
I remember all the videos of Black Myth: Wukong before the game eventually launched; all of them were spectacular.
It seems developer Game Science has lost none of its ability to create compelling videos, as it's just released a brilliant 15-minute gameplay trailer for Black Myth: Zhong Kui, the second game in its series of Chinese mythology action RPGs.
Some of the stuff in here goes over my head a bit — I'm not really sure who the player character is, nor the old man who turns into a cloud of... skin and paper?
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Anyway, the action itself looks like it has some similarities with Wukong, but it's definitely got its own feel too.
Dodges and parries are here, of course, and it looks like wielding the elements will be part of combat. I really liked creating a blaze to take out some enemies, absorbing the fire into the sword, then using that power against another group. That's good stuff.
The boss fight at the end looked great as well; I like how the summoned character sticks around, and that you could temporarily control him.
Visually, it's another stunner, with lots of very nice animation in and out of combat. The video sets up another captivating world set within Chinese folklore.
As mentioned, Wukong also had fantastic trailers, and the game itself was a strong debut effort that lived up to those videos in some ways. For me, it had some pretty serious flaws that held it back, particularly environments that looked nice but were confusing to navigate and, in some cases, far too big.
I'm really hopeful that Game Science will have learned the right lessons for Zhong Kui, as it really does look great here, but it obviously all comes down to the final game.
In the meantime, what do you think of this new look at Black Myth: Zhong Kui? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source youtube.com]





Comments 48
This looks insane
oh my god! Easily the best looking game I've ever seen. Seems almost too good to be true, but wow.
“Zhong Kui is a Taoist folk deity and legendary demon queller in Chinese mythology, traditionally depicted as a fierce scholar with a dark or red face, a large beard, and a sword. He is widely revered as the King of Ghosts, possessing the authority to command 80,000 demons and spirits to hunt down and banish evil entities.
His origin story centers on his life as a brilliant Tang Dynasty scholar who, despite scoring highest on the imperial examinations, was denied the top honor due to his grotesque appearance. In despair, he committed suicide, but the King of Hell or Emperor Xuanzong (in a dream) recognized his loyalty and justice, appointing him to his divine role. Consequently, his image is famously hung on doors during the Chinese New Year to protect households from misfortune and disease.“
So you’ll be traveling and fighting different kinds of demons👀
Let’s hope this game end up in a better condition on consoles then Black Mtyh Wukong 🤔
So happy to see this. I really liked wukong, so this was game porn for me - looks fantastic!
I've tried, I really did, but I just don't understand the appeal of Black Myth: Wukong.
Literally the opposite of the experience everybody online praises: game seems to have unstable performance on PS5, gameplay is anything but fluid with big input delay and long move animations, bosses throw random unblockable stuff with zero hint which results in "cheap" deaths.. I just don't get it, feels difficult due to gameplay issues not intentionally.
Just to add, I'm not a fan of difficult gameplay and souls-like in particular, but I love me some GoT, GoY, Returnal, Saros.. all seem earned, responsive and fun..
All that is to say, I really hope this game is different, but trailer looks as if it's just more of Wukong global problems with a different moveset/character.
This looks incredible, but so did Wukong, and then we got the actual release which was a technical nightmare (still a fun game though.) Hopefully this will deliver.
I've heard good things about Black Myth, but I think it got a bit overhyped at awards ceremonies that year. That's my impression as an outsider though, can anyone fill me in on whether it's GOTY nomination at the Game Awards was warranted?
@ShadowRJ It was a solid 7.5 for me; wouldn't say it was GOTY contender but it is a decent mash-up of GoW and a soulslike. It was just in a proper state on PS5, I'm sure it's improved now. Also has that very "Unreal 5 look", which I'm kind of tired of seeing at this point haha.
Hopefully this one will actually get optimized for consoles instead of just being a downgraded port of the PC version.
Also, hopefully they don't decide to switch to another graphics engine mid-development.
@ShadowRJ I'm way beyond putting much stock in game awards these days. Look at the state of the Oscar's and the Grammy's. But Black Myth Wukong is an excellent game with some flaws, and is well worth it's high praise.
@Fishysensei The problem there is that I believe the first game sold mostly on PC.
I got Black Myth Wukong at launch and thought it was amazing from start to finish. I didn't experience any of the issues some people complain about even though I am very sensitive to fps drops. Just had healing not registering sometimes and the first snake boss guy kicking my arse which almost made me give up!
I started on a regular PS5 then finished it on a PS5 Pro and was great on both. I think VRR and a Sony TV helped a lot with this from what I can figure out as it does some of the heavy lifting. Highly recommended and can't wait for the next game.
Its gotta be next gen. No way would a base ps5 or series x deliver these kind of visuals?!
@Swirly
The Pro probably would with PSSR2
Totally unique artstyle and gameplay, this Wuchang: Wolong. Incredible!
@Swirly RDR2 was PS4, a console years on from release is when you see developers really making the most of it, wouldn't be surprised if it looks as good (though perhaps more like PS5 Pro).
Game looks decent though, liked the montage at the end. The first is fine, but it just didn't grab me. I'm not a big souls fan though, so I'm not the target audience. This one does look sharper and more fun though.
@ShadowRJ It definitely wasn’t GotY tier. The team went above and beyond to say it wasn’t a Soulslike, but then it ended up feeling a lot like a Soulslike, just with some other gameplay styles dressing it up slightly. The story is also incoherent if you don’t know the source material. I did know the source material and I genuinely couldn’t believe just how loose they left it in the game because there’s no way to follow what’s going on without that knowledge. Button inputs had lag at launch too, so you almost had to have mental netcode to keep up with some of the bosses. I’d hope that’s fixed by now though.
