Black Myth: Wukong trailer shows off a gorgeous simian soulslike
Monkey see, monkey slam.
Emerging from the canopy like, well, some kind of Monkey royalty, Black Myth: Wukong burst out of nowhere with some lovely footage earlier today. While it's still a long ways off completion, our first 13-minute brings us from bug-flights and dog fights to chasing down dragons while surfing a cloud, wrapped in a surprisingly simian take on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
This is admittedly very early pre-alpha footage, but developers Game Science Studio have already painted a lush forest packed with anthropomorphic soldiers, mythological nasties, and heaps of detail that scale right down to a bug-sized perspective.
What we've got, then, is a very Sekiro-looking third-person action game styled after immensely popular ancient Chinese tale Journey to the West, a story that's inspired countless games, movies and books - from Enslaved: Odyssey To The West and Dota 2's Monkey King hero to 1979 telly drama Monkey.
That framing is put towards a particularly acrobatic take on the FromSoft boss-basher format. As the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, we see all-too-familiar faceoffs with big bad bosses, strafing around explosive attacks and using I-frame dodges to blink through heavy hits. But our man has a few tricks up his sleeves (and in his ears), and we see Wukong use all manner of dust-clouds and surprises to stagger enemies, parrying some truly earth-shattering blows.
The clip does briefly swing away from Sekiro'ing, mind. We see Wukong ambushed by over a dozen baddies, hopping between them all Arkham-like before giving up and turning himself into a massive brute. The tables even turn a moment later when - upon facing a truly Clifford-sized dog - our main monkey creates a dozen clones of himself to pin down the big pooch.
A studio founded by several former Tencent devs, Game Science have largely focused on free-to-play games 'til now. According to game biz insider Daniel Ahmad, however, Steam's growing foothold in China helped convince them to start work on "premium" games in 2017.
According to a rough Google translate of the official site, Black Myth: Wukong is coming to PC alongside "mainstream" consoles. While there's still no release window, Game Science have assured that development should take less than 500 years. Thanks, I guess?