When is the Black Myth Wukong release date? Journey to the West is a classic 16th-century Chinese novel that has been adapted into many video games over the years. This soulslike is the latest one, and while the monkey, known only as the “Destined One”, certainly resembles Sun Wukong from the book, this trickster warrior has some transformation abilities up his sleeve.
While many other soulslike games are now available, Black Myth Wukong has been in active development for quite some time, but we only saw a significant update appear annually. This RPG game has a few hidden details in the gameplay footage, so we’ll go over the story and characters, techniques that the Destined One can use, and more.
Black Myth Wukong release date
Game Science has officially confirmed that the Black Myth Wukong release date is Tuesday, August 20, 2024, and will be available on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, as well as on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles.
This news came during The Game Awards 2023 stream, where Black Myth Wukong’s release date trailer was shown with an English dub for the first time. We also see several monsters that the Destined One fights, but compared to the snippets we got previously, no new gameplay details are shown this time.
The first hint at a Summer 2024 release came during Black Myth Wukong’s teaser video celebrating Chinese New Year 2023. The video itself is mostly stop-motion, with rabbits playing the game, ending in a calendar revealing the date.
Black Myth Wukong trailers
We first saw Black Myth Wukong in August 2020, four years to the day before the announced release date. In it, an old man regales us with the legend of the Monkey King as we see the first pre-alpha game footage of a cicada flying in a forest. After passing many enemies, the cicada transforms into our monkey protagonist, known in-game as “the Destined One.”
He also fights a boss wielding a flaming double-ended spear in a small area, parrying incoming blows and summoning copies of himself to fight the boss while he recovers. Eventually, the warrior transforms into a gigantic wolf beast, able to clamber onto a building and attack with great speed.
Exactly one year later, we see the next in-game trailer with the game running in the Unreal 5 Engine. We see a new snowy area filled with still human figures that come to life and attack our ape-like protagonist. He soon begins brawling with another monkey creature with a big sword, a dragon at a frozen lake, and several other monsters in a montage. There was also an update the following Chinese New Year, where the developer showed off motion-captured cats.
The next time we would properly see Black Myth Wukong would be yet another whole year later, as we see a six-minute cutscene where several women gather in a garden to talk about their mother’s upcoming marriage.
After instructing another woman on etiquette, their mother emerges from a room in a red dress to address her daughters. It doesn’t really give much away about the plot itself, but at the end of the trailer, we see a massive spider-like creature at the end, which is heavily hinted to be a woman in red’s true form.
Black Myth Wukong gameplay
Most of the trailers we’ve seen so far have shown gameplay, but the details about the mechanics outside of this are scarce. What we do know is that the Destined One primarily uses his extendable staff, known as the Golden Cudgel, as his weapon and is able to cast a range of tricky spells to stun foes, transform himself into a cicada and a bat, and even deflect incoming arrows with the rapid spinning of his weapon.
According to an IGN preview, the cudgel has multiple stances: Smash, Pillar, and Thrust forms, which affect how hard the staff hits enemies or how quickly the Destined One attacks. While the combat is rather fast and fluid, IGN makes sure to note that even the smallest enemies have the power to take you down in just one hit, so it’s not an easy game to play.
The second gameplay trailer, posted on YouTube in 2021, shows a few more techniques, including a protective ring of fire surrounding the Destined One as he drinks a potion to heal himself. In a fight against a pearl-white dragon in a frozen lake, he extends his cudgel and stands on top of it, avoiding an otherwise devastating-looking electric attack that emits across the whole arena.
Black Myth Wukong news
According to GamerSky, a Chinese-based news outlet, the music from the 1980s Journey to the West TV show has been officially licensed to the developer. We hear it briefly as the Destined One whistles it during one of the trailers.
That’s everything we know about the Black Myth Wukong release date and gameplay. While it’s not a triple-A experience, the buzz surrounding this soulslike over the years makes it one of the most hyped-up upcoming PC games of this year. If you want to play something else before the August release date, our best PC games list has plenty of options for you to consider.