Full video review: https://youtu.be/8ys_JQg299s
Written review below![/h1][/quote]
I have watched way too many black and white samurai movies for my own good, so you could say I was a bit excited for this one.
Aesthetic
Trek to Yomi absolutely bleeds style, with authentic, detailed environments, perfectly placed camera angles, and the studio went so far as to even have the voice actors deliver their lines in the same manner as an older Japanese samurai movie. If you thought the black and white filter in Ghosts of Tsushima was something - this is like an entirely different level and I am absolutely here for it.
Even disregarding that authenticity, the game itself still looks great. The models look good, the use of lighting is expertly done, and I really liked all the weather effects in particular. It’s just good-looking all around and the atmospheric sound design only adds to this.
Gameplay and combat
The combat, at least on the surface, looks simple, but once you start playing, you quickly find that the handful of base moves you start with combo into a variety of different strings. Upward slashes, downward, thrusting attacks, heavy attacks - the full slate can then be made into something like down, down, heavy for a stun or back light, light, light for a spin attack string that does massive damage to enemies behind you.
You are constantly unlocking new combos as you play and the game does a good job presenting them at a consistent pace to give you something to look forward to. Granted, if I am being honest, the basic strings worked well enough for me way into the experience that I oftentimes had to actively force myself to use some of the fancier stuff.
There are also ranged attacks courtesy of a few ranged weapons, such as the bow and arrow. The ammo for these are limited and must be found hidden away in the environment, but they are great options when you have an annoying ranged enemy farther away and are another nice addition to some already solid combat.
Overall though, the combat works. It feels great to play, looks great in action, and has intuitive enough controls that you get this nice sense of fluidity from it. It took me maybe twenty minutes and I was completely into it, slashing down enemies, parrying, and rolling around with ease. The parry is very forgiving, so that’s definitely something I would recommend using.
Content and length
Trek to Yomi is not a long game. It took me just under four hours to clear and if you shave away all of my deaths that settles to just under three hours. That doesn’t make it a bad game though - the studio intentionally crafted an experience to be authentic to the samurai movies of old and pacing was a part of that.
However, this is also one of my main complaints. Not that it is too short, but that the pacing itself becomes a bit rocky towards the end. You get some really solid first few levels and then the last couple it felt like they kinda lost their way. You get environments that aren’t as cool and repetitive enemy encounters that have you fighting like five or six at a time just to get to the next little segment which will have you repeat this. A lot of the game was like this, but the balance was WAY better early on with the exploration, the enemy encounters, the story bits.
Story
Otherwise, the length is fine. If anything, the story lacks the depth for anything longer than it already is. Not to bash the story by the way, it’s fine for what it is, but it can be boiled down to a simple revenge story at its core that also happens to touch on more personal elements like morality and honor. So nothing too crazy there, but also not boring - I think the studio did a decent job maintaining a good story-gameplay balance even if I can’t say that this is a story I’ll remember after maybe a week.
Replayability
There is not a whole lot of exploration and the game itself is mostly linear outside of different story endings you get based on certain key dialogue decisions (there are only a few of these). However, to make a different decision, you have to literally play through the entire game again - there’s no chapter select despite the experience being divided into distinct chapters.
I will say though that the difficulty unlocked after clearing the game once is cool. It’s called Kensei and it basically makes everything one-hit kill, including yourself. Doesn’t apply to bosses unfortunately, but a cool hardcore take that honestly would have been fun to have from the start.
Performance
I ran the game at 1440p, 144fps on my RTX 3080 Ti and didn’t have any technical issues outside of one instance where I fell off the map and had to reload to a checkpoint not even ten seconds prior. Controls are great on a controller (although not rebindable) and are also fine on keyboard and mouse (which are rebindable). Granted, I still recommend controller.
Overall
Trek to Yomi is about as authentic as they come. The lighting, the camera angles, the graininess - the aesthetic is all there and is matched with some equally nice combat that has a surprising amount of depth to it. It may falter later on with its pacing and lackluster enemy variety, but it’s an experience well had and I am definitely satisfied as someone that watches a ton of the movies for which this is based on. Even if you’re not into the movies though - it’s good enough on its own to warrant a look.
Written review below![/h1][/quote]
I have watched way too many black and white samurai movies for my own good, so you could say I was a bit excited for this one.
Aesthetic
Trek to Yomi absolutely bleeds style, with authentic, detailed environments, perfectly placed camera angles, and the studio went so far as to even have the voice actors deliver their lines in the same manner as an older Japanese samurai movie. If you thought the black and white filter in Ghosts of Tsushima was something - this is like an entirely different level and I am absolutely here for it.
Even disregarding that authenticity, the game itself still looks great. The models look good, the use of lighting is expertly done, and I really liked all the weather effects in particular. It’s just good-looking all around and the atmospheric sound design only adds to this.
