This review contains spoilers
Trek to Yomi looks great, plays ok-ish, and is mostly lukewarm. The story could be summarized in essentially two sentences. You’re a student turned warrior after your master dies, making you the new protector from enemies who would do you, your village, and your love interest harm. Lo and behold your village gets attacked, your love interest is killed, and you must decide to stay with her in death or continue to live after defeating your old enemy who destroyed your village. Even that sounds more in-depth than the game is. What the game actually entails is being under constant attack from pillagers and evil spirits as you side-scroll run across an almost 2.5D environment. It’s not bad, it’s just not something they do anything interesting with. If you’ve seen any samurai movie you know this game almost exactly.
I like the way it maintains a pseudo side-scrolling status, where you can sometimes go towards or away from the camera depending on the section. It goes back and forth from 2D movement and 3D movement so fluidly that you don’t even really notice it as you play. Some more environmental puzzles taking advantage of this would have been welcome. Regarding the aesthetics, It goes without saying you should keep the black-and-white film grain on. If you’re playing this game there’s really no reason to turn it off. For the sake of the creator's intent as well as really completing the picture of old samurai flicks. The art design of the game is undoubtedly its strongest point, and it’s quite well done. That withstanding I could have done with a lot less dawdling in Yomi, the death dimension. That dragged on far too long that even the creepy imagery couldn’t compensate.
The fighting is sadly mediocre, and probably the weakest part of the game. I’ll give credit where credits due, they have quite a few combos for so few inputs. It’s just not very engaging, especially seeing as it’s the lone source of interaction. The parry system is also really finicky, sometimes it feels generous and other times it feels demanding. As a general rule you should parry a good bit before their attack actually lands, otherwise they’ll just keep hitting past you, draining your health startlingly quick. All in all, Trek to Yomi is a fine time, but like many indie games before and since, it’s missing that secret ingredient of creative pizzazz.
I like the way it maintains a pseudo side-scrolling status, where you can sometimes go towards or away from the camera depending on the section. It goes back and forth from 2D movement and 3D movement so fluidly that you don’t even really notice it as you play. Some more environmental puzzles taking advantage of this would have been welcome. Regarding the aesthetics, It goes without saying you should keep the black-and-white film grain on. If you’re playing this game there’s really no reason to turn it off. For the sake of the creator's intent as well as really completing the picture of old samurai flicks. The art design of the game is undoubtedly its strongest point, and it’s quite well done. That withstanding I could have done with a lot less dawdling in Yomi, the death dimension. That dragged on far too long that even the creepy imagery couldn’t compensate.
The fighting is sadly mediocre, and probably the weakest part of the game. I’ll give credit where credits due, they have quite a few combos for so few inputs. It’s just not very engaging, especially seeing as it’s the lone source of interaction. The parry system is also really finicky, sometimes it feels generous and other times it feels demanding. As a general rule you should parry a good bit before their attack actually lands, otherwise they’ll just keep hitting past you, draining your health startlingly quick. All in all, Trek to Yomi is a fine time, but like many indie games before and since, it’s missing that secret ingredient of creative pizzazz.
The story and look of this game is fantastic, but the combat is beyond terrible. It's extremely unresponsive, and the few times it does work it's boring. Ruined the game for me so much I gave up at the start of the last chapter.
it's going to be so sick when game developers find out kurosawa isn't the only japanese filmmaker
the combat is fucking horrible.
the combat is fucking horrible.
You will have a significantly better experience with this game if you just look at the pictures
Very cool to look at, not so much to play; the combat has its moments with the combos but the commands are kinda clunky and the parry system has a different feel to other games; it got so bad I was actively trying to finish as soon as possible by the end of it.
It's a good free game for PsPlus (that's why I played it) but I would not recommend it as an experience.
It's a good free game for PsPlus (that's why I played it) but I would not recommend it as an experience.
gameplay legalzinha mas o jogo n me prendeu pra eu zerar
Got this on PS Plus, and went in with no knowledge on the game, and no specific expectations. And I was very pleasantly surprised. The game looks gorgeous, the combat is fast paced and smooth and the voice acting is great.
The game also has fantastic atmosphere. The burning villages and the swamp town in chapter 4 feel completely destroyed and the suffering people make you really feel for them. I love it, it gives you a sense of dread and unease, but without resorting to actual jumpscares.
