Quick answer: Trek to Yomi is a five-hour black and white samurai story that looks like a lost Kurosawa film and plays like a fairly basic side-scrolling brawler. Critics landed around 71, players lower at 6.3. At $19.99, often far less, the presentation alone justifies it. Two things to know before buying: it was day one on Xbox Game Pass, so check there first, and the Switch version scored 64 and is the one to avoid.
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
Some games are worth playing for one reason. This is one of them, and the reason is how it looks.
Trek to Yomi is shot entirely in black and white, in fixed camera compositions, with 35mm grain over the top and scratched film artefacts marking the edges of combat arenas. It is a direct homage to the samurai cinema of Akira Kurosawa, and on that count it is genuinely remarkable. Everything you actually do inside those frames is a good deal less remarkable, and whether that's a problem depends entirely on what you want from five hours.
What the scores say, and the unusual bit
| Version | Released | Metacritic | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xbox Series X/S | 5 May 2022 | 72 | Day one on Game Pass. Figures between 72 and 75 have been reported |
| PC | 5 May 2022 | 71 | Best place to see the art direction properly |
| PlayStation 5 | 5 May 2022 | 69 | Also on PS4 |
| Nintendo Switch | 30 Jan 2023 | 64 | Avoid. Blurry, long loads, characters too small to read in handheld |
| Players, all platforms | — | 6.3 / 10 | That last row is the interesting one. Across nearly every mid-budget game we've looked at, players score higher than critics. Here it's reversed. Critics, who review for a living and are well placed to appreciate deliberate cinematography, rated the presentation highly. Players, who were buying an action game, found the action thin and said so. |
Individual reviews split hard. Forbes gave it 9 out of 10 and PCMag made it an Editors' Choice. GameSpot gave it 5, Game Informer headlined its review "Slog Through The Afterlife", and IGN landed at 6.7. The divide is almost perfectly along one line: how much the look is worth to you. We saw a similar disagreement, running the other way, in our Terminator: Resistance review.
The presentation really is the point
This was the vision of Leonard Menchiari, an independent creator, built with Polish studio Flying Wild Hog and published by Devolver Digital. That matters, because it explains why the thing feels authored rather than assembled.
The camera is fixed and composed shot by shot, the way a film is staged, with foreground and background layered against each other. Whole sequences play out in silhouette. The audio is deliberately analogue. Even the edges of a combat arena are marked by scratches on the film rather than an invisible wall or a UI prompt. Very few games commit this completely to a single idea.
And the presentation is also the problem
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
Fixed cinematic framing and readable combat pull in opposite directions. The camera regularly pulls back to make a beautiful wide shot, which shrinks Hiroki and his attackers to the point where you cannot read a wind-up. Foreground objects, a tree or a stand of grass, drift between you and the fight. In a game built on parry timing, where there is deliberately very little signposting, that is a real cost.
This is exactly why the Switch version falls apart. Shrink those compositions to a handheld screen, add a softer resolution and a monochrome palette where everything already blends together, and reviewers reported genuinely straining to pick out characters. Nintendo Life gave it 6, and several outlets concluded plainly that if you can play it anywhere else, you should.
The combat, honestly
Light and heavy attacks chain into combos, with parries, dodges and blocks, plus unlockable ranged tools including a bow, shuriken and eventually a cannon. On paper that's a decent kit.
In practice the parry window is generous enough that most encounters resolve into parry, counter, repeat, and the ranged weapons mostly make an already easy fight easier. Swings lack weight. If you have played Ghost of Tsushima, the contrast is unflattering, and we put that game's scale in context in our measured open world comparison.
It does improve. By the final act, with the full combo list unlocked and enemies arriving in groups, stamina management becomes a genuine pressure. That is roughly four hours in, which is most of the game. Start on a higher difficulty if you have played action games before, because the default setting flatters you badly.
Five hours, and more than one ending
Original illustration created for IGGG Guides.
