game journalists just didn't bother taking their time to enjoy the game, reading the journals, understanding the story, etc... BMW is an animated movie+game experience with many hours of materials, if you're not taking time to savor it and just rush through the game , confused with the plot and don't care, then you're missing a big part of the experience. As I recall , some of the journos thought it didn't have diversity, etc...showing they didn't even play the entire game. The developer didn't have the time / budget to do 3 hours of animations to hold their hand and guide them through the entire plot of journey to the west so the player will understand the plot in that 2000 page novel, it's really up to the individual player to read the journals/materials included in the game if they want the bg story.
The novel is really deep dark and interesting, but if you don't know Chinese culture well it would be a weird book full of unreasonable content. The game inherit that and hide a lot of things ,like at the intro, ErLang says he wants a duel with SunWuKong, means the four heavenly kings don't really follow his command , SunWuKong says "the sun is too bright" means a Budah is above them, waiting to get him, cause ErLang is not trusted by the celestial court, that's why the headbang appeared later.
I'm playing the game and I got so hooked on the story that I had to learn more, I found a channel that is making a dramatic reading of the novel as well as the summary from Legends Summerized and it gave me a completely different understanding of this game. One of my favorite moments of this was finally understanding who was the monk from chapter one (who's also a secret boss fight I only found on a second save file I'm playing for my wife to watch) and it was such a mind blown moment for me despite being something so small and frankly easy to know if I had knowledge of the story beforehand. I will replay the game once I finish listening to the audiobook of it to see how the game changed for me, but so far it's really cool to figure out things as I go and it makes me feel like a child again playing a game with zero knowledge and getting it slowly through manuals or magazines or speaking with friends.
Its sad how yall have to say the game would be better rated if we understood the story. Bro I didn't know shit about Sun Wukong or Journey To The West or any of that and it legit made me go out and build a top tier pc just to be able to play it how it was meant to be played, go on google and research the story and characters, shit I am even currently watching an anime about journey to the west, and God dammit I was not disappointed whatsoever. The game reviewers that downplay this game are either biased, paid to underrate the game, stupid, or are just trolling. No one, and I mean No One in their right mind would downplay this masterpiece. Sure, some have good points. The fight mechanics could be a little better, the hit boxes of some of the bigger bosses could be easier to hit, fuck off with the invisible walls, etc, but to downplay or even hate on the game for anything other than that is just plain trolling. In the grand scheme of things, this game is by far game of the year, if not game of the past decade lol. Nah but in all reality, this game is fun , engaging, absolutely stunning, plays well, has an amazing story, awesome combat, no regurgitated bosses, awesome NG+, etc etc. If you can't tell, I absolutely love the game and ignorance to the source material should be no excuse in this case to lower the rating.
By sheer luck of algorithm I came across this video, and I find your analysis is on point. As someone who grew up with the JTTW show as a kid, I can at least acknowledge the bias involved when the sheer number of Easter eggs and fan services hit me different emotionally than someone who didn’t grow up with it - similar to how I also would consider the Mandalorian a great series but non Star Wars fans would understandably not regard it as high. I only looked at one or two of these so-called insipid game reviews to see what’s going on. I’ve spent well over half of my life in the US by now, and it’s no longer a surprise to me. It really just comes down to ignorance plus a small dose of cultural arrogance thrown in there - but of course no western journalist would admit it, though this is fundamentally what’s wrong. When games like Age of Mythology or God of War got released in countries outside of dominant European influence, those games did not need to go on a long exposition to tell the audience the foundation of Greek belief system so the gamers and journalists serving those markets needed to do their homework aka reading. But here in the US at least, anything that comes out of Asian that’s not the samurai or kung fu stereotypes is apparently just below these so-called journalists to look into - because why would they waste their time otherwise. I wouldn’t call it intellectual laziness either because I’m willing to wager those same journalists would spare no effort in looking up obscure references to things like Shakespeare’s tragic heroes or Tolkien’s original tales, and spare no effort applauding game devs for acknowledging those inspirations. I’m not mad about that at all - everyone is only human and subject to their own bias. But what I AM calling out is their intellectual dishonesty when labeling the story “objectively” confusing when they didn’t even bother to understand the source material that’s cherished by billions of other human beings on this Earth. But most of these so called journalists, man, for all the talks of diversity and inclusivity, they do not contribute ANYTHING to help promote cultural exchange and mutual understanding. I think we badly need some sort of Anthony Bourdain for all types of media including games, movies, TVs, pop musics and whatnot. So yes, in short, I appreciate you calling them out, and objectively from a neutral ground too! How much do you get heard across the society as a whole is irrelevant - it means a lot to me that someone out there is indeed thinking this critically and is willing to explore beyond their own bubble, even on “frivolous” things such as a video game especially.
Yeah, I had a feeling this was the case, but didn't know for sure. But the show seems to follow the novel closely enough. And is also why I included tons of clips from it!
