Trek to Yomi

It’s time to experience the atmosphere of classic samurai films with the action game Trek to Yomi, developed by Leonard Menchiari in collaboration with Flying Wild Hog and published by Devolver Digital. It is one of the independent games that attracted attention due to its unique character and focus on samurai stories that don’t get enough numbers. Of games in the industry in general.

The story of the game revolves around the samurai Hiroki, who loses his teacher in his childhood after his city was attacked by a gang of thieves, who were deterred thanks to his teacher, whose life was the price. Here, Hiroki promises to protect his city and its residents while carrying the responsibility that fell on his teacher. The game attempts to focus on the values ​​that samurai live by, such as honor and fulfilling the duty of protection. His events also take us to Yomi, which is the land of the dead in Japanese mythology. Despite the game’s cinematic nature and its focus on story, the story is weak and does not generate consistent interest due to its simplicity and lack of details that build it up in the desired way.

On the graphical level, the game uses black and white colors like classic samurai films, but what it offers in this regard is different. The rendering of the background environments is very beautiful and charming, but the character designs and details are very weak and distracting to the eye, and the technical performance is generally unsatisfactory on last generation devices, with the game suffering from… Slow frame rate and frequent stagnation of character during movement. As for the audio aspect, the game offers a number of simple classical tunes that do the job.

The game style is simple. In addition to moving, we have a button for quick attacks and another for heavy attacks, as well as a defense button and another for rolling to avoid attacks. There is a health bar and another for fitness, and the fitness bar gradually decreases while attacking and moving quickly, and drops quickly as you continue defending, simply because the game encourages you to block (pressing the defense button at the right time), to interrupt the opponent’s attack and provide a short window of opportunity for a counterattack. The game presents the stages in the form of 7 chapters of the story, which presents us in a linear design that allows a little exploration, and there are many save points distributed among the scenes ease of death in the game.

The game system is simple and can be described as primitive. The character’s reaction does not work as required, not only in terms of reaction speed, but also in terms of lack of reaction to consecutive blows that you often want to make. Additionally, the blocking mechanic is difficult to use with many enemies that attack quickly. It offers a window into the room. A very limited time period makes it difficult to use the mechanics, and here the game presents “wrong” difficulty levels due to poor response and poor distribution of enemies on many occasions, and combining these shortcomings with fluctuating technical performance also fluctuates the fun of the game. Most of the enemies in the game can be eliminated in one hit, and over time you will be on… Stronger enemies require a greater number of consecutive hits, and this is where the experience becomes more enjoyable, although in a limited way, since here you are hit by consecutive hits can benefit in the face of opponents who don’t die on the first hit.

As you explore, you can find a group of collectibles that will give you insight into some Japanese myths and some tools. Exploration also leads you to many unimportant confrontations, but completing them gives you rewards such as receiving a new series of consecutive hits. This is the basic way to get them, because you start with… A limited number of these attacks and finishing some of these confrontations allow you to get long-range weapons like daggers and arrows. You also get the ability to carry more ammunition for these weapons, which we didn’t consider particularly important since we had limited use of them due to poor response and slow use. The game progresses. Additionally, some boss encounters simply fluctuate in level and level in general, and many of these encounters can be completed in a few seconds. There are also some simple puzzles in a specific area, but they don’t offer much as they require entering the symbols shown on the screen into the wheel.

The experience is short and we completed it in 4 hours while collecting some collectibles and getting the most consecutive hits the experience has to offer. There’s no New Game+ option, which is frustrating for achievement fans who have to replay the game. The entire experience consists of reassembling some of the forgotten items. Trek to Yomi will amaze you. With its beautiful scenery, it will disappoint you with its primitive gameplay system, monotonous encounters and weak story.