Gameplay and combat
The combat, at least on the surface, looks simple, but once you start playing, you quickly find that the handful of base moves you start with combo into a variety of different strings. Upward slashes, downward, thrusting attacks, heavy attacks - the full slate can then be made into something like down, down, heavy for a stun or back light, light, light for a spin attack string that does massive damage to enemies behind you.
You are constantly unlocking new combos as you play and the game does a good job presenting them at a consistent pace to give you something to look forward to. Granted, if I am being honest, the basic strings worked well enough for me way into the experience that I oftentimes had to actively force myself to use some of the fancier stuff.
There are also ranged attacks courtesy of a few ranged weapons, such as the bow and arrow. The ammo for these are limited and must be found hidden away in the environment, but they are great options when you have an annoying ranged enemy farther away and are another nice addition to some already solid combat.
Overall though, the combat works. It feels great to play, looks great in action, and has intuitive enough controls that you get this nice sense of fluidity from it. It took me maybe twenty minutes and I was completely into it, slashing down enemies, parrying, and rolling around with ease. The parry is very forgiving, so that’s definitely something I would recommend using.
Content and length
Trek to Yomi is not a long game. It took me just under four hours to clear and if you shave away all of my deaths that settles to just under three hours. That doesn’t make it a bad game though - the studio intentionally crafted an experience to be authentic to the samurai movies of old and pacing was a part of that.
However, this is also one of my main complaints. Not that it is too short, but that the pacing itself becomes a bit rocky towards the end. You get some really solid first few levels and then the last couple it felt like they kinda lost their way. You get environments that aren’t as cool and repetitive enemy encounters that have you fighting like five or six at a time just to get to the next little segment which will have you repeat this. A lot of the game was like this, but the balance was WAY better early on with the exploration, the enemy encounters, the story bits.
Story
Otherwise, the length is fine. If anything, the story lacks the depth for anything longer than it already is. Not to bash the story by the way, it’s fine for what it is, but it can be boiled down to a simple revenge story at its core that also happens to touch on more personal elements like morality and honor. So nothing too crazy there, but also not boring - I think the studio did a decent job maintaining a good story-gameplay balance even if I can’t say that this is a story I’ll remember after maybe a week.
Replayability
There is not a whole lot of exploration and the game itself is mostly linear outside of different story endings you get based on certain key dialogue decisions (there are only a few of these). However, to make a different decision, you have to literally play through the entire game again - there’s no chapter select despite the experience being divided into distinct chapters.
I will say though that the difficulty unlocked after clearing the game once is cool. It’s called Kensei and it basically makes everything one-hit kill, including yourself. Doesn’t apply to bosses unfortunately, but a cool hardcore take that honestly would have been fun to have from the start.
Performance
I ran the game at 1440p, 144fps on my RTX 3080 Ti and didn’t have any technical issues outside of one instance where I fell off the map and had to reload to a checkpoint not even ten seconds prior. Controls are great on a controller (although not rebindable) and are also fine on keyboard and mouse (which are rebindable). Granted, I still recommend controller.
Overall
Trek to Yomi is about as authentic as they come. The lighting, the camera angles, the graininess - the aesthetic is all there and is matched with some equally nice combat that has a surprising amount of depth to it. It may falter later on with its pacing and lackluster enemy variety, but it’s an experience well had and I am definitely satisfied as someone that watches a ton of the movies for which this is based on. Even if you’re not into the movies though - it’s good enough on its own to warrant a look.
I wouldn’t play Trek to Yomi again, the combat in general and the turtle slow boss fights were a little bit too tedious for me.
But don’t let that stop you, this is a great game, an homage to samurai films in 2.5D format, with an easy to follow story and great attention to detail. Trek to Yomi has great characters, great atmosphere and great audio! (ignoring the ocasional repeated sfx, the audio design was a surprise for a team of two sound designers).
Go play this game, you won’t regret it.
But don’t let that stop you, this is a great game, an homage to samurai films in 2.5D format, with an easy to follow story and great attention to detail. Trek to Yomi has great characters, great atmosphere and great audio! (ignoring the ocasional repeated sfx, the audio design was a surprise for a team of two sound designers).
Go play this game, you won’t regret it.
Usually, a fairly simple and repetitive combat loop and saminess of locations and lack of variety in enemies would sink a game for me. But this scores then speaks to the extremely amazing strength of the presentation here and how it overcomes these flaws to still provide an overall wonderful experience.
The quick hitter comparison is that this side-scrolling Ghost of Tsushima, or as my friend Andy called it, "Limbo with swords". You run around with your katana parrying and countering attacks, and that's about it. You do gain some different ranged abilities and they're fun to mix in, but on normal difficulty the game is far from challenging. I'm not "good" at games and I only died a few times, with the final boss taking me maybe 60 seconds to knock down.
What makes this game incredible is the presentation. From the Japanese language (only option available) to the black and white to the supernatural-infused samurai story of duty and honor... this is maybe as close to playing a Kurosawa movie as you can get. The character animations aren't always great and can look a little blurry, but the environmental effect, combat, and wonderfully era-appropriate score make this FEEL epic. While the story may be uncomplicated and hardly memorable, at about 5 hours for a single playthrough, it was short enough to not quite wear out its welcome and be a unique take in the genre well worth playing.
