Using spirits in the heat of combat also shines a light on one of Black Myth 's more unfortunate problems. While I didn't experience any severe, game-breaking bugs during my time with Black Myth Wukong missions Myth: Wukong , there are still some technical issues that players will have to deal with. Using spirits occasionally made the game stutter and freeze for a brief second, which may not seem like a big deal, but can have serious consequences in tougher fights. Other times, activating spirits simply didn't work because the game read the input as a different action. Players have to hit both triggers to use a spirit, but sometimes the Destined One would spin their staff instead. Any action assigned to the bumpers seemed to be slightly unresponsive from time to time, which can lead to a lot of headache in a game like this. The game also occasionally mixed-up the audio and subtitles. Despite having English audio and subtitles selected, a couple of scenes switched to Chinese audio and subtitles before correcting itself a few minutes later. Even then, that was better than the rare instances where audio cut out completely with no subtitles to read at

Besides spells and whacking enemies with the staff, Black Myth: Wukong also lets players briefly summon spirits of certain enemies to unleash a powerful attack. Black Myth has dozens of spirits to collect , with players building up a roster almost like it's Pokemon . Finding new spirits is always a thrill and testing them out in battle is fun. The spirits can be upgraded, so players should experiment with them all and find which ones fit with their playstyle the b

This ambitious action-RPG with soulslike elements has already garnered praise from critics. Many have hailed it as one of the best non-FromSoftware soulslikes, comparable to beloved titles like Lies of P . It is also one of the most visually impressive games of 2024, achieving world-class standards in art and presentation by fully utilizing Unreal Engine 5's features to bring its vision of Eastern mythology to l

Black Myth: Wukong may dig its roots into Journey to the West , but the significant time gap between the two stories doesn't require the game to remain true to every single element of its source material. This ultimately grants some leeway for Game Science to include characters not found in Journey to the West , while still honoring its nature as an Eastern mythology-inspired story. Black Myth: Wukong therefore introduces new characters — primarily enemies — not originally found in Journey to the West that are largely inspired by Eastern mythology, in addition to new and revised locations from the novel to reflect the passage of t

Black Myth 's story didn't leave any impression on me, but that's not to say there isn't some spectacle to it. Black Myth features all kinds of downright bizarre scenes and characters that are a treat to see, brought to life by the game's mostly-impressive graphics. Certain areas in Black Myth: Wukong look incredible, and the game boasts some awesome animations and eye-catching characters as well. The game is packed with all kinds of memorable boss designs, though there are also many that are underwhelming and feel samey. In fact, there was one secret boss I found in Black Myth: Wukong that was literally a re-skin of a mini-boss found elsewhere in the chapter, which was a shame, and while many of the game's bosses are visually distinct, a lot of the actual fights feel the same. This may be due to the Destined One being limited to their staff, but I felt like I had seen everything the combat had to offer by the halfway point. Perhaps a shorter runtime or more freedom when selecting spells would have staved off the repetition, but as it stands, players can only equip certain spells in certain slots, which seems like an unnecessary limitation that stifles combat possibilit

The videos in-between chapters are some of the most creative entries we’ve seen in a video game. They act as short stories, told in an anthology, not necessarily being connected to one another, and animated differently each time. These take the form of ancient Chinese artwork animated beautifully or stop-motion similar to something like the 1964 iteration of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. We couldn’t wait to get to the end of each chapter purely because of these shorts. Their relevance to the story can be directly involving one of the antagonists you faced or side quests that tell a darker or thought-provoking encounter.

This has elements of Souls games, but it’s closer to a traditional action game. You won’t be managing attributes, but instead be given skill points that can be spent to level up specific abilities within the protagonist’s arsenal. This includes mystical arts, martial arts and transformations, just to name a few. This is where Combat really shines as, while the majority of the time you will be slamming the light attack button until your Focus meter is charged up, allowing you to unleash a devastating heavy attack, it’s splicing in different unique abilities in-between that make it more compelling.