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Black Myth: Wukong’s latest Unreal Engine 5 gameplay trailer dropped today, and the 13-minute footage provides a lot of new details on what fans can expect from Game Science’s upcoming Chinese action RPG.
The game will boast a 7th-century setting, and draw heavily from Chinese mythology, especially from the classical novel Journey to the West which was authored in the 16th-century.
Today’s Black Myth: Wukong gameplay trailer which was uploaded on IGN’s official channel is the third reveal from the developers with the first one coming out in August 2020, and the second one was in February this year.
Though the previous trailers showcased a significant part of Black Myth: Wukong’s gameplay, the one that came out today provided even more information on the narrative structure and some additional combat mechanics via two separate boss battles.
Here are some of the new things players learned from the new Black Myth: Wukong Unreal Engine 5 gameplay test trailer.
5 new things in the Black Myth: Wukong trailer
1) Players will not be playing as Sun Wukong
As Black Myth: Wukong draws heavily from the classical Chinese text of Journey to the West, it was a common notion among fans that the game will revolve around the novel’s protagonist Sun Wukong. However, with today’s trailer and the narrative that we get in the prologue, new information has surfaced that the game’s main character is not the same as that of the novel.
In Black Myth: Wukong players will play as a monkey, however, the events take place after Wukong’s “journey to the west” where the players will be piloting the protagonist to attempt a similar feat.
2) Black Myth: Wukong looks breathtaking in Unreal Engine 5
Earlier this year, Game Science switched development for Black Myth: Wukong from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, with technical support from Epic Games. Today’s trailer was the first glimpse that fans were able to get of the game in the new engine, and running on 4k 60 FPS.
The 13-minute trailer had some of the most breathtaking visuals and incredible cinematic quality, making it one of the most anticipated games for the latter half of 2022 or early 2023.
There is a lot of detail in world design, and the gameplay looks incredibly smooth with a Sekiro-esque feel to the combat.
Black Myth: Wukong will support NVIDIA’s Ray Tracing along with DLSS and Dolby Atmos, which will further enhance its experience in the next generation of consoles.
3) Black Myth: Wukong might have a “git-gud” skill threshold
Black Myth: Wukong’s thematic setting and gameplay design does feel a bit “Soulsbore-ish” and one can’t help but feel that there will be a significant difficulty cap in the game.
It’s hard to say if Game Science’s upcoming title will have an easy mode or tweakable difficulty settings, but by the looks of the two boss fights that were showcased in the trailer, it’s evident that combat will rely on precise dodges and counter-attacking during small openings.
The enemy AI will be intelligent with combo variations as well, which was evident in the first monkey boss fight where the enemy was mixing up his combo patterns, and even at one point begging the protagonist for mercy just to attack him soon after his guard was down.
The monkey boss was even taunting the protagonist by trying to take a fart on him, which by the looks of it might cause a certain status ailment if the player directly walks into it.
There will also be a “split-shadow” mechanic that players can use to their advantage, however, this skill will only trigger once an attack is dodged at a very precise moment, and successfully pulling it off will generate points in the “special skill meter”.
4) Heavy influence of Chinese mythology on combat
Apart from the narrative, Black Myth: Wukong’s combat and gameplay mechanics also draw heavily from Journey to the West.
In the first boss fight when the protagonist draws a ring of fire on the snow to keep the enemy out, it runs parallel to the novel’s narrative when Sun Wukong leaves the monk Tang Sanzang to get food. Before departing, he creates a ring of fire around him with his staff to help protect the monk from enemies.
Additionally, the weapon that the monkey boss was wielding is reminiscent of a Sabre, which is a sort of “dao”, said to have been common in China during the Tang Dynasty, which is also the period in which the novel is set.
There are a lot of theories pertaining to the gourd that the protagonist drinks from and its contents. In Black Myth: Wukong, it’s shown to be used as a refillable, healing item like the one in Sekiro, and many in the community feel that what the protagonist drinks is perhaps Heavenly Wine.
Mythologically and in the novel, Sun Wukong steals the Heavenly Wine from the Royal Banquet of Queen Mother of the West, and this wine was one of the reasons behind Wukong’s immortality. Hence, from the perspective of the narrative, the protagonist of Black Myth: Wukong is trying to fulfill his destiny of following Sun Wukong’s steps in his own “journey to the west”.
5) Black Myth: Wukong will have “a lot” of boss fights
A large portion of today’s Black Myth: Wukong trailer was dedicated to portraying some of the bosses that players can expect from the game once it is officially released.
And by the looks of what has been shown, there are indeed going to be a lot of bosses in the game. Each of the boss designs have been heavily inspired by Journey to the West, and players can look forward to a lot of challenging fights in the game.
