Trek to Yomi GameUtha Review
Ali Hasan May 15, 2022
Trek to Yomi is a 2.5D side-scrolling action-adventure game developed by Flying Wild Hog and Published by Devolver Digital. The game draws heavy inspiration from old Japanese Samurai films to deliver a game that excels within the confines of the side-scroller genre but fails to put forth a compelling story or combat to deliver a full package.
The player assumes the role of Hiroki, a young samurai whose village is raided by bandits, as a vow to his dying master the vows to protect his village from all future threats. The game makes use of supernatural elements as Hiroki progresses through hell in the latter half of the game and enemies pulled from Japanese folklore that you have to fight through.
The game has you fighting through hordes of enemies, solving the occasional puzzles, upgrading Hiroki. The game is fairly simple which is a given it’s an indie title retailing for $20, but it works for the most part.
Iterating on tradition
Side-scrollers have seen a major resurgence in recent years. Games like Little Nightmares, Rayman and Cuphead have injected new life into the genre, Trek to Yomi takes the traditional side-scroller a step further by breaking away from moving from point A to B in a single stretch of gameplay by introducing more cinematic camera placements for certain scenes, ones that are reminiscent of the old God of War games.
These sections not only provide a break from the often times monotonous nature of side-scrollers but also highlight the incredible amount of detail present within the game. Each environment is supremely detailed, featuring incredible texture work and objects, while it’s not up to something you would find in a bid budget triple A title it definitely exceeds my expectations when it comes to games of this nature.
Game Design
While Ghost of Tsushima’s black and white Kurosawa mode felt like something that was tacked on, for Trek to Yomi it feels like an integral part of the art design, there are several instances where light plays an integral role to enhance the scene or to highlight or show enemy damage. This coupled with the shifting camera perspectives really delivers something totally unique.
The cutscenes are simple yet stylized incredibly, there are only a handful of them throughout the roughly three-hour length of the game but it was nice to see proper voice acting present along with an incredible score that compliments the entire package very well.
Combat
Unfortunately, this is where the praise stops. While the Trek to Yomi delivers some gorgeous visuals the place where it needs to excel the most, the combat is where it falls short and since the game is primarily built around combat, it hurts the game doubly so.
The combat doesn’t feel as precise as it needs to be, often times feeling floaty with button presses not registering properly and for a game that relies heavily on a parry system it could mean death, especially on higher difficulty modes. During my time with the game it felt like the parry window was variable, whereas other games like Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro make use of precise timing and/or visual cues.
There isn’t much variety in the combat, either it mainly consists of using the same combos, parrying, dodging, and throwing shuriken’s the game severely falls short of the movies it is trying to emulate and of similar games that have come before. Simply put, the combat is boring and becomes extremely monotonous as you progress through the game
The lack of visual cues and poor parry system could be patched in the futurGameutha.com is the one stop shop for everything games for gamers in Pakistan. It is specifically designed to cater the needs of the average gamer in Pakistan including the sale and purchase of video games across a number of platforms including PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch and keeping you updated with all the latest gaming news.e but the repetitive nature of the combat is unlikely to see any changes.
Verdict
Trek to Yomi features some incredible visuals and art design coupled with a well written score. The setting works fairly well with this style of game but the floaty and monotonous combat isn’t enough to keep it afloat in a market where Indie games are excelling more than ever.
Gameutha.com is the one stop shop for everything games for gamers in Pakistan. It is specifically designed to cater the needs of the average gamer in Pakistan including the sale and purchase of video games across a number of platforms including PS4, PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch and keeping you updated with all the latest gaming news.