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It's not a "Chinese mythical book", it's one of the classical novels of Chinese civilization. Think of it as a cross between Lord of the Rings and The Iliad, but containing extensive references to ancient Chinese tales, culture, religion (especially Buddhism), and history (the central monk character in the story is based on a real, and revered, historical monk). It also has beloved and well known characters who have featured in all kinds of Chinese stories and media for centuries: e.g. Erlang (no relation to the programming language), who is prominently in the opening cutscene, and is often found in stories accompanied by Nezha (who is so popular that generations of Chinese kids grew up hearing this[0] song and watching that show). And this is by no means just a Chinese phenomenon. This story, Journey to the West, is a cultural keystone in all of Asia: Dragonball is very much based on Journey to the West[1], and "Son Goku" is just the Japanese pronunciation of the name "Sun Wukong", who is the monkey protagonist of this game. The two share many of their powers and characteristics, including flying around on a magic cloud and becoming powerful enough to challenge literal gods. Finally, this is perhaps the first "postmodern" retelling of this extremely popular story. The game is called "black myth" because it is clearly darker and more serious than previous retellings of this story. For someone who knows this story well (i.e. basically anyone who grew up in Asia), it is a fresh version of an old classic. In this sense, this game is the equivalent of what The Witcher was for (mainly Eastern) Europeans; it takes legends, stories, superstitions you grew up hearing about (e.g. vampires, werewolves, etc) and breathes new life into them. [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TG_KTrCetcM [1] even down to having a cowardly pigman companion, Bajie, who is also in this game. |