Written by Rastafoo69, edited by Otaku Apologist
Journey to the West: Wukong’s Lewd Prelude, an adult action RPG developed by Dystopia Story. Released December 26, 2019. Download on DLSite for $16.00. For PC Windows. No voice acting. Censored genitals.
Son Wukong is a busty monkey-girl babe searching the world for the cure to human mortality. On her quest to live forever, she meets all sorts of men and monsters who all want a shot at her sweet hero pussy!
New to Japanese eroge? Read our guide How to download DLSite games.
STORY
As the title suggests, this game is a hentai parody of the 16th century novel, “Journey to the West” by Wu Cheng’en. That novel has its roots in Chinese folklore and buddhist philosophy dating all the way back to the 7th century AD. So, don’t expect its pacing to match modern television programming.
The game follows the story of Son Wukong down to the very letter. Born of a magic stone atop Mount Muaguo, Wukong befriends her fellow monkeys under the watchful eye of the Jade Emperor. After the death of a close friend, Wukong begins a lifelong search for immortality.
The story of Wukong ends after she finds all seven immortalities described in the novel. First she becomes a disciple of Subhuti. Then she removes her name from the Book of Mortals. Then she consumes the peach of immortality in heaven. The list goes on. Every event in the book has a corresponding level to explore.
Certain events like battling the King of Confusion or destroying the bandit hideout are unique to this game and do not originate from the novel. These allow you to level up and practice skills before the story loops back into the narrative of Son Wukong.
Since the story of Son Wukong originates from many tales passed down through the ages, they lack a cohesive narrative. One day you’re fighting your way through hell, the next you’re guarding horses for a royal in heaven! Naturally, Son Wukong is the only recurring character, with side characters getting little or no screentime at all.
Subtle changes are made to the story of Son Wukong, perhaps for the sake of parody. For example, in the game Wukong trains for 7 years straight. In the book however, it’s explained as seven years for Wukong, but much less for the people outside the training grounds. And in the game Wukong is exiled from Subhuti’s temple for fucking some priestesses, while in the book Son Wukong simply awoke in the forest one day. These changes are pretty innocuous, but they’re noticeable oddities to players who have read the books.
GAMEPLAY
Journey to the West was created in the Unity game engine. As a side-scroller, the game runs smoothly and bug-free all throughout. Use the arrow keys to move. Press spacebar to jump. Press Z to attack. Press X to use magic. Press C for the pause menu. Press left-shift to guard. Double tap down to crawl. Hold the down arrow to spread your legs and tempt enemies.
The enter key is used both to pause and skip cutscenes. There is no confirmation you want to skip, it happens immediately if you accidentally tap the enter key. Save your game often, I’ve lost track of how many times my finger slipped and I missed a half-hour of lore and explanations. This is made worse by the lack of a text backlog . You also cannot hide text boxes.
Although the game is a side-scroller, it has more in common with the RPG genre. Kill enemies to level up and learn combo extenders. Equip items to strengthen your attack and defense. Use restorative items for your health points and mana points. Will you level-grind to beat the boss? Or use clever tactics and approach it as a skill-based challenge?
The biggest problem with this game is the lack of a help-menu or manual. Everything is told via dialogue, so there’s no narrator to explain things. You start the game without magic, clothing, or the seduction skill. And once you get them, their mechanics are never properly explained. I ran around naked for 20 minutes before realizing I had to use a needle and thread to repair clothing damage. A manual in the pause-menu would have saved from so much trouble!
Completing the game unlocks the CG room, pixel animation room, and cutscene room. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys tracking your progress as you play, you can’t. Similarly, you cannot double jump until you’re over halfway through the game. A platformer where they restrict double jumps! What the hell, man!
The game is six hours total but gets boring after two. There aren’t any exciting items to find, progress is super linear, and the gameplay is actually pretty easy. I never died even once, and I suck at side-scrollers!
After training with Subhuti, Wukong is able to seduce her enemies and collect their semen. This allows you to power up your equipment. The system is poorly explained and I beat the game without ever using it. Playing around with it after the fact just seems pointless. All that time you spend fucking enemies, then running back to your base afterwards, could have been spent on grinding. There really is no point to semen collecting.
GRAPHICS
The game is fully animated. The pixel art is beautiful and varied, but I wish we could zoom in on Wukong while playing. Those thicc thighs deserve admiration. I hate that the pixel-art viewer is only open after beating the game.
These screencaps do not do justice to the experience. The sex is animated, the fighting is animated, even the fucking water is fully animated! Best of all, the game is stable enough that you can minimize it and return later without any bugs or slowdown! Most unity games react badly to other applications, but this one is smooth as silk!
There are over 150 pixel animations in total. The 11 main waifus can breed with seven types of monsters. The rest of the animations are different positions or female monsters outside the main cast having sex. Story events with sex also make up a bulk of the content, like when Wukong fucks a younger monkey-guy early on. Altogether, the bulk of the content is simply astounding.
Although the DLSite page mentions 5 CGs, there are actually 13 in total in version 1.12. These artworks try to mimic the pixel art style with bold lines and rigid anatomy. Honestly, the arms and legs look like tree trunks. And the censorship is simply absurd! You can’t even tell what you’re looking at! Most games we review have some pixelated censorship, but in this case, there’s too much of it.
VOICE ACTING AND SOUND EFFECTS (SFX)
Journey to the West has no voice acting.
As a side-scroller game, the sound effects mimic an arcade game. The punches are “thumps”, the magic is a “whoosh” and the double jump has a “windy” kind of sound to it. While they match the pixel art style well, they’re far from being realistic. Appreciation for the sound design comes with the recognition of its limitations. As in, sex doesn’t sound sexy.
MUSIC
The music in this game is varied and completely unique. With at least 15 tracks total, I genuinely wish there was a music room to replay and appreciate them all. Especially because the game is so linear, you’ll often leave an area and never hear that song again. To match the Chinese folktale vibe, woodwind and simple string instruments are used instead of modern inventions like the electric guitar. Simply roaming the game world listening to these tracks made me feel like I was seeing a piece of rural china in the art here.
HENTAI
Although the game has over 150 pixel animations, the unique scene count is under 60. This is because many of these animations use the same sex positions and movements, just with recolored sprites. I don’t much see the appeal in watching the bandits fuck a blonde, then a brunette, then a silver-haired girl.
The sex in this game is completely disconnected from the main plot and often incomprehensible. Like, the king of confusion fucks a monkey girl. The bandit leader fucks a merchant girl. Subhuti fucks Wukong. These things happened, yes, but I don’t really understand why. None of these events were necessary to the plot, nor are they mentioned afterwards.
While the game uses buzz words like “seedbed”, nobody actually gets pregnant. While some accuse the game of having taboo content, these petite women are actually barely present in the game. While some seek to slap the label of “corruption” on it, Wukong was a whore from the start and doesn’t really change. Altogether, I don’t really see what this game has to offer outside of being a quirky parody of a well-known book from China.
CONCLUDING WORDS
Journey to the West is a fully animated side-scroller combat game filled with crazy dungeons and tons of fantastic music. However, it’s very focused on delivery a parody. The writing suffers from bad pacing and many scenes are not very memorable. The game is super quirky, but in the end always restricts itself to following the tale of Son Wukong.
Download Journey to the West. If you enjoy side-scrollers, then also check out our review for My Expedition.
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