Trek to Yomi review: Old school samurai movies brought to life

As a long-time fan of the samurai films by Akira Kurosawa, I was incredibly excited to try out Trek to Yomi. It was available Day One on Game Pass, giving fans immediate access to the game.

Despite being in black & white, with incredible visuals and a decent amount of challenge, Trek to Yomi brings a unique adventure to the table. As a sucker for a tragic story, I could not get enough of this game.

Trek to Yomi is the slow descent into the underworld for love or vengeance

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Yomi, in Japanese folklore, is the underworld, and that is where Hiroki finds himself heading throughout the game. Though the title starts with young Hiroki just learning what it means to be a samurai, it quickly becomes tragic. The village is overrun by a mysterious group of bandits who brazenly attack.

The attack is pushed back, and the game fast-forwards to adult Hiroki. Once again, combat is the focus of the man’s life, who is tricked into leaving his village behind to chase down Kagerou, the man who slews his master in the first attack.

Losing his home, all of his friends and his beloved, Hiroki, winds up descending into Yomi to try and complete one of three goals. That’s one of the things that made Trek to Yomi enjoyable for me. The player picks what motivates Hiroki, which leads to one of three endings.

Hiroki’s goals

Love
Duty
Revenge

Each of these leads to a different ending, but there’s also a secret, “early” ending, which is incredibly bittersweet in its own way. I’ll avoid ending spoilers, but all four are worth looking at. The game is a side-scrolling black & white action title focused on samurai dueling and intense, challenging combat.

Players will see kanji symbols on the screen and need to put them in the correct order (Image via Devolver Digital)

The game also features a few puzzles involving Japanese kanji - a system of writing in Japan using Chinese characters, but they’re incredibly simple.

I was worried about those at first, but then I figured out that all the symbols a player needs will be on screen. I didn’t mind these being simple. Without question, combat is the best and worst part of Trek to Yomi.

Combat is the focal point of Trek to Yomi

In Trek to Yomi, the direction the player is facing is incredibly important. Enemies come from both sides, and the player has to press a button or use a sword skill to change positions. Learning how to quickly change direction and enter combat again is key to success.

As the player explores the areas and progresses through the chapters, they will unlock more offensive and defensive skills and a series of tools: Bo-Shuriken, Bow, Arrow, and Otzutsu (a rifle).

Players will also find more ammo for these by exploring, so watch out for glinting objects. However, the most important thing is the stamina and parry systems. Players who run out of stamina from attacking and blocking are left defenseless.

This means players must learn and master the parry system. It’s awesome to perfectly parry a strike and cut an enemy down or slide behind them and stab them in the back.

In the first few chapters of Trek to Yomi, combat is incredibly simple. A pair of sword strikes will drop most of the bandits the player comes across. Slowly, more complex enemies begin showing up.

Armored samurai, spirits that can teleport, spirits that summon more foes, and spirits that can throw a magical sword. Blighted spirits add something to the game and increase the difficulty. This is where the game falls off a bit, though.

Each chapter has a series of screens with several enemies to fight, where there will be a shrine to save afterward, rinse, and repeat. It can be repetitive, but the story holds it together and keeps me invested.

There’s also a stunning combo that players can learn early in the game that can trivialize many of the fights throughout the whole game. Players hit the combo, stun enemies, and then can instantly finish them off, which also regains health.

There were a few combos that felt incredibly difficult to even trigger, leaving me to use some of the easier attack chains. The combos in question were some of the heavy attack combos. The timing for some of these wound up feeling frustrating and difficult, so I avoided using them altogether.

While some might see it as monotonous combat, finding ways to creatively best enemies with powerful attacks, parrying into instant kills, or cutting ropes to flood a battlefield, some pretty fun, creative things are offered here.

Visuals are great, but audio can frustrate

Some have criticized Trek to Yomi for being black and white, but I disagree. Having that classic visual in an old-school Japanese cinema style is incredible. I tried turning off the grainy filter, but it didn't look the same.

I left it on the whole game. Though the game is entirely black and white, it doesn't make the character harder to see when clashing with various spirits and samurai.

Incoming attacks are still quite easy to spot, and players can easily look for moments to parry or block incoming weapon strikes. Each screen is a part of a sprawling, vast area, and the design of each stage was breathtaking.

The audio is excellent and I enjoy the voice acting, but the players are in areas where people are dead or dying for most of the game. The constant howls of agony of dying peasants began to infuriate me.

I felt bad for their suffering, but I got very tired of hearing it, I’ll be completely honest. Every single screen seemed to contain at least one character in pure misery.

Even with that, I loved the sound of combat. The clank of sword parrying, the meaty sound of striking a foe, the crackle of fire, and the sound of rain dropping.

Despite the game being black and white, it’s not that hard to find collectibles, ammo, health, or stamina upgrades. Just explore everywhere, and keep an eye out for gleams or glints on the screen.

The Trek to Yomi soundtrack was incredible. It felt like something that would appear in a samurai film. Traditional flutes and drums filled the air in pivotal scenes, and the music added serious tension to the game.

The music can create moments of tranquility and peace, or heart-pumping danger, through traditional Japanese instruments.

Even the camera impresses. Players can often see foreground items like buildings, banners, or tree leaves hanging over the camera, but they seldom get in the way.

In Conclusion

Trek to Yomi is a fantastic game, and even with a few minor flaws, I had an enjoyable time exploring it. It pays incredible attention to detail in Japanese folklore and has challenging and satisfying combat. I highly recommend it if someone has Game Pass and is looking for an action game to try.

The game is a little short, at seven chapters, but there are four endings to aim for, several difficulty levels, and different ways to tackle encounters. This should leave enough room for multiple playthroughs.

Some of the fights in Trek to Yomi felt quite difficult, but after a few tries, the patterns became visible, and I found myself easily demolishing bosses and screens of enemies alike.

The visual esthetic, the challenge, and the replayability all made this an absolute win for me. The puzzles were pretty easy, though, and admittedly, some of the battles felt frustrating, but I loved the story and having a few different endings to work towards.