It really says something that a Indie Chinese RPG looks better than most AAA games both in terms of Visuals and Gameplay. Right off bat, it’s apparent that this game is nothing short of a passion project based on China’s most famous fables. It borrows elements from God of War, Monster Hunter, Sekiro and evening Dynasty Warriors, all while having its own identity. The visuals are exception to say the least, the gameplay look varied and tactical and don’t even get me started on the different abilities and transformations. THIS is how you make a first impression on gamers. And this is coming from a Indie Developer of all things.
You’re one of the few reactors to actually watch to the entire trailer rather than pause at the very end, the theme at the end of the trailer is incredibly nostalgic for me since I’ve watched the old Wukong cartoons when I was a child
to some who don't know, Sun WuKong is a character from a Chinese myth novel 400 years ago called Journey to the West. In the myth, some of his powers include riding clouds, transforming (72 forms), that magical staff he wields can lengthen and shorten, he also hides it in his ears when it's tiny. When he tears off strands of his hair, each strand can turn into a clone of himself. Oh, and let's not forget he can freeze people with words. that's all i remember for the moment. but he's pretty dope!! lots of animes are inspired by him and his story Journey to the West. Like Goku from Dragonball is pretty much WuKong (Goku is WuKong in Japanese), Naruto's shadow clones, the nine-tailed fox, Sandaime's transformation... are all inspired by WuKong.
I'm Chinese, I'm pretty much know about Journey to the West and Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong was born from the magic stone that resides Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. After his birth, he became the Monkey King. His ability can transform into 72 different animals and objects. Each of his hairs have transformative powers, and he can magically manipulate wind, water and fire as well. Wukong also search his suitable weapon until he acquired the Golden-banded staff, the stabilizer of the Four Seas and a treasure of Ao Guang, the dragon-king of the Eastern Seas. The Monkey King is the only creature strong enough to wield the staff-like weapon and there is an instant affinity between them. The Golden-banded staff can change its size, elongate, fly and attack opponents according to its master's will. It weighs 13,500 jīn or 7960 kg. When not wielding the weapon, the Monkey King shrinks it down to the size of a sewing needle and stores it in his ear. At first the Jade Emperor of the heaven was not interested in him, but he later invited him to the heaven where Wukong became 'Protector of the Horses', or stableman, which is the lowest ranking job in heaven. When Wukong discovered this, he was not happy and rebelled against the heaven, until the Buddha came who imprisoned Wukong under a mountain. 500 years later, a Buddhist monk, Tang Sanzang, or Tang Seng, released Wukong who became his disciple. Throughout the journey to India, they encountered humanoid demons who tried eat Tang Seng's flesh, believing by eating it, they would become immortal, so Wukong was also tasked to protect him along with two other disciples, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing.
Why here is another WUKONG? Here I wanna add some background and true hidden stories about WUKONG. 1，The true and false Monkey King is a chapter of Journey to the West, because the disobedient Wukong had a conflict with Tang Seng and knocked him down. However, in the the book, it is said that fake Wukong was the one who defeated Tang Seng, and no one can tell who is the real and who is the fake. Their combat effectiveness is also the same, and they even have the same weapon-the golden hoop. In the end, the Buddha distinguished the real Wukong and the real Wukong killed the fake Wukong. But here are 2 main explanations or real stories the book didnot tell. First, The real Wukong was killed, and the fake Wukong continued to travel west. I will explain why there are such stories later. Second, there is only one Wukong in the whole story, but Wukong himself has contradictions. It is his own submissive side that killed his own rebellious side. Now, I will explain why have such explanations and what WUKONG means for Chinese people. Wukong was born from a stone between heaven and earth, without father and mother. His dream is to lead his monkeys to live happily in Huaguo mountain and hope to live forever, so he went to hell and tore up the book of life and death which means They can live forever. But this was not allowed by Gods, so he fought with one hundred thousand heavenly soldiers (this is the battle scene at the end of this