As mentioned in the video, this is a revised reupload of the same video from a couple days ago. There were a lot of mistakes I wanted to undo because you deserve high quality content. I'm liable to still get something wrong even in this version but this is the best I can do. Thank you to all of those who were kind enough to make me aware of the mistakes :)
Journey to the West is a fantasy based on a real historical expedition. The monk Xuanzang was a real person who made the journey. The 3 demons guarding him represent 3 inner demons of himself preventing him from reaching enlightenment. Pig(lust), black Sand Demon (wrath), Wu Kong (Wondering mind). This is why to get Wu Kong under control the monk has to chant the Sutra. He's basically getting his mind under control.
That is a pro-Buddha interpretation of the original novel. However, there are also evidences that the Buddha (and obviously, the celestial court) in the story are kinda mean and hypocratic (if not evil) in the novel. The author of the novel (which we actually don't clearly know who or how many) didn't want any potential backlash back then (in Ming Dynasty) from either the regilious organization or the emperor so they had to make their sarcasm to both regilious belief and empirical power very vague and hid them into seemingly "super hero" stories for kids. The real historical expedition happened during Tang Dynasty, which is almost 1000 years before the novel and 1400 years before now. Later, the Buddists in China start to make it into religious stories to spread the religion. Apparently, the secular interpretations gained more popularity over the preaching stories over time with added "fantasy adventure" elements. A very minor monkey character in the original religious story were gradually turned into a very important character Sun Wukong (if not the main character) over time. By the time when the novel was made (from revising those secular versions of the expedition story), more political-related contents were integrated, making it a story both seems fun to kids and highly relatable to their parents who might be a middle to upper class Chinese who had real business or political experience in their life.
One thing to be noted is that before Buddha imprisoning him, Wukong had attained immortality from six different sources; Daoist magic, removing his name from the book of the dying, the divine peaches, the heavenly wine, Lao Tzu's immortal pills, and ginseng baby fruit
i guess the implication is his "immortality" is more "lives" he can have and what happened to him in the intro is him losing one of his lives but then realizing hell always have the headband put on him if his spirit doesnt guide his vessel to getting the secret ending
@@ZeroOmega-vg8nq Wukong *can* die despite his immortality. It's more like an off brand immortality. Like he had to learn to transform into 72 physical forms to keep from getting killed by Heaven when he became immortal through Daoist principles. And Red Boy's fire killed him before Pigsy revived him on the Journey to the West. It's weird, but there's a lot of different "immortalities" in Chinese myth, but the only *true* immortality is achieving Buddha. I only commented on his immortality because it felt like a lot was glossed over in his summary of what happened before his fight with Heaven.
In the good ending the destined one gains Wukong's memories along with his senses. So in a way wukong is born again in a new body. Also in the final slide of the music video where he is raising a toast to his fallen simian brothers happens in the present time. He leaves then leaving us waiting for a sequel where he will probably attack the heavens. This is truly a phenomenal game and as a fan of the journey to the west it's GOTY for me.
I'm sure he's not alone in attacking the Celestial Court since he and Erlang Shen is secretly working together. Erlang 3rd eyes is capable of seeing the truth so while rebellious, Wukong just want freedom and not an evil being. Probably Nezha too also Zhu Bajie and many more allies we don't know of.
I think the final scene ties directly to the prologue because the Destined one is remembering his memories and in the prologue he is all alone just like in the animation
As a Chinese listening Wukong story for years, this game storyline is the most impressive one. It is called Black Myth for a reason. Traditionally, Buddha and celestial court give people an impression that they represent justice. In this game, these Buddha are the one controlling everything and Wukong do not want to be their dirty hand. He choose to die and split into 6 Sadindriya, hoping one day the "destined one" could inherit his will and lives without Buddha control
It’s not just in the game brother, in the original novel the court and the buddhas are corrupted. They sent the monk from the richest kingdom to travel to the west, so countries along the way would just blindly warship them. (which means more wealth for the buddhas) And the buddha in the novel is actually evil and greedy.
This novel is meant to satirize the corruption and ignorance of the government using religious beliefs to gain their own benefits, just like when Christians used crusades to justify killing and looting.
I guess you're the perfect person to ask this question then: is this journey to the west a normal novel anybody can read or is it smth else? If it's easy to understand (storywise), I'd love to get a copy and read it myself 😅
One thing you haven't mentioned, but I believe is implied in the journal entries for all the Yaoguais and characters, is that Wukong is secretly planning to overthrow the celestial court (again). There are entries mentioning Celestial Court doing horrifying body experiment on human and even gods(Duskveil). And the Buddha side apparently carries out holocaust on Yaksha race. They are not the good guys. Wukong is not happy with how the current order of god-men-yaoguai works(mentioned in his entry after beating the game), even if he's already on the priviledged side being a Buddha. He gave his old armor to Yin Tiger and told him to keep it for him, he planned the whole fake death and reincarnation with Erlang and a few powerful god/Buddhas that support his action. The keeper of each areas was instructed by a Taoist God to help the destined one along the way, and it's almost certain the old monkey is either Guan Yin or just someone higher up on his side.
This needs to be top comment, this is a perfect explanation regarding the secret ending. Also, it gives light to what we will get from ( the very high chance of ) DLC to complete 6-12
There's actually a bigger secret here. Wukong didn't intend to overthrow heaven but to live out his days in peace at Huaguo mountain. In truth he'd discovered that heavenly immortals maintain their immortality by capturing and rendering yaoguais down into pills of immortality. Upon this discovery heaven sends it's soldiers to silence Wukong forever.
It just shows that you didn't look closely at the character introductions and transitions animations, and if you look closer you'll realize that the Monkey King is also evil. The reason for this is because the creators achieved failure when they were involved in the planning of an online game ten years ago, and inserted the setting of the online game in the game's plot for personal reasons.
@@dawn6860 Get the hell outta here, you are the one that don't know shit about the story. Wukong was never evil in this game or in their previous online game.
From The soulsborne series, blasphemous till now , you made me fall in love with all these games by giving me info and in-depth lore dive which I can't do as well as you. Just Do What You're doing now and love you and work bro 🖤
Actually, there are many interpretation videos on the Chinese internet. In the story of Zhu Bajie, my personal interpretation is: Zhu Bajie: Zhu Bajie fell for a leading figure among the Chang'e (this is mentioned in Zhu Bajie's game story, "A group of Chang'e fairies in plain clothes entered the scene from the back," and "Among them, a fairy in a white dress and white hair, danced gracefully.") (Chang'e is a general term for the maids of Taiyin Zhenjun). During his pursuit (perhaps courtship), Zhu Bajie encountered the Purple Spider. Later, he accidentally witnessed the white-haired Chang'e meeting privately with the Jade Emperor (or the Jade Emperor's son). As a result, Zhu Bajie was punished by the Jade Emperor's guards and banished to the mortal world, where he was reincarnated as a pig. In the animation, when Zhu Bajie woke up, he met Gao Cuilan (not the Purple Spider) at Gao Laozhuang, where she was seeking a husband and eventually chose Zhu Bajie. Later, when the four went on their journey to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures from the West, they passed through the Spider Cave, where Zhu Bajie reunited with the Purple Spider but did not dare to recognize her (as the gods in heaven were constantly watching over them during their journey). Similarly, after defeating the Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord, he still couldn't acknowledge her. In the end, they had a daughter together, and during the journey, Sun Wukong asked Zhu Bajie to kill the remaining spiders, but Zhu Bajie spared the Purple Spider’s life (according to speculation based on the story). Throughout this plot, Zhu Bajie dared not acknowledge the Purple Spider, fearing that the heavenly court would punish her and their daughter (the story of Bull Demon King and Spider Sister Four in Chapter 5 is a good example of this). (Speculation) As a side note, during the Bull Demon King's storyline, Zhu Bajie killed the Bull Demon King's old lover, the Jade-Faced Fox, and arrogantly proclaimed it. To explain, the Jade-Faced Fox was a spy for the heavenly court, and Zhu Bajie was also helping the Bull Demon King. Sun Wukong was also speaking ill of the Bull Demon King to make things appear proper for the heavenly court, but in secret, he whispered in the Bull Demon King's ear, "Acknowledging our master is the only way out." After hearing about the Jade-Faced Fox, the Bull Demon King decided to rebel against the heavenly court on his own. Easter egg: Some online have analyzed the last lyrics of the animation, "We meet in the next life," with the male voice saying, "Please don't look back," and the female voice singing, "Please remember to glance back." Now, let's talk about Sun Wukong and Sister Four, with some interesting analysis: In the predecessor to Black Myth called , the White Bone Spirit was Sun Wukong's wife. (Before the 100-chapter version of Journey to the West, Sun Wukong always had a wife, and each new version was a reinterpretation based on the original.) In an old Chinese animation, Sun Wukong and the Purple Fairy, one of the Seven Fairies, had mutual feelings for each other. When Sun Wukong’s leg was trapped by golden shackles, the Purple Fairy stole a diamond from the Queen Mother of Heaven and gave it to Sun Wukong, freeing him. In the end, they helped each other but never dared to confess their feelings. Similarly, in Stephen Chow's movie A Chinese Odyssey, Sun Wukong and Zixia Fairy also had mutual affection but could not be together in the end. (Speculation) After repeatedly helping Sun Wukong, the Queen Mother banished the Purple Fairy to the mortal world, where she became the White Bone Spirit. After many trials, Sun Wukong was made to forget the Purple Fairy by the heavenly court. During the chapter of "The Three Fights with the White Bone Spirit," she tried multiple times to recognize Sun Wukong, but in the end, the forgotten Sun Wukong killed her. (Speculation) In the game, Sister Four is the reincarnation of the White Bone Spirit. She helped the fated protagonist multiple times despite the opposition of the heavenly court. In one chapter, Sister Four gave the protagonist some treasures, possibly the dowry she once intended for Sun Wukong. There is also the character Qinlang Xian (one of the masterminds behind the Spider Cave, but also a henchman for the heavenly court). Sister Four was controlled by the heavenly court, sealed with purple talismans. In the end, she was captured by the heavenly court and said to Sun Wukong, "Leave quickly," not wanting him to get involved. If you continue forward and tear off the talisman, the heavenly court will capture her. (Hurry up and release the DLC; I want to storm the heavenly court!) Bull Demon King: The Bull Demon King was once one of Sun Wukong's good brothers. Sun Wukong, a great demon, had six good brothers before embarking on the journey to retrieve the scriptures, and the seven of them were known as the "Seven Great Saints," namely: Bull Demon King, Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven, Demon King Jiao, Great Sage Who Overturns the Sea, Roc Demon King, Great Sage Who Confounds Heaven, Lion Camel King, Great Sage Who Moves Mountains, Macaque King, Great Sage Who Commands the Winds, Baboon King, Great Sage Who Drives Gods, Sun Wukong, Great Sage