Black Myth: Wukong
Developer: Game Science
Publisher: Game Science
Platforms: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
For many people when it comes to a video game being developed and published out of China the first thing they’ll think of is likely a gacha title as a certain company has grown quite famous through the years with its multiple efforts. When it comes to Chinese stories though, many will likely think of The Journey to the West in one way or perhaps Romance of the Three Kingdoms though the former has stretched far beyond its roots and encouraged countless inspirations that take elements of Sun Wukong’s story and make it their own, be it through a game, manga, tv series, and even films. These different stories all came from other countries, however, and now this time with Game Science we have a Chinese developer telling a tale so steeped in The Journey to the West with Black Myth: Wukong that those unfamiliar with elements of the book may miss out on some aspects. Filled to the brim with lore and designed to be a challenging action RPG, has Game Science managed to make their own mark on Sun Wukong’s legend?
Story
Long before the events of the game, Sun Wukong rebelled against the Celestial Court, and the irreverent Monkey King was unstoppable, easily overpowering anything that came his way. That is until his sudden defeat at the hands of the Court that results with him being sealed within Mount Huaguo. Centuries pass as the monkey men that reside on the mountain occasionally send out warriors to try and recover the relics of the Monkey King to revive him. One such monkey finds himself eventually named the Destined One as he begins his trip through the mountain, finding that not only is the Destined One capable of wielding the same spells, albeit far weaker, that Sun Wukong was able to at will and managing to use an extendable staff just like the legendary Monkey King.
With exceptional combat skills and a growing array of abilities, the Destined One’s quest to revive Sun Wukong is steeped in lore and richly engaging. Game Science has taken the classic tale of Journey to the West and infused it with its own twist on the narrative. Players familiar with the book, or with the various adaptations it has inspired, will likely catch the countless references and direct nods to Chinese mythology that appear throughout the game’s six chapters. It also helps that each of the six chapters have their own side-story and theme that is bookended by a beautiful cutscene that is portrayed differently every time.
This extra side-story and the amount of hidden content that players can find by doing simple side-objectives or interactions really helps expand the game’s storyline beyond just that of the Destined One, since he is completely lacking as a lead character that never speaks, instead putting the weight of storytelling on other characters or enemy lore summaries. It often goes into extensive detail about the events that led to the area that players just traveled through being the way it is or more background details surrounding the characters or bosses that they’ve fought and can offer useful rewards as well. Along these same lines, every single enemy type in the game, of which there are quite a few, has their own multi-paragraph detail and illustration to go along with it, with bosses and mini-bosses given even more detail than minor enemies.
This extra content helps expand the world and also provide important context for even those that are unfamiliar with The Journey to the West. In fact, as we mentioned before, knowledge of the book will help players understand certain character’s motivations and how some have been twisted in this new and unique telling but even those who haven’t read the story will still be able to enjoy the game’s storyline nonetheless. It is also worth noting that players should definitely do some searching around once they’ve completed the game the first time through, especially if they want to find some new content waiting for them both in terms of gameplay as well as story.
Gameplay
Much of the talk leading up to Black Myth: Wukong‘s release was about what type of game it actually was as many were saying it might be a soulslike despite the developer saying otherwise and it is easy to tell where the similarities might be seen but at its core the game is actually an action RPG that is at its best when players are taking on the countless bosses, mini-bosses, and secret bosses scattered across the game’s six chapters. The resemblances to a “soulslike” lay with the fact that the Destined One will activate shrines that serve as respawn points, a healing gourd that has limited uses that replenishes when resting at a shrine while also respawning generic enemies, and challenging boss fights with no difficulty options available all while dealing with a stamina bar. Everything else is entirely different in ways both good and bad.
The Destined One will fight with a wide variety of staffs that work in the exact same fashion as Wukong’s legendary extending and shrinking Ruyi Jingu Bang with every weapon (players will obtain numerous staffs and upgrades to these throughout the game) shrinking to store in his hair during exploration or even extend into a wider harder hitting attack to close out large combo strings or during heavy attacks. Combat itself is fairly simple at its core, players will use light attack combos that generate Focus with every hit that can then be banked to unleash powerful heavy attacks or add additional damage to certain skills. Players can even hold heavy attack to bank more Focus into it and deal substantial damage and stagger to an enemy, making it highly useful for foes or chaining a heavy attack into the end of a light combo attack if possible, though players will likely need to get a few upgrades to pull this off regularly. It is also worth noting that there is no actual block button in any way here, players (with a skill) can deflect incoming projectiles and use a spell learned later in the game to parry to avoid damage but otherwise they’ll be having to dodge to avoid any damage.
As players defeat enemies they obtain experience points that will help them obtain “Sparks” that can be spent in a number of skill trees with more unlocking as players progress through the game. Thankfully, Sparks can be reset at any time with no punishment meaning players can freely try out their abilities and styles to find what fits best for them or for specific bosses. These skill trees often unlock extra attacks, increase the Destined One’s stat, make it so dodges no longer break up the light combo, add additional Focus slots with enough upgrades into specific trees, and even three different fighting stances to choose from that each have their own combat skills assigned to them. This allows for a high level of customization and experimentation that doesn’t even touch upon spells and transformations yet.
