Black Myth Wukong Story Explained

[SwissAK]

### Preface:
Gods and demons are two opposing factions, with demons being oppressed by the gods.

### This dark mythological world is divided into four parts:

1. **Attack on the Heavenly Court**:
Sun Wukong, the Bull Demon King, and other demons attack the Heavenly Court but ultimately fail.

2. **Sun Wukong's Submission**:
Sun Wukong voluntarily wears the golden headband and submits to the gods. He follows Jin Chan (Tang Sanzang) along with their three companions to exterminate demons. These demons were once leaders of various regions under Sun Wukong's faction. Most of these demons protected local people, only demanding tributes to facilitate their cultivation of demonic powers. However, the gods do not allow the existence of demons.

3. **Journey to the West**:
Sun Wukong escorts Jin Chan (Tang Sanzang) to the Western Heaven and is titled the "Victorious Fighting Buddha." However, he is required to stay there, constantly accompanied by a lamp. (In reality, all Buddhas were once demon kings or devil kings who, after conversion, were trapped in the Western Heaven for life.) Sun Wukong disagrees and demands to return to Flower Fruit Mountain. He returns without permission, prompting the Heavenly Court to send Erlang Shen, the Giant Spirit God, and the Four Heavenly Kings to capture him. Sun Wukong fights valiantly and remains undefeated. Unexpectedly, many demon kings he had previously defeated also join the gods. To gain the gods' pardon, they willingly become slaves and join the battle to capture Sun Wukong, including the Bull Demon King and Hundred Eyes. Eventually, Sun Wukong is dismembered, and his five major organs (five of the six senses) are rewarded to the five demon kings who participated in his capture.

4. **Rebirth of Sun Wukong**:
Sun Wukong, being formed from a divine stone, has an immortal body. Over time, his spirit regenerates. Our protagonist, an ordinary monkey also known as the "Monkey of Destiny," is the reincarnation of Sun Wukong's spirit. Initially, the ordinary monkey is deceived by an old monkey (possibly Jin Chan) transformed by the Buddha. Guided to fight and defeat demons (part of the gods' plan to exterminate demons), the monkey defeats the five demon kings, regains Sun Wukong's five organs, and, combined with the spirit, acquires all six senses and Sun Wukong's full power. If the player fails to complete hidden levels, the protagonist, upon becoming Sun Wukong, will be enslaved again by the Buddha with the golden headband. (Certain demons must not be killed to trigger the true ending.)

### True Ending:
The only true ending is Sun Wukong leading the demons to attack the Heavenly Court, facing not only gods but also demon kings who have sided with the gods. Ultimately, Sun Wukong, without the golden headband, kills the Buddha.

[dlmyth]

But does the "Monkey of Destiny" merge with the spirit stone to get his immortal body back and become the true Monkey King again?

[Linfried]

Cool... if only the game had executed this story properly it would not have been such a bore to go through the stages. I'm at Chapter 4. I still have no idea why he is killing a bunch of demons. Obviously, he regains Sun Wukong's powers but that's about the gist of it.

[PullTheTrigger]

What "certain demons" must not be killed because I'm out here wiping the floor with anything that moves..??

[ẹvo۱vtÿőИ™]

The fact that it needs to be explained here says a lot about the game background exposition to the player. Big yikes right there.

[PullTheTrigger]

Originally posted by ẹvo۱vtÿőИ™:

The fact that it needs to be explained here says a lot about the game background exposition to the player. Big yikes right there.

Pretty normal tbh its a Chinese myth not everyone would be exposed to the story.

[Videogamer123]

Originally posted by ẹvo۱vtÿőИ™:

The fact that it needs to be explained here says a lot about the game background exposition to the player. Big yikes right there.

Says more about your inability to extrapolate than anything

[Ethan Ragnarok]

Where did that last True Ending part happen ?