@@ArthurGunnerson 1986 tv series gets rerun every summer and many other TV adaptations were made in the following decades. 1986 version is actually quite tame and far less dark than the original novel. It's like the PG version.
DUDE I couldn’t relate more, I literally stopped playing the game for a couple of months but after beating the yellow sage I was hooked on the game for a whole week.
Reviewers when they need context from something to understand the sequel: 🤯🤯🤯 This game was an absolute treat and i cannot wait for the dlc "nezha fight plzzzzz".
It's a great game. And reading the novel does enrich the enjoyment of playing it. I myself don't feel it is a souls game or have anything to do with GOW God of War isn't half as good as Black Myth Wukong. IMHO and opening treasure chest is about the only thing it has in common with gow. I like the older GOW games. But the 2 newer ones aren't very good to me. But everyone has their own opinions. Just for a few things I don't think a game should be labeled as a souls type. But whatever to each their own. I love BMW. I am a hard-core Journey to the west fan. Starting the group in 2008 to make English Subtitles for the 1996 version of the tv show. Then later in 2015 Dubbing the whole Monkey king 2014 movie in English myself. So I definitely have been dreaming about this game long before it was made 😅 and my dreams were spot on. I knew that it would be a master peice.
I'd replace "under" with "over" honestly. I really didn't like the feel of the combat at all and the level design is extremely basic and boring. All of the varying RPG and itemization systems also fell off for me. I wasn't really feeling invested in gearing up or using that clusterfuck of a skill tree. The list of soulslikes and character action games that I feel are way better than Wukong is miles long.
Wow, can't believe a westerner can be so spot on with this game! My respect! Yeah it is made for the fans and yet at the same time Game Science did an amazing job to make it accessible to those without knowledge of the book. But I think the reasons for the lower ratings are from somewhere else. I would say a major problem with many reviwers in the west is they are quite self centred. In multiple videos I heard people complaining about the English dub and lip sync. It sounds they expect everyone to speak English and only write stories in their cultural background. Some had little interest in the game itself and reviewing was rather a task assigned to them. Unfortunately the game is deep even for native Chinese and the fans of JTTW, therefore the confusing complaint. The most ironic, and probably moronic one is that the game is too shallow. The primary reason for the low rating is probably political. Both in the game industry and in geopolitics the establishment had a strong incentive to keep this game down. The game has its flaws as you rightfully pointed out. For me it's still a masterpiece, not only because of the high quality entertainment, but because the philosophy and ideas it carries. The absence of map is probably intentional, though stage design could be better. Also no difficulty setting means general equality for everyone yet even if one's skills are limited with enough effort there's plenty of ways to get through.
Love this game bro I struggled with souls games bcuz i just wanted to fight the bosses personally so hated getting killed on my way to tbe next boss now i got a boss rush mode lol perfect for me!
@@tlforge3446Herzog Zwei is an example from the 1990s where reviewers marked it down because they made no effort to understand it. Another example was a reviewer complaining that you can't see in front of Space Harrier.
It's fun to see how the comments are occupied by Chinese😂😂😂 I don't think Wukong is underrated, the only thing that I can say I enjoyed in this game is the graphic.
By who? Who’s underrating it? It’s got a nomination for GOTY, most people love the game, even critics who didn’t like the fact that GS wouldn’t let SBI control the game are starting to relent and say it’s a good game.
It's one of the best games of the year, is on everyone's top 5 list, and has been nominated for GOTY. Underrated? What's next, a video about how "underrated" Citizen Kane and Red Dead Redemption 2 are?
Even half of Chinese players with background knowledge about journey to the west don't truly comprehend the main theme of the story that Black Myth Wukong is trying to tell, it's something brutal, realistic and yet inspiring at the same time about our human society. Not to mention the language problem between English and Chinese made it really hard for foreigners to understand the story. Even I as Chinese who watched the English version of game streaming find it terrible while comparing to what the Chinese version of plot pushing could bring into my brain, it was night and day different game experience.
it's just not a Souls-like but great video despite your insistence it is. I'd compare it much more to an action game like God of War. still my game of the year but the need to categorize games as Souls-like is just as misguided as when everybody called every game "the Dark Souls of X". even Sekiro and Armored Core aren't a souls like and they're made by From Software. still enjoyed your video
Hey, thanks for watching! I could be convinced Sekiro isn't a soulslike. But, as you already know, I think Wukong is clearly a soulslike. What do you think makes Wukong not a soulslike?
