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18:44 still pretty early on in the video, but I wanted to mention before I forget, you are definitely underselling the use of spirits and see throughs. Although I do agree that the game is definitely completable without implementing these mechanics regularly, the game rewards you for understanding using them quite well. Many spirits in the game will be a main source of damage due to the fact they give you a major stat buff (example the gore eyed daoist), just do major damage and can combo extend (for example wandering weight or non able), or apply status effects and do damage (example apramana bat or guangmou). These spirit abilities once fully upgraded are extremely powerful and are very useful in completing the harder challenges in the game. You also missed thrust stance having a see through (at least so far) that has it's benefits and downsides to using over the smash stance one. The thrust stance one does not require a focus point to use so it can be useful for dodging a attack without having to use a skill point, while also getting a the benefit of activating buffs you may get from pulling off a successful see through from a curio or other item you have equipped. 21:10 you are definitely underselling the usefulness of the cloud step, as it can also be used to move out the way of a attack quickly, and giving yourself time to reset. The unveiling strike is also very powerful, staggers most bosses for a short time, and can be followed up on. 21:28 like I said earlier, the see throughs are a very important part of dodging in this game, and there are also many spirits that allow you to quickly avoid attacks like apramana bat and non void that can be used to dodge + extra benefits 30:12 thrust stance see throughs have their own buffs they can activate too, are easier to get than perfect dodges, can follow up into a varied combo, and some attacks are just not perfect dodgable for some reason (erlangs giant axe when he hits 3/4 hp is a example) 30:22 examples of how see throughs and the "standing still to stab repeatedly" can be a useful tool, but "spin in a circle" is indeed bad th-cam.com/video/Y3GjnqEEA08/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/CMhzAPfD3CA/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/LRkf0R6VDRA/w-d-xo.html and as for charging heavy attack yeah thats usually useless. 30:58 You actually see the opposite when you look at the most skilled players of the game, I never see any of them ever use pillar due to the fact it doesnt have a viable varied combo, and you never ever need the pillar stance charge attack to dodge anything. 31:14 for this boss, there are boulders throughout the map you can stand on to avoid the electric floor, or you can alternate between dodging and jumping to avoid the shock since its faster than just dodging or just jumping. 31:23 maybe it feels that way, but it just isnt. Throughout my playthrough I nearly never used the pillar stance, but thats just personal preference i guess 32:11 the videos i listed earlier are pretty clearly good descriptions of how they can be good. Pretty much agree with everything else, nice vid

"Porgans"? My brother in Christ... It's P Organs. Even Geppetto says P Organs, not "Porgans". You're killing me. 😭

Thank you for the interesting and in-depth video! If only game creators were better people...

My literal ONLY complaint is that past NG+5, it is so unreasonably hard. You spend multiple cycles to become Wukong himself basically, and then eventually you get to NG+4, and you might as well be on your first playthrough again. Your full health bar being depleted by one attack from a skill check boss. I have 200 hours and a platinum trophy, and the game just started kicking my but on my 5th playthrough. I cannot beat Erlang if he is one shotting me with his sword attack.

I love and hate criticism videos like this since we need critical analysis more than ever especially. But holy fuck does it bring out people with some of the worst, bad faith, toxic, or just ignorant takes period. Keep doing what youre doing, but dont forget who your audience is.

Your critiques are amazing

I shared a lot of the sentiments from the level design! This was a great analysis and critique on the overall quality of this game. I was a bit underwhelmed with the final chapter because while the bosses were incredible and playing with a cloud and Wukong stance were fun, the final chapter felt like a tech demo

Everything you raised in this video are the problems with Sony’s insistence on making “movie games”, also why the best Sony game ever made is Astro Bot which has nothing to do with trying to be cinematic

just finished playing the game, time for a rewatch :D

I didn’t have the same experience with the vessels or the transformations Because of the invisible walls I explored minimally I didn’t know there was secret areas till I reached chapter 3 and looked up how to get through it Due to my lack of exploration I didn’t have any vassal or transformation till about halfway through my first play through It’s also cool how each vassal has a unique effect for their or a separate boss like the wind tamer trivializing the chapter 2 boss

I dont wanna speak for everybody but personally i wouldnt have minded 30 minutes of giant shingandang hate

