Lumines Arise is set to arrive on PS5 on 11th November, and when developer and publisher Enhance announced the release date, it also unveiled a Digital Deluxe edition, which includes several special Loomii — in-game avatars — and name plates based on the studio’s other titles.
On top of that, an exclusive extra for PS5 players is none other than Astro Bot. You’ll be able to equip the diminutive robot as your Loomii if you nab the Digital Deluxe edition from the PS Store.
While we obviously know what he looks like, Astro’s appearance in Lumines Arise has been kept shrouded in secrecy — until now. Here he is in Enhance’s latest game:
Yep, that’s Astro Bot!
His Loomii rendition has a unique translucency that gives him a sort of ethereal look, but the character otherwise looks spot on. He even performs his trademark dance moves while you chill out and drop some blocks.
If you’re as big a fan of Team Asobi’s platforming hero as we are, you might be interested to know the price tag to get him in Lumines Arise. Here’s how it breaks down:
Lumines Arise standard edition: $39.99/€39.99/£32.99 ($35.99/€35.99/£29.69 with PS Plus pre-order discount)
Digital Deluxe edition: $44.99/€44.99/£36.99 ($40.49/€40.49/£33.29 with PS Plus pre-order discount)
If you’re a PS Plus member and pre-order either version of the game, you get a 10% discount, which is pretty nice.
It should be noted that the Digital Deluxe content will be available as a standalone DLC pack. If you’ve bought the standard version and want to have Astro Bot and the rest of the premium Loomii, you’ll be able to grab it for $5. The price in other regions has not been confirmed to us, but we’d expect €5/£4.
Those other Loomii characters, by the way, are T – Tetrimino from Tetris Effect, Rez Hacker from Rez Infinite, and the Shiba Inu from Humanity.
You might be wondering how Astro Bot came to be included in the game. Well, we put the question directly to Enhance as part of our wider interview about Lumines Arise.
While the studio had a relationship with Team Asobi already, it seems proposing the idea was mostly down to happenstance.
“With Astro Bot, it goes back to both being early PSVR supporters,” says Mark MacDonald, creative producer on Lumines Arise, describing a “mutual admiration” the two teams had for each other’s virtual reality work.
For 2024’s Astro Bot, Enhance was one of the many developers recognised in the game, with not one but two Special Bots (based on Rez and Humanity). “We’re super flattered by that. Like, very few studios even got two, and to be asked for our new game at the time, Humanity, which wasn’t out yet, that was a really cool show of confidence from them,” MacDonald recalls.
Image: Push Square
So what about Lumines Arise, then? “We had our Loomii avatar system we were creating, and we wanted something cool that PlayStation owners specifically would be excited by,” he says, explaining that Astro Bot was identified as the “best candidate” to make a cameo.
The rest fell into place pretty quickly, it seems, as Enhance boss Tetsuya Mizuguchi was due to see Nicolas Doucet, creative director on Astro Bot:
“It just so happened while we were thinking this through, Mizuguchi-san and Nicolas were both on the same panel at a Sony industry event. So I was like, ‘Miz, you have to mention it to Nicolas! See if you can get him as our way in!'”
MacDonald says they seized the opportunity to speak directly to Doucet to make it happen. “Of course we could go through Sony and all the official channels, but it was just cosmic coincidence it was happening that week just as we were talking about it.”
He says Team Asobi has been “so amazing to work with”, making the process of adding Astro Bot to Lumines Arise “as easy as possible”.
So, while the two studios had a relationship already, there was a touch of serendipity to getting the collaboration going.
Stephen has been part of the Push Square team for over six years, bringing boundless enthusiasm and a deep knowledge of video games to his role as Assistant Editor. Having grown up playing every PlayStation console to date, he’s developed an eclectic taste, with particular passion for indie games, arcade racers, and puzzlers. He’s also our go-to guy for Sonic-related matters, much to his delight/chagrin.