Trek to Yomi is not a lot of a trek, to be trustworthy. This tribute to traditional samurai cinema is only some hours lengthy at most, happening throughout only a handful of story chapters. However what Trek to Yomi lacks in longevity, it makes up for in sheer ambiance and spectacle. It is a fantastically crafted indie journey from a visible viewpoint, filled with wealthy environments and topped off with wonderful course by means of mounted digicam angles. It is an actual deal with for the eyes.
Trek to Yomi tells the story of a duty-bound warrior named Hiroki, and when struggle comes knocking at his door, he places his expertise with a sword to good use in defence of his folks. It is a fairly simple premise that goes to attention-grabbing and maybe surprising locations. There is not a lot dialogue, however the recreation is completely happy to let its masterful presentation do a lot of the speaking.
That is primarily a side-scrolling motion title. There’s some room for exploration once in a while — normally resulting in both collectibles or well being / stamina boosting objects — nevertheless it’s a largely linear journey as you progress swiftly from one scene to the following. Certainly, nearly all of your time might be spent reducing down dastards along with your trusty blade, full with excessive screams and sound results.
The fight system itself is respectable total, however it might take a bit of getting used to due to how floaty it initially feels. Character animations is usually a bit janky — particularly when Hiroki instantly snaps into an in depth vary parry from six ft away — however by no means to some extent the place it feels such as you’re missing management. And that is a great factor, as a result of precision is paramount. Enemies assault shortly and with out a lot warning, so numerous encounters are inclined to implement defensive actions earlier than taking the chance to strike again.
As such, parries are the important thing to success, opening your opponents up for what is commonly a killing blow or killing combo. On its regular problem, Trek to Yomi is not a massively difficult recreation, however some trial and error is likely to be required if you’re up in opposition to particular enemy varieties or bosses. Fortunately, checkpoints are frequent, and there’s a nicely balanced, simpler problem setting if you happen to’re trying to study.
Once more, the motion is strong sufficient, however even taking the sport’s brief size into consideration, repetition does begin to set in in a while. In case you’re something like us, you may uncover a few key combos that appear to render numerous your different strikes redundant. It is a disgrace, since you steadily unlock a great deal of cool-sounding methods all through Trek to Yomi, however we did not discover a lot use for many of them — not once we might simply hit the deadly one-two-three combo after each profitable block or parry.
However look, the straightforward fact is that samurai duels throughout moody downpours will all the time be alluring — and Trek to Yomi captures that cinematic magic shockingly nicely at instances. The sport’s flaws are fairly straightforward to forgive when it manages to siphon its inspirations so successfully.
Trek to Yomi does sufficient to fulfill in its brief runtime — helped by the truth that it is moderately priced at £15.99 / $19.99 — however its replay worth is up for debate. Whereas there are a number of endings to see — primarily based on a few key decisions — none of your unlocked collectibles, expertise, or upgrades carry by means of to subsequent runs. Given its simple construction, Trek to Yomi’s begging for some sort of New Recreation+ mode — nevertheless it is not right here at launch.
Conclusion
Trek to Yomi is a good samurai motion recreation, elevated significantly by its very good presentation. Clocking in at only some hours, this can be a temporary however in the end satisfying story, stitched collectively by some easy however very efficient environmental design, and a fight system that rewards cautious play. It is not fairly side-scrolling Ghost of Tsushima, however it’s an impressively atmospheric love letter to samurai cinema.