-No truly overarching story -shallow and unjustified characters motivation -no real character development -bad pacing -feels dead -consequences are weak and unearned -uninspired and uncreative boss fights -established expectation have poor payoff -too much handholding Its just like a bag of chips,looks tempting and delicious on the outside but just a lot of air inside😅

52:41 this is a very dumb criticism please. Substance over style. Level design takes precedence over how believable a setting's literal layout is. You could rip apart every Souls game like this and you’d be missing the point. Dark Souls 2 is especially guilty of this but you see that it'd rob it of its atmosphere, set pieces and unique themes had we consider a more realistic world structure. Not to mention the level design would greatly take a toll if realistic traversal and residency were to be considered. Like take a stroll down your neighbourhood and then drive to another neighbourhood and do the same thing. The "level design" is virtually identical given the goals of the architects trying to enable a society to exist. We don’t need to worry about that in games because it exists to serve gameplay. You can simply allude to people living in the world through art design and background decals. Your critiques had largely been on point up until this. It’s almost like you suddenly just discovered what ludonarrative dissonance is. Hate to break it to you but this affects all games and had been for years. Why bother create adversity and obstacles at all if your super-powered hero is canonically unstoppable? Because the game would be boring. We know Doomguy can kill Gods and is immortal, but we accept that he will die to a mere imp in the game because ultimately gameplay takes priority over the setting.

You asking for the game’s depth to be removed.

I didn't like Ascension very much but one thing I did like about it was using the enemies weapons as your own for a bit, if they had brought that back into this game to add a little variety to the combat I think that would have been more fun, like using the Dark Elf spear to launch the orbs that blind your opponents for a few seconds or something like that

Feels like u were straight up attacking assassins creed Valhalla when talking about the porgan lol which is cool the skill bush was terrible ya give 5 percent blocking when I'm making a range build smh

Banger of a vid as always sir

A very heartfelt and honest review. But I can't help but feel the OP is setting off on the wrong footing -- Wukong is trying to do its own thing here with a lot of unique design choices, and sounds like OP is very much stuck in his old habits so not being able to appreciate some of the unusual mechanics of the game (not talking about invisible walls, we all hate that). Nonetheless, great to see in-depth analysis like this. Also l, Lies of P is great, but nowhere near a "masterpiece"

its not soulslike… its soulish.

This video is great, clear and apt. The text on the thumbnail can also be applied on how the game sees Wukong as.

I really love this game

3:01 i dont care about souls game like as i’ve never played any souls games & never will

29:11 This mysterious player you're talking about is DSP. Literally, there is a video about it. They scale difficulty and accessibility to the lowest denominator. Not of skill or physical limits, but pure awareness and intelligence. It's like they expect us to be scrolling tiktok when we play. Fighting, exploring and just talking with Freya was like cooking with my mother : -You have to do "this". -I know, I was going to -Then do "it", why are you not doing "it", are you dumb ? -Jesus fucking Christ almighty, look I'm doing" it" right now, see ? See how I fking enjoy doing "it" now that you just told me to ? -See ? I told you *smug face* ! You never listen and then get angry when you can't do "it". We should do this more often. Never again. The game doesn't even let Kratos get annoyed. He's just so passive and apologetic all along. I miss shaved Kratos.

You sound like someone who’s voice hurts them. Your larynx may be stuck upwards, leaving it like this can have bad effects on your upper back (scoliosis). Likely let go of your voice! Let your neck come forward and it’ll ring properly

One thing you did not think about is the camera angle. If all the battles were taking place in arenas like Doom the camera angle would absolutely fuck you over. You would get stuck in some corner losing vision of the entire fight. That's why the arenas are all just circles basically

What is your ratings for the game?

I don't feel like playing Story Mode GOW: How about no?

6:43 I had the same exact thought when it comes to Odin's fight. I also wanted to see them chaotically teleport across the realms and I think something like that could've been done had it not been for Sony insisting on releasing the game on PS4

i never realized this game has such a lack of people, because i played this game after 500 hours of elden ring so i was already very used to lack of people, i understand your critiques but i still like the game (gameplay wise atleast)

This game already make his own genre..lies like

i enjoyed my time with Lies of P which i beat just recently, but i would say that it essentially brings nothing new to the souls format. imo it thrives mostly on its crisp gameplay, which is like complete "borrowed" from the souls games. The aesthetic is chill, but a lot of areas also feel samey imo. The weapon combining is cool, but doesnt feel like a genre defining system or anything so extraordinary. I kinda found the game to be a bit easy even, but to be fair, i am a souls-like veteran, so i find most of these games very doable. Lastly, the rewards for quest in Lies of P is pitiful. Absolutely lame. (last last thing, having to fully listen to records takes too long) I enjoyed Lies of P more than Lords of the Fallen, because LotF has a lot of annoying BS and the gameplay of it isn't as crisp, but I would say that LotF actually brought something new to the table where Lies of P didn't. I'm referring to the Umbral world of LotF. Its execution wasnt perfect and actually added a lot to the annoying BS, but the idea is cool/innovative.

