The game has started, there are absolutely no bugs this time

Chapter 200 Hidden Boss: The Great Sage of White Bones
Nintendo's Ghost Tokyo performed reasonably well in the gameplay demo, but players are generally starting to lose faith in them.

To be honest, the Starry Sky Special Forces prologue performed quite well.

Moreover, their promotion this time was quite honest, and they explained relatively sincerely that there weren't many types of monsters in the game. They also addressed the issue of the realism of later levels potentially collapsing. The later levels were also directly unlocked at this exhibition, making it convenient for players to skip to later levels.

Ghost Tokyo has been fully unlocked, and there are streamers speedrunning it online. Everyone has a general idea of ​​what it's like. It's a bit weaker, but it has the feel of early stealth games with a distinctly Japanese style.

Just then, amidst the waves of exclamations from the audience, Xiao Cai and the others had already turned their attention to You Xuan's booth.

All the PVs have been released. The previous footage was a montage of various previous PVs, but the new footage is a gameplay demo of the game's hidden levels.

Because a player posted this image, the event staff shared that player's perspective on the public chat.

The giant screen was divided into three streams of light: the left half was the operator's first-person perspective, and because it was a special lens, displaying it on a flat surface would actually make people feel dizzy.

The viewpoint unique to "Black Myth: Wukong" is suspended in the middle, with a third-person perspective and a shot from behind, consistent with the game's perspective on PC. Previous PVs and gameplay videos also used this perspective.

And on the right side—

It's a distant, God-like perspective, and it has a cinematic feel. The player's willow stick is temporarily strengthened by the land of White Tiger Ridge, growing longer and shattering the giant door of the ancient tomb to open the hidden level in an instant.

"Holy crap, is this camera angle being automatically switched to show us without anyone controlling it?"

"I arrived early. There was a similar process for dipping beans before, but the camera switched differently depending on the length and size of the shots. It was all done through intelligent machine calculations."

"This is incredibly entertaining. I don't know how exciting the fighting is inside, but watching it is definitely a blast."

"I have a bold idea: if we put this kind of intelligence into players' actual gameplay data, could it edit a movie on its own?"

"Maybe we can only cut the action scenes."

"Not necessarily. I've always felt that Youxuan's AI is capable of generating complete storylines on its own, but its level is probably only at the level of average works on the market. At least it's easy for them to extract and summarize the parts of the actual footage that have entertainment value."

Well, in a sense, Gu Meng's Tongzi is also a super AI.

However, this was just an appetizer.

"Holy shit!" Someone swore, but it revealed the shock everyone felt.

The monkey with a hairy face and a thunder god's mouth in the picture is swinging a willow stick, a temporary magical artifact as thick as a bowl, creating a sky full of afterimages, experiencing the new weapon's special effects in advance.

The key point is that from the movie perspective on the right, it looks completely like real footage with no trace of special effects visible to the naked eye. However, everyone knows that there are no monkeys or extendable sticks like this in reality, and this is the game being controlled by the players.

"The actual gameplay after the game was released was even better than that highly realistic PV."

The player on the left, in first-person view, didn't have a helmet synchronized, which made them look a bit dizzy on the screen. We only showed it briefly before moving on to a dual-view setup.

In the third-person view on the left, players can clearly see the fine hairs on the Monkey King's knuckles trembling with his movements; in the panoramic view on the right, the folds of the ochre-yellow cloak rolled up as the demon monkey leaps and bounds are the texture of top-quality fabric.

The clanging sound of metal colliding made the subwoofer on the booth buzz loudly.

Suddenly, the demon monkey shrank to the size of a bee, slipped through the gap in the axe blade cleaved by the bronze giant statue in the ancient tomb mechanism, and instantly transformed into a three-zhang-tall giant ape, swinging the little monster like a meteor hammer!

The audience erupted in gasps: "This transformation can be used consecutively?!" "Did you see that special effect just now? There were special effects of scriptures in tiny print, so fine! The experts said it was an indication of different levels of magic, but people with lower literacy levels wouldn't understand it." "Which level of the Somersault Cloud spell was unlocked again?"

"The unlocking of supernatural abilities on this testing platform is relatively free, and the protagonist configuration can be freely selected from a pre-arranged range. However, the Somersault Cloud is not yet available here; it should be a later-stage spell."

"I really want a GameX 2nd Generation game console, but I have to wait in line here."

"President Gu is using scarcity marketing again."

"I don't think it's a scarcity marketing tactic. With something this amazing, there's no need to consider normal marketing methods; they're genuinely out of stock."

"Logically speaking, it should be sold at a higher price; the current price doesn't seem like it's profitable."

"What exactly is the cost?"

"Just think about how many cutting-edge technological products are inside this machine, and you'll arrive at an astronomical figure."

