I’ve by no means been so completely blown away, but concurrently so unbelievably annoyed by a sport as I’ve been with Black Fantasy: Wukong. That is, undoubtedly, one of the vital formidable and spectacular motion video games I’ve performed. It’s stunningly beautiful; its fight is unbelievable; it's extremely difficult, however all the time satisfying to beat; and the setting is refreshingly distinctive and steeped in wealthy Chinese language tradition, simply to sing just a few of its praises. Regardless of all of that, it typically feels prefer it’s barely holding all of it collectively. I suffered quite a few crashes on PC (the PlayStation 5 model wasn't made obtainable for this overview), regardless of having a top-of-the-line setup with a GeForce RTX 4090, to not point out the a number of instances I fell by means of the bottom and died simply as I used to be on the verge of defeating a very powerful boss, or the best way characters would randomly swap from English to Chinese language, or the best way the dialogue audio would drop out all collectively and depart me fully in the dead of night throughout an essential cutscene. It’s a rickety curler coaster for certain, and there have been undoubtedly spots throughout the trip the place I used to be not having a good time, however taken as a complete that is one journey the place the bumps are value it.
Black Fantasy: Wukong’s story is considerably of a comply with as much as the basic novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, a guide that I solely personally know because of very unfastened diversifications like Dragon Ball and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. That surface-level familiarity didn’t assist a lot although, because the interpretation that the builders at GameScience have crafted right here is laden with references to characters and occasions from the novel with out doing an ideal job of bringing you on top of things on who Solar Wukong is or what he encountered on his titular journey. I needed to look on-line to grasp who Zhu Bhajie was, what his historical past with Wukong is, and what the importance of sure encounters had been, as a result of in any other case I’d have been fully misplaced at instances.
You play as The Destined One, a literal monkey who wakes up one morning and decides to set out on a roughly 40-hour journey to find the six relics of Wukong. Whereas the moment-to-moment storytelling is pretty unremarkable – largely as a result of a mute protagonist and facet characters that aren’t given sufficient display screen time to develop – every of the six self-contained chapters culminates with a stunningly beautiful animated vignette that tells a brief story about that story’s important antagonist. Each is completed in a very completely different artwork fashion, with one drawn to appear like a storybook, one other utilizing stop-motion animation, and one other executed within the fashion of an anime. Each single one among them is gorgeous and poignant, and I couldn’t assist however want that the primary story managed to maneuver me in related methods.
My preliminary learn on Wukong was that it was a soulslike, given the checkpoint system, the stamina bar that governs your actions in fight, and the dodge-heavy combating fashion. However because it seems, Wukong has extra in widespread with conventional motion video games like what you may count on from Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames than it does with something FromSoftware has made. Many of the traditional soulslike conventions are lacking: There isn’t any penalty for loss of life exterior of respawning on the nearest checkpoint (no corpse run is required to regain your loot); you don’t use a shared forex to degree up your stats and buy gadgets or upgrades; and whereas there’s gear and stats to contemplate, you largely simply go and swap out the outdated gear with the brand new versus making decisions as to what sort of weapon or piece of armor you need to maintain on to and improve.
And regardless that I’m an enormous fan of soulslikes, ditching these mechanics looks like the fitting transfer for the sport that Wukong is attempting to be. It’s much more forgiving, centered on preserving you within the motion quite than poring over menus or retracing your steps to regain your misplaced forex after dying, and Wukong is a greater, extra distinctive sport for it.
To be clear, although, after I say it’s extra forgiving I don’t imply that it’s any more easy than a From-style sport. In reality, I’d go as far as to say that between this and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, I had extra problem getting by means of Wukong’s hardest challenges (and, no, there aren’t any troublesome choices). However on the similar time these challenges by no means felt unfair, and overcoming a few of the more durable boss fights was all the time a satisfying mixture of studying their assault patterns, determining the place I may maximize my punishment home windows, and tweaking my loadout in ways in which made the very best use of my chosen powers.
Fight in Black Fantasy: Wukong is straightforward and stylish, thanks partly to some instruments which might be actually enjoyable to mess around with. Success hinges on a fragile steadiness of twitch reflex-style gameplay combined with cautious useful resource administration that largely revolves round a Focus Meter which builds up while you land hits and completely dodge enemy assaults. You achieve a Focus level at any time when that meter fills up, which you may then spend in the course of a light-weight assault combo for a “different combo,” or you possibly can simply use a heavy assault by itself for a robust strike that may be charged even additional if two, three, and even 4 Focus factors are consumed unexpectedly.
You even have entry to a small handful of spells, ruled by a mana meter, which might be versatile sufficient to be helpful in a big selection of conditions. The Immobilize spell, as an example, freezes enemies for a short while, permitting you to get in some fast hits and probably stagger them to permit for much more free injury; Cloud Step turns you invisible and creates a decoy in your enemies to give attention to whilst you break free, heal up, after which hit your foe with a shock assault that may crit; Rock Strong briefly turns you right into a statue that may trigger an enemy’s assault to bounce proper off of you, giving you a chance for a counter-attack; Ring of Hearth creates a barrier round you that may initially repel enemies, and grant you some well being restoration and enhances any stat altering drinks you could use whereas standing inside it; and at last there’s my private favourite, a Pluck of Many, which helps you to make a number of clones of your self to all gang up on an enemy.
