Epic Black Myth: Wukong Scenes Left On The Cutting Room Floor

Game Science has blown everyone away with "Black Myth: Wukong," the studio's very first AAA title. The game is a sprawling fantasy adventure that shares the same DNA as "Dragon Ball." Both stories were based on the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West," and the developers at Game Science worked hard to bring the book's most epic moments into the game. When you're exploring all six chapters and fighting through the 90+ bosses in "Black Myth: Wukong," it really feels like Game Science succeeded in that mission. However, fans have learned since launch that the developers originally had even grander plans for the game, thanks to an interview between Southcn.com and the game's production team (translation via ExaminationAsleep122 on Reddit).

Game Science had some unbelievably ambitious plans for "Black Myth: Wukong," and many of the studios initial ideas were dropped from the final product. The first draft included 13 planned levels and a whole array of bosses and set pieces that only live in our imaginations now. We're hoping Game Science finds the time to add on to "Black Myth: Wukong" in future DLCs, because some of the deleted sequences discussed by the production team sound like things that players absolutely need to experience firsthand.

Believe it or not, the very first scene of "Black Myth: Wukong" was originally going to be very different. The story was supposed to open with an epic battle between Sun Wukong and 100,000 celestial soldiers. The devs meticulously crafted the hero's various overpowered attacks, but they were worried that letting players effortlessly destroy thousands of enemies would be more tedious than fun. The devs ultimately never got that far, as technical constraints prevented the scene from becoming a reality. Even when the devs were using only 150 enemies to represent the heavenly army, the game struggled to run properly on PC.

Game Science decided to change its plan, but the opening of "Black Myth: Wukong" still includes a standoff between Sun Wukong and heavenly forces. Of course, now the actual battle is a one-on-one fight between Sun Wukong and Erlang Shen, the army's commander. The full celestial army and a number of deities now act as imposing background props, but that prologue scene still makes for a striking introduction to the world and gameplay of "Black Myth: Wukong." It's particularly good at laying out the sheer scale of the story, even if it doesn't exactly do much to help players figure out how to get started with the game proper.

Some of the other early ideas that Game Science had for "Black Myth: Wukong" weren't quite as easy to downsize and fit into the final game. The ability to transform into different animals is a big part of Sun Wukong's story in "Journey to the West," and transformations also feature pretty heavily in the game. Multiple transformations can be used as combat abilities, and the Destined One's various animal shapes also lead to some of the coolest exploration segments in the game. The wildest idea Game Science had for a transformation segment, however, turned out to be too unwieldy of a technical challenge.

Game Science originally conceived of a spider-themed level, in which the Destined One would have to take on an arachnid form and infiltrate a booming colony of eight-legged enemies. The Destined One would have crawled along thin lines of spider silk, moving through hundreds of these creepy crawly creatures. The devs treated the other spiders as particle effects, but quickly found their GPUs and CPUs overwhelmed. On top of that, the spider silk turned out to be rather difficult to see, and the stealth mechanics didn't quite gel with the rest of the game's action-focused gameplay. The scene might have looked beautiful, but the devs were frustrated as both programmers and gamers, so the decision was made to cut it.

At the halfway point of "Black Myth: Wukong," players get a look at one of the most spectacular settings the game has to offer. Chapter 3 finds The Destined One exploring the Pagoda Realm, which contains snowy mountain peaks and a giant, spooky prison. After hours of adventuring, players eventually find themselves squaring off against Kang-Jin Star on the back of a giant turtle that's swimming across the sea.

The turtle scene, sadly, is much cooler in concept than it is in execution. The movement through the water has no effect on the boss fight itself. In fact, it's impossible to tell the turtle is moving at all, outside of cutscenes. It wasn't supposed to be that way, though. Game Science originally planned for "Turtle Island" to be a much bigger experience. Players would have been able to explore multiple levels of the island, including an underwater section. The turtle's movement through Bitter Lake would have resulted in environmental effects that would have required players to pay attention.

Like the other deleted scenes, this particular section was held back by technical issues. The team struggled to get all the environmental effects to work together. There were also numerous problems with positioning the camera as players explored the area. Considering the occasional camera problems that already exist in "Black Myth: Wukong," it's probably for the best that Game Science trimmed this scene down.