Trek to Yomi foi um tiro no escuro pra mim, eu sabia do lançamento do jogo mas não tinha noção nenhuma de como era sua jogabilidade, quando entrei nele.. bom, eu tive uma experiência gostosíssima!
O combate é divertido e a história se desenrola bem, e o tempo de jogo cai bem com o estilo que ele serve, já que se jogar ele constantemente pode ser que enjoe fácil (sim ele se torna repetitivo)
Se tiver procurando um joguinho diferente, fora total da curva dos atuais e curtinho, papo de zerar em 1 sabadão, Trek to Yomi é o título certo pra tu.
O combate é divertido e a história se desenrola bem, e o tempo de jogo cai bem com o estilo que ele serve, já que se jogar ele constantemente pode ser que enjoe fácil (sim ele se torna repetitivo)
Se tiver procurando um joguinho diferente, fora total da curva dos atuais e curtinho, papo de zerar em 1 sabadão, Trek to Yomi é o título certo pra tu.
This was kinda dope. Trek To Yomi drew me in at first with it's incredible Kurosawa influenced style, lost me a little bit near the middle portions of it, but once I got a better grasp of the fighting mechanics and enemy patterns, I got back into this by the end.
You play as a samurai at two different stages of his life and the tragic events that occur during two specific events. It's not the deepest, most profound story but it tries to do something interesting with it and it kinda works, though it's still a bit clunky in some of the narrative beats.
These two events will have you fighting loads of people, all with a variety of skills, weapons, styles, etc. Whether thats guys with swords, guys with bows, armored foes, and even some men on horseback. These enemies will at times come at you in a group of all the same types, individually, or a mix and match of various types.
The game's mechanics are a bit hard to explain but the game features a combo system and various long range weapons that all go into the strategy out these encounters. Enemies will be coming from left and right, and mixed with the various types of enemies, it can get overwhelming to deal with. I died quite a lot.
I had a few moments of frustration here and there with the mechanics, mostly because they just feel slightly off and not as tight as you'd want for a game like this.
Luckily, the game does provide you with plenty of save points in these stages, though this may be different based on difficulty. They do space them out the later into the game you get which did up the difficulty but it never felt impossible.
The enemy types changing up does keep things fresh for a bit longer than I anticipated, though once you've kinda seen every combo of bad guys and have memorized combos and strategies for them, the repetitiveness creeps in near the end, though that may shift depending on when you get a grasp on combos/strategies.
Overall, Trek to Yomi is a neat stylistic experience. It's a bit challenging, somewhat in part to mechanics and controls feeling a bit off, but there's enough satisfying parts to the experience to help make up for that a bit. I can see this game not being for everyone due to some of those frustrations though, especially if you are lukewarm on the style and other interesting aspects of the game.
You play as a samurai at two different stages of his life and the tragic events that occur during two specific events. It's not the deepest, most profound story but it tries to do something interesting with it and it kinda works, though it's still a bit clunky in some of the narrative beats.
These two events will have you fighting loads of people, all with a variety of skills, weapons, styles, etc. Whether thats guys with swords, guys with bows, armored foes, and even some men on horseback. These enemies will at times come at you in a group of all the same types, individually, or a mix and match of various types.
The game's mechanics are a bit hard to explain but the game features a combo system and various long range weapons that all go into the strategy out these encounters. Enemies will be coming from left and right, and mixed with the various types of enemies, it can get overwhelming to deal with. I died quite a lot.
I had a few moments of frustration here and there with the mechanics, mostly because they just feel slightly off and not as tight as you'd want for a game like this.
Luckily, the game does provide you with plenty of save points in these stages, though this may be different based on difficulty. They do space them out the later into the game you get which did up the difficulty but it never felt impossible.
The enemy types changing up does keep things fresh for a bit longer than I anticipated, though once you've kinda seen every combo of bad guys and have memorized combos and strategies for them, the repetitiveness creeps in near the end, though that may shift depending on when you get a grasp on combos/strategies.
Overall, Trek to Yomi is a neat stylistic experience. It's a bit challenging, somewhat in part to mechanics and controls feeling a bit off, but there's enough satisfying parts to the experience to help make up for that a bit. I can see this game not being for everyone due to some of those frustrations though, especially if you are lukewarm on the style and other interesting aspects of the game.
Got this on PS Plus, and went in with no knowledge on the game, and no specific expectations. And I was very pleasantly surprised. The game looks gorgeous, the combat is fast paced and smooth and the voice acting is great.
The game also has fantastic atmosphere. The burning villages and the swamp town in chapter 4 feel completely destroyed and the suffering people make you really feel for them. I love it, it gives you a sense of dread and unease, but without resorting to actual jumpscares.
That said, the game has its flaws. It doesn't have a chapter select for some reason, so if you missed a collectible without knowing. You have to replay the entire game to get them all. I get it is to motivate you to get all endings. But it feels more like artificial padding.
Still, the amazing environments and fun combat leaves you wanting more. Which is great, since I rather have a game be short. But fun all the way through, than it'd become a repetitive slog
The game also has fantastic atmosphere. The burning villages and the swamp town in chapter 4 feel completely destroyed and the suffering people make you really feel for them. I love it, it gives you a sense of dread and unease, but without resorting to actual jumpscares.
That said, the game has its flaws. It doesn't have a chapter select for some reason, so if you missed a collectible without knowing. You have to replay the entire game to get them all. I get it is to motivate you to get all endings. But it feels more like artificial padding.
Still, the amazing environments and fun combat leaves you wanting more. Which is great, since I rather have a game be short. But fun all the way through, than it'd become a repetitive slog
I don't think it's out of line to say that Trek to Yomi is one of the prettiest games I have ever played. It's fixed camera angles are always pointed towards some of the most beautiful landscapes i've seen in a game, cast with incredible use of lighting, a fantastic film grain filter thing, a bit of tilt shift, and cast with enough fidelity to really snap.
