I want to go on record and say once and for all that Black Myth: Wukong is not a Soulslike. However, it is a great character action game that draws inspiration from Dark Souls, alongside many other great action games including God of War and Bayonetta.
It is a well-known trope that whenever a new action game is revealed that gets people excited, there is a tendency to also assume it’s a Soulslike game. It happened with both Stellar Blade and even Armored Core 6 earlier this year. The latest victim is Black Myth: Wukong. Search for the game online and you’ll find dozens of articles, Reddit threads, and game forum topics asking whether or not Black Myth: Wukong is a Soulslike, as well as follow-ups clarifying that, actually, no, Black Myth: Wukong isn’t a Soulslike game after all.
And that is the case for many games. The Souls series has been so hugely influential over the last decade or so that ‘Soulslike’ is a moniker that’s been attached to so many action adventures when the reality is it’s merely just a subgenre of action-adventure.
Personally, I think the hallmarks of a true Soulslike games are defined by difficult boss fights, a leveling system dependent on defeating enemies — hence their need to respawn after each checkpoint — as well as an element of exploration. FromSoftware games all have complex map layouts, with shortcuts and routes that can double-back and connect with each other, like one big maze.
Much of what FromSoftware has done in its current era has made its way into other games, of course, but that doesn’t automatically make them Soulslikes. I’m talking about things like the limited-use health item, stamina bar, and respawn points that resets all enemies. A mixture of any of these elements now appear in numerous non-Soulslike games like Black Myth: Wukong, Stellar Blade, and FromSoftware’s own Sekiro (which isn’t a Soulslike game and I will fight you over this.)
It has become abundantly clear that gameplay mechanics that were once previously the sole domain of Soulslike games are now in games that don’t fit in that subgenre. And we have to accept that we live in a new, post-Souls reality for the action genre where, just because a game features some FromSoftware-style flourishes, doesn’t mean it’s aSoulslike game at all.
