Pilgrimage

Chengdu, in southwest China, is the capital of Sichuan province and, with around 21 million residents, more than live in all of North Rhine-Westphalia, one of the country’s biggest cities. And yet it feels surprisingly relaxed to visitors, especially compared to Beijing or Shanghai. Part of that comes down to sheer size, the city sprawls across a massive area. In the mountainous regions surrounding it are also the famous panda reserves that Chengdu is known for internationally. But that’s obviously not why we were there.

Chengdu was the fifth stop on our China trip, reached by a roughly two-hour bullet train from Chongqing, and we spent days 9 to 11 here, three days that felt just about right given how many great escape rooms the city has to offer.

We spent our entire arrival day at Witch Travel Agency, tucked away in the basement of a shopping mall that otherwise felt almost abandoned. Which makes it all the more surprising once you step into the agency’s foyer and waiting area. Originally, the entrance itself was part of the experience, disguised as an antique shop, with a secret phrase that would lead you into an immersive waiting area. Between our four games, we just hung out and relaxed there.

Behind all of this sits the concept that ties together all four of Witch Travel Agency’s worlds, “Journey to Another World.” Each of their games is its own interdimensional voyage, a portal into a world with its own logic, atmosphere, and rules. That narrative foundation is what gives their experiences such a distinct, game-like structure, you’re not just solving puzzles, you’re actually travelling between realities.

Pilgrimage is the studio’s second game, released in April 2024, and it’s also the one the creators say they’re proudest of. Once you’ve played it, it’s easy to see why. They point to the worldbuilding concept, the distinctive music, and the strong visual effects, and those are exactly the things that stick with you as a player too. The amount of work that reportedly went into it was enormous, down to individual signs and logos, and the production time reflects that. It’s a fully realized universe you get pulled into, carried by an unusually large cast of actors, more than in any other game on our entire China trip.

The premise is simple and works immediately: you land in a cyberpunk video game world and need to rack up at least 100 points through various quests, essentially levelling up through combat, to get back out. It plays out as a full-blown cyberpunk RPG with a consistently cinematic look, where the actors (who is your friend and who is your enemy?) keep feeding you new tasks throughout. For a good stretch of the game, we were split into teams that worked separately on their own missions, with all the points collected ultimately counting toward the same shared goal.

Visually, the final boss fight stood out in particular, genuinely cinematic in scale, and a series of choices let us actively shape the outcome, steering things toward one of several possible endings.

Overall, Pilgrimage is an outstanding example of immersive storytelling, one where the actors play a crucial role in giving players a direct, interactive experience and pulling them into the story and setting that much faster.

Pilgrimage and Lily were my personal favorites of the four, but honestly, all of the studio’s worlds are so wonderfully creative and so different from one another that you really shouldn’t skip any of them. If you’re making the trip to Chengdu anyway, this is a studio worth experiencing in full.