Separate from that you simply’ve additionally bought transformations, which let you morph into highly effective creatures that you simply’ve already bested in battle. What’s actually cool about these is that they don’t price any mana (they’re tied to a really prolonged cooldown as a substitute) they usually flip you into a completely completely different character, full with an all new moveset, particular strikes that use your focus meter, and extra. For instance, one of many first bosses you battle is a wolf with a fiery dualblade that has a lightning quick sprint assault. Once you defeat him, you’ll achieve his transformation and have the ability to try this exact same sprint assault to your enemies, and when you construct up his focus meter, you’ll even get to do a massively highly effective leaping strike that may ignite foes and deal injury over time to them.
And eventually there are Spirit Abilities, that are earned by defeating sure extra highly effective variations of enemies and absorbing their essence into your gourd. These are successfully transformations that solely final for one assault and are additionally tied to a reasonably prolonged cooldown, but it surely’s nice to have the ability to, for instance, use the Wandering Wight’s highly effective headbutt assault to get an additional stagger after immobilizing an enemy. These Spirit Abilities can be leveled up, which makes it in order that even early sport Spirits by no means lose their power because the marketing campaign rolls on.
It’s a wonderful mix of choices, particularly when combined with some really unimaginable boss fights, and Wukong introduces all of those components at a thoughtfully measured tempo in order that I by no means felt overwhelmed. Make no mistake: The Destined One is extraordinarily highly effective, and being in charge of him is unquestionably a heck of an influence journey – even past the various powers and talents he has at his disposal, nothing beats the sensation of simply slamming a 50-foot bo employees down onto an enemy’s head – however I nonetheless needed to be sensible with how I used my spells as a result of the truth that mana restoration is definitely very troublesome.
That is the place the useful resource administration facet of fight comes into play: I needed to rigorously think about what spells had been really definitely worth the mana price, whether or not I ought to save them for a tougher second part of a battle, and whether or not or not I may capitalize on the chance if I had been to spend the mana within the first place. As an illustration, regardless that its my strongest spell, I typically needed to maintain off on casting my Pluck of Many spell that duplicates my monkey because it has a particularly excessive mana price – if i solid it at a nasty time, the boss may merely wipe all of my clones out with an AOE assault earlier than they even bought an opportunity to get some injury in. Generally the adjustment I needed to make after I was caught on a boss was a easy change in how I used my talents, and the act of arising with a brand new technique and having it repay was all the time extraordinarily satisfying.
Whereas boss battles are the place Wukong is at its greatest, there’s additionally a extremely respectable quantity of enemy selection in its common fights. Stage design is of the “wide-linear” selection, often with a transparent important path that leads you from checkpoint to checkpoint, however loads of alternatives to enterprise off that path to find non-compulsory goodies. The rewards for exploration are nice, too: I’ve discovered uncommon crafting supplies to make new weapons or armor, particular enemies that drop a brand new Spirit Talent, Curio gadgets that I may equip to boost my construct, and treasure chests that may completely improve my max well being, mana, or stamina, all of which made the time I took to search out them really feel nicely spent.
On high of that, there are a number of secret boss fights to find, key gadgets with mysterious makes use of that I nonetheless haven’t found out, and lots extra causes to stray from the crushed path and maintain an eye fixed continually scanning the setting. The principle one being that Wukong is likely one of the most beautiful video games I’ve ever performed – each setting is brimming with element, from the chipped items of bark on the timber within the forest, to the real-time deformation of the snow as The Destined One strikes by means of it whereas dragging his employees alongside. Not solely that, however the animation is unimaginable too, with great touches and thrives like the best way your character will do some hop step whereas locked on to an enemy, then change to strafing round them versus simply straight on operating whereas preserving their head turned. The music and sound design is unbelievable as nicely, with epic drum-thumping battle themes and melodic flutes and chimes including to the air of marvel and thriller as you discover the unknown.
All that stated, this sport would have benefitted from a map, plain and easy. The lands you discover in Wukong are lovely, little question, however they’re far too large and too full of secrets and techniques to not offer you some kind of navigational assist, particularly the second and third chapters. This, together with the truth that it’s aggravatingly laborious to inform what obstacles can really be climbed over and what’s an invisible wall, could make exploration fairly cumbersome. It’s an excellent factor the rewards are value it.
Nevertheless, it’s laborious to not really feel like all of Wukong’s splendor and element got here at an ideal price. I skilled quite a few crashes, with one specific heartbreaker occurring proper after defeating a particularly powerful boss that I then needed to defeat once more. A number of others had been extra minor and would sometimes occur as I used to be loading up a brand new chapter or quick touring to a different degree, however they ultimately add as much as loads of frustration.
Along with that, a number of instances throughout essential cutscenes, all dialogue audio and subtitles would drop out fully, leaving me with none clue as to what was being talked about and no strategy to rewatch the cutscene; characters would sometimes swap to talking in Chinese language impulsively regardless of me having the audio set to English; the lipflaps of the English dub don’t even remotely match what’s being spoken; and a lot of the journal entries you discover alongside the best way haven’t even been localized but into English.
The worst, although, was one specific battle through which the boss would plunge me down by means of the bottom throughout the transition to its ultimate part, solely to have me fall by means of the world as soon as I regained management of my character. This stored on occurring to the purpose the place I believed my sport was unavoidably bugged and I wouldn’t have the ability to attain the tip, however my madness of attempting the identical factor time and again ultimately yielded a unique outcome for no discernible cause.
These are the sorts of technical issues that GameScience will hopefully look to deal with in post-launch patches – and it’s not exterior of the realm of risk, as even Cyberpunk 2077 was ultimately whipped into form after its personal buggy launch (one other sport that conspicuously didn’t let anybody strive its console model earlier than launch). I hope these fixes come swiftly, as a result of whereas I nonetheless wholeheartedly suppose the issues Black Fantasy: Wukong does so proper are value coping with these issues, I might love to have the ability to suggest it with out these caveats.
