Watch the official video first
Watch the official 15-minute gameplay trailer on YouTube → Watch on the official Bilibili account →
The official Black Myth account posted it at 10:00 China Standard Time on August 20, 2026. It runs for 15:53. The description calls this the first look at protagonist combat and selected story sequences, identifies the footage as an in-development 21:9 build, and warns that final content may change.
The 15-minute demo, timestamp by timestamp
The “footage” column only describes what is visible. The final column marks the claims this development build cannot support yet.
| Time | What the footage shows | What remains unconfirmed |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00–02:35 | A white-robed swordsman wakes in a mountain landscape and travels with a long-haired older man. They pass a large porous stone-like object and floating debris, work on a simple raft, face stormy water, and later enter a forest with the swordsman carrying the older man. | None of the people or objects are named. The edit does not prove that every shot belongs to one uninterrupted quest. |
| 02:35–05:00 | The HUD appears. The protagonist uses a sword against groups of humanoid enemies, with chained strikes, evasive movement, knockdowns, incoming hits, and close-range finishing motions. | The demo does not label light attacks, heavy attacks, perfect dodges, parries, or executions. Describing the motion is safer than naming a system. |
| 05:00–07:50 | A large four-legged creature and a black, long-limbed creature attack in the forest. Around 05:45, a wide patch of ground burns and the sword gains a fire effect. | The fire could come from an ability, item, weapon effect, enemy, or the environment. A weapon-enchantment or skill-tree system is not confirmed. |
| 07:50–09:00 | The protagonist enters the water. In a blue-green underwater sequence, he approaches and holds a pale, long-haired person before returning to shore. | This is evidence of movement in water, not a full swimming or underwater-exploration system. The person’s identity and whether the scene is real, remembered, or imagined are unknown. |
| 09:00–11:00 | A large humanoid boss with layered umbrella- or fungus-like structures appears with a dedicated health bar. It swings, charges, grabs, leaps, and creates ground-impact attacks. | The four-character health-bar name is not legible enough in the available public footage to transcribe confidently. The demo also cannot establish final difficulty or dodge timing. |
| 11:00–13:00 | The boss’s surface and color change. A black-armored blade user joins the fight with blue-white energy attacks and appears on screen beside the white-robed protagonist. | This is not evidence of a protagonist transformation. The second fighter could be a companion, summon, story character, or another effect; co-op and permanent-party systems remain unconfirmed. |
| 13:00–13:35 | The edit returns to dark water, where the pale long-haired face appears again. | The footage does not show a clear boss defeat or confirm whether this is exactly the same person seen underwater. |
| 13:35–15:20 | A rapid montage shows a courtyard fight, masked or painted faces, indoor scenes, work on a sword, a boiling pot, music, makeup, a white beast, village creatures, rows of fungus-capped figures, purple restraints, and a cliffside struggle. | These cuts do not confirm crafting, cooking, music, party, or open-world systems. Their edit order is not necessarily the story order. |
| 15:20–15:52 | A rider with a long brown-tailed mount moves through a mountain forest and looks down on a settlement. The video ends on a red Zhong Kui title card. | The mount, rider, and player control are not identified. The ending contains no date, price, preorder, or platform card. |
What the combat footage actually confirms
The video directly shows a third-person camera, a sword as the white-robed protagonist’s main weapon, group encounters, a large boss with its own health bar, a fire effect on the sword, and a second black-armored fighter briefly attacking the same boss. The HUD includes several status bars at lower left and multiple icons plus a circular meter at lower right.
The labels and functions of those icons are not public. Combat appears built around close-range pressure and timing, but the footage alone cannot confirm parries, perfect dodges, summons, or cooperative play. For now, those are visible actions and effects—not named systems.
Three shots that are easy to overread
Is the white-robed man Zhong Kui?
Game Science calls this “protagonist combat,” but does not name the white-robed man. The Zhong Kui title card at the end does not identify every person shown before it.
Does the protagonist transform into the black-armored fighter?
The footage points the other way. Around 11:50, the white-robed protagonist, the boss, and the black-armored fighter share the same frame. “A brief coordinated attack” is supportable. Transformation, dual protagonists, a summon system, and co-op are not.
Does the ending confirm mounts?
It confirms a riding shot, not a player-controlled mount system. The UI is absent, the animal is not named, and the rider is not identified. Calling it Zhong Kui riding a tiger would go beyond the video.
Keep the first two videos separate
August 2025: the CG teaser
Game Science unveiled Black Myth: Zhong Kui with a CG teaser during Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025. The official English description called the project early in development and explicitly said there was no in-game footage at the time.
What it confirms:
- The official English title.
- Zhong Kui as the primary mythological inspiration.
- A new single-player action RPG in the Black Myth series.
What it does not confirm:
- Final combat, exploration, or boss mechanics.
- A release date or final platform list.
- That every image in the CG short appears in the finished game.
February 2026: the six-minute in-engine special
The official Black Myth Bilibili account published a six-minute Chinese New Year short on February 10, 2026. The description calls it a video recorded for the holiday and warns viewers that it is unrelated to the actual game story.
“In-engine” still does not mean an unedited playable mission. The February short showed a production direction but carried an explicit story disclaimer. The August video has a different evidence level because the official account labels it a gameplay demonstration.
Current verdict
The demo finally supplies observable combat and story footage, but it is still an early development build. The white-robed sword user, group fights, large boss, and brief coordinated attack are visible. Character identities, system names, story order, and release plans are not. This page will update when Game Science provides a higher-quality source, names the people and boss, or explains the mechanics; it will not manufacture answers from a blurred health bar or montage edit.