The quick hitter comparison is that this side-scrolling Ghost of Tsushima, or as my friend Andy called it, "Limbo with swords". You run around with your katana parrying and countering attacks, and that's about it. You do gain some different ranged abilities and they're fun to mix in, but on normal difficulty the game is far from challenging. I'm not "good" at games and I only died a few times, with the final boss taking me maybe 60 seconds to knock down.
What makes this game incredible is the presentation. From the Japanese language (only option available) to the black and white to the supernatural-infused samurai story of duty and honor... this is maybe as close to playing a Kurosawa movie as you can get. The character animations aren't always great and can look a little blurry, but the environmental effect, combat, and wonderfully era-appropriate score make this FEEL epic. While the story may be uncomplicated and hardly memorable, at about 5 hours for a single playthrough, it was short enough to not quite wear out its welcome and be a unique take in the genre well worth playing.
Si este juego no estuviera en blanco y medio la gente le hubiera puesto un 1-2 sin pestañear.
Como tira el rollito Kurosawa para valorar una obra ¿eh?
Como tira el rollito Kurosawa para valorar una obra ¿eh?
Totalmente estilo sobre sustancia, es soporífero y lo único que tiene para ofrecer son algunos planos chulos.
I love the art style and the fixed camera angles, but that's...pretty much it. The gameplay's rough, the controls are downright uncomfortable, the story is a cliche-filled mess and the score is insanely forgettable. A massive disappointment and probably my least favorite game Devolver has ever published (that I've played). You know it's bad when the game's saving grace is that it's short.
An absolutely gorgeous game, one of the most beautiful I've ever seen, with some of the most outstanding environmental design I've ever seen and one of the most developed aesthetics in the medium. Backed by enjoyable base gameplay and a fun story.
Held back by truly terrible boss fights and combat that can become somewhat repetitive, it's far from perfect.
Held back by truly terrible boss fights and combat that can become somewhat repetitive, it's far from perfect.
Buen juego con un diseño artístico y visual apabullante, pero que se pierde en términos jugables haciéndose a la larga tedioso y repetitivo. Es verdad que tiene un buen número de combos disponibles, pero el escaso número de enemigos diferentes hace que cuando te acostumbras a dos o tres de estos combos acabes pasándote el juego entero repetiéndolos.
La historia está bien, nada destacable. Típico guión de venganza que hemos visto millones de veces tanto en cine, literatura y videojuegos.
Su fuerte, como ya comenté, está en la parte visual. Es un título muy llamativo por su utilización del blanco y negro, aunque en algunas partes como la del Yomi, que utiliza una luz artificial para alumbrar los escenarios, he notado que este efecto es un poco más molesto de lo que debería. Aún así esto no empaña el gran trabajo que se ha hecho en este aspecto. Como mucho habría que poner los subtítulos en otro color, porque blanco sobre fondo blanco y negro no es una buena decisión.
La historia está bien, nada destacable. Típico guión de venganza que hemos visto millones de veces tanto en cine, literatura y videojuegos.
Su fuerte, como ya comenté, está en la parte visual. Es un título muy llamativo por su utilización del blanco y negro, aunque en algunas partes como la del Yomi, que utiliza una luz artificial para alumbrar los escenarios, he notado que este efecto es un poco más molesto de lo que debería. Aún así esto no empaña el gran trabajo que se ha hecho en este aspecto. Como mucho habría que poner los subtítulos en otro color, porque blanco sobre fondo blanco y negro no es una buena decisión.
One of the more gorgeous titles I've played in a while. The static framing of each "shot" reminds me of the OG Resident Evil but works even better here to make the game feel cinematic. I found the narrative and gameplay pretty boring, but it's worth playing as a Game Pass title for the visuals alone.
Still a good time overall, visually striking but ultimately disappointing in most other aspects
Slicing people with your katana is unsatisfying in this game. I couldn't imagine a more scathing review than that.
I was really disappointed here, this felt like an Xbox Arcade title from 2008.
I was really disappointed here, this felt like an Xbox Arcade title from 2008.
This is such a beautiful game with a great story and I loved the ending. The story and art of this game carry it hard, the combat leaves a lot to be desired tho. I did get the hang of it after a while, but it never felt quite as fluid as I had hoped tho. Regardless though, I would recommend this game to anyone. I had a fun time playing it and it’s not that long of a game
Apesar da incrível fotografia, design de som e trilha sonoras impecáveis, o jogo se arrasta numa gameplay chata, repetitiva e nada satisfatória.
I dug this game. It's straight up an old samurai film turned video game. They managed to make this old black and white movie art style stupidly pretty. The way they position the camera for all the areas in the game often feels very artsy. By far the visuals are best part of the game.