Equal to Heaven. They once rebelled against the heavenly court but were eventually defeated. Red Boy, the son of the Bull Demon King, set up his own territory, with the sole desire to eat Tang Sanzang's flesh. As a mischievous child, he transformed into a boy to deceive the four disciples and eventually captured Tang Sanzang. Yes, just like the little fox in the game. Many Chinese players knew immediately it was Red Boy. Sun Wukong, as the sworn brother of the Bull Demon King, tried to use their relationship to get his master back, but Red Boy didn't believe him and obstructed the journey. They fought, and Sun Wukong eventually asked Guanyin to subdue Red Boy (perhaps also to help the Bull Demon King). After Sun Wukong brought Red Boy into Buddhism, the Daoist faction (the heavenly court) was unhappy and revealed Red Boy's true identity to the Bull Demon King (Red Boy was not the Bull Demon King's biological son; the heavenly court had made Iron Fan drink water, and she gave birth to a Yaksha). The Bull Demon King became deeply disappointed and eventually left home, encountering the Jade-Faced Fox, whom he later married into. Sun Wukong needed the fan of the Bull Demon King's wife to get through the Flaming Mountains (only the Banana Fan could extinguish the flames). The couple had separated, but Sun Wukong barged in. Iron Fan Princess, still resentful over the Red Boy incident, refused to give it. Sun Wukong then transformed into the Bull Demon King and tricked the fan away. When the Bull Demon King found out, he turned into Zhu Bajie and stole the fan back. Zhu Bajie slaughtered the Jade-Faced Fox's entire household (the Jade-Faced Fox was a spy for the heavenly court, sent to seduce the Bull Demon King, which Zhu Bajie likely figured out, as he hadn't done anything like this earlier in the story). However, the Bull Demon King didn't know the full story. First, they harmed his son, then insulted his wife, and finally killed his concubine. Unable to endure the humiliation, he rebelled against the heavenly court. The heavenly court then came to behead the Bull Demon King (though demon kings don't die from beheading, at least the Bull Demon King wouldn't). Iron Fan Princess couldn't bear to see it and offered the Banana Fan, choosing to submit to Buddhism along with the Bull Demon King, bearing the humiliation. Later, when Sun Wukong's descendants were slaughtered and he once again stormed the heavenly court, the Bull Demon King, driven by family revenge or other motives, joined Erlang Shen in killing Sun Wukong. In Sun Wukong's dying words, the Bull Demon King finally understood. Everything Sun Wukong had done to his son and wife was to show the heavens, aiming to protect the Bull Demon King. In the end, Sun Wukong concealed everything, allowing the Bull Demon King to take the credit, but the Bull Demon King felt immense guilt. Eventually, the heavenly court revealed Red Boy's identity, and together with Sun Wukong's body, the Yaksha clan (who were wiped out by Buddhism, leaving Red Boy as the last survivor). Red Boy, now aware of his identity and mission, asked the Bull Demon King for Sun Wukong's body, intending to wage war against Buddhism (Buddhism had wiped out the Yaksha clan but had taken in Red Boy, a case of psychological torment). This is my interpretation. For every thousand people, there is a different Hamlet. Journey to the West is a myth that can be interpreted in many ways. written in Chinese, created by AI translation. If there are any inaccuracies (whether in the plot or translation), please forgive me. - The English translation may differ.
My theory is that old monkey is true Buddha Wukong, who left his body after reaching enlightement, and after seeing his broken shell going wild he sends Destined One to become a new Monkey King. Even Old Monkeys clothes are flowing, which symbolizes attaining buddhahood
It kinds of explains the "Immortality" of Sun Wukong. In the novel, he is "10000 times immortal", but in this game, he still dies, then another successor takes on his name, thus Sun Wukong is immortal
@@leeshenshun I viewed more as the explanation that he is and isn't. He is the Buddah of Victory. He can never be defeated. So when I "lose" to a boss only to come back and kick his ass, did I really lose? I viewed it more as a technicality on his privilege as Buddah of Victory. That even his "lesser" form still retains some aspects of his previous life because he's probably just that powerful. He separates himself and all to break the control Heaven has over him.
Old monkey is most definitely an antagonist. The whole point of wukong allowing himself to die was so to get the curse of the golden circlet off. the golden circlet is not a sign of buddhahood, it's a sign of control by the buddhas. in the "bad" ending he puts the circlet on you again and u r likely going to be trapped in the rock. in the "good ending", defeating erlang shen allows you to regain the memories of wukong and thus you open your eyes before the circlet can be put on you again, hence fulfilling the point of the game
The ending of chapter 3 is actually not about greed at all, but rather a lesson for people not to project their own views on others. Humans are not inherently greedy, but because yellow-brow made a bet with Jinchanzi that he can prove such, he purposefully enticed the villagers to become greedy. Thus, he was basically drawing conclusions first before he set out to prove anything. Yellow-brow represented the ultimate greed: Wanting to become Buddha himself. So because he was himself greedy, he thinks that others must be inherently greedy as well.
What classifies as "greed"? Wanting better shelter that doesn't flood, more space for projects that evolve your community, more housing for more humans who didn't ask to be born? Where do we as humans draw the line between Necessity and Greed? And furthermore, were there other reasons for our evolution as a society? Communication seemed to be a big one, and I wonder if it truly boils down to where we draw the line. Interesting we've imprisoned ourselves, we could break the chains of greed anytime considering it was a human conception in the first place. As a society, have we been greedy? I wonder about the origins of greed. You on the other hand, appear to be someone who already has the answers. Enlighten us Buddha.
@@DoffyDogg whether people are greedy or not is not the point here. In fact, Yellowbrow does not care if people are greedy or not. His only purpose is to win the debate. As long as he think he win the debate, people can be whatever greedy or not. If he chose to debate and prove people are not greedy in the first place, he would have manipulated those villagers to behave well and act good. All he wants is winning the debate.
@@DoffyDogg People go into engineering and medicine because they're respectable jobs that get rewarded well. They could become crypto scammers and earn more money
Good job！！To be honest, as a native Chinese player, I even can't quite understand the whole story of the game. This is because it is a completely new story happened after the novel Journey to the West. Many characters or boss in the game are quite different from traditional novels. So there are many hidden clues in the game, and we are still exploring the secrets behind the superficial plot.But,maybe you can explore more without being influenced by the background of the novel Journey to the West. It was also a very good experience. Anyway, let's enjoy it together
@user-ov1hh6yq7h all entertainment contains heavy conspiracy theories that's because there's truth to alot of it. Unless you think that every author game dev or director is a crazy conspiracy theorist
For a few more details: Yellowbrow's incarnation as the pearl-bleeding creature was a scheme to prove to Jinchanzi that humans are inevitably corrupt, greedy, and wicked, and thus inherently lesser. Jinchanzi disputes that this is "proof" because Yellowbrow basically entrapped those people, appearing to the most desperate peasants with the most disproportionate temptation. The version of Bajie's backstory here is that he was cursed to experience a thousand tragic loves because he caught the Jade Emperor having an affair with Chang'e. In the game, he pushes the Violet Spider and his own daughter away in an attempt to spare them from the wrath of Heaven brought on by the curse... But he fails, in part because of something he doesn't know: The heavens were already watching the seven spider guai, keeping them prisoner and harvesting them as ingredients for pills. So they could never escape notice. Hundred-Eye, being one of the conspirators who received a fragment of Wukong as a reward from Heaven's scheme to kill the Monkey King, has seemingly been working with the Celestial Court to keep watch over this prison. Each of the characters tied to the secret areas, which are needed to get the true ending, is one of the brothers of Erlang Shen - the immortals of Mt. Mei. They were all part of a scheme between Wukong and Erlang to pull off this reincarnation gambit; they would put on a show of dueling and having Wukong lose, leading to his "death", while giving Erlang an opportunity to steal and hide away Wukong's mind. The brothers are all presumably tasked to test each Destined One to see which one is truly worthy to be the reincarnation of the Monkey King. In the end, they're all colluding, and in part working to uncover the schemes of the corrupt Celestial Court - such as Hundred-Eye being an agent of their will and the de facto prison warden of the seven spiders. There were apparently supposed to be six more chapters each covering a different part of the novel, such as the Country of Women. But the devs had to wrap up and release half the planned game to secure financing and gauge whether it was worth doing the other half. The ending does imply that the reborn Monkey King will be going after the Court to make it answer for its crimes against him, his brothers, and the yaoguai (and mortals) of the world who are seen as inherently lesser and thus free to exploit by Heaven. So we'll either be seeing these as gigantic expansion packs or a sequel.
Im Chinese, my 10 year old niece was born here in America n don't speak a word of Chinese. I played the game on Chinese voice n English subtitles so she can understand the story. What I found out was, a huge part of the story wasn't even in the English subs. I can understand why though. the literal form of the story is translated but without the hidden info that ties way too much of cheese cultural reference and buddhist ideas. there's a huge theme of how the celestial court is behind everything. chap.1 guanyin's dialogue with black bear, why he was allowed to go back. Chap 2 was later revealed that lingji was lying. Chap 3. ba Jie said it all when he smacked mi le fo, he said he won't believe it twice if yellow brow can steal his stuff again. basically hinting that mi le was behind everything. Chap 4 that Crain was tai Shang lao jun as suggested in the end of the chapter(this hint is not in the eng ver.), which ties the story to other folk lore involving xi wang mu's shady trade and bai yan wu gong was working for her in order to get out of kun lun (tai Shang lao jun)'s control. in chap 5 we learn that all the bosses in each chapter joined the effort to take down sun wu kong, and as a reward they were given part of his "relic" (I hate that translation, they made it sound like Voldemort's horcruxes, they are called six thieves, its a buddhist term that im ill equipped to translate), which in it self is a plot made by the court to let the player kill them in a legit way. again they implied that red boy's clan wasn't the only one who got wiped out, there should also be luo cha clan which in the original Indian Buddhism was the dusk veil's mothers clan. this explains why dusk veil, as a officer of the celestial court disappeared all of a sudden and how kang jin Loong went to search for him and was captured by yellow brow, but the nurture seed sack should not have the power to turn her to work for him which ties to the ending of chap. 3's dialogue between yellow and jin chan zi. lol the story in Chinese of this game is 100 / 10 where as the English only translated portions of it. no one would find this out if they don't play the game in 2 languages and compare them.
and he defeat the bug simply because he wants to help the village while he happened to be passing by, he was not seeking the power of the bug, this video really did him dirty. As a matter of fact, Ling Ji sent the bug to punish the village
They did not believe in Buddhism so in an attempt to change that, they sent insects to attack the village. Fuban is also implied to be a Bodhisattva's mount [maybe even Lingji's personal mount] on the Mural which would explain why he had a relic that countered the Yellow Sage's Samadhi Wind. The ending cutscene emphasizes on the need of keeping the order as it is and not interfering with the balance between Guai, Humans and Celestials.
