Lumines Arise is a 2025 puzzle video game developed by Enhance Games and Monstars Inc. and published by Enhance Games for the Playstation 5 and Windows.
The game is inspired by Enhance Games' previous title, Tetris Effect,[1] and the main single-player mode, titled Journey, features over 35 stages called “skins”. It also features other modes such as a 1v1 versus mode titled Burst Battle,[2] 60 training missions and 25 with unique game mechanics in the Missions hub, and more.[3][4]Lumines Arise also has VR support with spatial audio for headphones.
Lumines Arise was released on November 11, 2025 for PlayStation 5 and Windows, and it’s the first title in the Lumines series to be released since Lumines Remastered from June 26, 2018, and the first title that’s not a remake since Lumines: Electronic Symphony from February 15, 2012. The game received positive reviews from critics, with most reviewers praising the game’s Journey mode, presentation, graphics, gameplay, soundtrack, and new game modes, though some reviewers found that the graphics’s high rate of motion in some skins overwhelming or distracting, with others not bothered by it.
Lumines Arise is a falling blockpuzzle game that carries the core gameplay of previous games in the Lumines series, where 2x2 blocks of 2 different colors fall from the top of the screen and players move, rotate, or drop the blocks to the floor. The objective is to clear the blocks by creating 2x2 blocks of the same color or greater (referred to as squares). The created squares will stay on hold until the vertical "timeline" sweeps across the board from left to right in sync with the song’s BPM and clears the squares. The faster the song’s BPM, the more fast paced the timeline and gameplay is.[8]
Clearing 4 squares or more in a single timeline sweep will award a "bonus" awarding extra points. It starts at 4x and if more bonuses in a row are achieved, the bonus will multiply by four up to 16x. Maintaining a "combo" of bonuses is a very effective way of gaining points due to the multiplier and demands a high level of skill to maintain the combo for longer.[citation needed]
Occasionally, a chain block may appear on one of the blocks and connects to blocks of the same color horizontally or vertically. The timeline sweeps through these connected blocks making the chain block effective in certain situations, such as when the board is piling up or creating lots of squares once the connected blocks have been cleared.[8]
The game is easy to learn but hard to master due to the abstract nature of the game’s simple rules. Factors such as how the 2x2 blocks are placed, how many squares are formed from a single 2x2 block, how the stack will look like once squares are cleared by the timeline, how the upcoming 2x2 blocks affect the situation, how keeping the stack clean provides open spaces for new squares to be formed, the speed of the timeline, and gaining combos, all form part of the gameplay’s abstract nature.
Burst mechanic
The “Burst” mechanic in Lumines Arise shown. A giant expanding square, alongside the countdown on top of the timeline, and the blocks of opposite color on hold are shown.
A new addition to the gameplay is the new “Burst” mechanic. Similar to the Zone mechanic in Tetris Effect, players build up a percentage located on top of the timeline and can be activated by pressing the Burst button once it’s over 50%. When Burst is activated, blocks of the same color of the expanding squares become invincible to being cleared by a number of sweeps shown as a countdown on top of the timeline until the number reaches 0. The higher the percentage on top the timeline before Burst is activated, the higher the countdown. This gives players more time in Burst.[9][10]
In Burst, players expand a square of the same color of increasing margins by attaching blocks of the same color around it. When blocks of the same color are completely around 2 sides of the square, the square expands. Other expanding squares can also be formed, though they can merge with the largest square if it expands. Expanding the largest growing square is the best way of gaining points during Burst.[9]
Also, blocks of the opposite color that’s adjacent to created squares will be put on hold at the top of the board for the remainder of invincible timeline sweeps. Some of these blocks can also do so randomly.[9]
When the countdown on top of the timeline reaches 0, Burst ends and the timeline sweeps through the squares and then the blocks of opposite color on hold will then fall down on the board, awarding lots of points.[9]
Game modes
Journey
Journey is the main single player game mode in Lumines Arise and it features over 35 stages called “skins”. Each skin carries a unique theme and song to it and the sound effects flow alongside the music and visuals, creating a sound stage that’s unique for games of it’s genre.[3]
Each skin lasts until 70 or 90 squares are cleared. Unlike previous games in the series, once a skin is completed, the gameplay will halt during a transition to the next skin, then gameplay will resume in the next skin.[11]
There are 9 areas consisting of 4-5 skins in Journey mode and when an area is cleared, a checkpoint will occur allowing players the choice to continue playing and build their score, or to stop playing and continue some other time, though this will save the score as is and starts at 0 the next time they play.[11][12]
Survival
If Journey is completed, a new game mode called Survival is unlocked. The gameplay is otherwise identical to Journey, except that it only ends when players top out, and there’s no checkpoints. This makes Survival a run based game mode similar to older games in the series like Challenge mode in Lumines: Puzzle Fusion and Voyage mode in Lumines: Electronic Symphony.[11][13]
Training Missions
