aqBlack Myth: Wukong has been in the oven for quite a while now. Its first trailers emerged all the way back in August of 2020, and it’s only recently that we’ve gotten some extended looks at gameplay. We’re being drip-fed more info by the week as we approach its release date. My particular interest was piqued when I heard about the ways they’re differentiating the game from typical Soulslikes. And then, the 2-hour gameplay demonstrations dropped into my feed, compelling me to see how it plays for myself. Here’s a list of things that I can’t wait to do when Black Myth: Wukong releases on August 20th for PC and PS5.
Transforming Into Bosses
One of the most unique aspects setting Black Myth apart from other action RPGs is the boss transformations. Just as Sun Wukong can transform into various creatures in the classic Journey To the West novel, you can turn into certain bosses you defeat in Black Myth: Wukong. It’s not just Wukong’s look that changes, but his entire moveset and style of fighting, as is the case with the beast-man Guangzu and his flaming spear shown in previews. Best of all, we have confirmation that the game features 72 different transformations just like the novel did. Considering the variety and uniqueness of this game’s boss design, we’re excited to get an opportunity to actually play as them through the transformation ability.
Seeing All the Unique Boss Designs
Speaking of bosses, Wukong’s boss designs somehow manage to stand out in the sea of ubiquitous bosses the action RPG genre has produced over the years. We’ve only seen just over 2 hours’ worth of gameplay so far, and already there are dozens of distinctly unique bosses and mini-bosses with their own aesthetic and theme. We’ve seen serpents, stone golems, and giant insect bosses just to name a few. The game boasts around 80 bosses and we still haven’t seen any copy/paste designs yet. Furthermore, the enemy animations are second to none in this game, further complimenting the high effort that must have gone into crafting these bosses.
Fighting the Stunning Variety of Bosses
It’s one thing to admire the enemy, but engaging in combat with them is the real meat and potatoes of the entire experience. Because Black Myth has a more focused playstyle emphasizing dodging, bosses can be designed more intelligently to accommodate the limited fighting style. Take the Guangzu boss as an example, his vertical flipping attack is highly telegraphed and perfectly matched against Wukong’s agile dodging. And of course, you can expect two phases for the majority of the major boss battles, further preventing patterns from getting too stale. Using boss transformations against other bosses is something I can’t wait to try out. I’m a huge Mega Man fan, so the ability to test what kind of boss abilities work against whom is always a treat.
Finally Getting To Feel the Agile Mobility and Dodge Mechanics
Since Black Myth: Wukong completely omits the ability to block, dodging has to feel particularly good. And by all accounts, dodging is indeed one of the stars of the show. Black Myth’s movement is fluid and precise, fully omitting the methodical stop-and-block style exhibited by games like Dark Souls and its successors. The ‘ghosting’ effect where an extra image of Wukong lingers after a successful dodge is a particularly cool touch that spices up the spectacle more. But you can’t just spam dodges all willy-nilly, as there’s a cooldown on dodging after the third quick succession dodge. Just watching Wukong flying about on his staff and dodging attacks has me excited, so I can only imagine how it feels once it’s finally in my control.
Unleashing the Focus Meter After Executing Perfect Dodges
Of course, what would a dodge-heavy action game be without the perfect dodge mechanic? Perfectly dodging an attack requires exact timing, which many playtesters say exists the moment you get attacked. Achieving a perfect dodge rewards you with increased Focus. Your Focus buildup is in the lower right portion of the screen and allows you to do a heavy attack as soon as it fills up. I haven’t had this much fun watching other people engage in boss fights in a very long time, and that’s largely in part because you can constantly gauge how much Focus is building up as the combatant executes perfect dodges. While it may not seem like much at first glance, perfect dodges being tied to the Focus meter balance the difficulty well, making for strategic fights.
Mastering Wukong’s Three Stances
Smash is your basic attack stance, while Pillar allows you to accumulate Focus and initiate a dragoon-like overhead attack. The high-flying overhead attack doesn’t initiate instantly though, since Wukong first extends his 20-foot-tall pole while balancing on it to defend enemy attacks. I simply love the tall stilt defense position the Pillar Stance brings and haven’t seen anything else like it in gaming. There’s also a third stance in the game called Thrust, but I haven’t seen any previews that showed it off yet. At least we still have something to be surprised about when the game finally launches.
Navigating Through the Game’s Linearly Designed Levels
Some of my favorite moments in soulslike games take place within tightly crafted linear levels with strong curated design. While it’s clear that the levels in Black Myth don’t feature as many nooks and crannies and shortcuts as something like Dark Souls 1’s Sen’s Fortress, it clearly does walk in the opposite direction of typical open-world design. Some previews go so far as to call Black Myth a boss rush in disguise. Levels point in a single direction but have secrets, forked paths, and little pockets of open areas for you to do a bit of exploring in. I’m keen to see if there are any examples of densely intricate level design on the level of, say, Demon’s Souls; even if there’s not, I like how none of the levels feel copy/pasted like they do in the first Nioh game.
