Black Myth: Wukong - Official 13 Minutes Gameplay Trailer

Check out this trailer for Black Myth: Wu Kong, a new action adventure RPG based on the Journey to the West mythology!

[MJin]

I really hope this game... makes its journey to the west.

[Singformefriend]

This is how you build hype for a game: show gameplay directly.

[qunlu]

As a Chinese, I want to give you more information about this game. There are only 30 people in this team right now. They have enough funding and they have strong faith to complete the game. However, they still need more talent people to join the team to face those heavy workloads. So, recruiting is the main purpose of releasing this trailer. Be patient, still need more time to wait. But I believe it’s worthy.

If you understand Chinese you will never get over how well written the prose and dialogue is in this game. This is literally the kind of prose that’s written for massive Chinese productions

[obsidianstatue]

for those who aren't familiar with Chinese literature and mythology, The monkey king Sun Wukong is a character in the Chinese novel Journey to the West written in the 16th century, depicting his journey along with his master, and 2 sworn brother's journey to the birthplace of buddhism to ask for the scripture. Goku from dragonball Z is loosely based on him.
Even though Wukong is capable of getting to the destination in one single backflip, but his master insisted on traveling all the way to India on foot, through the long journey they went through trials and tribulation, Wukong eventually grew from a "Yao" (Chinese terminology, similar to "wild/ evil spirits or monster", but Yao is not always evil) to eventually attain Buddhahood with his master and sworn brothers who have their own amazing story.
One of the brother Bajie was previously a Heavenly General, but got drunk in a Heavenly Palace banquet, and tried to get with the Goddess of the Moon, the Jade Emperor banished him to the mortal realm and was accidentally reincarnated into a pig sty, turning him into a pig man.

Wukong is capable of transforming into any object, animal or person or monster. shown in the game it seems like he can turn into any enemy that he defeated. he also have habit of shrinking things and storing them in his ears. other abilities like cloud surfing, golden invencible body, and mirror image grown from his hair is all shown.
Such a great looking game, and the gameplay seems very smooth, the monster design is otherworldly, oh and the end score is just pure childhood memory.

[bogeyslugs]

My dad used to tell me bedtime stories when I was a kid. One of his favorites to tell, which soon became my favorite to hear, was Wu Kong - The Monkey King.
My dad just died in July. So Youtube couldn't have recommended this at a better time.
It honestly hits a lot harder now. Love you Papa <3

[DisconnectHack]

To people that are confused about the ending.
The character showed up in the end was the actual Monkey King.
If you are slightest familiar with "Journey to the West", I bet you are confused how can there be two Monkey Kings?

Well here is a possible theory and some backgrounds. The answer lies in the story the studio is trying to tell which may be lost in the translation of the trailer.
At the end of "Journey to the West"all the four main characters obtained Buddha status, or some form of godhood. In doing so, they must abandon their corporal carcasses.

The story of the game picks up after this. From the dialogue of the NPCs you can see, they recognize the resemblance of the player controlled monkey with the legendary Monkey King, Sun WuKong. They keep saying, "you really look like him!" or "another monkey", which means they either have heard or seen him before.

So, it is possible, the main character that is the player through out the game, is the mortal flesh which the King abandoned in obtaining his godhood. Since WuKong the Monkey King was born from the sky and earth through a sentient stone, this mortal carcass he left behind retained a lot of life, also the sins during his mortal life. Hence, the name of the game "Black Myth".

After all, what greater enemy is there if not oneself?!

PS: last four characters out of eight of the trailer, literally says “revisit the journey to the west”, which implies the original journey to the west was completed.(This paragraph has been pointed out by many Chinese viewers as incorrect. The last remark of 8 Chinese characters is referring to a past regret the leading dev has with his former employer Tencent)

PPS: There is a humongous volume of contemporary Chinese literature debating which monkey (The Stone Monkey or the Six Eared Macaque) made it to the west at the end. Currently the theory that Sun WuKong made it to the west is winning simply because of one piece of evidence.

