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.