The artfully staged samurai story entices with furious sword fights and delivered so much more. We didn’t want to stop playing.
I don’t really have time for all the pretty little games out there, but if there’s one gameplay element that can reliably lure me in, it’s well-done sword fights. If they take place in relentless feudal Japan and are both fast and brutal, then… yes, it could even be love. yes, it could even be love.
In Trek to Yomi I experience the story of the swordsman Hiroki, who loses his sensei, i.e. his samurai teacher, at a young age in a merciless attack. If this situation sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve seen it in dozens of films. Well, in John Wick it was a dog and not a mentor, but you get the idea.
Honourably, he vows never to let such a thing happen again and henceforth cuts his way through countless enemies as if they were made of butter in front of consistently beautiful and atmosphere-bleeding backgrounds. The visual model is the old samurai film classics by Akira Kurosawa, which most recently inspired the open-world colossus Ghost of Tsushima.
You can get a good impression of this visually stunning, monochromatic style in this brand new 15-minute gameplay video, which also lets you sample the excellent feudal Japanese soundtrack and martial combat sounds:
A bloody journey
In the beginning, I stand in my master’s dojo as a half-grown man and learn the basics of the fighting system, wrapped up in a samurai lesson. The controls are almost as catchy with mouse and keyboard as with the gamepad, at the latest when you put sprinting on shift and parrying on the mouse. Thank you for the respect you show PC gamers here, dear developers!
What’s also usually terrible are game passages as a child. At least that’s what my Fahrenheit trauma wants me to think. But this prologue as a cocky apprentice is so atmospheric that Hiroki’s motives (simple as they may be) jump right out at me. As the chapters turn, I can’t wait to find out what he’s capable of as an adult and how challenging the hand-to-hand duels can get.
In them, I chain light and heavy attacks, sometimes with and sometimes without directional keys, into effective manoeuvres that outsmart my opponents and sometimes make them a head shorter. This looks brutal, but is somewhat defused by the black and white filter and thus remains stylish.
As a rule, even in the second hardest of the four difficulty levels (the hardest one has to be unlocked first), I only have to fight the opponent who is closest to me. If someone tries to stab me in the back, I either roll away or turn around in a flash for a counterattack, while the other three or four opponents hold back. Later on, this even works automatically if the parry button is pressed when danger threatens from behind.
I learn skills like these as the story progresses, and thanks to this staggering, I always have enough time to memorise new combinations. Because I thoroughly explore every house and every optional fork in the road, I also come across new combat techniques more quickly. There are also permanent power-ups for hit points and stamina as well as numerous collectibles waiting to go into my bag.
For whom is Trek to Yomi suitable?
For Kurosawa fans, it’s important to note that while the style is masterfully captured here, the underlying depth or psychological component of the duels is not. Trek to Yomi aims to entertain first and foremost, rather than to provoke thought.
All others need not worry much about this shortcoming. What you get here plays so thrillingly that you probably can’t put your input device aside any more than I can. You get into a pleasant flow of play that washes you through the picturesque scenery as if by magic.
Because it is also very entertaining, since the fairly placed save points don’t punish you unnecessarily for mistakes, you can also treat yourself to Trek to Yomi repeatedly in between as a little samurai kick. Publisher Devolver has not yet been able to give us any information about the exact scope and thus the playing time.
Trek to Yomi will be released on 5 May 2022 on (Steam) and (GoG)
Editorial conclusion
The furious sword-wielding journey with Hiroki immediately draws you in and if you don’t let yourself be irritated by the subtitle reading and the lack of colour, you’ll get an artistic gem here that is worth paying attention to.
You could also call it the perfect game for those who have been flirting with the excellent Ghost of Tsushima on the PlayStation for a while because of its soulful style, but either don’t want to buy it or don’t have time for yet another huge open world.
Thanks to the well-designed gameplay, you’ll enjoy getting to grips with the whimsical combat mechanics and look forward to each new duel in which you can further hone your skills. With different enemy types and occasional boss fights, there also seems to be enough depth and variety in the game. We’ll find out whether it keeps this up until the end credits when it’s released.