"If it weren't for Youxuan Technology cracking down on scalpers, I would have paid ten times the price to buy the Youxuan Second Generation from them first."

The discussions were interrupted by a new boss who had not been shown before.

The screen suddenly went dark, and the six-syllable mantra appeared in the void and then shattered. As the crimson color gradually seeped into the screen, everyone finally saw that the nine-ringed staff was stuck in the ground, and golden light like lava seeped out from the cracks.

The necklace made of white bones and skulls jingled, and the demon wearing a tattered cassock slowly raised its head, two clusters of karmic fire igniting in its empty eye sockets.

Demon King - The Great Sage of White Bones

They've reached the end of the hidden level. The player who unlocked the hidden level is not only a pro player, but also participated in the mid-term closed beta test and has a certain understanding of White Tiger Ridge and its combat mechanics.

The speed of the walkthrough was obviously abnormal. Even Lady White Bone was considered easy for him. Moreover, the Destiny's power configuration for the demo at the booth was not that of a first-time player. His equipment was also stronger, and he already had the equipment from Huang Fengling.

However, once he entered the hidden map, the difficulty increased significantly, and he hadn't memorized any strategies or guides.

As crimson Sanskrit characters spread across the interface, a sickeningly sharp, grinding sound of bones emanated from the surround sound system around the booth. Suddenly, the demon's robe billowed like a blood-red sail, and thousands of bone spikes burst forth from the ground!

"Drink!" The Chosen One's roar overlapped with the players' screams.

'This earliest map that was released for trial play even has new monsters!'

'Isn't the final transformation of the White Bone Demon at the end of the level just the final boss?'

Actually, after encountering the earliest and weakest girl, Lady White Bone, in this map, you can move on to the next map, Black Wind Mountain, the first stage of the main storyline.

"After finding and defeating them all, you'll get the special achievement 'Three Battles with the White Bone Demon,' which unlocks the new supernatural power 'Fiery Eyes,' and makes it easier to remove the weakness of the eye disease. Speedrunners online all get stuck later on." "It's said this game also has a ton of endings, and the final outcome depends on your choices in the earlier parts."

'I don't want to watch the story at all, but the combat is awesome, and there are always new monsters, it's super fun!'

'The enemy team, led by Nintendo, self-destructed; they have over thirty monsters in the entire game.'

'At first there were more than twenty monsters'

Is Ghost Tokyo really that lame?

"That's already quite a lot. Just think how many monsters there are in the normal PC version of the game. On PC, you'd be lucky to create thirty different monsters without reskinning them. Creating monsters in this stealth game is even harder."

'Then why are there so many Yu Xuan? The encyclopedia has already exceeded a thousand entries.'

'They're using newer technology, which offers higher realism, higher cost, and more detail.'

'That should be even less; it's normal that we can't even gather eighty-one monsters.'

'Who knows? Maybe they're monsters themselves, and they used some kind of advanced technology to scan their monster forms.'

'This is too mystical, hahaha'

Because the White Tiger Ridge map was designed to allow players to test the intermediate stealth mode and have more freedom in controlling their bodies, with varying degrees of control, it wasn't made as small as initially planned. It was originally intended to be much smaller than Black Wind Mountain, with a much larger background outside the map and a smaller main storyline area.

The game doesn't have invisible walls, but it will prompt you that the spiritual energy here is scarce and there are no powerful demons ruling the mountain after you leave the area. If you turn on more hints, it will tell you more directly that there is no story here.

Sometimes it's a waste of time for players to wander around freely without any invisible walls. Adding these prompts and guidance helps them. In the story, these "prompts" are also part of destiny. In Gu Meng's setting, many of the player's actions can be guided by "destiny".

The White Tiger Ridge map initially featured a large mountain range, but there weren't many places with spiritual energy. Later, considering the need for more steps for players to train their staff skills, some actions in this game still use the AI ​​assistance of basic stealth. Even with a more agile body, many players wouldn't be able to get the hang of it immediately. Moreover, later battles become very fast, making it difficult to react even with stealth assistance.

So in the end, they crammed in even more content and more instruction.

If you're slow to get the hang of it, you can fight more monsters and level up. If you're quick to get the hang of it, just find the White Bone Demon and make sure she doesn't have any root energy before you leave.

Finally, experiencing the entire map is a bit long. Although the White Bone Demon has many variations and there are other bosses, it is still a bit monotonous. Therefore, this level also includes a hidden map boss, namely the White Bone Great Sage.

In this version of Black Myth, the quality of monsters is from minor monster bosses to Demon Kings, and then an additional Demon Saint is added. The Demon Saint is comparable to beings like Black Bear Spirit, Yellow Wind Great Sage, and Yellow Eyebrows, who can normally fight Sun Wukong. There is one of each in each map, and they are all gatekeeper bosses. Demon Kings are considered the next level, and bosses are even lower.

