Do you remember the trailer for that gorgeous Chinese action game at this year's Summer Game Fest? No, not Blood Message. And not Phantom Blade Zero, which showed up at Sony's State of Play. I'm talking about Swords of Legends, which featured a boss fight against a flying magician whose body happens to be an ornate rug. I've played it, and it's every bit the lavish, Unreal Engine 5 rendition of Chinese mythology and folklore it appears to be. Five years ago this game would've floored me—but here in 2026, it's instead made me a little apprehensive about the influence Black Myth Wukong is likely having on the upcoming wave of big-budget Chinese games.
You wouldn't know it from the name if you don't speak Chinese, but Swords of Legends is the sequel to Gujian 3, a 2018 RPG in a series beloved in China long before Black Myth Wukong made a seismic impact on the country's game industry. The Gujian games started out as turn-based, Final Fantasy-esque RPGs before leaning more heavily into action with each sequel (as Final Fantasy has done, itself). When PC Gamer contributor Kerry Brunskill covered the first Gujian, they did what most of us do when writing about an RPG: focus on the characters and story.
