Gamescom Opening Night Live closed the show with a follow-up to Black Myth: Wukong, based around a new character from Chinese mythology.
The success of Black Myth: Wukong made a follow-up inevitable, but developer Game Science has announced the next game in the series sooner than you’d expect.
Almost exactly a year after Black Myth: Wukong was released, the studio has revealed its successor titled Black Myth: Zhong Kui. It’s described as a new entry in the Black Myth series and not a direct sequel to Wukong, although it will still be rooted in Chinese mythology.
A brief teaser trailer was shown at Gamescom Opening Night Live, where we see Zhong Kui riding a giant tiger. Zhong Kui is described as a ghost-catching God who wanders between hell and earth.
There is no release date or even a window, but Game Science has explained in a Q&A on its website that the game is ‘little more than an empty folder at this stage’. In other words, don’t expect it to come out for a few years yet.
‘With the project being little more than an empty folder at this stage, there’s hardly any game footage we could share,’ the studio wrote. ‘To keep all hands focused on development, we decided to deliver a CG short to let everyone know that a new project has kicked off.’
Black Myth: Zhong Kui will be a single-player action role playing game like its predecessor, but the studio wants to make ‘refreshing changes’ to the formula.
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When writing about its reasons for picking this project over a direct sequel to Wukong, the studio wrote: ‘Upon completing the journey with the Destined One, we now aspire to take a tentative first step – to build more distinct gaming experiences, to challenge ourselves with bolder features, and to bring fresh ideas to our world and narrative design.
‘Zhong Kui came as a natural choice born of that aspiration and other contributing factors. We are confident that, in this new project, we can make refreshing changes, create new things, while taking a hard look at our past flaws and regrets.’
The studio also reaffirmed DLC for Black Myth: Wukong is on the way, and possibly alluded to a sequel, adding: ‘And to all the friends who love Black Myth: Wukong: the westward journey won’t end here.’
Black Myth: Zhong Kui is planned for PC and ‘all mainstream console platforms’, although it’s unclear if that will include the Switch 2.
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