@@ArthurGunnerson I consider your comment ironic then because Wukong is MUCH closer to Sekiro than it is to any Souls game. 1. Talent trees are not a souls-like feature, every souls game even back to Kingsfield have let you level up stats not give you whole new abilities. conversely in Sekiro you DO get new abilities for your one weapon which brings me to 2. Souls games have huge weapon variety and the leveling of stats enables you to use different weapons/spells as opposed to just learning everything with no restrictions. 3. Every Souls game has an emphasis on defense like Dark Souls with shields, Elden Ring with guard counters, and Bloodborne with a HUGE emphasis on parries. conversely Wukong has no blocking and very limited parry systems that are unlocked by tech trees instead of equipment (see point 2) 4. Dropping currency just is part of Souls games, nuff said. 5. Souls games typically have branching paths and the need to clear a number of specific bosses in order to progress. Examples; Dark Souls 1-3 have 4 bosses you need to clear to get to the end, Elden Ring has rune bearers you need to kill to get into Leyndell, and Bloodborne has Chalice Dungeons you need to clear to progress. Conversely Wukong has chapters that are self contained and have zero bearing on past or future chapters. 6. Wukong is just straight up easier and less punishing than most Souls games, not saying Erlang or Wukong weren't tough but I first tried most bosses in Wukong and that's not even a brag. You can get hit an absurd amount more and can transform to get an entire new healthbar which despite what you said is absolutely nothing like summons/spirits since summons/spirits use resources or must be brought in before a fight. You're welcome to disagree with me but as someone who absolutely loves From's games AND Wukong I wholeheartedly don't think this game is a Souls Like
@@burn1none To me this game is God of War with Chinese mythology made as a soulslike. It's fantastic. It takes the more cinematic aspects of God of War, and the more explicit storytelling, while still using the soulslike formula for bosses and level design. I do think excluding Sekiro from the definition of soulslike is too restrictive. Sekiro is my favourite game of all time and certainly scratches the same itch that all the other games I consider soulslike do.
@burn1none Your list of 6 features is fairly inconsistent with the games you consider soulslikes. For one, DS3 and Bloodborne are fairly linear (although with some optional content), to insist that branching paths are necessary to the genre excludes these games. The emphasis on defense also exists in Sekiro with the deflect system, and I would argue in Wukong with both the perfect dodge mechanic and Rock Solid. Lies of P is a game that is so similar to From Software's games, and specifically Bloodborne, that I think it is ludicrous to discount it from the soulslike genre. It also has a similar parry system to Sekiro and a skill-tree (along with a traditional levelling system). So I don't think having a skill-tree excludes the game from the genre. The lack of a traditional stat levelling system does not fundamentally change the game for me in a way that would require a new genre. Especially when Wukong lets you spend points to level up basic stats under "foundation". Dropping currency/being punished for death is something that typically exists in the genre but I don't think the lack of it has a significant enough effect on how the game feels to play to change the genre. Honestly I prefer it. I think a game that is hard (not that Wukong really is), and expects you to die a lot, should not punish you so heavily for death. In most games I homeward bone out of boss fights or quit out in order to use up souls so I didn't need to worry about losing them. Not needing to do that was a minor improvement to the flow of the game to be honest and is the sort of thing I hope is adopted in the future. I do agree difficulty is also something typical of soulslikes but I reject the idea that Dark Souls would no longer fit the genre if the enemy health and enemy damage values were halved. One of my biggest complaints when it comes to Wukong was that I found it too easy initially (before I decided to ban spells for myself) but I don't think the game being easier changes the genre. While weapon variety is something a lot of soulslike games have, it is also something I do not consider essential to the formula. The same itch is scratched for me whether I can swap my weapon or not.
People not fully grasping the story doesn't change the largely mediocre boss fights, uninspired and boring level design, and repetitive combat. If anything, this game was overhyped. In fact, I've never seen a game so overhyped for political reasons. Putting this much emphasis on the story in a GAME misses the point. I'm saying all this even though I think it is a good game.... but it is just that... a good... game. Nothing more.
Mediocre boss fights? Stop lying bruh just stop... All you people are doing is embarrassing yourselves and showing everyone you didn't actually play the game... You are just a hater
@flacohernandez4380 I think maybe you need to learn the difference between objective and subjective.... but.... okay, after playing the game the first time, I realized I couldn't even remember the vast majority of the bosses I fought as they were so forgettable. Then, when I replayed it recently, I noticed that a large number of them had very basic and boring movesets. I'm talking 2 or 3 swings or swipes, and that is it. Stuff you would expect from a DS1 or 2 era boss. Speaking of ds2, the game fell into the same trap of throwing a ton of largely forgettable bosses at you. Of the dozens of them you fight there are maybe 3 or 4 that are good.
@@ArthurGunnerson Yes, all of it is intentional though and largely driven by political agenda. Just like Alan Wake 2 and Hi Fi Rush were super overrated last year, and Balatro, Astrobot and Helldivers 2 this year to make them bigger and more impactful than they are. You just have to check the big gaming discussion boards to see that they avoid discussion of any of BMW's successes, were super negative of the game from the previews and were hush-hush about Golden Joystick and BMW's sales figures which in 2 months dwarfed those games that they try to promote. But trust me, if there is negative news of BMW, expect ALL of them to jump in the discussions and every loser on those forums suddenly participating.
