Black Myth: Wukong

Black Myth: Wukong‍ is a 2024 action role-playing game developed and published by Game Science. The player assumes the role of the Destined One, a staff-wielding monkey, who embarks on a journey to recover six relics corresponding to Sun Wukong's six senses. The game is inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. It is the first installment in the Black Myth series.

Black Myth: Wukong was released for PlayStation 5 and Windows on August 20, 2024, and for Xbox Series X/S on August 20, 2025. It received generally favorable reviews from critics and won several accolades including Game of the Year awards. It sold 20 million units in its first month, making it one of the fastest-selling games of all time. Black Myth: Zhong Kui is the next entry in the series.

Gameplay

Black Myth: Wukong is an action role-playing game. It has elements characteristic of the Soulslike subgenre. It is played in single-player mode‍ from a third-person perspective.

The player controls the Destined One, a monkey protagonist based on Sun Wukong from the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. The protagonist's weapon is a staff much like the Ruyi Jingu Bang from the novel. The staff can extend and shrink in size during combat. Its moveset is versatile through the staff stances, which includes the smash, pillar, and thrust stance. The combat mechanics involve resource management. Focus is accumulated by landing light attacks, executing well-timed dodges, and other means. A focus point is gained when the meter for focus is filled up. These points can be used to initiate heavy attacks. A heavy attack can be executed on its own or as a varied combo integrated during light attacks. Meanwhile, stamina is depleted by sprinting, dodging, and attacking.

Spells, which act as abilities, are divided into four categories, namely mysticism, alteration, strand, and transformations. They have cooldown periods and consume mana. The exception is transformations, which have cooldowns and do not consume mana. The protagonist uses transformations to shapeshift into various creatures or beings. One example is the Red Tides transformation, which takes the form of Guangzhi, a wolfman who wields a flaming glaive. Each transformation has its own unique moveset and health pool. It remains active until its might, which is depleted by attacking, or health runs out.

Spirits‍ and vessels‍ are equippable components that offer both passive bonuses and active skills for use in battle. Each has its own qi, which is used to activate its skill and is replenished through attacks. Defeated yaoguai chiefs may leave behind their spirits, which are captured if they are absorbed into a gourd or retrieved from a keeper's shrine. Each spirit skill functions as a transformation that unleashes a unique attack. An example of a spirit is the Wandering Wight, who performs a headbutt attack. An example of a vessel is the Plantain Fan, which generates a hurricane that staggers enemies.

The game follows a mostly linear progression interspersed with expansive areas. There are keeper's shrines, which serve as checkpoints, along the way. The character customization is flexible, as skill points known as sparks can be freely reallocated to change the character's playstyle. The game's difficulty cannot be manually adjusted and varies throughout a playthrough. Enemy boss encounters, for instance, follow a deliberate rhythm of rising and falling intensity across each chapter. After a playthrough is completed, the player can access a New Game Plus mode‍ and a mode focused on boss battles.

Synopsis

Setting

Black Myth: Wukong is inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. For instance, it features adaptations of the novel's characters and their backstories. It is structured into six chapters, each centered on a distinct location: Black Wind Mountain, Yellow Wind Ridge, The New West, The Webbed Ridge, Flaming Mountains, and Mount Huaguo. The world is home to gods from the Chinese pantheon, encompassing Buddhist, Daoist, and other deities. It is also inhabited by yaoguais, who are beings with preternatural abilities and strange appearances. The story hints at a growing instability in the relationship between the Buddhist deities of Mount Lingshan and the Daoist gods of the Celestial Court in the background.

The game introduces cultural and natural scenery derived from the real world into its setting. It features, for example, scenes based on the Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, the Wulong Temple in Langzhong, and the Dazu Rock Carvings, among others.

Each chapter concludes with an animated cutscene that reflects on and explores the narrative and thematic elements of the game. The first three cutscenes are grounded in Chinese philosophy. The fourth cutscene portrays love, while the fifth cutscene addresses grief and anger. The final cutscene serves as a reverse-chronological flashback to a few key events from the Journey to the West.

