Black Myth: Wu Kong - Impressive looking Chinese Sekiro-like

[mushashi]

This was pretty much the most impressive game thing I've ever seen from a Chinese developer, not sure the actual final game will be of that standard though, it has the feel of a target demo.

[Arn X Treme]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-08-21-chinese-action-game-black-myth-wukong-is-taking-the-internet-by-storm

 

Looks like this maybe a bigger deal than we originally thought!

[mushashi]

The founder of the development studio creating this, Game Science, has done a few interviews on the Chinese internet.

 

This is probably years away from being released at best. This demo was created to primarily recruit staff to help complete the project in a reasonable time period as their current staffing level is too low to get it done any time soon (~30 people fulltime for a major effort project)

 

The demo has created a problem for them as it's also alerted rival studios that talent might be available to be hired, which is the opposite of what it was meant to do.

 

The last interesting action title to be trailered out of China was Lost Soul Aside, still MIA, and that one is backed by Sony. There is also Bright Memory: Infinite, which might get released next year if they stay on target.

 

The situation with these games is giving me flashbacks to the promising stuff that was trailered out of South Korea in the early 2000s.

 

 

[Quest]

 

DF finally got around to covering this.

 

Couple of my friends looked into working on it, as Game Science are only about an hour away. Need to catch up with them and see how that went.

[Arn X Treme]

1 hour ago, Quest said:

 

DF finally got around to covering this.

 

Couple of my friends looked into working on it, as Game Science are only about an hour away. Need to catch up with them and see how that went.

 

Any info will be apreciated

[Vemsie]

 

[Marlew]

 

 

Looks superb. Hopefully it's polished nicely from a mechanical perspective because the aesthetic is really something. Excellent pole action at the end, as well. 

[Girth Certificate]

looks fucking sweet, the guy who was looking for a game where you fight with poles will be excited

 

edit: lol

 

 

There was a bit where one of the baddies swapped hands with his sword that struck me as particularly cool.

[Arn X Treme]

Nice to see i don't have to fork out for any next gen to play the game. 

 

 

[amc]

This looks cool. Can't wait to play using that sweet looking Bo Staff. I like poles but a Bo Staff is what a true martial arts master uses, and well, I'm pretty well regarded in Bo Staff wielding circles.

[Quest]

Niu Mowang looks great.

[Vemsie]

 

[Arn X Treme]

I was just about to post that video from YouTube.

 

That looks amazing!

 

Every time something is mentioned or shown regarding this game, I cannot help but be more impressed.

 

This will be a Day One for me providing I have the kit to run it. 

[JPL]

That really does look amazing. Any news on a release date and which platforms it'll be on yet?

[jonamok]

Looking fwd to playing that on my RTX4090.

[GamesGamesGames]

I hope this is utterly obtuse and impenetrable. Fantastic.

[b00dles]

It's god of art of war!

 

Sorry. Couldn't help myself. A proper journey to the west "monkey" game could be really good though. Intrigued.

[joffocakes]

Definitely sold on the big baldy head rolling around.

[layten]

10 hours ago, JPL said:

That really does look amazing. Any news on a release date and which platforms it'll be on yet?

PC is a certain.

(seems to be the same video posted earlier).

[Sane]

The graphics and art direction in this look phenomenal! The gameplay I'm less impressed by, it looks very much like a standard souls clone. I hope I will one day have something that will run this. 

[Quest]

There's been a flurry of discussion in China about the latest trailer, with many fretting about upgrading their GPU, but mainly focused on extracting every tiny detail to identify characters and the real-world sources for the temples and statues.*

 

I hope this turns out well, but until people start playing it I'm trying to ignore the hype. Seems like it's still a long way off.

 

 

* Also a load of speculation about where the funding is coming from, questions about the extent to which western audiences are familiar with Journey to the West in general, and the occasional person taking the opportunity to complain about Japanese appropriation of Chinese culture. It's got everything.

[mushashi]

On 24/08/2021 at 01:40, Quest said:

* Also a load of speculation about where the funding is coming from, questions about the extent to which western audiences are familiar with Journey to the West in general, and the occasional person taking the opportunity to complain about Japanese appropriation of Chinese culture. It's got everything.

 

Nvidia, Epic and Tencent all have put something into this so far.

 

The people complaining about cultural appropriation do have a point though, plenty of examples of Japanese media products based off Chinese source material, Dragon Ball for a start. Any familiarity Western Audiences might have with Journey to the West is primarily down to Japan too.

 

This at least, unlike Genshin Impact, does at least have some sort of actual Chinese cultural vibe.

 

 

The Chinese seem to be reaching the same stage as the South Koreans, can make technically accomplished games, not quite as competitive on the gameplay side.

[Quest]

I was referring to a comment under the video I linked where one guy was, with clear motivations, listing famous Japanese things that actually have their origins in China. This list includes chopsticks, if you want an idea of how concerned you should be. Cries of appropriation regarding Journey to the West have to ignore the fact that it's been part of a shared cultural heritage with Japan for centuries, and is largely just the sort of anti-Japanese sentiment that's best ignored. It's like the Chinese version of having to listen to gammons bang on about bendy bananas or whatever. Pure noise. 

 

Genshin is an interesting one because it's actually packed with Chinese cultural stuff that no one really seems to notice. That's probably miHoYo's fault for making it look hyper generic anime, really. 

[mushashi]

There is a potentially interesting conversation to be had about how much Cultural Soft Power various countries have, which is generally fuck all if you aren't called the United States of America.

 

I was hoping that when all these other countries had reached the stage of being capable of competing in the global games development league, they'd push for their own culture to be represented, like the Japanese and Americans do, but generally that hasn't been the case and they generally seem to pay homage to American or Japanese cultural influences.

 

You'd think there would be a CCP mandate on this for Chinese games actually.

[layten]

A couple of new videos have appeared.

 

 

[jonamok]

Looked impossibly pretty next to other stuff when first shown.

Now, as time has ticked on, it looks believably top tier.

Wonder how it’ll look if/when it finally comes out.

[Gabe]

This is going to be another hard-as-nails souls-like experience, isn't it? 

[the_debaser]

Graphically it looks great but there is zero originality here. Those enemies who who need to be hit 5,000 times before dying can fuck off too. 

[Vemsie]

Not sure I agree with that. There aren't that many games with Chinese mythology and I love how they've incorporated the monkey characteristics in his movement, like that pole climbing to dodge AoE attacks. And being able to morph into different creatures is not something we've seen in Soulslikes before to the best of my knowledge.

[Cyhwuhx]

If anything more Chinese mythology in games would be appreciated. Often when I see/play Chinese games it feels like I'm missing a large chunk of shorthand and signals that would readily fit into my brain had the game been Western or Japanese. Getting some more examples would be appreciated. F.I.S.T. being the most recent one I've played that made me feel "uneasy" in missing out on subtext.