Parsing Through the Lore Inspired by Literature
Black Myth Wukong carries a rich tapestry of history and culture along with it. Merely saying that Black Myth is inspired by Journey to the West is an understatement since it’s an outright expression of the novel itself. The game doesn’t just do a one-to-one retelling of the novel though, leading many to speculate when the game takes place and if this is indeed the same Sun Wukong featured in the novel. If the six-minute trailer cutscene is anything to go by, Black Myth: Wukong will provide lots of room for theories and provide narrative richness.
Exploring the Mythologically-Infused Environments and Architecture
The developers behind Black Myth really know their stuff when it comes to authentic environmental design. Previews have predominantly shown off a lot of outdoor areas covering a wide range of biomes, from snowy mountain passes to hot sandy rock crags. I can’t wait to see towns with more densely populated buildings and hope we get to enter and explore structures and palaces as shown in the cutscenes and art of the game.
Fine-Tuning My Build Through the Skill Tree
Black Myth: Wukong doesn’t allow the kinds of crazy build varieties seen in, say, Dark Souls, but the skill tree still allows for some interesting combinations nonetheless. For example, would you rather focus on applying passive buffs? Or, are you confident enough in your grasp of the combat to allocate your limited points strictly to upgraded skills, new abilities, and spells? You obtain skill points (called Sparks) through your victories over bosses, and they don’t get lost upon death. Thankfully, you can even re-allocate skill points whenever you like, and the game lets you go into the skill tree menu at any time to make your strategizing a convenient affair. I’m looking forward to the guilt-free experimentation that Black Myth‘s skill tree provides.
Using Spells
I absolutely love how unapologetically direct and awesome spells like Immobilize are in Black Myth. Immobilize is immensely satisfying to pull off as you freeze enemies in the middle of their animation and pummel them with damage for a short time. We’re so used to spells and items merely causing a slow effect, or occasionally a brief sleep, so a full-on stop spell is especially fun to see. Some other spells they’ve shown involve casting fire around yourself, buffing up your damage resistance with literal stone skin, and more. It’s fun speculating what other spells exist in the game based on the novel and I’m looking forward to trying them out myself.
Relishing in the Wealth of Convenience Features
Not to be ‘that’ person, but man is it nice to have a universal pause button in a difficult action RPG. Not only does Black Myth have this, but it doesn’t punish you too much for death either. You lose some of your accumulated Will, which builds up to a single Spark skill point, but once you’ve filled up the Will meter into a Spark, you’ll never lose your skill point. This game looks difficult as is without significant losses upon death irritating things further, and the ability to respec at any point in the game just gives more freedom, allowing the player to focus more on fights and not on recovering your experience.
Collecting and Browsing Through the Journal Info
Black Myth: Wukong doesn’t feature lore-intensive item descriptions like your typical FromSoft game, but it makes up for it in its enemy descriptions. Within the Journal tab of the menu are Minion Portraits, gathered from the various enemies and bosses you’ve encountered. These entries feature hand-drawn illustrations accompanied by a wealth of text outlining their mythological tales and relevance to the Journey to the West novel. The Journal may have other kinds of plot details and logs for other things as well, but the Minion Portrait enemy descriptions alone fill out the lore quite well and are attractive to boot.
Discovering Secret Paths and Bosses
Since Black Myth is decidedly more linear than a typical Souls-like, it’ll be far easier to fully navigate each area to completion. What we’ve seen of Black Myth is encouraging in that aspect, with little secrets off the beaten path such as a hidden boss behind a waterfall and little shortcuts cut off from a forked path. This streamlined approach to levels will inevitably lead to fewer disappointments when we don’t get rewarded for exploring dead ends and areas off the main path (I’m looking at you Shadow of the Erdtree cookbooks). It looks like shortcuts either fork back to the main path or lead to secret bosses and useful items. This streamlined level design should expedite quality game time while cutting content bereft of meaningful rewards.
Watching the Painstakingly Detailed Animations Play Out
Last but not least, we have the animations of Black Myth: Wukong. One look at a trailer or gameplay segment is all it takes to realize just how hard the team went on perfecting every frame of an enemy’s step. What impresses me further is how little the animations obfuscate the dodge-heavy gameplay. Fights are like a dance, with very precise movements and believable, yet sometimes terrifying, movements. It’s especially encouraging that I haven’t noticed any copy/paste animations in any of the bosses shown yet. It’s a sight to behold and I hope it’s even more fun when I’m in the driver’s seat engaging with it myself.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
Share Your Thoughts Below (Always follow our comments policy!)