Trek to Yomi Launches; Beautiful Tribute to Kurosawa [UPDATE: First Reviews]
The day has come for the release of Trek to Yomi, a samurai action game by the Polish studio Flying Wild Hog.
Update: Trek to Yomi reviews
The first reviews of the game have appeared online. On OpenCritic, the game has an average rating of 71%..
Trek to Yomi - sample reviews
- Checkpoint Gaming - 9/10
- WayTooManyGames - 8.5/10
- The Independent - 8/10
- Hardcore Gamer - 4/5
- XboxEra - 7.5/10
- Easy Allies - 7/10
- WhatIfGaming - 7/10
- New Game Network - 68/100
- GamesHub - 3/5
- GameGrin - 6/10
- Twinfinite - 3/5
- The Beta Network - 6/10
Generally the reviewers have very good opinions about the execution and the atmosphere, mixed opinions on combat. Most of the editors liked the mechanics, but some complained about the difficulty level being excessive and frustrating boss fights.
Trek to Yomi launch - highlights
Trek to Yomi, an action game born from the cooperation of Leonarda Menchiari (of Riot: Civil Unrest and The Eternal Castle [Remastered] fame) and Polish studio Flying Wild Hog (creators of, e.g. the three new installments of Shadow Warrior).
Trek to Yomi should be unlocked in digital distribution stores in a few hours.
- The game will be released on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
- The PC version will be sold on Steam.
- The game is also to be available in PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass. It will also be possible to play it on xCloud.
On the occasion of the launch the creators have released a new trailer, available below.
Game's lead designer about Kurosawa inspiration
The distinctive feature of Trek to Yomi is a visual style inspired by black and white samurai films, especially those directed by Akira Kurosawa. On the official PlayStation blog, the game's lead designer Leonard Menchiari explained how the process of creating this aspect of the game went.
Thanks to the cooperation with Flying Wild Hog, the creator didn't have to concentrate so much on the gameplay (the developers took care of appropriate level of refinement) and could devote more attention to the atmosphere and ensuring that the game faithfully recreates the Japanese culture of the Edo period.
Samurai films taught the developers how to render elements like fire and rain in black and white. The creators were also inspired by American productions from the 1920s and 1930s, especially movies starring Buster Keaton. As Menchiari explains, many of these old cinema productions had impressive action scenes that were almost directly transferred to the 2.5D game that is Trek to Yomi.
