Black Fantasy: Wukong is, in the end, a sport about boss fights. Traumatic, dynamic boss fights that’ll have you ever gawking in awe one minute, and probably spiking your controller the following. It is a difficult motion name — a relentless push in opposition to an increasing number of advanced and fatal warring parties, and there aren’t any problem settings to fall again on. That reality by myself will probably be sufficient to position some other folks off, but when you’ll stick to the sport and change into invested in its fairly distinctive logo of staff-based struggling with, you’ll be able to be rewarded with some extent of spectacle that is so hardly ever observed outdoor of bona fide blockbusters like Ultimate Myth 16 and God of Warfare Ragnarok.
Structurally, Wukong is a conventional Soulslike. There are shrines that you’ll be able to go back to upon dying, there are devoted boss arenas, and the extent design is in large part linear, at all times funnelling you against the following battlefield. Certainly, exploration is saved to a naked minimal. Whilst later environments are moderately extra expansive general, it is not like there is a must-see secret down each useless finish, and widespread use of invisible partitions — a jarring selection given the name’s graphical prowess — guarantees that you simply post to the crushed trail.
Wukong is at its weakest when you find yourself trotting between boss encounters. We are not announcing that the sport wishes exploration, that it will be higher if it copied Elden Ring’s homework — however past a host of beautiful vistas and the occasional aspect quest (which is generally finished simply down the street anyway), Wukong struggles to totally justify its personal design. At worst, the sport’s international finally ends up feeling synthetic — a walled-off sequence of walkways that exist purely to fill area between the fights that in fact subject.
On a elementary stage, then again, that you must argue that downtime between bosses is a need. As alluded, key clashes are intense affairs that handiest develop bolder and extra bombastic as the sport progresses. Boss battles are doubtless the thrashing middle of the enjoy; they are each widespread and impressively numerous — a reputedly unending circulation of immaculately crafted warring parties so that you can combat in opposition to and ultimately overcome.
Wukong’s many, many foes are plucked from Chinese language mythology, and the sport itself is founded upon Adventure to the West — the undying sixteenth century novel that is influenced numerous works of fiction. The titular Wukong — a monkey who ascended to close godhood — is struck down within the sport’s opening, and you’re taking at the function of some other, anonymous ape who units off on the lookout for Wukong’s scattered relics.
Admittedly, it is a plot that significantly better resonates in case you are already acquainted with China’s maximum culturally impactful legends. With out prior wisdom, the name’s storytelling comes throughout as disjointed and nearly airy — little greater than a slightly coherent string of occasions that loosely tie every of the sport’s six chapters in combination. However even supposing you are firmly out of the loop, there is a fairy story whimsy to Wukong’s writing and discussion that makes the whole lot appear… cohesive.
However Wukong does not need you to get slowed down in lore and narrative — it needs you to clobber demons together with your smacking stick, and in that regard, it is relatively exhausting to fault. Struggle exists in an area someplace between your vintage Soulslike blueprint of assault, retreat, repeat, and a extra action-oriented manner, replete with combinations and particular talents. It is an ordinary combine that, from time to time, can really feel a little bit puzzled, adore it’s looking to have the most productive of each worlds however by no means reasonably manages to decide on an id of its personal.
Alternatively, the struggle machine handiest will get higher as the sport is going on, due to a slew of unlockable perks, abilities, and magical feats that each one dovetail reasonably spectacularly within the name’s extra hard moments. Wukong will get brilliantly inventive with the skills that you are ultimately afforded, as our simian hero is in a position to reworking into in the past defeated demons, and casting spells that may flip the tide of struggle.
With all of this in thoughts, it is a bit of a disgrace that you are caught with such relatively elementary equipment for the name’s first 10 to fifteen hours of gameplay. Granted, there must be some more or less development curve, however a number of of the protagonist’s later talents really feel borderline crucial in absolutely appreciating the struggle machine as an entire.
We are hesitant to mention that Wukong will get more straightforward as you liberate increasingly nodes throughout its shockingly massive talent timber, however maximum gamers will hit some degree the place the sheer breadth of your arsenal means that you can bypass the wary taste of play that previous chapters enforced. It in fact makes for a delightful sense of enlargement; identical to Wukong himself, you are starting to embody the interior monkey, taking your warring parties for a experience with an increasing number of devious techniques.
It takes some time to really click on, however this is a wonderful motion sport at its core — and that makes its loss of PS5 optimisation more difficult to abdomen. In particular, it is the name’s ‘Efficiency’ mode that drops the most important metaphorical ball. It guarantees a smoother gameplay enjoy focused on 60 frames-per-second — one thing that many would declare is a very powerful for any hardcore motion sport. Alternatively, Wukong’s 60fps is basically an phantasm — a fabricated from clumsy body era. In essence, you are enjoying at 30fps, however visually, it seems like 60.
Enter lag is an overly unlucky byproduct of this method, and it could actually completely be felt now and again, when your dodge does not pop out in time, or when your heavy assault does not hyperlink up together with your same old combo. It is now not a complete dealbreaker — Wukong’s struggle is staggered sufficient to the place you are by no means hitting too many buttons in fast succession — however now not figuring out whether or not your dying used to be right down to a loss of talent, or the sport’s technical ineptitude, can also be deeply irritating. We will handiest hope that developer Sport Science cleans issues up post-launch.
We would not thoughts a spice up in answer, both, if handiest in order that we will be able to higher respect the sport’s frankly fantastic artwork course. Visuals clearly don’t seem to be the whole lot, however Wukong’s eye-popping presentation is a reason why to stay enjoying, natural and easy. Each new enemy, each new boss, is a pleasure to find, and they are all beautifully animated. The artistry on show throughout all the journey is exceptional, even on the meagre 1080p answer of efficiency mode.
Conclusion
It takes time for Black Fantasy: Wukong’s struggle to really click on, but if it does, this is without doubt one of the maximum inventive motion titles on PS5. One after some other, its impressive boss battles scouse borrow the display — a procession of memorable encounters that show off the sport’s fantastic artistry. As an entire, then again, the enjoy is held again by way of restricted stage design and irritating technical problems on PS5 — a rattling disgrace, since Wukong is natural monkey magic at its height.