I enjoyed my time with BMW quite a bit but I feel like it is just a lesser GOWR on every aspect other than graphics. BMW cutscenes and boss design/variety is what I enjoyed the most. But the level design and progression felt so bad that it prevents me from doing another playthrough.
@@thedevil7997 Possibly. My perception was that a lot of people disliked the game or thought critics were on point. Seems my perceptions on that have been off.
@@ArthurGunnerson Wonky Hit boxes, invisible walls being everywhere, and Lack of a in game map are why its properly rated, the games really good but its 100000% not underrated. dont care about big new outlets reviews on the game, just look at steam ratings
how tf is a score of 8.3 underrated? the game deserves a much lower score in my opinion simply because the combat has zero depth to it its just mashing square the whole game and a heavy from time to time (loved everything else but the combat is ass) i have 300 hours in the game btw
Does a game need to be difficult in order for it to rated highly? The game and it's systems have plenty of depth. It's like saying PoE has no depth because you can clear the screen with a single button
It doesn't want to be a soulslike, it is one. I don't know what you mean by good features that it doesn't have, unless you're specifically talking about character customisation and different weapon movesets etc The visual design of everything is fantastic, the levels are great with a good mix of more linear levels and more open ones with branching paths. The perfect dodge mechanic and the focus charged heavy attacks complemented each other fantastically and were really fun to pull off. The boss and enemy movesets had depth to them that was fun to learn as well as the player having a good amount of depth aswell with various stances, charged heavys and varied combos. Different buffs from armour and weapons could add a bit of spice to your play style as well. The later bosses in particular were fantastic, with the best one being the final boss. The gank fights where your opponents would take turns and your lock on would automatically switch are some of the best gank fights I've seen in the genre. The biggest detractor initially for me was that the game was too easy early on, mostly because of how busted the spells were, but banning immobilise and a pluck of many, along with the fights getting more complex, was enough to fix that issue for me. Now the biggest flaw to me is the invisible walls, unstoppable cutscenes and things of that nature. The game is undeniably fantastic but given how much praise it's received I feel like calling it underrated is just silly lol
@@thedevil7997 Third person action game with a lock on focused melee combat system, and a checkpoint system that refills resources while respawning enemies. From Software's games are my favourite games on the market, I know what a soulslike is and that's how I define soulslike. If you think it isn't I would like to know why you think that. My guess is your definition of soulslike is so restrictive that the term is basically pointless.
@@arthurjameson2178 demon souls was the first soulslike therefore a soulslike needs to have the same emchanics as demon souls (light,heavy,roll,parry and so on) wukong has some of these mechanics but not all and not as fleshed out as they are in other soulslike games in my opinion its a soulslite but not a soulslike
game journalists just didn't bother taking their time to enjoy the game, reading the journals, understanding the story, etc... BMW is an animated movie+game experience with many hours of materials, if you're not taking time to savor it and just rush through the game , confused with the plot and don't care, then you're missing a big part of the experience. As I recall , some of the journos thought it didn't have diversity, etc...showing they didn't even play the entire game. The developer didn't have the time / budget to do 3 hours of animations to hold their hand and guide them through the entire plot of journey to the west so the player will understand the plot in that 2000 page novel, it's really up to the individual player to read the journals/materials included in the game if they want the bg story.
They said there were no women... I counted at least 9 different women in the game.
The novel is really deep dark and interesting, but if you don't know Chinese culture well it would be a weird book full of unreasonable content.
The game inherit that and hide a lot of things ,like at the intro, ErLang says he wants a duel with SunWuKong, means the four heavenly kings don't really follow his command , SunWuKong says "the sun is too bright" means a Budah is above them, waiting to get him, cause ErLang is not trusted by the celestial court, that's why the headbang appeared later.
I don't think you can call it underrated, it got nominated for game of the year and its probably gonna win
real
Maybe by the public, but my point is that it is underrated by critics.
@@ArthurGunnerson maybe you should have put that in the title instead of clickbaiting people
@@thedevil7997 Should I rename my title "Black Myth Wukong Is Underrated (by critics)"?
@@ArthurGunnerson idk your call i personally wouldve never clicked on the video if 'by critics' was in the title
I'm playing the game and I got so hooked on the story that I had to learn more, I found a channel that is making a dramatic reading of the novel as well as the summary from Legends Summerized and it gave me a completely different understanding of this game.
One of my favorite moments of this was finally understanding who was the monk from chapter one (who's also a secret boss fight I only found on a second save file I'm playing for my wife to watch) and it was such a mind blown moment for me despite being something so small and frankly easy to know if I had knowledge of the story beforehand.