I've seen a lot of people complain about the combat, but it isn't that bad. It's actually quite satisfying cutting down foes in a couple sword swings. That said, the combat lacks depth. Throughout the game you learn various combos, some of which if you land will allow you to one-shot enemies AND give a bit of health back. At the end of game you end up spamming these combos over and over without much thought, because they are stupidly effective. Thus, the game starts to get dull and repetitive in the last couple hours, which is not so good when the game is only about 6 hours long or so. So the combat isn't bad perse, and I liked it for the first couple hours of the game, it just could be quite a bit better.
Trek to Yomi is a pretty good game. Definitely recommend to anyone who has game pass.
I've seen a lot of people complain about the combat, but it isn't that bad. It's actually quite satisfying cutting down foes in a couple sword swings. That said, the combat lacks depth. Throughout the game you learn various combos, some of which if you land will allow you to one-shot enemies AND give a bit of health back. At the end of game you end up spamming these combos over and over without much thought, because they are stupidly effective. Thus, the game starts to get dull and repetitive in the last couple hours, which is not so good when the game is only about 6 hours long or so. So the combat isn't bad perse, and I liked it for the first couple hours of the game, it just could be quite a bit better.
Trek to Yomi is a pretty good game. Definitely recommend to anyone who has game pass.
A great looking game with a cookie cutter story and unbearably repetitive gameplay, mainly combat. Voice acting is great though.
Trek to Yomi marks a departure from the first-person shooters that Flying Wild Hog is known for, as it mostly stemmed from the mind of developer Leonard Menchiari. This 2.5D action game set in 19th century Japan has no wacky guns or loudmouth protagonists; only a somber tale about a warrior that has been influenced by samurai films from the 1950s and 1960s. While its lovingly crafted visuals pay homage to those influences before thoughtfully diverging from them, Trek to Yomi also creates some of its own problems during that journey.
Read the full review here:
https://www.comingsoon.net/games/reviews/1219746-trek-to-yomi-review-ps5-worth-buying
Read the full review here:
https://www.comingsoon.net/games/reviews/1219746-trek-to-yomi-review-ps5-worth-buying
akira kurosawa the game
Su apartado visual es apabullante, una preciosidad. Una pena que no acompañe en mecánicas. Las bases del juego deberían sustentarse en el combate con la katana, y lo hacen, el problema es que es un combate básico, repetitivo y aburrido. Es como un regalo en el que lo que más luce es el envoltorio, por fuera es increíble, pero al abrirlo irremediablemente decepciona.
A short but sweet run through. The game looks super pretty and is quite unique in style. The 2.5D style works super well for this kind of game. The combat can get a little repetitive after a bit but its still very satisfying to slash up mass amounts of enemies. The final boss was the first real challenge of the game and kind of felt like the game went from 0-100 out of nowhere but the whole point of the game is the revenge angle so I'm glad it felt kind of earned. If you have game pass its well worth a go.
I got a lot more out of the story than I thought, I was expecting a flat grounded samurai story and instead it gives everything in its short runtime.
This is a visual stunner with great homage to classic Japanese cinema, but that's no surprise as that's what it sold itself on, I will say that I was expecting more from the combat, it's fine, there's just enough to keep me invested but only just. It'd be more of an issue if the game were longer.
Overall though this was great.
This is a visual stunner with great homage to classic Japanese cinema, but that's no surprise as that's what it sold itself on, I will say that I was expecting more from the combat, it's fine, there's just enough to keep me invested but only just. It'd be more of an issue if the game were longer.
Overall though this was great.
I don't think it's out of line to say that Trek to Yomi is one of the prettiest games I have ever played. It's fixed camera angles are always pointed towards some of the most beautiful landscapes i've seen in a game, cast with incredible use of lighting, a fantastic film grain filter thing, a bit of tilt shift, and cast with enough fidelity to really snap.
From minute 1 to it's final moments, Trek to Yomi just never misses in terms of looks. Every single of what must be hundreds of camera angles is beautiful, and whilst it is blatantly inspired by the work of Akira Kurosawa, it doesnt wallow in it, spending about half it's runtime making shots and going through environments beyond the scope of the great filmaker, dabbling with the supernatural.
And on top of the visuals, there's a great score and fantastic voice acting, basically nailing the feeling of playing through a samurai cinema film. The story's simple, but is emotionally charged enough to carry this facismile the whole way through, and does a great job of carrying the player through all the cool shit.
And if you can accept that is what Trek to Yomi's hook is, you will probably enjoy it, possibly quite a bit, like I did. Because Trek to Yomi - despite having a fair amount of combat - is way closer to a walking sim or cinematic platformer than anything else. There's a teeny bit of exploration and puzzling, but they mostly serve to give you more cool shit to look at.
The real core issue with Trek to Yomi is it's combat. It's actually mostly serviceable, basically a footsies sword game, and the enemy variety, particularly in the midsection, adds a swell of momentum. But there's just too much of it, and once you've figured out how to take down each of the enemy types consistently, it's pretty repetitive. When played on the one-shot Kensei mode (which is sadly unlocked only on a second playthrough), it benefits massively from the increased pace, to the point that i'd reccomend downloading a save file with it unlocked or something on PC. Some sections of the game on normal/hard difficulty do just feel slightly too long, so shortening it down helps trim the fat.