Honestly I wonder how someone can play the game so long and still have no clue how the game works. 1. Spellbinder on Erlang is definitely not the easier way to play the game. You'll see very few youtubers/streamers use it for good reason, you need to actually learn his moves to not get bodied since you don't have spells or transformations to soak damage. 2. You talk so much about the UI but forgot the skill that let's you reduce the Immobilize Cooldown if you time it like the perfect dodge. Just before you get hit if you immobilize you'll get a massive CD reduction. 3. The proper way to use stances is to use the see through moves that basically parries or negates the enemy attacks if you time it right, that's the whole point of the stances, it's to use the see through moves except for Pillar stance's which is deflects projectiles. 4. You really went on 30 minutes talking about combat without mentioning any of this. 1/10.

This is the only fair criticism videos I've seen. Most people are just bashing without any good points comparing it to the older games. Watching this made me realise the lack of big action sequences compared to 2018. In 2018 you had tons of different fight sequences like the elevator scene, the first dragon fight, the optional dragon quest with maze-like arenas and the epic final battle. This game was definitely rushed, maybe due to COVID or maybe because of Cory's absence. I realised it pretty early on in the that this game is not as good as 2018 but still it was good enough to be enjoyable and emotionally investing.

A souls like where you don't get punished for dying? I loved every bit of Wukong. Completed 4 playthroughs. Stop trying to force the souls label onto it. Doesn't make it a better game. It's great in it's own right.

the slo mo on kan jin loong grabbing with the "wut" text plastered on it at 39:49 or so seems like such a exaggerated clip. in any game you are going to be grabbed there. you literally cannot even tell that "technically, I was teleported inside the mouth" a full speed. the boss basically collided with your model and you didn't dodge it or attempt to. if it was the year 2050 and animators were so skilled as to have dynamic animations where they grab a specific part of your body, like your left arm which was fully inside the bosses mouth, then yeah you could say it could be better, but there is nothing below par or off there given the technical limitations of video games at the moment

Black myth may not be a masterpiece but this video sure is

I like surfing on the cloud to look for hippo.

I mean this is their first game, those bad things are just caused by inexperience.

I think that the ending was a bit of a letdown. Odin was supposed to be this super smart god, but during the endgame, he didn't try to do anything that truly showcased his intelligence. Thor's last fight should have been multi-layered and he should have pushed Kratos to his absolute limits. Rescuing the real Tyr in the epilogue should have been a way bigger deal. We also didn't get to explore Asgard even though it has a map with named locations. However, this game is still way above average. I'm playing FFXVI right now and GOW's combat is so much better.

I don’t think you have enough knowledge about the game to comment with this depth. There were at lot of gaps in your knowledge and understanding