I will replay the game once I finish listening to the audiobook of it to see how the game changed for me, but so far it's really cool to figure out things as I go and it makes me feel like a child again playing a game with zero knowledge and getting it slowly through manuals or magazines or speaking with friends.
Yeah, this was exactly the point I was trying to make. I'm glad you got to experience it in a similar way!
Its sad how yall have to say the game would be better rated if we understood the story. Bro I didn't know shit about Sun Wukong or Journey To The West or any of that and it legit made me go out and build a top tier pc just to be able to play it how it was meant to be played, go on google and research the story and characters, shit I am even currently watching an anime about journey to the west, and God dammit I was not disappointed whatsoever. The game reviewers that downplay this game are either biased, paid to underrate the game, stupid, or are just trolling. No one, and I mean No One in their right mind would downplay this masterpiece. Sure, some have good points. The fight mechanics could be a little better, the hit boxes of some of the bigger bosses could be easier to hit, fuck off with the invisible walls, etc, but to downplay or even hate on the game for anything other than that is just plain trolling. In the grand scheme of things, this game is by far game of the year, if not game of the past decade lol. Nah but in all reality, this game is fun , engaging, absolutely stunning, plays well, has an amazing story, awesome combat, no regurgitated bosses, awesome NG+, etc etc. If you can't tell, I absolutely love the game and ignorance to the source material should be no excuse in this case to lower the rating.
By sheer luck of algorithm I came across this video, and I find your analysis is on point. As someone who grew up with the JTTW show as a kid, I can at least acknowledge the bias involved when the sheer number of Easter eggs and fan services hit me different emotionally than someone who didn’t grow up with it - similar to how I also would consider the Mandalorian a great series but non Star Wars fans would understandably not regard it as high.
I only looked at one or two of these so-called insipid game reviews to see what’s going on. I’ve spent well over half of my life in the US by now, and it’s no longer a surprise to me. It really just comes down to ignorance plus a small dose of cultural arrogance thrown in there - but of course no western journalist would admit it, though this is fundamentally what’s wrong.
When games like Age of Mythology or God of War got released in countries outside of dominant European influence, those games did not need to go on a long exposition to tell the audience the foundation of Greek belief system so the gamers and journalists serving those markets needed to do their homework aka reading. But here in the US at least, anything that comes out of Asian that’s not the samurai or kung fu stereotypes is apparently just below these so-called journalists to look into - because why would they waste their time otherwise. I wouldn’t call it intellectual laziness either because I’m willing to wager those same journalists would spare no effort in looking up obscure references to things like Shakespeare’s tragic heroes or Tolkien’s original tales, and spare no effort applauding game devs for acknowledging those inspirations. I’m not mad about that at all - everyone is only human and subject to their own bias. But what I AM calling out is their intellectual dishonesty when labeling the story “objectively” confusing when they didn’t even bother to understand the source material that’s cherished by billions of other human beings on this Earth. But most of these so called journalists, man, for all the talks of diversity and inclusivity, they do not contribute ANYTHING to help promote cultural exchange and mutual understanding. I think we badly need some sort of Anthony Bourdain for all types of media including games, movies, TVs, pop musics and whatnot.
So yes, in short, I appreciate you calling them out, and objectively from a neutral ground too! How much do you get heard across the society as a whole is irrelevant - it means a lot to me that someone out there is indeed thinking this critically and is willing to explore beyond their own bubble, even on “frivolous” things such as a video game especially.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write this reply! It's cool to hear about your perspective on this as someone who grew up with it.
there's a chinese saying to perfectly describes all "野猪吃不了细糠"
even most Chinese players haven’t read the novel, we just grew up watching the series multiple times
Yeah, I had a feeling this was the case, but didn't know for sure. But the show seems to follow the novel closely enough. And is also why I included tons of clips from it!
@@ArthurGunnerson 1986 tv series gets rerun every summer and many other TV adaptations were made in the following decades. 1986 version is actually quite tame and far less dark than the original novel. It's like the PG version.
Awesome video and very underrated channel. Subscribed, hope you make future videos similar to this one
Thanks for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it. What kind of similarities are you hoping for?
@ just like the quality. It was a very well done video.
the latest patch on Dec 14th finally added map :)
Journalist: we played chapter 1, no female, no map, no fun, this game sucks. We give it 6 of 10....
My GOTY
Hopefully not
@@coreyfaith69 You have problem reading? The first word of his two word sentence said "My".
@賴志偉-d7h cool?
It would also be "Do you have a problem reading" nice try at correcting me
@@coreyfaith69 You (while frothing angrily): "Stop having fun!"
DUDE I couldn’t relate more, I literally stopped playing the game for a couple of months but after beating the yellow sage I was hooked on the game for a whole week.
Yeah and the invincible walls also underrated
it's OVERRATED. That's all.
