In my last review where I talked about "Sifu," I mentioned how a PlayStation State of Play got me excited for a smaller game I hadn't heard of. And hey, that's what they do: those State of Play showings rarely have huge games, so you have to look where you can. But a year after first seeing "Sifu" at a State of Play event in February 2021, history repeated itself. February 2022's State of Play gave me my first taste of "Trek to Yomi," a game I initially called "Ghost of 2D-shima." Even with my cheesy jokes, the game really caught my eye: a game that seemed akin to "Ghost of Tsushima" with similar Kurosawa tributes played from a 2.5D perspective? Sounds pretty cool. Oh, and it's a Day One release on Xbox Game Pass? Music to my ears. Unfortunately, we get to the part of the story where history doesn't repeat itself: "Sifu" surprised me and in the end, I got a good game. "Trek to Yomi," on the other hand, was...much less good.
To its credit, "Trek to Yomi" works well as a loving ode to classic Kurosawa films. Stop me if you've heard that before, as we've seen the Kurosawa film style done in the past (once again, the "Ghost of Tsushima" comparison feels apt), but "Trek to Yomi" joins in and certainly looks the part. It's got a beautiful cinematic presentation, with black and white visuals that pop from the jump and never lose their luster. I'd even argue that the visuals do a lot of the heavy lifting, as the overall design is so carefully crafted that it's easy to get lost in them. And while the story is fairly simple, there is some emotional heft to it that makes it rather interesting to follow.
While the game deserves to be commended in those regards, "Trek to Yomi" ultimately checks out as a very frustrating experience. This is mostly because it feels like developer Flying Wild Hog was more interested in making its own interpretation of a Kurosawa film than it was in making a game worth playing. The gameplay is incredibly tiresome and repetitive, with very little that stands out in a unique and interesting way. The levels themselves feel mundane and uninspired, and the combat dulls out and feels clunky very fast. It really says something that the best way for me to enjoy combat was to play the game long enough to earn an upgrade that turned the game into a "press one button to win" kind of thing. There's also a severe lack of enemy variety, which heavily contributes to that tiresome feeling I mentioned earlier, and the puzzle sections that get thrown in late in the game hardly add much because they don’t do enough to be unique. More than anything, I'm honestly surprised to be saying that an "indie" developer pulled a "graphics over gameplay" on us: I thought I'd be saving that for the AAA teams.
Overall, "Trek to Yomi" was quite a disappointment for me. While I was really drawn to it in its early trailers, I have to say it failed to live up to those. As oddly specific (and loaded with bad jokes) as this comparison is gonna be, I see this game as being like food that looks and smells way better than it tastes. Off the sniff? It's "Ghost of 2.5D-shima." Off the bite? It's "Ghost of Dull and Clunky-shima." It's sad, but once again, it feels like the game is more interested in impressing you with its visuals than it is in providing a memorable gameplay experience. It's a decent grab if you have Xbox Game Pass, but otherwise, I'd say it's probably better to skip it. Even its rather cheap selling price of $20 feels a bit too high.
Final rating: 5 out of 10 "Hmm..."