How are you only at 1000 subscribers

I appreciate the many praises you give to this game, such as level design in Chapter 2 and 4, which is very much underrated by not just reviewers but also gaming community parrotting them. However, the many "inconsistencies" you mentioned are purely nitpicking. The perfect example is when you expected a different style for each chapter animation after the stop motion "fox and man" story, but later found them back to chapter 1 style. That to me is a totally misplaced and entitled expectation, not to mention each animation does have style differences - you just cant see them. Chapter 3 is clearly inspired by Hayao Miyazaki, while others are more inspired by different 1960s or even earlier Chinese animations. It bothers me the most when you reached the verdict BMW merely "knocks" the door of Nioh and such. As I see it, you went on to this wrong path of logic the very first moment you decidedly call it a "Soulslike". Should you compare all these games under a broader ARPG perspective instead of the narrow "Soulslike" category, you'd find BMW up there with GoW 2018, Bloodborne and Sekiro, blending the best of all its predecessors. I'm fine with casually calling BMW a Soulslike since it does borrow Souls elements, and the staff impacts on enemies do feel more like Miyazaki games than GOW or FF7R. But if we seriously try to rank Soulslike games I shall restrict to several titles only. The first game to exclude is Sekiro, the only Miyazaki game that resembles BMW. And Hidetaka himself ruled out Sekiro as a Soulslike. They both have a leveling system unlike that of Souls but skill trees unlocked by points, which to me is the definitive trait that seperates a game from Souls. The only serious problem I have with BMW is Chapters 6 needs more guiding than just lightning visual marks - my guess is they did cut a lot in Mt Huaguo due to deadline, having to save them for DLC as a old day callback, which makes the progression unorganic. The other big problem of invisiable wall was suprising to me only because I am used to Souls and drop to my death, but soon I quickly adapted and appreciated them not letting me drop dead all the time. The "inconsistencies" that ensue in later chapters' narrow bridges were never a problem for me - they are there obviously as a punishment mechnism, but only for their particular scene. Those who complain about invisiable walls and later bridges lack the adaptability to switch first from game to game, then again from scene to scene. Again, many complaints come from your perspective and expectations of a Soulslike game, where FromSoftware design is king. This is also why I dont feel the need to play any non-FromSoftware "Soulslike" - especially when they market themselves so. For BMW, I went in with what I learned from Souls, just as I went in with what I learned from GoW, and would rate it in its own right.

I am literally using cloud step + ring of fire combo. It's really strong imo. I personally find that it pairs best with pillar stance or cloud step to allow you stay in the circle and charge up. Deals massive amount of damage especially if you are able to fully charge while invisible.

this review is very honest and to the point.. I subconsciously felt all these points during my 1st play through but couldn't tell.. and you have compiled it pretty well in this review.. very well done

hope the DEV's watch your VID, for future games they may make, because theirs always room to improve

Ring of fire staggers enemies, which lets you attack them just like immobilise does. Except ring of fire also heals you instantly. And leaves behind a zone that continuously heals you, and builds focus. If you've positioned yourself well, you can even attack the staggered opponent while staying in the ring the entire time. And it can be combined with transformations like Ma Tianba for absolutely disgusting damage, or provide focus in general for seeing through attacks or transformations like Yin Tiger. And unless you've taken the "Spread the Word" relic, Ring of Fire also gives you better crowd control. Immobilise is also almost completely ignored by some late game bosses while Ring of Fire's stagger will still work. It seems like ring of fire is frequently underrated - perhaps due to the ease of use and power of immobilise, and the lack of clarity about what exactly ring of fire provides in comparison. But imo it's the better spell.

Playing the game made me feel spoiled. It gives the player sooo much reward for their time and effort.

Only thing i kinda disagree with is your take on the stances. They have their own ways to shine. They're not just put there. They also have their own spells they partner nicely with. Smash stance special feature is for charging focus while you sprint which complements well with cloud step and if you're good you can charge heavy while doing perfect dodges. Pillar stance is for ring of fire and imo the best tank strat and safely charging up to 4 focus points for a heavy attack at the expense of no dodging and if enemy is far youre not hitting shiz. Thrust stance is best with rock solid. A heavy attack after a rock solid will skip the charge buildup and thrust stance has the fastest animation which is almost instant and super satisfying. For see through, smash stance parry uses 1 focus point at the chance of dishing out damage even if u dont successfully parry. The parry move has an attack built into it before skyfall strike. Pillar stance gives you crowd control and a back away before a stronger crown control churning gale at the expense of a focus point and having a bad see through mechanic. Thrust stance lets you see through at the cost of NO focus points and backs you away to safety but there is no attack built when you see through unlike smash stance resolute strike. However it gives you the longest. invincibility frames when you see through successfully into a forceful thrust. Also spellbinder imo is not easy mode (outside of yellowbrow, spellbinder violates him) as personally, the spirits, vessels, spells, transformation are stronger and lets you survive longer. Fighting bosses such as erlang with spellbinder is significantly more difficult. Well i agree spellbinder gives easy mode for exploration to destroy mobs. Thanks for the vid man, it was enjoyable!

It might not be a masterpiece as far as game design, but the art in this game is a treasure.

The Fire Ring is goated in fights that Immobilize doesn't work, and in NG++ and up where you can build the super tank build with Bullking+Damage reduction where it give extra damage reduction + fast focus build + healing (because with this build you use the 1-use, self-regenarate gourd)