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Chants of Sennaar, a puzzle game where you decipher an alien language (Demo available) (store.steampowered.com)

submitted 1 day ago by fxomt@lemm.ee to c/games@lemmy.world

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I don't know if this is a good community to post to, but it's a cool game and i want to share it somewhere.

I think i heard about this game in a conlang group. I recently played the demo, and it was amazing. The game's idea is pretty novel too. You decipher a logographic language based on context and clues, and you have to manually decipher the words meaning, too; so you could translate it wrong. in the "ME ME TOWER GO PRAISE" box, i'm not sure if the PRAISE hieroglyph is actually correct. I love linguistics, and to see a game made around it is awesome.

A devotee saying "ME ME TOWER GO PRAISE" The guard's have their own language!

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[-] durfenstein@lemmy.world 4 points 16 hours ago

Oh yeqh, loved COT. My only suggested change was that there could've been even more differences betweeen languages. At first i thought the warriors were basing their labguage around their anger. Where the other races all have a "i love", i thought it would be a neat touch if the warriors only had a word for "i hate" and had to negate if they liled something

[-] QubaXR@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago

This was my top 5 of 2023 for sure. Wonderful experience. Certainly my favorite of the "learn a language" type games.

[-] Kaiserschmarrn@feddit.org 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I've played it a few months ago and really enjoyed it! It's a great little puzzle game and was a lot of fun to complete. Albeit I was a little disappointed with the last level but I can somewhat understand that some people might have been tired with the puzzles at this point.

Edit:

greetings_stranger

go_up

[-] fxomt@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

It just scratches my brain to decipher languages, especially since it's a logographic language. Love those.

And: "GREETINGS STRANGER" "GO UP" (I cheated, i used the wiki :( )

[-] Deestan@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

I loved this game. Puzzles that I felt I needed to understand the plot and culture to solve, made the world so much more alive.

[-] fxomt@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

I got into it because i love conlangs, i was not disappointed :D The whole atmosphere and world felt alive and beautiful, too.

[-] Deestan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

mi mlatu cimle

[-] fxomt@lemm.ee 0 points 1 day ago

mi nelci, mi na kakne lo lojbo.

[-] Baggie@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 day ago

Amazing game, recommend it to anyone and everyone. Presentation, puzzles, story are all top notch. Love it.

[-] Kovukono@pawb.social 5 points 1 day ago

It kind of felt like the game was trying to tackle language as a barrier to entry in the same way that Tunic did, but ultimately failed to properly teach. The first language is learnable, but most of the others had extremely frustrating attempts to get the last few words. It fortunately tells you when the word is correct in your pocket dictionary, but if you haven't encountered the item it references yet, you have to assign it what you think it is, rely on it, and figure out what exactly is wrong.

I get that it's a puzzle game, but there's supposed to be a moment of "Oh, that's how it works" euphoria when you finish a puzzle, not a consistent "Seriously? I got it this wrong again?" and an encouragement for random trial and error due to frustration. It's cool that there's different languages, based on different existing language structures, but it felt like the execution of unraveling it fell flat.

[-] Butterpaderp@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

I dunno, I disagree with this. If you encounter an item that hasnt been referenced yet, the game doesnt make you brute force it; it's simply an option. You can figure out most of the words just exploring the world and seeing events happen. The rest are logical deductions.

[-] StringPotatoTheory@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

I need another game like this asap, it was so good.

[-] fxomt@lemm.ee 20 points 1 day ago

You might be interested in Heaven's Vault then :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/774201/Heavens_Vault/

[-] MurrayL@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

If anything I’d say Heaven’s Vault is the better of the two!

Sure, it’s way less polished and can be janky, but the language and the translation mechanics are so much deeper and more well-developed than anything in Chants of Sennaar.

The languages in Chants are tightly defined and very specific to what the game needed, so they’re not really usable outside of that context. But the language in HV is rich and complex, and you can actually learn to write new things in it.

[-] Beryl@jlai.lu 7 points 1 day ago

Heaven's Vault is a great game with a good story, interesting world building and beautiful music, the execution is a bit clunky though. The good news is it seems a new addition to this universe is in development!

[-] fxomt@lemm.ee 11 points 1 day ago

They even made the announcement in their language 😂 and clunky games are always the best games anyway :), kingdom come, fnv, outer worlds, boneworks, and to a certain extent, the HL games.

