Black Myth Wukong is an epic and very good action RPG. Although it’s drawn some comparison to souls games and has some elements, it’s closer to a mix of Nioh and an older style character action game such as Bayonetta or God of War.
Black Myth Wukong sees you play as The Destined One, a young monkey warrior who sets out to recover the relics of Sun Wukong centuries after he was defeated in his last battle. Though through his battles various characters wonder if there’s more to his destiny than it seems.
For those longing for something closer to a character action game when many seem to go the Dark Souls route Black Myth Wukong could fill that niche, although there are a few things holding it back from standing with the legendary action games such as Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry. There are a few oversights in design that can make the game feel cheap at times rather than difficult but fair like most character action games and even souls likes do.
Pros
Immediately upon starting the game, its visual style caught me. It feels like you’re looking at something that’s a cross between an anime and a wuxia film. The environments look great and change up heavily per level and the character designs from The Destined One himself, to the games numerous bosses all look fantastic. The Destined One has various armors that can be unlocked and each of them look great.
On top of the graphics, Black Myth Wukong’s presentation is just great all around. Each time you run into a major boss it feels like you’re about to watch a fight in an anime go down, to the point where during one chapter there was someone narrating your story through song after a major fight. I personally loved the design of every boss with my personal favorite probably being the tiger king.
Each chapter is also followed by a fully animated cutscene which goes into the history of the key characters in that chapter. With some going into how the characters interacted with Wukong in the past. I did enjoy watching how the game’s story played out. Many of the characters you come across have history with Wukong and not all of it is great, but he also has some allies along the way including my personal favorite character, Zhu Bajie who proves to be your most staunch ally and also helps you in combat occasionally. Although he’s also quick to insult you and anyone else you come across.
Of course presentation doesn’t matter much if the game isn’t any fun to play, and thankfully Black Myth Wukong very much is fun. One thing the game does have in common with souls like games is that a stamina bar is present, although it doesn’t quite function the same and isn’t quite as punishing as most attacks don’t drain it quickly and through various upgrades, managing stamina is much easier than it is in some souls likes. Outside the stamina system, the only thing Black Myth Wukong has in common with souls like games is that a bonfire system is present, and the use of potions to restore HP by using various health gourds, each with their own perks. Otherwise I think the similarities end there. The game doesn’t move at the slower and more methodical pace that many souls like games do, nor does it penalize you on death. And while Black Myth Wukong is by no means easy, I don’t think it’s quite as hard as some souls like games are. Also you can truly pause the game without bonfires unlike some souls like games.
The combat system isn’t too complicated but does have a good amount of depth to it. You have your standard light and heavy attacks and a dodge as your primary method of avoiding damage, but where things get shaken up are the focus point system and the 3 different stances at your disposal.
Focus points allow you to augment your heavy attacks. You can either charge them manually or unleash them quickly after building up enough focus with light attacks or dodging enemy attacks at the right time.
Canceling heavy attacks off of light allows for different actions depending on your stance. Your stances, the smash, the pillar and the thrust stance all change your heavy attack and cancels. The smash is pretty straightforward as it’s a basic attack but gets more in depth as you upgrade as it allows you to see through and avoid damage when cancelled off of light attacks at the right time. It’s also the only stance where he can move during the heavy attack which is good for getting the jump on some enemies early. The pillar allows The Destined One to extend his staff and sit atop. It can be used to avoid some enemy attacks all together. With upgrades he can even do things such as heal and it’s also his best option vs multiple enemies as the cancel gives him the ol’ Neo vs Agent Smith army pole move. The thrust, which is my personal favorite gives The Destined One a powerful long range attack and also gives him another dodge option when he cancels.
Each stance has its own uses and using one over the other definitely helped when fighting certain bosses and there were some bosses where I even found myself switching between all 3. These battles which tested how well you knew how to use all 3 were the games most enjoyable fights.
The Destined One also has various powers at his command on top of his attacks and stances. He has abilities such as being able to clone himself, a dodge that turns him briefly invisible, being able to freeze enemies in place as well as being able to transform into some defeated enemies. These enemies range from a single powerful attack to transforming into a boss and gaining their moveset all together.
