The visual novel sells itself as having a focus on suspense and I think it achieves this pretty well. I haven't finished it yet but it's been really cool so far. I like most of the characters and the art is amazing. I'd recommend it, especially when it's on sale.
Huge samurai movie nerd here. When I saw the trailer I just had to buy this game. I am the person this game is targeted at. And did I like it? Yeah mostly. In terms of visual storytelling this is a top notch. The visual effects reminiscing of old samurai movies, the usage of set pieces both static and dynamic to create breathtaking vistas, the character and environmental design and architecture and the story. And hey, your former swordmasters name is Sanjuro and resembles an aged up Toshiro Mifune. It is clearly a very faithful love letter to these movies. The combat fits into this aesthetic with enemies generally not having that much health and the core mechanics surrounding parrying and coutering, lots of blood, pained screams and death. The gameplay however is where the quality takes a pretty big dip. The gameplay consists of exploring fairly linear set pieces with some minor secrets to find. This is overall pretty enjoyable. The fixed camera is awkward at times but by being so it creates really nice scenes which your character traverses. The combat though is pretty clunky. There are certain parts that do not fit together and mechanics were not polished enough to work properly and consistently. Trek to Yomi is an experiment. A short visual experience with unpolished combat but extremely high quality set design. It stays faithful to the legendary directors such as Akira Kurosawa, but it fails to deliver on the interactive action part. I reckon if one day someone uploads a perfect playthrough it mirrors one of these movies. It almost seems like that would be the true purpose of playing and mastering this game, I hope to see that one day. But playing it casually is "merely" pretty enjoyable.
