Trek to Yomi tells a new, painful story that takes us to the most traditional Japan, initially making us take on the role of a young samurai student who sees his Sensei die before his eyes full of tears and a desire for revenge. At his side is the master’s daughter, who will remain by her side in the following years until maturity, at the moment when Hiroki will see her fate filled with blood and tears.
The prologue that serves as a tutorial is already sufficient to show us the splendid cinematic cut given to this adventure, which clearly draws inspiration from the genre films of the master Kurosawa and consequently from all those games that are attributable to these works, not least the great Ghost of Tsushima.
The gameplay, however, is something different and is more attributable to an almost two-dimensional action. The “almost” is a must since in Trek To Yomi you move mainly left and right, but most of the evocative settings also offer a depth that encourages exploration. Do you remember old Onimusha? In some ways, Leonard Menchiari’s work reminded us of this.
The protagonist is a young samurai student, Hiroki, who has sworn to defend his village and the people who populate it with everything he has. Unfortunately for his young age, the most terrible threat does not take long to reveal itself and immediately reap the victims dear to him … which obviously we will be careful not to reveal to you. The initial level in which this short prologue is told is a tutorial of about half an hour that with a fluid and exciting narration will teach you the basics of the gameplay of this action-slasher with a high rate of blades, gore and sunsets.
The play structure of Trek to Yomi is classic and tested, with a series of chapters that bring Hiroki ever closer to his goal (and his physical-spiritual growth) with swarms of opponents to block his way and the inevitable “generals” ready to stop him towards the end of each level. Few deviations and almost zero secondary activities, except the search for objects that increase the basic characteristics of the protagonist.
The fights are almost totally focused on the use of the katana. Only occasionally is the use of ranged weapons allowed, the quantity of which, however, is always quite small. Initially we approached the clashes with all the good will to learn the fundamentals and nuances of attacks, parries and dodges that are introduced as they are introduced.
Going forward, however, we realized that the use of some shots (in particular a finisher acquired not too much after the start) was more than enough to overcome all the standard enemies of the game and a good part of the toughest ones .. regardless of their number. This is because at the normal difficulty level their AI is absolutely not noteworthy.
To eliminate almost all of them with a single attack just keep a certain distance, learn their simple patterns, turn with timing in the right direction in case of attacks from both sides and hit with the right timing to not risk anything in 80% of cases. .
100% is not reached due to some annoying (albeit sporadic) delays in responding to commands that have almost always ended with a good slice of Hiroki’s energy cut and consequent waste of expletives. In this regard, it should be noted that some enemies are able to get rid of the protagonist with a couple of well-aimed shots, even if they are bosses or semi-bosses that therefore require a lot of extra attention.
Especially with the latter it is essential to use the parry, which quickly consumes the Stamina, able to unbalance the enemy if done with the right timing and to leave a window open (rather quick to tell the truth) to land some winning blows. We are nowhere near the difficulty levels of a Souls and the most savvy players will not take more than a few minutes to assimilate the tactics of the toughest enemies and pulverize their effectiveness.
Between a few stumbles and the inevitable retries, the end is reached in about 6 or 7 hours but the longevity of Trek to Yomi is increased by three possible endings. Overall the aesthetic impact is much stronger than the playful one but overall the resulting experience is satisfactory.
Unfortunately, the smudges highlighted in the test phase leave a bad taste in the mouth because with more accurate testing and some more balanced game design choices, the final result could have been something really special.
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