Let's settle the actual story of this game! (Detailed spoilers)

[Mister Magician]

I think this game has a mix of purposely bad storytelling to mimic a souls game, and purposely vague storytelling to not push people away. There's also a half-dozen topics on the story all over the forums today.

The game supposedly takes place in some "black legend" continuation/retelling/DEBOONKING/"deconstruction" of wukong's story that are a dime a dozen across china (and really asia altogether) since the "cultural revolution." Usually they try to retool the story to fit the new marxist state religion of the country where everything becomes "political" and everything is purposely inverted.

The original story that made wukong famous east-wide was a story of redemption, that being "Journey To The West" which is the first story most asian children were ever told. Wukong was a semi-divine creature who was cast out of the heavens a number of times for causing trouble. Once for eating thousands of immortality fruit. Once for challenging the naming of the jade emperor. etc. etc. Wukong causes even more trouble on earth and he's beaten back into stone he spawned from to imprison him. A traveling monk wanted to unite all asia and needed a divine bodyguard, and he thought wukong was the only one for the job. Wukong travels around doing just that, bound by a golden crown to pacify his rage and abilities, but secretly under the pretense that helping this monk will let him get close to buddha so he can "kill" him. Wukong meets buddha, realizes he's been an idiot his whole life, has ruined everythign every change he got, that buddha was right to constantly beat and punish and even kill him, and decides to change. In doing so he becomes a divinity above even the jade emperor, or something. The end.

This game mirrors the story of wukong just before "Journey to the west" where he conquers demon tribes to become the "monkey king." Wukong then invades the heavens to challenge why buddha would elect the jade emperor instead of him to be the leader of all, and buddha tells him to go and do something remarkable. Wukong does something like conquers the entire universe, rules with an iron fist, and vandalizes the pillars of creation at the end of time with his name. Wukong returns to buddha and boasts he did what the jade emperor never could, and buddha tells wukong that he's just been hallucinating in buddha's outstretched hand the entire time and that wukong proved buddha's point that wukong is just plain evil. buddha then slams wukong into the earth to kill him (which turns him into stone as he regenerates), cuts off his own arm (it grows back) and forms a giant mountain on top of wukong's grave using his own severed arm. it's this grave that the monk digs up to bring about wukong to enact the "Journey to the west."

Now, some are saying this game is just a retelling of his conquering of the demons before "journey to the west," which I don't think makes sense because that wouldn't be a "black myth" and also the game explicitly says it happens after "Journey to the west."


Here's what I am sure about:
- wukong realizes he cannot die nor can he truly disobey the heavens because his crown.

- wukong leaves the heavens to go live on the mountain where he was the "monkey king" long ago, which angers the jade emperor and sends erlang after him.

- the game begins with wukong being beaten and killed by erlang, but the game's true ending path reveals he did this all on purpose to weaken him.

- wukong purposely tears apart his body and soul and casts it to the wind, hoping before his body turns to stone to regenerate that a mortal will be born of his discarded soul that can regain all his powers into a now fully-mortal form not bound by the golden crown or the rules of the celestial court.

- the destined one is, as expected, the biggest part of wukong's scattered soul that has been reborn as a complete mortal.

- the old monkey is a surviving part of wukong's body that tasks the destined one to regain the scattered peices of wukong's body and soul.

- if you do everything for the true ending, you face off against erlang and the four celestial guards; and in beating erlang he realizes what wukong's plan was all along and then deep down says he knew and went along with it all because wukong is the only one capable of killing the jade emperor (who erlang secretly hates because the jade emperor killed his family).

- a complete but still broken wukong now housed in the destined one's mortal body fights the mindless stone body of his former self, and in killing it forces all the pieces back to where they should be: making a wukong that isn't wukong and so therefore has all his abilities but none of his weaknesses.

- the true ending cutscene is the destined one reliving all of wukong's memories, specifically those of journey to the west.

- As each memory passes he realizes all of his friends and all of the people he encountered are all long dead, which is why they disappear one by one at the giant banquet.

- the destined one, looks at the empty cave and promises all his dead friends he will invade the jade emperor's court in their honor.

- the game ends on a complete cliffhanger and no outcome or even real underlying motive is explained or even mentioned.


Now that is stated, here are my issues and confusion. I can see how this is a twisting of the original story and character, but I don't see where the "black myth" comes in. In other modern "retellings" wukong is clearly some blatant atheist, marxist stereotype. I don't think he is like that here. I can see some subversive elements, but it almost feels like the jade emperor in this represents the ccp. It's hard to miss.

there are files in the game for a full fight with the jade emperor but it is incomplete, possibly either cut content or a future dlc. the new game plus system makes direct reference to purification and rebirth, with each turn making your character more-and-more like wukong; getting three "true ending" runs giving you the ability to transform into monkey king form at will on each heavy attack and completely max out your stats in a way you HAVE to get three true ending runs on one file to unlock.

It almost seems like the story does not have a purpose or meaning, just that you gain skills as a player and perfect those skills as you overcome them. Which mirror's wukong's meeting with buddha in the "Journey to the west." When wukong challenges buddha to a fight to the death, the buddha laughs and tells wukong that he planned everything for wukong to one day kill him, every thing wukong ever did was carefully pre-planned, and that wukong was even created specifically for this task. buddha then says that death is a transient thing and that it's just another lesson to be learned, and that wukong is weak because he's so afraid of death that he becomes afraid of life and tries so desperately to control it out of that same fear. As buddha says this he changes from an old man to a baby and then backwards and forwards, as his body is torn apart and healed in gruesome ways to make a point as he doesn't even seem to care about any of it or even change his tone of voice or react. this is what ultimately causes wukong to submit and then give up his quest, because he realizes in searching after only his own ego and comfort he has missed every single other thing about the universe.

So, in other words, I think everyone is wrong about the story because in the end there is no story, because it's all just about the journey of overcoming bosses and honing your skills as a player. The destination isn't given because there is no destination intended for the work, and it would be stupid to even say there could be one for such a ridiculous character as wukong. Wukong is a fool for trying to search for it or grasp a hold of control or make plans or challenge the heavens or even try to fix the earth because he is too scared to just go along for the ride, which IS the ultimate point to "just be" and remove your pride.

Weird.