I'm a 47 year old American black man,..... the 1980 monkey king tv show was something I enjoyed. sure i didn't understand any of the language, but the setting, art style, and fight scenes( i was a big fan of kung fu movies) was something i was into. by the time they had the next TV show i was already a fan(and it had subtitles). by the time dragonball came to America I was already familiar with the journey to the west, so i recognized what/who goku was based on. the moment they announced black myth i honestly doubted it would be any good, but the art style was on point so i held out hope. for me it's easy to see how this could be a cultural phenomena because i'm not even asian and this game hit so hard for me just on the nostalgia level( i recognized the voice actor is from the tv show).
Holy shit. I could feel your passion for the game. Im not Asian, or even eastern, but the story caught me so hard, I became addicted to the myth and wanted know everything about it for the last two months. Great series of videos. Thank you for the review coming from a person who had the cultural bagage. See you in other vds.
Yay! Square, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. This was a joy to hear even as an outsider of this culture. I truly learned so much through many Chinese players like yourself and broadened my understanding of a great story. As an art enthusiast, I loved every inch of landscape and character design put into this game. I agree that one can definitely feel the love put into this game regardless of their background. A truly remarkable feat of storytelling, music and art that I feel the West couldn't even ignore (and often do when the subject matter excludes them). I too look forward to more work from this developer and hope to hear your thoughts on their future work as it pertains to Chinese culture. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.
@@fredagain01 If I want to play, I already did. I'm not a gamer so not interested in the game aspect, I'm interested in the culture aspect and storyline as an Asian grown up with Journey to the West.
I agree with you on the culture factor & the love Game Science gave the legend. As a born and raised ABC, I grew up bullied for being proud of my own culture by my white classmates. Literally told "your culture doesn't mean shit. Your culture sucks". This game and its success worldwide was such a redemption moment for the little me who was bullied into feeling shameful of my own culture's legends and mythology.
Well, you should tell them (or your future kids) that Chinese culture/civilization is 1 of the big 4 (yet the only one still alive) oldest cultures/civilizations of humankind & the mother/cradle of East Asian cultures (Japan, Korea. Vietnam...), that influenced and changed the whole world with a lot of fundamental inventions like paper, money, toilet paper, gun, fireworks, tea...
Sorry to hear about what happened, and I'm happy to hear that this game has achieved what it did for you. Like you said, I think Black Myth has far more cultural significance than most people realize. Bringing tens of millions of Western and people outside of China into a culture previously unknown and perhaps unappreciated by them is such an insane achievement by a game.
14:01 For this one, I knew because of the bridge section and how there’s a very close platform underneath. That pattern is used throughout the chapter, and the only “outlier” would be hanging broken bridges. You can’t jump over the hanging ones, but you can jump down I’m pretty sure all of the suddenly stopping wooden paths
I love how you mention the culture factor, like literally I knew this game would be the best game I've ever played since the first encounter with Yang Jian (Erlang Shen's original name from Fēngshén Yănyì). We have waited for almost 5 years and never stop being hype about the game pre-release just because it's Wukong, it's such a big part of our childhood being Vietnamese. Since the game is actually expect-reached, how can we not love it that much. Just like we say every man in the West dreams of holding a lightsaber, we Asian cannot wait to be able to handle the Rúyì Jīngū Bàng. Overall with all the game's pros and cons, I'm holding on to my words that this game is the best game I've ever played in my entire life, and there's nothing I'm more looking forward to then the DLC. Love your contents about the game aswell my guy.
The invisible walls is a compromise and lack of map is intentional. I think both are the right decisions and I will throw in another two, the simplistic HUD design and absence of difficulty choices. The invisible walls is partly due to lack of manpower and time, partly to not ruin the beautiful landscape. Yes you could put big bolders, obstacles. Then you are effectively in glorified corridors and halls and will most not likely to marvel the huge depth and natural scenery often captured by 3d scanning the real world. The creator wanted to deliver a cinematic experience therefore while you're not using spells or running, the HUD will be completely hidden. Now imagine a GPS map hanging in a corner... One addition this game made to the original JTTW that strikes me most, is the "all beings are equal" idea the game is trying to tell. Therefore it only has one difficulty. Yet it's not shallow or stiff on that. If you're really struggling there's plenty of tricks to get around due to its leniency. Some say it lacks replay value. But I found almost every spirit and armor gives a unique and viable play style and fun, not just numbers. Think about it they planned all these. This game is by no means perfect and for sure has flaws. But as a boat to carry JTTW and its culture it is the best.
