Devine Blessing
As the first game of Witch Travel Agency, Divine Blessing opened along with the waiting hall which actually acts as a extension of the whole immersive experience. Although the experience in the waiting hall is no longer available due to many reasons (mainly the high costs), they originally made the waiting hall into a bazaar of mutiple universes where you can interact with the NPCs in the scene. At that time, even the way you enter the waiting hall is immersive. The Travel Agency is disguised as a antique shop, but if you tell the shop keeper that you are seeking “Mingshan Snow”, the keeper will guide you into the waiting hall mentioned above.
From these designs, we can know that Witch Travel Agency intends to create a experience that’s truely immersive and unreal. This main goal went on from Divine Blessing to Pilgrimage, then to Cosy Nest and Lily. However, Divine Blessing still remains to be the most unique one and, my personal favourite.
If you ask me why, I think it’s probably because this game is the most legit game under the “Travel Agency” settings. When you enter this game, you board on a elevator that travels through time and space. What’s more interesting and unique, this elevator doesn’t just take you to the destination, it malfunctions. Yes, the creators did a whole set of malfunctioning travel just to tell you “That’s real travelling, that happens”.
Some might ask, what exactly is the whole idea and concept of the game? The answer is: Cyber-Silk-Road-Myth. To be honest, I never expected these titles to line up, but they collaborated well in the story of Divine Blessing. The scale of the whole set is incredible, they even recreated a whole snowy forest in the set.
Different from forest in real life, the forest set in Divine Blessing features more cyber-punk styled elements, including wires hanging from the treetops, busted television screens between the bushes, even neon signs on the cave walls. These sets provided a realistic yet fiction texture, making the experience more immersive. Another interesting fact about this game, the set contains a replicated scene which is enough for a pipeline design, but they still made the game in a traditional walk-through motive, probably because pipeline demands more actors, which is significantly more costly. The impressive set design was also recognized in 2023, when the game won an award for Best Sets of Southwest China.
The story telling of this game is another one of the highlights. This game adapted a traditional theatric structure with a relatively slow pace, but with the amazing set designs, the whole experience remained fufilling. By the end of the whole story, a delicate callback is set where players actually get a witness of your own decision, it really felt as though you have made a significant change in the timeline.
Divine Blessing despite being the earliest game of Witch Travel Agency, it’s definitely still worth experiencing. In no later than a year from now, they will close this game down, and potentially produce a sequal of the game.