That said, the game has its flaws. It doesn't have a chapter select for some reason, so if you missed a collectible without knowing. You have to replay the entire game to get them all. I get it is to motivate you to get all endings. But it feels more like artificial padding.
Still, the amazing environments and fun combat leaves you wanting more. Which is great, since I rather have a game be short. But fun all the way through, than it'd become a repetitive slog
The game also has fantastic atmosphere. The burning villages and the swamp town in chapter 4 feel completely destroyed and the suffering people make you really feel for them. I love it, it gives you a sense of dread and unease, but without resorting to actual jumpscares.
That said, the game has its flaws. It doesn't have a chapter select for some reason, so if you missed a collectible without knowing. You have to replay the entire game to get them all. I get it is to motivate you to get all endings. But it feels more like artificial padding.
Still, the amazing environments and fun combat leaves you wanting more. Which is great, since I rather have a game be short. But fun all the way through, than it'd become a repetitive slog
Fun game, unique art style, stays true to the roots of the traditional samurai movies it is based on. Only 7 hours long but still fun journey.
One of the nicest art styles I've found a black and white Samurai game that pays homage to the old films in multiple ways.
The story was strong with multiple paths and choices the characters well developed and the music was amazing although short this game has you gripped the entire time.
With unique and fleshed out combat it is both difficult to master and fun to learn.
Overall this game is honestly is surprising I was keen to try it but didn't anticipate how good it would be a unique game I look forward to more from this studio
The story was strong with multiple paths and choices the characters well developed and the music was amazing although short this game has you gripped the entire time.
With unique and fleshed out combat it is both difficult to master and fun to learn.
Overall this game is honestly is surprising I was keen to try it but didn't anticipate how good it would be a unique game I look forward to more from this studio
For such a short game, it felt very reptitive. Using pretty much the same enemies for a majority of the game, using the same level three times, reusing a boss, and the game was extremely easily once you found the simple exploit of "two light attacks, guard, two light attacks" with the occasional heavy. The last boss on Normal Difficulty had two phases, both taking about three hits to kill him. The voice acting was really good, as well as the music too, but the story was extremely boring and generic. The art style is cool for a few minutes, but it really doesn't do anything super interesting with it except for a few screens, and definitely not enough for what it was going for. I'd skip this unless you can get it super cheap on sale.
I'm not interested in playing it further, It looked interesting with the trailer, but execution was not great.
"Free" ps plus game... looks very cinematic, but it's just boring as fuck. I hate these. They should have the decency to look crap as well.
A very nice action take on the Inside/Little Nightmare formula, with great presentation.
Decent side scroller. Only played due to Game Pass.
This game has a very unique presentation which I instantly fell in love with.
The problem is how fast the gameplay becomes unsurprising and repetitive. Furthermore, the narrative isn't all that gripping.
In short, the flat gameplay can't save the shallow narrative, and vice versa.
Would love to see a second try at a Kurosawa-style short game with much deeper combat though !
The problem is how fast the gameplay becomes unsurprising and repetitive. Furthermore, the narrative isn't all that gripping.
In short, the flat gameplay can't save the shallow narrative, and vice versa.
Would love to see a second try at a Kurosawa-style short game with much deeper combat though !
Trek to Yomi really grabbed my attention as soon as it started. It's hyper-stylised and takes most of its inspiration from the late Kurosawa. Which it does perfectly, with the black and white grain look and the fixed camera showing beautiful shots. The environments are beautifully detailed. These things were also its downfall. The gameplay was massively neglected, it was tedious and, after awhile, I became an unstoppable force. Just by using one combo, it's so broken.
I would prefer if they kept mythological elements out and stuck to the hard reality of the 16th century. But this is just nitpicking. I gave up playing towards the end as I couldn't force myself to finish.