Reviewers when they need context from something to understand the sequel: 🤯🤯🤯
This game was an absolute treat and i cannot wait for the dlc "nezha fight plzzzzz".
Rhino?
I somehow always saw him as a Rhino. On closer inspection, this is clearly not right LOL.
The game is incredible and GOTY for sure
It's a great game. And reading the novel does enrich the enjoyment of playing it. I myself don't feel it is a souls game or have anything to do with GOW God of War isn't half as good as Black Myth Wukong. IMHO and opening treasure chest is about the only thing it has in common with gow. I like the older GOW games. But the 2 newer ones aren't very good to me. But everyone has their own opinions. Just for a few things I don't think a game should be labeled as a souls type. But whatever to each their own. I love BMW. I am a hard-core Journey to the west fan. Starting the group in 2008 to make English Subtitles for the 1996 version of the tv show. Then later in 2015 Dubbing the whole Monkey king 2014 movie in English myself. So I definitely have been dreaming about this game long before it was made 😅 and my dreams were spot on. I knew that it would be a master peice.
Many western players, youtubers give a 9/10 or 10/10 to it. For game journalists, just forget about it.
It is one of the best game the gaming industry can offer, i totally agree with you, it brought me so much fun
I'd replace "under" with "over" honestly.
I really didn't like the feel of the combat at all and the level design is extremely basic and boring.
All of the varying RPG and itemization systems also fell off for me. I wasn't really feeling invested in gearing up or using that clusterfuck of a skill tree.
The list of soulslikes and character action games that I feel are way better than Wukong is miles long.
Wow, can't believe a westerner can be so spot on with this game! My respect!
Yeah it is made for the fans and yet at the same time Game Science did an amazing job to make it accessible to those without knowledge of the book. But I think the reasons for the lower ratings are from somewhere else. I would say a major problem with many reviwers in the west is they are quite self centred. In multiple videos I heard people complaining about the English dub and lip sync. It sounds they expect everyone to speak English and only write stories in their cultural background. Some had little interest in the game itself and reviewing was rather a task assigned to them. Unfortunately the game is deep even for native Chinese and the fans of JTTW, therefore the confusing complaint. The most ironic, and probably moronic one is that the game is too shallow. The primary reason for the low rating is probably political. Both in the game industry and in geopolitics the establishment had a strong incentive to keep this game down.
The game has its flaws as you rightfully pointed out. For me it's still a masterpiece, not only because of the high quality entertainment, but because the philosophy and ideas it carries. The absence of map is probably intentional, though stage design could be better. Also no difficulty setting means general equality for everyone yet even if one's skills are limited with enough effort there's plenty of ways to get through.
Love this game bro I struggled with souls games bcuz i just wanted to fight the bosses personally so hated getting killed on my way to tbe next boss now i got a boss rush mode lol perfect for me!
same feeling
Amazing how ignorant and lazy reviewers are.
Western journalist, what you expect?
@@tlforge3446Herzog Zwei is an example from the 1990s where reviewers marked it down because they made no effort to understand it.
Another example was a reviewer complaining that you can't see in front of Space Harrier.
It's fun to see how the comments are occupied by Chinese😂😂😂
I don't think Wukong is underrated, the only thing that I can say I enjoyed in this game is the graphic.
It s fun to see you are trying to be a smart ass and failed.
By who? Who’s underrating it? It’s got a nomination for GOTY, most people love the game, even critics who didn’t like the fact that GS wouldn’t let SBI control the game are starting to relent and say it’s a good game.
What do you think is an appropriate score for the game?
I'm curious too. Who's underrating it?
@@ktg619 Sorry I wasn't entertaining enough for you to watch the video for even 1 minute. I'll try better next time.
I’m a native Chinese. I’m here to see if you get the story right. I think you did😉Also, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck are very famous in China too.
It's one of the best games of the year, is on everyone's top 5 list, and has been nominated for GOTY.
Underrated? What's next, a video about how "underrated" Citizen Kane and Red Dead Redemption 2 are?
What do you think would be an appropriate score to give the game?
Even half of Chinese players with background knowledge about journey to the west don't truly comprehend the main theme of the story that Black Myth Wukong is trying to tell, it's something brutal, realistic and yet inspiring at the same time about our human society. Not to mention the language problem between English and Chinese made it really hard for foreigners to understand the story. Even I as Chinese who watched the English version of game streaming find it terrible while comparing to what the Chinese version of plot pushing could bring into my brain, it was night and day different game experience.
with gamepolitic nowadays acting like smaller scope geopolitic, i dont think this game gonna win
it's just not a Souls-like but great video despite your insistence it is. I'd compare it much more to an action game like God of War. still my game of the year but the need to categorize games as Souls-like is just as misguided as when everybody called every game "the Dark Souls of X". even Sekiro and Armored Core aren't a souls like and they're made by From Software. still enjoyed your video
Hey, thanks for watching! I could be convinced Sekiro isn't a soulslike.