video), and he was arrested. At last, he began his journey to the west. It is hard to tell the whole story here. But the birth of Wukong represents a lawless person who resists the gods and pursues absolute freedom. He does not harm others, but he is still controlled and restricted by the gods. He wants to break all the rules and restrictions on him. So, here is why Budda and gods wanna kill the true WUKONG, because they represent the rules and restrictions. Some people say that this book is a story of a child growing up and becoming a man. This is a good ending. Some people say that this is a tragedy, it is a story of us being assimilated and domesticated by society and rules. We were both Wukong when we were young, but as we grew up we discovered that we were restricted by various rules even if we did not authorize them to restrict us. In the end we had to become a part of this society, just like Wukong finally became a Buddha, that is the job given to him in this system. Why does the old man in the video cry? I guess he is the old Wukong, and the true hero finally became an obedient "Buddha", but he still miss the other him----the true hero of his monkeys. It's like we have become a member of society, but the real we are actually the "wild monkey", we still yearn for absolute freedom, unfettered, just like a running wild monkey. 2, all the abilities and skills in the game are real abilities WUKONG have. His weapon is hidden in his ears because The golden hoop can be bigger and smaller. 3，The surname of WUKONG is SUN, the same with the author of: The Art Of War. 4, The cloud is actually his fly machine which given by his master. Finally, my english is not very good, so I have no ability to tell the essence and spirit of this story. There is too much true meaning hidden in the story about us and about society. If you want to understand this story, I suggest you read this book, and then read other people's interpretations or the dark side Journey to the West. You will understand the true meaning of the whole story. We have all become part of society, but I hope that "Wukong" in our hearts will exist forever. As long as it exists, we will never be defeated by society. I am from XinJiang,China and I will go back my country in few days, and i wanna make some videos about the facts in XinJIANG, and my thinking, and the fake BBC as well, you can subscribe me if you like to see it. TY
Chinese mythology is a very complex system. I can explain the basic concept of the chinese mythology. First the structure of chinese pantheon. Chinese traditional mythology is called Daoism. But after Buddhism come to China, it got absorbed by Chinese pantheon. The supreme god king governing heaven in daoism is jade emperor. But the one who created the universe was the ancient titan pangu. Pangu died from exhaustion soon after he creates the universe. The jade emperor and three pure one control most of the universe after him. They assigned king Yama to govern the underworld. Four great dragon kings to govern the sea. But they all pledge loyalty to jade emperor. Great goddess Nuwa creates humanity after the creation of the world. Buddha is technically the most powerful entity after the death of pangu. Because Buddhism believe he is one with universe. Therefore both Buddhism god and daoism god show respect to each other, and often work together. Second is the power structure of chinese mythology. The biggest difference between Chinese mythology and western mythology. Is the fact that in Chinese mythology, mortal can become god by practicing daoism or Buddhism. Which many western mythology can’t. This gives people more hope and give them reason to study daoism and Buddhism. However this freedom also give birth to demon(youkai). In chinese the concept of demon is not the same as west. Chinese demon were once mortal creatures who practiced daoism or Buddhism. They use the power in evil way and became corrupted. This goes for animal too. Both human and animals have possibilities of becoming demon. That’s why in journey of west there are tiger demon or fish demon. Due to the fact all youkai Practice daoism or Buddhism. In chinese mythology demon are considered very intelligent beings. Also most demon aim to become god, because in chinese mythology gods are the final stage of evolution. Now we can talk about monkey king wukong and journey of the west. Monkey king is the hero in chinese mythology. He’s just like Thor in Norse mythology or Hercules in Greek. Monkey king was loved by chinese people. But monkey king wasn’t a righteous figure when he first appeared. Monkey king was a stone monkey who came from the magical stone of goddess nuwa. He was a trickster and a morally neutral existence. He soon became the king of monkeys and learn daoism under a great daoist