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Black Myth: Zhong Kui: 15 minutes of gameplay and parries

Fabian Fabian Lainé
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In brief

Game Science finally unveils real gameplay from Black Myth: Zhong Kui with 15 minutes of combat, exploration, and cutscenes. On the menu: a parry mechanic that replaces Wukong's dodge, varied encounters, and an impressive boss, but still no release date or official translation of the mechanics.

Game Science uploaded 15 minutes of gameplay footage from Black Myth: Zhong Kui to its official channel on August 20, 2026. This is the first look at the new protagonist in combat, a year after the game was announced.

A sword, parries, and a boss fight to close it out

The video moves through exploration, cutscene segments and several skirmishes, before closing on a boss fight. The hero fights with a sword and spends a lot of time parrying and then counterattacking, whereas Black Myth: Wukong was built primarily around dodging.

A word of caution beyond that: Game Science hasn't published any labels, in either French or English, for these mechanics. We see the parry working, but we don't know its name. The boss isn't named, and neither is the region being traversed.

What's changed since February

Zhong Kui had only been shown twice before. On August 19, 2025 at gamescom's Opening Night Live, in the form of a cinematic teaser. Then on February 10, 2026, with a 6-minute sequence captured in the game's engine for Chinese New Year, which the studio itself described as non-canonical. These 15 minutes are the first genuine gameplay demonstration.

No release date

Game Science repeats it in the video's description: development is still at an early stage, everything is captured in-engine on a work-in-progress build running at 21:9, and the final result may differ. The studio is targeting PC and all mainstream consoles, without going into platform-by-platform detail.

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Does the switch to parrying intrigue you, or would you have preferred keeping the dodge as the core mechanic?

Key takeaways

  • Parrying becomes central to the combat system, unlike the dodge that dominated Wukong
  • This is the first real demonstration of the game beyond cinematic teasers
  • Game Science points out that the build shown is early and the final result may differ significantly
  • The names of the boss and the region are not revealed, the studio keeps its secrets

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