As a Singaporean Chinese, I grew up on a diet of Western and Japanese video games. English was the language of video gaming. When voice acting in video games became more prevalent, I usually picked English or Japanese for the game audio.
It was not until last year’s Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty that I first played a video game with Mandarin voices. Wo Long was made by a Japanese game studio, but Mandarin felt right since the game was a fantastical take on ancient China’s Three Kingdoms era. Having authentic Chinese voices accompany me during the game was such a refreshing experience.
Which is why I have been following Black Myth: Wukong with much interest. Here was the first AAA video game from a Chinese game developer, adapting a classic Chinese saga Journey to the West, where you play a monkey protagonist that seems like Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, but is not. The graphics looks great, while the gameplay is like an action video game in the vein of God of War — but based on Chinese, …
