This was meant to be a full review of Lumines Arise, but an issue that cropped up on the PC version of the game has delayed the full, scored piece. That said, I have played enough of the game to have some solid impressions, even if I can’t see all the game has to offer at the moment.
To sum up what Arise is, it is what Tetris Effect is to Tetris: a visual and aural overload that plays you, as much as you play it. With its vibrant, pulsing colors accompanying an excellent soundtrack that builds as you progress through a stage, combined with excellent use of the rumble effects on modern controllers, Lumines Arise is a real feast for the senses.
So what is the issue I’m running into? To put it simply, after a certain point in Journey mode, the game freezes up in the middle of the stage. Thus far, going back and forth with the team, we haven’t managed to make the issue happen on their end, which is proving to be frustrating for all involved.
If this is happening to me, then it will likely happen to someone else. While PC configurations are legion, someone will likely have the same set of circumstances that may trigger this bug.
While they try to figure it out, though, I can share what I think of the game so far.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s brilliant. In some ways, the Tetris Effect treatment works even better with Lumines, since it already had many of the visual and audio flourishes to begin with. It was just a matter of amping things up and refining what they’ve done over the years.
I’ve only managed to play about 10 stages thus far, which is as far as I can get before it crashes, but the feeling I get from this game is unlike anything I’ve played. Well, not since Tetris Effect, anyway. This team has a knack for tweaking one’s senses and emotions.
Much like I do for all my reviews now, I’ll mention the game’s accessibility options. I did an accessibility preview on the game when the demo came out, so I’ll refer you to that for more details. But one aspect I want to mention in more detail is the game’s BURST mechanic.
Much like Tetris Effect’s ZONE mode, the BURST mechanic allows you to set up massive combos. It’s a very fun mechanic in theory, but there is an accessibility caveat here: When activating BURST mode, the playfield zoomed all the way out. This is a problem because I specified in the Accessibility options that I wanted the playfield zoomed all the way in. So engaging BURST negated that choice and made the feature more difficult for those with low vision. I write this in the past tense because minutes after I wrote this paragraph, I checked Steam and a patch came through. This patch fixed this behavior, opening up the mechanic for me. The team is listening.
There will be more to come once things get sorted out. It’s easy to be negative and complain for clicks that something doesn’t work, but that’s not who I am. This is a problem I’m having, and we’re hoping to solve it. Bugs happen, and sometimes situations arise you can’t test for. So it’s important to understand on the other end of that bug is a developer trying hard to figure out what happened. We’re only human, and we’re all here in this world together. So even if the sky falls, we’ll figure it out.
This was meant to be a full review of Lumines Arise, but an issue that cropped up on the PC version of the game has delayed the full, scored piece. That said, I have played enough of the game to…
This was meant to be a full review of Lumines Arise, but an issue that cropped up on the PC version of the game has delayed the full, scored piece. That said, I have played enough of the game to have some solid impressions, even if I can’t see all the game has to offer at the moment.
To sum up what Arise is, it is what Tetris Effect is to Tetris: a visual and aural overload that plays you, as much as you play it. With its vibrant, pulsing colors accompanying an excellent soundtrack that builds as you progress through a stage, combined with excellent use of the rumble effects on modern controllers, Lumines Arise is a real feast for the senses.
So what is the issue I’m running into? To put it simply, after a certain point in Journey mode, the game freezes up in the middle of the stage. Thus far, going back and forth with the team, we haven’t managed to make the issue happen on their end, which is proving to be frustrating for all involved.
If this is happening to me, then it will likely happen to someone else. While PC configurations are legion, someone will likely have the same set of circumstances that may trigger this bug.
While they try to figure it out, though, I can share what I think of the game so far.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s brilliant. In some ways, the Tetris Effect treatment works even better with Lumines, since it already had many of the visual and audio flourishes to begin with. It was just a matter of amping things up and refining what they’ve done over the years.
I’ve only managed to play about 10 stages thus far, which is as far as I can get before it crashes, but the feeling I get from this game is unlike anything I’ve played. Well, not since Tetris Effect, anyway. This team has a knack for tweaking one’s senses and emotions.
Much like I do for all my reviews now, I’ll mention the game’s accessibility options. I did an accessibility preview on the game when the demo came out, so I’ll refer you to that for more details. But one aspect I want to mention in more detail is the game’s BURST mechanic.
Much like Tetris Effect’s ZONE mode, the BURST mechanic allows you to set up massive combos. It’s a very fun mechanic in theory, but there is an accessibility caveat here: When activating BURST mode, the playfield zoomed all the way out. This is a problem because I specified in the Accessibility options that I wanted the playfield zoomed all the way in. So engaging BURST negated that choice and made the feature more difficult for those with low vision. I write this in the past tense because minutes after I wrote this paragraph, I checked Steam and a patch came through. This patch fixed this behavior, opening up the mechanic for me. The team is listening.
There will be more to come once things get sorted out. It’s easy to be negative and complain for clicks that something doesn’t work, but that’s not who I am. This is a problem I’m having, and we’re hoping to solve it. Bugs happen, and sometimes situations arise you can’t test for. So it’s important to understand on the other end of that bug is a developer trying hard to figure out what happened. We’re only human, and we’re all here in this world together. So even if the sky falls, we’ll figure it out.
by Filippo Dinolfo
