This review contains spoilers
Trek to Yomi looks great, plays ok-ish, and is mostly lukewarm. The story could be summarized in essentially two sentences. You’re a student turned warrior after your master dies, making you the new protector from enemies who would do you, your village, and your love interest harm. Lo and behold your village gets attacked, your love interest is killed, and you must decide to stay with her in death or continue to live after defeating your old enemy who destroyed your village. Even that sounds more in-depth than the game is. What the game actually entails is being under constant attack from pillagers and evil spirits as you side-scroll run across an almost 2.5D environment. It’s not bad, it’s just not something they do anything interesting with. If you’ve seen any samurai movie you know this game almost exactly.
I like the way it maintains a pseudo side-scrolling status, where you can sometimes go towards or away from the camera depending on the section. It goes back and forth from 2D movement and 3D movement so fluidly that you don’t even really notice it as you play. Some more environmental puzzles taking advantage of this would have been welcome. Regarding the aesthetics, It goes without saying you should keep the black-and-white film grain on. If you’re playing this game there’s really no reason to turn it off. For the sake of the creator's intent as well as really completing the picture of old samurai flicks. The art design of the game is undoubtedly its strongest point, and it’s quite well done. That withstanding I could have done with a lot less dawdling in Yomi, the death dimension. That dragged on far too long that even the creepy imagery couldn’t compensate.
The fighting is sadly mediocre, and probably the weakest part of the game. I’ll give credit where credits due, they have quite a few combos for so few inputs. It’s just not very engaging, especially seeing as it’s the lone source of interaction. The parry system is also really finicky, sometimes it feels generous and other times it feels demanding. As a general rule you should parry a good bit before their attack actually lands, otherwise they’ll just keep hitting past you, draining your health startlingly quick. All in all, Trek to Yomi is a fine time, but like many indie games before and since, it’s missing that secret ingredient of creative pizzazz.
I like the way it maintains a pseudo side-scrolling status, where you can sometimes go towards or away from the camera depending on the section. It goes back and forth from 2D movement and 3D movement so fluidly that you don’t even really notice it as you play. Some more environmental puzzles taking advantage of this would have been welcome. Regarding the aesthetics, It goes without saying you should keep the black-and-white film grain on. If you’re playing this game there’s really no reason to turn it off. For the sake of the creator's intent as well as really completing the picture of old samurai flicks. The art design of the game is undoubtedly its strongest point, and it’s quite well done. That withstanding I could have done with a lot less dawdling in Yomi, the death dimension. That dragged on far too long that even the creepy imagery couldn’t compensate.
The fighting is sadly mediocre, and probably the weakest part of the game. I’ll give credit where credits due, they have quite a few combos for so few inputs. It’s just not very engaging, especially seeing as it’s the lone source of interaction. The parry system is also really finicky, sometimes it feels generous and other times it feels demanding. As a general rule you should parry a good bit before their attack actually lands, otherwise they’ll just keep hitting past you, draining your health startlingly quick. All in all, Trek to Yomi is a fine time, but like many indie games before and since, it’s missing that secret ingredient of creative pizzazz.