New Black Myth trailer?!

 Oh, you're too good to us!

So I'd say its very clear at this present moment that although the world is currently down the pooper; Black Myth Wukong is the one bright spot of our future. The one bridge uniting the Eastern and Western world, the saviour of mankind as we know it, and we all expect nothing but great things out of it. No pressure. But seriously, Black Myth does mark another decided turn in the direction of what Chinese Video gamers want, as opposed to what they are supposed to have wanted for all these years. It looks, honestly, quite astonishing, and when the makers of the game ask for time and patience to get everything right I think we're all for giving it to them, because this is the sort of game that hushes the room when it struts it's stuff. Thus, with the new trailer I was certainly interested to take a look, even though there are some odd contextualisations hanging over the game now due to recent events entirely out of these people's control. But I'll work my way around to that in due time. For now; that trailer.

So Chinese New Year is upon us, and if you travel the Internet circles I do you'll have been assaulted by the fact that this is, in fact, the year of the OX. (Which is the same as my birth year, incidentally) Celebrations are always fun to take part in as everyone comes to it with the sort of vigour and thematic excitement that we just don't get in New Years around the more mundane parts of the world. Over here it's more like a resigned toast to having put up with another year, idly wondering how many more of these you'll have to sit through until your long suffering is cut short with the welcome embrace of death. So both celebrations have more or less the same energy but I think Chinese New Year just sort of squeezes out a tad more jubilance. Point in case, the developers of Black Myth apparently put together this whole beautiful trailer just to celebrate it. (Isn't that fun?)

Firstly, again, the game just looks positively gorgeous, both on terms of graphical fidelity and design. One might call either one of these points into question given how this is meant to be an indie game, how could it look as good as AAA titles? But I would hasten to remind those folk that tech has become a lot more available over the years to anyone with the skill to mould with it, and that the Neir games exist. They were made by a smaller studio that was just given the appropriate time and had the right talent there to get everything done. These sorts of stories can happen. Still, I must say that, as someone who loves to see different styles in my games, I'm totally enamoured by the creatures we've seen in both footage reveals. The rat monsters that seem to almost resemble Master Splinter in their laboured gait, yet fly across the battlefield with the grace of martial dancers are particular favourites from this footage.

But even the world shines with such curiosity and ingenuity that I simply ache to get the chance to explore it. The whole thing looks so curiously desolate and yet seeped in story, intention and culture that I want to paw through each location, absorb their atmosphere and learn how they each connect to and with one another. Honestly, and trust me when I say that I loathe to make this comparison but I really mean it, it reminds me of the medieval/fantastical stylings of a Dark Souls world. (Now bear with me!) The ceremonial and desert-like temples that we see from this trailer in particular actually remind me of Archdragon Peak, with this aura of religious ceremony and sacred import imbued from the very stones. That and the animal people- I suppose they sort of coincide with the Serpent Men, huh?

What really just blows me away time and time again whenever I see Black Myth, however, is the way how they handle the natural elements. They are perhaps the most basic building blocks for creating effects that any game can work with, yet they are often the hardest to make look right. (Given to how closely they relate to that which we see everyday.) Yet as I see some intimidating rat wield a staff of lighting, and see it's crackles and tendrils strike wildly at the surfaces around it; I have to admit it looks great. As though these developers have really got a handle of the lighting, behaviour and general look of something so fiddly off-the-bat. There's also that little shot in the duststorm in which the obscured becomes illuminated by what looks to be ready fire archers, showcasing an understanding of great shot composition and scene planning, if nothing else. And then there was the procedural fire spreading across some beats fur from the first trailer. All this just oozes a level of detail that modern games mostly aren't interested in anymore, and I love it.

I also, surprise surprise, love what I've seen of the combat, as it looks genuinely robust and fit to make a great gameplay experience. We already know that the team looked to God of War and Souls games for inspiration, and it really shows with the weighty man-on-man combat alongside the parries and special moves. But there's also some unique flair there that seems to contain unique and limitless potential if its achieved to the degree these trailers seem to be promising. And I'm of course talking about the transformation system. Sun Wukong, in the legends, is know for being able to transform into 72 different earthly forms; and that is something that these developers want to represent in the game. In the first trailer we saw Sun become a creature wielding a fiery weapon, complete with a full moveset to compliment it, and in this trailer we see him become a row of ranged rat monsters, and a hulking gross arrow-proof abomination. Now I'm pretty sure there won't be quite as many as 72 of these transformations, but considering how the last trailer showcased that his transformation had a complete moveset, I have to wonder if that'll pass on to all the transformations in the game. Because if that's the case, we could be looking at one of the most fluid and evolving combat systems ever put to game. (Assuming they can achieve it.)

Of course, this all hits just the little bit differently then it did the last time we saw Black Myth's footage, now doesn't it? Because now we're living in this age where 'too good to be true' can certainly mean that someone is straight lying to us. As much as I want to believe in what Game Science have put together, I can't help but be that slightest bit sceptical in the very back of my mind. What if it's all just another performative art piece like Cyberpunk turned out to heavily be. And I know; "boo, he's talking about the Cyber game again!", but I'm not sugercoating things when I say that was a title which has changed the gaming world in a manner that I'm fairly certain the team were not intending. This paranoia doesn't seem so conspiratorial given what we've seen about us, honestly it seems like the logical reaction. All that being said, I desperately want Game Science to be everything they say that they are, because wouldn't that just be the greatest launching off point for the Chinese game's market?

'Black Myth: Wukong' sits at a very interesting point in the evolution of it's home countries gaming sensibilities. These first two 2021 months saw the rise of yet another non-mobile RPG Chinese game on the Steam charts, and the release of Steam in China. (Albeit in a predictably limited capacity, makes since: HuniePop 2 did just come out) We could be looking at China's very first properly AAA title in the works here, and that just puts the pressure ever more on the team to get this right. As such, I won't be scrutinising them quite as much going forward in whatever updates they choose to provide for this 2023 game, because, quite frankly, I'm on the cheering side. I want Chinese DNA to enter the creative gaming zeitgeist, because if 'Black Myth: Wukong' tells us anything whatsoever, it's that there's a lot of really cool ideas and designs we'd be missing out on otherwise.