Pre-orders may be available soon since a Black Myth Wukong store page has gone live on the PlayStation Store.
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The Black Myth Wukong store page
Out of all the Soulslike games that have been announced in recent memory, Black Myth Wukong is arguably one of the most anticipated titles for fans of the genre. If any of those fans own a PS5 (and I’m sure many of them do), they’ll want to check the PlayStation Black Myth Wukong store page.
With Game Sciene’s take on Journey to the West dropping on August 8 later this year, the store page for the game is now available to view. The page explains that gamers will play as “The Destined One,” and will uncover the truth that’s hidden behind the story the game is based on. This extends to the game’s characters, as they’ll have their own stories that can be discovered by players.
The Destined One will need to battle dangerous enemies and creatures throughout the game’s story and will need to utilize various spells (including transforming into other creatures), abilities, weapons, and other equipment to see things through to the end. The world of Black Myth Wukong will feature creatures, characters, and wonders hailing from ancient Chinese mythology.
Since the game now has a PlayStation store page, it’s likely pre-orders will soon be available for gamers. As of writing, no date regarding when pre-orders will go live has been announced.
What is Black Myth Wukong?
As hinted by the literal name of the game, this seems to be a twisted version of Journey to the West. The original story involves Sun Wukong, who was sentenced to imprisonment underneath a mountain for 500 years, being released by Tang Sanzang, a monk who wants to obtain Buddhist scriptures located in India.
Along with a pig, an ogre, and a horse for companions, they make their way to India, defending Tang Sanzang from various creatures wishing to consume his flesh, believing that doing so will remove their sins from them. While on this Journey, Wukong grows and leaves behind his rebellious ways (which got him imprisoned in the first place), becoming a Buddha and understanding the teachings of Buddhism.
Journey to the West inspired a lot of work, though you probably know it best as Akira Toriyama’s inspiration for writing Dragon Ball.
The game features a monkey as the playable character, however, many believe that this is not Wukong himself. In a 13-minute gameplay trailer, this monkey is stopped by another monkey wearing golden armor and wielding the Ruyi Jingu Bang, a weapon only Sun Wukong has. It appears as though the player character is an imposter, but it hasn’t been elaborated as to why he’s posing as Sun Wukong.
One theory is that the player character is the Six-Eared Macaque, a character who was able to impersonate Wukong in the original story, while another theory believes that the player is a clone of Wukong that did not disappear after Wukong created it. It’s possible that this imposter may wish to replace the real Wukong and become the hero of Journey to the West. Whatever the case may be, the identity of the player character will be revealed when Black Myth Wukong releases in a few months.
This game is a Soulslike, so expect there to be challenging combat against various enemies and bosses, all of which originate from the mythology of China. Various locations from Journey to the West will also be present, with Unreal Engine 5 being used to bring them to life. Spells and transformations will also be available to the player, the latter referencing the 72 transformations Sun Wukong has access to in the source material.
Black Myth Wukong is set to release on August 20 for the PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.