The visuals were incredible, the music was incredible, the gameplay was solid in spite of it being far more Soulsy than they advertised. I thought it was good, but not great, definitely far more style than substance though. If the button inputs are still an issue, it’s a 6.5/10. If not, I agree with @JB_Whiting that it’s a 7.5/10.
If anything Black Myth Wukong has made me cautious with buying high end Chinese games, in that I want to read reviews now to make sure I know more about what kind of game they are before purchasing. I was sold on Wukong’s hype, but it retrospect, I probably wouldn’t have bought the game at launch if I knew it was so deeply Souls-adjacent. I say my opinion as someone who doesn’t much like the Souls genre, in spite of having no qualms about playing difficult games.
Though I'm not a fan of Black Myth, it's great to see a Chinese company finally puts their energy into making proper games than another anime gacha money grab.
@ShadowRJ This was my GoTY when it released, I played through on the Pro and even got the Platinum (required 1 full playthrough and about 80% of a second one) had no issues at all but I did play it around 2 months after launch so maybe some were patched I am not sure but it ran and looked superb for me.
This will be a day one purchase from me, awesome combat and probably the most rewarding game I have played as I found some bosses pretty tough!
Don't sleep on it, brilliant game 👍
@ShadowRJ
Oh, I am aware of that possibility but a man can dream, right? 😅
@Fishysensei You dream of a Black Myth game that's actually optimised, I dream of Sony backtracking their disc decision.
@Can-You-Believe-Sith Sounds a bit like what GoW Laufey is gonna be doing... much prefer the overall tone of this, however!
I know it’s a ways off, but I’m in, and I’m ready for it!
Breathtaking, looks like they put all the money they made from Black Myth Wukong to good use.
This looks awesome, i really enjoyed the majority of the first game, but man that final big open area where you fly around was so poorly designed and ruined the experience for me. Let's not do THAT again please!
Definitely looking forward to Phantom Blade Zero more. The graphics on this look incredible but somehow the first Black Myth gameplay didn’t click for me and I dropped it, still not quite sure why it didn’t connect.
The graphics in black myth Zhongshan kui looks amazing. And the gameplay is awsome. Word up son
The first game had really rough performance issues at launch that were never really fixed, and very strange framerate caps in some modes (45fps sounds like it’s halfway between 30 and 60 but in computational terms it’s not. 40 is technically the middle ground and is evenly divisible between refresh rates). Let’s hope this new one isn’t marred by the same poor coding and bad choices.
Looks fantastic, though this really puts into perspective how cooked Western development is going to be, when economies like China can build games with such high production value at a fraction of the cost.
That said, production values aren't everything and there are certain cultural sensibilities that are harder to transfer, like the structure of storytelling, performance direction, scripts, etc. If you're someone who is particularly sensitive to the more melodramatic and exaggerated way that Eastern stories are often told, games like these just might not land. But that is, of course, according to taste.
One of my favourite games this gen. Will be there day one for this, can't wait!
@wildcat_kickz they also make games at a fraction of the time it seems...
I loved Wukong so I'm absolutely down for this whenever it's out
This looks really good despite i don't know anything about Zhong Kui myth / lore.
But Chinese devs are cooking really hard:
There's also Loulan the Cursed Sand by ex-Santa Monica, From Soft, and PG.
https://blog.playstation.com/2025/10/27/loulan-the-cursed-sand-is-coming-to-ps5/
@Dodoo I think that's simply a result of how many people they can afford to work on a game at the same time.
I think game science just had to 1up phantom blade zero. This looks incredible and definitely won't run so well on playstation.
I'm playing Wukong right now and am continually impressed. Glad to know the team has something cooking.
@PuppetMaster I really liked the look of loulan and hoping they give an update soon.
Wukong was great and I'm hoping this will be spectacular.
@ShadowRJ
I mean...if Sony would backtrack on that whole thing, it'd be great but I'm not really optimistic about neither that nor the new Black Myth game getting optimized console versions.
@Swirly I imagine it's from a high end PC. The PC is the dominant platform in China so developers from China usually develop for the PC first.
Wow! Ok, it seems to be a false promise. But I remember with the first, people were skeptical, and it turned out to be a great looking game, and good too!
Brilliant looks cool. I love that muted colour pallete, not sure how much it’s contributing to the realism but it’s great……. not garish but then I personally crank the colour down on my set a bit. For the record haven’t bought AAA release Black Myth because no HDR
No more visually impressive than Hellblade 2.
I'll have some of this. I loved wukong and I never had any issues with the issues of the ps5 version. I haven't tried it on my pro so I suppose I should.
I'm sure the console version will see heavy downgrades, poor performance and such.
@wildcat_kickz On the otherhand Black Myth looks terrible on console and had to fake 60fps for over a year on PS5 before they gave you an option to have real 60fps on console at the cost of making the visuals look even worse. Devs are pretty scummy especially as they hid console footage for as long as possible.
@ShadowRJ Its a mediocre soulslike at its core that got overhyped by chinese players who were used to mobile slop and knockoffs and so were amazed at what a "real game" was. A very 5/10 game with an awful console port.
This right here is what I've been waiting for since I started gaming. Something that looks realistic, but fun. I haven't been this impressed since going from SD to HD (ps2 to ps3).
Really, really looking forward to it.
@DennisReynolds I think that's overly harsh. Even if it doesn't look as good as PC, it still looks great on console. I'm pretty sure they rectified the visuals/frame gen issue a long while ago, too.
I don't like how devs release games in unfinished states, but it's par for the course, these days. Hardly exclusive to Game Science.
Super impressed by the way this looks, hopefully comes out on disc.
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