While it first appeared as though Game Science's Black Myth: Wukong would put players in direct control of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, the action RPG is set some time after the events of the novel. Ultimately, this means that Black Myth: Wukong is separated enough from Journey to the West that it can attempt to establish its own identity as an original story, as opposed to being a direct adaption of the novel. As a result, rather than playing through Black Myth: Wukong as Sun Wukong himself, players experience a reimagining of the world brought to life by Journey to the West through the eyes of a humble monkey simply referred to as the "Destined One" an almost identical physical copy of Sun Wukong.