[Shirakani]

Sorry, I'm going to correct you on some things:

Sun Wukong was born from a stone, but the stone itself was not divine or anything special. It had simply stood for millennia, bathed in the sun's rays and doused with the spirituality of Huaguoshen until it eventually gave birth to a stone monkey. Wukong's immortality came from him literally eating every frigging peach in the Imperial Peach Garden... One peach is enough to grant 10,000 years of life, he ate thousands, the entire damn garden. After this, he fled Heaven and abandoned his post as the garden keeper... which was the last straw and was what prompted the Jade Emperor to send the entire Imperial army after him. All this is pre-Journey to the West.

The relics were not 'awarded' to the demon kings. When his body was shattered by Erlang Shen, Wukong managed to split his body into 6. The relics scattered across the world and were either found or seized by the demon kings.

The Destined One is not the reincarnation of Wukong's spirit. He is simply a monkey who, by dint of Wukong's attainment of Buddhahood, along with the rest of his lineage, rose to Heaven with him. As the old Chinese saying goes 'When a Man obtains Buddhahood, even his dogs and fowls ascend to Heaven'.
This lineage of intelligent monkeys have been taught Sun Wukong's ways for generations... his way of cultivation, way of transformation, way of combat, etc. All the monkeys you see with the Old Monkey narrating the tale in the beginning are the 'best' of the current generation who show potential to perhaps become the Destined One.

The old Monkey is not the reincarnation of Sanzang. In fact, I'm not sure how you missed this, the normal ending was very damn clear on who the old Monkey is. He is the last Relic, the Mind of Wukong. All the physical body parts could be recovered but Mind was lost... as he says himself... "Mind is unique to all life, and is fated to end with it".
So effectively, when Wukong died, his Mind remained for centuries on Huaguoshen, bereft and stripped of power and immortality... but retained knowledge enough to train and pass on his ways to the monkeys of the mountain for centuries until one capable enough to be the Destined One emerges. He then guides the Destined One to inherit his mantle.

This entire story, and the NG+ loop, clearly is done within the usual 'rules' that cultivation worlds generally adopt ie how everything continually will cycle and re-cycle into the wheel of reincarnation. I especially like this aspect, along with the changes/differences in NG+, it actually feels like a different monkey each time.

[SwissAK]

Shirakani, there is no need for any correction, what you think is based on your interpretation, or how you perceived this story. There is not really a right and wrong to this story, or how on one should perceived it, Journey to the West is friction in the very first place. And every time a drama/movie/game/rewrite/animation of it adds flavor to it.

What i write is based off many different interpretation i have seen and what i perceived from Black Myth: Wukong. This game also have different ending and they can even have DLC in future and rewrite this story however they want.

[Fahrenheit]

Can you explain the final cutscene of chapter 2? I fail to see any relevance to the Yellow Wind Ridge

[电击狂人杨永信]

About Wukong’s name:
The first period:as A monkey ,in Hua Guo Mountain,He called himself Monkey King.
The second period:as A apprentice,in Peng Lai Island,His master named him SunWuKong.
The third period:as A warrior,fright with Heaven Army,He called himself Qi Tian Da Sheng.
The last period:as A team member,finished “The journey of west”,The Heaven Emperor named him “Buddha of Warrior”.

[Shirakani]

Originally posted by SwissAK:

Shirakani, there is no need for any correction, what you think is based on your interpretation, or how you perceived this story. There is not really a right and wrong to this story, or how on one should perceived it, Journey to the West is friction in the very first place. And every time a drama/movie/game/rewrite/animation of it adds flavor to it.

What i write is based off many different interpretation i have seen and what i perceived from Black Myth: Wukong. This game also have different ending and they can even have DLC in future and rewrite this story however they want.

There are certain absolutes, like Wukong being born from a 'divine' stone. No, this is all from the original literature which is all clearly stated that it was just a rock that had been bathed in the light of the Sun and Moon and absorbed all the elements and spirituality of the mountain for eons.

The bit about the old Monkey being the Mind of Wukong is also VERY clearly stated. I actually have no idea how the hell you even got this wrong... The entire cutscene with the Destined One, old Monkey and Shu Baijie on the boat was very very damn clear.

