So we just got through the first day of Summer Game fest and guess what- no Silksong. Are you surprised? I'm not. Also, apparently there were folk out there who had their fingers crossed for Bloodborne remastered- presumably because they are gluttons for disappointment totally in denial of the fact that the PlayStation conference was last week! But perhaps the biggest standouts of the show weren't the lack of new reveals, considering the fact we were already told nothing new would be coming down the pipeline in advance to prepare for the crushing disappointment that is daily life- rather it was the reminder that two absolutely draw dropping games from China are flying towards us at a rapid pace and it has to be said- we're on the verge of a whole new market in AAA gaming blossoming at this rate.
China has, of course, always been a huge market for gaming- some might say the biggest if it weren't for the fact that their government is on a warpath to villainise gaming as the downfall of society. And to be fair their country runs 10 times smoother than mine does so perhaps they're 100% right about that, who am I to judge? But because of the way that China runs it's gaming industry into the ground, the only real games developed out there are the cheap and blatant money sinks and the made-for-China isolated ports of games. Dragon's Dogma Online, Call of Duty China, the PUBG where they don't die but float up into space- Chinese gamers would be forgiven for thinking that all Gaming represents is a home casino machine you waste your money on. Unless they use VPNs to play real games- which nearly every Russian gamer does so I would be shocked if that wasn't common in China too.
As such it is something of a bizarre break from the status quo to have anything high quality and promising originating from Chinese developers celebrating Chinese culture- the intentionally isolationist government policies leave very little room for stuff like that typically. But those talented creatives that slide past the police tape and allow themselves to inspired by the greats, Dark Souls, God of War, etc. They go on to carry those experiences to heart, wanting to take those development lessons and replicate them into something that evokes those same soaring emotions. At least I know that's the rough story behind the game that stole our hearts all those years ago, and is finally coming to us- Black Myth Wukong.
Given that the story of Sun Wukong is one of the most enduring pieces of literature of all time, there seems to be appropriate weight behind the significance of this game as the first major AAA video game from the country- unless we count Gatcha games as AAA and... given how risky of a proposition they tend to be- I do not. (In fact, by the actual definition of AAA, any and all Live Services should inherently disqualify for the title by merit of their chosen genre- but that's a rant for another time.) Wukong oozes scale and beauty and grandeur and creativity at literally every single showcase. I can never get enough of seeing it in action and am almost saddened by the fact it awaits literally on the horizon in a few months. But my thirst to touch what might just be one of the greats of our generation neatly overpowers that feeling.
Phantom Blade Zero is a more recent title that absolutely wowed with it's anime-esque scenario excessive action set-pieces which are apparently just in-engine gameplay. The game looks unbelievably fast and fluid, capturing ridiculous feats of impossible athleticism as demon and sword clash against one another in flashes of Shonen violence. Honestly it reminds me a little bit of Sekiro to watch in action- with that immediate 'answer and response' style gameplay which turns every half-decent bout in a deadly dance of dares and bluffs. Only somehow these animations are even more over-the-top than what Shadows Die Twice was doing. And let me remind you that in Sekiro there is a fight in which you parry lightning and use it to stun an celestial dragon in it's cloud-heaven.
This game's courtesy of yet another Chinese development studio who only have experience working on pretty, but considerably smaller scale 2D-style games before this absolute explosion in 3D animation work. They shot to absolute stardom when this game was revealed about a year back, and whilst Zero hasn't gone quite the rounds in the public eye that Wukong has- and thus I can't quite hitch my wagon to the hype train- I can't deny the fact that literally everything shown has been frankly exceptional just to watch- I hope that frenetic excitement carries even a fraction over to the actual gameplay experience- then we'd have something unreal in our hands.
Perhaps this seemingly random explosion of talent out of China comes from symptoms of strangled ambition bursting out of the cage. Talented developers who go abroad to learn their craft only to be told how little they're allowed to stretch their muscles in their home market- as those reigns sink tighter rogues will end up bursting out of that bubble and trying to strike out on their own, maybe these two companies are examples of those rogues. The first penguins, one might say. And the fact that both these titles appear to be heavily influenced by the work of FromSoftware is yet another ringing endorsement for the work that was slept on by the mainstream for so maddeningly long!
As I've always attested, the wider the pool of artists working in this industry- the better the experiences will be for everyone involved. The richer the stories will be, the more creative the ideas will be, the more competitive the market will become and the higher the overall standards will raise. At this point all we need to do is start getting some superstar Indian developers to form a AAA studio... and make a Souls-like... and then we'd have all the super populated countries funnelling their talents into our beleaguered little industry, maybe bringing some of their base into the hobby too, and hitting an exceptional bar of quality that highlights once more what an absolute festering maggot on taste and goodwill Ubisoft have and always will be.
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