Video game analysis: “Black Myth: Wukong”
Everyone is familiar with story-driven games, for example, Spider-Man, The Last of Us, and Ghost of Tsushima. But one game that a lot of people know well is the notorious game known as “God of War”. This takes place in Greek mythology and later Norse mythology in “God of War” (2018) and Ragnarok (2022). But their protagonist was not a prominent figure in Greek literature. But there is one character that is considered to be one of the most popular characters in the Chinese Pantheon, although in the story that he was in, he wasn’t the main character, but it did start with his birth. The character that I’m talking about is the infamous Monkey King, Sun Wukong, and the game that he is in is known as “Black Myth: Wukong.”
Background details
“Black Myth: Wukong” was released on August 20, 2024. It was first revealed on August 20, 2020, and multiple trailers were revealed in 2021, 2022, and we got a hands-on preview on the same date of August 20th. Notice how every single trailer has been released on that same date on a consistent basis each year. August 20th is a nod to the legend of Sun Wukong’s birthday. The game is based on the popular story, Journey to the West. Wukong, being one of the major and most popular characters in the story, but not the main character, is important because it starts with his birth.
Story
The story starts with Wukong facing up against Erlang Shen, who is the god of war, as well as the celestial army and the Four Heavenly Kings. This confrontation occurred because he refused a spot in heaven, and therefore, the court attacked his followers. This led to a battle that resulted in the death of Wukong and the splitting of his senses. Years pass, and we come to a time where the character known as “The Destined One,” who is the sixth reincarnation of Wukong, is sent out on his own journey to the west to collect all of his senses and reawaken Wukong. On this journey, he meets unlikely allies and powerful foes that he will need to face off against to collect the senses of Wukong and make him whole again, while also understanding the true meaning of this journey. The story is divided into six chapters, each representing a distinct area of the journey, where you meet different people and encounter various side quests that lead to other storylines within the chapter or across chapters 1-5.
Story: Outcomes
There are 2 outcomes by the end of the story if you choose to go through the game without going to the secret areas in the game through chapters 1-5, it means that you never got to understand the true meaning of the therefore when reaching to the final chapter and defeating the broken shell of the great sage the old monkey puts the headband on your head once more and you are destined to repeat the cycle and hopefully another reincarnation could see what the true meaning of the journey was. But what if you did see the true meaning of the journey and ventured to the other secret locations that are found in Chapters 1-5, and defeated Erlang Shen when you travel to the Great Pagoda to get Wukong’s sixth sense, you will then get the true ending to the game. It signifies the succession of the original Sun Wukong into the destined one, who has gathered all of the six relics that were scattered throughout the chapters, and Wukong, through the destined one, reaches true enlightenment and can finally defy the celestial court and embrace the full potential of his power and destiny.
Combat and abilities
Combat and the world in this game essentially take the liberties of a soulsborne game with its difficulty alongside its abilities and stances, which consist of:
These Abilities and stances help you heavily in combat. Mysticism has things that can enhance your overall combat. For example, immobilize freezes your opponent and makes it so that you can get a good amount of hits off on an enemy or a boss, but it does have a duration and does more damage if you crash it. Alteration is generally abilities that change the type of form that you take. For example, Cloud Step allows you to basically make a mirage and make you invisible, and you can unleash it with an unveiling strike. Strand is an ability that has something to do with the strand that Wukong uses. The thing that I would say that I would see players use at the beginning of their journey to the west is usually Immobilize, Pluck of Many, and Cloud Step. Transformations are different forms that you can use. For example, Azure Dome is a form where you turn into a stone monkey, and you use that to fight enemies, and since this is a form that Wukong would use, you can use Pluck of Many with it and rock solid, as well as Life-Saving Strand. When it comes down to transformation, it usually comes down to what the player likes, which is something that I would say is great for people who like certain transformations. The overall combat is quite simple, and stances amplify this. Each is different. One of the stances for reference is the smash stance. This stance focuses on high damage, heavy attacks, and mobility. Each of these stances has given you a different move for say a seeing through attack. Another that needs to be pointed out as well is the focus points. Focus points are things that are used to perform seeing through attacks, and when maxed out to 4 focus points, can be used for an empowering charged heavy attack that deals a lot of damage to the
Armors/Weapons
Armor is something that is usually needed in most games, and this game is no exception to that rule. The armor in this game is unique, being that some of the armor sets in the game give you different benefits. One example of a set that is really good is something called the Yaksha set. This set gives you one of the biggest damage boosts in the game, but in return for that type of power, you take a lot of damage in return. In games like “God of War”, they have something called the Zeus set that gives a similar effect to this. Weapons in this game mainly consist of staff and spears. A great example of this is the jingubang. The staff is unique because focus points at a certain point start to decay, but in the case of this staff, you don’t have to deal with that problem anymore. Each of these in order to access them they need materials in order to craft and level up materials in order to upgrade. The only set that doesn’t need that is the great sage armor set, which is a set that you get at the end of the game and is something that, once certain players have it on, they never really take it off.
