More Anime-bait please

You know by now that I'm an eclectic gamer- I pick up any and everything and don't allow the concept known as 'Genre's to stop me unless they truly are reprehensible- such as the survival game genre. (That concept has only ever thrived as an addendum towards other more complete genre ideas and I will die on that hill.) But recently I have to admit to being blown away by a few of the action games that we have been gifted as of late- a couple in particular, that speak to the scale of big budgets that we except to be realised. It isn't often I have to sit back to take in the insanity of the spectacle, and you can kind of start longing for that sensation after a while. When you don't get it from the grandest TV or the most exciting movie- I guess that's just another way that gaming leapfrog's traditional entertainment.

Black Myth Wukong has been on everyone's lips who gave it the good old shot, and I think that might be because of the blockbuster energy that the game just exudes- not in the tired 'game large for the sake of being big' Ubisoft trite; nor the 'we literally hold our consumers hostage with our entrenched multiplayer systems then brag about the player retention' Activision method; but rather the 'everyone shut up and listen- this game is the one' kind of way. And we've had actually a few games like that this year, funnily enough. It's not perfect and it doesn't do everything, but that it does set out to do it performs exceptionally at- but what take the cake for me with Wukong is the presentation.

From the very first cutscene you know right away that the name of the game is 'taking the action to the limits of extreme' in a manner you only really get out of the most bombastic anime. Wukong and Erlang, themselves inspirations for some of the most iconic anime rivalries out there, literally fly through the air propelled by the the force of their colliding staves- like a Wuxia movie, only with stunts that are animated and therefore don't feel stiff and on wires. The gigantic scale of the Heavenly Kings leering down on the battle are just the cherry atop the cake. And you know what- that isn't even the best that the game has to offer.

Action games that can transfer the energy and excitement into both their gameplay and their storytelling are far and few between- and off the top of my head I can only really think of Devil May Cry from 3 onwards as a definitive comparison. In those hands you get the kind of set-piece moments that hang around in your nogging for months even years after in fond reminiscence- and that is by no means an easy feat to achieve. Particularly in gaming- big set pieces can be so very difficult to make land as well as they did on the paper when first conceived- and maybe it's the years worth of those pretenders and attempters that made me so very unprepared for moments that would send me back to the giggling glee of childhood just like Black Myth is stuffed with.

Another contender has been my time with Final Fantasy XVI which, true to it's recent processors, is full of eye-popping spectacle moments that regularly blow you away as you sit back in sheer awe. This is actually nothing new for Square Enix or Final Fantasy, it seems this style of cinematic excitement has been their go-to since at least the days of Final Fantasy XII if not before. In fact, some describe the style of Final Fantasy as a bit desensitising in their more hyperactive throes- and to that I will say: there were moments during Final Fantasy XIII where I literally did not know what I was looking at one screen. Cluttered designs are no stranger to the halls of the Enix.

But XVI manages to bridge the gap between spectacle and gameplay which we don't always see teased. Even more so than Final Fantasy XV before it. Give us a big Kaiju fight and we'll remember it- let us partake in a Kajiu fight and we will love every second of it! There's something novel and cool about taking control of giant country-side destroying mega-forms for a brief amount of time to really stand-out through an otherwise jam packed adventure story. And even beyond that we get to face up against the very forms of godlike power themselves- playing against the man-versus-goliath visual often. There's even some great main story boss fights against aggressive and spectacular monsters with the kind of attack sets that make you just want to zone out and appreciate the intensity of it all.

I like to call these 'Anime Bait' moments, because they do tend to cater to the standards of excessive maximalism when it comes to action set pieces that Anime champions. A design standard of 'if I can imagine the coolest still frame moments for a conflict, then all I need to do is transition to those moments as smoothly as possible to get cinematic signatures'- and it proposes the kind of thrill-based eccentricity only really successfully catered to by animation. We're talking set-pieces that are all about embodying something primal, from pure crackling energy to effortless weightless grace to dying beauty and birthing monstrosity: these are the moments that memories are made of.

And I want more of them. Yes I do, I love this times. More than any action movie, no matter how expensive the budget- these are the kinds of visuals that speak "big budget blockbuster" to me. The only case in which such features don't tick off my 'possible embezzlement' alarms. 'Anime-bait' may sound vapid, and some times it can totally be, but even in their most infantile and blunt- the best anime astound in the understanding and manipulation of visual art- much more so than any other genre in the medium. Matching that in the 3D realm is that step beyond the pale that video games can trail, and modern AAA games lacking that can of visual excellence just don't sell it to me anymore. So for the next $70 'premium' title I see on the shelves, those are the kind of visuals I'm going to be on the hunt for. Like a true Anime weeb. 

