For a short while, the game was kind of hyped back in China, after developer Baiyou showcased what seems to be a Free to Play “Blade & Soul + TERA clone” in the form of Legend of Wukong. Fast forward a few months, the game still has yet to launch in its homeland, but the Taiwan server just went into Closed Beta mode. Is the game really that good, since graphics was one of the things being touted?Unfortunately, Legend of Wukong isn’t anywhere near the standard of those 2, be it in graphics, gameplay or features. Combat is the normal tab-target system, the graphics are only actually nice during certain parts of the game or when deeply zoomed out.
The races are no doubt trying to somehow imitate what Blade & Soul is doing, with the Asura class (below) very similar to the Destroyer class found in the former. Other than Pandas, having a little girl as a race seems to be the norm as well in Asia.
For the 3 main game features, sadly, they are really just generic ones we have seen so far. The 72 transformations feature allow players to turn into mobs or bosses, the Soul system changes players into different “modes” each with a set of 3 different skills, and finally the aerial mounted battle which is still unavailable.
Is there a saving grace? Personally, I think the storyline is great. Legend of Wukong is based on a modernized and alternate version of the classic, Journey to the West novel. The novel is call “悟空传”, also the game’s Chinese name, and it tells of the gods such as Jade Emperor and Goddess of Mercy being the “bad guys”.
The world is colorful, the building structures and landscape is nothing similar to what one expects from a game built on the foundations of Journey to the West. Legend of Wukong definitely looks interesting, but sadly, the gameplay leaves much to be desired.