Originally posted by 电击狂人杨永信:

About Wukong’s name:
The first period:as A monkey ,in Hua Guo Mountain,He called himself Monkey King.
The second period:as A apprentice,in Peng Lai Island,His master named him SunWuKong.
The third period:as A warrior,fright with Heaven Army,He called himself Qi Tian Da Sheng.
The last period:as A team member,finished “The journey of west”,The Heaven Emperor named him “Buddha of Warrior”.

Yep... just going to add that 'Sun Wukong' basically means 'Aware of Vacuity'. Qi Tian Da Sheng is where his title of 'The Great Sage, Heaven's Equal' came from.

[REhorror]

Some dudes earlier post a better summary: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2358720/discussions/0/4426562436921435391/

This game's lore is based on the grimdark version of the JttW and not the original one.

[REhorror]

Originally posted by Shirakani:

Sorry, I'm going to correct you on some things:

Sun Wukong was born from a stone, but the stone itself was not divine or anything special. It had simply stood for millennia, bathed in the sun's rays and doused with the spirituality of Huaguoshen until it eventually gave birth to a stone monkey. Wukong's immortality came from him literally eating every frigging peach in the Imperial Peach Garden... One peach is enough to grant 10,000 years of life, he ate thousands, the entire damn garden. After this, he fled Heaven and abandoned his post as the garden keeper... which was the last straw and was what prompted the Jade Emperor to send the entire Imperial army after him. All this is pre-Journey to the West.

The relics were not 'awarded' to the demon kings. When his body was shattered by Erlang Shen, Wukong managed to split his body into 6. The relics scattered across the world and were either found or seized by the demon kings.

The Destined One is not the reincarnation of Wukong's spirit. He is simply a monkey who, by dint of Wukong's attainment of Buddhahood, along with the rest of his lineage, rose to Heaven with him. As the old Chinese saying goes 'When a Man obtains Buddhahood, even his dogs and fowls ascend to Heaven'.
This lineage of intelligent monkeys have been taught Sun Wukong's ways for generations... his way of cultivation, way of transformation, way of combat, etc. All the monkeys you see with the Old Monkey narrating the tale in the beginning are the 'best' of the current generation who show potential to perhaps become the Destined One.

The old Monkey is not the reincarnation of Sanzang. In fact, I'm not sure how you missed this, the normal ending was very damn clear on who the old Monkey is. He is the last Relic, the Mind of Wukong. All the physical body parts could be recovered but Mind was lost... as he says himself... "Mind is unique to all life, and is fated to end with it".
So effectively, when Wukong died, his Mind remained for centuries on Huaguoshen, bereft and stripped of power and immortality... but retained knowledge enough to train and pass on his ways to the monkeys of the mountain for centuries until one capable enough to be the Destined One emerges. He then guides the Destined One to inherit his mantle.

This entire story, and the NG+ loop, clearly is done within the usual 'rules' that cultivation worlds generally adopt ie how everything continually will cycle and re-cycle into the wheel of reincarnation. I especially like this aspect, along with the changes/differences in NG+, it actually feels like a different monkey each time.

It's sort of a special stone because it's one of the stone used by Nu Wa fix up the sky:
https://www.chinabeastsandlegends.com/nu-wa-bu-shi

If you want to be pedantic, it can be Wukong's parent is Nu Wa herself, and his age is almost as old as humanity because he was there since the very beginning of Earth.

[SwissAK]

I agree with REhorror, there are many version of this fictional story by different publisher or author, anyone can retold this story in the way they want, there are also different ending to this game. Again as a fictional story, anyone can interpret the story/game as they perceive it.

What i perceive on this story is more imaginative, a darker version of this story, that the old monkey is here to misled the destined one to put back the golden headband by lying to him that he is the mind. The whole storytelling by the old monkey is just a ploy to get the destined one to keep repeating this endlessly, which is the ending if you rush through the game and not all the secret boss etc.