Throughout the various chapters, usually whenever players defeat a boss of some kind, they’ll obtain a new spell or transformation, both of which have cooldown timers and use their own meter with spells requiring mana to cast. These spells range from helpful abilities like being able to freeze enemies in space to either land some devastating hits to them, dodge out of the way of their incoming blow, or get some distance to heal, turning to mist to land surprise attacks while leaving a mirage behind, or even creating clones of yourself to all deal extra damage to enemies and draw their attacks. Transformations are an entirely different thing as the Destined One can transform into certain previously defeated mini-bosses and assume their movesets at the same time. This transformation practically serves as a free life as players gain a fresh health bar that is only diminished when hit or using that form’s special skills only to revert back to their original self and status when it ends. There are even “special” attacks that can be used from other mini-bosses that come in the form of spirits. This opens up a lot of possibilities during combat and makes players pick and choose between their favorites while also factoring in what an enemy boss might be weak against at the same time, giving Black Myth: Wukong’s combat surprising depth beyond simple melee combos.
That being said, the only time players will actually have to put their skills to the test is during these types of boss encounters as otherwise nearly every other enemy is a push over. The level design in the game feels surprisingly limited and so does enemy placement. Players will travel through these locations, encountering scatterings of smaller foes that can be defeated in a solid half-combo and some slightly tougher ones that may take a full combo to defeat but even these don’t respawn. Along the way they’ll find that there is a shockingly high level of invisible walls to these levels. Yes, there are secrets to find and side-quests to complete here and there, but most of these are barely off the beaten path and a large number of locations that make it look like players can travel to will simply be walled off with an invisible barrier despite it being obvious players should be able to get through. It doesn’t help that there is shockingly no mini-map or even a map of any kind, though a small glimmer will appear whenever players are quite close to a new Shrine. This makes the level designs often feel more frustrating and empty than they should for an action RPG, instead making most locations feel more like boss rushes than anything else.
Thankfully the bosses themselves are often on the completely other side of the spectrum here as they are completely lavish affairs complete with introduction sequences and elaborate attack patterns that make almost every encounter feel like a labor of love from the developer in an effort to crush the player into the dirt. Every chapter will feature a variety of bosses throughout them with smaller bosses often leading into grander boss encounters before culminating in a massively over-the-top encounter to close things out. Sure, there are a few that aren’t quite as impressive as others, but using your abilities to the best all while fighting against an absolutely brutal boss with an incredible presentation feels amazing once they are finally defeated. It also helps that despite the large number of bosses throughout the game, it doesn’t feel like any of them are copies of one another, they each deliver a unique combat experience meant for players to overcome through brain and brawn. That being said, some of these boss encounters do have some problems and one of them that is almost always the case is the camera.
Since a large number of bosses are large scale enemies the camera can struggle with the enemy’s size while locked on and this is exacerbated by some of these bosses having some incredibly strange hit and hurt boxes. There are times players may feel like they’ve safely cleared the area of an attack or dodged out of the way only to find themselves taking massive damage or, in some cases, simply thrown flying while taking no damage at all oddly enough while some foes can have massive AoE attacks that, should the player be stuck near a wall, are impossible to avoid by simply dodging and require the use of a limited spell to avoid. Along these same lines, attacks that should clearly have dealt damage to an enemy boss can occasionally do nothing at all, apparently missing despite landing cleanly from the way things look. This can partially be attributed to input lag as well, which is another unfortunate problem the PlayStation 5 version of the game seems to suffer from even under the best of circumstances during large scale boss fights.
Audio & Visuals
Let’s be clear here, Black Myth: Wukong is an incredibly gorgeous game. Everything from the hair on the Destined One’s hair to the way combat flows smoothly when players are unleashing combo strings on standard foes or taking advantage of a staggered boss and the wonderful looking stages players will travel through as they take down boss after boss. The stylization of the game’s lore presentation in cutscenes and enemy descriptions is lovingly thematic and steeped in Chinese aesthetic all while the enemies players encounter are just as wonderfully designed looking and varied as ever, making sure to keep players entertained with every chapter. This isn’t even touching upon the game’s bosses that tend to take things to the next level when it comes to their design and arenas, making sure to make nearly every fight stand out in some way.
As for the voice work, the English dub works quite well for the characters that players come across and it is nice to note that there are even special lines for transforming into a subordinate of a boss and fighting them in that form, triggering unique dialogue is always a fun thing, especially during these types of fights. The soundtrack also features a wonderful collection of fitting music that matches the Chinese aesthetic perfectly, in fact a lot of the music used during the cutscenes that bookend each chapter is hauntingly beautiful.
Overall
Black Myth: Wukong takes the classic Journey to the West and successfully manages to put its own spin on things while delivering a very solid and impressive looking action RPG. It does often feel more like a boss rush than anything else, which isn’t a bad thing by any means, but some annoyingly placed invisible walls betray the game’s gorgeous design and lackluster standard foes make the boss encounters the only, albeit incredibly bright, shining moments of the title. Thankfully with a vast array of combat and upgrade options available for the player to take advantage of, challenging these difficult bosses is a frustratingly great time, making Black Myth: Wukong an impressive albeit flaw
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