The character animation of the game is also a little weird. Again, it's not too bad and it mostly effects the combat, but it's a bit stilted and animations cancel into each other in a bit of a disorienting way. It's odd in that I only really noticed it for the first part of each play session before i got used to how it looked - just kind of unusual.
But those are only the only huge blemishes on what is otherwise a unique, very engaging 6 hour experience, and I think if you know what you're getting into, there's an awful amount to love here. I will admit to being basically exactly the target audience for this game, being a fan of both janky vibe-based games and Akira Kurosawa's movies, but honestly, if you go in expecting something closer to a game like INSIDE than Ghost of Tsushima or - god forbid - a beat em up with good combat, it will be one fantastic 6 hours.
From minute 1 to it's final moments, Trek to Yomi just never misses in terms of looks. Every single of what must be hundreds of camera angles is beautiful, and whilst it is blatantly inspired by the work of Akira Kurosawa, it doesnt wallow in it, spending about half it's runtime making shots and going through environments beyond the scope of the great filmaker, dabbling with the supernatural.
And on top of the visuals, there's a great score and fantastic voice acting, basically nailing the feeling of playing through a samurai cinema film. The story's simple, but is emotionally charged enough to carry this facismile the whole way through, and does a great job of carrying the player through all the cool shit.
And if you can accept that is what Trek to Yomi's hook is, you will probably enjoy it, possibly quite a bit, like I did. Because Trek to Yomi - despite having a fair amount of combat - is way closer to a walking sim or cinematic platformer than anything else. There's a teeny bit of exploration and puzzling, but they mostly serve to give you more cool shit to look at.
The real core issue with Trek to Yomi is it's combat. It's actually mostly serviceable, basically a footsies sword game, and the enemy variety, particularly in the midsection, adds a swell of momentum. But there's just too much of it, and once you've figured out how to take down each of the enemy types consistently, it's pretty repetitive. When played on the one-shot Kensei mode (which is sadly unlocked only on a second playthrough), it benefits massively from the increased pace, to the point that i'd reccomend downloading a save file with it unlocked or something on PC. Some sections of the game on normal/hard difficulty do just feel slightly too long, so shortening it down helps trim the fat.
The character animation of the game is also a little weird. Again, it's not too bad and it mostly effects the combat, but it's a bit stilted and animations cancel into each other in a bit of a disorienting way. It's odd in that I only really noticed it for the first part of each play session before i got used to how it looked - just kind of unusual.
But those are only the only huge blemishes on what is otherwise a unique, very engaging 6 hour experience, and I think if you know what you're getting into, there's an awful amount to love here. I will admit to being basically exactly the target audience for this game, being a fan of both janky vibe-based games and Akira Kurosawa's movies, but honestly, if you go in expecting something closer to a game like INSIDE than Ghost of Tsushima or - god forbid - a beat em up with good combat, it will be one fantastic 6 hours.
A truly conflicting game for me. On the one hand, I want to gush about how this game captures the spirit and flare of Akira Kurosawa's films. Especially within the later chapters, the visuals and atmosphere of the game are mind-boggling and beautiful, and I find myself wondering, "how in the world did such a small studio put together such a massive project?"
On the other hand, the game's combat design is frustratingly boring, but it has the groundwork to be quite good with proper tweaking. The lack of enemy types, the lack of interesting ways to take down said enemy types, and the overall lack of challenge this game poses even on the highest difficulty is incredibly disappointing. You will find yourself using the same overpowered tactics to dispose of your foes (stun then execute) since the game never challenges you to try anything else. Then, you have to completely shift whatever you "learned" through the combat to fight the lackluster bosses that can either be spammed to death, or you have to kill quick enough before they become a nuisance. Some of the bosses flat-out ignore the rules of parrying and blocking, which makes for a very frustrating battle without an optimal way to finish the fight quickly. For a game so short, it feels so long, due to how repetitive each challenge feels. Only one enemy type challenges the player to engage with all of its combat mechanics, but it is introduced in the final chapter of the game, which was a far too-late addition.
After finishing the game, I wanted to give the game at 5 and call it day. However, there is an extra difficulty mode unlocked once you beat the game that makes every enemy (besides bosses) one shot as well as yourself. Now, this is where the game shines. When everyone is one shot, you no longer have to engage in the lackluster combat. Now you flow through each encounter, picking who to take down first with a quick swipe of your sword, parrying enemies that are easier to take down through parrying, as well as utilizing your ranged weapons as a counter to ranged opponents or as a "get out of jail free" card. Even the bosses get an upgrade since now you must learn how to beat them, without getting hit. I utilized high-damaging combos while weaving in and out of their attacks, so I could finish the fight as quickly and safely as possible; something I never even thought of on my first playthrough. Overall, certain aspects shined in this mode, while others became pointless, but I had a blast trying to beat the game as fast as possible. it made me feel like the game was originally designed with this sort of difficulty as the norm. It's a shame it's locked behind game completion. However, this alone bumped up my score
Trek to Yomi will stick with me, because its visuals are there, and the potential is there, but its execution is lacking. I recommend giving it a try almost solely on its presentation alone, and its one-hit difficulty setting. But do not expect any mechanical design to awe you as much as its visual and audio design does.