Wukong has style

 

Black myth is one of those games with a Legacy behind it, stretching out years to when an unknown developer put out a gameplay video that no-one could believe was real. A game that told us a great-looking Souls-like Sun Wukong video game created by Chinese developers and backed by no big studios could be real- it was enough to set this school boy alight. Because yes, I still attended School when this game was first teasing ankle back in those forlorn yesteryears. From a Chinese game developer it is almost unthinkable that anything resembling a real game could be made- who could possibly trust the kind of developers who wrote the book on crappy F2P microtransaction hellholes for an audience of addicts? Game Kitchen are apparently the name of these brave exceptions.

You see, even though China is one of those countries that restricts access to outside media for 'decency' reasons- very few actual gamers are held up such paltry provisions. Learning to sneak around the firewall is simply part and parcel for that audience and enjoying the high standards of the best of our industry is as much their right as anyone elses. So it doesn't matter if Dark Souls and God of War would have feasibly been sold in that sector of the world, or if misleading official statistics state that only sub-standard ripoffs and mobile trash thrive in the country- Chinese gamers know what's up and their developers, should they be given the greenlight, have so much to offer the rest of this special space of entertainment. And I like to think 'Black Myth' might open up a few of those doors.

Some weeks ago it finally came to us and Black Myth Wukong shot off like wildfire, selling 8 million in the first week and breaking Steam concurrent play numbers for a single player title- neatly stealing that throne from Baldur's Gate 3. A lot of those sales came right in China itself, demonstrating just how powerful a full-blooded video game can be on an audience ostensibly alien to it's kind- whilst also throwing a bit of a mirror at the rest of the world- why didn't more of us rush to buy this game? I had other expenses that month- what's everyone else's excuse? At the very least I have the game know and can say, though I've yet to finish the thing, that everyone should be playing Black Myth WuKong.

Firstly- it is not a Souls-Like despite what we all initially believed. I've heard it described as close to God of War, but I think there's a bit more RPG freedom in the way you build the playstyle as opposed to God of War. What this game is closet to in that regard would be something like Sekiro- although without the precision gameplay mechanics built into it's very structure and with a surprisingly forgiving slide to it's difficulty scales. Wukong is actually one of the easiest games of this style that I've played- but not in a way that's boring- but in a way that gives you the freedom to explore and experiment with your abilities, gear, spells and transformations without fear of screwing yourself over. Backed with a free reskilling option that fits in this style of game.

Speaking of the game's style I have to say wow- those cutscenes! It's not often that a modern Video game cutscene will blow me away through mere spectacle, but those that manage it join a very exclusive list. The modern Final Fantasies (15,16,7R) and Black Myth and... that's all I can think off from the top of my head. And a great cutscene goes a long way to setting mood and excitement levels, it has to be said! Seeing Wukong flying through the air exchanging staff blows with a mortal enemy or just seeing the incredibly intense introduction to a foreboding boss is just the icing on the cake. Stylish doesn't begin to describe these moments!

As for story I am actually quite taken with this Souls-taught kind of narrative exposition based on small anecdotes recovered from the slain that slowly lay out the story of the various forces that control these chapters of the world. All alongside much more straight forward cutscenes that tell an interesting enough tale on it's own to have me paying attention- although I'll have to dive a bit deeper to see if it's actually interesting all on it's own. There are sparks of something though- which is much more than I would have typically expected from a game like this from a first-time studio. Taking things without the easy-out of being 'pure action' is a testament to true ambition.

But what really sung out to me was the sheer pursuit of artistic excellence which forgoes the typically gross trappings of generalised acceptance. When I weigh up every decision with 'is this what general audiences usually respond to?' I'll only ever come up with a game barely able to compare with anything but Ubisoft slop. There was absolutely no reason for every single chapter finale of Wukong to be presented with a simply gorgeous animated music video exploring the stories of figures of importance throughout that chapter. But it sings of a spirit of artistry implicit with this game.

 

Black Myth/ Phantom blade and the rise of the Chinese virtuosos

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.

Is Black Myth still a king?

 It's been a while, afterall

Black Myth Wukong time, peeps!

