What story does Black Myth: Wukong tell?

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China’s first AAA video game, Black Myth: Wukong, has reached an all-time No 2 record for having the most concurrent players accessing it on US-based digital games platform Steam. The game’s storyline is based on the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West, one of the most famous literary works in China and across Asia. Now, the traditional tale is finding a whole new audience further abroad.

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[MBH_]

China single handedly reviving triple A games 🗿🇨🇳

[RD]

Atleast China is doing well
Game, Culture, Tourism all in one 🎉

[blu_enjoy]

Wukong, genshin impact.. Chinese developers are making great stuff

[phurbasherpa]

For anyone who has not played the game, the story is based 500 years after the journey to the west.

[gerry._.y]

no, the game story line is not rooted from journey to the west. the story is what the developer imagine as the continuation after the event of journey to the west. its an original story. so i think inspired is better than rooted. rooted in my head is more like 'it is the main story'.

[keith]

Wukong, a journey to the west is not a story about journeying to Europe or Western nations, but about journeying to India, a country who influenced China spiritually in a major way

[satpolpp]

Do westerners now realize how DEEP chinese culture is? JtTW is just one of hundreds of chinese classics

[kaigainik]

some western be like *THIS GAME IS BAD BECAUSE IT'S NOT DIVERSE ENOUGH LIKE JOHNNY SOMALI FROM ASSASIN CREED, and you CAN'T CHOOSE YOUR PRONOUNS IN THIS GAME*

[backpackpepelon]

Game soo big its talked on Bloomberg's economic segment.

[marcotanke]

Full lore to be take in consideration:
Level 1: [ 西游记 THE Journey to the west (1592) ] a satire novel based on Chinese mythology, story we all eastern grew up and familiar with.
Level 2: [ 大话西游 A Chinese Odyssey (1995) ] Stephen Chow movie series, the OG subversion work of JTTW with WK crazy romance story, starting point of derivative work of the classic.
Level 3: [ 悟空传 WuKong (2000) ] Web Novel by JinHeZai which inspired by Chow work, a dark re-interpretation of WK life story with a lot conspiracy, was a big hit in Chinese internet at the time.
Level 4: [ 斗战神 Asura (2010) ] MMORPG on Tencent, story highly inspired by the web novel, JinHeZai is the game world view chef designer. And the developer team in Tencent at that time, is the dev team of BMW today. In that sense, Asura can be count as prequal of BMW.

[jeknkyu]

"Black Myth: Wukong" has been generating increasing criticism among Chinese players, particularly regarding its storyline. The game, which draws inspiration from 《Wukong Zhuan》 and some of Stephen Chow's movies, deviates significantly from the original Journey to the West and the traditional story of Sun Wukong. Journey to the West is rooted in the historical journey of Xuanzang, who traveled to India to obtain sacred Buddhist scriptures, with the mythological elements serving to emphasize the perseverance and resilience of the pilgrimage team in overcoming numerous challenges.

However, the game introduces themes of conspiracy, rebellion, and tragic love, which are far removed from the essence of the original tale. This divergence from the traditional narrative has sparked dissatisfaction among many players in mainland China. Additionally, the films and animations referenced in the game's promotional videos bear little connection to the Journey to the West story, further alienating fans of the classic Chinese epic.

[agassig]

After saw China's Black Myth: Wukong, and South Korea's Stellar Blade, I can say that East Asia AAA game direction is moving to a great path.
No woke or "identity politics" agenda.

[st.altair]

First AAA game from China and it already has the 2nd highest concurrent players of all time on Steam. Looking forward to their next games.

[huapianp]

For players who wants to know about 'Journey to the West', there's a TV series version (with english subtitles) of this book.
The game is also inspired by this TV series, since some of the music (such as '云宫迅音') used in the game is from the series.
The story of the game is more like a sequel, which happened after the book/the TV series.

[navinamroh]

Actually not many westren people really know that Anime Dragon ball Goku and story is base on monkey king story inspired.

[galaxy]

It is a little bit challenging to truely understand the meaning if this game if you don't truely understand journey to the west. Its position in Chinese culture is kind of equivalent to the status of Bible in western culture

[RayanBDHK]

This is wonderful! A game that talks about China's ancient history and culture. Not only that, the game is increasing tourism to the mentioned places as well. Just wonderful!

[PokeRayTube]

It's wild to think that when I was a tiny kid I used to watch the show based on this story... All kids in China watched this show and Sun Wu Kong was like a hero to us

[ToiChutGongWu]

Western media be like: “Black Myth Wukong has sold 12 million copies across all platforms. But at what cost?”

[YunaFreya]

The game is absolutely beautiful. Boss fight is epic.