6.5/10
On the other hand, the game's combat design is frustratingly boring, but it has the groundwork to be quite good with proper tweaking. The lack of enemy types, the lack of interesting ways to take down said enemy types, and the overall lack of challenge this game poses even on the highest difficulty is incredibly disappointing. You will find yourself using the same overpowered tactics to dispose of your foes (stun then execute) since the game never challenges you to try anything else. Then, you have to completely shift whatever you "learned" through the combat to fight the lackluster bosses that can either be spammed to death, or you have to kill quick enough before they become a nuisance. Some of the bosses flat-out ignore the rules of parrying and blocking, which makes for a very frustrating battle without an optimal way to finish the fight quickly. For a game so short, it feels so long, due to how repetitive each challenge feels. Only one enemy type challenges the player to engage with all of its combat mechanics, but it is introduced in the final chapter of the game, which was a far too-late addition.
After finishing the game, I wanted to give the game at 5 and call it day. However, there is an extra difficulty mode unlocked once you beat the game that makes every enemy (besides bosses) one shot as well as yourself. Now, this is where the game shines. When everyone is one shot, you no longer have to engage in the lackluster combat. Now you flow through each encounter, picking who to take down first with a quick swipe of your sword, parrying enemies that are easier to take down through parrying, as well as utilizing your ranged weapons as a counter to ranged opponents or as a "get out of jail free" card. Even the bosses get an upgrade since now you must learn how to beat them, without getting hit. I utilized high-damaging combos while weaving in and out of their attacks, so I could finish the fight as quickly and safely as possible; something I never even thought of on my first playthrough. Overall, certain aspects shined in this mode, while others became pointless, but I had a blast trying to beat the game as fast as possible. it made me feel like the game was originally designed with this sort of difficulty as the norm. It's a shame it's locked behind game completion. However, this alone bumped up my score
Trek to Yomi will stick with me, because its visuals are there, and the potential is there, but its execution is lacking. I recommend giving it a try almost solely on its presentation alone, and its one-hit difficulty setting. But do not expect any mechanical design to awe you as much as its visual and audio design does.
6.5/10
Excelente jogo inspirado em clássicos filmes de samurai! A principio quem não está acostumado com filmes nessa temática, pode achar ruim o jogo não ser colorido. O grande tchan desse jogo é justamente ser preto em branco, onde podemos ver muitos detalhes com luz e sombra que mesclado com o visual do jogo torna tudo muito bonito!
A fotografia e a dinâmica de mudança de perspectiva (com câmeras fixas em certos momentos) ala, Silent Hill criam paisagens fantásticas!
O jogo é bem linear, mas não chega a ser ruim, foi uma decisão de level designer pra contar a sua historia de maneira direta, sem rodeios.
O jogo tem fator replay, mas pra mim ter terminado uma vez o caminho que escolhi já foi o suficiente.
Jogo curto, terminei em 7 horas, pegando todos os coletáveis que eu via pelo caminho.
A fotografia e a dinâmica de mudança de perspectiva (com câmeras fixas em certos momentos) ala, Silent Hill criam paisagens fantásticas!
O jogo é bem linear, mas não chega a ser ruim, foi uma decisão de level designer pra contar a sua historia de maneira direta, sem rodeios.
O jogo tem fator replay, mas pra mim ter terminado uma vez o caminho que escolhi já foi o suficiente.
Jogo curto, terminei em 7 horas, pegando todos os coletáveis que eu via pelo caminho.
All style, zero substance. The artstyle looks fantastic but the animations lack weight and fluidity especially in combat. The combat is extremely basic and repetitive. You're better off just watching an old samurai movie because being a game does nothing for this experience.
An overzealous slog to Yomi.
A game dripping in well intentioned Kurosawa influence, a masterclass in aesthetic. Those camera angles, that crackling static, grit and grain, together with a perfect recreation of the exact type of black & white you'd see in one of the aforementioned director's films. Unlike Ghost of Tsushima's surface level rendition of the style as flat gray-scale, no; this is true black & white with heavy contrast between the two leading to blinding skies and inky depths. In that regard, and that aspect alone Trek to Yomi is a 10/10. Now let's get real.