Thou shalt Kill, less feuds instill

Thou shalt Steal, as decreed by the freewill

Thou shalt commit adultery, for love thrives in debauchery

Thou shalt speak Untruth, to inspire and seduce

Oh it's that time of year again! Time for the imaginers over at Game Science (we still just calling them that? Nothing else? Okay.) to show just how much we've been missing out on whilst the Chinese side of the gaming world has itself preoccupied with the mobile world. If this is the calibre of product that we could have been receiving on the regular, than I bitterly curse the day Steve Jobs dreamed a computer in his pocket, because the gaming industry has suffered immeasurably for it. Although I suspect that even under alternative circumstances, it takes a special kind of development team to come together, as an Indie, and create fuel a project that looks as good, as consistently, as Black Myth Wukong does. That isn't just your everyday action adventure smash 'em up game, now this has something of a promise to it. And that's the reason that even in this post Cyberpunk world; where the illusion of 'hype culture' has been well and truly cracked upon for all to gawk at, I still get giddy everytime this project darkens my Youtube subscription box.

This video in particular is special, and that's because it's not just a quick stop in to let everyone know the game is very much still in development like last time. Oh no. This trailer serves to announce and show off something which many people could have likely assumed, but it's nice to see it all the same; that Black Myth Wukong will be making its way to the ever fancy new Unreal Engine 5 suite of game engines. Of course it is. This game wowed in terms of scale and graphical fidelity back when it launched, thus it behoves Game Science to stay well and truly ahead of the game Engine wherever possible. (In fact, given some of the logos we see thrown about in this trailer, I wouldn't be surprised if Game Science is currently rocking an unreleased build of UE5 to fiddle around with.) And before you start throwing up the shrugged shoulders and asking yourself why this new engine is worth bragging about; let me give you a few examples why UE5 is a gamechanger.

Firstly, it's important to say that I'm not a game developer. Or at least, not in the sense of heavy coding and certainly not when it comes to familiarity with Unreal Engine, thus I'm not able to wrap my head around every nook and cranny of this new engine. But I have heard all that I can from those that do know what they're talking about a bit more and that gives me a little wiggle room to pull this off methinks. Firstly, Unreal Engine 5 expands greatly on the level of detail which can be contained in a single scene by actual whole orders of magnitude, owning to the way that the engine itself handles loading and deloading textures. Bundles of quality of life features and program bridges allow for development times to be cut in half, and animators have greater freedoms then they ever had before. Or rather they will when the full suite is released, because there's still some elements which UE4 holds over 5. (Although most of the shortcomings can be worked around by porting anyway.) So long story short, Unreal Engine 5 will allow for unnecessary development time to be chaffed off, and for that excess spare time to be funnelled into the increased detail budget available. This is a net positive mood in just about every way.

And it shows. I've watched the trailer a few times now, just thumbing through and actually start to finish, and you can just tell all the ways in which the presentation is upfront and in-your-face for Black Myth. I'm already salivating with those close-up shots of the rocky mountain sides and ancient carved murals that just breath lore and life in their very stones. Some of this level of detail is only possible with the newer engine, and Game Science have shown time and time again that they know exactly how to make these systems sing for them. What hits double points for me, however, is the fact that the majority of this trailer takes place within the snow, and ya'll probably know well my love affair for the colder climates by now. We've only seen clear snow so far, so I can't judge how well they can impart the sense of snow's bitter touch, but they've spared no expense on snow imprints; the shortcut to any gamers heart. Seriously, show a gamer a beach that shows footsteps and you'll have won their undying loyalty and love. Black Myth went so far as to show the shockwave of a move cut a path through the snow. (These guys always got to go the extra step, huh?)

Never has Game Science been excused of leaving gamers wanting with their gameplay presentations, they always make sure to stick as much of everything they can into the margins so that we have plenty to day dream on in the months until the next trailer, but this time in particular it almost seems as though they're trying to overdoes us on content. Wall-to-wall fighting with various show-offs of strategy, monster types and environments, some of which flies by so fast you can only assume their building these walkthroughs specifically to cater to the "10 things you missed" with the yellow circles crowd. Not that I bemoan them, I love the slowly expanding image we're receiving of Game Science's vision, as we gradually close in on exactly what they've been working on all of this time. This time around, for example, we really got a chance to feel the 'answer-response' melee style of your typical souls game combat, feeding into the 'Sekiro' influence the team mentioned all those years past.