There are some inaccuracies in your portrayal of the Yellow Wind Sage's backstory. The full story is actually quite fascinating and dark. I strongly suggest revising your video based on my comments. Here is a chronological breakdown of what actually happened: - In the past, there was a kingdom known as the Golden Buddha City. People in the city used to worship Buddha, but eventually the people there started to worship the royal family instead. This pissed off the Buddha, and LingJi sent a demon named Fuban to harass them. This is why LingJi’s face was on the back of Fuban when you first encountered him in the secret level. - The Yellow Wind Sage passed by the city , defeated Fuban and gained the people's trust. They started to worship him instead. - This angered LingJi, who decided to punish the people by transforming them into rat monsters. - The Yellow Wind Sage, feeling responsible for what happened, left the kingdom in hopes that things would return to normal during his absence. Unfortunately, the curse persisted, and the kingdom eventually fell because of it. This is mentioned in both LingJi's backstory within the game and in a background dialogue on the wall painting after you complete Chapter 2. Thus, LingJi was actually the antagonist, not the Yellow Wind Sage. The Yellow Wind Sage fell and became corrupted due to his disillusionment with the gods and the celestial court. This theme is central to Black Myth: Wukong: the celestial court is not as innocent as it may seem.
if I am correct, aren't all the big bosses actually innocent, but manipulated by the celestial court...since when Black Bear Guai tried to take the Craving Eyes, you see Wukong's power in the relic basically hit him and seemingly push out any control the court had over him
Tripitaka = Sanzang. Both translate to "three baskets", and refer to the collection of scriptures (collected into three volumes/baskets) that Xuanzang (his monastic name) / Tang Seng (literally Tang Monk) is tasked with retrieving and are often used as his byname.
From what I understand, GuangZhi and GuangMo were both monsters working under 2 bigger monsters. GuangZhi wanted to learn how to be human. They were both sent to the temple to spy under Jinchi, also allowing GuangZhi to learn how to be human. When the monk arrived at the temple, GuangMo suggested to knife him, but GuangZhi worried it would be too suspicious as they are monks. So he suggested to burn the room instead. Later he was killed. GuangMo realized how powerful monkey king is, and escaped and survived till today. The black bear was captured by Guanyin. In the game, the monkey king was not happy about the heaven and wanted to leave, but the heaven is not happy about that. It can be interpreted that the journey to the west was an opportunity used to promote the monkey king in order to control him. Why they didn't just kill him, no idea. But after the promotion, he's still not happy because the heaven is not a fun place, any small mistake and you get punished. The heaven doesn't allow him to leave and killed his monkey friends as punishment. Given how powerful the monkey king is, they sent a whole army to kill him. Meanwhile Guanyin in the game is very manipulative and cunning. The buddhas are basically politicians same as the heaven, not the holy spirits they make out to be. She said to the black bear that she want him to go down to the mortal realm and ambush the monkey king with the circlet that gives him the headache. The black bear was scared of how powerful monkey king is, but Guanyin said if he do this she will give him his freedom back. So the black bear went back, and when Erlangshen was fighting monkey king, he put the circlet back on him. That's how the circlet appeared out of nowhere and monkey king got killed. All the monsters that originally captured were all released back to ambush monkey king. The body of the monkey became a stone, his spirit became 6 relics stolen by the monsters. The legend of the monkey king is passed down through generations. Legend has it that when the 6 relics are regrouped, the monkey king will revive. The monkeys have been trying to gather the 6 relics. 500 years later, you play as the destined one. The black bear learned the revive spell during his capture under Guanyin. After his release, he went back and rebuilt the temple, and tried to revive his friends. Jinchi's spirit was with some treasures and not by his body, so the body came back as a zombie. GuangZhi came back in his wolf monster form and not as monk.
I’m pretty sure the game implies that the Sun Wukong the rebelled against Heaven and partook in Journey to the West is well and truly gone, and that it’s the Destined Ones turn to do things as the new Sun Wukong. He may have all his powers, senses, looks, and even memories, but the Destined One still retains his individuality rather than a vessel for the old Sun Wukong
well explained!! In the novel, many times, due to media and people's favor, Sun Wukong's abilities are often magnified. He has bunches of limitations and asked for help during their journey to the West (Ancient India). Even though the way he ask for help are sometimes treated as an art of communication and networking - asking Erlang to help him beat a big Yaoguai, while he and Bajie were just fighting small yaoguais in the cave - he showed his limitations. But that's the fascination of this character: his self-improvement and development. He started to realize his limitations and evolve new strategies and ways to deal with problems, not only just violence. But yeah, I like how Game Science portrait him as well, which also really match his personality. He wanted pure freedom, does whatever he want and many times sacrificing other people's freedom to satisfy his own. But he realize gradually that there's no pure freedom as long as you're interacting with other people in the society. Although, when speaking of limited freedom, I don't think the author mean civil rights in the novel, but it could be translated into today's freedom, like civil rights, in multiple ways. Which is one of the most amazing thing of this novel - it has multiple ways to translate, explain, comprehend, and even adaption to different eras and circumstances.
For us Vietnamese though, it is not the novel that resonates strongly with us, but the TV series, specifically the first one. That show was, and probably is still, widely popular. I remember my local TV channels used to broadcast it every summer holiday. That's right, every. Summer. Kids loved watching it front and back. Every boys love portraying themselves as Wukong, me included. So when the true ending blasts the revised opening theme song of that show, the nostalgia hit like the same mountain that crushes Wukong himself.
Since nobody in the comments seems to understand... Immortal = can be unalived but wont die via age or illness Invincible = cannot be unalived but can die via age
19:48 at the ending cutscene for chapter 3, he dreams that the fox girls gives him a good life but at one day maybe fox yaoguai will eventually release “her nature”. So he believes what he seem in the dream and think all Yaoguai is bad in nature even they can be good for short time. So he kill the fox. This is a story from Buddha from chapter 2. At the end, that Buddha said, “all being has its position from born, buddha is buddha, yaoguai is yaoguai. Is foolish to believe yaoguai can be good.” Witch is very very bad idea that show linji buddha is not qualified as a buddha at first place. But eventually you will find out most of these celebrities are not good as their titles.
found interesting the fascination with the fox spirits (Huli jing) they can either be good or bad. Some tales they server the mother of creation nuwa. i think we here in the west we know them better as the nine tails and the tale of daji.
correct! even the fox says that whatever the guy dreamed wasn’t true and he was letting his fear overrule his empathy which lead to the unfortunate death of the fox who simply wanted to return his kindness and goodwill. the heavenly court and buddha see themselves as “all-good” where it is anything but, as evidenced by their prejudices against yaoguai still.
the journey to the west story is really simple in the respective of Sun Wu Kong. he fighted the celestial court（high order） and got punished to serve Tang monk to guard hin to the west. finally he becomes one of the gods（the headband represents he has been neutralized）. this game is a sequel of the journey to the west. the court didnt believe him so they send all gods to kill his monkeys all. （fight the celestial second time ）and during that battle he kills himself and let the destined one collect his power（5 remains） but without the headband. so he revived in a way of freedom. the final episode （true ending） is the journey to the west in a reverse manner， the ending of the episode is the beginning of the journey when he and his friends are going to fight the celestial court and he is free and happy. and after that，the last scene is that he is going to fight the celestial court at the second time （his friend are all dead with their weapons remaining only）
I believe this game will pave the way to opening the hearts and minds of a larger population of people exploring mythology outside their own and/or the more commonly known ones. Great video as usual Gingy. Cheers!
If you decide to take a break just know we will be happily waiting for your return. You always kill it on your videos and I always look forwards to your next upload brotha. 🤝🏽
I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll start developing another Wukong game, this time it’s actually the story of The Journey to the West, where u actually play as Wukong for the whole game. Would be absolutely amazing
22:56 the needle is an artificial made by the women(Buddha)’s son who is a rooster god in heaven, and the hundred eye demon is a centipede demon, and rooster is the natural nemesis of bugs like centipedes, so the hundred eye was helpless against him or anything that was made from hin
21:20 he isn’t obsessed with being worshipped, he is obsessed with being right about the ways of the world, that’s why he keep on trying to prove he was right 22:07 and yes the monk yellow brow wins the debate with is the previous incarnation of the tong monk
In Chapter 2, the Macaque General might also be a call back to the Six-Eared Macaque. In the original text, this macaque was just as powerful as Wukong, but he also had the ability to know events of the past and future. He uses this talent to pretend to be Wukong, after he is banished for killing some bandits, and tries to take over the entire rest of the journey. Thankfully, the real Wukong returns and with help from the Buddha himself, he's able to defeat him and rejoin the group.
From what I have gathered about what happened after The Journey to the West with Sun Wukong in the game is that he returned back to the mountain of his birthplace, then found out what was happening with the Yaoguai after his imprisonment and during his journey. He learns that many of the Yaoguai are getting killed or captured (for Immortality pill research) by the Heavens. While, he flew out to reach the heavens, it seems like the Jade Emperor already knew he was coming there for retaliation and had the entire armies of heaven to greet him. That's where the intro began with Sun Wukong being given that deal with Erlang Shen about either he wins or loses, there will be conflict. The fight was a forgone conclusion, Buddha and the religion is deeply ingrained to the influence of the Jade Emperor and even though Sun Wukong was made a Buddha, the Heavens did not trust him and never had Buddha remove the Sutra spell that would control him. Thus, it was a curse that Sun Wukong could never properly defy the Heavens under that restraint and he would lose in combat. Now the interesting part comes when you defeat Erlang Shen as the Destined One. The third eye reveals all deception so when the Destined One held up the spear against Erlang Shen, the third eye reveals the truth to the Destined One. That Sun Wukong himself through his own words, knew he could not win as long as the sutra on him was not removed. Sun Wukong found out that the Sutra was still in place during the battle with Shen and that the only way to remove it was to "trick" the heavens. To do so, he had to have his physical body die and reincarnate to one that was not cursed, while finding a way to recollect his memories, soul, and powers of himself in this new body. Also remember, immortality can be transferred since they can be consumed like fruits or pills, so even that would come back to this new body. Sun Wukong told this plan to Shen and he agreed to it. Shen has reasons to overthrow the Jade Emperor though didn't have the power to do so. However, Wukong has proven in the past he could defeat all of heaven if he wasn't tricked by Buddha under the Jade Emperor's request. Shen could not openly defy him so instead had his "brothers" do the task of retaining those powers for this new body. Shen definitely wants to overthrow the Jade Emperor and knows that the Heavens are evil due to their immense power over those who live on Earth, especially with their knowledge about immortality, using it as a form of control. Shen knows Sun Wukong could beat the Jade Emperor if he was not under the sutra and had help like the Yaoguai Chiefs along with his assistance at the right time. Now the "brothers" Shen mentions are the collaborators that Sun Wukong trusted to hold onto his powers, but to also test the Destined One through battle to see if that new body is strong enough to harness the relics. The Yaoguai Chiefs all held the relics so that the Destined One had to prove to them that he was worthy to inherit that power. The music video that showed Shen and the Yaoguai Chiefs that seemed to have betrayed Sun Wukong as he was dying were actually there to collect his relics for safekeeping and pretended to be working for Heaven, even fooling Ox King of the plan and ended up with a relic since Wukong also trusted the king enough with one. With the good and bad ending, it makes sense why the battle with Erlang Shen was important for the Destined One to decide which ending you got. All of this time, the Destined One only heard stories of the Monkey King and needed to hear the truth of this plan. Knowing that the circlet Sutra was the reason Sun Wukong could not win against the Heavens, the Destined One knew his real purpose of the journey. The bad ending was traveling the journey, completing it through guidance of the relics and falling for the same fatal mistake of Sun Wukong of wearing that circlet, becoming powerless to win against Heaven. While, the good ending was where he truly inherited the title of Sun Wukong and understood the real reason of the journey of becoming Sun Wukong. That there was a war against the heavens, that to be truly free was to win against them and Sun Wukong needed to be revived at full power to do so. I am very much certain if there is a Wukong 2, it will be the fight against the heavens for sure. Lots of things there that can be explored to make another game with and The Journey to the West described Heaven well enough to be made in-game. The clue of such a thing happening is the very end of the special video where it showed Sun Wukong with his supporters all drinking merrily (this happened when he first returned from the end of Journey to the West) and then the scene right after at the same location but a long time has passed with no one around. The scene with Sun Wukong celebrating alone with the room empty but the items left behind of his long gone friends is the current Destined One having become Sun Wukong resurrected completely back at the same place years later. Now this Sun Wukong, he is drinking for the lost comrades instead and is now ready to finish the fight against Heaven.
