Black Fantasy: Wukong Assessment (PS5)

Black Fantasy: Wukong is, in the end, a sport about boss fights. Tense, dynamic boss fights that’ll have you ever gawking in awe one minute, and doubtlessly spiking your controller the subsequent. It is a difficult motion title — a continuing push towards more and more advanced and lethal opponents, and there are not any issue settings to fall again on. That reality alone shall be sufficient to place some individuals off, however if you happen to can stick to the sport and grow to be invested in its somewhat distinctive model of staff-based battling, you may be rewarded with a level of spectacle that is so not often seen exterior of bona fide blockbusters like Ultimate Fantasy 16 and God of Battle Ragnarok.

Structurally, Wukong is a standard Soulslike. There are shrines that you will return to upon loss of life, there are devoted boss arenas, and the extent design is essentially linear, at all times funnelling you in direction of the subsequent battlefield. Certainly, exploration is stored to a naked minimal. Whereas later environments are barely extra expansive total, it isn’t like there is a must-see secret down each useless finish, and frequent use of invisible partitions — a jarring selection given the title’s graphical prowess — ensures that you just undergo the crushed path.

Wukong is at its weakest while you’re trotting between boss encounters. We’re not saying that the sport wants exploration, that it could be higher if it copied Elden Ring’s homework — however past a bunch of fairly vistas and the occasional facet quest (which is often accomplished simply down the highway anyway), Wukong struggles to totally justify its personal design. At worst, the sport’s world finally ends up feeling synthetic — a walled-off sequence of walkways that exist purely to fill house between the fights that really matter.

On a elementary stage, nonetheless, you could possibly argue that downtime between bosses is a necessity. As alluded, key clashes are intense affairs that solely develop bolder and extra bombastic as the sport progresses. Boss battles are doubtless the beating coronary heart of the expertise; they’re each frequent and impressively diverse — a seemingly endless stream of immaculately crafted opponents so that you can battle towards and ultimately conquer.

Wukong’s many, many foes are plucked from Chinese language mythology, and the sport itself relies upon Journey to the West — the timeless 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 also you tackle the function of one other, anonymous ape who units off in quest of Wukong’s scattered relics.

Admittedly, it is a plot that significantly better resonates if you happen to’re already aware of China’s most culturally impactful legends. With out prior information, the title’s storytelling comes throughout as disjointed and nearly ethereal — little greater than a barely coherent string of occasions that loosely tie every of the sport’s six chapters collectively. However even if you happen to’re firmly out of the loop, there is a fairy story whimsy to Wukong’s writing and dialogue that makes every little thing appear… cohesive.

However Wukong would 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 pretty exhausting to fault. Fight exists in an area someplace between your traditional Soulslike blueprint of assault, retreat, repeat, and a extra action-oriented method, replete with combos and particular skills. It is an odd combine that, at instances, can really feel a bit of confused, prefer it’s attempting to have the very best of each worlds however by no means fairly manages to choose an id of its personal.

Nonetheless, the fight system solely will get higher as the sport goes on, because of a slew of unlockable perks, abilities, and magical feats that every one dovetail fairly spectacularly within the title’s extra demanding moments. Wukong will get brilliantly inventive with the talents that you just’re ultimately afforded, as our simian hero is able to reworking into beforehand defeated demons, and casting spells that may flip the tide of battle.

With all of this in thoughts, it is a bit of a disgrace that you just’re caught with such comparatively primary instruments for the title’s first 10 to fifteen hours of gameplay. Granted, there must be some type of development curve, however a number of of the protagonist’s later skills really feel borderline important in totally appreciating the fight system as an entire.

We’re hesitant to say that Wukong will get simpler as you unlock an increasing number of nodes throughout its shockingly massive ability bushes, however most gamers will hit some extent the place the sheer breadth of your arsenal permits you to bypass the cautious type of play that earlier chapters enforced. It truly makes for a satisfying sense of progress; similar to Wukong himself, you are starting to embrace the interior monkey, taking your opponents for a trip with more and more devious ways.

It takes some time to really click on, however this is a superb motion sport at its core — and that makes its lack of PS5 optimisation tougher to abdomen. Particularly, it is the title’s ‘Efficiency’ mode that drops the most important metaphorical ball. It guarantees a smoother gameplay expertise concentrating on 60 frames-per-second — one thing that many would declare is essential for any hardcore motion sport. Nonetheless, Wukong’s 60fps is basically an phantasm — a product of clumsy body era. In essence, you are enjoying at 30fps, however visually, it seems to be like 60.

Enter lag is a really unlucky byproduct of this system, and it could possibly completely be felt now and again, when your dodge would not come out in time, or when your heavy assault would not hyperlink up together with your customary combo. It isn’t a complete dealbreaker — Wukong’s fight is staggered sufficient to the place you are by no means hitting too many buttons in fast succession — however not figuring out whether or not your loss of life was right down to a scarcity of ability, or the sport’s technical ineptitude, could be deeply irritating. We are able to solely hope that developer Sport Science cleans issues up post-launch.

We would not thoughts a lift in decision, both, if solely in order that we will higher admire the sport’s frankly unimaginable artwork course. Visuals clearly aren’t every little thing, however Wukong’s eye-popping presentation is a purpose to maintain enjoying, pure and easy. Each new enemy, each new boss, is a pleasure to find, they usually’re all beautifully animated. The artistry on show throughout the complete journey is excellent, even on the meagre 1080p decision of efficiency mode.

Conclusion

It takes time for Black Fantasy: Wukong’s fight to really click on, however when it does, this is likely one of the most inventive motion titles on PS5. One after one other, its spectacular boss battles steal the present — a procession of memorable encounters that showcase the sport’s unimaginable artistry. As an entire, nonetheless, the expertise is held again by restricted stage design and irritating technical points on PS5 — a rattling disgrace, since Wukong is pure monkey magic at its peak.