In the original novel, Yama the king of death plane stroke the name Sun WuKong off of his ledger after being threatened to be eliminated from existence by Sun WuKong himself. This cannot be undone, which means, Sun Wukong is hardwired incapable of death. Even the Buddha himself cannot restore the ledger of death. But, in the chapter where two "Monkey Kings" fought, one of them did die. This means the Six Eared Macaque was the one killed.

[sammyflinders]

I'm 3 hours into the game now and it's actually incredible how accurate the quality represented here in this initial trailer has remained intact in the finished product 4 years later.

Well done Game Science, take a bow. 🎉

[TheSuerer]

The abilities of the Monkey king and the story of "Journey to the West" are common sense for average Chinese, but I can see how it may sound strange to ppl from a different culture. Just want to list some of the main abilities of the Monkey King from the original story, not sure how much will be shown in the game:
1. Transform into 72 different forms.
2. His weapon is "如意金箍棒“, shown as the gold characters on the weapon in the game play. It was originally the pillar of the ocean, and the Monkey King forcefully took it from the dragon king of the ocean. It can change size as he wish. So normally when he is not fighting, he make it needle-sized and hide it inside his ear.
3. He s also known for the ability to pull, blow his own hair, and turn them into his clones to help with the fight.
4. He can travel very long distance instantly on "筋斗云“ which is a special cloud that pretty much function as his personal jet. :)
5. He also has "火眼金睛“ which is an ability that he obtained when he was trapped in the Alchemy furnace in the god's realm. The ability enables him to recognize other transformed/disguised creatures/demons in their original forms. But what shown in the game was likely the story before he obtained the ability. Also it may not be needed for the game play.
6. "金钢之躯" which translate to iron body. He is immune to common metal weapons and regular fire.
7. His spirit can also go out of his body. In the story, when they are in an dangerous environment, he sometimes leave his body with the group to protect his master, but his spirit will travel far away to get help. Again, not sure if this will be shown in the game since the story seemed to be before the actual Journey to the West, also it may not be something needed for the game play.
8. Also common magic spells and superpower that Western super heroes have, such as enormous power, fly, freeze the enemy, moving things in the air, spit fire, ect. He is pretty much the ultimate superhero in ancient China.
I am sure this is not a complete list of his abilities. That is why this game gonna be so exciting! I am so hyped! Hopefully they will pull it through and make the game available next year or the year after!

[Ber]

The developers actually showed so many hidden references from Journey to the West in this trailer! This might be confusing to the viewers who is not familiar with the story but I believe when a Chinese kid saw this... omg
1. beside the one of 72 transformation (the golden cicada) in 2:26, Sun Wukong's another iconic ability to freeze enemy. There is a golden Chinese character "定“ which means freeze when he used it.
2. 4:06 that he puts the new weapon in his ear which is another ability that Wukong can shrink almost everything and he always stored them in his ear.
3. The short old potato headed man with long wooden crutch in 4:46 is a classical appearance of earth deities in Chinese myth. They will typically pop up with a smoke around the temple in the mountain areas.
4. More interestingly the developers used the earth deity's words to mock Tencent: "The temple caught on a big fire though I heard they rebuilt it, but if one's heart was burnt to ash what's the meaning of recovering that temple?" Many talented developers joined that big company with a dream eventually ended up making garbage. The pure profit driven/capitalized operation of these companies in gaming industry in China burned out the passion of both Chinese players and the developers. If the core of gaming industry was destroyed what's the meaning of how much money u make?
5. 8:55 for sure a lot of people know Naruto as many other J anime you can find tons of inspiration from Journey to the West. Another Sun Wukong's iconic ability which he uses his own hairs to create clones.
6. 10:46 as many ppl already said when those 5 Chinese characters showed up (如意金箍棒), u know who is the real boss. The one u controlled previously in the game is probably the 6 eared macaque who can imitate anything he saw.
7. 11:01 looks like the Thunderclap Monastery and 11:05 is probably the Flaming Mountains which are two of famous chapters in the book.
8. 11:11 Sun Wukong's headache may comes from Tight-Fillet Spell. Guanyin Bodhisattva put a crown on his head and taught Tang Sanzang the spell that can shrink it, so he can use it to control Sun Wukong when he is not obeying certain rules.
9. 11:36 Some very famous characters from the book: Immortals of Tiger, Golden Winged Great Peng and those 4 Heavenly Kings with their iconic weapons.
10. 11:53 the most famous chapter of both TV show and the book for many Chinese kids. Havoc in Haven !! 100k vs 1 and he always wins!!
11. 12:30 the music in countless of Chinese ppl's childhood memories from the TV series in 1986