This was an incredible overview and I could tell a lot of work was put into its production. That said, it would be much easier to follow if you presented more supplementary footage/graphics that relates to the subject matter. Many of the novel retelling sections were undercut by the combat on screen, which was distracting from your main points when you weren’t directly commenting on the gameplay segments. Thanks for another banger video regardless!
19:19 this is correct, you can even talk to the fox gui's spirit near one of the shrines a little before you enter the temple and theres a quest to do with his betrayal.
They said this is the beginning of the destined ones journey as said by erlang shen in his true ending and the old monkey when saying to begin the journey a new so they will either make another game or add expansions
In the side mission of Chapter 4, we can realize that the 4th sister cannot leave the mountains because Court will not let them leave（At the end of the side mission, the people from Court showsup）. This girl wants to rebel against what Court is doing, so she is the spider who has been helping the players along the way, and she knows that only WUKONG can save them instead of obeying Court .The Court alchemized all the living creatures in the mountains into pills, and they let a hundred-eyed yaoguai manage this place. That's why after we beat him he said“come down，grandmaster，i need you”
Off of the game and your explanation, it really helped me understand journey to the west, I always assumed it was a great story, but I never read it because I don’t like reading books, so thank you
I'm very happy they made this game because I would love if more people knew the myth. They made a korean drama very loosely based on the characters a couple years back and it was delightful.
i like watching your videos man, i was literally searching for your take on Black Myth Wukong. I thought i was going crazy cuz i couldve sworn i saw it on my feed before, anyways, thank you for caring about the quality of your content and the game's, we're not perfect, we just get better from each mistake(if you try). Please rest 👍🏽
@@Caski16 ye. Part of it was for promotion since I didn't want to just copy paste the last response I gave in the original but it's all good. If nothing else I figured I wouldn't be the only one with that response.
Beautifully Incredible History Wonderful Humanistic tale A little bit of everything One of the Best most Original Soulslikes Ever And all because of some Amazing Ancient Myth Great explanation Goodest work I’m really Happy to see such an Interesting and Inspired game Will Itself into Existence so well
During the final moments of chapter 6 the old monkey explained that we are in fact wukong just not the one everyone remembers, he has the memories of the monkey he was but if you ask me the broken shell we fight in the end is literally the part of him that’s still under heavens control. In the music video where hear erlang tell wukong that as long as that headband is on him he’ll still be a servant to the heavens, the entire game is literally wukong saying “how much you wanna bet I break free of this headband?” So to sum it up we always played as wukong just wit amnesia even in the start of the game when the keeper says “you may not remember this place but they certainly remember you”. Not only that but like you said this takes place after “the journey to the west” so we’re already immortal but still being watched by heaven this game is a huge rematch for wukong this is the “re-journey to the west”
Good intro for English audiences. One big subplot that you may have missed in the game for 24:40 is that the court of the Heavens is built upon a conspiracy of harvesting Yaoguai for elixirs of longevity. Hence, Wukong's refusal to be part of the court after JTTW is a moral refusal to partake in such conspiracy rather than simply wanting to live peacefully back on his mountain. Chapter 4's ends with spider sister four being abducted by the Heavens with the plan to make her into elixir. So yes, pretty dark and also a potential plot for the DLC.
There are so many hidden easter eggs related to all monkey king TV/animate/movies. Like the temple on the middle of the icey lake. That's a nod to the 1986 TV series when wukong is doing a transform duel. The temple is based on what wukong turned into in the TV. Note that the 'windows' are circle. In the TV show that were his eyes.
yes. erlang shen is the jade emperor’s nephew-a direct kin since his mother is the jade emperor’s sister. erlang’s mother was banished because she fell in love and had a child with a mortal human while she was a divine being (making erlang a demigod). the axe erlang uses at the intro of the game is what he uses to split a mountain to save his mother. erlang and wukong are close friends and brothers; erlang is also unhappy with the heavenly court’s dictatorship and wants to achieve freedom but he does not have the free spiritedness of wukong. he and the emperor made a compromise: erlang cannot be commanded by the heavenly court to do whatever they want him to do (as opposed to other guais like wukong) but they can request for him to do something and he cannot turn them away. in essence, he only has half-freedom. he both envies and supports wukong in his quest for true freedom, which is why they devised that whole plan of them fighting and wukong dying so he can finally be free from the hands of the heavenly court.
So, based on my limited knowledge of JTTW & Wukong, what I know is that he's got about 1,000 layers of immortality because he's either eaten an immortality granted thing, or learned it through hardwork. My original theory for this game was that Wukong didn't "die" so much as he was reincarnated without his memories or abilities. A blank slate, so to speak. This would then mean that the entire journey we go on as The Destined One is simply Wukong going to get his memories and items back. The way I initially interpreted the ending of this game is that Wukong *is* dead, somehow, but we received his mantle and blessing. Kinda like Miles becoming the new Spider-Man in his initial run. However, now what you and a few others are saying makes me happy to think Wukong isn't actually dead and I'm excited for a sequel!
I find it sad that people are only interested in the powerful warrior monkey but not the journey he went through to become a Buddha. Missed the metaphor WuKong couldn't jump out of Buddha's palm because WuKong has no direction dispict all his powers. Also missed the metaphor that WuKong was trapped under the mountain of all the problems he has caused because he's power could not solve problem but causes them. There are some versions WuKong kept the crown. The metaphor is that the crown is the reminders of all his sins committed and he kept it because he has own up to all his sins.
To "quote" someone else's comment: Chapter 3 is about the debate of the 2 in the last cutscene, yellowbrown put his bet on human's nature will lead toward evil, while the other said its complicated and cant be black or white. In the end, yellowbrown claimed he won, and the monk said you lost the original purpose of the debate because you did all that just to win. Just feels like sharing because i dont think its fair to assume he just likes to be worshiped
yep, yellowbrow is a very competitive person and believes that what he believes is always right. his stance about humans being inherently evil and greedy is incorrect because he essentially “cheated” and did whatever he did just to prove a point that still isn’t the absolute answer because he was intentionally sowing seeds of greed and covertly influencing them instead of letting the people decide for themselves.
man thank you so much i wish there is a good movie or show about jttw its so peak, also i think you missed the chapter 2 cutscene i was curious what i was about
As mentioned in the video, this is a revised reupload of the same video from a couple days ago. There were a lot of mistakes I wanted to undo because you deserve high quality content. I'm liable to still get something wrong even in this version but this is the best I can do. Thank you to all of those who were kind enough to make me aware of the mistakes :)
You should take a break and take care of yourself 😢
Your the best 😊
You need to relax it's okay, you deserve an understanding audience, that too is okay
As much as I appreciate it, didn’t you need some well deserved R&R.
90000 social credit
Journey to the West is a fantasy based on a real historical expedition. The monk Xuanzang was a real person who made the journey. The 3 demons guarding him represent 3 inner demons of himself preventing him from reaching enlightenment. Pig(lust), black Sand Demon (wrath), Wu Kong (Wondering mind). This is why to get Wu Kong under control the monk has to chant the Sutra. He's basically getting his mind under control.
Damn that’s cool
and someone already animate the real journey to the south in youtube.
@@yulusleonard985 to the west, not the south...
The original novel is pretty dark.
That is a pro-Buddha interpretation of the original novel. However, there are also evidences that the Buddha (and obviously, the celestial court) in the story are kinda mean and hypocratic (if not evil) in the novel. The author of the novel (which we actually don't clearly know who or how many) didn't want any potential backlash back then (in Ming Dynasty) from either the regilious organization or the emperor so they had to make their sarcasm to both regilious belief and empirical power very vague and hid them into seemingly "super hero" stories for kids.
The real historical expedition happened during Tang Dynasty, which is almost 1000 years before the novel and 1400 years before now. Later, the Buddists in China start to make it into religious stories to spread the religion. Apparently, the secular interpretations gained more popularity over the preaching stories over time with added "fantasy adventure" elements. A very minor monkey character in the original religious story were gradually turned into a very important character Sun Wukong (if not the main character) over time. By the time when the novel was made (from revising those secular versions of the expedition story), more political-related contents were integrated, making it a story both seems fun to kids and highly relatable to their parents who might be a middle to upper class Chinese who had real business or political experience in their life.
One thing to be noted is that before Buddha imprisoning him, Wukong had attained immortality from six different sources; Daoist magic, removing his name from the book of the dying, the divine peaches, the heavenly wine, Lao Tzu's immortal pills, and ginseng baby fruit
i guess the implication is his "immortality" is more "lives" he can have and what happened to him in the intro is him losing one of his lives but then realizing hell always have the headband put on him if his spirit doesnt guide his vessel to getting the secret ending
@@ZeroOmega-vg8nq Wukong *can* die despite his immortality. It's more like an off brand immortality. Like he had to learn to transform into 72 physical forms to keep from getting killed by Heaven when he became immortal through Daoist principles. And Red Boy's fire killed him before Pigsy revived him on the Journey to the West. It's weird, but there's a lot of different "immortalities" in Chinese myth, but the only *true* immortality is achieving Buddha. I only commented on his immortality because it felt like a lot was glossed over in his summary of what happened before his fight with Heaven.
