Monkey King: Hero is Back (PS4) is an RPG brawler without any real punchline

As someone who grew up reading whatever fantasy stories I could get my hands on, Journey to the West counts among my all-time favourites, alongside Romance of the Three Kingdoms and perhaps The Water Margin too. So, it goes without saying I had high hopes for Monkey King: Hero is Back.

Developed by HEXADRIVE Inc. and published by Oasis Games, the original CG film found unexpected success at the Chinese box office when it was released - surely the apple couldn't fall that far from the tree right?

Or so I thought. 

So what's different from the folk tale?

Hmm...many things, actually. But it would take at least a day to go through everything, so let's just examine the most important bits for now. Most of the background stays intact from the original tale: the birth of Wukong, his search for immortality, his disruption of heaven and subsequent punishment by the Buddha. But here's where it starts to differ.

For a starter, instead of the Five-Finger Mountain, he's imprisoned within a crystal in some random cave. Also, the magical headband that Tripitaka uses to control him in the stories has been replaced by a chain armlet that activates whenever he tries to use his magical abilities, such as his staff. The latter is actually quite a major change since Wukong's wide array of powers was what made him so formidable in the folk tale - now he just feels like a wannabe Sora from Kingdom Hearts, minus the Keyblade. 

There's also no more Tripitaka, traveling to the West to obtain the sacred scriptures, and all that. The Master has been replaced by a young monk-in-training called Liu Er with a baby called An-An in tow. Plus, his whole journey of redemption has been reduced to just "doing good" and "working for the world", according to Guanyin bodhisattva. It was way too simplistic for my liking, and it seemed too convenient an excuse too.

The game does have its moments

Opening up the gameplay can, there are still moments of quirky, comical fun buried inside. The game packs them in spades, and they are probably the best thing in it. From swinging monsters around by their nostrils to jump-kicking an enemy while watching them fumble with a wooden bench you threw earlier, these special combat interactions are often entertaining to watch. It's like watching a Looney Tunes short, if I may.

Still, the formula does get rather repetitive after you've seen and exhausted all the potential animations. While the special combat interactions are funny, the main approach is largely limited to just spamming light attacks and the occasional heavy punch. Other than that, it's the usual menu of observing an enemy's attack patterns and timings, then hitting their weak points when they're vulnerable. 

Speaking of fights, the enemy monsters also resemble the kinds you'd see in children's cartoons - colourful, cheeky and overly dramatic, which is perfectly ok since that's the target audience, after all. The environments are generally very vibrant and bright too, and some of them remind me of other fantasy adventure RPGs like Darksiders 2.

On that note, credit should be given where it is due, and HEXADRIVE has done pretty well when it comes to how everything should look. Their lively, cheeky style ties in well with the intended vibe of the game - after all, you wouldn't want a kids' game to look as dreary as Dark Souls now, would you?

Let's move on to the non-combat related gameplay, which is to be honest, somewhat dull. For the most part, you're just walking around in a daze and wondering where to go. I can understand if a game doesn't exactly hold your hand, but it would be nice to have an objective marker or something of the sort. I had the pleasure of wandering around for about ten minutes like a headless chicken, or monkey in this case before I found the next checkpoint. 

Speaking of movement, HEXADRIVE seems to be paying attention to the wrong stuff in this regard, and this can lead to some very amusing, yet contradictory logic. For example, early in the game you find some scared villagers hiding at the top of a tower to avoid the monsters, and an animation plays as Wukong nimbly scales it, getting up and down in a jiffy.

However, for some reason he later loses the "ability" to even climb a ladder, forcing me to take the long route around to punch monsters. And here I thought this was the guy meant to be "The Great Sage Equal to Heaven". The guy can't even climb up a mere ledge - it's contradictory, time-consuming and doesn't make sense to begin with.

Unfortunately, the character development isn't any better. Apart from the occasional gruff statement or two from Wukong during the cutscenes, most of the game just involves just Liu Er or one of the other NPCs having a monologue. There's quite little in the way of actual character development for the Monkey King himself, not to mention the aforementioned monologue repeats the same thing over and over again, just that it's phrased differently.

Don't snigger; this can really get on your nerves after a while, and I was tempted to just mute the game entirely at one point because Liu Er kept shouting "Monster!" EVERY single time we saw an enemy minion. Thanks, Captain Obvious.

On that note, what's equally annoying is the drop-dead insane number of different collectibles. To put it into perspective, there are Souls in three different colours, Earth Gods, Rare Insects and the entire Smithsonian Museum's worth of materials. Granted, materials like mushrooms and herbs can be used to exchange for health potions and other handy consumables from Madame Hare's apothecary store, but it can get quite messy - give me a regular currency system any day.

To be frank, it felt like the developers couldn't decide on which collectible sounded the best and just tossed everything in hoping it would work. Quantity doesn't always mean quality, people!

Overall, you could say Hero is Back simply doesn't do the legend of the Monkey King justice, in both its gameplay and reimagined plot. The main character is a far cry from the interesting, dynamic Monkey King that the folk tale and the CG movie portray, replaced only by a permanently salty dude who's just woken up from a nap. While they did add in some sugar and spice in the form of quirky combat interactions, that still wasn't enough to cover the shoddy taste of a badly-designed collectibles/currency system and otherwise repetitive gameplay. 

Long story short, it was a mediocre attempt at portraying a well-loved folk character, and while the game does have several interesting bits here and there, having a few rainbow sprinkles doesn't necessarily make a good ice-cream sundae.

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