Lumines Arise has 60 training missions that help new and experienced players get better at the game or refresh them on the game's mechanics. The missions include various tasks for players to complete such as getting an all clear from the specified blocks in queue or clearing a defined number of colored squares of a specific color. The missions get harder as one progresses through the 60 missions.[14][15]
Challenges
If Journey mode is completed, Challenges are unlocked which twist the gameplay of Lumines Arise in many ways. Located within the Missions hub, 25 challenges contain unique game mechanics such as falling blocks of different sizes, gaining combos for an objective, pre-made block template's that players have to clear, falling blocks from the top, among others. All challenges have an objective to clear, such as clearing a number of squares, completing an objective within a set time, and more.[4][14][16][17]
Time Attack
Similar to previous games in the series, Time Attack's main goal is to clear as many squares as possible within the set time limit.[3][14]
Dig Down
Dig Down is a survival based game mode in Lumines Arise. In it, blocks rise from the bottom, getting faster as one survives for longer, creating pressure on players to clear blocks faster. Players play on a single skin in Dig Down with increasing difficulty until the player tops out, where the player’s time survived is the score.[4][14]
Lumines Arise was received "generally favorable" by critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[18][19] Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received "mighty" approval, being recommended by 96% of critics.[20] In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 31 out of 40.[21]
References
1 2 Cogswell, Jessica. "Lumines Arise Is Shaping Up To Be Another Visually Spectacular Hit From The Tetris Effect Team". GameSpot. Retrieved November 3, 2025. And though of course I took time to chat with game and art director Takashi Ishihara and creative producer Mark MacDonald and enjoyed every minute of it, I left the preview event wishing that somehow the next entry in the Lumines series was back at my hotel, loaded up on my Steam Deck, and waiting for me to get back to playing it.
↑ Tailby, Stephen (August 28, 2025). "Preview: Lumines Arise on PS5 Is the Eye-Popping Glow-Up the Series Deserves". Push Square. Retrieved November 2, 2025. The multiplayer side of the demo introduces an all-new mode, Burst Battle. This is an intense, one-on-one competitive mode in which completed squares and combos will send garbage over to the other player. The garbage blocks pile up on either side of your playfield, narrowing it and making it harder to play effectively. However, using Burst enables you to bounce back; if you're able to make the most of the mechanic, you can really turn things around and retaliate against your opponent, something that wasn't always possible in Lumines' old VS mode.
1 2 "Lumines Arise Headlines June 2025 PlayStation State Of Play Presentation". Lumines Arise. June 4, 2025. Retrieved November 3, 2025. A special message from Executive Producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Director Takashi Ishihara directly followed the announcement trailer, and the duo teased a demo coming later this year prior to the game's release.
↑ "Support". Lumines Arise. Retrieved October 26, 2025. All of the music in Lumines Arise is produced by Hydelic and Takako Ishida, the artists behind Tetris Effect: Connected and Rez Infinite's Area X.
1 2 3 Klark, Kyle (November 11, 2025). "Lumines Arise Review: A Stunning Rhythm Puzzle Revival". Retrieved November 11, 2025. Lumines Arise has a total of nine levels, each with its own stages and songs, which you progress through once you create enough squares, typically between seventy and ninety. It might sound like a high number to achieve, but once you start dropping your first square onto the board, it's not long until you quickly get the hang of how Lumine works.
↑ "The Game". Lumines Arise. Retrieved November 11, 2025. There are nine areas in Journey, each with 4-5 stages. There are two tabs to switch between play options at the top: Standard: Once you complete an area, your score and grade will be displayed before you proceed to the next (or exit to the menu).
↑ Gibbons, Brodie (November 11, 2025). "Lumines Arise Review - For Those About To Block". Press Start. Retrieved November 13, 2025. 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.
↑ Watson, Philip (November 11, 2025). "Lumines Arise (PC) Review - CGMagazine". Retrieved November 13, 2025. There is a Mission Mode in Lumines Arise to show newcomers the ropes in a series of tasks designed to onboard inexperienced puzzlers. These missions do a great job of explaining the ins and outs of Lumines Arise, and after finishing the first dozen or so, these missions become harder. After about mission 40, only the most expert Lumines sweepers can march through.
↑ Donlan, Christian (November 11, 2025). "Lumines Arise review - cor, this is wonderful". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved November 13, 2025. Then there are challenges, and these are essentially the Lumines Variations. One of them - I absolutely hate it - has you using combos to break open an egg in a certain space of time, which means you need to manage your space and find a place for all the colour jumbles that aren't going to help you. Another has you working around strange Lumines templates that carve up the screen. Another has blocks of different shapes and sizes dropping.
↑ Hartford, Charles (November 11, 2025). "Lumines Arise Review: Enhance's Near Perfect Blend Of Visuals And Sound". But Why Tho?. Retrieved November 13, 2025. There is also Challenge Mode, which tasks the player with clearing a set of original trails, each with its own spin on the game. One uses irregular shapes instead of dropping squares, while another has an egg at the center of the screen that must be hatched by creating squares next to it before the timer expires.
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