Black Myth: Wukong
So funny story about this game. I bought it on accident. I was using my PS5 controller on my pc, but while it connected to my pc, it was also still connected to our PS5. Because of this, it logged onto my partners account and purchased the game at full price. No refund was possible, so I was stuck with it. And honestly? Kinda glad it happened.
This game does not have much story for me to go over. Not to say that it doesn't exist, more that it was not the focus for me when playing. My focus on this game was the world design, world building, and the combat. All of which knocked it out of the park. Taking inspiration from the Souls series, this game follows a similar formula, but tones the difficulty down. I never struggled with this game to the point where I put it down on a boss fight. I always found myself feeling like I could beat it. It is incredibly forgiving, but still punishing where it matters.
While games like Sekiro focus on the parry mechanic, this game made its focus on the dodge mechanic. Perfect dodging is SO satifying to hit, thanks in large part to the sound design and its benefits to the player. This is the bread and butter of this game. While like sekiro in the fact that there is only one main weapon style, there is a ton of customization options in the form of armor, weapons, and spells for the player to choose from. All of the spells fill a niche, and many spells are hidden in the games side content.
Another selling point to this game is that the side content feels indistinguishable from the main game. All of it is incredible. While I did not experience everything this game has to offer, I know that if I ever decide to play it again, there is more waiting for me.
The boss fights in this game are incredible, with a lot of visual variety, but often lacking in moveset variety. This is a minor gripe, however, as this game was actually made by a reletively small development team, with no publisher present. That means this game is an indie-game. Does not look, feel, or act it, but it is an independent project, and it has the passion and heart of a deeply personal project. The dev team poured their heart and soul into this game, and I'm glad to say it is absolutely worth a playthru. Hell, it's actually pretty easy to pick up, and I think most gamers will be able to play and enjoy this game (provided they have a lil bit of patience. :) )