Tracked playtimes put the main story at about five hours, six with the collectibles, and roughly twelve and a half to see everything. The director said openly that it was never meant to be a big game and was designed to run about five hours.
The gap between five and twelve is the branching. Hiroki's choices lead to different endings, and the reviewers who logged ten hours or more were replaying for those. The draft version of this complaint, that the story is thin, misses that the thinness is partly a function of only seeing one path. It is still not a deep story, and the romance subplot in particular is underwritten, but the structure is doing more than one playthrough reveals.
Buy, wait or skip
| You are | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A fan of Kurosawa or samurai cinema | Buy | Nothing else in games has committed to this look so completely |
| On Game Pass | Check first | It launched there day one. Catalogues rotate, so verify, but don't pay before looking |
| Wanting a short, finished game | Buy on sale | Five hours, no live service, no store, no filler. It has dropped to around $4 |
| Here for the swordplay | Skip | Combat is the weakest part and never really recovers |
| Only have a Switch | Skip | 64 on Metacritic. The one version where the art direction is actively damaged |
| An experienced action player | Buy, but raise the difficulty | Default is far too forgiving to show the combat at its best |
Where to get it, and what the studio did next
It's $19.99 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch, with a download of roughly 4 to 8 GB depending on platform, so it won't cost you an evening of bandwidth. Discounts run deep and often, down to about four dollars at the low end. Check Xbox Game Pass before buying anything, since it launched there on day one.
As for Flying Wild Hog: in February 2024 the studio became the first Embracer-owned developer to unionise, joining the Polish Gamedev Workers Union alongside CD Projekt and 11 bit, and that same month it cut around 30 staff. In June 2025 it was sold out of Embracer to Supernova Capital. It is now co-developing Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis with Crystal Dynamics and Amazon Games, a remake of the 1996 original, due 12 February 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and Switch 2. Embracer's restructuring is the backdrop to all of it, and we covered what that did to the wider industry in why big budget games stopped being fun.
Verdict
Recommended as a short film you hold a controller for, not as an action game. The cinematography is exceptional and completely committed, and the five-hour length means it never wears out its single idea. The combat is shallow, the camera that makes it beautiful also makes it hard to read, and the story is slighter than its themes deserve. Play it on PC or Xbox, not Switch, and turn the difficulty up. Assessed across platform versions as of the current builds.
Frequently asked questions
How long is Trek to Yomi?
About five hours for the main story, six if you collect everything on one run, and roughly twelve and a half to see all content including the alternative endings. The director intended it to be around five hours.
Which version should I buy?
PC or Xbox Series, both around 71 to 72 on Metacritic. PS5 sits at 69. Avoid the Nintendo Switch port at 64, where the resolution and small on-screen characters undermine the one thing the game does best.
Is it on Game Pass?
It launched day one on Xbox Game Pass in May 2022. Subscription catalogues rotate, so check the current listing, but look there before paying for it.
Is the combat any good?
It's the weakest part. Combos exist and stamina management matters late on, but the parry window is forgiving enough that most fights resolve the same way. Raising the difficulty from the start helps considerably.
Does it have multiple endings?
Yes. Choices through the story lead to different conclusions, which is why completion times run to around twelve hours against a five-hour first playthrough.
Who actually made it?
It is credited to independent creator Leonard Menchiari together with Polish studio Flying Wild Hog, published by Devolver Digital. Crediting the studio alone understates how much of it was one person's vision.
Is there a sequel?
No, and none is announced. Flying Wild Hog is now co-developing Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis with Crystal Dynamics, due February 2027.
Where to go next
- Terminator: Resistance, where critics and players reached opposite conclusions
- Chernobylite, another small studio leading with atmosphere over mechanics
- F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch, another side-scroller where the version you buy changes the score
- Saints Row, and what happens when a studio's last game underperforms
- How big open world maps really are
- Why a five-hour game can beat a hundred-hour one
- Browse more Action and Adventure guides
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