Trek To Yomi’s Soundtrack Is Hauntingly Beautiful In This Exclusive Track Reveal

Trek to Yomi doesn’t just look like an authentic samurai game: It happens to sound like one too. Developer Flying Wild Hog recruited composers Cody Matthew Johnson and Yoko Honda to helm the score for the game, with the duo developing a unique sound that incorporates ancient Japanese folklore with the musical culture of Japan.

One such track is Toryanse, which is based on a popular children’s song that can be traced back to Japan’s Edo period. A warning for children to be safe and not to stay out too late at night, Toryanse contains lyrics that caution children not to cross a certain bridge that leads to the other side of the world, or they’ll never return to the land of the living.

Ahead of its release, GameSpot can exclusively reveal the track, which you can listen to below:

“During the Edo period, people believed there to be mystic tunnels connected to the afterlife that were revealed during dawn and twilight,” Johnson and Honda explained. “Toryanse is a warning for children to be safe and not to stay out too late at night. There are some deeper interconnected reason this song appears when it does during Trek To Yomi, but that is for the players to venture forth and find out. Beautiful, evocative, and delicate koto expressions on this track tie closely to the Trek To Yomi heroine Aiko’s purpose and emotions.”

Trek to Yomi’s score features only instruments available during the Edo period–flutes, taiko drums, and kokyu–performed by Gagaku, a traditional Japanese orchestra. As the player fights deeper into Yomi, the music becomes more abstract and atmospheric as the player progresses. The overall goal according to Johnson and Honda was to create a soundtrack that serves as an exploration of Japanese cinema, Japanese music, Edo period culture, and Gagaku.

Trek to Yomi launches on May 5 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. Xbox Game Pass subscribers can also play it from day one, just like Devolver Digital’s other recently-released game Weird West. To see how sharp the game looks, you can check out a lengthy gameplay video of Trek to Yomi in action.

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