Trek to Yomi review for PC, PS5/4, Xbox Series X/One

Trek to Yomi was an unexpected hit for me. I had expectations going in, from trailers and info I had before I started, but Trek to Yomi was much better than I had hoped it would be. My playthrough on normal difficulty took me about 3 1/2 hours, which isn’t very long but there are 3 endings and paths to take that split at about the halfway point. The combat was smooth and flowed well while being just simple enough to find familiarity quickly.

Right out the gate, before you even hit new game, you are introduced to the beautiful art style Trek to Yomi employs. The black and white style in the game is an obvious allusion to the old Kurosawa films and Trek to Yomi pulls it off quite well. The beginning of the game is a little more of a stereotypical setting for what you’d likely expect for the type of story told, but the mid-late game settings are honestly breathtakingly beautiful in black and white. To tell you why would be to spoil a big part of the story, so I’ll abstain, but just know that it’s gorgeous.

The combat employed by Trek to Yomi is pretty simple but flows together very elegantly. Strings of X for light and Y for heavy attacks, comboed with directional input give a robust offering of options while still keeping things simple. I will note that while the combo list is extensive, I found myself often sticking to 2 very specific attacks in most combat encounters. Since stunning enemies allows you to execute them to regain health, I found a hard time wanting to use anything *other* than the two short combos that stunned every time. I think a stamina break functionality rather than a guaranteed stun string would’ve helped a lot to encourage using more variety, but it still felt good and the choice to use a more narrow attack list was entirely of my own volition.

In an attempt to avoid spoilers, I will just say that the story was so very good. Starting, Trek to Yomi’s story had me a little worried that it was going to go down some tropes too heavily given some story points. Luckily, this changed pretty quickly once I got through the second chapter, which takes the story down a pretty sharp turn. The playthrough I finished has me interested in seeing what the other two story paths offer, but at the time of writing, I have not gotten an opportunity to explore those.

All in all, Trek to Yomi is a pretty solid game if a little short. I won’t fault a game for being single-digit hours long, as long as it delivers a good story; Trek to Yomi certainly did. As mentioned prior, the additional story path options potentially take the game up to a good probably 10 hours, assuming all are approximately the same. The challenge offered by completing the game on higher difficulties can also invite a challenge to squeeze a few more hours out, and the combat is fun enough to welcome a playthrough just for difficulties sake.

Note: Devolver Digital provided us with a Trek to Yomi PC code for review purposes.