It's been many years since I visited Japan for the first time. I'm a little familiar with Japanese from my college classes, but my vocabulary and repertoire of Kanji is very limited. This made getting around Tokyo into a fun experience as I tested what knowledge I did have in order to get around. One day, I stopped for some drinks in Yokohama and pointed to the whiskey on the menu. "Kore wo kudasai," I said (This one please), and the waitress asked me something I didn't understand. I hopelessly tried to search my brain to figure out what she was asking me, but no juice. I apologized, but this very kind and determined waitress wouldn't let it go. "Water, Rock," she told me a few times, until it clicked... Ice!

Chants of Sennaar repeatedly reminded me of that interaction. When I saw the concept for this fascinating indie puzzler, I knew that I just had to play it. I've barely ever seen games that feature language barriers as a gameplay mechanic, but here is one almost entirely dedicated to the idea.

You begin Chants of Sennaar with no knowledge of the language spoken by the mysterious people that inhabit its world, but you quickly pick up on the most basic concepts through context, such as open & closed or me & you. Before you know it, you'll be trying to figure out abstract concepts like god, love, duty and beauty. The game lets you write down your best guess for what a word means and displays it conversations with NPCs, but only confirms the meaning of words in grouped sets displayed by the in-game journal. In that sense, the game reminded me quite a lot of how Return of the Obra Dinn worked, which is not a bad thing at all. Though, as a result, it does share a similar flaw in that you can brute force the system with enough determination.

The game takes place entirely in a tower inspired by the biblical legend of Babel. Much like in that story, Chants of Sennaar features several tribes who find themselves isolated and unable to communicate with each other due to their different languages. Each language that you encounter poses a unique challenge inspired by the quirks of real life languages, whether it be the numerical system of the Alchemists' language or the Object-Subject-Verb sentence structure of the Bards' language. Learning these languages is coupled with a variety of great puzzles that you need to overcome in order to make your way to the top of the tower.

The languages, the puzzles, the world and the presentation of the game all feel exquisite. Most of my time with the game was excellent, though I did have a few sore spots to mention. There are a handful of intrusive stealth sections that, while short, felt like significant hiccups in the otherwise great pacing of the game. The biggest issues arise in the game's latest sections. I did enjoy the puzzles that require you to translate messages between the different tribes to form "connections," but the backtracking did not add much to the experience. I also ended up missing a handful of words in two of the languages, and it was a pain to wander around trying to figure out how to complete them, as there is very little direction given to you.

Despite any complaints I may levy, the truth is Chants of Sennaar quickly rocketed itself to my list of favorite games of the year. The developers at Rundisc have done an incredible job of capturing the feeling of a language barrier, and the story's message of overcoming this barrier to form connections with other people despite our differences is incredibly relatable today. The gameplay concept is very compelling and thoroughly executed, and I had a total blast. This is an easy recommendation for anyone who's into brain-teasing puzzlers.

I was really surprised by this title. It came as a recommendation on the back of comparisons to Tunic, with the selling point being that the system has a lot of translation Quality of Life elements that makes 'learning to read another language' an actual gameplay experience rather than a 4D Note taking mystery kind of one, which was very welcome. It's incredibly easy to sit down and have a good time with this title.

I'm also conflicted by it. Typically, I rate games based on how improvable they are. A functionally perfect, 5 star game is one where I can't personally conceive of a way it really failed or what could be changed about it gameplay wise , and Chants actually lands pretty close to that. I don't know if I could do it better other than by introducing more Quality of Life improvements that I'm only aware of because I played the game all the way through, things like keeping your last translation guess on screen or allowing you to leave more than just one note per symbol, really minor stuff. I don't like docking too much for presentation or story, the same way I can't uplift a game solely on its soundtrack.

But ultimately, I think these softer areas are really holding Chants back. The first area is incredibly well rounded, you're introduced to a second language early while you're working on the first, you get to see the cultures mix, there are some Myst puzzles mixed in, and the **** have what feels like the most realistic and bearably complex culture and characters. It's also the only area of the game besides the very, very end where your impact on the people leads to actual changes in dialogue.

The rest of the game just misses that by a mile. The next three cultures are all increasingly single note and non-reactive to your presence, when you revisit them after performing some late game goals, there's no communication of any form. It starts to feel like you're a ghost in a world of ghosts.

Especially at the halfway point, when it really feels like you have a handle on things and a system in place for absorbing the new languages, you start to see that the game has the most in common with the Fisher Price learning games, where the cultural depth and communication complexity actually on display is the equivalent of what would be presented to a 6 year old born into that world. 'We go up', 'I like books', 'The sky is red' starts to make you feel like you're playing sat cross-legged on a rug, the complexity of cultures and challenges simply does not scale with the time invested and the final, final area is actually made intentionally easy.

The game puts this huge emphasis on locale and wonder, but then asks you to comb back over areas atleast two-three times, so even that 'wandering' movement pace eventually makes you wish you could zip from room to room like Myst.

Chants of Sennaar is in an interesting place where it can't be improved upon without copying it too closely, it will only ever reach its potential with a sequel (spiritual or otherwise) that takes for granted that you played the first game and gets a head start in really challenging the player and, most of all, really trying to make the world feel real instead of just fantastical. It truly is in a weight class of its own, but despite that it's still managing to punch far below.