online publicly or with friends alike, and creating custom rooms with adjustable rule sets provides a suitable unranked option, too.

There are a few additional options around the Hub, the most notable being the Leaderboard League with two modes. One is your standard ‘Time Attack’ mode that’s simply clearing as many squares as possible in a time limit, while ‘Dig Down’ slowly increases gameplay speed as more blocks emerge from the bottom for some frantic fun.

Other available choices include the missions area, which helpfully teaches you more advanced techniques in Lumines through tutorials, and clearing these also earns more currency. Challenges add some decent variety to the mix too, tasking you with goals like activating burst as many times as possible to keep this varied.

If you’d rather sit back and enjoy the shows, a ‘Theatre’ option lets you do that as the game automatically plays. That’s easy to miss though as it’s only in the Playlist section, which lets you create dedicated sets of unlocked songs after clearing them in Journey. Annoyingly, playlists are also the only way you can jump into individual songs by just selecting one track, so I hope Enhance adds a quick play mode in a future update.

Lumines Arise – Final Verdict

Lumines Arise is the best entry yet in this long-running puzzle series, building upon Enhance’s work in Tetris Effect to create a mesmerizing audiovisual spectacle that shines even brighter in a VR headset. It’s not as transformative as the older title and the core gameplay doesn’t quite hit those same high notes, but that hasn’t stopped Enhance from delivering a highly memorable journey. If you enjoy puzzle games, you won’t want to miss this.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.