Video game based on classic novel goes viral

A gamer watches a promotional video for Black Myth: Wukong, a game developed by Chinese company Game Science, in Beijing on Aug 20, 2024, after the game was released worldwide. (PAI GU/CHINA NEWS SERVICE)

A highly anticipated video game based on an ancient Chinese literature classic was released worldwide on Tuesday, thrilling gamers around the world.

The game, Black Myth: Wukong, an action role-playing game developed by Shenzhen-headquartered Game Science, was inspired by the rich tapestry of Chinese mythology and the 16th-century seminal novel Journey to the West, one of the four great classic novels of Chinese literature. It is infused with traditional Chinese cultural elements, offering gamers a novel experience of Chinese imagination and landscape.

In the game, players step into the shoes of the iconic Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, who is likewise the leading hero in the novel, as they navigate his epic adventures westward.

Available on PS5, Steam, Epic Games Store, and WeGame, Black Myth: Wukong is already a top seller on multiple platforms, including Steam and WeGame, marking a new milestone for Chinese Triple-A games — those with high budgets and profiles produced and distributed by large, well-known publishers.

Development of the game, which is being hailed as China's first Triple-A masterpiece, started in 2018 and was completed after six-and-a-half years of challenges.

By July, presales had surpassed 400 million yuan ($56 million), and the physical Collector's Editions are currently sold out. In addition, Game Science's final prelaunch trailer on YouTube quickly hit 1 million views, highlighting the wide anticipation of the game's release, especially amid a 24-hour countdown.

As of 10 pm on Tuesday, Black Myth: Wukong had more than 1.5 million concurrent players on the platform Steam, surpassing Counter-Strike 2 to top the Steam trending games chart.

IGN China, a branch of IGN, one of the leading media companies covering video games, movies, TV shows, entertainment news, reviews, and guides, rated the game with its highest score, 10 points.

More than 50 gamers on Metacritic, an international review aggregation website, gave the game a Metascore of 82 points out of 100.

One Metacritic commenter called GamesRD, who gave the game a score of 100 points, said, "With breathtaking concept art, stunning graphics and sceneries, wonderful score, and one of the most fulfilling playabilities we've seen in role-playing games, Black Myth: Wukong is unquestionably a Game of the Year candidate, promising a bright future for the genre's fans."

Zhinengluzhang, who has nearly 4.6 million followers on Chinese livestreaming platform Bilibili, said in a post that he gave the game 94 points out of 100 and expected its Metascore to rise soon.

What particularly impressed Chinese as well as foreign players is the design of the game scenes and characters.

Black Myth: Wukong crafts a stunning dreamscape with Chinese scenery, featuring desolate mountains, ancient roads, pavilions among mountains and water, deserts, and ancient temples. This vision draws inspiration from the 1986 TV series Journey to the West as well as film director Stephen Chow's adaptation, A Chinese Odyssey.

The game's production team traveled across China and meticulously scanned ancient buildings and relics. It incorporated the creations and historical relics into every scene of the game.

For instance, in the trailer, the battle between Wukong and the dragon Kang Jinlong features a distant view of an ancient temple modeled after Dule Temple in Tianjin. The temple is one of the country's few remaining structures from the Liao Dynasty (916-1125).

The various minor demons, demon kings, gods, and Buddhas that appear in the game all feature Chinese aesthetics, forming a contemporary illustrated compendium of creatures from The Classic of Mountains and Seas, a major source of Chinese mythology.

Additionally, the game features traditional Chinese instruments such as the guzheng, bowls, wooden clappers, and gongs. Much of the music is composed using Chinese-style chord structures.

As the game combines ancient dialogue and a worldview that blends Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, players are immersed in an environment in which simply strolling leisurely or sitting alone by a cold river offers their own unique pleasure.

Feng Ji, Game Science founder and CEO, said in a recent interview with Xinhua News Agency that "the script and artistic concepts always take the lead, seamlessly incorporating Chinese stories and classical cultural elements into the game".

He said that a game's true value isn't defined by its budget or visuals, but by the genuine enjoyment it offers players.

Feng emphasized that the game was crafted entirely by a Chinese team, with the aim of bringing Chinese narratives to the global gaming stage.

When choosing to develop a game based on mythology, the developers do not consider whether a theme is "popular or outdated", Feng said, but reflect instead on whether the subject excites them.

"Traditional Eastern myths, infused with magical elements, aren't sufficient," he said.

Feng added that his team aimed to go beyond the myths and also learned from other excellent games.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring video game involves a team completing a daunting task, similar to Journey to the West," Feng said. "Although the narrative structures and worldviews differ, the core essence is comparable."

Citing the growth of other Chinese industries in the international market, including the film industry, Feng said, "Eight years ago, we were confident that the stand-alone game market in China would not only exist but would also become significant." Stand-alone games are those that are not dependent on being online in order to play.

"Back in 2016, the stand-alone game market in the United States was about $10 billion; Japan's was $5 billion; and China's was less than $1 billion," he said. "We believe that within 10 to 15 years, China's stand-alone game market share will reach or even exceed that of Japan."

The highest-ranked AAA titles on Metacritic are still from Western and Japanese companies, such as FromSoftware's Elden Ring and Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, both of which have been given a score of 96, compared with the current 82 for Black Myth: Wukong.

The game won the Best Visuals Award at Gamescom 2023, the world's largest annual trade fair for video games, which was held in Germany.