Soulslike fans love unique challenges. One of the most impressive feats you can achieve in Dark Souls is playing through the entire series without taking a single hit , but that might not even be the hardest challenge out there. Someone once beat Dark Souls 3 using only Morse code. Another completed the original Dark Souls using 20 bananas as a controller. Twitch streamer Luality is famous for playing Dark Souls 3 on a Dance Dance Revolution dance pad. Last week I myself faced one of the greatest Soulslike challenges there is: playing Black Myth: Wukong for the first time in front of its developers. You think a deathless run is hard? Try dying to the first boss seven times while the makers of the game silently judge you.

Black Myth: Wukong launches August 19, and I expect it won’t take long before the hardcore nerds start cooking up some impossible challenges for it. It’s too bad the banana thing has already been done, but I’m sure someone will find a way to make this brutally difficult game somehow even more masochistic. Maybe not as masochistic as letting the developers watch you struggle for two hours straight, but still pretty hard.

What's most interesting about this development is that it appears to be the first Triple-A release, AKA a full-priced game, to simply be a code in a box. For what it's worth, Just Dance 2023 is also a code in the box, though it's fairly niche and not on the level of Black Myth. The practice is often seen on Nintendo Switch releases, where the game is played off the cloud , or where it doesn't fit on a single cart. Otherwise, outside bundled digital copies with a console purchase , or "Game of the Year" editions that often have the DLC as a voucher , this would appear to be a first.

Physical Collectibles: Steelbook case, Wind Chime Necklace, Gold Sun Crow Pin, Thunderstone Ring, Teaching of the Heart Sutra (silk scroll), Warranty Certificate, Stamps and Postcard, Confront Destiny (40cm statue of Sun Wuk

It’s an elaborate ballet of dodges and attacks that makes Black Myth Wukong News|Https://Blackmythwukongfans.Com/ Myth: Wukong so addicting - taking risks to get in damage and then retreating when necessary. Things get more interesting with the introduction of spells and transformations, the latter of which can completely change up gameplay. I only had access to a few spells during the preview, one that allowed Sun Wukong to freeze an enemy in place and get some free damage, and the other that turned him invisible for a sneak attack (or to bypass a group of baddies altogether). Spells cost mana, though, so even though a cooldown relegates them, players won’t be able to use them infinitely. It’s a smart balancing move since the freezing spell (called Immobilize) works on bos

Physical Collectibles: Steelbook case, Wind Chime Necklace, Gold Sun Crow Pin, Thunderstone Ring, Constricting Headband, Chaos at the Pearls Banquet (silk scroll), Warranty Certificate, Stamps and Post

I haven’t played Elden Ring, but I played two hours of Wukong earlier this month, and these long combos look very familiar. I took on four bosses during the preview and every one of them came at me with the same long strings of attacks that were difficult to read and almost impossible to dodge. Dodging early or late was almost certain death as the attacks just kept coming, and even when I managed to avoid the entire barrage, the opening to retaliate was much smaller than I would have liked. For most fights the cadence was: Boss lunges across the arena and makes five sweeping attacks at me, and if I perfectly avoid all of them, I’m allowed to respond with two light attacks, three at the m

I’m not trying to talk anyone out of playing Wukong (though I do recommend you at least inform yourself about the allegations of discrimination and harassment at Game Science ). It’s a Soulslike through and through and I expect it will be popular with fans of the genre. But if Erdtree is too hard for you because the bosses are relentless, I’m sorry to say it, but Wukong isn’t going to treat you any ni

Of course, dodging doesn’t stagger or interrupt an enemy's attacks the way a parry would, and one of the most difficult things about Wukong’s boss fights is how often you’re required to dodge multiple attacks in a row. Every time I nailed a perfect dodge my instinct was to immediately retaliate with a barrage of attacks, but more often than not, you need to string three or more perfect dodges together before the enemy gives you an opening. Most of my deaths came because I dodged too early, or failed to dodge a bunch of times in a row.

From talking to other FromSoft experts, I’ve gathered that Erdtree’s fights aren’t as easy to brute force as other fights. In our discussion video last week, reviewer James Troughton explained that their plan to stagger enemies with blunt weapons wasn’t as effective as they’d hoped, but when they switched to a more hybrid build with magic options, they had a lot more success. They also used the Mimic Tear Spirit Summon to distract bosses, and when they weren’t strong enough to beat a boss, they farmed Scadutree Fragments until they w