Seven, they also burned away his mortality in a forge
Sick dude thanks for the info!! ☝️🤓
the Ginseng Fruit was actually while he was on the Journey, so it was after Buddha imprisoned him and he was released
In the good ending the destined one gains Wukong's memories along with his senses. So in a way wukong is born again in a new body. Also in the final slide of the music video where he is raising a toast to his fallen simian brothers happens in the present time. He leaves then leaving us waiting for a sequel where he will probably attack the heavens. This is truly a phenomenal game and as a fan of the journey to the west it's GOTY for me.
I'm sure he's not alone in attacking the Celestial Court since he and Erlang Shen is secretly working together. Erlang 3rd eyes is capable of seeing the truth so while rebellious, Wukong just want freedom and not an evil being. Probably Nezha too also Zhu Bajie and many more allies we don't know of.
Story is good... But the gameplay sucks...
@@SamSEnixNobody ever said
@@SamSEnix You'd hate Dark Souls
I think the final scene ties directly to the prologue because the Destined one is remembering his memories and in the prologue he is all alone just like in the animation
As a Chinese listening Wukong story for years, this game storyline is the most impressive one. It is called Black Myth for a reason.
Traditionally, Buddha and celestial court give people an impression that they represent justice. In this game, these Buddha are the one controlling everything and Wukong do not want to be their dirty hand. He choose to die and split into 6 Sadindriya, hoping one day the "destined one" could inherit his will and lives without Buddha control
He's my childhood. LOVE this monkey
Yeah, it's an interesting take on the original myth. Feels almost kinda God of War in a way
It’s not just in the game brother, in the original novel the court and the buddhas are corrupted. They sent the monk from the richest kingdom to travel to the west, so countries along the way would just blindly warship them. (which means more wealth for the buddhas)
And the buddha in the novel is actually evil and greedy.
This novel is meant to satirize the corruption and ignorance of the government using religious beliefs to gain their own benefits, just like when Christians used crusades to justify killing and looting.
I guess you're the perfect person to ask this question then: is this journey to the west a normal novel anybody can read or is it smth else? If it's easy to understand (storywise), I'd love to get a copy and read it myself 😅
One thing you haven't mentioned, but I believe is implied in the journal entries for all the Yaoguais and characters, is that Wukong is secretly planning to overthrow the celestial court (again). There are entries mentioning Celestial Court doing horrifying body experiment on human and even gods(Duskveil). And the Buddha side apparently carries out holocaust on Yaksha race. They are not the good guys. Wukong is not happy with how the current order of god-men-yaoguai works(mentioned in his entry after beating the game), even if he's already on the priviledged side being a Buddha. He gave his old armor to Yin Tiger and told him to keep it for him, he planned the whole fake death and reincarnation with Erlang and a few powerful god/Buddhas that support his action. The keeper of each areas was instructed by a Taoist God to help the destined one along the way, and it's almost certain the old monkey is either Guan Yin or just someone higher up on his side.
This needs to be top comment, this is a perfect explanation regarding the secret ending.
Also, it gives light to what we will get from ( the very high chance of ) DLC to complete 6-12
There's actually a bigger secret here. Wukong didn't intend to overthrow heaven but to live out his days in peace at Huaguo mountain.
In truth he'd discovered that heavenly immortals maintain their immortality by capturing and rendering yaoguais down into pills of immortality. Upon this discovery heaven sends it's soldiers to silence Wukong forever.
It just shows that you didn't look closely at the character introductions and transitions animations, and if you look closer you'll realize that the Monkey King is also evil. The reason for this is because the creators achieved failure when they were involved in the planning of an online game ten years ago, and inserted the setting of the online game in the game's plot for personal reasons.
@@dawn6860 Get the hell outta here, you are the one that don't know shit about the story. Wukong was never evil in this game or in their previous online game.
@@dawn6860 explain magic man
The real journey to the west is the friends we made along the way
Absolutely
Literally
One piece ending
And people MUUUUURRRRDDEREDDDDDDD
Accurate
Much respect on owning up, taking it down and putting it back up. I wouldnt have known the difference so much respect regardless
From The soulsborne series, blasphemous till now , you made me fall in love with all these games by giving me info and in-depth lore dive which I can't do as well as you. Just Do What You're doing now and love you and work bro 🖤
Actually, there are many interpretation videos on the Chinese internet.
In the story of Zhu Bajie, my personal interpretation is:
Zhu Bajie:
Zhu Bajie fell for a leading figure among the Chang'e (this is mentioned in Zhu Bajie's game story, "A group of Chang'e fairies in plain clothes entered the scene from the back," and "Among them, a fairy in a white dress and white hair, danced gracefully.") (Chang'e is a general term for the maids of Taiyin Zhenjun). During his pursuit (perhaps courtship), Zhu Bajie encountered the Purple Spider. Later, he accidentally witnessed the white-haired Chang'e meeting privately with the Jade Emperor (or the Jade Emperor's son). As a result, Zhu Bajie was punished by the Jade Emperor's guards and banished to the mortal world, where he was reincarnated as a pig.
In the animation, when Zhu Bajie woke up, he met Gao Cuilan (not the Purple Spider) at Gao Laozhuang, where she was seeking a husband and eventually chose Zhu Bajie.
Later, when the four went on their journey to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures from the West, they passed through the Spider Cave, where Zhu Bajie reunited with the Purple Spider but did not dare to recognize her (as the gods in heaven were constantly watching over them during their journey). Similarly, after defeating the Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord, he still couldn't acknowledge her. In the end, they had a daughter together, and during the journey, Sun Wukong asked Zhu Bajie to kill the remaining spiders, but Zhu Bajie spared the Purple Spider’s life (according to speculation based on the story). Throughout this plot, Zhu Bajie dared not acknowledge the Purple Spider, fearing that the heavenly court would punish her and their daughter (the story of Bull Demon King and Spider Sister Four in Chapter 5 is a good example of this).
(Speculation) As a side note, during the Bull Demon King's storyline, Zhu Bajie killed the Bull Demon King's old lover, the Jade-Faced Fox, and arrogantly proclaimed it. To explain, the Jade-Faced Fox was a spy for the heavenly court, and Zhu Bajie was also helping the Bull Demon King. Sun Wukong was also speaking ill of the Bull Demon King to make things appear proper for the heavenly court, but in secret, he whispered in the Bull Demon King's ear, "Acknowledging our master is the only way out." After hearing about the Jade-Faced Fox, the Bull Demon King decided to rebel against the heavenly court on his own.
Easter egg: Some online have analyzed the last lyrics of the animation, "We meet in the next life," with the male voice saying, "Please don't look back," and the female voice singing, "Please remember to glance back."
Now, let's talk about Sun Wukong and Sister Four, with some interesting analysis:
In the predecessor to Black Myth called , the White Bone Spirit was Sun Wukong's wife. (Before the 100-chapter version of Journey to the West, Sun Wukong always had a wife, and each new version was a reinterpretation based on the original.)
In an old Chinese animation, Sun Wukong and the Purple Fairy, one of the Seven Fairies, had mutual feelings for each other. When Sun Wukong’s leg was trapped by golden shackles, the Purple Fairy stole a diamond from the Queen Mother of Heaven and gave it to Sun Wukong, freeing him. In the end, they helped each other but never dared to confess their feelings.
Similarly, in Stephen Chow's movie A Chinese Odyssey, Sun Wukong and Zixia Fairy also had mutual affection but could not be together in the end.
(Speculation) After repeatedly helping Sun Wukong, the Queen Mother banished the Purple Fairy to the mortal world, where she became the White Bone Spirit. After many trials, Sun Wukong was made to forget the Purple Fairy by the heavenly court. During the chapter of "The Three Fights with the White Bone Spirit," she tried multiple times to recognize Sun Wukong, but in the end, the forgotten Sun Wukong killed her.
(Speculation) In the game, Sister Four is the reincarnation of the White Bone Spirit. She helped the fated protagonist multiple times despite the opposition of the heavenly court. In one chapter, Sister Four gave the protagonist some treasures, possibly the dowry she once intended for Sun Wukong. There is also the character Qinlang Xian (one of the masterminds behind the Spider Cave, but also a henchman for the heavenly court). Sister Four was controlled by the heavenly court, sealed with purple talismans. In the end, she was captured by the heavenly court and said to Sun Wukong, "Leave quickly," not wanting him to get involved. If you continue forward and tear off the talisman, the heavenly court will capture her. (Hurry up and release the DLC; I want to storm the heavenly court!)
Bull Demon King:
The Bull Demon King was once one of Sun Wukong's good brothers. Sun Wukong, a great demon, had six good brothers before embarking on the journey to retrieve the scriptures, and the seven of them were known as the "Seven Great Saints," namely:
Bull Demon King, Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven,
Demon King Jiao, Great Sage Who Overturns the Sea,
Roc Demon King, Great Sage Who Confounds Heaven,
Lion Camel King, Great Sage Who Moves Mountains,
Macaque King, Great Sage Who Commands the Winds,
Baboon King, Great Sage Who Drives Gods,
Sun Wukong, Great Sage Equal to Heaven.
They once rebelled against the heavenly court but were eventually defeated.
Red Boy, the son of the Bull Demon King, set up his own territory, with the sole desire to eat Tang Sanzang's flesh. As a mischievous child, he transformed into a boy to deceive the four disciples and eventually captured Tang Sanzang. Yes, just like the little fox in the game. Many Chinese players knew immediately it was Red Boy.
Sun Wukong, as the sworn brother of the Bull Demon King, tried to use their relationship to get his master back, but Red Boy didn't believe him and obstructed the journey. They fought, and Sun Wukong eventually asked Guanyin to subdue Red Boy (perhaps also to help the Bull Demon King).
After Sun Wukong brought Red Boy into Buddhism, the Daoist faction (the heavenly court) was unhappy and revealed Red Boy's true identity to the Bull Demon King (Red Boy was not the Bull Demon King's biological son; the heavenly court had made Iron Fan drink water, and she gave birth to a Yaksha).
The Bull Demon King became deeply disappointed and eventually left home, encountering the Jade-Faced Fox, whom he later married into.
Sun Wukong needed the fan of the Bull Demon King's wife to get through the Flaming Mountains (only the Banana Fan could extinguish the flames). The couple had separated, but Sun Wukong barged in. Iron Fan Princess, still resentful over the Red Boy incident, refused to give it. Sun Wukong then transformed into the Bull Demon King and tricked the fan away. When the Bull Demon King found out, he turned into Zhu Bajie and stole the fan back. Zhu Bajie slaughtered the Jade-Faced Fox's entire household (the Jade-Faced Fox was a spy for the heavenly court, sent to seduce the Bull Demon King, which Zhu Bajie likely figured out, as he hadn't done anything like this earlier in the story).
