[Game Review] Black Myth: Wukong

Rating: 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎🍏

✅ Immersive Journey Through Journey to the West — From large-scale narrative arcs to micro-level polish, this is one of the best recreations of Journey to the West I've ever seen.

• Signature skills like the 72 Transformations, Iron Body, Clones, and the Ruyi Jingu Bang staff are faithfully implemented

• Cultural details like traditional instruments in battle, Northern Chinese storytelling, incense-based save points, and post-battle ink paintings are chef’s kiss in terms of immersion

✅ Yoka Games really poured their heart into it — Everything from CGs and music to enemy and boss design reflects incredible care and pride. A studio truly worth respecting.

✅ Combat feels tight and rewarding — It's fluid, with just the right difficulty curve. Rather than leaning hard into “Soulsborne” territory, the devs made the game more accessible (even removing difficulty selection entirely), which is commendable for a Chinese AAA debut in action games.

• Different staff techniques feel amazing

• The staff itself feels like it’s taking the global stage as an iconic weapon

✅ Narrative Depth — Both main and side quests are rich and layered. Plot twists motivate replays and deepen the narrative experience.

✅ Intro Design is Brilliant — The early high-difficulty boss (Big Head) is a genius move: it fuels discussion and speculation, while guiding players to explore different paths — either brute force it or go explore elsewhere.

❌ Invisible Walls & Confusing Paths — Some areas of the map feel unclear or artificially blocked. Personally, I love linear narratives, but if that’s the goal, map design should reflect that more decisively. Feeling like you’re going the right way only to loop back is frustrating.

❌ Design Fatigue in Certain Areas — For example, ranged enemies with no reliable counter or the “Red-Eye Mode” in Little Western Heaven feel a bit punishing or unbalanced.