Speaking of Sekiro, and the work of FromSoftware in general, would you mind if I geeked out about those enemy designs? Because wow, if you asked me what a Chinese FromSoftware game would look like, I'd be dreaming up something mighty similar to the things we saw in this trailer. From the gangly monkey man to the headless musician and of course, my highlight, the silver Chinese dragon. A lot of these creatures are born from the mythology of Journey to the West as well as Chinese myth in general, that much is clear, but the skill and creativity to take those legends and visualise them in such striking and interesting ways is a testament purely to Game Science's team. And on a personal note, I just die everytime I see the fur textures for this game; that big black red-eyed bear- I just want to reach through the screen and cuddle his little murderous face.

Our Monkey King, Sun Wukong, is shaping up to be quite the protagonist even aside from the wonderous adventure he's going on and the wild monstrosities he's tackling. True to form, the developers have put a lot of work into making his moveset seem nimble and fluid, with the emphasis on stealth from the first trailer and the tricky agility displayed here. One fight in particular showed off a lot of a dodge move designed to be made right in the face of an attack, even to the point where it displays an afterimage of where he would be, which paints this idea of combat being a lot more hair-trigger than your typical Dark Souls. (I wouldn't be surprised if Move cancelling takes a significant presence in this move pool) I'm also excited to see Ruyi Bang get some love here, with the iconic staff-growing being an actual move. (Which reminds me when in Dragon Ball Goku stretched his staff to the Moon in order to dump some bad guys on it) Which leads me to the highlight of the trailer; that scene where Wukong climbs to a perch on Ruyi Bang and then slams it on the Dragon in an explosive finisher move just as the music swells. Was it an artificial moment? A little bit. But was it cool beyond measure? Absolutely!

It may be a bit of a cliché, especially in the wake of certain other games who ruled their pre-marketing cycle through overly impressive trailers, but I'm more than happy to just sit back and wait years until this game is every bit as good as we think it is. I have no problem with checking in every year on what they're doing, seeing everything going to plan and going "Great, see you next year." Because just like someone who's just learning how to love again, I can't have another giant fall on it's face in front of me again. Game Science talk the talk, the appear to walk the walk, now all we have to do is wait and feast on the banquet of beauty these trailer represents. And the offerings are vast. The years may be long, the wait may be torturous, but when the day finally comes for our Journey to the West; it will all be worth it.

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.

Black Myth: Wukong

The Phoenix can fly only when it's feathers are grown

I don't think I'm personally among China's biggest fans these days. And you know what, I bet on some obscure server database somewhere, good in the company of hundreds of thousands others, that feeling is very much mutual. But if I try to focus this blog back to it's original purpose and think of the influences that China has had on the gaming market- no, their practises still stick me off. (Go figure.) The Chinese 'Game Market' has consisted entirely of low-effort online ports of popular worldwide franchises and an absolutely nauseating amount of mobile games that are seeped in microtransactions. Just absolute bottom of the barrel garbage has dominated the gaming industry in one of the most populated countries on Earth, what kind of sick twisted joke is that? And to make things worse, through Tencent they've managed to slowly start spreading their toxic practises to the rest of the world too, most notably for that no-show Diablo Immortal. But what if there was the one game to break the mould, to rewrite the playbook on 'what a game made in China can be' and to actually hold up on the world stage? Well that game exists, ladies and gentlemen, and it's called 'Black Myth: Wukong'.

Hailing out of the Middle Kingdom, 'Black Myth' is a game not within the stable of any of the big Chinese game companies, it doesn't even have Tencent for a publisher, this is a title that is independent with eyes on being AAA in today's market. The team currently working on it, moderately sized at about 40, consists of new comers to game development as well as veterans of Tencent's gaming division, and what they all share seems to be undeniable talent in their respective fields. This trailer, as much as it was a statement of intent, was apparently call for recruitment for any talent out there as they wish to settle into an active development routine, and if what we've seen so far is anything to go by then this team certainly have the vision to drive such a project. What started as perhaps something of an insulated project with big dreams has hit absolute payload in the past week with this footage, and I'm curious if this 'Game Science' team had any idea just what a ripple this would have on the gaming world; although I'm happy that it has.

So what is the footage to this indie game like, how does it's aspirations of shaping up to AAA stand? Shockingly well, as facts would have it. The game looks breathtaking in it's design, concept, movement, cinematography and just the plain tech making it all run. And bare always in mind, reader, that this isn't some highly polished cinematic or a final-look gameplay demo; it's a first look. A proof-of-concept before the actual hard development takes form for the next 2 years, at least. What I'm saying is, this game has no right to look this good. The only other game I can think off which looked this fine at this stage would have to be Cyberpunk 2077, and that was from a game being made by a much bigger team with a huge influx of the industries finest working there. Now to be fair, Wukong doesn't quite match Cyberpunk's fidelity or scale, but it looks just as tantalising fun to get one's hands on, and isn't that what it's all about?