[dachuiwang]

At the end of the boss fight, the five chinese characters lit up one by
one on the real monkey king's weapon are “如意金箍棒RuYiJinGuBang”, the name of the weapon. Bluntly translated，“the stick with golden edges that can transform as will”, but in a poewetic choice of words in chinese. It can shrink and grow according to Sun Wukong's will, shorter or longer, thinner or thicker. When Wukong has no need of using it, he would simply hide it in his ear hole. This can explain the confusion of some people who are not familiar with the original story, when he pulled the weapon "out of his brain" in the footage lol. I'm thrilled to see that they present the ear hiding weapon in the game exactly according to the original story, just like what they do to the monkey's classic tricks such as “the 72 forms of changes, ” “the monkey hairs doppelgangers”and"the traveling cloud". The original story The Journey To The West, the weapon RuYiJinGuBang (known as the monkey king bar in English)of Sun Wukong has many other names. All these names have no translated version. To my opinion, simple "Monkey King Bar"cannot show the divinity and myth of the weapon. One of the names is “定海神针DingHaiShenZhen” which means “the giant sacred pillar that stabilize the ocean”. Actually the stick is originally not a weapon, but a giant pillar stuck into the ocean to seal the enormous energy of the sea so it would remain calm and peaceful. Before the monkey take on the journey, before he is punished by the Buhda RuLai, when he was still rebellious and wild.The monkey headed to "LongGong" the palace of Long in the ocean to "borrow"(rob actually) a weapon. "LongWang" lord of the ocean offered him all the finest blades hammers and lances. But the monkey waved each of them in his hand and said:"all too light, not heavy enough". Then he fixed his eye one the giant pillar that connect the bottom and the surface of the sea.He held it in both arms and pulled it out said“this one feels just heavy enough for me. I think I'll take it!”. And the pillar itself felt his owner of destiny and shrank to the normal size of a weapon with its new name on it "如意金箍棒(RuYiJinGuBang)", the exact five words shown on the weapon in the end of the trailer when the real monkey king shows up.Since it's an ancient artifact to stabilize the ocean, it enrages LongWang and many other gods that it was taken away by the monkey. By the way, no matter what size the weapon is, whether it's hidden in the ear or it is the size of a normal weapon, its weight remains still to the weight of the giant sacred ocean pillar.

[congbo]

0:19 Dazu stone carvings in Chongqing
0:30 Guanyin Pavilion, dule temple, Tianjin
0:37 chenen temple, Fanjing Mountain, Guizhou Province
0:59 Chongqing Dazu shiqianshou Guanyin
1:20 Maijishan Grottoes in Gansu
10:02 Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in Yunnan Province
10:29 Shaanxi waterway nunnery 500 Luohan Temple Fair
These scenes are adapted from reality

[SoymilkPapi]

As a Chinese person, it makes me so happy to see Chinese companies make Chinese products instead of trying to make something Western, there is so much mythology and culture to make games and movies from!!!

[jk]

Me 13 minutes ago - Did not know this game existed
Now - My most anticipated upcoming game

[sophiareuter]

Explained: This trailer is not even asking you to buy the game, but to join their dev team since they lack manpower

[lucasgoncalves]

Four years later, finally released and is an absolute masterpiece.

[curtycurt]

Me: What is this?
Me 13 minutes later: WHAT IS THIS!!!!

[karimferraz]

Whoever is that guy palying behind the controller... He makes every fight look cinematic

[tomsantos]

Holy crap. This came out of nowhere and said "I am now the most important thing to you"

[myself]

12:20 When you realise your PC cant handle it