saint. During the process he learn immortality and become so powerful that almost no god can beat him. After he gain such strength, he went to the dragon king palace and acquired weapons and armor. Went to underworld and delete his name from book of death. He soon make alliance with demon kings in the mortal realm. Making him one of the greatest demon king in existence. When jade emperor discovered this, he give wukong a job in heaven. Which wukong gladly accept. But jade emperor still didn’t quite understand how strong wukong is. So he give him a position as stable boy for taming heavenly horses. Wukong feels extremely humiliated. So he quit the job and give him self the title of great sage equal to heaven in revenge. Heaven sees wukong’s refusal of the job as an insult. But after long discussion, they give wukong the title of great sage equal to heaven and invite him once more to live in heaven. As guardian of immortal peach garden. But monkey screw up his job again, because he end up eating all the peaches and even steal some pills of immortality. That finally angered the jade emperor. He dispatched the entire army of Heaven to arrest wukong. Monkey king was unrivaled in power even for gods. Only the great warrior god Erlang could fight him in equal strength. They eventually did capture the monkey through trap, but can’t find any way to kill him. Because he’s so bloody immortal, nothing can hurt him. He eventually break loss again and causing even greater havoc in heaven. Jade emperor finally calls the buddha himself to fix the problems. Buddha being the strongest beings in existence, easily subdue wukong, and trap him under a magical mountain. 500 years later Buddha send a chinese monk name Xiang Zang to retrieve the holy scripture from India. He choose wukong as one of monks body guards. Finally wukong was freed from the prison. But this time he humbly protect the monk in his journey to the west. During the process he starts to respect the monk. Also becoming a more humble and righteous person. He eventually was reworded by the Buddha and become a Buddha himself.
To those who wish to buy this game and/or don't know Journey to the West, I encourage you and anyone to read the book or watch TV series (1986) about it.
Great that this game brought interest to the rest of the world about Chinese culture and mythology. The story of Wukong based on the novel of 'Journey to the West' is one of the top 4 classic novel of China.
This is what China lack of, the culture spreading. Japan did very well about this, making games and animations that let the whole world knowing what is ninjia, what is samurai, etc. Lots of western ppl dont know that Japanese culture is mainly from China, they cannot differentiate what is Chinese and what is Japanese.
Yeah. There is no subtitles yet! But i hope when this game comes out, it's gonna have subtitles, and this game is really amazing by looking at this 13 minutes gameplay. Mix with Sekiro, Ghost of Tshushima and attack on titan something like that because we just saw a huge creature like what the hell is that
The ending music of the trailer is so nostalgic. If you play it to anyone who grew up in China, they’ll tell you it’s the Journey to the West without a second thought...
And yes Sun Wukong does fight in heaven because he was fooled by heaven so he took his rage and destroyed it. But Nuwa goddess of reconstruction rebuild heaven again. Based on the Monkey king tale.
He was labeled as stableman, the lowest ranking job in heaven. And yes, he's not happy, he rebelled against the heaven and Jade Emperor until Buddha banished Wukong who was trapped under the rock for 500 years until Tang Sanzang
in the beginning the earth sprit (old dude) said to the player character that he looks alike truly alike, hinting that the player is not the real monkey king. in the original story the fake monkey king is the villain that was able to fake the monkey king's powers and personalities. and the real and fake monkey king fought over who is the real and asked many gods and goddesses to reveal who the real one is. one was able to tell but feared the power of the fake monkey king and thus told them to ask the buddha, they did and the buddha revealed the fake monkey king as another mystical monkey the eared monkey. the real monkey king then struck down the fake as he attempted to flee. being one of the most powerful adversaries the six eared monkey was only vaguely talked about, no backstory other than he was a mystical monkey like Wukong and 2 others i believe. the fake appeared after sanzang (wukong's master) sent wukong away after the white boned demon. the ending of the trailer says after white bone re-journey to the west. im guessing this is some alternate perspective? maybe suggesting the fake killed the real?