However, the Bull Demon King didn't know the full story. First, they harmed his son, then insulted his wife, and finally killed his concubine. Unable to endure the humiliation, he rebelled against the heavenly court. The heavenly court then came to behead the Bull Demon King (though demon kings don't die from beheading, at least the Bull Demon King wouldn't). Iron Fan Princess couldn't bear to see it and offered the Banana Fan, choosing to submit to Buddhism along with the Bull Demon King, bearing the humiliation.
Later, when Sun Wukong's descendants were slaughtered and he once again stormed the heavenly court, the Bull Demon King, driven by family revenge or other motives, joined Erlang Shen in killing Sun Wukong. In Sun Wukong's dying words, the Bull Demon King finally understood. Everything Sun Wukong had done to his son and wife was to show the heavens, aiming to protect the Bull Demon King. In the end, Sun Wukong concealed everything, allowing the Bull Demon King to take the credit, but the Bull Demon King felt immense guilt.
Eventually, the heavenly court revealed Red Boy's identity, and together with Sun Wukong's body, the Yaksha clan (who were wiped out by Buddhism, leaving Red Boy as the last survivor). Red Boy, now aware of his identity and mission, asked the Bull Demon King for Sun Wukong's body, intending to wage war against Buddhism (Buddhism had wiped out the Yaksha clan but had taken in Red Boy, a case of psychological torment).
This is my interpretation. For every thousand people, there is a different Hamlet. Journey to the West is a myth that can be interpreted in many ways.
written in Chinese, created by AI translation. If there are any inaccuracies (whether in the plot or translation), please forgive me. - The English translation may differ.
My theory is that old monkey is true Buddha Wukong, who left his body after reaching enlightement, and after seeing his broken shell going wild he sends Destined One to become a new Monkey King. Even Old Monkeys clothes are flowing, which symbolizes attaining buddhahood
interesting
That's my take as well. Only those who've attained Buddhahood can wear the Heavenly Garment.
It kinds of explains the "Immortality" of Sun Wukong. In the novel, he is "10000 times immortal", but in this game, he still dies, then another successor takes on his name, thus Sun Wukong is immortal
@@leeshenshun I viewed more as the explanation that he is and isn't. He is the Buddah of Victory. He can never be defeated. So when I "lose" to a boss only to come back and kick his ass, did I really lose? I viewed it more as a technicality on his privilege as Buddah of Victory. That even his "lesser" form still retains some aspects of his previous life because he's probably just that powerful. He separates himself and all to break the control Heaven has over him.
Old monkey is most definitely an antagonist. The whole point of wukong allowing himself to die was so to get the curse of the golden circlet off. the golden circlet is not a sign of buddhahood, it's a sign of control by the buddhas. in the "bad" ending he puts the circlet on you again and u r likely going to be trapped in the rock.
in the "good ending", defeating erlang shen allows you to regain the memories of wukong and thus you open your eyes before the circlet can be put on you again, hence fulfilling the point of the game
You're a legend. I not only love the amount of effort you put into your work but also the pride you put into it. Very happy to see this video back up!
The ending of chapter 3 is actually not about greed at all, but rather a lesson for people not to project their own views on others. Humans are not inherently greedy, but because yellow-brow made a bet with Jinchanzi that he can prove such, he purposefully enticed the villagers to become greedy. Thus, he was basically drawing conclusions first before he set out to prove anything. Yellow-brow represented the ultimate greed: Wanting to become Buddha himself. So because he was himself greedy, he thinks that others must be inherently greedy as well.
But people are greedy, thats what made us evolve. Why do you think so many people go into Engineering/Medical paths? High salary.
@@DoffyDoggfirst sentence
What classifies as "greed"? Wanting better shelter that doesn't flood, more space for projects that evolve your community, more housing for more humans who didn't ask to be born? Where do we as humans draw the line between Necessity and Greed? And furthermore, were there other reasons for our evolution as a society? Communication seemed to be a big one, and I wonder if it truly boils down to where we draw the line. Interesting we've imprisoned ourselves, we could break the chains of greed anytime considering it was a human conception in the first place. As a society, have we been greedy? I wonder about the origins of greed. You on the other hand, appear to be someone who already has the answers. Enlighten us Buddha.
@@DoffyDogg whether people are greedy or not is not the point here. In fact, Yellowbrow does not care if people are greedy or not. His only purpose is to win the debate. As long as he think he win the debate, people can be whatever greedy or not. If he chose to debate and prove people are not greedy in the first place, he would have manipulated those villagers to behave well and act good. All he wants is winning the debate.
@@DoffyDogg People go into engineering and medicine because they're respectable jobs that get rewarded well. They could become crypto scammers and earn more money
Good job！！To be honest, as a native Chinese player, I even can't quite understand the whole story of the game. This is because it is a completely new story happened after the novel Journey to the West. Many characters or boss in the game are quite different from traditional novels. So there are many hidden clues in the game, and we are still exploring the secrets behind the superficial plot.But,maybe you can explore more without being influenced by the background of the novel Journey to the West. It was also a very good experience. Anyway, let's enjoy it together
I think the plot has quite heavy influences from the likes of 吴闲云, and incorporates alot of conspiracy theories.
@user-ov1hh6yq7h all entertainment contains heavy conspiracy theories that's because there's truth to alot of it. Unless you think that every author game dev or director is a crazy conspiracy theorist
Your’e amazing gingy, thanks for the hard work.
For a few more details:
Yellowbrow's incarnation as the pearl-bleeding creature was a scheme to prove to Jinchanzi that humans are inevitably corrupt, greedy, and wicked, and thus inherently lesser. Jinchanzi disputes that this is "proof" because Yellowbrow basically entrapped those people, appearing to the most desperate peasants with the most disproportionate temptation.
The version of Bajie's backstory here is that he was cursed to experience a thousand tragic loves because he caught the Jade Emperor having an affair with Chang'e. In the game, he pushes the Violet Spider and his own daughter away in an attempt to spare them from the wrath of Heaven brought on by the curse... But he fails, in part because of something he doesn't know: The heavens were already watching the seven spider guai, keeping them prisoner and harvesting them as ingredients for pills. So they could never escape notice. Hundred-Eye, being one of the conspirators who received a fragment of Wukong as a reward from Heaven's scheme to kill the Monkey King, has seemingly been working with the Celestial Court to keep watch over this prison.
Each of the characters tied to the secret areas, which are needed to get the true ending, is one of the brothers of Erlang Shen - the immortals of Mt. Mei. They were all part of a scheme between Wukong and Erlang to pull off this reincarnation gambit; they would put on a show of dueling and having Wukong lose, leading to his "death", while giving Erlang an opportunity to steal and hide away Wukong's mind. The brothers are all presumably tasked to test each Destined One to see which one is truly worthy to be the reincarnation of the Monkey King. In the end, they're all colluding, and in part working to uncover the schemes of the corrupt Celestial Court - such as Hundred-Eye being an agent of their will and the de facto prison warden of the seven spiders.
There were apparently supposed to be six more chapters each covering a different part of the novel, such as the Country of Women. But the devs had to wrap up and release half the planned game to secure financing and gauge whether it was worth doing the other half. The ending does imply that the reborn Monkey King will be going after the Court to make it answer for its crimes against him, his brothers, and the yaoguai (and mortals) of the world who are seen as inherently lesser and thus free to exploit by Heaven. So we'll either be seeing these as gigantic expansion packs or a sequel.
Im glad you re-uploaded! I couldnt watch the last video. Thank you Gingy!
Im Chinese, my 10 year old niece was born here in America n don't speak a word of Chinese. I played the game on Chinese voice n English subtitles so she can understand the story. What I found out was, a huge part of the story wasn't even in the English subs. I can understand why though. the literal form of the story is translated but without the hidden info that ties way too much of cheese cultural reference and buddhist ideas. there's a huge theme of how the celestial court is behind everything. chap.1 guanyin's dialogue with black bear, why he was allowed to go back. Chap 2 was later revealed that lingji was lying. Chap 3. ba Jie said it all when he smacked mi le fo, he said he won't believe it twice if yellow brow can steal his stuff again. basically hinting that mi le was behind everything. Chap 4 that Crain was tai Shang lao jun as suggested in the end of the chapter(this hint is not in the eng ver.), which ties the story to other folk lore involving xi wang mu's shady trade and bai yan wu gong was working for her in order to get out of kun lun (tai Shang lao jun)'s control. in chap 5 we learn that all the bosses in each chapter joined the effort to take down sun wu kong, and as a reward they were given part of his "relic" (I hate that translation, they made it sound like Voldemort's horcruxes, they are called six thieves, its a buddhist term that im ill equipped to translate), which in it self is a plot made by the court to let the player kill them in a legit way. again they implied that red boy's clan wasn't the only one who got wiped out, there should also be luo cha clan which in the original Indian Buddhism was the dusk veil's mothers clan. this explains why dusk veil, as a officer of the celestial court disappeared all of a sudden and how kang jin Loong went to search for him and was captured by yellow brow, but the nurture seed sack should not have the power to turn her to work for him which ties to the ending of chap. 3's dialogue between yellow and jin chan zi.
lol the story in Chinese of this game is 100 / 10 where as the English only translated portions of it. no one would find this out if they don't play the game in 2 languages and compare them.
本来就是魔改的剧情
People in chapter2 were transformed into rat monsters by LingJi instead of Yellow Wind Sage in fact.
and he defeat the bug simply because he wants to help the village while he happened to be passing by, he was not seeking the power of the bug, this video really did him dirty. As a matter of fact, Ling Ji sent the bug to punish the village
They did not believe in Buddhism so in an attempt to change that, they sent insects to attack the village.
Fuban is also implied to be a Bodhisattva's mount [maybe even Lingji's personal mount] on the Mural which would explain why he had a relic that countered the Yellow Sage's Samadhi Wind.
The ending cutscene emphasizes on the need of keeping the order as it is and not interfering with the balance between Guai, Humans and Celestials.
There are some inaccuracies in your portrayal of the Yellow Wind Sage's backstory. The full story is actually quite fascinating and dark. I strongly suggest revising your video based on my comments. Here is a chronological breakdown of what actually happened:
- In the past, there was a kingdom known as the Golden Buddha City. People in the city used to worship Buddha, but eventually the people there started to worship the royal family instead. This pissed off the Buddha, and LingJi sent a demon named Fuban to harass them. This is why LingJi’s face was on the back of Fuban when you first encountered him in the secret level.
- The Yellow Wind Sage passed by the city , defeated Fuban and gained the people's trust. They started to worship him instead.