From minute 1 to it's final moments, Trek to Yomi just never misses in terms of looks. Every single of what must be hundreds of camera angles is beautiful, and whilst it is blatantly inspired by the work of Akira Kurosawa, it doesnt wallow in it, spending about half it's runtime making shots and going through environments beyond the scope of the great filmaker, dabbling with the supernatural.
And on top of the visuals, there's a great score and fantastic voice acting, basically nailing the feeling of playing through a samurai cinema film. The story's simple, but is emotionally charged enough to carry this facismile the whole way through, and does a great job of carrying the player through all the cool shit.
And if you can accept that is what Trek to Yomi's hook is, you will probably enjoy it, possibly quite a bit, like I did. Because Trek to Yomi - despite having a fair amount of combat - is way closer to a walking sim or cinematic platformer than anything else. There's a teeny bit of exploration and puzzling, but they mostly serve to give you more cool shit to look at.
The real core issue with Trek to Yomi is it's combat. It's actually mostly serviceable, basically a footsies sword game, and the enemy variety, particularly in the midsection, adds a swell of momentum. But there's just too much of it, and once you've figured out how to take down each of the enemy types consistently, it's pretty repetitive. When played on the one-shot Kensei mode (which is sadly unlocked only on a second playthrough), it benefits massively from the increased pace, to the point that i'd reccomend downloading a save file with it unlocked or something on PC. Some sections of the game on normal/hard difficulty do just feel slightly too long, so shortening it down helps trim the fat.
The character animation of the game is also a little weird. Again, it's not too bad and it mostly effects the combat, but it's a bit stilted and animations cancel into each other in a bit of a disorienting way. It's odd in that I only really noticed it for the first part of each play session before i got used to how it looked - just kind of unusual.
But those are only the only huge blemishes on what is otherwise a unique, very engaging 6 hour experience, and I think if you know what you're getting into, there's an awful amount to love here. I will admit to being basically exactly the target audience for this game, being a fan of both janky vibe-based games and Akira Kurosawa's movies, but honestly, if you go in expecting something closer to a game like INSIDE than Ghost of Tsushima or - god forbid - a beat em up with good combat, it will be one fantastic 6 hours.
From minute 1 to it's final moments, Trek to Yomi just never misses in terms of looks. Every single of what must be hundreds of camera angles is beautiful, and whilst it is blatantly inspired by the work of Akira Kurosawa, it doesnt wallow in it, spending about half it's runtime making shots and going through environments beyond the scope of the great filmaker, dabbling with the supernatural.
And on top of the visuals, there's a great score and fantastic voice acting, basically nailing the feeling of playing through a samurai cinema film. The story's simple, but is emotionally charged enough to carry this facismile the whole way through, and does a great job of carrying the player through all the cool shit.
And if you can accept that is what Trek to Yomi's hook is, you will probably enjoy it, possibly quite a bit, like I did. Because Trek to Yomi - despite having a fair amount of combat - is way closer to a walking sim or cinematic platformer than anything else. There's a teeny bit of exploration and puzzling, but they mostly serve to give you more cool shit to look at.
The real core issue with Trek to Yomi is it's combat. It's actually mostly serviceable, basically a footsies sword game, and the enemy variety, particularly in the midsection, adds a swell of momentum. But there's just too much of it, and once you've figured out how to take down each of the enemy types consistently, it's pretty repetitive. When played on the one-shot Kensei mode (which is sadly unlocked only on a second playthrough), it benefits massively from the increased pace, to the point that i'd reccomend downloading a save file with it unlocked or something on PC. Some sections of the game on normal/hard difficulty do just feel slightly too long, so shortening it down helps trim the fat.
The character animation of the game is also a little weird. Again, it's not too bad and it mostly effects the combat, but it's a bit stilted and animations cancel into each other in a bit of a disorienting way. It's odd in that I only really noticed it for the first part of each play session before i got used to how it looked - just kind of unusual.
But those are only the only huge blemishes on what is otherwise a unique, very engaging 6 hour experience, and I think if you know what you're getting into, there's an awful amount to love here. I will admit to being basically exactly the target audience for this game, being a fan of both janky vibe-based games and Akira Kurosawa's movies, but honestly, if you go in expecting something closer to a game like INSIDE than Ghost of Tsushima or - god forbid - a beat em up with good combat, it will be one fantastic 6 hours.
A proposta de Trek to Yomi é uma tanto simplória e objetiva. No objetivo de simular um filme de samurai folclórico na estética do lendário cineasta Akira Kurosawa, ele mistura um conto dramático de honra, amor e dever com uma jogabilidade focada em praticamente combates.
Os duelos são travados majoritariamente com o uso da espada, mas existem outras armas de ataque à distância. Nesse aspecto mais central do gameplay há uma certa simplicidade e mortalidade que lembra os primeiros Prince of Persia, da época do Master System.
São encontros rápidos, definidos em poucos cortes, e que carregam como experiência primordial o timing dos bloqueios e deflexões, bem como o ritmo dos combos, que são curtos e nem sempre tão eficientes, apesar da variedade.
A exploração é incentivada com colecionáveis e power-ups de vida, que dão uma boa ajuda e são essenciais dependendo do nível escolhido de jogo.
Em minha opinião a simplicidade do título não deveria ser confundida com pobreza mecânica. É uma proposta clara e objetiva, com frequente presença da urgência, e que se destina a servir como um meio de contar uma história jogável em um jogo com forte aspecto estético.
As coisas que me incomodaram foram alguns combos um tanto inúteis que favorecem praticamente somente 2 sequências que causam atordoamento e permitem ao jogador recuperar vida quando executam uma finalização. As outras ou são incapazes de gerar o status de atordoamento (o que as torna menos úteis) ou causam pouco dano ou ainda, são ignorados por alguns inimigos que revidam todo tipo de ataque, impedindo que o duelo seja mais fluido, especialmente na segunda metade do jogo.
Os poucos quebra-cabeças existentes dão uma boa variedade ao gameplay, mas são tal qual a exploração igualmente pouco aproveitados em favor do combate constante, foco principal do jogo, que acaba se tornando também um tanto repetitivo pela alta frequência e pouca variedade de inimigos.
