A Souls-like based on the characters from a historic novel from 16th-century China that has the quality of a AAA title? Try to make me not play this game. Well, you’re too late because I’ve beaten it despite a frustrating final chapter, and I loved it! Most of the time. If you’re a fan of Nioh—and I love me some Nioh 2—then you’ll find a similar style here in a game that isn’t going to drive you to tears with its difficulty.

I think. I’m not sure, to be honest. Based on the novel Journey to the West, Black Myth has artistic license in what would happen if a monkey—named the Destined One in the game—wanted to become the monkey hero of legend. Honestly, though, I lost sight of the main plot pretty early in the first chapter, as the story largely follows the eccentric characters in each encapsulated chapter.

You, the Destined One, will meet all sorts of odd characters who wish to aid you along the way and maybe help themselves in doing so. A reciprocal back-scratching tale of altruism. Within each chapter, those are the overarching plots, but you may meet a variety of other characters with their own challenges and wishes. These NPC-driven narratives won’t blow anyone away, but the novelty of the tales and powerful personalities will surely delight.

This is a Souls-like, meaning it’s an action RPG with challenging bosses, experience gained, stats and skill trees, and shrines littered about to serve as checkpoints should you fall in battle. Now, how Black Myth departs from the formula is that while bosses can be difficult, I beat most of them on my first try. That isn’t to say they were easy—some of them I was down to my last healing item and out of mana—but others I did away with in a surprisingly brisk fashion. Another departure is the regular enemies along the path, which are almost always fodder. Though these fights are trivial, they’re not unwelcome; they keep the route from point A to B active and add to the world in terms of hostility and visuals.

Many Souls-like fans turn their nose up at easy games in the sub-genre, and I find this tiring. We have no need to gatekeep a game because it doesn’t waste our time. Black Myth is easy and fantastic fun. I wasn’t bored to tears because, while easy, I had to work for my wins. Proper dodging, strategy in building my monkey’s skills and equipment, and understanding boss patterns keep the action mentally active and make victories feel earned. The dodging is generous, and while parrying doesn’t exist, a well-timed roll results in a Perfect Dodge, significantly building the focus gauge and potentially other benefits depending on the skill tree.

Wukong uses one weapon, which helps make a reasonably diverse skill tree that’s balanced around gameplay. However, weapon skills, such as changing Wukong’s stance for different combat abilities, are only one tree. Players can enhance the few spells available, transformations, and core combat abilities, such as enhancing varied combos, jump attacks, and light attacks. This sounds like a lot, but most of it isn’t available right at the start. Chapter one serves almost as a tutorial, though a meaty one, and introduces gameplay elements at an excellent pace

Spells include abilities folks familiar with Sun Wukong will recognize, such as summoning clones to ambush an enemy. Each spell’s skill tree has interesting options, while transformations—infrequently earned abilities to turn into meaty foes encountered along the way—exist without a tree. Level-ups occur at a decent clip, so be prepared to make difficult, fun decisions about how you want to build Wukong, because you can’t be the best at everything. Made a mistake or need a different tactic? No worries; players can respec at any shrine for free.