I would prefer if they kept mythological elements out and stuck to the hard reality of the 16th century. But this is just nitpicking. I gave up playing towards the end as I couldn't force myself to finish.
foi uma longa jornada... literalmente.
trek to yomi é um jogo bem morno, sua história não é interessante, seu combate é legal, mas não tão legal assim depois de horas e horas repetindo os mesmos movimentos (nem faz sentido aprender um combo que não seja QUADRADO + QUADRADO + TRIANGULO + R1, na minha opinião), até porquê o jogo consegue ser BEM punitivo e injusto se você não se beneficia dos finishers. sinceramente acho que as únicas coisas 100% positivas é a sua duração (que foi na medida certa), o desafio de aprender o moveset de algum boss e o estilo de arte/jogada de câmeras.
se eu finalizasse o jogo apenas depois de completar a história, a nota seria 1/5. só vale a pena jogar esse jogo se você está indo atrás da platina (e boa sorte), pq a história não importa e o mais legal sem sombra de dúvidas é superar seus próprios obstáculos.
é sekiro preto e branco... não foi dessa vez
trek to yomi é um jogo bem morno, sua história não é interessante, seu combate é legal, mas não tão legal assim depois de horas e horas repetindo os mesmos movimentos (nem faz sentido aprender um combo que não seja QUADRADO + QUADRADO + TRIANGULO + R1, na minha opinião), até porquê o jogo consegue ser BEM punitivo e injusto se você não se beneficia dos finishers. sinceramente acho que as únicas coisas 100% positivas é a sua duração (que foi na medida certa), o desafio de aprender o moveset de algum boss e o estilo de arte/jogada de câmeras.
se eu finalizasse o jogo apenas depois de completar a história, a nota seria 1/5. só vale a pena jogar esse jogo se você está indo atrás da platina (e boa sorte), pq a história não importa e o mais legal sem sombra de dúvidas é superar seus próprios obstáculos.
é sekiro preto e branco... não foi dessa vez
Interesting at first, but gets boring very quickly. If you are a true samurai era fan it might be better for you. Good for a free PS plus game but I wouldn't buy it
Highly stylized 2D samurai fighting game that makes you feel like the main character in an Akira Kurosawa film.
Gameplay wise, Trek to Yomi isn't anything particularly interesting though I personally found it fun. It's a standard beat'em up style game where enemies surround your character from 2 sides and you use combinations of your light and heavy attack to fend them off. You are provided with a large number of combos for different situations however I found myself only using like 2 of them that carried me through the game. Perhaps on a higher difficulty the other combos are more useful. You also have some ranged weapons though I barely used them except for during boss battles when I was really close to finishing them off and didn't want to get close.
Aesthetics wise, the game is beautiful. The choice to use set camera positions in the environment that focus on a whole scene rather than just the player character really sells the cinematic quality of the game. I feel the need to stress the cinematography of the camera placements even more so I'll just say that almost every scene you enter into could be screenshotted and it would look like it came straight from a Kurosawa film. Animations are pretty crisp and allow you to orchestrate some awesome fight scenes if you know what you're doing with the combos.
Storywise, the game is what you'd expect from a samurai game. I didn't find it particularly compelling and there were some choices to be made that I think (?) just affected some cutscenes but nothing major. If the choices led to different levels or endings I'd be very surprised.
Overall, good game if you like strong, stylized aesthetics with a cinematic quality to them. I finished the game in like two 3ish hour sittings though I wish I took more time to savor the visuals.
Gameplay wise, Trek to Yomi isn't anything particularly interesting though I personally found it fun. It's a standard beat'em up style game where enemies surround your character from 2 sides and you use combinations of your light and heavy attack to fend them off. You are provided with a large number of combos for different situations however I found myself only using like 2 of them that carried me through the game. Perhaps on a higher difficulty the other combos are more useful. You also have some ranged weapons though I barely used them except for during boss battles when I was really close to finishing them off and didn't want to get close.
Aesthetics wise, the game is beautiful. The choice to use set camera positions in the environment that focus on a whole scene rather than just the player character really sells the cinematic quality of the game. I feel the need to stress the cinematography of the camera placements even more so I'll just say that almost every scene you enter into could be screenshotted and it would look like it came straight from a Kurosawa film. Animations are pretty crisp and allow you to orchestrate some awesome fight scenes if you know what you're doing with the combos.
Storywise, the game is what you'd expect from a samurai game. I didn't find it particularly compelling and there were some choices to be made that I think (?) just affected some cutscenes but nothing major. If the choices led to different levels or endings I'd be very surprised.
Overall, good game if you like strong, stylized aesthetics with a cinematic quality to them. I finished the game in like two 3ish hour sittings though I wish I took more time to savor the visuals.
