“Fall seven occasions, get up eight,” says Trek to Yomi’s hero, the orphan-turned-samurai Hiroki. The road represents not solely his caricature-like perseverance, however one thing gamers ought to take to coronary heart in the event that they need to attain the tip of this journey. Nonetheless, I wasn’t at all times positive seeing the end line was value getting again on my ft. The attention-catching artwork path can’t conceal the title’s lackluster gameplay, empty characters, predictable story, and antiquated design. Indies are usually fertile soil for contemporary concepts and distinct experiences, however Trek to Yomi comes up disappointingly brief here, with only a few ideas I haven’t seen a dozen occasions earlier than.
The opening is considered one of Trek to Yomi’s excessive notes. Flickering movie. Melancholy music. A burning city. I didn’t know the place I used to be and what was occurring, however the sport had me prepared for an old-school, Kurosawa-inspired samurai journey. The tutorial is cleverly tucked right into a sudden flashback scene that transported me to a time when the now-devastated metropolis hummed with life.
I ran by way of the fight fundamentals with my sensei, Sanjuro, who embodies all of the well-worn tropes of the getting older samurai and father determine. He helped me grasp some fundamental combo-centered strategies tied to my stamina bar. My repertoire ultimately grew from humble two-button assaults to extra intricate strings of instructions, and I added a slew of ranged weapons to my arsenal. Nonetheless, preventing by no means adjustments a lot from these early moments, and, after simply assembly him, my instructor was referred to as away on pressing enterprise.
Introducing pivotal characters, like sensei Sanjuro and his daughter Aiko, in a second of peace – realizing that quickly the town could be in flames – might have been an effective way to connect me to them emotionally. Nonetheless, the five-hour-long sport doesn’t take the time to arrange any deep connections, relying primarily on implications and backstory included in collectibles’ descriptions. The tranquility is shattered too quickly, and I've to struggle by way of an all-too-obvious and uninspiring narrative. Hiroki units down a worn path of responsibility and revenge that leads him by way of the depths of Yomi itself. And the sport, like its underworld-exploring protagonist, solely descends from here.
Trek to Yomi is a 2D side-scroller, which suggests exploration and fight each happen on a slender aircraft. Whether or not battling by way of sunny fields or supernatural swamps, fights include enemies awkwardly operating into your line of sight, then partaking you. Second-to-moment gameplay basically quantities to: Confront teams of enemies, run down a linear path, discover collectibles or ammo, beat the boss, repeat. Every thing is technically sound, however there’s not quite a bit to get enthusiastic about.
This tedious loop, together with the graphics, put me in thoughts of a PlayStation 2-era sport, with the entire faults and little of the nostalgia. Characters stare off blankly even in dire circumstances, the few in-game selections I had felt largely unimportant till the very finish, and I needed to cease off at save factors each jiffy. This final situation was significantly galling.
On the one hand, I used to be pleased to discover a health-restoring, progress-saving shrine after virtually each encounter. On the opposite, it took me out of the world and had me asking why there have been so many conveniently positioned buildings round, even within the depths of the underworld. Regardless of the abundance, dying – which I did quite a bit – was at all times a chore. Each time I perished, I needed to run down the identical passage, hear the identical dialogue, and defeat the identical batch of baddies till I broke by way of to the following part.
Whereas it doesn’t wipe away all the failings, I can’t deny there are shining visible moments the place the sport captures the cinematic ambiance that impressed it. Amongst these is a splendidly framed scene the place I confronted an opponent in the midst of a river whereas flashes of lightning illuminate the stormy sky. Or one other, which locations me between wind-swept grass dancing within the foreground and a looming torii gate within the background, weaving out and in of ominous, swirling fog.
Sadly, Trek to Yomi appears to be like and feels noticeably outdated for such an aesthetically pleasing sport. And its archaic gameplay can’t be fully lined up by its inventive black-and-white filter. Trek to Yomi tried to succeed in the heights of lauded Japanese filmmaking, however sadly, it falls virtually as flat as its 2D fight aircraft.
