Black Myth: Wukong returns with a rat-smashing new trailer

Black Myth: Wukong - Chinese New Year greetings - YouTube

Six months after developer Game Science Studio revealed Black Myth: Wukong to the world with a 13-minute trailer, the Chinese team has returned with a shorter (if no less action-packed) new video showing off its mythical martial arts adventure.

Based on Journey to the West, a 16th-century Chinese myth that's been adapted countless times in media, Black Myth is a third-person action game putting you in the fuzzy paws of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong.

While it's a lot shorter than our previous glimpse, we get a good sense of how Black Myth might, perhaps, play. It's all looking even more Sekiro this time around, with frenetic combat against brutal monsters in beautiful arenas sporting a particularly Fromsoft sense of desolation.

But Wukong isn't just a light-footed fighter. Throughout the trailer, we see the Monkey King transform in various forms, from a bulbous stone golem to three lightning-spitting rats. Last time, he introduced himself by buzzing around the forest as a gross bug.

In the video's description, Game Science Studio insists that this new trailer doesn't represent the game's plot. Rather, the footage was put together to celebrate the Chinese New Year, saying goodbye to the rat and hello to the ox. At least that explains why a two-headed rodent gets dunked on in the new trailer, only for a ten-storey tall minotaur to enter the fray.

Like last year's tease, this is still pre-alpha footage. It's hard to say how accurately the final game will turn out—Black Myth still has no planned release date, and the trailer once again closes with a recruitment call for developers.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.