Black Myth: Wukong

A new action game for the Next Gen Consoles and PC from Chinese studio Game Science thats a Dark Fantasy take on the myth of Journey to the West:

The Ape-wolf boss looks pretty dope.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on Aug 20th 2020 at 12:54:26 PM

Seem like they gonna do a "full" adapt of the story, there some hints to when Wukong kick heaven asses and the Real/Fake Wukong arc.

Twitter thread with some info about the studio and the game. They're composed of ex-tencent staff who only worked on mobile games before this, and also an MMO inspired by Journey of the West that underperformed and in turn inspired them to make this game. They mainly looked at 3 games for inspiration, Go W (I'm assuming the PS 4 ones), Sekiro, and Monster Hunter World, playing them over and over to study the design and learn from them. The trailer is the result of like 2+ year's work on Unreal Engine 4 with like 30 devs on it.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Aug 20th 2020 at 7:18:52 AM

They apparently did not like how Tencent turned their MMO into something soulless, and started their own studio.

Well shit, already looks better than that Monkey King: Hero is Back game released a while ago.

Really excited to play that cloud level where he’s apparently facing off against an army.

There's some interesting speculation about how the doppelganger plotline is going to be implemented in the game. The trailer seems to imply we are playing as the Six-Eared Macaque given that a much more regal-looking version of Wukong appears to oppose the MC in the trailer. However some are speculating that it's the other way around, and the game is going with some old interpretations that in reality Sun Wukong was the one who was trapped by the Buddha and the Macaque replaced him and ascended to godhood, and we are playing as the original Wukong trying to claw his way back up. So instead of being a straight adaptation of the novel it's a sequel that takes place afterwards.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Aug 20th 2020 at 1:09:15 PM

Ya know reading about the story behind the dev time as well as the condition of the Chinese video game industry really makes the intent behind this game all the more inspiring.

The opportunity to finally make a truly big-ass game centered around Chinese culture & mythology for all around the world to experience & enjoy. Really makes you want to root for this game to be a success.

Looks pretty cool. Everyone knows Goku was the best part of the story, so it's wise to give him the game.

Hope it doesn't fall into Development Hell. I mean, it's an understaffed indie studio in a country whose market and IP environments have been historically hostile to AAA game development.

Seconded. I can't even think of a single triple-AAA title released from a Chinese developer that wasn't a MMO or... anything else, really. And while it's great to hear that the developer is committed to the release of a quality AAA title with little to no micro transactions, I just can't help but feel something's gonna go wrong here; either the reality of developing such an ambitious title catches up to them, the Chinese government intervenes, or the worst-case scenario, everything we saw was merely a cinematic mockup that's barely even playable.

Well the devs have offered a response to the sudden popularity & they appear to be not letting it get to their heads.

https://www.ign.com/articles/black-myth-wukong-developer-response-popularity

Hell they even asked viewers to "forget" the footage, as it doesn't represent their best work.

Given the warm response on the chinese front I hope they will get the manpower and resources they were looking for.

EDIT:

So apparently this source, I think it's a chinese news gaming website, has a report by someone who visited the Game Science studio and they said that a lot of the more cynical takes about the footage not representing the game are incorrect. The game is playable and looks and plays about the same as seen in the footage, with all the actions performed by Wukong in the trailers reproducible. They apparently are not lacking in funding either and mostly just wanted to attract like-minded devs for more manpower.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Aug 21st 2020 at 1:36:51 PM

Good source. The article mentions there was a playable PC demo at Game Science studio that has more content than in the reveal video, and that the main inspiration for Wukong's combat and abilities isn't other soulslike games but the original Journey to the West itself (albeit with modern design in those games as reference), as well as how the studio came to being able to work on this after previously releasing two less successful games, and that other Chinese studios have to go through the same trials while competing with Japanese and Western games.

I could see them upgrading to Unreal engine 5 closer to Launch. Its apparently a very easy engine to work with, even compared to previous versions of the engine.

If they do that, they could probably recreate Wukong Fighting Buddha by making Buddha Planet sized, and actually manage to make it more then a QTE (A badass QTE, but still) fight:

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on Aug 22nd 2020 at 8:45:01 AM

Doesnt punching a big Buddha defeat the purpose of the Buddha in the story? Last I read, dude just wanted the Monkey King to learn some patience and compassion.

Its been Noted by some scholars that Sun Wukong becoming enlightened has been speculated to be symbolic of Indoctrination more then actual understanding, since the Idea of a "Fighting Buddha" is counterinuitive to the idea of Buddha itself.

It more of a presentation of the Buddha dropping 5 mountains on Wukong to seal him away.

I always thinking that Wukong enlightenment is him overcome his own short coming. His problem is that he think he the center of universe and he can do whatever he want. That also the point of the Fake/Real Wukong story, Fake Wukong represented Wukong pre-character development, someone who want the Buddhahood just because he think he deserve it. Even their clothes showed that: the real Wukong wear simple monk clothes while the fake one wear his golden armor he used to wear. Wukong faced his douple symbolize he get over his ego. It also help the group grow closer since Xuanzang also realize his shortcoming in that he always assumed the worst of Wukong (when the fake Wukong attack them, he immediately think i was Wukong despite most monster they faced before can shapeshift).

Edited by BattleRaizer on Aug 23rd 2020 at 1:15:00 AM

Well hell this absolutely looks like it'll be incredibly fun.

And it has a scrappy underdog development story? 100% on board with this.

I haven’t really familiarized myself with the Sun Wukong mythology in years, but man does this look amazing. I can tell even with my relatively limited knowledge of the mythology they’re really putting a lot of effort into bringing him to life.

There's a snippet of the CEO of of game science playing the game offscreen to show that it's playable, most likely running on a PC.

EDIT: The same analyst who made a thread about the history of the studio also did another one here about the game specifically, translating bits and pieces from chinese interviews with the game staff. Some of it is old information but there are some other bits I had not seen before such as:

- It's not important to them whether what they're doing is revolutionary or done before, they're just preoccupied with doing it well and doing something that can satisfy players, and not trying to chase trends.

- The camera specifically was inspired by God of War.

- They have a lot of ambitions for this game, like sequels they want to make afterwards, fight with giant monsters, harder difficulties, executions, etc.

- All the funding for this game was from other stuff the company has worked on. They don't plan on getting alternate funding or anything that would cause them to change their vision for the game.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Aug 25th 2020 at 7:18:41 AM

A look at some 3D renders of some characters in the game.

Some of the environments in the game.

Edited by Dragon_Ranger on Aug 28th 2020 at 3:47:17 AM

Man, those renders of the environments and Models looks great, and really makes me want to see what Game Science can do with Unreal Engine 5, if they are this damn good at using Unreal Engine 4.

Apparently there's an interview from the developer floating around, I can't find it so I can't source it so grain of salt but -

Planned Release is 2 to 3 years from now, the demo was mostly to show it exists.

We probably won't see any more information about this game until its release date announcement, apparently bigger Chinese gaming companies are trying to poach the devs/company/IP after seeing the positive reaction to it. With already such a small team, this could be a death knell to the game, so he wants it to be low profile until it's close to done.

Edited by NaraNumas on Sep 1st 2020 at 2:39:55 PM

smart move, especially considering how fuckin nasty the business side of gaming is in china

I find it ironic that one of those big companies is Tencent itself. Let’s hope things with Game Science go well and they manage to make this game in relative peace.