Black Wind Mountain has only the Black Bear Spirit as a Demon Saint, Jin Chi as a Demon King, and Guangzhi Guangmou as a leader, with lesser monsters below them. White Tiger Ridge has no Demon Saints, the White Bone Lady as a Demon King, the White Bone Little Demons as lesser monsters, and some original, slightly stronger monsters, such as the White Bone General, as leaders.

In the setting, the original monster in the hidden level is a resurrected remnant of the remains of a dead demon saint. It is exceptionally powerful, even stronger than the White Bone Lady. It is a guaranteed death if you fight it in the first playthrough tutorial, somewhat like Genichiro. It is not impossible to fight, but there is not much benefit to fighting it. It is a surprise in the second playthrough, and it was discovered here.

Gu Meng couldn't help but admire the players' unexpected ability to find monsters.

In the later stages of the game, a lot of prayers were made, and because there were so many, there were still some left over after using them all. Gu Meng didn't fully understand many of the mechanics, but because he had a lot of experience training the leader, he was able to maintain freedom while imposing many rules, so there weren't any major problems.

There were no bugs during the several internal tests during development.

……

Suddenly, the booth's surround sound system blared with the piercing whistle of bone flutes, causing the audience to freeze in their tracks.

As soon as the demon monkey stepped into the hidden hall on the screen, there were hundreds or thousands of bronze coffins on the left and on the right, in the automatically zoomed-out camera, hundreds or thousands of suspended bronze coffins trembled at the same time. Black mist wrapped with phosphorescent fire spewed out from the coffin seams and actually condensed into a white bone lotus platform in mid-air!
"Hehe. Hehehe." The androgynous laughter was so loud it hurt the eardrums. An eight-armed skeletal figure slowly rose from the center of the lotus platform.

A pale body with golden bells strung on every rib, draped in a patchwork kasaya embroidered with human faces, and a faceless figure beneath a twelve-tassel crown!

"Look at the weapon in its hand!"

The audience in the front row suddenly gasped. What was held in that skeletal hand was not a staff, but seven still-rotating skulls! The handles were made of jingling bronze spines, and a chilling crescent blade emerged from the top of the skull!

The eight arms contain different ritual implements, which are hard to describe in detail, but they feel somewhat like Tantric ritual implements.

In the previous cutscene mural, the White Bone Great Sage was a virtuous person who had been reincarnated nine times, and in his last life he was a Buddhist saint. Although he was born into the demon race, he was wholeheartedly devoted to good. How did he end up like this after death?

'What a dark and gloomy vibe.'

'It's called Black Myth now, what do you think?'

'To be honest, it's quite normal for a few evil gods and strange things to appear later on, especially since this side was clearly full of monsters from the beginning, so it will only get worse.'

'In the true prologue before the White Tiger Ridge teaching level, that Erlang Shen doesn't look like a good person; his clothes even have skulls on them.'

"Some big shots say he's an imposter, or there's a hidden storyline. Seeing Uncle Jiao's face, I feel like he's an undercover agent."

'You've spoiled the plot again, haven't you?'

I wonder what the art style will be like for the Lion Camel Ridge and the subsequent DLCs, such as the Hall of Hell and the Eighteen Levels of Hell.

"It looks so terrifying, but if we actually played it, some of the maps would be like the eighteen levels of hell. The game's realism is said to be 98-99%, much more detailed than a dream, almost like reality. I'm afraid there are some levels I really won't dare to play."

"There's a psychological protection mechanism in stealth mode, right? Even if it's disgusting inside, you won't have any psychological trauma afterward. And playing the game a lot really does give you a heroic spirit within the game. This game has a special note: while playing as the chosen one learning from Sun Wukong, players can adjust switches to make themselves more like Sun Wukong in various details. Of course, these effects are limited to the game itself."

'You can find anything in your dreams, right?'

'correct answer'

'The prologue at the beginning lets you go straight up and fight Erlang Shen; that set of practiced moves is based on the same principle, right?'

Momoka chimed in from the crowd: "That uses the same performance mode as the first generation of Yu Xuan, which lets you automatically master skills. However, it's been completely optimized, so you probably didn't notice the similarity. Once you reach a certain level, it just takes over and unleashes a powerful attack, it's no different from watching a stealth movie."

"We'll also be making interactive movie-style games that integrate into the story later. These are simpler to make, and the experience is different from gradually learning skills and techniques later on. The latter is more realistic. Players who have completed the prologue, including Erlang Shen and White Tiger Ridge, definitely understand the difference. At first, it's like the Monkey King is possessing you and guiding you through the actions; later, it's about learning."

(End of this chapter)