Just wasn't feelin it at all. Was looking forward to it, but just didn't work out.
good game and cool aesthetic. the story is pretty decent so far
A beautifully created game with amazing set pieces and fantastic composition. The story included triumph and honor but lacks compelling character but has a heart plot. Considering how short this game it is definitely worth the go since you finish it in 2 days and is worth the experience. although combat does lack depth as it could be summed up in a 2d ghost of tsushima like combat
One of the most stylistically awesome games I've played, the whole thing is just dripping with vibes and style. Beautiful to look at and was beautiful on my ultrawide monitor. I don't like film grain effects but I just turned that off in the settings. I wonder though if my rating would change if they dropped the black and white filter lol.
The combat is fun and when you get it right it is extremely satisfying. When you do everything correctly and manage to kill each enemy in only 1 or 2 hits without taking any damage yourself, it feels great. Especially the final boss oooh boy it was awesome and felt so good to kill.
But when you get it wrong, the combat can feel janky and like it's broken. Attacks and deflects sometimes just don't feel right when they connect and are weird. The combat is pretty simple (which I guess was their intention?) so it feels a bit stretched out for the runtime of the game. I think the runtime could've been a bit shorter or they could've just added some more gameplay/combat aspects near the end to spice things up.
After seeing the mixed reviews on release, I put off playing this game but now that I have, I do not regret it!
The combat is fun and when you get it right it is extremely satisfying. When you do everything correctly and manage to kill each enemy in only 1 or 2 hits without taking any damage yourself, it feels great. Especially the final boss oooh boy it was awesome and felt so good to kill.
But when you get it wrong, the combat can feel janky and like it's broken. Attacks and deflects sometimes just don't feel right when they connect and are weird. The combat is pretty simple (which I guess was their intention?) so it feels a bit stretched out for the runtime of the game. I think the runtime could've been a bit shorter or they could've just added some more gameplay/combat aspects near the end to spice things up.
After seeing the mixed reviews on release, I put off playing this game but now that I have, I do not regret it!
Trek to Yomi is frustrating. At its core it's a game I should love, given that I'm a massive fan of its feudal Japan setting. And ultimately this was really one of the only things that the game got right along with its art style - which was a well-implemented homage to the work of Akira Kurosawa.
Yomi's distinct art style cannot save it from its own gameplay, however. Once the novelty of being a samurai wears off after the game's first couple of chapters and you realise that you only really need one combo to beat any enemy encounter, it becomes a chore to play. Which is a shame, because the story was quite engaging, but not worth suffering through screen upon screen of boring combat sequences to see through to its conclusion.
Oh, and then I was hit by a glitch during a boss fight at the end of one of the game's chapters which made my character unable to move before being hit by the boss, meaning I'd lose a chunky portion of health before the fight even started. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and led to me uninstalling.
Also I hate leaving game's unfinished but feel no motivation to go back to this game again. Do with that what you will.
Yomi's distinct art style cannot save it from its own gameplay, however. Once the novelty of being a samurai wears off after the game's first couple of chapters and you realise that you only really need one combo to beat any enemy encounter, it becomes a chore to play. Which is a shame, because the story was quite engaging, but not worth suffering through screen upon screen of boring combat sequences to see through to its conclusion.
Oh, and then I was hit by a glitch during a boss fight at the end of one of the game's chapters which made my character unable to move before being hit by the boss, meaning I'd lose a chunky portion of health before the fight even started. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, and led to me uninstalling.
Also I hate leaving game's unfinished but feel no motivation to go back to this game again. Do with that what you will.
Aesthetically delightful, a pain in the butt to actually play.
That was bad.
Da pena que haya tanto cariño y esfuerzo puesto en el apartado visual de un juego que resulta ser horrible.
even the easy difficulty is hard
sucks
sucks
the visuals are cool and the story is okay, but the gameplay is so clunky and bad.
I really wished I liked this more. Aesthetically it was outrageous; the black and white with the film grain overlay created excellent atmosphere. But unfortunately that's the only positive thing I have about this one.
Combat was clunky and unpolished. Story was unoriginal. Go play Ghost of Tsushima instead.
Combat was clunky and unpolished. Story was unoriginal. Go play Ghost of Tsushima instead.