We have a new rumor about the next international title coming to PlayStation, Black Myth Wukong.
Twitter account user Lunatic Ignus shared this tidbit a few hours ago:
“The pre-orders for “Black Myth: Wukong” may come in the middle of May.
The game is still in the optimization stage, all dub has been completed and the game content is really, really large (it will probably exceed all expectations).”
Ignus also shared the pre-order page for Black Myth Wukong on PlayStation Store a few days ago, so he’s clearly keeping a close eye on this title in particular.
Black Myth Wukong is one of many video games based on the popular classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. Developer Game Science has chosen to cut a little loose on the source material, sharing a threadbare narrative of the titular Monkey Kong going on a quest to find the truth about an ancient legend. Maybe it turns out that legend is his own.
For those who haven’t read the novel, or are just unfamiliar with the story, hundreds of years before the actual journey to the West with the monk Tang Sanzang, the mythical Sun Wukong rebelled against the Jade Emperor, defeating every major and minor deity under his kingdom. It would take Buddha to end his little reign of terror, but it’s certainly a story that mirrors part of what Sony’s popular war god, Kratos, went through as well.
So the hours of footage of action RPG gameplay in Unreal Engine 5 have definitely been visually impressive. And the core gameplay looks good, though there’s still a lot of speculation if this Wukong will get more weapons and abilities than the staff he has on him. But there’s also a lot of potential for a bigger story, that will once again introduce Chinese mythology in a big way to the world.
And it’s hard to avoid making comparisons to similarly inspired titles, like Team Ninja’s Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, or Round 8 Studios’ Lies of P. These games certainly take some ideas from the Soulslike genre but aren’t tied to its conventions, and that seems to be a good formula for making a decent independent AAA hit. We’re all definitely looking forward to Black Myth Wukong inching ever closer to release, and see if it will be one of the big games of 2024.
Black Myth Wukong is releasing on August 10, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows on Steam and Epic Games Store.