here is my comment under another RU-vidr, i ll copy here, hope it can help you understand the story of . Journey to the west is the most famous mythology in China. Wukong is a spirit stone, he exposed naked in the alternative of sun and moon, experienced the bathing of sun and rains,he got some magic power and turned into a monkey. he is nice friendly with other monkey ,take care of them, became a monkey king.he hate evil as one's enemy, but obstinate and unruly. GOD trying to offer amnesty and enlistment to rebels, but only give him a very low position. he got mad, snafued and havoced the whole heaven. no one can fight him. Tathagata （I think this is his name, im not sure, he is the king of Buddha）come over, pressure him under a mountain for 500 years. after 500 years, A hunman monk Go to the west to seek the truth, helped wukong out, Buddha ask wukong to help this monk, protect him，because there is alot monsters in this trip, this monk is a goodness hunman, very week and ez to fool. So this Monk（name Tang xuanzang, people call him monk Tang）become wukong's teacher, teach him Buddhism and control himself. in this trip, they find another 2 people (a pig-Bajie and another monk-Shaseng), they was one of the god (or angel, ez for you to understand), but they make mistake, so God punish them to go to earth, learn Buddhism from monk Tang, and protect him to go to the west. They took over 17 years, walk over 54000km（about 34000 mile ），go trough 81 different tribulations, see different Country, good or bad people, different god or monsters, finnally arrive at the destination. Found Buddha Tathagata , found the scripture, and all of them became Buddha.(even wukong can fly, but they have to walk, been through all the tribulations, To prove the sincerity) then go back to China(they can fly now cause they are Buddha),and teach people the scripture and the truth. thats the whole story of Journey to the west. many culture, anime, games, movies.......inspired by this story, you might know 《The Forbidden Kingdom》，《The Monkey King》《Dragon Ball (only inspire，early story is similar, but later is way different, Son Goku is sun wukong, Oolong is the pig-Bajie, helping Bulma as Monk Tang). in this game, the reason why he put the weapon in his ear, because, in the story, wukong's weapon got superpower, it was a Mythology weapon to keep the ocean steady. it can change size, when he not in combat, he always make it very tiny, and put in his ear. wukong has another skills , he can change 72 different form. basiclly, anything he saw, he can transfor to him/her/it. thats why he transfiguration in the game. he can freeze people by saying "freeze" we also see that in the game. he can also change his size, be big like a mount or small like an ant. he can invisible，Clone himself, use his hair to make thousands of him. he can't fly, but he got a magic cloud, can take him everywhere. you can't burn him or drown him, cause he is a spirit of nature. thats why Buddha only pressure him under a mountain but can't kill him. A different thing about this game is, is a positive story. This game trying to Interpretation from different perspectives. make it very darkness, make people think , there might be something dark, we don't know. i don't know if you ever watch a movie that make all classic fairy tale dark , Cinderella，Snow White...... all dark. tell you a whole different story. Thats this game.
【To understand this game, you have to know this】an over-simplified explain here: This game is a re-creation of "journey to the west"。 This is a story from the Ming Dynasty novel Journey to the west, but the story itself comes from the real event of Tang Dynasty monk Tang Xuanzang going to ancient Tianzhu to seek Buddhist scriptures. The story of the game itself is different from the novel and the real history, so it is called "black myth". I hope this will help you understand the background of the game and the Grand View of the universe behind it. and in ancient china myth world which WUKONG lives in, humans can get supernature power to become a "god/神仙". Practicing Buddhism or Taoism is a way of becoming "god". Animals can also receive supernature power, and they become "monster/demon/妖怪", not "god". Here, monster/demon is not always evil, they are just different from humans. In many stories, the monster can live with humans or even have a marriage with a human. in those stories, humans are often more evil or stupid or greedy or coward... The rank or class of this world is roughly like this: god > monster > human > animal. This rank is a metaphor of ancient china society, but not enough room to explain it here, knowing the rank is ok. So monsters want to live in the form of a human, or at least act like a human because they are in the hope of becoming a "god". WUKONG is a monkey born from a stone who finally become a "god", he is not a "pure" god(human -> god), he remains some