Trek to Yomi is a downloadable game that you can currently grab on the Playstation Network for both PS4 and PS5. It’s developed by the independent developer, Flying Wild Hog. And published by Devolver Digital. Have any of your ever watched one of those old Japanese Samurai movies that use to come on television back in the day? (This is pre-internet and even pre-pay tv). Well, this is the video game version of that, complete with the old monochrome black-and-white coloring pallet. Personally, I had fun with the game once all was said and done. But I won’t deny that this game does have a bit of frustration that comes along with it that I’ll explain. Some may like this game for the aesthetic of it alone. For some, even that may not be enough. It’s part of why I have such a “middle-of-the-road” feeling about this game.

Trek to Yomi is both a story of revenge and redemption. As for where it takes place, well, they never really say. But considering the nature of the game I guess they don’t really have to. Hiroki is the main character which you play the game through. At the beginning of the game, he’s training in the ways of the sword with his master, Sanjuro. While they’re in their training session, a young girl, Aiko, Sajuro’s daughter is watching from outside through the window. Their training is cut short as the village is being attacked by bandits. Sajuro runs to stop the attacking bandits, telling his student to stay behind. Of course, like any protagonist in pretty much every game in existence, he defies this order as both he and Aiko rush to help. About halfway, Aiko stays behind while Hiroki continues on, cutting down bandits along the way. He eventually runs into the bandit boss, Kaegerou. After the cliche mismatch of a battle, Kagerou is about to kill Hiroki, but before that can happen Sanjuro intervenes, and the two fight. The end of the fight is Sanjuro and Kagerou both defeating each other and their souls going to Yomi (that means the afterlife). Ok, I spoiled the first chapter so that’s all I’ll say as far as the story goes from here on out.

Now graphically, the game isn’t bad or anything. But it isn’t something that will hit you with that “wow” factor. It just simply looks like an old monochrome samurai movie. For the most part, that’s fine since that was clearly the focus of the game in the first place. Beyond that, there isn’t much for me to critique here. There wasn’t any attempt to break new ground or hit some sort of graphical standard. Some people may like the look. But for others, it may feel like a gimmick. As a result, it may detract from the next part we need to cover, the gameplay.

This is where I start to have some issues with the game. The first part I want to talk about is the fixed cameras. In most games, normally this isn’t too bad. But because this game is in plain black and white, sometimes it can be hard to tell where to go. There tend to be areas in the game where it looks like you “should” be able to reach them, but in reality, you can’t. That annoyed me a bit, but that’s not a deal breaker. The more pressing problem to me is the combat. You would think that combat for a game like this wouldn’t be so clunky, but it is. It takes a bit of getting used to. The frustration is that the combat is unforgiving in the sense of button press accuracy. For example, let’s take a combo in the game. If a combo is backward + square, triangle, square, you have to be precise. If you’re still holding backward when you’re pressing triangle, the combo won’t register. Most games give you leeway on combos. But this one?, Nope. It’s not totally rough, but it does take getting used to. Even in my gameplay videos, there were moments where I was just swinging with no enemies around for the sole purpose of combo practice. Luckily, if you’re not too good with swordplay, the game gives you projectiles sucks as arrows, a cannon, and throwing knives. These can run out quickly, but you also find plenty of them through the levels along with health boosts, stamina boosts, and collectibles. One final bit about the gameplay I feel makes it a bit easier to deal with is the finishing blows. When the enemy is stunned, you can give them a finishing attack that actually gives back some of your energy

Now, aside from the combos, another feature that may be tough to deal with for many is the fact that you have to press the x button to turn while in battle. If you try to reverse your walking without doing so, you’ll just end up walking backward. This may be a bit of an issue for a lot of gamers if you get surrounded by bandits. On their own, these frustrations with the controls wouldn’t be so bad. But them being all in one package (the game) is something that I can see a few people complaining about.

Overall, I’ve grown accustomed to the game. But I can’t say I would have been happy to have bought this. I had it in my Playstation Plus downloads and decided to give it a shot. The game feels like it’s hoping to coast off being an “old samurai flick come to life” to disguise the clunky gameplay mechanics. If you are interested in buying this, I would say wait for it to go on sale. PSN constantly has a ton of sales so this will probably be in one at some point. The game only has seven chapters and multiple endings so there is at least some replay value there just for the sake of seeing everything. But don’t let the decor of this one deceive you, it’s an average game.

You can find our gameplay videos here