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

That's awesome! I wonder if I could still translate that?

[-] fxomt@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

Someone actually translated it here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/774201/eventcomments/600765687030406998?snr=1_5_9_#c600765687030426645

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Sure, but I wonder if I could translate it...

Free dlc

[-] dustyData@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

If you are open to try a more adventure oriented spin on this, then try Tunic. Where the main game mechanic is translating the game's manual by learning the language of the world.

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

I would argue that that's the optional game mechanic.

The main game mechanic is that it's a Zelda-like hack and slash (with some more souls-like bosses). The secondary game mechanic is its secret puzzle system and then finally if you get through all that, there's still this language you can decipher to solve the very last puzzle.

[-] StringPotatoTheory@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I didn't try to figure out the language in this game (not smart enough for that), but exploring, finding hidden areas, and secrets was so satisfying I need another game like this too. I love when puzzles are knowledge-gated rather than item- or progress-gated.

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 16 hours ago

If you're looking for that dopamine hit for finding hidden paths/areas, then check out pretty much any From Software game.

[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 day ago

I loved the gameplay and puzzles for the most part (and the adorable main char) but I don’t have enough brain juice to figure out the language D:

[-] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 4 points 1 day ago

I got you, fam. It's not exactly the same - more narrative focused, and slower paced - but it will scratch that same itch.

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

i knew what it was before clicking, and i have to say - as someone who thought that game would be perfect for me i was very disappointed

in the interest of not wanting to influence people's opinions by being the only and negative comment i'll spoiler my criticism, i still encourage folks to try it, and you can always refund it

spoiler

disappointed mostly by how janky it felt and how unintuitive a lot of the UI was. NPCs would speak too fast, give no time to pick the choice you want, in conversation other npcs approach you and start talking, my hand was held constantly, i got so many bugs and just, it felt like a pre-release build of a game i'd love if it was fixed, but no that was it- i don't refund a lot of games but i came in expecting a great experience and the entire time i felt deep frustration

[-] lime@feddit.nu 4 points 1 day ago

huh, that's a shame. didn't match my experience at all. my main gripe was with the traveling, but then i went back in a year later and saw that they added a skip button to it.

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

i'm glad you enjoyed it!

i did finally get my fix of archaeology and linguistics, but separately

Chants of Sennaar & Outer Wilds (best bloody game ever btw, one of those once in a generation marvels that make people beg for amnesia so they can experience it for the first time again. if you want to play it don't look up anything about it you gotta trust me on that. unfortunately, the release was overshadowed by Outer Worlds that released very soon after and had the Obsidian RPG hype behind it 🙃)

[-] lime@feddit.nu 3 points 1 day ago

outer wilds outer wilds outer wilds outer wilds

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

outer wilds outer wilds outer wilds outer wilds!!

[-] lime@feddit.nu 2 points 1 day ago

if you feel like riving vicariously i highly recommend beccabytes' playthrough, she made her own supercut. it's rare to see someone so completely get it and still be very vocal about their thoughts.

also joseph anderson's one of you want to see someone completely bork the entire thing.

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

ooooo, going to put that on as soon as i get home! there's so few playthroughs of Outer Wilds it's crazy

i also will experience hype2.0 when i get that art of outer wilds, making of, and interviews with devs book (and a model ship!!!!! gotta wait 6months for that though, danged preorders) god what i'd give to play that game again for the first time. so few things in this world make me want to scream at the top of my lungs MORE even when i know there's nothing to be added to the story and it's perfect as it is

[-] lime@feddit.nu 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

i ordered that bundle too! too much waiting......

eelis is a youtube channel that makes supercuts of people playing ow, if you feel like binging :)

also, play obra dinn if you haven't. not the name thing but similar "whoa" moments

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

ayyy! guess we both need to be patient then haha

neat! i'm going to be looking up everyone you mentioned haha, i'm starved of Outer Wilds content

it is on my list yes! i will get to it eventually lol, right now i'm catching up on all the classics i've missed over the years

[-] delitomatoes@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

Obra Dinn started this trend, Golden Idol games also have this mechanic

[-] toynbee@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I don't know anything about this game, but I'm tired of that one guy spamming it in the comments of RCE videos. The description makes it sound pretty cool despite that.