China's developers winning the game
Achieving big success in overseas markets, cultural elements and ancient stories gain more popularity on mobile devices, Yang Yang reports.
Black Myth: Wukong, for example, re-imagines Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, as a brooding antihero in a dark fantasy world.
Preserving the core theme of rebellion, the game taps into universal tropes, such as the pursuit of freedom and justice, individual growth and cultivation, love and brotherhood, the complexity of human nature and the importance of kindness.
While drawing from the rich cultural backdrop of the novel, it also skillfully blends elements like traditional Shaanbei (northern Shaanxi province) storytelling, ancient poetry and ancient architectural designs, offering players a unique glimpse into Chinese culture.
US gaming blogger Legendary Drops, who has more than 270,000 followers on YouTube, said in one of his posts about Black Myth: Wukong: "I can't tell you how much I appreciate this game's story, character writing, voice acting, music, and visual production.
"When I started playing, I knew this game would be good, but I never imagined an action game, or a first-time developer like Game Science, to deliver a story experience, rather than just telling you a story.
"You can feel the reverence for Journey to the West through Black Myth: Wukong. You see it in the art, in the music, in the characters, the voice acting, the writing, the stop-motion, and the hand-drawn cut-scenes," he adds. "You see how much respect they have for the work they were adapting."
To help players better understand the game, some foreign bloggers created videos explaining the story of Journey to the West, attracting tens of thousands of viewers.
In a previous interview, Feng Ji, the game's producer, said that Journey to the West and Sun Wukong are among the cultural intellectual properties that best represent Chinese culture, adding that he hoped "the game will intrigue players around the world to learn more about Chinese culture".