Por conta disso e por sua duração total, o incentivo ao replay vem na forma de rotas que o jogador pode selecionar em determinados momentos. Pelo que entendi só afetam a história, e alguns detalhes, mas não alteram o level design. Outro incentivo, um pouco mais específico, vem na forma da seleção de dificuldade.
No fim das contas, a proposta de Trek to Yomi se concretiza de uma forma mais positiva do que negativa, onde os pontos fracos não estragam a experiência do jogo completamente, em virtude da extensão do mesmo.
Os duelos são travados majoritariamente com o uso da espada, mas existem outras armas de ataque à distância. Nesse aspecto mais central do gameplay há uma certa simplicidade e mortalidade que lembra os primeiros Prince of Persia, da época do Master System.
São encontros rápidos, definidos em poucos cortes, e que carregam como experiência primordial o timing dos bloqueios e deflexões, bem como o ritmo dos combos, que são curtos e nem sempre tão eficientes, apesar da variedade.
A exploração é incentivada com colecionáveis e power-ups de vida, que dão uma boa ajuda e são essenciais dependendo do nível escolhido de jogo.
Em minha opinião a simplicidade do título não deveria ser confundida com pobreza mecânica. É uma proposta clara e objetiva, com frequente presença da urgência, e que se destina a servir como um meio de contar uma história jogável em um jogo com forte aspecto estético.
As coisas que me incomodaram foram alguns combos um tanto inúteis que favorecem praticamente somente 2 sequências que causam atordoamento e permitem ao jogador recuperar vida quando executam uma finalização. As outras ou são incapazes de gerar o status de atordoamento (o que as torna menos úteis) ou causam pouco dano ou ainda, são ignorados por alguns inimigos que revidam todo tipo de ataque, impedindo que o duelo seja mais fluido, especialmente na segunda metade do jogo.
Os poucos quebra-cabeças existentes dão uma boa variedade ao gameplay, mas são tal qual a exploração igualmente pouco aproveitados em favor do combate constante, foco principal do jogo, que acaba se tornando também um tanto repetitivo pela alta frequência e pouca variedade de inimigos.
Por conta disso e por sua duração total, o incentivo ao replay vem na forma de rotas que o jogador pode selecionar em determinados momentos. Pelo que entendi só afetam a história, e alguns detalhes, mas não alteram o level design. Outro incentivo, um pouco mais específico, vem na forma da seleção de dificuldade.
No fim das contas, a proposta de Trek to Yomi se concretiza de uma forma mais positiva do que negativa, onde os pontos fracos não estragam a experiência do jogo completamente, em virtude da extensão do mesmo.
I have mixed feelings towards this game.
On one hand, I loved the atmosphere, the visuals and the audio all blended in so well together to create a very immersive game. The story was interesting, making our way through Yomi was a pretty good adventure to experience, one that I actually enjoyed.
But on the other hand, the combat felt very basic and not that rewarding. You spend a great part of the game fighting enemies, but as you progress it just gets stale. You discover new abilites aswell as combat moves, but in the end it doesn't provide you anything exciting. The enemies just start to vary when changing chapters, but they don't provide any challenges, nor do the bosses, its just very dull.
And during combat, alot of times the controls felt unresponsive, which just made an already bad combat experience, even worse.
On one hand, I loved the atmosphere, the visuals and the audio all blended in so well together to create a very immersive game. The story was interesting, making our way through Yomi was a pretty good adventure to experience, one that I actually enjoyed.
But on the other hand, the combat felt very basic and not that rewarding. You spend a great part of the game fighting enemies, but as you progress it just gets stale. You discover new abilites aswell as combat moves, but in the end it doesn't provide you anything exciting. The enemies just start to vary when changing chapters, but they don't provide any challenges, nor do the bosses, its just very dull.
And during combat, alot of times the controls felt unresponsive, which just made an already bad combat experience, even worse.
L1 + spam X gameplay
Jogar Trek to yomi é como sair com uma pessoa divertida e perceber que ela não tem nada de interessante.
Jogar Trek to yomi é como sair com uma pessoa divertida e perceber que ela não tem nada de interessante.
An indie Ghosts of Tsushima of sorts on the PC. Relatively simple combat, a decent enough story, and lovely visuals all around. The sound design and music also are quite noteworthy. Really pulls you in and puts you in a cinematic adventure mood. Quite the frustrating challenge on hard difficulty. Overall, short and sweet trek to Yomi.
A arte e a ambientaçao sao bem atrativas neste jogo, acho que é o ponto mais forte, em quesito gameplay ele é básico mas dá uma diversificada em uns combinhos, mas nada muito elaborado
Ponto negativo pra alguns pode ser que ele seja muito monótono, a história é meio óbvia com os acontecimentos que vão ocorrendo, então isso pode tornar o jogo meio chato mas eu gostei do jogo mesmo assim
Se não me engano o jogo possui mais de um final, entao talvez isso possa diferenciar a experiencia de um ou outro
Ponto negativo pra alguns pode ser que ele seja muito monótono, a história é meio óbvia com os acontecimentos que vão ocorrendo, então isso pode tornar o jogo meio chato mas eu gostei do jogo mesmo assim
Se não me engano o jogo possui mais de um final, entao talvez isso possa diferenciar a experiencia de um ou outro
O que tem de bonito e bem ambientado tem que ruim no resto, combate chato e raso e historia fraca e desinteressante
One of the more gorgeous titles I've played in a while. The static framing of each "shot" reminds me of the OG Resident Evil but works even better here to make the game feel cinematic. I found the narrative and gameplay pretty boring, but it's worth playing as a Game Pass title for the visuals alone.
All style no substance - I appreciate the cinematic approach in theory, but in practice it made a very simplistic combat system even more tedious
Trek To Yomi is the kind of game I either love or despise, no middle ground. The decisions made here to turn this mediocre 2D slash game into an artistic experience with its shot composition, filters and coarse reference to classic Samurai films are rather poor and make this seemingly harmless indie game into one of the practices I hate the most in modern entertainment; the stupid homage.
