Game Director Marcin Kryszpin on Trek to Yomi

"You [will] be able to write your own story, make your own choices and deal with their consequences afterward."

Trek to Yomi comes out next week; ahead of this time, we were able to (virtually) sit down with Game Director Marcin Kryszpin of Flying Wild Hog to talk all things about the title.

Join us as we talk comparisons, influences, game difficulty and accessibility, Xbox Game Pass and more.

Steve Wright, Stevivor: I think every journalist is guilty of calling Trek to Yomi “an indie Ghost of Tsushima“. How is it similar, and how does it differ? Does the comparison bother you?

Marcin Kryszpin, Game Director: No, not at all. We think Ghost of Tsushima is a great game. That being said, Trek to Yomi and Ghost of Tsushima don’t share that many common denominators. Both games are set in Japan and Ghost of Tsushima also gave the players the possibility of playing the game in black and white but that would be about it in terms of similarities.

Trek to Yomi puts a much bigger emphasis on cinematic elements. We purposefully made design decisions that would place the “old samurai movie”  experience in the first place, but if you fancy fast-paced games with a hint of samurai in them, you’ll definitely enjoy Trek to Yomi.

Stevivor: So, perhaps a comparison to the works of Akira Kurosawa is a better one? Can you speak to his influence on your work?

Kryszpin: It goes without saying that the black and white samurai classics were an essential inspiration for this project. We’re not surprised a lot of people associate this with Kurosawa. To be honest, we find the comparison to be flattering. After all, he was a master at his craft and, by general consensus, is considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

We wanted to encapsulate the cinematic beauty of those movies in our games. At the same time, we wanted to implement something that was inherently ours. The fight scenes from Akira Kurosawa’s movies are basically impossible to replicate, so we had to come up with something of our own.

The director decides what the viewers are going to see in his movie. In Trek To Yomi, the player plays the role of the director. It’s the gamer’s choice how they’re going to deal with assailants and how the story is going to unravel, we just provide them with the means to do so.

Stevivor: In your eyes, how accurate is the work to the Edo period and to the samurai? Do you make allowances/exceptions for characters or your narrative? If so, can you explain the reasons why?

Kryszpin: We put in copious amounts of work to make Trek To Yomi as historically accurate as it can be. We spent hours researching Japanese culture, especially from the Edo period. We binge-watched samurai classics. We even did a deep dive into anime and manga!

We received abundant amounts of help from Aki Tabei Matsunaga – a historian who specializes in the Edo period. She helped immensely with translating and stylizing the dialogues to fit the historical period. She also evaluated the content of our builds, in the form of videos. We would consult literally everything with her: clothing, weapons, historical and cultural matters. We couldn’t for instance use bandit-type enemies because they practically didn’t exist in that time period.  This helps immerse the players.

We also received virtually unlimited support from Zach Huntley and his team at Kakehashi games – especially Yoriko Kuwahara. They made sure our voice-overs were top-notch. Yoriko made sure that our VOs were accurate both linguistically and culturally. Thanks to the team we also managed to get ahold of some amazing voice-over actors.

On top of that, we also did a deep dive into Japanese mythology and demonology. Even though we didn’t find anything that suited our needs directly, our art director, Grzegorz Szczygieł and Leonard Menchiari, together with our concept artists, managed to create concepts that evoked all the emotions in players that we were looking for.

Stevivor: Trek to Yomi has all the good things players are digging right now — combos, counters, stamina metres (and yes I have Elden Ring on the brain). I’m curious if it has accessibility options to open things up to the button mashers amongst us?

Kryszpin: Trek to Yomi isn’t as challenging, combat-wise, as Elden Ring. Our initial focus tests showed that players, who are not that combat-savvy, really enjoyed the style of our game and wanted to delve more into its story. This was the moment when we decided to introduce a few difficult settings. We wanted to make the game more inclusive but also keep the more advanced players entertained.

Just to be clear, Trek to Yomi isn’t 2.5D Dark Souls, we just wanted to make sure that the player feels empowered and satisfied after each encounter. This is because if you explore hard enough, you’ll come across certain discoveries that will make the gameplay much smoother. Still, it’s not about mashing one button, but about “chaining” actions such as combos/parrying/finishers/switching between enemies. That way you can successfully deal with many foes simultaneously. Besides, if you achieve that level of mastery, the fights look amazing!

After you do your first run of the game, you’re given the option of choosing a special mode called Kensei – it’s essentially “one hit one kill”! It doesn’t make the game much harder, but the boss fights become more memorable.

Stevivor: Not wanting to get into financials here, but what does being on Xbox Game Pass mean to you? I imagine getting in front of so many potential players is a big drawcard?

Kryszpin: Keep in mind that Trek to Yomi is a brand new IP. Adding it to Xbox Game Pass gives it incredible exposure. We think this is a great opportunity to acquaint a lot of people with this IP.

Stevivor: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Kryszpin: We really can’t wait for the 5th of May to hear your first reactions! Inside Trek to Yomi, you would be able to write your own story, make your own choices and deal with their consequences afterward. By making this indie title, we aim to fill a remarkable niche and we do believe that everyone will be able to find something special for himself.

Many thanks to Kryszpin for his time.

Trek to Yomi on Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS4 and PS5 from 5 May.

Trek to Yomi 5 May 2022 PC PS4 PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series S & X   Buy on Windows PC via Steam Buy on the Xbox Store