GAMES
A homage to the classic samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, this 2D action game doesn’t half look the part… but how does it play?
It’d be easy to call this the indie Ghost Of Tsushima, as it’s yet another Western developer’s take on the samurai revenge game… albeit scaled down to a mostly 2D plane in a brisk campaign, rather than getting bogged down with open-world production values. But Trek To Yomi is arguably more faithful to its inspirations.
While Ghost had an optional Kurosawa mode, this game fully commits to the aesthetic: it’s all presented in super-widescreen black and white with grainy film filters, while the voice-acting is exclusively in Japanese with English subtitles.
As a lower-budget affair, the character faces and models aren’t as refined, with some noticeable jank in animations. Maybe that’s why the action is often framed from a distance, but the striking monochrome look and use of silhouettes do give the game’s ultra-violence some artistic flair. The environments also have a breathtaking sense of scale, even if much of that is a harrowing sight of carnage involving razed villages and the howls of the survivors.
But as a game that’s primarily about action – you play as samurai Hiroki cutting down bandits and demons alike – it’s a shame the combat doesn’t really hold up. It starts off just a bit too basic, and th