This game doesn't try to get what Kurosawa says in his Samurai films, let alone his style beyond black and white and grain. The magic of Yojimbo, Seven Samurai or RAN is never present here, only able to be thought of while playing this by the sheer abundance of comments made by the press and the users. Even with its soul not being there it tries so hard to remind you of what you may think this movies were. There is love here, the shots made with the fixed cameras on gameplay are a few times astonishing and they let the journey flow at the beginning; and the voice acting, while being held back by a barebones script, is pretty on point and works to sell you on part of the atmosphere. If this just were a bad homage with some love and a bunch of good shots put here and there this may had been a serviceable poor game that tries too hard but at least has basic but fun level design and good visuals.
But the combat.
I'm not gonna rant much more because I don't like to discredit something made with care by a team, and I feel much more at ease critizing things like The Avengers game than an indie project built, I'm sure, with the best possible intentions; but this combat can't make the cut. It doesn't feel good at all, it's clunky, unresponsive, on hard the game turns at times into an spiral of almost instant deaths, the parry is awful (the game doesn't even count it as it should a lot of times, and you end up dying while listening to the sound made by the swords clashing). I don't get why this game based almost entirely gameplay wise on combat encounters has some of the worst sword combat I've experienced on a not amateur game; it's just bad.
Flying Wild Hog is better than this, and the tiny bit I played of Shadow Warrior 3 makes it imposible to me to understand how this was released in this state. Let's hope the next thing they do has the same level of focus but on the right places.
This game doesn't try to get what Kurosawa says in his Samurai films, let alone his style beyond black and white and grain. The magic of Yojimbo, Seven Samurai or RAN is never present here, only able to be thought of while playing this by the sheer abundance of comments made by the press and the users. Even with its soul not being there it tries so hard to remind you of what you may think this movies were. There is love here, the shots made with the fixed cameras on gameplay are a few times astonishing and they let the journey flow at the beginning; and the voice acting, while being held back by a barebones script, is pretty on point and works to sell you on part of the atmosphere. If this just were a bad homage with some love and a bunch of good shots put here and there this may had been a serviceable poor game that tries too hard but at least has basic but fun level design and good visuals.
But the combat.
I'm not gonna rant much more because I don't like to discredit something made with care by a team, and I feel much more at ease critizing things like The Avengers game than an indie project built, I'm sure, with the best possible intentions; but this combat can't make the cut. It doesn't feel good at all, it's clunky, unresponsive, on hard the game turns at times into an spiral of almost instant deaths, the parry is awful (the game doesn't even count it as it should a lot of times, and you end up dying while listening to the sound made by the swords clashing). I don't get why this game based almost entirely gameplay wise on combat encounters has some of the worst sword combat I've experienced on a not amateur game; it's just bad.
Flying Wild Hog is better than this, and the tiny bit I played of Shadow Warrior 3 makes it imposible to me to understand how this was released in this state. Let's hope the next thing they do has the same level of focus but on the right places.
só vale pelo visual
amazing art style shit gameplay
An overzealous slog to Yomi.
A game dripping in well intentioned Kurosawa influence, a masterclass in aesthetic. Those camera angles, that crackling static, grit and grain, together with a perfect recreation of the exact type of black & white you'd see in one of the aforementioned director's films. Unlike Ghost of Tsushima's surface level rendition of the style as flat gray-scale, no; this is true black & white with heavy contrast between the two leading to blinding skies and inky depths. In that regard, and that aspect alone Trek to Yomi is a 10/10. Now let's get real.
Aesthetical and atmospheric competence can not even begin to save a game this inexorable and exhausting to play, poor pacing and one-note combat is a disastrous pairing. Clocking in at around 4-5 hours, and feeling closer to 10, Trek to Yomi has seemingly no self awareness in how much it overindulges in it's own mediocrity. The combat fails to impress at every turn, I was expecting enemies to be able to surround you in a more dynamic 2.5D way, but here they just sorta awkwardly shift in place lined up behind one another for you to go through the motions of effortlessly parrying and countering them until the game grants mercy and lets you move to the next wave. At some point I felt like I was almost beginning to have some semblance of enjoyment towards it, in how simple and reliable every move was, but it soon loses whatever it had going for it when you eventually realise the optimal strategy for quite literally every battle is to turn your back on the enemy and hit them with that 3 hit back attack combo. Having virtually no wind up or failure rate, and soon shortening itself even further to a 2 hit combo which leaves the adversary stunned and open to an execution, subsequently healing you on top of that... All I can say is a lot of those later fights start looking real goofy.
And lets get into the titular Yomi part; the land of the dead in Shinto religion/mythology. It's unfortunate to say but I really could've done without this whole, bloated, clichéd and tropey section which makes up the whole second half of the game. Here we have less of that grounded, intimate focus and camera placement trading it off for boring, amateur quasi-surrealist motiffs that feel traveled before in not at all a complementary way comparative to first chunk. Here the camera is peeled way back, we fight annoying spirits and ghostly apparitions, losing that grounded setting the game did so well with earlier. We rarely get close up camera placement that acknowledges the inherently intimate nature of swords plunging into flesh; in Yomi we feel miles away from the main battle and resign to a position of observer more and more, especially when we reconsider how much more involved the combat could've been.
It really never knows when to quit and call it a day either, introducing some of the most asinine ""puzzles"" I've seen in a minute way into the back end which never move past 'say what you see' levels of depth. The bosses too, christ almighty they're all so wonky. Most of the time you can comfortably just rock back, expend all your ranged weapon ammo and go in for a few cheap swipes at the end; again nothing about this combat system impresses, and it wouldn't be such a mark against it if accepted that and made fights more meaningful and less arbitrary.
Narratively its not saying much either, has one banger line in the prologue "Choose fear while you still can.", in context it sets the stage and tone pretty well. Not that it really builds on it; Trek to Yomi would've done better being half the length if even that, which is saying something when its already so short. I could only really stomach around 30 minutes of this journey a session so it ended up commanding a commitment of around 5 days from me and that's particularly noteworthy because I'm pretty quick to finish games when I'm engaged.