- This angered LingJi, who decided to punish the people by transforming them into rat monsters.
- The Yellow Wind Sage, feeling responsible for what happened, left the kingdom in hopes that things would return to normal during his absence. Unfortunately, the curse persisted, and the kingdom eventually fell because of it. This is mentioned in both LingJi's backstory within the game and in a background dialogue on the wall painting after you complete Chapter 2.
Thus, LingJi was actually the antagonist, not the Yellow Wind Sage. The Yellow Wind Sage fell and became corrupted due to his disillusionment with the gods and the celestial court. This theme is central to Black Myth: Wukong: the celestial court is not as innocent as it may seem.
if I am correct, aren't all the big bosses actually innocent, but manipulated by the celestial court...since when Black Bear Guai tried to take the Craving Eyes, you see Wukong's power in the relic basically hit him and seemingly push out any control the court had over him
@@xxmension04xx47Except Yellowbrow, who is the only truly villainous one of the five chapter antagonists... But mostly because he's just Ayn Rand.
Cuck
Tripitaka = Sanzang. Both translate to "three baskets", and refer to the collection of scriptures (collected into three volumes/baskets) that Xuanzang (his monastic name) / Tang Seng (literally Tang Monk) is tasked with retrieving and are often used as his byname.
From what I understand, GuangZhi and GuangMo were both monsters working under 2 bigger monsters. GuangZhi wanted to learn how to be human. They were both sent to the temple to spy under Jinchi, also allowing GuangZhi to learn how to be human. When the monk arrived at the temple, GuangMo suggested to knife him, but GuangZhi worried it would be too suspicious as they are monks. So he suggested to burn the room instead. Later he was killed. GuangMo realized how powerful monkey king is, and escaped and survived till today. The black bear was captured by Guanyin.
In the game, the monkey king was not happy about the heaven and wanted to leave, but the heaven is not happy about that. It can be interpreted that the journey to the west was an opportunity used to promote the monkey king in order to control him. Why they didn't just kill him, no idea. But after the promotion, he's still not happy because the heaven is not a fun place, any small mistake and you get punished. The heaven doesn't allow him to leave and killed his monkey friends as punishment. Given how powerful the monkey king is, they sent a whole army to kill him.
Meanwhile Guanyin in the game is very manipulative and cunning. The buddhas are basically politicians same as the heaven, not the holy spirits they make out to be. She said to the black bear that she want him to go down to the mortal realm and ambush the monkey king with the circlet that gives him the headache. The black bear was scared of how powerful monkey king is, but Guanyin said if he do this she will give him his freedom back. So the black bear went back, and when Erlangshen was fighting monkey king, he put the circlet back on him. That's how the circlet appeared out of nowhere and monkey king got killed. All the monsters that originally captured were all released back to ambush monkey king. The body of the monkey became a stone, his spirit became 6 relics stolen by the monsters. The legend of the monkey king is passed down through generations. Legend has it that when the 6 relics are regrouped, the monkey king will revive. The monkeys have been trying to gather the 6 relics. 500 years later, you play as the destined one.
The black bear learned the revive spell during his capture under Guanyin. After his release, he went back and rebuilt the temple, and tried to revive his friends. Jinchi's spirit was with some treasures and not by his body, so the body came back as a zombie. GuangZhi came back in his wolf monster form and not as monk.
I’m pretty sure the game implies that the Sun Wukong the rebelled against Heaven and partook in Journey to the West is well and truly gone, and that it’s the Destined Ones turn to do things as the new Sun Wukong. He may have all his powers, senses, looks, and even memories, but the Destined One still retains his individuality rather than a vessel for the old Sun Wukong
And unlike Souls games, Wukong actually has a story to tell. It’s based on a great story/novel/epic.
well explained!!
In the novel, many times, due to media and people's favor, Sun Wukong's abilities are often magnified. He has bunches of limitations and asked for help during their journey to the West (Ancient India). Even though the way he ask for help are sometimes treated as an art of communication and networking - asking Erlang to help him beat a big Yaoguai, while he and Bajie were just fighting small yaoguais in the cave - he showed his limitations. But that's the fascination of this character: his self-improvement and development. He started to realize his limitations and evolve new strategies and ways to deal with problems, not only just violence.
But yeah, I like how Game Science portrait him as well, which also really match his personality. He wanted pure freedom, does whatever he want and many times sacrificing other people's freedom to satisfy his own. But he realize gradually that there's no pure freedom as long as you're interacting with other people in the society. Although, when speaking of limited freedom, I don't think the author mean civil rights in the novel, but it could be translated into today's freedom, like civil rights, in multiple ways. Which is one of the most amazing thing of this novel - it has multiple ways to translate, explain, comprehend, and even adaption to different eras and circumstances.
For us Vietnamese though, it is not the novel that resonates strongly with us, but the TV series, specifically the first one. That show was, and probably is still, widely popular. I remember my local TV channels used to broadcast it every summer holiday. That's right, every. Summer. Kids loved watching it front and back. Every boys love portraying themselves as Wukong, me included. So when the true ending blasts the revised opening theme song of that show, the nostalgia hit like the same mountain that crushes Wukong himself.
Since nobody in the comments seems to understand...
Immortal = can be unalived but wont die via age or illness
Invincible = cannot be unalived but can die via age
What if I want both ?
A video so nice he made it twice 😊 thank you as always for all the hard work you do. Easily my favorite RUclipsr and it is so much appreciated.
19:48 at the ending cutscene for chapter 3, he dreams that the fox girls gives him a good life but at one day maybe fox yaoguai will eventually release “her nature”. So he believes what he seem in the dream and think all Yaoguai is bad in nature even they can be good for short time. So he kill the fox. This is a story from Buddha from chapter 2. At the end, that Buddha said, “all being has its position from born, buddha is buddha, yaoguai is yaoguai. Is foolish to believe yaoguai can be good.” Witch is very very bad idea that show linji buddha is not qualified as a buddha at first place. But eventually you will find out most of these celebrities are not good as their titles.
found interesting the fascination with the fox spirits (Huli jing) they can either be good or bad. Some tales they server the mother of creation nuwa. i think we here in the west we know them better as the nine tails and the tale of daji.
correct! even the fox says that whatever the guy dreamed wasn’t true and he was letting his fear overrule his empathy which lead to the unfortunate death of the fox who simply wanted to return his kindness and goodwill. the heavenly court and buddha see themselves as “all-good” where it is anything but, as evidenced by their prejudices against yaoguai still.
the journey to the west story is really simple in the respective of Sun Wu Kong. he fighted the celestial court（high order） and got punished to serve Tang monk to guard hin to the west. finally he becomes one of the gods（the headband represents he has been neutralized）. this game is a sequel of the journey to the west. the court didnt believe him so they send all gods to kill his monkeys all. （fight the celestial second time ）and during that battle he kills himself and let the destined one collect his power（5 remains） but without the headband. so he revived in a way of freedom. the final episode （true ending） is the journey to the west in a reverse manner， the ending of the episode is the beginning of the journey when he and his friends are going to fight the celestial court and he is free and happy. and after that，the last scene is that he is going to fight the celestial court at the second time （his friend are all dead with their weapons remaining only）
I believe this game will pave the way to opening the hearts and minds of a larger population of people exploring mythology outside their own and/or the more commonly known ones.
Great video as usual Gingy. Cheers!
Thanks for the tips! Immersive Translate made understanding this guide so much easier-really useful for translations.
If you decide to take a break just know we will be happily waiting for your return. You always kill it on your videos and I always look forwards to your next upload brotha. 🤝🏽
I was commenting on an error in the original video, refreshed and it was privated. Respect for making an updated version.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll start developing another Wukong game, this time it’s actually the story of The Journey to the West, where u actually play as Wukong for the whole game. Would be absolutely amazing
Great video as always, Gingy. The story on offer here seems very erratic and strange but maybe it's a cultural barrier.
22:56 the needle is an artificial made by the women(Buddha)’s son who is a rooster god in heaven, and the hundred eye demon is a centipede demon, and rooster is the natural nemesis of bugs like centipedes, so the hundred eye was helpless against him or anything that was made from hin
21:20 he isn’t obsessed with being worshipped, he is obsessed with being right about the ways of the world, that’s why he keep on trying to prove he was right
22:07 and yes the monk yellow brow wins the debate with is the previous incarnation of the tong monk
Been trying to find a video like this glad it’s here
Just finished the game. Great video!
In Chapter 2, the Macaque General might also be a call back to the Six-Eared Macaque. In the original text, this macaque was just as powerful as Wukong, but he also had the ability to know events of the past and future. He uses this talent to pretend to be Wukong, after he is banished for killing some bandits, and tries to take over the entire rest of the journey. Thankfully, the real Wukong returns and with help from the Buddha himself, he's able to defeat him and rejoin the group.
the Macaque Chief is actually the Red-Buttocked Baboon
From what I have gathered about what happened after The Journey to the West with Sun Wukong in the game is that he returned back to the mountain of his birthplace, then found out what was happening with the Yaoguai after his imprisonment and during his journey. He learns that many of the Yaoguai are getting killed or captured (for Immortality pill research) by the Heavens. While, he flew out to reach the heavens, it seems like the Jade Emperor already knew he was coming there for retaliation and had the entire armies of heaven to greet him. That's where the intro began with Sun Wukong being given that deal with Erlang Shen about either he wins or loses, there will be conflict. The fight was a forgone conclusion, Buddha and the religion is deeply ingrained to the influence of the Jade Emperor and even though Sun Wukong was made a Buddha, the Heavens did not trust him and never had Buddha remove the Sutra spell that would control him. Thus, it was a curse that Sun Wukong could never properly defy the Heavens under that restraint and he would lose in combat.
Now the interesting part comes when you defeat Erlang Shen as the Destined One. The third eye reveals all deception so when the Destined One held up the spear against Erlang Shen, the third eye reveals the truth to the Destined One. That Sun Wukong himself through his own words, knew he could not win as long as the sutra on him was not removed. Sun Wukong found out that the Sutra was still in place during the battle with Shen and that the only way to remove it was to "trick" the heavens. To do so, he had to have his physical body die and reincarnate to one that was not cursed, while finding a way to recollect his memories, soul, and powers of himself in this new body. Also remember, immortality can be transferred since they can be consumed like fruits or pills, so even that would come back to this new body.
Sun Wukong told this plan to Shen and he agreed to it. Shen has reasons to overthrow the Jade Emperor though didn't have the power to do so. However, Wukong has proven in the past he could defeat all of heaven if he wasn't tricked by Buddha under the Jade Emperor's request. Shen could not openly defy him so instead had his "brothers" do the task of retaining those powers for this new body. Shen definitely wants to overthrow the Jade Emperor and knows that the Heavens are evil due to their immense power over those who live on Earth, especially with their knowledge about immortality, using it as a form of control. Shen knows Sun Wukong could beat the Jade Emperor if he was not under the sutra and had help like the Yaoguai Chiefs along with his assistance at the right time.