But, as you already know, I think Wukong is clearly a soulslike. What do you think makes Wukong not a soulslike?
@@ArthurGunnerson I consider your comment ironic then because Wukong is MUCH closer to Sekiro than it is to any Souls game.
1. Talent trees are not a souls-like feature, every souls game even back to Kingsfield have let you level up stats not give you whole new abilities. conversely in Sekiro you DO get new abilities for your one weapon which brings me to
2. Souls games have huge weapon variety and the leveling of stats enables you to use different weapons/spells as opposed to just learning everything with no restrictions.
3. Every Souls game has an emphasis on defense like Dark Souls with shields, Elden Ring with guard counters, and Bloodborne with a HUGE emphasis on parries. conversely Wukong has no blocking and very limited parry systems that are unlocked by tech trees instead of equipment (see point 2)
4. Dropping currency just is part of Souls games, nuff said.
5. Souls games typically have branching paths and the need to clear a number of specific bosses in order to progress. Examples; Dark Souls 1-3 have 4 bosses you need to clear to get to the end, Elden Ring has rune bearers you need to kill to get into Leyndell, and Bloodborne has Chalice Dungeons you need to clear to progress. Conversely Wukong has chapters that are self contained and have zero bearing on past or future chapters.
6. Wukong is just straight up easier and less punishing than most Souls games, not saying Erlang or Wukong weren't tough but I first tried most bosses in Wukong and that's not even a brag. You can get hit an absurd amount more and can transform to get an entire new healthbar which despite what you said is absolutely nothing like summons/spirits since summons/spirits use resources or must be brought in before a fight.
You're welcome to disagree with me but as someone who absolutely loves From's games AND Wukong I wholeheartedly don't think this game is a Souls Like
@@burn1none To me this game is God of War with Chinese mythology made as a soulslike. It's fantastic.
It takes the more cinematic aspects of God of War, and the more explicit storytelling, while still using the soulslike formula for bosses and level design.
I do think excluding Sekiro from the definition of soulslike is too restrictive. Sekiro is my favourite game of all time and certainly scratches the same itch that all the other games I consider soulslike do.
@burn1none Your list of 6 features is fairly inconsistent with the games you consider soulslikes. For one, DS3 and Bloodborne are fairly linear (although with some optional content), to insist that branching paths are necessary to the genre excludes these games.
The emphasis on defense also exists in Sekiro with the deflect system, and I would argue in Wukong with both the perfect dodge mechanic and Rock Solid.
Lies of P is a game that is so similar to From Software's games, and specifically Bloodborne, that I think it is ludicrous to discount it from the soulslike genre. It also has a similar parry system to Sekiro and a skill-tree (along with a traditional levelling system). So I don't think having a skill-tree excludes the game from the genre. The lack of a traditional stat levelling system does not fundamentally change the game for me in a way that would require a new genre. Especially when Wukong lets you spend points to level up basic stats under "foundation".
Dropping currency/being punished for death is something that typically exists in the genre but I don't think the lack of it has a significant enough effect on how the game feels to play to change the genre. Honestly I prefer it. I think a game that is hard (not that Wukong really is), and expects you to die a lot, should not punish you so heavily for death. In most games I homeward bone out of boss fights or quit out in order to use up souls so I didn't need to worry about losing them. Not needing to do that was a minor improvement to the flow of the game to be honest and is the sort of thing I hope is adopted in the future.
I do agree difficulty is also something typical of soulslikes but I reject the idea that Dark Souls would no longer fit the genre if the enemy health and enemy damage values were halved. One of my biggest complaints when it comes to Wukong was that I found it too easy initially (before I decided to ban spells for myself) but I don't think the game being easier changes the genre.
While weapon variety is something a lot of soulslike games have, it is also something I do not consider essential to the formula. The same itch is scratched for me whether I can swap my weapon or not.
People not fully grasping the story doesn't change the largely mediocre boss fights, uninspired and boring level design, and repetitive combat.
If anything, this game was overhyped. In fact, I've never seen a game so overhyped for political reasons.
Putting this much emphasis on the story in a GAME misses the point.
I'm saying all this even though I think it is a good game.... but it is just that... a good... game. Nothing more.
Mediocre boss fights? Stop lying bruh just stop... All you people are doing is embarrassing yourselves and showing everyone you didn't actually play the game... You are just a hater
@flacohernandez4380 you okay man? You seem really upset about something that isn't that big of a deal. Is there something else going on?
