Sport Science has launched a 15-minute gameplay trailer for its Black Fable: Wukong follow-up, Black Fable: Zhong Kui. It offers us a better take a look at the brand new protagonist, fight, and the world, and is filled with spectacular particulars.
The trailer begins with a peaceable seaside setting, foliage shifting to a mild breeze. The brand new protagonist stumbles onto a beachfront. He makes his approach inside a cave earlier than bumping into an outdated man consuming some meat. The pair construct a raft — are they each stranded on this seashore? — and attempt to head out onto the water, however a towering wave seems to tear up their plans.
We then get a take a look at fight. Carrying the outdated man on his again, the protagonist encounters a pack of ghoulish enemies, who he defeats with sword assaults. After scaling down the group, the protagonist goes up towards the biggest enemy, side-stepping assaults. This greater foe ignites its sword in hearth, however the protagonist parries and delivers the killing blow. A flashy cinematic finisher ends the battle.
The outdated man seems to be like he’s died, however seems to rework right into a flying assortment of leaves, which the protagonist pursues. He’s attacked by a few rabid canine and an archer enemy — we see him expertly dodge a flying arrow by twisting his physique sideways.
Because the rain kicks in, our hero encounters a pack of monsters, which he dispatches in yet one more take a look at fight. Right here, the protagonist throws what seems to be like a hearth bomb, which ignites the bottom, the enemies, and surrounding bushes in flame. He then seems to soak up the hearth into his sword. It’s a powerful visible impact.
Extra enemies observe, however these are dispatched simpler with the flame sword. The fight on present is fairly fluid, with lifelike swordplay somewhat than over-the-top assaults or motion. Certainly, the parry and dodge animations are very clear, including to the sense of realism in fights. The sword-sheathing animation additionally impresses.
The leaves lead our hero to a lake, which he swims into. There he finds the physique of a girl, however earlier than he can do something extra he’s pushed away by creatures. Swimming to the shore, the protagonist is attacked by a terrifying winged humanoid. This seems to be like a boss battle!
It rips off its wings earlier than section two begins. Ultimately, a thriller ally joins the battle, serving to our hero to defeat the boss. These leaves connect themselves to the boss, lending a hand. At this level, the hero appears to electify his sword with an merchandise he is carrying. It seems to be like fight will contain hearth and electrical energy assaults; I would not be stunned to see different components in there, too. Maybe figuring out which component to make use of and when would be the key to success.
Then, we see the protagonist seem to vanish into shadow and develop into, or assume management of, or be a part of forces with the thriller ally. On this powered-up state, the protagonist nonchalantly parries the enemy’s assaults and delivers a flurry of devastating blows. However this does not final lengthy, and our hero quickly reverts again to his customary humanoid kind.
The parry used towards the boss right here is probably probably the most spectacular a part of the trailer, because it deflects the assaults of the enemy in such a approach as to really feel not solely lifelike, however weighty and distinctive to the angle of assault. I am actually wanting ahead to utilizing the parry on this recreation towards every enemy and boss to see how intensive these animations are, and the way they affect the texture of fights.
Ultimately, the 2 characters defeat the boss, which crawls in direction of the water. We then see the lady from the lake emerge. With a demonic smile, she assaults the boss and drags it underwater.
We then get a montage of cutscenes from different components of the sport, exhibiting off extra fantastical creatures. Certainly one of these reveals the hero taking part in devices with a skeleton band! The video ends with the protagonist driving via the world on the again of an animal that appears a bit like a tiger. Not a single phrase is claimed within the trailer, both in cutscenes or in fight.
The 15-minute gameplay trailer is beneath:
When Black Fable: Zhong Kui was introduced at Opening Evening Stay final 12 months, Sport Science issued an official description of the sport:
“Set towards the backdrop of the basic Chinese language folktale ‘Zhong Kui Banishing Evil,’ Black Fable: Zhong Kui is a single-player motion role-playing recreation rooted in historic Chinese language fantasy. The sport will ship distinctive experiences and gameplay options that push our limits, whereas additionally bringing contemporary concepts and obligatory modifications to deal with previous flaws and regrets.”
We don’t know a lot else, past the gameplay we’ve seen. There’s no launch window, nor are there confirmed platforms but.
Black Fable: Wukong is the record-breaking motion recreation that launched throughout PC and PlayStation in 2024, promoting 10 million copies in simply three days. The Xbox Collection X and S model launched August 20, 2025.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.