In August 2020, the new Chinese studio Game Science announced its first independent game, which turned many heads with its presentation. Black Myth: Wukong is a souls-like game based on Chinese mythology and the work “Journey to the West.”
Finally, the game has been released, we’ve had a great time playing it, and we can say that it is a fantastic souls-lite game… for a first attempt by a new studio.
Monkey Takes on Dark Souls
Let’s clarify something before we proceed. This is, in most cases, a Souls-like game. If you don’t like Souls games, you probably won’t like this one either. Although it has mechanics that make it easier/harder than the average game from FromSoftware, Black Myth: Wukong is a tough game. Expect plenty of fights, many bosses, and even more dying.
Just like in FromSoftware’s games, the story is secondary. You play as a humanoid monkey with the nickname “The Destined One,” and the story unfolds sometime after the events of “Journey to the West.” Your task is to traverse several levels (biomes), defeat mini-bosses and main bosses, and collect their sacred relics while honing your skills.
Fortunately, Black Myth: Wukong is more than just another Souls game. What gives the game its greatest identity is Chinese culture. The environment, locations, customs, enemies, manner of speech, music, and various religious beliefs make our journey through this game truly unforgettable, even after a few setbacks. Just as The Witcher 3 taught us about Lubberkins and Drowners, Black Myth: Wukong teaches us about Yaoguai and Lingxuzi.
What you’ll be doing most in Black Myth: Wukong is, of course, fighting. Let me be clear: the combat is quite good. At first, the game feels reminiscent of Dark Souls or Elden Ring. You have lock-on, light and heavy attacks, challenging boss fights, and when you die, you’ll return to the last checkpoint. During battles, you can heal with your magical flask (which you can upgrade), and you can invest experience points into improving your character.
Here, the similarities end, and Wukong reveals its original ideas. For starters, blocking and parrying are almost non-existent. Get used to dodging all attacks. In fact, you’ll need to master perfect dodging, as it helps you gain focus points.
Black Myth: Wukong Gameplay Screenshots
You can also earn focus points by dealing damage. These points are used to perform stronger (heavy) attacks. The goal is to dodge and strike enemies effectively, eventually executing a powerful heavy attack where you spend focus points for maximum damage. There are even different combat styles that modify your heavy attacks (similar to Devil May Cry or Bayonetta), allowing you to execute these powerful strikes in various ways. And yes, you can switch styles during combat.
Regarding your arsenal, Black Myth: Wukong features a rather primitive system. You only have a staff, which you can upgrade for better performance whenever possible, provided you find a recipe for an upgrade. The same applies to your armor. Unlike Souls games, you can craft potions at checkpoints as long as you have enough ingredients collected along the way. Additionally, when you die (which will happen frequently), you don’t lose anything. You simply respawn at the nearest checkpoint and continue from there.
You also have access to a variety of additional spells. As long as you have enough mana, you can freeze enemies, turn into a spirit, or even create a bunch of clones that will fight alongside you (similar to Naruto). The most intriguing spell for us was the ability to transform into certain mini-bosses you’ve defeated. Not only do you gain their attacks and abilities, but also their health bar. This has saved us quite a few times.
Although it’s very fun to beat enemies with your staff, we have to admit it took some time to get used to dodging. It felt like the game was playing a cutscene every time we tried to move the monkey sideways. Often, we took damage instead of dodging an attack, even when we were sure we had dodged correctly. Fortunately, we got used to it after a while and navigated through the game smoothly, for the most part…
A few significant shortcomings
If we wanted to forgive Black Myth: Wukong for its shortcomings because of its impressive graphics and introduction to Chinese culture, I would be lying if I said the game is perfect. In fact, the game has quite a few flaws, mainly concerning its gameplay mechanics.
Firstly, the game is very challenging, even by Souls standards. If you struggle with a particular boss, you can freely adjust your talent points, but it ultimately boils down to the old “GIT GUD” strategy. The game lacks online features and doesn’t allow you to summon NPC helpers, so you have to face all the bosses on your own. It doesn’t help that some bosses have enormous health bars while they can deplete yours with just a few hits. Fortunately, all of this can be addressed with practice (and, of course, after a lot of dying).
Another issue that caught us off guard was the presence of invisible walls. Wukong is filled with these invisible barriers, which can disrupt your immersion. While you might appreciate not falling off a cliff, it’s frustrating when you can’t jump onto a nearby stone platform. This would be somewhat acceptable if the game didn’t sometimes arbitrarily change its rules. There was one boss fight where we battled on a narrow bridge against an enemy who could push us off (resulting in instant death). We, of course, couldn’t push him off the bridge, nor could we lure him away, as an invisible wall prevented us from doing so.
However, the biggest problem in Black Myth: Wukong is navigation. Since the developers were inspired by Dark Souls, they decided not to include a map, and this is definitely the game’s most significant issue. While FromSoftware games have very memorable and distinctive locations, Wukong lacks this quality. In fact, it’s very easy to get lost and wander through vast areas, forests, and mountains where everything looks the same. Although the path is fairly linear, many chests, secrets, and hidden locations might be missed simply because it’s so difficult to orient yourself. We only realized later that we had missed a new piece of armor and an upgrade for our flask by the time we reached the third chapter. In a game where you have to fight large bosses with massive health bars on your own, any help is appreciated, and a map would have been extremely useful.
Feast for the eyes
We don’t think we’re exaggerating when we say that Black Myth: Wukong is one of the most beautiful games we’ve ever played on the PS5. Game Science, using Unreal Engine 5, has created stunning (and sometimes confusing) forests, deserts, overgrown temples, and their inhabitants.
In addition to humanoid monkeys, the game is highly inclusive. You’ll encounter humanoid bears, rats, snakes, foxes, wolves, badgers, and yaoguai. While there are a few humans in the game, they are definitely in the minority. Still, it’s nice to see our own species included in a story about humanoid animals! Best of all, not all characters are enemies. Some will attack you, some will trade with you, and some will give you quests and rewards.
Although the story can be a bit challenging to follow, there are many memorable characters and scenes. At the end of each chapter, you’ll receive a cutscene (in animated style) that provides a brief introduction to the next antagonist. Our favorite was the headless bard in the second chapter, who, despite lacking a head, sings beautifully in Chinese.
The PS5 version of Black Myth: Wukong performs excellently. For this review, we played in performance mode, and although the framerate occasionally dropped, we had a very smooth experience with no crashes.