To begin Trek to Yomi, players will experience the world of feudal Japan as the samurai Hiroki. In order to fully understand the story, English-speaking players should leave the subtitles on. If they select the English option in the menu, that will change the menus to English, but the audio is only in Japanese. Accordingly, players may need English subtitles in order to understand Hiroki's story as he embarks on a quest to avenge his fallen samurai through combat and puzzles in Trek to Yomi.
Before beginning the game, players can select their preferred difficulty from three options. Additionally, after completing the game, players will unlock a fourth and max difficulty option. If players begin the game on one difficulty, Medium for instance, and later want to make the game easier or more difficult, they can change their difficulty setting at any time. Resetting the difficulty will return players to their last saved checkpoint. Also before starting their adventure, players may want to use headphones to get the full audio experience. There are some audio clues that will lead players down a certain path that are easier to hear from headphones than a speaker. For instance, an NPC might shout for help from only the left headphone speaker, indicating the player should head left.
Exploring off the main story path is key to finding various upgrades in Trek to Yomi like health or stamina. Regardless of the chosen difficulty, players will not have a map to guide them on their 2D adventure. Players will need to explore thoroughly as they progress if they hope to find everything because they cannot go back to prior areas after completing a level. Additionally, exploring is the best way to find ammo for ranged weapons. Shuriken are the first ranged weapon players will discover. Next, players will uncover a bow and eventually a gun. Each of these weapons can also be upgraded, and the bow and gun are some of the most powerful weapons in the game. Because of their damage output, players should save the limited ammo for their ranged weapons for boss fights.
Trek to Yomi: Beginner Strategies
While most fights will require players to fight using melee or ranged weapons, there are other options for dealing damage to enemies that do not require a samurai duel in Trek to Yomi. Players can look for ways to activate traps to remove their opponents while conserving their ammo and preserving their health. For instance, in the mine shaft players can choose the standard path and fight a group of bandits one on one, or they can take the hidden higher path. From the higher ground, players can sever a rope holding up a pallet, and dropping the pallet will cause it to fall on the bandits and kill most of them instantly.
For the fights that do require close combat, players should be aware that they can back away from their opponents. Countering is one of the more difficult fight mechanics, but it is necessary to survive. If players are struggling to counter attacks, they can instead back away out of range of their attack. This will be particularly useful once players unlock the turnaround slash, which can be upgraded in Trek to Yomi to deal additional damage, and is used when players have their back to an opponent.
Trek to Yomi is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.