@@robertpayne6781 You are a hater, I don't like haters
@@robertpayne6781 If you are gonna critique a game, critique it with facts, not lies
@flacohernandez4380 I think maybe you need to learn the difference between objective and subjective.... but.... okay, after playing the game the first time, I realized I couldn't even remember the vast majority of the bosses I fought as they were so forgettable. Then, when I replayed it recently, I noticed that a large number of them had very basic and boring movesets. I'm talking 2 or 3 swings or swipes, and that is it. Stuff you would expect from a DS1 or 2 era boss. Speaking of ds2, the game fell into the same trap of throwing a ton of largely forgettable bosses at you. Of the dozens of them you fight there are maybe 3 or 4 that are good.
Idk what you think underrated means
It means that the game didn't receive as much praise as I thought that it ought to. In this scenario, especially from western players and critics.
@@ArthurGunnerson Yes, all of it is intentional though and largely driven by political agenda. Just like Alan Wake 2 and Hi Fi Rush were super overrated last year, and Balatro, Astrobot and Helldivers 2 this year to make them bigger and more impactful than they are.
You just have to check the big gaming discussion boards to see that they avoid discussion of any of BMW's successes, were super negative of the game from the previews and were hush-hush about Golden Joystick and BMW's sales figures which in 2 months dwarfed those games that they try to promote. But trust me, if there is negative news of BMW, expect ALL of them to jump in the discussions and every loser on those forums suddenly participating.
GOTY
I enjoyed my time with BMW quite a bit but I feel like it is just a lesser GOWR on every aspect other than graphics. BMW cutscenes and boss design/variety is what I enjoyed the most. But the level design and progression felt so bad that it prevents me from doing another playthrough.
No, No its not
What did you dislike about the game?
@@ArthurGunnerson i think he is saying its not underrated
@@thedevil7997 Possibly. My perception was that a lot of people disliked the game or thought critics were on point. Seems my perceptions on that have been off.
Hardly underrated.
What do you think is holding the game back?
@@ArthurGunnerson Wonky Hit boxes, invisible walls being everywhere, and Lack of a in game map are why its properly rated, the games really good but its 100000% not underrated. dont care about big new outlets reviews on the game, just look at steam ratings
@@Dawson418 Overwhelmingly positive with a 96% on steam, and 98% recent? Is this meant to help prove your point?
@@ArthurGunnerson you're stating the game is underrated which it isnt, thats proof that it is not underrated
@@ArthurGunnerson Are you pointing to how highly rated the game is to prove that it is underrated? 😂
Do you understand what words mean?
how tf is a score of 8.3 underrated? the game deserves a much lower score in my opinion simply because the combat has zero depth to it its just mashing square the whole game and a heavy from time to time (loved everything else but the combat is ass) i have 300 hours in the game btw
Does a game need to be difficult in order for it to rated highly? The game and it's systems have plenty of depth. It's like saying PoE has no depth because you can clear the screen with a single button
@@ArthurGunnerson im not saying it needs to be more difficult im saying its boring to mash square for 300 hours
@@thedevil7997 Why did you smash square for 300 hours if it was so boring?
@@ArthurGunnerson because i loved everything else about the game like i said but the combat is garbage
😂😂😂@@thedevil7997
I think its overrated af - wanted to be a soulslike and just has none of the good features
What are the good features of a soulslike?
It doesn't want to be a soulslike, it is one. I don't know what you mean by good features that it doesn't have, unless you're specifically talking about character customisation and different weapon movesets etc
The visual design of everything is fantastic, the levels are great with a good mix of more linear levels and more open ones with branching paths.
The perfect dodge mechanic and the focus charged heavy attacks complemented each other fantastically and were really fun to pull off.
The boss and enemy movesets had depth to them that was fun to learn as well as the player having a good amount of depth aswell with various stances, charged heavys and varied combos. Different buffs from armour and weapons could add a bit of spice to your play style as well.
The later bosses in particular were fantastic, with the best one being the final boss. The gank fights where your opponents would take turns and your lock on would automatically switch are some of the best gank fights I've seen in the genre.
The biggest detractor initially for me was that the game was too easy early on, mostly because of how busted the spells were, but banning immobilise and a pluck of many, along with the fights getting more complex, was enough to fix that issue for me. Now the biggest flaw to me is the invisible walls, unstoppable cutscenes and things of that nature.
The game is undeniably fantastic but given how much praise it's received I feel like calling it underrated is just silly lol
@@arthurjameson2178 its not a soulslike. if you think it is then you dont know what a soulslike is
@@thedevil7997 Third person action game with a lock on focused melee combat system, and a checkpoint system that refills resources while respawning enemies.
From Software's games are my favourite games on the market, I know what a soulslike is and that's how I define soulslike.
If you think it isn't I would like to know why you think that. My guess is your definition of soulslike is so restrictive that the term is basically pointless.
@@arthurjameson2178 demon souls was the first soulslike therefore a soulslike needs to have the same emchanics as demon souls (light,heavy,roll,parry and so on)
wukong has some of these mechanics but not all and not as fleshed out as they are in other soulslike games
in my opinion its a soulslite but not a soulslike