Trek to Yomi, the most recent from iconoclastically branded publisher Devolver Digital, is the epitome of fashion over substance. It's a beautiful game, crammed full of detailed backgrounds, dynamic camera angles, and lighting that understands how to make the most out of a black-and-white color scheme. I'm not a huge nerd about classic samurai cinema, but as far as my novice eye is worried, developer Flying Wild Hog certainly nailed what those films look like-at least more so than the last big samurai game that claimed to consider its inspiration in the works of Kurosawa. But the visuals seem like a veneer, masking its narrative and gameplay imperfections.
Taking place during some indeterminate time in ancient Japanese history, Trek to Yomi's story focuses on a swordsman, Hiroki, whose village is attacked by a bandit warlord and also the fallout from that event. As the story unfolds, Hiroki literally needs to go to hell and to find the strength required to defeat his enemies and confront their own shortcomings as a samurai. It's the kind of paper-thin and occasionally compelling story that benefits from a far more cinematic presentation.
One of Trek to Yomi's neatest tricks is when it makes itself appear cinematic when, really, it is simply another 2D side-scrolling action game-and that's by cleverly delineating the way it uses its camera. During combat, Yomi adopts a typical side-scrolling perspective, and you can only move Hiroki from left to right. Between combat situations, Hiroki explores the world with fixed camera angles that feel like they're ripped straight from the original Resident Evil games, although not as claustrophobic. Finally, there are the greater standard cutscenes that give the story the opportunity to lean into close-ups, even if no characters really tap into the kabuki traditions that inspired lots of samurai film actors in the 1950s and '60s.
What makes Trek to Yomi so visually striking is how its various camera angles provide you with the sense that you are looking at a living diorama. At times, with a few foregrounded detritus and tilt-shift lenses, the game looks a lot more like an homage to Wes Anderson's stop-motion animations of computer does Seven Samurai-or a minimum of a hybrid of the two-and that isn't bad. It's also a good method for the developers to cover moments in which the visuals might not support close scrutiny, particularly using the animation. Even still, it's truly impossible to overstate how visually striking Trek to Yomi is.
Unfortunately, the excellent visuals and art design can't fully distract from Trek to Yomi's stilted and boring gameplay. Combat is easy to understand and even simpler to master: There's a light attack, huge attack, a block, a parry, a roll, a few combos, plus some ranged options. There's not much reason to learn a bunch of different combos, however, as there are only a few which are effective, and you'll probably just spam the parry button and counterattack most of the time. It feels like you have an entire Home Depot on your tool belt when whatever you really need is really a hammer and some nails. It isn't unfun, however it does get old, even in the game's limited five-hour runtime. Really, the gameplay shines once you beat the sport for the first time and unlock the kensei mode, that makes it so that everyone except for a few bosses-including Hiroki-die in one hit. That's when the samurai-film rubber meets the street and combat encounters start looking such as the dusty, climactic fight at the end of Yojimbo.
What really holds Yomi's combat back is a sense of inconsistency. The timing on parries and counter attacks felt inconsistent, and. I had been never exactly absolutely clear on how much damage I was doing to an enemy, at least on the standard difficulty. Couple these uncertainties with stilted animations that distract in the visuals, and also you never quite feel like you're standing on solid ground so far as the combat is worried.
The other aspect of Trek to Yomi that does not quite live up to the visuals is its story. Hiroki's tale of redemption, and also the choices that the game asks you to make on the way, never feel entirely earned or warranted. The whole story relies around the proven fact that Hiroki seems like a failure for letting the bandit warlord, Kagerou, destroy his village and get rid of the love of his life. But, without engaging in too many spoilers, I had been never sold that it was Hiroki's fault to begin with. He was just doing what everyone in the village-including the village leader and the lover, Aiko-told him to complete. Sure, likely to element of survivor's guilt that works in Hiroki's story, however the game constantly insists upon make a decision between his love for Aiko and his duty to his village, when Aiko was the one who asked him to do what led to his village's destruction in the first place. Thematically, Trek to Yomi feels forced, and that is not great once the plot is as single-minded because it is.
One of the reasons that Devolver Digital has developed this type of strong following and brand over the last few years, besides its eccentric E3 presentations and Adult Swim method of social networking, is that its games are conceptually driven. But its best releases-Inscryption, Minit, My Friend Pedro, and Heave Ho, among many others-all build their clever and irreverent concepts upon a solid gameplay foundation. Trek to Yomi depends on the concept that a samurai game look just like a samurai movie, however the elements that needs to be foundational feel like secondary concerns. Still, if you are hankering for some samurai action, it might be worth it to take this trek with Hiroki.