Mine wasn’t the 1986 show, but the experience and sentiment is still pretty much the same. Growing up as a Chinese kid in Canada, every single summer without fail I would catch the TVB Dicky Cheung Journey to the West shows, and that’s what I grew up on. So it’s not quite the exact same, but Sun Wukong is still the biggest cultural attachment I have, and yeah this game really just hits exactly right for it.
I watched both growing up, while the TVB version is very good, funny and beloved, it can't be compared to the classic 86...and I'm saying that as someone's mother tongue is Cantonese.
U can use wukongs stance in ng++ after getting all 18 relics no need to go for another ng+ after it for the wukong stance well only if u want do 1st chapter and so with wukong stance
A number of VNmese sub teams and even TV voice actor has contributed their own part to translate the game straight from Chinese language, which made it more accessible to even more ppl I've never seen any game that had this level of attention and widespread in VN in recent years like BMW it's amazing. Glad to see someone mentioned its cultural impact cuz it'll fucking phenomenal
18:28, I am actually watching this show and reading the Gene Luen Yang and Julia Lovell version of Wu Cheng'en's version of the JTTW. I am at the part about the Gold and Silver horned brothers.
My wife (mainland Chinese citizen who came here as an adult) and I played this together. Pretty much agreed with everything except some of the voices - she prefers Erlang's English VA, and hated Maitreya's Chinese VA especially. Might be a personal thing, but she dislikes some of the modern acting for these heavenly beings in live dramas too, and felt it didn't have a patch on the older style. Felt they were trying too hard to be "epic". The English script sucks though, and you could tell the translation was rough even knowing a little Mandarin only.
" But if you were to ask me personally, I'll give the game a fucking 100/100. Fuck it, game of my life, Yeah I said it" God I love that lmao,, I know the importance of being objective and observing both the good and the bad parts of something you love but fuck it man sometimes we just want to be biased because of how good our experience with it is and how much it affects our lives, despite its imperfections. LIFE CHANGING GAME 100/100
I love the game. I didn’t really feel the grind even though I had to do NG 4+ to get all the relics. I’m trying to get all the curio sets of 3, turn all legendary to mythical and upgrade all the spirits but I’m helping my son go through it (he’s up to chapter 3). I’m hoping to instil the same love of Wukong I have from the 80’s tv series and also from dragonball.
Ah yes.. chapter 5. If anyone noticed, all the rock guais there are reskinned. Well, not even reskinned i think. More like straight up reused and slapped with fire element. And that winged creature guarding the dead cart is a reskin of Macaque Chief 🤷♂
I sometimes wish they didn’t translate the Chinese penchant for rhymes in some of the dialogues. I feel like doing so makes them a bit esoteric and takes away from what the characters are trying to convey in English.
I'm a 47 year old American black man,..... the 1980 monkey king tv show was something I enjoyed. sure i didn't understand any of the language, but the setting, art style, and fight scenes( i was a big fan of kung fu movies) was something i was into. by the time they had the next TV show i was already a fan(and it had subtitles). by the time dragonball came to America I was already familiar with the journey to the west, so i recognized what/who goku was based on. the moment they announced black myth i honestly doubted it would be any good, but the art style was on point so i held out hope.
for me it's easy to see how this could be a cultural phenomena because i'm not even asian and this game hit so hard for me just on the nostalgia level( i recognized the voice actor is from the tv show).
Holy shit. I could feel your passion for the game. Im not Asian, or even eastern, but the story caught me so hard, I became addicted to the myth and wanted know everything about it for the last two months. Great series of videos. Thank you for the review coming from a person who had the cultural bagage. See you in other vds.