The transformations take alot of time to recover but they often prove to be an ace in the hole as they can completely turn the tide of a difficult boss battle when activated correctly. There were times where I took out nearly a third of a boss’s lifebar due to a well timed transformation and barely won due to them.
The armor you wear and staff you wield can also augment certain abilities. You’ll unlock various armors throughout the game and thankfully all of them look excellent since it made me not hate having to switch off of one. The armor can range from doing things such as giving you higher resistances to elements or even changing your attributes so you become something of a glass cannon by trading health for a significantly higher damage output.
Another thing that Black Myth Wukong has going for it is high replay value. The game has 81 bosses but many are missable and even more are within the games secret levels, which are about as half as large as the games main levels themselves. You are encouraged to track these down as they contain powerful relics which can be significant help vs certain bosses. The game also features a New Game + which increases the challenge and adds new weapons, options to upgrade your armor and more. So there’s reasons to keep coming back to the game.
Lastly, Black Myth Wukong may have one of the most enjoyable final chapters I’ve played in some time for a game. You get an ability exclusive to that chapter and the boss fights are at their most intense. The first boss in the last chapter felt like it could’ve been a final boss in another game.
Cons
So while I overall enjoyed Black Myth Wukong’s combat system, there are a few flaws. One being that oftentimes it seems enemies, not even bosses, just enemies you run into the field can just plow through your attacks. They really lack impact so you’re just attacking and dodging a lot to build up focus. I understand this being the case for bosses, especially some of the gigantic ones but having regular enemies just seem unaffected by your attacks can get annoying and can sometimes turn things into a dodge fest. Sometimes even heavy attacks won’t really phase them much unless it’s one with high focus.
Speaking of dodging, I do think they made you a bit too reliant on it. Outside of special moves which require mana and have to cool down and the pillar stance with high enough focus in some cases, you lack consistent defensive options outside dodging a lot. Even worse that perfect dodging often doesn’t leave the enemy open and they’ll just catch you with an attack which can lead to you losing all of your built focus if they knock you out of it. Although the cool down can be reduced greatly, the game also doesn’t give you consistent ways to recharge mana unless you have a certain health gourd equipped, and unfortunately that bottle isn’t the best one in the game.
Some other issues are with design oversights in some of the bosses. The most notable being the main villain of chapter 4 as he has some major hitbox issues. The character is a partial demonic insect and The Destined One only aims for his legs mostly. There were multiple times where attacks would straight up whiff on him due to not connecting with his legs. There are other bosses with that issue but it was most prevalent within him due to his overall difficulty as he can inflict multiple status ailments on you and has a 2nd phase that’s very difficult if you hadn’t found certain items on top of the hitbox issue.
Another issue I’ll say is one of the status ailments, poison felt a bit too strong until you can upgrade. There are 4 ailments called the 4 banes, burning, chilled, shocked and poison. Poison drains your health and it will kill you if you don’t get rid of it. Although burning does the same, you can get rid of it quickly by rolling. Poison can only be gotten rid of with special potions or by using the cloud step ability. The potions are pretty sparse however and if you buy all the ones in the shops, they don’t resupply. So if you get poisoned a lot it can be hard to deal with earlier on as well as in chapter 4 of Black Myth Wukong where many enemies use poison quite a lot.
One more problem is that the combat does not give you very good ranged options at all. This is very annoying when you have to deal with either flying enemies or archers. Your only solid ranged option is the heavy attack in thrust stance but, if you don’t have high focus it’s not nearly as effective.
Lastly, the game does lack any kind of map system whatsoever. This isn’t as much of a problem in most chapters but it heavily shines through in chapter 3, and especially chapter 4 as those levels are much larger and in chapter 4’s case, much of the chapter takes place in a lot of caverns which can be easy to get lost in as well as miss things.
Final Thoughts
Despite its flaws, Black Myth Wukong’s positives do far outweigh them and I never felt like they made me want to stop playing the game. Overall it’s a strong action RPG experience for those looking for something a little less souls like and something closer to a character action game. It’s a great first outing from game science and given it’s wild success so far a sequel of some kind seems like a no brainer. With some refinement, follow ups could prove to be something really special.
Black Myth Wukong was reviewed on PlayStation 5 and released on Playstation 5 and PC on the 19th of August and will be coming to Xbox Series X/S soon.
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