Don't forget its tech

However, Feng says fine literature isn't the sole basis for a good video game.

"Although Journey to the West is an excellent ancient Chinese legend, we still need to use the most advanced technologies of the era we live in to make a good game. The software tools, graphics processing technologies and the way the story is told must all suit the times."

During one meeting of the development team, Feng asked them: "We have seen many high-quality movies and played many excellent games, so can we tell this Chinese story with high standards, too, concerning the quality of its technological details, graphics, and everything? Any lack of strict quality control will disrespect this excellent Chinese story."

Feng said this inspired the whole team.

Yang, the 42-year-old player, is one of those impressed by the game's quality. "They have done such good modeling that you can clearly see the detailed hair of Wukong, his enemies and friends, even the non-player characters," said Yang.

Gu, the veteran games producer, said the modeling is perhaps the precisest of all major video games on the market. If all the fighting scenes were joined together they would make a good action movie, he added.

Kang, who enjoys literature as well as playing games, said Black Myth: Wukong is a continuation of the Journey to the West story, meaning the development team wrote a new novel to add to the historical masterpiece. The new story follows the original seamlessly and logically, and the details are so good that "each and every one of them, even the most negligible non-player character has their own story", he said.

That's why Black Myth: Wukong is classified as an AAA game in the country, meaning it required "a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of resources "to become a masterpiece, Gu said.

On social media platforms, Chinese players have widely shared a poem to express their pride about playing the successful homegrown game:

In various games' virtual world

you mounted in Damascus,

blade in hand

took a pirate trip in the Atlantic

won a duel in the Wild West

and acted as an assassin in Egypt.

Now, finally,

you can come back

and be a hero in your own land.

Gao Zunrong contributed to this story.

zhangzhouxiang@chinadaily.com.cn