Trek to Yomi Review
The art on display in Trek to Yomi is an impressive feat for developer Flying Wild Hog that doesn’t overstay its welcome in the short and simple experience. However, some issues appear throughout the game’s collection of chapters that prevent it. Many of these issues stem from the limited puzzle and enemy designs, although the game’s shorter length keeps any of Trek’s Yomi problems from being devious detractions. That said, the combat still shines enough on an initial playthrough to keep players satisfied until the end of the game. To begin with Yomi Journey’s strongest positive, the combat shines with a unique twist to both side-scrolling fighting and samurai dueling. The biggest gimmick of combat comes from how the player deals with enemies, requiring a specific button input to turn on anyone approaching from behind. This adds a layer to combat that newbies need to master quickly if they want to progress through each chapter and boss fight that hinders each level.
The addition of combat skills that can expand the player’s toolkit with combos and ranged abilities continues to add depth to the gameplay throughout the playthrough. Without traditional RPG-style levels, these skills, along with health and stamina upgrades, go a long way in giving Trek to Yomi a sense of progress. This makes for a compelling combat system that just keeps changing from chapter to chapter as new enemies are thrown at the player in each level. On the other end of the battle, the enemy variety is surprisingly wide for a short title. After the first couple of chapters, it might be easy to dismiss the combat as simply involving repeated rows of katana-wielding bandits, but the rest of the experience fits the story. The introduction of blighted enemies and spirits mid-game pumps some much-needed variety into the choice of fighters, with new variants appearing as mini-bosses before reappearing over and over again. . While the actual selection of enemies is pleasantly varied, the dozens of battles in each chapter can quickly overwhelm even this vast bestiary. This is one of the few problems Trek to Yomi struggles with as the player is tasked with dispatching multiple enemies in a single playthrough. The problem comes from the way the battles start to feel monotonous towards the end of each chapter.
One final part of the fight open to criticism is Trek to Yomi’s stuns and finishers. These can be key to easily dispatching some of the tougher foes, with mastery of this mechanic helping players speed through many encounters. The criticism here is that a combo found early in the game can be quickly stunned and easily exploited to instantly kill tougher enemies and fight quickly. This is an incredible addition to combat depth that unfortunately may be the only tool players need to get through the entire game. RELATED: Devolver Digital Throws Shade and Sonic Origins to Promote Trek to Yomi To continue with the parts of Trek to Yomi that are lacking, many of the puzzles are simple enough to feel unnecessary. Some value is as little as pushing a cart down the road and then quickly moving to the next screen. Other puzzles involve finding glyphs and lining them up on a grid, but even these are fantastic and easy to complete. These particular puzzles can also become brutal with a little effort, although this is certainly a question of player choice. Outside of the moment-to-moment gameplay, Trek to Yomi’s stylized atmosphere stands out as another of its stronger aspects. The inspiration of classic samurai films, such as the works of Akira Kurosawa, is expressed from the surface and into the deeper aspects of the presentation. This is expressed not only from the black and white visuals, but also through the flavor added to this description of Yomi and the artifacts that can be collected throughout.
In addition to mixing the supernatural and the classical style of Japanese film history, the atmosphere is enhanced by the impressive cinematography. It’s an aspect not often explored in games outside of cutscenes, but the way Trek to Yomi leans into its genre is turning individual screens into wide shots. The effect allows several screens to act as part exploratory world and part establishing shot for the impressively constructed locations leading up to Yomi. These visuals themselves are unfortunately in the service of a lackluster story, with a few options here and there to allow the player to shape their ending the way they want. However, the simple story of revenge is told in a straightforward manner with some twists that are quite predictable. Beyond a few changes to the final scenes, the endings don’t really change much about the overall experience. That said, the story isn’t exactly the top draw for Trek to Yomi’s inspired world design. So, the lack of a strong story isn’t too strong against the rest of the game. The main aspects of Trek to Yomi that will stick with the player are the combat, the environment, and the world design. All these three main features will drive the player to continue playing and enhance the gameplay. An example is how exploration can reveal alternative ways to defeat groups of enemies. These moments are few and far between, but their inclusion is a great reward for players who choose to explore the map. It’s one of the many little bits of gameplay that make the overall experience stand out from other indie titles. Trek to Yomi is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Today Technology was provided a PC code for this review. MORE: Every Video Game Coming Out in May