A disappointment for sure, but the style really is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. If you're into Kurosawa's stuff, maybe you've only seen Seven Samurai and loved it, there is at least something to be seen and gained here. Don't feel too bad if you end up tapping out somewhere along the way.
A game dripping in well intentioned Kurosawa influence, a masterclass in aesthetic. Those camera angles, that crackling static, grit and grain, together with a perfect recreation of the exact type of black & white you'd see in one of the aforementioned director's films. Unlike Ghost of Tsushima's surface level rendition of the style as flat gray-scale, no; this is true black & white with heavy contrast between the two leading to blinding skies and inky depths. In that regard, and that aspect alone Trek to Yomi is a 10/10. Now let's get real.
Aesthetical and atmospheric competence can not even begin to save a game this inexorable and exhausting to play, poor pacing and one-note combat is a disastrous pairing. Clocking in at around 4-5 hours, and feeling closer to 10, Trek to Yomi has seemingly no self awareness in how much it overindulges in it's own mediocrity. The combat fails to impress at every turn, I was expecting enemies to be able to surround you in a more dynamic 2.5D way, but here they just sorta awkwardly shift in place lined up behind one another for you to go through the motions of effortlessly parrying and countering them until the game grants mercy and lets you move to the next wave. At some point I felt like I was almost beginning to have some semblance of enjoyment towards it, in how simple and reliable every move was, but it soon loses whatever it had going for it when you eventually realise the optimal strategy for quite literally every battle is to turn your back on the enemy and hit them with that 3 hit back attack combo. Having virtually no wind up or failure rate, and soon shortening itself even further to a 2 hit combo which leaves the adversary stunned and open to an execution, subsequently healing you on top of that... All I can say is a lot of those later fights start looking real goofy.
And lets get into the titular Yomi part; the land of the dead in Shinto religion/mythology. It's unfortunate to say but I really could've done without this whole, bloated, clichéd and tropey section which makes up the whole second half of the game. Here we have less of that grounded, intimate focus and camera placement trading it off for boring, amateur quasi-surrealist motiffs that feel traveled before in not at all a complementary way comparative to first chunk. Here the camera is peeled way back, we fight annoying spirits and ghostly apparitions, losing that grounded setting the game did so well with earlier. We rarely get close up camera placement that acknowledges the inherently intimate nature of swords plunging into flesh; in Yomi we feel miles away from the main battle and resign to a position of observer more and more, especially when we reconsider how much more involved the combat could've been.
It really never knows when to quit and call it a day either, introducing some of the most asinine ""puzzles"" I've seen in a minute way into the back end which never move past 'say what you see' levels of depth. The bosses too, christ almighty they're all so wonky. Most of the time you can comfortably just rock back, expend all your ranged weapon ammo and go in for a few cheap swipes at the end; again nothing about this combat system impresses, and it wouldn't be such a mark against it if accepted that and made fights more meaningful and less arbitrary.
Narratively its not saying much either, has one banger line in the prologue "Choose fear while you still can.", in context it sets the stage and tone pretty well. Not that it really builds on it; Trek to Yomi would've done better being half the length if even that, which is saying something when its already so short. I could only really stomach around 30 minutes of this journey a session so it ended up commanding a commitment of around 5 days from me and that's particularly noteworthy because I'm pretty quick to finish games when I'm engaged.
A disappointment for sure, but the style really is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. If you're into Kurosawa's stuff, maybe you've only seen Seven Samurai and loved it, there is at least something to be seen and gained here. Don't feel too bad if you end up tapping out somewhere along the way.
Um filme do Akira Kurosawa no qual você controla tudo. Sua estória é muito interessante e chega a ser maluco. Principalmente quando o jogo não dá indícios de coisas sobrenaturais e simplesmente você se encontra numa parte totalmente sobrenatural.
A gameplay do jogo é bem divertida. O level design é muito bom. Os pontos de checkpoint são bem espaçados, dando certa dificuldade, o problema é que quando tem uma sala com vários equipamentos e um checkpoint, você prevê uma boss fight. Outra coisa legal do level design é a exploração. Muitos lugares ocultos que possuem upgrades. Isso é bem divertido porque você se sente recompensado por toda essa exploração. Além de ter colecionáveis nessas áreas também.
O combate é bem gostoso, só demora pra ler os comandos. Certas horas passei raiva, mas não tanto, já que no começo, onde mais morri, achei que era ruindade minha e não problema do jogo.
A gameplay do jogo é bem divertida. O level design é muito bom. Os pontos de checkpoint são bem espaçados, dando certa dificuldade, o problema é que quando tem uma sala com vários equipamentos e um checkpoint, você prevê uma boss fight. Outra coisa legal do level design é a exploração. Muitos lugares ocultos que possuem upgrades. Isso é bem divertido porque você se sente recompensado por toda essa exploração. Além de ter colecionáveis nessas áreas também.
O combate é bem gostoso, só demora pra ler os comandos. Certas horas passei raiva, mas não tanto, já que no começo, onde mais morri, achei que era ruindade minha e não problema do jogo.
There unfortunately isn't too much to say about this game and that is a real shame. The premise is very interesting, especially in the age of games like Ghost of Tsushima, but it sadly falls flat of any prestigious status like that.
The story is very average at best, straight forward... far too simplistic and leaves little room for anyone I feel to care enough about the characters presented, protagonist or antagonist, they're all pretty uninteresting and incredibly generic, as is the story. It's clear this game was meant to be PLAYED rather than WATCHED, giving it a more arcadey status than cinematic... which is the intention anyways, but it would be nice to have a compelling story to go with it. What can I say about the gameplay though? It's repetitive, so even if there was a shred of hope to salvage the game, there isn't. It's pretty much endless waves of enemies, not too different from each other, they just tank more damage. It would be nice to have a larger variety with the combat aside from the same three moves for most of the game.
