Trek to Yomi

tl; dr: if you like old samurai movies starring Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai or even the newer movies by Takashi Miike, buy this game! It's worth full price. On sale, it's a no-brainer if you are interested in artistic, indie games. Please consider supporting such projects which try something interesting and unique! I bought this game on launch with a small discount (10%), but after having finished the first four chapters of the story I would say this is definitely worth full price! This game has an impressive attention to detail (foregrounds and backgrounds are filled with awesome details, which make the settlements featured in the game feel lived-in and the desolate landscapes...well, desolate), a gorgeous sense of picture framing, and solid Japanese language voice acting. The combat with some finisher moves is satisfying, if a bit clunky. It's basically a parry-based, sword-fighting game with some minor weapon diversity (bo-shuriken, bow, musket) thrown in. The issue is the small number of animation frames during the parries, which make it difficult at first to understand the combat. So don't go into this game expecting Sekiro-level animations. (Hence the four stars) The story is basic, but lovingly told. The devs were really passionate about this world and characters and it shows! This passion coupled with art design and voice acting is what elevates the game to four stars imho.

Trek to Yomi has an amazing Kurosawaesque style to it that reminded me of the black and white kurosawa mode in Ghost of Tsushima aswell as kurasawa's classic movies. This is achieved through some striking visuals, gorgeous graphics, evocative music, sound effects and voice acting and slick combat. Game play consists of following a linear path where you will do some environmental traversal and fight lots of bandits and solve the occasional puzzle. There are also many hidden paths which will usually reward you with collectables, ammo or upgrades to your health or stamina. But the main part of the game play is definitely the combat. Combat is fast, precise, deadly and very satisfying when it clicks. Parrying is important later on but prior to the final level I found just timing your strikes worked equally well. However for some late game enemies particularly the final boss learning to perfect your parries is essential which may put some people off. I give the game four stars instead of five simply because of how short it is. You can finish the game in about five hours, add a couple of hours to that for the hardest difficulty. It also has three different endings so there is some replay value. I would categorize this game with titles like Limbo, Inside and Edith Finch, Very short but beautifully Crafted. Well worth getting when it's on a deep sale.

I really wanted to give this game a higher rating, but there are just so many little things going wrong that it detracts from the experience. On the positives, it is far and away one of the best I've seen from an artistic standpoint. The camera positioning, tracking and framing are incredible and I cannot recommend you experience it enough. But the fighting, oh my, the fighting. Using a game pad, everything tends to feel just a tad "off" for lack of a better word. Inputs, especially when trying to counter or do combos, just seem to have a hint of latency that throws things off. I wanted to try more combos, but the game punishes you for doing basically anything other than parry and countering. However, you get fun guys like the spearman that will stunlock you or it just counts as a held block vs parry. At one point in the third chapter, basic bandits stopped being able to be parry-killed. It would show a successful parry animation, then my guy would stand there awkwardly and not execute the counter. So, parry, pause and two strike combo it was from then on out. I'm fine with basic or even “shallow” melee combat in a game, but I want it to be consistent and this game feels anything but. Again, beautiful game, play it on easy and enjoy it as a beautiful cinema adjacent experience but I would recommend waiting for a sale.

The game is good, probably a 4-star game after patches, but the initial release has some pretty unacceptable bugs that really, really detract from the experience. The one that pissed me off the most was when I got my first quiver upgrade from 2 to 3 arrows, which is very significant, especially on harder difficulties, since some bosses are very hard to kill with only melee: I either died or reloaded the checkpoint and the upgrade was gone for good, I didn't have it anymore and it was gone from the environment too. This pissed me off severely because I'm quite obsessive and a completionist and having the sense of losing an upgrade permanently for the rest of the game was really off-putting. After that, I always had a sense of panic after collecting an upgrade until the next checkpoint so as not to die and maybe lose it. Well, turns out my fear was not unfounded, BECAUSE IT HAPPENED AGAIN 3 TIMES IN CHAPTERS 4 AND 5, one time for each of the ranged weapons. This is beyond unacceptable. This modern trend of "release now, patch it later IF it sells well" is really ruining gaming and it's one of the reasons I almost never buy games on release nowadays. I broke my own rule and suffered the consequences. Last fucking game I ever buy on release. Some notes: - The combat is OK, but a bit unsatisfying for some reason and really repetitive. Eventhough you have dozens of combos, you will find yoursel spamming the same 3-4 combos that are the strongest. - The story is nice, but not spectacular. - Great visuals, great atmosphere. - About 5 to 8 hours long. - The interface is buggy and not well thought out. - The aforementioned upgrade-losing bugs are horrible when they happen and they should not exist on release. Idea: add an optional setting to make the blood red to make the game more visceral for those that want it. Props to GOG for being the only store allowing us to refund these unfinished games after more than 2 hours of play. I'll buy it again when it's finished.