Trek to Yomi Review (licht61)
Just to be clear - I’m not here to hype or trash the game. This is a neutral take based on my time with it.
Trek to Yomi is, without exaggeration, one of the most gorgeously directed indie titles I’ve played in recent memory. While I’m not deeply familiar with classic Japanese cinema and can't compare it to Kurosawa or other legends, the direction stands tall on its own - every shot feels purposeful, dramatic, and atmospheric. The Japanese voice acting is good and the overall presentation pulls you into the world effortlessly. It genuinely surprised me how much the game evoked the feeling of a spiritual successor to classic Prince of Persia - not in terms of platforming, but in that same side-scrolling, weighty journey feel.
What I didn’t expect going in were the supernatural elements, which initially intrigued me… until they didn’t.
Let’s get this out of the way: the combat system, which should have been the backbone of the game, simply doesn’t hold up. There seems to be depth, with multiple combos and timing mechanics, but the moment you discover two particular combos that stun enemies on the final hit, the entire system collapses. I spent the whole game spamming those two combo, staggering even bosses and healing off finishers like it was a joke. It baffles me how these glaring balance issues made it past QA. You basically have to self-impose restrictions to get any challenge, which defeats the point of a combat-driven game.
The story didn’t grab me either - especially once it leaned into the paranormal. Instead of going wild with the premise and delivering memorable levels or creative enemy designs, the game slogs through some of its dullest sections right when it should’ve been at its most inspired. Oh, and yes, there are puzzles—of the “rotate three discs to match a symbol” variety. Sigh.
To top it off, the game indulges in one of the most irritating FromSoftware trends: making you run back to bosses after dying. It's not a long run, just a few seconds, but it’s just enough to be annoying and feel unnecessary, especially when you have no enemies, RPG systems and other stuff that kinda works in FromSoftware games in moments like this.
In the end, Trek to Yomi is a visually stunning, five-hour experience that I finished without much frustration - but also without much satisfaction. It looks like a masterpiece. Sounds good too. But at its core, it's a game with fundamentally broken gameplay systems.