What bugged me the most was the entire Yomi segment and I began to relate with Hiroki's pain of going through these uninnovative puzzles and waves of enemies. However, I will give credit where its due... the boss fights are pretty sick and do require a level of skill and the combat itself is pretty difficult at times, which I guess makes up for the runtime, but at a certain point it's more frustrating than fun.
Pretty interesting game if you're into Kurosawa or basically anything relating to Samurai/Feudal Japan, but as a game on it's own... it's pretty poor.
The story is very average at best, straight forward... far too simplistic and leaves little room for anyone I feel to care enough about the characters presented, protagonist or antagonist, they're all pretty uninteresting and incredibly generic, as is the story. It's clear this game was meant to be PLAYED rather than WATCHED, giving it a more arcadey status than cinematic... which is the intention anyways, but it would be nice to have a compelling story to go with it. What can I say about the gameplay though? It's repetitive, so even if there was a shred of hope to salvage the game, there isn't. It's pretty much endless waves of enemies, not too different from each other, they just tank more damage. It would be nice to have a larger variety with the combat aside from the same three moves for most of the game.
What bugged me the most was the entire Yomi segment and I began to relate with Hiroki's pain of going through these uninnovative puzzles and waves of enemies. However, I will give credit where its due... the boss fights are pretty sick and do require a level of skill and the combat itself is pretty difficult at times, which I guess makes up for the runtime, but at a certain point it's more frustrating than fun.
Pretty interesting game if you're into Kurosawa or basically anything relating to Samurai/Feudal Japan, but as a game on it's own... it's pretty poor.
This game is 100% aesthetic. If you like classic samurai movies, this game is a must play.
However, if the aesthetic fails to grab you then this game might feel very hollow. I beat it in roughly 5-6 hours and I wasn’t too impressed when it comes to gameplay. There are a variety of combos that are made available to you as you progress but they’re not as useful once you realize it’s just pressing an extra button for a spam combo that you were already doing. Gameplay just gets really redundant at a certain point and you’ll be going through the motions in combat about halfway in.
Spoilers below
As for the story, it’s a pretty simple one. Your sensei gets killed, you hunt the ones that killed him, and you find out that your character’s thirst for revenge is the reason your own village gets attacked and your loved one dies bc of it. At that point of the story, your character gets killed(unless you manage to defeat the insanely hard boss that kills you) and this is where I think the story becomes very interesting. You get sent to an afterlife type world called Yomi and fight ghosts and demons. Japanese mythology shines in this part of the game and it kinda made me wish the rest of the game was like this. It made for some cool environments and enemy types. I also liked that you have 4 different options for how your game ends. There’s some replay value from that and the unlocked difficulty once you initially beat the game.
Also, DO NOT use English voice acting. Take it from someone like me who actually prefers to watch anime dubbed in English bc it doesn’t bother me most of the time. But this game’s English voice acting is pretty bad and does not fit well at all. Just keep the Japanese voice acting as it was intended and read the subtitles.
There’s a lot to like about this game but there’s also a lot to not like. I’d say it’s worth your time to play regardless since it’s a 5-6 hour experience and if you like the aesthetic of 2D sidescrolling with a old 50s B&W film filter. Aesthetic alone is why I liked playing it but that’s about it.
However, if the aesthetic fails to grab you then this game might feel very hollow. I beat it in roughly 5-6 hours and I wasn’t too impressed when it comes to gameplay. There are a variety of combos that are made available to you as you progress but they’re not as useful once you realize it’s just pressing an extra button for a spam combo that you were already doing. Gameplay just gets really redundant at a certain point and you’ll be going through the motions in combat about halfway in.
Spoilers below
As for the story, it’s a pretty simple one. Your sensei gets killed, you hunt the ones that killed him, and you find out that your character’s thirst for revenge is the reason your own village gets attacked and your loved one dies bc of it. At that point of the story, your character gets killed(unless you manage to defeat the insanely hard boss that kills you) and this is where I think the story becomes very interesting. You get sent to an afterlife type world called Yomi and fight ghosts and demons. Japanese mythology shines in this part of the game and it kinda made me wish the rest of the game was like this. It made for some cool environments and enemy types. I also liked that you have 4 different options for how your game ends. There’s some replay value from that and the unlocked difficulty once you initially beat the game.
Also, DO NOT use English voice acting. Take it from someone like me who actually prefers to watch anime dubbed in English bc it doesn’t bother me most of the time. But this game’s English voice acting is pretty bad and does not fit well at all. Just keep the Japanese voice acting as it was intended and read the subtitles.
There’s a lot to like about this game but there’s also a lot to not like. I’d say it’s worth your time to play regardless since it’s a 5-6 hour experience and if you like the aesthetic of 2D sidescrolling with a old 50s B&W film filter. Aesthetic alone is why I liked playing it but that’s about it.
visualmente encantador, resultó siendo mejor verlo que jugarlo, el gameplay se vuelve repetitivo a los 20 minutos y no mejora, a las 2 horas me rendí.
they saw ghosts of tsushima and thought nah we can make it worse
foi uma longa jornada... literalmente.
trek to yomi é um jogo bem morno, sua história não é interessante, seu combate é legal, mas não tão legal assim depois de horas e horas repetindo os mesmos movimentos (nem faz sentido aprender um combo que não seja QUADRADO + QUADRADO + TRIANGULO + R1, na minha opinião), até porquê o jogo consegue ser BEM punitivo e injusto se você não se beneficia dos finishers. sinceramente acho que as únicas coisas 100% positivas é a sua duração (que foi na medida certa), o desafio de aprender o moveset de algum boss e o estilo de arte/jogada de câmeras.
se eu finalizasse o jogo apenas depois de completar a história, a nota seria 1/5. só vale a pena jogar esse jogo se você está indo atrás da platina (e boa sorte), pq a história não importa e o mais legal sem sombra de dúvidas é superar seus próprios obstáculos.
