Trek to Yomi – A BEAUTIFUL side scrolling action game set in Edo Period Japan, with A UNIQUE style and design, we dissect this underrated GEM.
A game that is truly unique in terms of the overall experience, developed by Flying Wild Hog and published by Devolver Digital, Trek To Yomi is one of my favourite games of 2022 so far, without a shadow of a doubt.
Plot and Storyline
The plot of Trek To Yomi is a classic Samurai story of vengeance and heroism, with a sprinkle of spiritual beings and out of body experiences. Our protagonist, Hiroki, starts as a young trainee Samurai, learning how to master his katana and the key principles of being a true Samurai. A disruption in the village sets off the vengeance story, with (spoiler alert) Hiroki’s Sensei dying in battle to a vicious bandit and the story’s antagonist, Kagerou.
The young swordsman Hiroki is sworn to protect his town and the people he loves against all threats, vowing to his dying Sensei that he would take his role for the future, along with his future wife, Aiko. Faced with tragedy and bound to duty, the lone samurai must voyage beyond life and death to confront himself and decide his path forward.
The storyline is enjoyable to play, with the experience of being a local Japanese Samurai hero being pretty authentic, barring the spiritual and afterlife sections of the game. Along with this, the dialogue within the story is extremely good, with some amazing voice acting that really shows the passion in the voices of the actors. Each scream, cry and shout were excellent in terms of displaying how the horrors of being destroyed by an evil gang of bandits would affect a innocent villager.
Design and Aesthetics
Samurai themed games have always peaked my fancy, with the Edo and Sengoku periods of Japan always delivering in terms of being a badass backdrop for action games along with being extremely aesthetically pleasing. However, Trek To Yomi is most definitely not your average Samurai game, with a side-scrolling camera and a constant black and white screen, I can’t think of too many other Samurai games that are similar.
I think Trek To Yomi focused predominantly on the overall feel of this game in terms of aesthetics, with the intricate camera angles, gorgeous battle backdrops and stunning sceneries, there is no doubts or complaints about the look of the game whatsoever from my point of view.
Gameplay
Combat:
Contrary to the flawless game design and look, the combat aspect of Trek To Yomi doesn’t quite blow your socks off. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t categorically bad, however I do feel it could’ve been a few levels higher to match the games stunning beauty.
With relatively basic moves and combos that could be better, Trek To Yomi lacks variety in terms of combat. Although a traditional Samurai like Hiroki probably would’ve kept it simple and fundamental like in the game, I do feel they could’ve added a few more ruthless Samurai moves to spice up the combat. This would’ve prevented the slightly repetitive feel that develops over time when playing this game.
Another aspect of the gameplay that I felt became rather repetitive was the limited range of enemies and character builds. Bandits, demons and ghostly figures as enemies is no doubt cool, however, they all followed the same format of enemy difficulty. You had the weak grunts who died after around 2 light slashes, then there was the slightly tougher enemy who took maybe around 6 hits and had a different weapon or ability, then you had the boss battles. Albeit the boss battles were more varied, but again, they could’ve been that bit more intense and epic.
Don’t get me wrong though, the offensive and defensive combos are still good. To defend you can do a standard block, you can roll out the way or you can parry. If you try to parry, then you must click the specific button at the right time to make the enemy stagger and give yourself a chance to counter their move. Relatively simple stuff. As the game progress, you unlock new moves such as a parry that allows you to simultaneously swap position with the enemy whilst striking, a pretty satisfying move to pull off.
Additionally, the offensive combos seem authentic to what an actual Samurai would’ve done. My personal favourite was a two light attack combo when holding the joystick downwards, finished with one heavy blow. This triggered a quick flurry followed by a neck stab, most usually setting up my opponent for a ‘finisher’. A finisher is when the enemy is clearly defeated, however they are still just about standing. You simply click the corresponding button, and the enemy is executed, sometimes with a strong stomach stab and sometimes with a decapitation. Finishers delivered to an extent in terms of the brutality you want from a Samurai game, however I do feel they could’ve made it even more brutal.
Hiroki can also use ranged weapons such as a traditional samurai Bo Shuriken, a bow and arrow, and a heavy Japanese rifle called an Ozutsu. Each weapon is a step up in power than the last, but a step down in speed than the last. These weapons come in handy when there are multiple enemies as you can dispatch a few of them quickly then finish off the stragglers with your katana.
Finally, they included environmental ways of killing your enemy, with a stray tree or rope that needs cutting so it can crush the targets. This is always a nice addition to games as, for some reason, killing your opponent with things other than your weapon is always fun and switches it up a bit.
Exploration:
With the Japanese forests and fishing villages combined with the Yomi afterlife-style areas, Trek To Yomi has awesome surroundings for you to explore, with little AI interaction opportunities here and there to keep it from just being a literal trek. Save checkpoints are scattered amongst the paths, with there being quite a few compared to any similar platformer type game like this. You can never have too many save checkpoints…
Trek To Yomi loved chucking in different paths here and there, making you often pick a path which either gave you a smaller area or room containing a collectible, ammunition for your secondary weapon, melee upgrade or health and stamina upgrade. This was frustrating at times as once you picked the path that entered you into combat, you could not turn back and go down the path to gain an upgrade or pick up a collectible.
One last aspect of the exploration in Trek To Yomi was it’s puzzles. Although relatively simple, these little puzzles, predominantly found in the Yomi section of the game, added a bit of fun to the mix, giving a nice interval before your next segment of combat. These puzzles usually consisted of the environment being shapeshifted and moved, allowing you to progress, again displaying some beautiful graphical design.
Choosing your ‘Path’:
Trek To Yomi additionally has a decision-making system that affects how the game plays out, specifically at the end of the game. A feature that seems to be very popular in games at the moment, at certain pivotal stages throughout the game, you are prompted with a choice of 3 decisions that ‘choose your Path’:
– ‘Love’ – this option is usually the most compassionate and passive option out of the three and will most likely focus on Hiroki’s relationship with Aiko.
– ‘Duty’ – this option will talk about the duty of the Samurai to protect the people and is the middle ground out of the 3.
– ‘Fury’ – this option focuses on revenge, brutality and aggression, most likley mentioning the story’s antagonist, Kagerou.
Whichever ‘path’ you choose affects the ending scenes, with one being passive and compassionate, one being conservative and duty-driven and one being brutal and revenge-fuelled. There is also a hidden ending that can occur halfway through the game. I won’t spoil exactly who you fight at this point, however when you reach a clearly significant boss battle that is incredibly difficult, if you somehow manage to win this battle, the whole story ends there.
Conclusion
Rating: 4/5
Trek To Yomi is a game that I personally enjoyed, barring the repetitiveness of the combat. However, I can definitely understand why someone else would find it slightly boring, with the lack of enemy range and the slightly generic Samurai story that we’ve heard of before. Apart from that though, this game is sensational. With some of the best visuals I have seen in any game, in my opinion, and an overall cool feel in terms of playing the protagonist in a classic Samurai movie, Trek To Yomi hits the nail on the head with creating this experience.
To summarize, Trek To Yomi is a game that I would most definitely recommend to anyone who firstly, has any interest at all in Japan and it’s Samurai history, as this game is extremely cool in experiencing the role of a Samurai and secondly, to people who enjoy the aesthetics of gaming, as this game is one of the best for aesthetics.
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