The rng drops on the seeds had me malding as well 😭😭😭, ggs on the 100% achievement man!!!
You should do like a lore video for wukong, i'd definitely watch that
Yay! Square, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. This was a joy to hear even as an outsider of this culture. I truly learned so much through many Chinese players like yourself and broadened my understanding of a great story. As an art enthusiast, I loved every inch of landscape and character design put into this game. I agree that one can definitely feel the love put into this game regardless of their background. A truly remarkable feat of storytelling, music and art that I feel the West couldn't even ignore (and often do when the subject matter excludes them). I too look forward to more work from this developer and hope to hear your thoughts on their future work as it pertains to Chinese culture. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.
I don't even play this game but I watch every videos of yours about this game.
go play it , you wiill not regret it
@@fredagain01 If I want to play, I already did. I'm not a gamer so not interested in the game aspect, I'm interested in the culture aspect and storyline as an Asian grown up with Journey to the West.
I agree with you on the culture factor & the love Game Science gave the legend. As a born and raised ABC, I grew up bullied for being proud of my own culture by my white classmates. Literally told "your culture doesn't mean shit. Your culture sucks". This game and its success worldwide was such a redemption moment for the little me who was bullied into feeling shameful of my own culture's legends and mythology.
Well, you should tell them (or your future kids) that Chinese culture/civilization is 1 of the big 4 (yet the only one still alive) oldest cultures/civilizations of humankind & the mother/cradle of East Asian cultures (Japan, Korea. Vietnam...), that influenced and changed the whole world with a lot of fundamental inventions like paper, money, toilet paper, gun, fireworks, tea...
Sorry to hear about what happened, and I'm happy to hear that this game has achieved what it did for you. Like you said, I think Black Myth has far more cultural significance than most people realize. Bringing tens of millions of Western and people outside of China into a culture previously unknown and perhaps unappreciated by them is such an insane achievement by a game.
14:01 For this one, I knew because of the bridge section and how there’s a very close platform underneath. That pattern is used throughout the chapter, and the only “outlier” would be hanging broken bridges. You can’t jump over the hanging ones, but you can jump down I’m pretty sure all of the suddenly stopping wooden paths
I love how you mention the culture factor, like literally I knew this game would be the best game I've ever played since the first encounter with Yang Jian (Erlang Shen's original name from Fēngshén Yănyì). We have waited for almost 5 years and never stop being hype about the game pre-release just because it's Wukong, it's such a big part of our childhood being Vietnamese. Since the game is actually expect-reached, how can we not love it that much. Just like we say every man in the West dreams of holding a lightsaber, we Asian cannot wait to be able to handle the Rúyì Jīngū Bàng. Overall with all the game's pros and cons, I'm holding on to my words that this game is the best game I've ever played in my entire life, and there's nothing I'm more looking forward to then the DLC. Love your contents about the game aswell my guy.
The ending literally gave me goosebumps! 帅！
The invisible walls is a compromise and lack of map is intentional. I think both are the right decisions and I will throw in another two, the simplistic HUD design and absence of difficulty choices.
The invisible walls is partly due to lack of manpower and time, partly to not ruin the beautiful landscape. Yes you could put big bolders, obstacles. Then you are effectively in glorified corridors and halls and will most not likely to marvel the huge depth and natural scenery often captured by 3d scanning the real world.
The creator wanted to deliver a cinematic experience therefore while you're not using spells or running, the HUD will be completely hidden. Now imagine a GPS map hanging in a corner...
One addition this game made to the original JTTW that strikes me most, is the "all beings are equal" idea the game is trying to tell. Therefore it only has one difficulty. Yet it's not shallow or stiff on that. If you're really struggling there's plenty of tricks to get around due to its leniency.
Some say it lacks replay value. But I found almost every spirit and armor gives a unique and viable play style and fun, not just numbers. Think about it they planned all these.
This game is by no means perfect and for sure has flaws. But as a boat to carry JTTW and its culture it is the best.
Seeing u being so passionate about this game makes me appreciate it even more.