é sekiro preto e branco... não foi dessa vez
trek to yomi é um jogo bem morno, sua história não é interessante, seu combate é legal, mas não tão legal assim depois de horas e horas repetindo os mesmos movimentos (nem faz sentido aprender um combo que não seja QUADRADO + QUADRADO + TRIANGULO + R1, na minha opinião), até porquê o jogo consegue ser BEM punitivo e injusto se você não se beneficia dos finishers. sinceramente acho que as únicas coisas 100% positivas é a sua duração (que foi na medida certa), o desafio de aprender o moveset de algum boss e o estilo de arte/jogada de câmeras.
se eu finalizasse o jogo apenas depois de completar a história, a nota seria 1/5. só vale a pena jogar esse jogo se você está indo atrás da platina (e boa sorte), pq a história não importa e o mais legal sem sombra de dúvidas é superar seus próprios obstáculos.
é sekiro preto e branco... não foi dessa vez
Edit março de 2024: esse jogo é tão merda que decidi abaixar a nota pra 1 estrela.
Duas estrelas pelo design de arte, porque o resto é uma merda. O combate chega a ser ofensivo de tão ruim.
Duas estrelas pelo design de arte, porque o resto é uma merda. O combate chega a ser ofensivo de tão ruim.
I made too many screenshots while playing it.
I thought it was gonna be like a cool, 2D sidescrolling Ghost of Tsushima. Instead, it was clunky and incredibly bland. The comparison I give is that it's like a food that looks and smells better than it tastes.
"Free" ps plus game... looks very cinematic, but it's just boring as fuck. I hate these. They should have the decency to look crap as well.
This review contains spoilers
It's been a few days since I finished this game, as of the time of writing, unsure what to feel about it, unsure what to say, how to say it, if it would be unfair or not. Because, at the end of the day, Trek to Yomi is, in essence, a love letter. Like many love letters it isn't perfect, it wears it's affection proudly and it doesn't hide it, it shows every aspect of itself like an open book, the flattering and unflattering. Trek to Yomi is a love letter to the likes of Akira Kurasawa and his work, one that is seemingly more interested in replicating it's visual flair and storytelling than it is about being an engaging game it feels at times. And yet, is it fair to judge something born out of a clear love for something?
Trek to Yomi is the tale of Hiroki, a Japanese samurai from his days as an apprentice and to his adulthood, his life shaken early by a bandit attack to his village, a raid lead by Kagerou, from then on the main villain of Hiroki's story. Despite being told by his master to stay put and hide, driven by his master's daughter (and future love interest), Hiroki roams the streets of the village as it is razed, helping wherever he can.
This leads me to the combat which is...passable. You have a basic set of moves, combos achieved by linking light and heavy attacks, a turn-around move in case an enemy gets behind you and a dodge I rarely found myself using. Combat is usually approached in a 2D plane, whilst exploration uses all three dimensions multiple times. At least on the game's equivalent of Normal difficulty enemies tend to attack you in turns, and while they are quick to take the place of any dead comrade it never really is enough to hide that fact. Combat can be somewhat stiff, and while you learn more combos at time goes on, with some of them having distinct usages (like some of them dealing extra damage to armoured enemies), you never really get the feeling that combat itself ever improves in any meaningful way, even with ranged weapons getting introduced. You'll find that one combo that essentially works on every enemy effectively, by either dealing extra damage or stunning them for a finishing execution which will restore your health (parrying and riposting heals too, but in a lesser way and pulling them off is harder) and stick to it the entire game, because every other option is either not as helpful or has some rather strict and at times hard to decipher timing that makes them undesirable.
So clearly, combat was not the game's focus, no, that was the presentation and writing. Trek to Yomi's a indie game, one that I will probably use as an example of how you can make a game look greay without the need for insane graphical fidelity: the black and white coloring, the lighting, the old camera filter, the letterboxing and the camera angles make the game look like an interractive movie, a visually astonishing one that left me with my jaw on the floor multiple times despite the character models not looking like something from a AAA production. Normally I wouldn't be sold by something looking like it's an interractive movie, but there's enough gameplay here to not have bothered me, instead leaving me with wanting to see more of what the devs had in store for me.
The story is okay, really. Hiroki, after witnessing the death of his master at the hands of Kagerou (not before disfiguring him), grows to become the master's daughter sworn protector. One day, the village is again sieged by bandits, and Hiroki separates from the rest of his comrades to deal with one of the leaders, only to then discover this was all a distraction to let Kagerou raise hell all over again. Returning to the ruins of the village, he arrives to late to save his love, as she has been killed by Kagerou himself, who then easily dispatches of Hiroki, who, now on death's door, finds himself to the titular Yomi, the underworld in Japanese mythology.
Yomi is a putrescent land, one filled with corrupted humans and carcasses, seeking either peace to their pain or a way to satisfy their bloodlust. Here, Hiroki's sense of guilt is explored, seeing the results of the war he could not stop, the ghost of his dead comrades who are blaming him for their death (or perhaps, a manifestation of Hiroki's guilt all inside his mind). It is arguably, from a visual standpoint, my favourite part of the game. Not so much gameplay wise, as the enemies introduced can be really annoying, but still.
Through Yomi, the player can decide if Hiroki's journey is one of love, of duty, or of pure revenge. And by that I mean at the end of the penultimate chapter you are given a three way choice on what to focus your task on the living world, with any previous choice not really mattering, making me question exactly why they were even there to begin with. Whatever you pick here will determine your ending, with Hiroki either rejoining his beloved in Yomi, Training his own apprentice or taking Kagerou's place and continuining the bloodshed. That is what I could gather from YouTube, anyways. I went with honor, and checked the other endings there, as you cannot load a save after beating the game, you have to replay it from the start, and the combat was just not good enough to entice me to do so.
I...I still don't know what to think. The game is okay, nothing more, nothing less, but it is an incredible looking piece of art, one whose visuals stuck with me. As a love letter, it is incredible, but as a game? It isn't anything that will make history, but perhaps that was not intended; like many acts of love, it is intimate, you can share it with others, but it doesn't seek approval from strangers, it is there to pronounce its affection, nothing less, nothing more. You may share in its love, or you may not. You may walk a path of love, or of revenge. What you make of it is your own decision. Hiroki's story is his own, despite the choice given to the player. I still do not have an answer to the question from the start of this review. Guess you cannot judge a love letter, after all.
