And after our two-hour hands-on preview with the game at Summer Game Fest, we can see why.

Yes, you rest at bonfire-esque checkpoints to refill your healing flasks, dodge a lot while budgeting stamina, and fight plentiful bosses.

But is that all that defines a Souls-like?

Well, no. Unlike the classic Souls games, Black Myth Wukong also has skill trees, colour-coded gear rarities, one main weapon, and linear level design.

So let's dive a little deeper into what we saw.

The demo began with our Monkey King hero, referred to as the Destined One, clobbering kobold-like canine warriors in a sun-dappled forest on Blackwind Mountain.

Instantly, two of Black Myth Wukong's strengths came into focus: a fantasy setting woefully untapped in games, and Unreal 5 graphical voodoo.

Seriously.

We played this game on what looked like a pretty beefy PC, and it was rendering this setting in painstaking detail without any dodgy framerate drops. The incredibly detailed levels of this game are a bit of a double-edged sword.

It was amazing to look at, but because of how detailed the levels were, it was frequently unclear which areas were actually explorable.

We ran into loads of invisible walls and dead ends.

That being said, exploration was pretty minimal because the demo mostly felt like a boss rush with short sightseeing intermissions.

We were told that the full game is more open, with NPC quests, side paths, and secrets. Inspired by the novel Journey to the West, Black Myth Wukong revels in the refreshing and curious quirks of Chinese mythology, from shapeshifting shenanigans like turning yourself into a peach or your hair turning into a stick of incense.

It's all presented very casually.

Phenomena like this are common in the universe, so no characters raise an eyebrow about you suddenly becoming a peach.

It's the best kind of magic, surreal and varied. In the brief demo we saw, we didn't get the firmest grasp on the story, but what really humble-looking staff with an arsenal of tricks.

Black Myth Wukong's combat took a while to get used to, but it is very satisfying when you get the hang of it.

The dodge feels responsive, but for the perfect evade, it almost seems like you have to dodge when you get hit, rather than right before an attack connects.

It's a bit scary, but when you get it perfectly, it's pretty fun.

There's also no real parry, it's just all dodging all the time.

You can use your staff to deflect some ranged attacks though. Light attacks come out quickly, flow well and sound terrific, but heavy attacks are a bit of a misdirect.

You don't have heavy attacks in the traditional sense.

You have charged attacks and combo breakers, which should only be used in certain ways.

If you tap the heavy attack normally, you get locked into a long animation for a swing that doesn't deal much damage.

We got the sense that you aren't supposed to do this at all.

Instead, you should hold the heavy button for a moment to build up a charge, then use that charged attack as an opener or gap closer.

There's a great tempo to it.

A charged attack was enough to one-shot or heavily stun most basic enemies.

Bosses forced us to play differently, and each boss fight had a distinct rhythm.

Some unleashed long weapon combos that forced us to repeatedly dodge, others were lumbering giants with devastating AoE attacks that demanded careful positioning.

All were superbly animated with clear tells.

We were also relieved to see very few of those absurdly delayed dodge baiting attack animations that have infested many modern action RPGs.

This game nails it in combat. As we mentioned at the start of the video, Black Myth Wukong includes skill trees.

From what we saw, there are three: one for spells, one for generalist benefits, and one for star fighting styles.

We focused on the default fighting style, but there are two others that you can swap to at any time.

You can also reset your skill tree at any time, so you never really regret any of your upgrades.

One upgrade we purchased improved the range of the opening light attack, and another gave us a combo breaker heavy attack that spends an energy point accumulated primarily by dealing damage and perfect dodging attacks.

If you have energy, you can also use it to instantly build up a charged attack, which creates an interesting dynamic for how to spend this resource.

With a few upgrades, we automatically unlocked a second energy slot, and with it a higher tier of charged attack.

Energy attacks heal you a little bit too, which is a nice touch.

We were told you can further modify the staff through equippable items.

Your playstyle gains additional layers through armour pieces with stat bonuses, as well as more interesting set bonuses, all colour coded like most loot games.

We found a circlet that let us chug healing gourds while sprinting, and this came in clutch for several fights.

For us though, the real magic moment was the actual magic system.

There are four spell slots, and we're told multiple spells will eventually compete for each slot.

The first spell we got in the demo was Immobilize.

It freezes enemies, including bosses, for a few seconds.

We can't imagine dropping Immobilize from our slots.

Another spell we got let us assume the form of a fire glaive-wielding wolfman boss called Guangzhi.

It essentially gives you a second health bar, and when you die in his form, you just pop back into your monkey form. Black Myth Wukong is a promising action epic and is currently the most wishlisted game on Steam and one of the most hyped games of the year.

After playing the demo, we'd say the hype is largely deserved.

It's pretty good.

Maybe even great.

The demo of Black Myth Wukong felt more like a modern God of War game rather than Dark Souls.

The game is highly subject to change, but what we experienced felt great to play and looks stupidly good in motion.

And it may be the best action RPG we've experienced since Lies of Pi.

We can't wait to see more when it comes to PS5 and PC on August 20th, with an Xbox Series X and S version coming at a later point.

Thanks for watching!