This game is based on the novel Journey to the West. Sun Wukong is the main protagonist of that journey, and I would advise watching some summary before playing the game, to understand how insane he is and what he did. He was also an inspiration for Goku.

I didn't tag this game as Souls-like because I don't think it is. When you die, you don't lose "souls". Lore is way more detailed and not as hidden as in Souls games where you need to read item descriptions and listen to NPCs. Here most of the lore is found by just killing new enemies which unlock new entry in the journal. There are no stats like strength, dexterity etc. instead you have skill trees with so many things to upgrade. Also if you explore everything this game will be easier than Souls games most of the time. Black Myth: Wukong is the game on its own, the epic game for itself.

The first thing you can notice when you start this game is that in only a few seconds you are greeted by some colossal beings. I was amazed as soon as the game started, and the prologue itself is absolutely incredible. Slight spoiler, but in prologue you play as Sun Wukong, and after that game is divided into 6 chapters, where you are playing as Destined One years later trying to "wake up" Sun Wukong. Every time you kill a new enemy you will get some journal entry, which is a short story which has references to the Chinese folklore or Journey to the West, and reading these stories is necessary to understand the story. Sometimes I had to google, because the names were not explained. These stories are also usually very interesting, but there are so many of them so I would advise on reading them as soon as you get them, cause they can pile up. There are around 200 in total and some of them are connected where story continues from one entry to another.

The story itself is pretty interesting, and there are a lot of amazing cutscenes. Each of the first 5 chapters features a new story set in some new world. Each of these chapters has some main "villain" that you need to beat to get the rune.

When I first started playing this game, after overwhelming prologue, chapter 1 felt a bit rushed and kinda underwhelming, because if you don't read those journal entries the whole chapter will feel like the boss rush, but after some time I started liking it. Chapter 2 is definitely way bigger and opens way more, however it's a big desert, so it can get tiring. Chapter 3 is where things got very interesting and very confusing, because it is so big, and it branches so much. At first it felt okay, but then I reached a big forest with snow everywhere, and everything looked similar, you could go anywhere, like in 15 directions. Thankfully with those journal entries you can see if you missed something. And when I was done with this forest there was some temple area, which as well was really really big, and had so much going on, that the whole chapter was very confusing, even though it was very interesting story-wise. It is also the longest chapter in the game. Chapter 4 is also very long and it is probably one of the best when it comes to story, but it is a bit gloomy. Chapter 5 was kinda short, and it was mostly fighting bosses, but it was as well a pretty interesting chapter with interesting story line. Chapter 6 is very different from all other chapters, you are just going around and searching for some bosses, trying to find some items before fighting the final boss.

The first 5 chapters also feature secret areas which I would advise beating, since most of the time they will make the end boss of the chapter much easier with some new item that you got, and they are also very interesting. The game also features 2 endings, and to get true ending you will need to beat all these secret areas.

Throughout the game there are so many bosses and mini-bosses to beat, I think I have beaten over 100 of them, but I definitely beat them all since I got all journal entries in the game. Most of these bosses took me few tries most, and a lot of them can actually be considered mini-bosses, and those mini-bosses sometimes leave spirits which you can collect and summon later while fighting. It can be a bit overwhelming to fight bosses all the time, but eventually I got used to it, and since I mostly beat them all on first or second try, it felt like fighting regular enemies eventually. The problem with fighting so many bosses is that rarely any boss will be memorable. If you explore everything and you are "good" at Souls games you will not have problems with this game. Only one boss in this game which is necessary to beat to get true ending took me a lot of tries, I think I needed a few hours. Boss is so epic and hard, and in my personal experience it's 2nd hardest boss from all bosses I've ever fought including all Souls games.

Combat is just incredible, it's so fun, one of the best I have seen. Destined One is wielding staff so fast, and he is so fast that you can just dodge anything and you need to dodge all the time. You also need to make the best use of spells that you get through the game. One spell will let you freeze the enemy for few seconds. One spell will make duplicates of you for few seconds which help you fight. I mentioned already that you will be able to call spirits, and you will also be able to transform. Transformations regenerate over time, as well as spirits (when you fight you get KI which regenerates spirits), but spells cost mana, and until you rest again at shrine you will not get mana back, so prepare to become good with your staff. Overall combat is just amazing, incredibly fun.

In addition to combat, there are shrines on which you can rest, fast travel etc., and while fighting you earn skill points which you can use to upgrade your abilities. You can also restart these abilities at any point on any shrine. You can travel from chapter to chapter at any point in the story. You can also craft armor and staff that you get from fighting bosses, and use some items to help you make game easier.

Game took me around ~65h to beat all bosses, get all journal entries and get most of the achievements. You can't get all achievements in the first run, so you must play ng+ for the rest of them, however ng+ is pretty easy. Only problem is that some achievements require farming. There aren't many NPCs side quests, but there a lot of characters. Performance wise a lot of people complain, and I also had issues which I fixed by using FSR instead of DLSS and frame generation on. I managed to get my game running completelly smooth, stutter free, but I had insane stutter at first.

- One of the best openings in the games I've ever seen
- Incredibly fun combat
- Journal entries are so interesting
- Cutscenes are amazing
- Most bosses are unique, and there are many good bosses
- Pretty good story and everything about Sun Wukong is so interesting

- Chapter 3 can be a bit confusing to explore, it can feel like it's easy to miss stuff, but on the other hand chapter itself is really interesting
- Chapter 6 introduces new ability, but it also feels so random, just searching for bosses
- Having to search the internet for explanation of some characters that are not in the game

Just an incredible game, my personal GOTY of the 2024 so far, and of the best and most fun games I've ever played. I liked it so much that I ordered The Journey to the West books. This is definitely one of the best games I've ever played and one of my new favorite games, and I felt so overwhelmed when I finished it. I would advise getting true ending, cause it's worth it. If chapters 3 and 6 had a bit better design I would consider this game a masterpiece, but it's really close.

Note: This explains how I rate games in my reviews. https://imgur.com/s7VB3Vj