BMW, despite its flaw, is truly a miracle
Mine wasn’t the 1986 show, but the experience and sentiment is still pretty much the same. Growing up as a Chinese kid in Canada, every single summer without fail I would catch the TVB Dicky Cheung Journey to the West shows, and that’s what I grew up on. So it’s not quite the exact same, but Sun Wukong is still the biggest cultural attachment I have, and yeah this game really just hits exactly right for it.
I watched both growing up, while the TVB version is very good, funny and beloved, it can't be compared to the classic 86...and I'm saying that as someone's mother tongue is Cantonese.
U can use wukongs stance in ng++ after getting all 18 relics no need to go for another ng+ after it for the wukong stance well only if u want do 1st chapter and so with wukong stance
A number of VNmese sub teams and even TV voice actor has contributed their own part to translate the game straight from Chinese language, which made it more accessible to even more ppl
I've never seen any game that had this level of attention and widespread in VN in recent years like BMW it's amazing. Glad to see someone mentioned its cultural impact cuz it'll fucking phenomenal
Great editing!
THE FENG JI APPRECIATION NEAR THE END WAS UNEXPECTED BUT ABSOLUTELY WELCOMED, SERIOUSLY THAT MAN IS UNBELIEVABLY IMPRESSIVE 😭😭
18:28, I am actually watching this show and reading the Gene Luen Yang and Julia Lovell version of Wu Cheng'en's version of the JTTW. I am at the part about the Gold and Silver horned brothers.
Hope you will play the DLC for this game when it comes out.
My wife (mainland Chinese citizen who came here as an adult) and I played this together. Pretty much agreed with everything except some of the voices - she prefers Erlang's English VA, and hated Maitreya's Chinese VA especially. Might be a personal thing, but she dislikes some of the modern acting for these heavenly beings in live dramas too, and felt it didn't have a patch on the older style. Felt they were trying too hard to be "epic". The English script sucks though, and you could tell the translation was rough even knowing a little Mandarin only.
YOOO ENDING WENT HARDDDDD
CINEMA 🔥🔥
" But if you were to ask me personally, I'll give the game a fucking 100/100. Fuck it, game of my life, Yeah I said it"
God I love that lmao,, I know the importance of being objective and observing both the good and the bad parts of something you love but fuck it man sometimes we just want to be biased because of how good our experience with it is and how much it affects our lives, despite its imperfections. LIFE CHANGING GAME 100/100
100%, let's f&cking go.
@@TrueSquareFace I noticed the title change lmao hell yeah brother be true to yourself 😤💯
I love the game. I didn’t really feel the grind even though I had to do NG 4+ to get all the relics. I’m trying to get all the curio sets of 3, turn all legendary to mythical and upgrade all the spirits but I’m helping my son go through it (he’s up to chapter 3). I’m hoping to instil the same love of Wukong I have from the 80’s tv series and also from dragonball.
You are such cool dad bro, no sarcasms, genuinely love to hear it!
Ah yes.. chapter 5. If anyone noticed, all the rock guais there are reskinned. Well, not even reskinned i think. More like straight up reused and slapped with fire element. And that winged creature guarding the dead cart is a reskin of Macaque Chief 🤷♂
i recently completed my the game & i share your criticism, i plan to make a video about it now that i defeated Erlang…he almost me want to quit 😂
I must have gotten great RNG. Got the plat in 1 1/2 playthrus.
Best game I've played since Ghost of Tsushima.
2:26 now you have to do it all over again on PC.
I sometimes wish they didn’t translate the Chinese penchant for rhymes in some of the dialogues. I feel like doing so makes them a bit esoteric and takes away from what the characters are trying to convey in English.
100% agree.
Other than bugs i completely disagree with all negative points you said.
And I completely disagree with your disagreement, and that is ok.
I 100% it and it wasn’t the worst I’ve done but farming those plants were awful 😭
I never knew how lucky i was to get the pearl tree seed one my first try
@ I was Lucky and got most seeds not to much hassle, but that jade lotus seed was such a pain
@@thataztecrosssimp8630 Plus the jade lotus seed also drops a curios lol
What’s your next game will be?
1:15 😂😂😂😂😂😂
You should play dark souls 2 after this
2nd!
1st