Chants of Sennaar (2023)

Man I really want to love this game, there's so much that it's doing that I do love, the environmental art, the music, and the main gameplay loop, the way every level of the tower starts with "Ok I just need to find the one thing that's very obviously this character" and then as you start to build the language you can use context clues and then you start to figure out the grammar and the way the words are formed and you recognize the individual pieces of each character and you're like "oh that line in 'temple' means 'container for'" etc.

Scratches an itch similar to Type Help—but with one key difference which is that Type Help has a really interesting story and Chants of Sennaar has an incredibly basic story. Which honestly wouldn't have been enough to knock it down a peg except that the ending falls completely flat, and I am going to have to spoil it here so you have been warned but really the spoiler isn't so much in the details as just in the fact that it's really disappointing. But anyway, the whole dream sequence is cool, I like the way the environments are subtly different, I like that the kid comes back as your dream guide because they literally taught you the word 'free', that's a nice touch, that's all great. But then you've got these "see spot run" phrases to open the doors, as if you're not capable of more complex ideas by this point, and they only use 3 out of the 5 languages. And then you get to the end and it does the thing with the connections rearranging themselves to show how the most important symbols across each language are all related and that's really cool but you know what would've been great is if we'd just used each of those symbols in complex sentences that really showed our mastery of each language, but that's not what so it's just like "oh cool" and now the games over and it just felt so unsatisfying and so close to something actually good.

But anyway the main puzzles of figuring out the languages is really fun, I'd still recommend the game if that part interests you, but maybe get it on sale to mitigate how nothing the ending is.

I really slept on this game. I was definitely aware of it since its release… but I just wasn’t interested. The art style looked amazing, the trailer had such an alluring vibe, but the whole translation gimmick really sounded awful to me.

So fast forward to recently, when I played this small horror puzzle game called Exiled, by one of the devs for My Friendly Neighborhood. It is essentially the same idea - you need to piece together the translation of foreign glyphs using a variety of clues and mechanics. And well… I fell in love with the process.

Chants of Sennaar is that, but on a much grander scale. It has the elements I expected - an incredible art style with interesting cross-hatch 3D shading and bold colors, interesting architecture, and a vaguely biblical world that really sucks you in. But the gameplay itself is just outstanding, which I was not expecting.

You slowly piece together a total of 5 different languages, relying on a huge variety of clues that are just so creatively introduced and presented. But on top of that, you have classic escape room / survival horror type puzzles, stealth sections, and more. The entire package is just so polished, unique, and special.

I can only really equate the experience to something like Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. A unique puzzle-filled world that leaves it up to you to uncover its secrets. But there is definitely an invisible hand as well- never is the experience frustrating or annoying. It’s a blast, with constant rewards and a-ha moments. The entire experience is just so carefully crafted and just left me in awe of the developers’ gameplay design mastery.

If you have any passing interest in puzzle games, atmospheric world building games, or just unique games that are in a class of their own - this is in a very elite league. Don’t be put off by the whole “translation” mechanic, because it really is done in a way that feels fun in a classic puzzle game way. I have no personal interest in language learning, history, geography… yet the game absolutely connected with me. If you are someone the liked the in-game manual of Tunic, this game was made for you.

Great one to end the year with!

I recently finished playing through Chants of Sennaar and I loved it. It's an incredible puzzle game about learning multiple languages, and while this idea is executed perfectly, the game as a whole is plagued with many problems when it comes to every other aspect of it.

The game has a simple premise: You're a guy trying to get to the top of a Babel-like tower, and you have to employ the help of the people living inside to help you reach your goal. The problem? Every tribe speaks a different language, and you have to learn all of them.

This setting fits the idea perfectly, and the game executes the translation aspect of it flawlessly too. It doesn't tell you anything about the langauges, yet still manages to give you enough indirect information and context clues for you to figure out not only what each word means, but also how sentences are structured in each language and how they all differ from each other. The puzzle design in this game is simply genius

Every language is extremely detailed and nuanced too, to the point where you can get an idea of what every sentence means even if you haven't learned what meaning these words have yet. Just by the structure of each ideogram you can tell if it's a verb, if it's an adjective, or a noun, or a location, or a nationality; it's all so detailed!

And when you finally learn the entire language and go back to see what every character was actually saying? That's the best feeling in the world

Moving from language to language as you keep scaling the tower and meeting different tribes is amazing too. While they may share some words, every langage has its own little quirks that makes it distinct from one another and keeps the gameplay loop fresh. It makes you wonder how the next language will be different as you keep going up the tower and boy does it not disappoint.

However, translation is not all there is to this game. There's also stealth! And it's terrible! Movement as a whole feels very unintuitive and clunky in this game, like you're never playing with the optimal controller: moving with the mouse has terrible pathfinding, and moving with a stick has terrible accuracy. And then you go and add stealth to it? But don't worry, at least the two Chase sequences the game has are slightly better.

And I think this is my main complaint with the game. The translation aspect of it is flawlessly done, and yet the developers implemented a lot of questionable unnecessary systems to the game that only make the game more tedious and distract you from the actually good part of it.

The game as a whole drops the ball right at the end too. After you've used your intellect to find out how to translate every language in the game, Chants of Sennaar introduces one more language. The most complex and interesting language of them all. Then the game immediately proceeds to just give you the meaning of every word without you having to interact with anything. And once you already know what each word means? It tells you how they're all structured. Almost like the game is saying "You see this whole system of compound words? You don't get to play with it, go do some stealth sections." It's almost insulting. I will say, though, that the final scene is really cringe and I love it so much.

I do think every other aspect of the game is at least above average. The presentation as a whole is great, with the art direction being the clear standout of it all. The history of the game can be confusing at times, but the worldbuilding as a whole is really well done and, just like the language part of the game, has so many little details that make it feel special.

I don't think this game is bad. In my opinion just the translating aspect of it is enough to carry the entire thing and make it worth your while. I'm just saying the quality between different parts of the same game varies wildly to the point where it will get annoying.

In Conclusion: Chants of Sennaar is an incredible game about translating languages, but a poor game when it comes to most other aspects. The execution of every other system in the game really detracts from the experience as a whole and only makes you want to get back to finding out what everyone is saying. Still, it's a good game with a relatively short length (took me 7 hours to 100%) that every puzzle fan should try out if they think it looks interesting. 8/10

I thoroughly enjoyed the translation parts of the game. The glyphs are designed into consistent systems, and getting a big "Rosetta Stone" feels amazing. The game also looks very nice. Last but not least on the positive side is the soundtrack. Really nice music, played by real instruments. Very enjoyable.

Unfortunately, the game is not perfect, and a few sections with just too much backtracking and remembering layouts did lessen the overall experience in my opinion. But that might be me; it is a puzzle game after all.

I recommend it!

This game is really good but I wish it would have baked just slightly, slightly longer, because there are a few things that make me go "hmm"

On the one hand, I appreciate intellectually how learning the last language is extremely, extremely easy, because it reflects the real life situation of, "knowing more than one language makes it easier to learn more" principle. My problem though is the execution on that idea, because it makes it easy in a facile, baby-toy fashion, instead of being easy because you are applying the principles that you learned from the other languages