Saturday Morning Gaming: Black Myth: Wukong first impressions
Journey to the West is a story that I’m only really passingly familiar with. I know that it’s an old story from the 1500s and it’s based on even older stories. The main characters are The Monkey King, a pig guy, and some monk. It’s the job of Monkey and the pig guy to escort the monk to get some stuff? I think? The Monkey King has a cloud that he rides on allowing him to fly from place to place and he’s got a staff that he uses to wallop people and, when it’s not in use, it shrinks to the size of a toothpick and he keeps it behind his ear.
It’s full of adventures and The Monkey King pretty much alienates every other member of the court of heaven and he has to wear a crown that keeps him in line and he eventually becomes a Buddha himself.
If I had to compare it to anything, I’d say that it’s a mix of Herodotus, Ovid, and Star Wars. Absolutely epic and most of the attempts to translate it for North America have failed because so very much happens in the story, any attempt to retell it would leave the overwhelming majority of it behind. You’d have to make twenty or thirty movies to tell the whole story. So my familiarity with it is with stuff like American Born Chinese or Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
So when I heard that there was a new video game based on it, I found myself intrigued and wondering how much homework I’d need to do in order to really get into the game. Like, here’s the opening cutscene:
I’m sure that if I were familiar with the story, I’d not be saying “whoa, cool” but “Holy cow! That’s Xiaotian Quan! AND THAT MEANS THAT ERLANG IS NOT FAR BEHIND!” and, as it is, I’m stuck googling who the characters are. Oh, the dog’s name is Xiaotian Quan, I guess. He’s Erlang‘s dog. And those other guys are big players in the pantheon, I guess. Monkey has pissed off everybody in the Court of Heaven. Nice.”
After the opening part, they have you playing *NOT* The Monkey King but just a run-of-the-mill protagonist whose job it is to collect Monkey’s stuff (and, I guess, become a Monkey King in the process? That’s how *I* would do it, I guess… but, as I said, I’m not familiar with the story).
I’m only about halfway through the first chapter and, so far, I can say that the game is a mix between Elden Ring and God of War (2016). The graphics are unbelievably good, the combat is pretty good (I’m still learning it), and the story is absolutely impenetrable. Like, in the first part where you are actually playing your protagonist, the game shows two wolf yaoguai walking around a path and one finds a peach lying on the ground. “This is my lucky day!”, he says and picks it up and takes a bite… but no! The peach was really our protagonist! Our protagonist switches from peach-form into monkey-form and then you start fighting.
And I’m sure that if I were more familiar with Journey to the West, I could stand up on my couch and yell “I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY PUT THE PEACH THING IN THERE!” instead of “what the heck was that?”
Anyway, I’m only a handful of hours into the game and I know that I’m in love with it. They have little mini bosses scattered around the map for you to fight when you’re ready (or for you to get squashed by if you’re not) and the end-of-the-level boss fights are interesting and give you opportunities to use what you’ve learned from the rest of the level.
If you liked Elden Ring and wish it were more like God of War? Get this game. Get this game *NOW*.
So… what are you playing?
(Featured image is a screen grab from the opening of Black Myth: Wukong. Screenshot taken by the author.)