Trek to Yomi (Review)

© 2022 Flying Wild Hog/Devolver Digital

Every so often an indie game comes along which deserves Triple AAA status. Such a game is Trek to Yomi, a black and white, Kurosawa-style side-scrolling delight which was released this past week.

While Ghost of Tsushima, which ranks among my personal pantheon of Favourite Games of All Time™, has an estate-appoved Kurosawa Mode, it was always too gorgeous a game in colour to render in black and white. Trek to Yomi, on the other hand, is designed from the ground up to make black and white just gorgeous.

I went in with just the launch trailer in my brain and was quickly delighted: it’s simple and beautiful, has only Japanese audio and the loading screen has calligraphy, oh and the game even has the black bars on the screen, a clear homage of aspect ratios of long ago. It feels like a samurai movie and, more importantly, it plays like one.

The game plays out like a classic samurai film, thought with some supernatural and mythological elements,i including a literal descent into the Underworld. Yomi (黄泉), being the land of the dead, with in-game mentions about the story of Izanagi-no-Kami (伊邪那岐神). There’s plenty of lore, delivered via villagers, collectibles and other quite nice, natural methods, as opposed to lore info-dumping.

The part I love about the game most, however, is the camera perspective. This is a side-scrolling game but the viewpoint of the camera which goes from being obvious to almost vouyeristic, with the camera peeking from boats, through slats in a house and giving this sense that the viewer (aka the player) is secretly watching as samurai Hiroki travels the land to solve the mystery of his burned village.

The art in this game is also notable, it’s got an almost choppy ghostly feel to it, like animation but not a traditional style, an almost like a grainy film texture but this just adds to the charm. There is also a number of modes, ranging from a story mode (kabuki) to varying levels of difficulty (including the most difficult which only unlocks once the game ends).

Personally I’m in it for the story and the game is short, but it also doesn’t feel bloated. Despite a linear path, there is the option for collectibles and exploration, which I love. This was definitely a nice way to spend a long weekend and the game itself is £15.99, making it affordable as well as fun.

Trek to Yomi is out now on various consoles. I played the PS4 version on a PS4 Pro, purchased with my own funds.