Plot

After escorting his master, the Tang Monk, and retrieving the Buddhist scriptures in a pilgrimage to the West, Sun Wukong ascends to Buddhahood. Yet, he rejects life in the Celestial Court for the simple joys of life on Mount Huaguo. The Court grows mistrustful and sends an army led by Erlang Shen to force him to submit. Sun Wukong duels Erlang Shen, but he is incapacitated by the circlet that binds him and is sealed in stone on the mountain. He is severed from his six senses, corresponding to six powerful relics. Over the next centuries, the monkeys of the mountain seek to recover the relics to revive him.

The Destined One, one of the monkeys, traverses Black Wind Mountain and is assisted by the local Keeper through this place. He defeats the Black Bear Guai, who surrenders, and takes the Craving Eyes relic that the bear has enshrined atop a pagoda. The Destined One then travels to the barren Yellow Wind Ridge. He defeats the Yellow Wind Sage, who uses Bodhisattva Lingji's severed head to contain the Fuming Ears relic. A mysterious Headless Monk, revealed to be Lingji, restores his head and hands over the relic to the monkey. The Destined One continues to The New West, a cold mountainous region. Yellowbrow, appearing in the guise of Maitreya, has the Hubris Nose relic submerged in a frozen lake. He sends Kang-Jin Star after the monkey. During a fight, she crashes into the Gold Cymbals imprisoning Zhu Bajie, an old friend of Sun Wukong. Bajie escapes and joins the quest to gather the relics. The Destined One defeats Yellowbrow, who flees and falls into the lake. Maitreya fishes the relic out of the lake for the monkey. The Destined One and Zhu Bajie arrive at The Webbed Ridge, where the monkey is aided by the Fourth Sister of the spider guai family. The Second Sister captures Bajie and brings him to the matriarch, the Violet Spider, but the monkey rescues him. The Violet Spider flees to the Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master, who absorbs the Envious Tongue relic he previously gave her and thereby mortally injures her. The spider sisters retaliate against the master, while the Destined One arrives and joins the sisters in battle, ultimately defeating him. Bajie and the Violet Spider, who were once lovers, share a final glance, but Bajie sorrowfully turns away and walks toward the reappeared relic. The Destined One and Zhu Bajie fight their way to the Flaming Mountains. The monkey rescues someone who alleges to be Pingping, the daughter of the Bull King and Princess Fair Fox. The Bull King sees through the ruse and recognizes his son Red Boy beneath the disguise. He gives the Grieved Body relic to the monkey, but Red Boy intercepts and consumes it. The Destined One and Bajie defeat him. Rakshasi, the mother of Red Boy, pleads for mercy and offers her Plantain Fan. However, Red Boy refuses to submit and kills himself, which leads to the reemergence of the relic.

In the Great Pagoda located in The New West, Maitreya guides Erlang Shen and the Destined One to Mount Mei. Here, the Destined One defeats Erlang Shen and the Four Heavenly Kings. Erlang Shen, who took the Mind of Sun Wukong after their battle many ages ago, unleashes Wukong's memories from his third eye and shares his realization that their fight back then allowed Wukong to set a path to break free through a mortal death.

The Destined One and Zhu Bajie return to Mount Huaguo. They retrieve Sun Wukong's armor and Jingubang. They pass through the stone on the mountain's summit into a realm shaped by Wukong's lingering memories. There, the Old Monkey ferries them across its waters. The group encounters versions of their present selves, which prompts the Old Monkey to reveal that the Destined One is the mind of Sun Wukong. He says that Wukong's mind is lost, as the mind is an essence unique to every life and is destined to fade away at life's end. Thus, he explains, Wukong can never return as he was, but the universe will always bear him a successor—this successor is the Destined One. At the journey's end, the Destined One defeats Sun Wukong's broken shell. The five relics, obtained during the journey, unite with the Destined One. As the shell dissipates, Wukong's circlet materializes on its head and drops into the shallow water. In one ending, the Old Monkey places the circlet on the Destined One and thereby binds him. In the other ending, having recovered Sun Wukong's memories from Erlang Shen, the Destined One does not wear the circlet and remains free.