| Publisher | yanSquareHeaven |
| Platforms | Android, iOS |
| Genres | Adventure, Casual, Collection |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Language | English Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese Korean Japanese and more |
In late 2021, when my Chinese level was roughly equivalent to HSK5, I began looking for a simple game I could play in Chinese. I stumbled across Heaven Travel on the Google Store and found this game to be the perfect beginner-friendly game to play in Chinese. I re-downloaded the game recently to see what’s changed and to re-assess the game from a much higher Chinese comprehension level.
About the Game
Lofn, a little girl who wakes up on an ethereal grassland, sets out on an adventure to save the Memory Tree. While she collects different memory pieces, she also discovers the surprising truth of her life. Other than unexpected plot twists, the story is presented uniquely, which we hope will stimulate the reader to look at life from a different perspective.
From Google Store
Trailer
How is Heaven Travel a good choice for learning Chinese?
Heaven Travel may not appear to be a game created by a Chinese company; however, it is in fact created by a Chinese artist in Hong Kong. You can check out the artist’s Facebook page, where she shares news on Heaven Travel and regularly showcases her other creations.
Heaven Travel has you send the little girl, Lofn (小风), to various places and planets to collect memory fragments and save the Memory Tree. Each memory is accompanied by a set of dialogues, usually a short conversation between Lofn (小风) and the memory tree. As you collect more and more fragments, you’ll soon discover the truth behind the mysterious ethereal grassland and unveil the surprising truth of Lofn’s (小风) life.
You can replay the dialogue for each fragment as many times as you desire, which is exactly what you need when learning. This allows you to go through the dialogues, select specific phrases and words for learning, and return later to review the context of the learned words and phrases. At the same time, you’ll unravel an extremely touching story in a very unique way. What’s more, it’s completely free and ad-free!
The memory fragments are split into three sections: memories of her travels around the grasslands, dark memories and memories of her past. The memories of the grassland and the dark memories do have a whimsical feel to them and contain more fantasy terms. The memories of her past are much more every day, and it’s perfect for learning relevant terms used in everyday modern life.
Is spending money required?
The game has an energy/token type system called dandelion (蒲公英), which slowly accumulates over time. These tokens are required to send Lofn (小风) on her journey, unlock permanent buffs and purchase one-time use buffs.
I didn’t feel that spending money on additional tokens was necessary. New fragments aren’t as frequent after a while, and spending extra tokens on buffs is pretty much a must; I just waited a bit longer for the tokens to accumulate.
There are two additional mini-games, one of them being a rhythm game. Some songs are locked behind a paywall, but it’s not part of the main game and doesn’t prevent me from collecting all the memory fragments; I don’t feel that it’s bothersome. I would still consider the main game as free and ad-free.
A few drawbacks
Heaven Travel isn’t all that perfect as a game for learning Chinese, and it has a few downfalls.
The initial start is a little long and will take a while to get started, which might pose difficulties for beginners as there’s quite a bit of reading. Unfortunately, there’s no option to revisit and redo the tutorial without uninstalling the game and starting anew.
The original text appears to be written in traditional Chinese and later converted to simplified Chinese as there are a few convertation errors where the traditional character is shown instead of its simplified counterpart. It’s not an issue when playing in traditional Chinese, but if you are playing in simplified, be aware that a few characters haven’t been converted properly.
Lastly, the creator added a Japanese voiceover for the little girl in August 2023; while not necessarily a drawback, it is unfortunate that there’s no Chinese voiceover.
Final Thoughts
As I mentioned earlier, I re-downloaded the game to re-assess it from a higher Chinese comprehension level. The first time, when my level was much lower, I had to check a few words in the dictionary and struggled a little with the tutorial at the beginning. I had no problems this time and didn’t look up any words.
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel that the rates of memory fragments have increased, as it didn’t take me long to rack up a large collection of fragments.
My views of this game haven’t changed, and I still believe that this is an excellent game for Chinese learners.
Although I can’t verify the translation quality of the other languages, perhaps it’s also great for other languages too. If you’ve played this in another language, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
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