Now the "brothers" Shen mentions are the collaborators that Sun Wukong trusted to hold onto his powers, but to also test the Destined One through battle to see if that new body is strong enough to harness the relics. The Yaoguai Chiefs all held the relics so that the Destined One had to prove to them that he was worthy to inherit that power. The music video that showed Shen and the Yaoguai Chiefs that seemed to have betrayed Sun Wukong as he was dying were actually there to collect his relics for safekeeping and pretended to be working for Heaven, even fooling Ox King of the plan and ended up with a relic since Wukong also trusted the king enough with one.
With the good and bad ending, it makes sense why the battle with Erlang Shen was important for the Destined One to decide which ending you got. All of this time, the Destined One only heard stories of the Monkey King and needed to hear the truth of this plan. Knowing that the circlet Sutra was the reason Sun Wukong could not win against the Heavens, the Destined One knew his real purpose of the journey. The bad ending was traveling the journey, completing it through guidance of the relics and falling for the same fatal mistake of Sun Wukong of wearing that circlet, becoming powerless to win against Heaven. While, the good ending was where he truly inherited the title of Sun Wukong and understood the real reason of the journey of becoming Sun Wukong. That there was a war against the heavens, that to be truly free was to win against them and Sun Wukong needed to be revived at full power to do so.
I am very much certain if there is a Wukong 2, it will be the fight against the heavens for sure. Lots of things there that can be explored to make another game with and The Journey to the West described Heaven well enough to be made in-game. The clue of such a thing happening is the very end of the special video where it showed Sun Wukong with his supporters all drinking merrily (this happened when he first returned from the end of Journey to the West) and then the scene right after at the same location but a long time has passed with no one around. The scene with Sun Wukong celebrating alone with the room empty but the items left behind of his long gone friends is the current Destined One having become Sun Wukong resurrected completely back at the same place years later. Now this Sun Wukong, he is drinking for the lost comrades instead and is now ready to finish the fight against Heaven.
I don't why I'm not subscribed to you yet. I feel in love with your Returnal video back then.... And RUclips never recommended until now.
This was an incredible overview and I could tell a lot of work was put into its production. That said, it would be much easier to follow if you presented more supplementary footage/graphics that relates to the subject matter. Many of the novel retelling sections were undercut by the combat on screen, which was distracting from your main points when you weren’t directly commenting on the gameplay segments. Thanks for another banger video regardless!
gingy so fast to create these vids love u gang
i was waiting for this vid from you 👍
Ayy welcome back monkaS Lore master
Thanks for reuploading bro.
Glad you are happy with the finished product now!
lovely gingy classic, thanks for covering the game !
Get excited every time you drop a new vid. Especially when I'm playing that game
Can’t wait man…one of my fav channels on RUclips 🎉🎉🎉🎉
19:19 this is correct, you can even talk to the fox gui's spirit near one of the shrines a little before you enter the temple and theres a quest to do with his betrayal.
Nice! Thanks for what you do Gingy!
They said this is the beginning of the destined ones journey as said by erlang shen in his true ending and the old monkey when saying to begin the journey a new so they will either make another game or add expansions
In the side mission of Chapter 4, we can realize that the 4th sister cannot leave the mountains because Court will not let them leave（At the end of the side mission, the people from Court showsup）. This girl wants to rebel against what Court is doing, so she is the spider who has been helping the players along the way, and she knows that only WUKONG can save them instead of obeying Court .The Court alchemized all the living creatures in the mountains into pills, and they let a hundred-eyed yaoguai manage this place. That's why after we beat him he said“come down，grandmaster，i need you”
If anyone else is finding game guides tough to follow because of translations, Immersive Translate has been really helpful for me.
Is that a mod or something ?
Off of the game and your explanation, it really helped me understand journey to the west, I always assumed it was a great story, but I never read it because I don’t like reading books, so thank you
I'm very happy they made this game because I would love if more people knew the myth. They made a korean drama very loosely based on the characters a couple years back and it was delightful.
God i love you gingy, always posting exactly what i want to watch❤😂
Gingy isn’t monkeying around with this video!
Oh here we go, another epic Gingy video
New subscriber! I love your content, you can tell so much passion goes into it. Please don’t forget to take care of yourself 🫶
i like watching your videos man, i was literally searching for your take on Black Myth Wukong. I thought i was going crazy cuz i couldve sworn i saw it on my feed before, anyways, thank you for caring about the quality of your content and the game's, we're not perfect, we just get better from each mistake(if you try). Please rest 👍🏽
Erlang said it himself, an unbound mind and will
So why the reupload?
30 seconds later: ohhhhh.
A few mistakes he made in the previous video
@@Caski16 ye. Part of it was for promotion since I didn't want to just copy paste the last response I gave in the original but it's all good.
If nothing else I figured I wouldn't be the only one with that response.
Beautifully Incredible History
Wonderful Humanistic tale
A little bit of everything
One of the Best most Original Soulslikes Ever
And all because of some Amazing Ancient Myth
Great explanation
Goodest work
I’m really Happy to see such an Interesting and Inspired game Will Itself into Existence so well
Well done bro!!!
Thanks for this video, I didn’t even know why the game was made or the story behind it
Love you Gingy
The story went over my head need to listen many times to understand 😮
During the final moments of chapter 6 the old monkey explained that we are in fact wukong just not the one everyone remembers, he has the memories of the monkey he was but if you ask me the broken shell we fight in the end is literally the part of him that’s still under heavens control. In the music video where hear erlang tell wukong that as long as that headband is on him he’ll still be a servant to the heavens, the entire game is literally wukong saying “how much you wanna bet I break free of this headband?” So to sum it up we always played as wukong just wit amnesia even in the start of the game when the keeper says “you may not remember this place but they certainly remember you”. Not only that but like you said this takes place after “the journey to the west” so we’re already immortal but still being watched by heaven this game is a huge rematch for wukong this is the “re-journey to the west”
I thought Wukong was a legendary warrior, but it turns out he’s just a pro at parkour.
Good job. Thank you!
best writer on yt
Great work 👏
Good intro for English audiences. One big subplot that you may have missed in the game for 24:40 is that the court of the Heavens is built upon a conspiracy of harvesting Yaoguai for elixirs of longevity. Hence, Wukong's refusal to be part of the court after JTTW is a moral refusal to partake in such conspiracy rather than simply wanting to live peacefully back on his mountain. Chapter 4's ends with spider sister four being abducted by the Heavens with the plan to make her into elixir. So yes, pretty dark and also a potential plot for the DLC.
31:25 yasha are on one of the eight clans that serves the Buddha in mythology, in this game they were wiped out by the Buddhist forces
Genii, you should try the infamous series out. As all ways great vid
There are so many hidden easter eggs related to all monkey king TV/animate/movies. Like the temple on the middle of the icey lake. That's a nod to the 1986 TV series when wukong is doing a transform duel. The temple is based on what wukong turned into in the TV. Note that the 'windows' are circle. In the TV show that were his eyes.
This video was so good it made me go bananas
big of you to consider the inaccuracies and reupload , keep going
Read the entry for wukongs broken shell, very nice
🎉🎉🎉🎉 gingy posted 🎉🎉🎉
Gingy the goat
monke is back thank goodness.
Amazing video. If you would like to dig deeper, it would be helpful for you to read the story of Erlang shen and his relationship with jade emperor.
yes. erlang shen is the jade emperor’s nephew-a direct kin since his mother is the jade emperor’s sister. erlang’s mother was banished because she fell in love and had a child with a mortal human while she was a divine being (making erlang a demigod). the axe erlang uses at the intro of the game is what he uses to split a mountain to save his mother. erlang and wukong are close friends and brothers; erlang is also unhappy with the heavenly court’s dictatorship and wants to achieve freedom but he does not have the free spiritedness of wukong. he and the emperor made a compromise: erlang cannot be commanded by the heavenly court to do whatever they want him to do (as opposed to other guais like wukong) but they can request for him to do something and he cannot turn them away. in essence, he only has half-freedom. he both envies and supports wukong in his quest for true freedom, which is why they devised that whole plan of them fighting and wukong dying so he can finally be free from the hands of the heavenly court.
Damn that transition at 14:25 was insane
So, based on my limited knowledge of JTTW & Wukong, what I know is that he's got about 1,000 layers of immortality because he's either eaten an immortality granted thing, or learned it through hardwork.
My original theory for this game was that Wukong didn't "die" so much as he was reincarnated without his memories or abilities. A blank slate, so to speak. This would then mean that the entire journey we go on as The Destined One is simply Wukong going to get his memories and items back.
The way I initially interpreted the ending of this game is that Wukong *is* dead, somehow, but we received his mantle and blessing. Kinda like Miles becoming the new Spider-Man in his initial run. However, now what you and a few others are saying makes me happy to think Wukong isn't actually dead and I'm excited for a sequel!
Deserve a like a comment and a share once again
Return of the King! (Both Monkey and Gingy)
25:40 I WAS TOLD TO KILL THE SCORPION LORD FIRST OMG he was SOOO difficult 🤦♂️🤦♂️
I find it sad that people are only interested in the powerful warrior monkey but not the journey he went through to become a Buddha.
Missed the metaphor WuKong couldn't jump out of Buddha's palm because WuKong has no direction dispict all his powers.
Also missed the metaphor that WuKong was trapped under the mountain of all the problems he has caused because he's power could not solve problem but causes them.
There are some versions WuKong kept the crown. The metaphor is that the crown is the reminders of all his sins committed and he kept it because he has own up to all his sins.
I am just now discovering that I've missed a few bosses lmao. Still a liiiiittle bit confused about the plot/lore but I'm gonna keep looking into it
To "quote" someone else's comment:
Chapter 3 is about the debate of the 2 in the last cutscene, yellowbrown put his bet on human's nature will lead toward evil, while the other said its complicated and cant be black or white. In the end, yellowbrown claimed he won, and the monk said you lost the original purpose of the debate because you did all that just to win.
Just feels like sharing because i dont think its fair to assume he just likes to be worshiped
yep, yellowbrow is a very competitive person and believes that what he believes is always right. his stance about humans being inherently evil and greedy is incorrect because he essentially “cheated” and did whatever he did just to prove a point that still isn’t the absolute answer because he was intentionally sowing seeds of greed and covertly influencing them instead of letting the people decide for themselves.
Good video
You should look at thymesia! Would love to hear your synopsis and opinions of it
babe wake up, gingy re-uploaded the black myth wukong video
man thank you so much i wish there is a good movie or show about jttw its so peak, also i think you missed the chapter 2 cutscene i was curious what i was about
There we go. Was sad when the video disappeared but we back boiis