Aesthetical and atmospheric competence can not even begin to save a game this inexorable and exhausting to play, poor pacing and one-note combat is a disastrous pairing. Clocking in at around 4-5 hours, and feeling closer to 10, Trek to Yomi has seemingly no self awareness in how much it overindulges in it's own mediocrity. The combat fails to impress at every turn, I was expecting enemies to be able to surround you in a more dynamic 2.5D way, but here they just sorta awkwardly shift in place lined up behind one another for you to go through the motions of effortlessly parrying and countering them until the game grants mercy and lets you move to the next wave. At some point I felt like I was almost beginning to have some semblance of enjoyment towards it, in how simple and reliable every move was, but it soon loses whatever it had going for it when you eventually realise the optimal strategy for quite literally every battle is to turn your back on the enemy and hit them with that 3 hit back attack combo. Having virtually no wind up or failure rate, and soon shortening itself even further to a 2 hit combo which leaves the adversary stunned and open to an execution, subsequently healing you on top of that... All I can say is a lot of those later fights start looking real goofy.
And lets get into the titular Yomi part; the land of the dead in Shinto religion/mythology. It's unfortunate to say but I really could've done without this whole, bloated, clichéd and tropey section which makes up the whole second half of the game. Here we have less of that grounded, intimate focus and camera placement trading it off for boring, amateur quasi-surrealist motiffs that feel traveled before in not at all a complementary way comparative to first chunk. Here the camera is peeled way back, we fight annoying spirits and ghostly apparitions, losing that grounded setting the game did so well with earlier. We rarely get close up camera placement that acknowledges the inherently intimate nature of swords plunging into flesh; in Yomi we feel miles away from the main battle and resign to a position of observer more and more, especially when we reconsider how much more involved the combat could've been.
It really never knows when to quit and call it a day either, introducing some of the most asinine ""puzzles"" I've seen in a minute way into the back end which never move past 'say what you see' levels of depth. The bosses too, christ almighty they're all so wonky. Most of the time you can comfortably just rock back, expend all your ranged weapon ammo and go in for a few cheap swipes at the end; again nothing about this combat system impresses, and it wouldn't be such a mark against it if accepted that and made fights more meaningful and less arbitrary.
Narratively its not saying much either, has one banger line in the prologue "Choose fear while you still can.", in context it sets the stage and tone pretty well. Not that it really builds on it; Trek to Yomi would've done better being half the length if even that, which is saying something when its already so short. I could only really stomach around 30 minutes of this journey a session so it ended up commanding a commitment of around 5 days from me and that's particularly noteworthy because I'm pretty quick to finish games when I'm engaged.
A disappointment for sure, but the style really is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. If you're into Kurosawa's stuff, maybe you've only seen Seven Samurai and loved it, there is at least something to be seen and gained here. Don't feel too bad if you end up tapping out somewhere along the way.
A game dripping in well intentioned Kurosawa influence, a masterclass in aesthetic. Those camera angles, that crackling static, grit and grain, together with a perfect recreation of the exact type of black & white you'd see in one of the aforementioned director's films. Unlike Ghost of Tsushima's surface level rendition of the style as flat gray-scale, no; this is true black & white with heavy contrast between the two leading to blinding skies and inky depths. In that regard, and that aspect alone Trek to Yomi is a 10/10. Now let's get real.
Aesthetical and atmospheric competence can not even begin to save a game this inexorable and exhausting to play, poor pacing and one-note combat is a disastrous pairing. Clocking in at around 4-5 hours, and feeling closer to 10, Trek to Yomi has seemingly no self awareness in how much it overindulges in it's own mediocrity. The combat fails to impress at every turn, I was expecting enemies to be able to surround you in a more dynamic 2.5D way, but here they just sorta awkwardly shift in place lined up behind one another for you to go through the motions of effortlessly parrying and countering them until the game grants mercy and lets you move to the next wave. At some point I felt like I was almost beginning to have some semblance of enjoyment towards it, in how simple and reliable every move was, but it soon loses whatever it had going for it when you eventually realise the optimal strategy for quite literally every battle is to turn your back on the enemy and hit them with that 3 hit back attack combo. Having virtually no wind up or failure rate, and soon shortening itself even further to a 2 hit combo which leaves the adversary stunned and open to an execution, subsequently healing you on top of that... All I can say is a lot of those later fights start looking real goofy.
And lets get into the titular Yomi part; the land of the dead in Shinto religion/mythology. It's unfortunate to say but I really could've done without this whole, bloated, clichéd and tropey section which makes up the whole second half of the game. Here we have less of that grounded, intimate focus and camera placement trading it off for boring, amateur quasi-surrealist motiffs that feel traveled before in not at all a complementary way comparative to first chunk. Here the camera is peeled way back, we fight annoying spirits and ghostly apparitions, losing that grounded setting the game did so well with earlier. We rarely get close up camera placement that acknowledges the inherently intimate nature of swords plunging into flesh; in Yomi we feel miles away from the main battle and resign to a position of observer more and more, especially when we reconsider how much more involved the combat could've been.
