Journey to the West, but now it's in steampunk. And in the Future!
The Crown of Wu is an action-platformer released by Spanish company Meridiem Games, with a plot loosely based on the Chinese literary classic, Journey to the West - but set in the distant future.
Several millennia after the journey of Tang Sanzhang and his disciples to retrieve the Tripiṭaka, an unknown cataclysm of epic proportions has wiped out all traces of life, both on earth and the heavens. Sun Wukong, the Monkey King who once declared himself the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, awakens from a thousand-year-slumber in the ruins of what used to be the Heavenly Pavilion, now completely devoid of life and overrun by hostile robots. With his Golden Fillet - somehow depicted as a source of power, contradictory to the novel's version - stolen, Sun Wukong must explore the ruins of heavens as he tries locating his precious Crown of Power besides trying to uncover the truth behind what leads to the apocalypse.
"Unravel the mystery behind the stolen crown of Wu..."
- Adaptational Villainy: If there is another adaptation of Journey that portrays Zhu Bajie as a power-hungry villain who betrayed Sun Wukong, stole his Golden Crown and rules the heavens with an iron fist, we'd like to hear about it.
- Asian Lion Dogs: Chinese stone lions appears semi-regularly throughout the ruins of heavens, and some of them can be moved about by Wukong for solving Pressure Plate puzzles.
- Blow You Away: The first ranged attack Sun Wukong obtains have him gathering a concentrated aura of air in his hands and blasting them as projectiles, either to stun enemies or move levers beyond his reach.
- Crosshair Aware: Used by at least three of the bosses, the robot crab, the pagoda's boss, and Bajie, where they'll send projectiles into the air and crosshairs in the arena indicates where they'll land.
- De-power: Owing to being awakened after a over a millenia of dormancy and having his Golden Fillet stolen, Sun Wukong has been Brought Down to Badass where he couldn't jump 108,000 miles with each leap (he can still use a Double Jump though), lost most of his elemental-based powers, and couldn't summon his trusty flying cloud and must traverse most of the stages on foot. Nevertheless, he's still a highly-competent fighter who takes down enemies with his trusty staff.
- Double Jump: One of the few abilities Wukong still has from his past as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, he can jump twice in mid-air to reach higher platforms and cross chasms.
- Gainax Ending: Sun Wukong has defeated Zhu Bajie and regained his Golden Fillet. Upon putting his crown back on, Sun Wukong regains his superpowered form from several millennia ago, and suddenly lets out a bout of Evil Gloating, hinting that he's not as noble a God as he seems and there's far more to the truth behind the apocalypse than the game shows. But then the credits roll before anything else can be revealed.
- Gardening-Variety Weapon: The Final Boss primarily uses a steel rake as his weapon, and can easily shave away chunks of Wukong's health when hit. He's Wukong's former comrade, Zhu Bajie, now on the side of evil after all.
- The Ground Is Lava: The underground cavern has the Ground is Acid variant, where Wukong needs to cross a shallow stream by jumping over platforms. Unlike the heavenly stages where missing a jump leads to a steep drop, here the stream only reaches Wukong's knees, but will still drain his health when he falls in unless he quickly leaps on another platform.
- Hat of Power: The titular Crown refers to Sun Wukong's Golden Fillet, where unlike in the novel which serves as a nullifier to keep Wukong in check, is depicted here as an amplifier of it's wearer's magic powers. Turns out it was stolen by Wukong's ex-comrade, Zhu Bajie, who uses the crown's powers against Wukong in the final battle; after Wukong defeats and kills Bajie the final cutscene shows Wukong putting his Crown back on his head.
- Hidden Villain: The Big Bad who stole Wukong's Golden Fillet, locks him into suspended animation for a millenia and plunges the world into an apocalypse turns out to be Zhu Bajie, Sun Wukong's brother-in-arms in the original novel. His involvement in the plot isn't revealed until the Final Boss battle.
- Hobbling the Giant: One of the bosses is a robotic Giant Crab who can spam projectile attacks at Wukong and runs in circles, and it's only vulnerable when Wukong attacks it's legs (which have their own regenerating Health Meter). Damaging the legs enough makes the robot crab keel over as it exposes it's weak point, allowing Wukong to hit it a few times before it's legs repairs themselves. Rinse and repeat until the weak spot is destroyed.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: To confront Zhu Bajie, Sun Wukong needs to traverse the central Pagoda of Heaven, one level at a time. It's harder than it sounds as the entrance is hidden, and every floor requires Wukong to either jump around (teleporting) platforms, solve puzzles like hitting a circular row of bells in the correct order, avoid detection from robots, and trigger hidden switches to activate exits before he can access the next stage.
- Invincible Minor Minion: The humanoid robot mooks can be damaged by Sun Wukong's attacks, but not the hovering, spherical drone enemies. Luckily they lack attacks of their own (save for knocking him over sometimes), but they tend to block Sun Wukong's access unless they're stunned by his electrical blasts.
- Martial Arts Staff: Sun Wukong's preferred weapon is still his iconic Ruyi jingu bang, the trusty golden staff he uses for pummeling enemies. It lacks the ability to extend to any desired length or morph into other weapons, but gets the job done.
- Platform Hell: Half of the game runs on platforming elements, either over chasms, Bottomless Pits, above the pagoda, or in the underwater cavern where Wukong needs to jump around to cross the stage.
- Pressure Plate: Several areas contain pressure plate-activated exits, which can be triggered by dragging heavy objects (Chinese stone lions, concrete slabs, crates, etc) around and placing them upon the plates.
- Robot Soldier: The footsoldiers and armed forces of the Heavenly Palace turns out to be robots, somehow. But after the apocalypse wipes out all traces of life, the robot troops that remains, upon re-activation, serves as Mecha-Mooks which attacks Sun Wukong on sight.
- Shock and Awe: Sun Wukong's "Thunder" upgrade, one of his former skills he can regain around two-thirds into the game, allowing him to blast electricity from his fists. Surprisingly it doesn't cause damage to enemies' health, only stunning them momentarily, making it one of few instances where lightning-based powers are used for defense.
- Sword Beam: Robots whose blades emits a red aura can launch crescent-shaped projectiles with each swing. The third boss will keep spamming spear beams from it's guandao, unless Wukong stuns it first.
- Temporary Platform: Basically 60% of areas with platforming elements, where hovering stone platforms and bridges will periodically disappear and reappear.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Most of the game is played in third-person, but there are maze levels where Sun Wukong needs to retrieve objects by dragging them from the middle of a labyrinth and towards the nearest exit - where the game then pans upwards into a bird's eye-view of the arena.
- Warmup Boss: The first boss is a slightly stronger version of those common robot soldiers, with a force-field around itself that deflects Wukong's attacks, but otherwise doesn't have any special abilities on it's own. For the boss fight Wukong simply need to hit a bunch of switches to remove the force-field, and then take the boss down like any ordinary mook.
- We Used to Be Friends: Basically the entire Final Boss battle, since Sun Wukong is fighting his former brother-in-arms, Zhu Bajie, who stole the Golden Fillet and took over heaven.