Trek to Yomi is the tale of Hiroki, a Japanese samurai from his days as an apprentice and to his adulthood, his life shaken early by a bandit attack to his village, a raid lead by Kagerou, from then on the main villain of Hiroki's story. Despite being told by his master to stay put and hide, driven by his master's daughter (and future love interest), Hiroki roams the streets of the village as it is razed, helping wherever he can.
This leads me to the combat which is...passable. You have a basic set of moves, combos achieved by linking light and heavy attacks, a turn-around move in case an enemy gets behind you and a dodge I rarely found myself using. Combat is usually approached in a 2D plane, whilst exploration uses all three dimensions multiple times. At least on the game's equivalent of Normal difficulty enemies tend to attack you in turns, and while they are quick to take the place of any dead comrade it never really is enough to hide that fact. Combat can be somewhat stiff, and while you learn more combos at time goes on, with some of them having distinct usages (like some of them dealing extra damage to armoured enemies), you never really get the feeling that combat itself ever improves in any meaningful way, even with ranged weapons getting introduced. You'll find that one combo that essentially works on every enemy effectively, by either dealing extra damage or stunning them for a finishing execution which will restore your health (parrying and riposting heals too, but in a lesser way and pulling them off is harder) and stick to it the entire game, because every other option is either not as helpful or has some rather strict and at times hard to decipher timing that makes them undesirable.
So clearly, combat was not the game's focus, no, that was the presentation and writing. Trek to Yomi's a indie game, one that I will probably use as an example of how you can make a game look greay without the need for insane graphical fidelity: the black and white coloring, the lighting, the old camera filter, the letterboxing and the camera angles make the game look like an interractive movie, a visually astonishing one that left me with my jaw on the floor multiple times despite the character models not looking like something from a AAA production. Normally I wouldn't be sold by something looking like it's an interractive movie, but there's enough gameplay here to not have bothered me, instead leaving me with wanting to see more of what the devs had in store for me.
The story is okay, really. Hiroki, after witnessing the death of his master at the hands of Kagerou (not before disfiguring him), grows to become the master's daughter sworn protector. One day, the village is again sieged by bandits, and Hiroki separates from the rest of his comrades to deal with one of the leaders, only to then discover this was all a distraction to let Kagerou raise hell all over again. Returning to the ruins of the village, he arrives to late to save his love, as she has been killed by Kagerou himself, who then easily dispatches of Hiroki, who, now on death's door, finds himself to the titular Yomi, the underworld in Japanese mythology.
Yomi is a putrescent land, one filled with corrupted humans and carcasses, seeking either peace to their pain or a way to satisfy their bloodlust. Here, Hiroki's sense of guilt is explored, seeing the results of the war he could not stop, the ghost of his dead comrades who are blaming him for their death (or perhaps, a manifestation of Hiroki's guilt all inside his mind). It is arguably, from a visual standpoint, my favourite part of the game. Not so much gameplay wise, as the enemies introduced can be really annoying, but still.
Through Yomi, the player can decide if Hiroki's journey is one of love, of duty, or of pure revenge. And by that I mean at the end of the penultimate chapter you are given a three way choice on what to focus your task on the living world, with any previous choice not really mattering, making me question exactly why they were even there to begin with. Whatever you pick here will determine your ending, with Hiroki either rejoining his beloved in Yomi, Training his own apprentice or taking Kagerou's place and continuining the bloodshed. That is what I could gather from YouTube, anyways. I went with honor, and checked the other endings there, as you cannot load a save after beating the game, you have to replay it from the start, and the combat was just not good enough to entice me to do so.
I...I still don't know what to think. The game is okay, nothing more, nothing less, but it is an incredible looking piece of art, one whose visuals stuck with me. As a love letter, it is incredible, but as a game? It isn't anything that will make history, but perhaps that was not intended; like many acts of love, it is intimate, you can share it with others, but it doesn't seek approval from strangers, it is there to pronounce its affection, nothing less, nothing more. You may share in its love, or you may not. You may walk a path of love, or of revenge. What you make of it is your own decision. Hiroki's story is his own, despite the choice given to the player. I still do not have an answer to the question from the start of this review. Guess you cannot judge a love letter, after all.
Perfeito no que se propõe, um jogo com gameplay satisfatória, história e diálogos excelentes com uma fotografia sensacional…quando vi já tava horas jogando, diversão na certa!
I don't know how to rate this, everything about the presentation is utterly fantastic, from the unique visuals and locals, however the combat is absolute shit, worth a play if you have gamepass and you put it on easy so you can stomach the bad combat, treat this is as more of an art gallery rather than an actual game.
Excelente jogo inspirado em clássicos filmes de samurai! A principio quem não está acostumado com filmes nessa temática, pode achar ruim o jogo não ser colorido. O grande tchan desse jogo é justamente ser preto em branco, onde podemos ver muitos detalhes com luz e sombra que mesclado com o visual do jogo torna tudo muito bonito!
A fotografia e a dinâmica de mudança de perspectiva (com câmeras fixas em certos momentos) ala, Silent Hill criam paisagens fantásticas!
O jogo é bem linear, mas não chega a ser ruim, foi uma decisão de level designer pra contar a sua historia de maneira direta, sem rodeios.
O jogo tem fator replay, mas pra mim ter terminado uma vez o caminho que escolhi já foi o suficiente.
Jogo curto, terminei em 7 horas, pegando todos os coletáveis que eu via pelo caminho.
A fotografia e a dinâmica de mudança de perspectiva (com câmeras fixas em certos momentos) ala, Silent Hill criam paisagens fantásticas!
O jogo é bem linear, mas não chega a ser ruim, foi uma decisão de level designer pra contar a sua historia de maneira direta, sem rodeios.
O jogo tem fator replay, mas pra mim ter terminado uma vez o caminho que escolhi já foi o suficiente.
Jogo curto, terminei em 7 horas, pegando todos os coletáveis que eu via pelo caminho.