Trying to evaluate all that happens in the footage is hard, as it is about 13 minutes long with extended gameplay footage and even a full-blown trailer at the end. (But I'll do what I can.) Firstly, I must say that it's heartening to finally have one of the most well-known stories in gaming make it to consoles without having to coat it in some sci-fi paint or stick it in an orange jumpsuit. (Sorry 'Enslaved: Odyssey to the West' and 'Dragon Ball', sometimes I just want the original.) This story is set to follow Sun Wukong and his famous 'Journey to the West', although some of the trailer's dialogue, along with the tag on the title 'Black Myth', leads me to believe that this will adopt some sort of 'the untold story behind the tale' vibe to it. The character of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, has been adapted so many times in media that it's hard not to feel an instant connection to him. Of course there's the aforementioned references in 'Monkey', and Goku; but you also have some Easter eggs in games like 'Sleeping Dogs' and even outside of gaming there's the classic show 'Monkey Magic'. (Actual great show)

Straight away it's notable how much the team chose to draw from the, naturally, rich lore of the Monkey King and his many powers. Transformation is a big part of his story and as such we see that it seems to be the basis for the diversity in the fighting system in this game, and maybe even some of the traversal. (As Sun starts off as a cicada.) Sun Wukong famously has 72 transformations that he can adopt at any time, and this seems to have translated into a sort of fluid combat system that borrows it's stances from games like Yakuza. But that isn't the only inspiration. There are crowd control effects from 'God of War', intense one-on-one fights with plenty of dodging from Dark Souls, a split-second parry system that appears similar to Sekiro, and just a bevy of ludicrously fine animations to back all of it up. Seriously, even now I can see the personality from Sun Wukong's fighting style and I positively love it.

Speaking of combat, the enemy design also got a look over in this gameplay and, again, it looks great. There's a definite Souls inspiration from what I've seen so far, not so much in the animal soldiers that comprised the first half of the trailer but certainly the second half. Firstly we see that great shaggy white-haired wolf who looked right out of Bloodborne with his pleasing fur physics, then there were the insectile creatures who literally look like Sewer Centipedes from Dark Souls 3, and even some Lizard soldiers who look- like Man-Serpents. (Obviously.) But then there are the huge monsters that seem reminiscent of Bayonetta or God of War in their scale, or the armoured soldiers of heaven whom I didn't get the best look of but which all looked great on the other side of Sun's Jingu bang.

In fact, this entire trailer looks good. And I'm not just talking about graphical fidelity here. (Although, on that note, it does look graphically great as well.) When adapting a story about an epic adventure, heck, the epic adventure, it behoves one to focus on capturing that spirit of adventure and diversity in location and struggles. And whilst the first half of the trailer showed off an incredibly solid basis for gameplay, the following footage after Wukong gets interrupted by his older self, nails the adventure concept to a T. We see beautiful sweeping shots that all appear to be captured in the one-shot style that the recent God of War popularised, adversity in the pain the Sun appears to be wracked with in the presence of a Yaoguai statue and character development in that we see Wukong as his kingly self, riding his nimbus and taking on the armies of Heaven in a Dynasty-Warrior-style bout that just oozed epic scale. Quite simply, this game looks like a trip. One I desperately want in on.

Game Science have been a little overwhelmed by the way their incredible looking title has blown up all over the world, and the founder, Feng Ji, has been eager to temper expectations. He's already called for people not to take the footage too seriously, as it apparently doesn't represent their best work. (Almost makes it sound like he's flexing on us from another light.) He comments that the water physics aren't done yet, (Didn't even notice it) the frame drop in the fight against the heavenly warriors (Didn't care, scene looked dope) and that the music didn't always fit. (But where it did fit, the effect was magical.) But it's good that the team is remaining humble, they're not going down the Star Citizen route and proclaiming themselves god incapable of making mistakes. What's more, they plan to disappear and get their nose into making this game without feeding into their new found fame, now that's the mark of a studio in it for the craft. Personally, I always love to see an indie game that looks this good hit the world, just as I'm excited to see stories told from culture you don't get exposed to too often. Black Myth: Wukong looks like everything I could possibly want out of a Chinese game, and I didn't even know I wanted a Chinese game. Good luck to the team, and I await any and all updates with bated breath.