monster/demon characteristics. This contradiction is the source of many re-creations including this game. Back to this trailer: This trailer shows a monk tells a story that happens in a temple relic occupied by a group of monster gangsters. The giant wolf boss at 7:38 is their leader, he identifies himself as a Taoism priest, and get a Taoism name "灵虚子" or "灵虚真人" he has a friend who is a black bear. but not shown in this game. the minor boss at 2:53 is also a wolf. check his feet, you can see that he is a wolf wearing human cloth, not a human with a wolf head. the little potato-like guy at 4:49 is "土地公/local earth god", a kind of minor god. like a nymph in Greek myth, but not that pretty. you guys may be confused why there is another monkey king with better weapon and better armor stop us from finishing the boss. and spend several seconds showing shining gold characters on his stick. We Chinese guys are quite excited seeing this scene because it gets to the most suspenseful part of the story: whether the monkey king who finally becomes the god is the real monkey king who born from the stone? (Is the hero at the end of the journey the same person when he starts the journey?) (are we still us when we grow up/old ?) yes, there are multiple monkey kings and multiple explanations. you can even take them as the "ego", the "id", the "superego" of the monkey king. but it is best to let the game itself to explain it. if you look carefully enough, you will find that the storyteller(at the beginning and end of the trailer) himself is an old "monkey" too. the floating belt behind him indicating that he is a "god". --------------here are some subtle I translated.------------------------------ (storytellers start telling, skip it cause it has English subtle) (sneak in as a cicada) 1:46 wolf gangster A: wow! Here is some wine jar! 1:47 wolf gangster A: I wonder if there is any wine in it! 1:49 wolf gangster B: Do not be so greedy for wine! 1:50 wolf gangster B: We two would be 灵虚真人's snack if we mess this up! (keep flying) 1:57 wolf gangster C: Brother, there is some noise at the gate. 1:58 wolf gangster D: Don't be so jumpy. No one dares to intrude here as I guard here. (meet an elite enemy) 2:12 gangster leader(human): Those wolf puppies can not see you. 2:15 gangster leader(human): DO NOT think you can get away with it under MY nose! (fight at a bridge) 2:33 wolf scout: Alarm! A hairy face monk intruder! (minor boss fight) 2:48 wolf sword drillmaster: who are you, dare to disturb my practice? (after seeing the player's character) 2:54 wolf sword drillmaster: oh, another monkey 2:59 wolf sword drillmaster: sir, why not drop your stick, and learn some Buddhism with me? 3:05 wolf sword drillmaster: how do you think? (after been beaten) 4:00 wolf sword drillmaster: you ... Can it be that you are the man... of...destiny as our king told us? (local earth god saying underground) 4:18 voice from underground: You're alarming the monsters over here, little monkey (meet huge head giant) 4:23 voice from underground: You should be more careful if you go any further. 4:30 voice from underground: come here, little monkey 4:38 voice from underground: here, here (local earth god show up) 4:47 local earth god: I am the humble local earth god of "black wind hill", and I am waiting here for a long time. ( he look closely ) 4:58 local earth god: yes, you do look alike... 5:06 local earth god: Further on, you'll find the Guanyin (the goddess of mercy) Monastery 5:10 local earth god: It has prosperous good old days 5:15 local earth god: Too bad the big fire burned everything up. (this fire should be related to a fire in the original story of "journey to the west") 5:26 local earth god: the monastery was rebuilt then, 5:29 local earth god: but what would rebuild a broken temple help if human's faith burned into ash? (wolf howling) 5:40 local earth god: excuse me for leaving so soon!.... 5:45 local earth god: we will meet again after you go pass the plank road... 7:04 Guanyin (the goddess of mercy) Monastery (into the yard) 7:14 local earth god: hush, do not disturb that big dog... 7:17 local earth god: the monster in the backyard is a friend of BlackWind Monster. (black bear) 7:18 local earth god: he called himself "灵虚子" 7:20 local earth god: As your current capacity..... (7:22 wolf howling) 7:23 local earth god: damn! 7:25 local earth god: RUN, you little monkey, before it's too late! (local earth god hidden) 7:30 local earth god: you CANNOT return if you pass this gate! (7:38 LEADER: 灵虚子) boss fight ..... (the scene between 11:00 and 12:05 showing his legends, just like Hercules' 12 labors)
Hmmm looks like this game is above you IQ and skill level, if you noticed there are no menus or indications of what to do, the game will be very difficult and this impressionist game play will take the industry by storm and will be very hard to equal this quality by western game companies.
