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.)
“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?”
From what I have seen this is pretty much how most Monkey King-based media goes, that it is obviously impossible for the main character to be The Monkey King (nobody is that cool) so instead you are Monkey King Adjacent.Report
Part of why it’s impossible to come up with a Superman game. How do you “level up” Superman? How do you give him hit points?
“Kryptonite!”, you may answer. Every mook on the street ain’t gonna have access to a radioactive $10,000/gram substance. Sure, maybe the level bosses will have access to it. Maybe one or two will have more than a gram.
But it’s tough to come up with an interesting video game concept for Superman.
Batman? Hell, you can give him his entire arsenal (INCLUDING A BATMOBILE) and you can come up with a decent videogame for him.
So I understand not giving you Monkey and not giving you a “Becoming Monkey” storyline.
But that means that this is “Inspired By Journey to the West” featuring cameos of some characters inspired by some of your favorite Journey to the West characters.
Which means that you won’t be a whole lot closer to being familiar with JttW at the end than you were before you played.Report
To pick up the Batman thing, though, I feel like there’s a few ways to describe this with Batman metaphors.
1) it’s like having an Arkham game where the Joker and Poison Ivy and the rest of the crew just show up, no backstory or explanation because Obviously The Audience Already Knows Who These People Are.
2) it’s also like saying “you obviously aren’t good enough to be Batman, also it’s a lot easier to make Batman look good if we write it that way, so the agentic actor controlled by the player will be Robin, neatly explaining why Batman does all this cool stuff while the player can barely walk along a ledge without falling off it.”
3) Batman stories don’t usually have an “ending” either, more just a part where the story stops but we all know that tomorrow something else is going to happen.Report
Last night I dreamt that Juling Shen destroyed Colorado Springs. I watched him kick a Heavenly King through the city and the Heavenly King left a divot miles long and miles wide.
I must have been flying because my vantage point let me look down with Pike’s Peak in the distance.Report
That’s how I know when I’m really into a game, when I have dreams that I’m in the middle of it.Report