It really never knows when to quit and call it a day either, introducing some of the most asinine ""puzzles"" I've seen in a minute way into the back end which never move past 'say what you see' levels of depth. The bosses too, christ almighty they're all so wonky. Most of the time you can comfortably just rock back, expend all your ranged weapon ammo and go in for a few cheap swipes at the end; again nothing about this combat system impresses, and it wouldn't be such a mark against it if accepted that and made fights more meaningful and less arbitrary.
Narratively its not saying much either, has one banger line in the prologue "Choose fear while you still can.", in context it sets the stage and tone pretty well. Not that it really builds on it; Trek to Yomi would've done better being half the length if even that, which is saying something when its already so short. I could only really stomach around 30 minutes of this journey a session so it ended up commanding a commitment of around 5 days from me and that's particularly noteworthy because I'm pretty quick to finish games when I'm engaged.
A disappointment for sure, but the style really is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. If you're into Kurosawa's stuff, maybe you've only seen Seven Samurai and loved it, there is at least something to be seen and gained here. Don't feel too bad if you end up tapping out somewhere along the way.
Unsatisfying repeatitive combat, spam very clunky parries to win, a soulless story trying to imitate Kurosawa visuals with b/w and noise filter but just ends up looking like a grayness simulator that you can barely see where you are walking in the game.
Full video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qz-IgSBado
Trek to Yomi is a beautiful game that you should check out. It has a crazy amount of atmosphere, immersive sound design and a pretty cool plot. Some people are going to point to the game's short length, and while yes, it is about 3.5 hours long. I do believe that the visuals, gameplay and sound more than justify that price.
Trek to Yomi is a beautiful game that you should check out. It has a crazy amount of atmosphere, immersive sound design and a pretty cool plot. Some people are going to point to the game's short length, and while yes, it is about 3.5 hours long. I do believe that the visuals, gameplay and sound more than justify that price.
the art style is amazing, but the combat system actually not fun
The Akira Kurosawa inspired game that was a kinda failed attempt in the gameplay department.
The presentation is top notch but you can make a game interesting through it's visuals for so long because the gameplay is so boring that after the first 2 hours I was playing on autopilot repeating the same combo (stun enemy + execute to replenish any lost hp in the process if there was any) over and over again till the very end.
Masayuki Kato did an ok job as the VA of the main character but Akio Ōtsuka stole the show while portrating the villain and about the other VAs can't say anything just because I didn't find anything noteworthy about them.
The OST was the other thing besides the visuals that kept me interested in finishing the game.
There is a replayability element with the ""choices"" you make in the story and higher difficulties but will not even bother.
I guess I can recommend the game if you're a big Akira Kurosawa nerd but still think that Ghost of Tsushima with the Kurosawa mode enabled beats this game in gameplay, story and sometimes even in visuals.
The presentation is top notch but you can make a game interesting through it's visuals for so long because the gameplay is so boring that after the first 2 hours I was playing on autopilot repeating the same combo (stun enemy + execute to replenish any lost hp in the process if there was any) over and over again till the very end.
Masayuki Kato did an ok job as the VA of the main character but Akio Ōtsuka stole the show while portrating the villain and about the other VAs can't say anything just because I didn't find anything noteworthy about them.
The OST was the other thing besides the visuals that kept me interested in finishing the game.
There is a replayability element with the ""choices"" you make in the story and higher difficulties but will not even bother.
I guess I can recommend the game if you're a big Akira Kurosawa nerd but still think that Ghost of Tsushima with the Kurosawa mode enabled beats this game in gameplay, story and sometimes even in visuals.
Simple but effective:
That summarizes Trek to Yomi better than anything else. The combat is very simple, but it's snappy, easy to understand, and accomplished the goal of making the player feel cool.
The story is basic, moreso than what it takes inspiration from, but Trek to Yomi is still an enjoyable few hours of a journey with a definite goal that it sees through from start to finish.
The one aspect that doesn't fit under this simplicity umbrella is the visuals. Even with the game entirely in monochrome, the art direction and environments are stunning to behold and actively carry some of the weaker parts of the gameplay experience.
Overall, when Trek to Yomi is this visually interesting, this committed to its influences, and this bite-sized (only about three hours long or so and on Game Pass, nontheless), it's hard not to recommend it. My one piece of advice is to listen to the game when it defaults to the "Story" difficulty. This game gains little more than frustration by increasing it.
That summarizes Trek to Yomi better than anything else. The combat is very simple, but it's snappy, easy to understand, and accomplished the goal of making the player feel cool.
The story is basic, moreso than what it takes inspiration from, but Trek to Yomi is still an enjoyable few hours of a journey with a definite goal that it sees through from start to finish.
The one aspect that doesn't fit under this simplicity umbrella is the visuals. Even with the game entirely in monochrome, the art direction and environments are stunning to behold and actively carry some of the weaker parts of the gameplay experience.
Overall, when Trek to Yomi is this visually interesting, this committed to its influences, and this bite-sized (only about three hours long or so and on Game Pass, nontheless), it's hard not to recommend it. My one piece of advice is to listen to the game when it defaults to the "Story" difficulty. This game gains little more than frustration by increasing it.