Drinks and curios
Drinks and gourds are one of the most important things in this game because it is your main source of healing and overall how you stay alive when fighting enemies and bosses. But the thing about these is that there is a separate gourd and drink. Gourds, depending on which one you have, give you a certain number of uses before eventually you run out, like the supreme gourd that has a whopping ten uses before running out. Drinks are where each sip is the amount of health that you gain from them. The Jade Dew is a great example. When you fully level this up, this is the drink that you get, and it heals you for 55% of your health back, or the A Thousand Days’ Inebriation, which gives you 60% of your health but impairs your movement for a short duration. I would personally use the Jade Dew just to be safe. There are also things called soaks that can be applied to drinks that give a buff to help you after you heal up. Curios are something that make it easier to fight people and have little buffs like giving a little bit of attack damage or defense, and sometimes having to work together can increase the effect. The one Curio that is really useful is the fragment of the ocean settling pillar which massively extends the duration of the Wukong stance and further increases attack power. This is very useful when you actually get it, because when you do get the Wukong stance, you want to be in it as long as you can. Every Curio has its use, whether we see it at first or not.
Shrines
Shrines are also considered to be an important part of the game because, in a way, it is your main point of transportation to get to different places in the story. The good thing that this does is that if you missed something in a previous chapter or missed something for the true ending or a side quest, you can transport to that location to complete it. There are a lot of shrines and even more bosses that you have to run into, so having shrines to fight these bosses is going to be your saving grace. And even if you don’t have a shrine, this game will be generous and will give you a checkpoint that will disappear after it is used, but will come back. You’ll see something like this in chapter 3, where you have to fight a boss named Yellowbrow. I think this is a great feature for this game because it gives a familiar feel to a “Soulsborne” game like “Elden Ring” with its sites of grace. Also, it’s just really convenient.
Side quests and Gauntlets
There is a good portion of side quests, some of which are required to get the true ending, like getting the secret locations, and some are to complete achievements that you can get for the platinum for the game, such as getting all of the transformations and spirits. A great point of reference is one of the characters that underwent a transformation, known as Ma Tianba. You meet him in chapter one, and you can meet him multiple times throughout the story, but with people like him, he is story locked, so as you go through the story, if you miss him in one of the chapters, you have to restart on new game plus. That’s really the only thing that I don’t like, because how were you supposed to know that this person was supposed to be there? Gauntlets take place after completing the story and starting a new game plus. These are bosses in a certain order that you have to defeat without dying. And you can add to this by adding modifiers to it to add to the difficulty. I like that these are a thing because it really tests your knowledge and skill as a player and rewards you for your efforts.
Opinion/Review
I will honestly have to say that this is one of the best games that I have played in a while, if not ever. This game’s story is so good, and I love that down to the lore of the game; it’s deep, and it really knows its stuff. I’ve played this game multiple times and have invested a lot of time into it overall. It grabs your attention and refuses to let go, and it gives people a challenging game without feeling overwhelmed, like any of the Soulsborne games. With a great story and engaging combat, I would give this game a 10/10. I would heavily recommend this game to anyone who’s looking for a challenge and hoping to spice things up. If you do start this game, then good luck, destined one.