Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of Chinese legends, is no stranger to the world of video games. He was a recurring character in games such as Monkey Magic, Sonson y Monkey Hero In the 80s and 90s, it is controllable in popular MOBAS such as League of Legends y Smite. His spirit lives in the protagonist of Enslaved and in Goku in all the titles of the saga Dragon Ball. But the case of Black Myth: Wukong is special. This Chinese title came on strong and — thanks in large part to its popularity in its home country — became one of the best-selling and best-reviewed titles of the year. Now that some time has passed since its release and the hype has died down, let’s take a look at whether it’s the wonder they say it is.
Although the game revolves around Sun Wukong, he is not the main character (well, not exactly). After we control the monkey king in a prologue, the story jumps several centuries into the future and the spotlight shifts to ‘The Fated One’. He is one of the warrior monkeys of Mount Huaguo who aims to recover the relics that contain the essence of the legendary character.
Black Myth: Wukong It is an action RPG with elements taken from the ‘soulslike’ (games inspired by the series Souls from FromSoftware) but with enough important differences to not be considered part of that subgenre. It is divided into six chapters and each one takes us to a semi-open map that we can explore in search of objects and bosses to defeat.
Mythic Bosses
Although there are normal enemies in the adventure, it revolves so heavily around bosses that it would not be out of place to describe the game as a ‘boss rush’. There are more than 100 bosses in Black Myth: Wukong and it’s rare to find one of them that isn’t a challenge. The vast majority of them are optional, but it is worth finding and defeating as many as we can not only to level up, but to obtain new items, tools and understand the plot a little more.
The variety of bosses is one of the game’s strong points, but also where we begin to see its problems. Some are repeated and others are “recolored” versions. Even bosses that are radically different visually end up resembling others because of their movements and because they can be defeated with the same strategies as others..
This also makes the pacing feel a little uneven. While chapters like the second give us many routes to follow and there is a moment where we can choose between more than six different bosses to defeat, there are others like the third that put us on a linear path to a single, particularly difficult boss without giving us any further options. There is one particularly annoying section called Pagoda Kingdom that recalls the most frustrating levels in the series. Dark Souls.
Monkey Business
Sun Wukong is one of the characters with the greatest variety of powers in the history of fiction and The Fated One is no slouch. As we progress and defeat bosses we learn many spells and a huge number of transformations into different youkai that give us many different options when it comes to combat… at least while our magic, strength and qi bars last.
Black Myth: Wukong It also inherits from Souls-like games the ability to create builds with equipment combinations that favor certain types of magic, attacks, and playstyles. The problem is that this option only really opens up after the middle of the game, when we find a character that can improve armor and equipment. The approximately 15 hours it takes to get to this point have a fairly linear progression and if we have armor with an effect we like, we are forced to change it when we find another with more defense.
This is a difficult game, very difficult. There are bosses that, when you first encounter them, can take you out in one hit, and errors in judgment and skill during encounters are costly. It requires practice, patience, and strategy, but I still find that there are bosses with such a high difficulty level that they are abusive. I also have to criticize how esoteric the things you have to do to find some of the secret bosses are. I can’t imagine anyone finding them without the help of guides (thankfully, we have some)
What a cute monkey
There is no doubt that This is one of the most graphically impressive games we have ever played.The environments are ultra-realistic and the characters—most of them anthropomorphic animals—look incredible, with excellent animations that are very expressive and natural. The combat movements of The Fated One and the enemies are fluid and some even represent real martial arts techniques.
The realism alone doesn’t impress me, but it blew me away in combination with the fantastic art direction. The art of the Buddhist armor, temples and statues is incredible and very evocative.They also give it a post-apocalyptic touch that fits very well with its brutal difficulty and the tone of the plot.
But such a level of fidelity comes at a price, and the game isn’t fully optimized, at least on PS5. It’s clear that the console struggles a bit to handle its visual quality, and we encountered some slowdowns even in performance mode. I should point out that this didn’t affect gameplay at all, but it could be a little distracting.
To top off the impressive visual style, at the end of each chapter of Black Myth: Wukong We see sequences that summarize key elements of the lore in different animation styles. They are all great, and if you’re not going to play this title, we recommend you look them up on YouTube. They function as short films in their own right.
Following in the footsteps of Sun Wukong
If you haven’t read the novel Journey to the West of Wu Cheng’en or are not familiar with it, they will not understand practically anything about the history of Black Myth: WukongThis game serves as a sequel to that story. It brings back many of its characters, and if we want to understand what they’re doing there or why they act the way they do, we have to know their role in the novel beforehand. It’s possible to understand what’s going on in broad strokes, but the details that make it interesting are completely lost.
The game has many ‘anecdotes’ with legends about the creatures and bosses in the game, but they are so extensive that it is unthinkable to stop the action to read them. If you are interested, it is best to leave some game sessions just for reading them.
Beyond the West
Black Myth: Wukong It’s an impressive game. If you appreciate a good challenge and are interested in Chinese culture, you simply can’t miss it. But that same level of challenge can frustrate many players, and there are some elements of its design that are incomprehensible. Yes, it’s an impressive game, but it’s far from perfect.
This review was made with a digital copy of Black Myth: Wukong for PlayStation 5 provided by Game Science.
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