Chants of Sennaar is a linguistic puzzle game with an evolving story about breaking down the language barriers between The Ziggurat’s five groups of inhabitants living on the different levels, named Devotes, Warriors, Bards, Alchemists and Anchorites all the while you just want to make it to the top. The more you understand, the more the world opens up, cultures mingle, places and people experience changes and get impacted by your actions. Best of all, you can back track and see the unintended consequences of your actions.
The languages are all represented by glyphs and based on iconography, so every glyph represents one word, unlike most of the western world’s language where words are written based on pronunciation. On the ziggurat there are five different levels you have to ascend to reach the top. Each level has its own people and its own unique language. Where most of them are built with the word order of subject-verb-object (SVO), the Bard language follows the object-subject-verb (OSV) structure.
The way the Glyphs are written in the different languages also represents the culture of the people. Where the Devotees can feel inclusive and a bit “simpler” than the others, The Warriors give a more hierarchical structure and harsher feel. The Bards are more artistic and flowy. The Alchemist and Anchorites are the more sciencey, The Alchemist give the feel of alchemical symbols from old Greek while Anchorites follow a more rigid structure inside a square and use straight lines.
Now there are a few things that I felt could have been done differently, or you might dislike that it doesn’t have. For one, the game doesn’t have any hint system; for me, that added to the challenge. I know when the button for a hint is there I have a tendency to use it the moment I feel stuck instead of spending a little bit more time finding the answer. And on feeling stuck, the map and navigation sometimes leaves a bit to be desired. Mainly, there is no map, and sometimes it can be difficult to know where to go to find the next clue to solve the language you are currently working on. This is done on purpose by the developers to encourage natural exploration. Not huge issues, but stuff that can turn someone away from this game.
But now over to the good. The core of the game revolves around you, the player, deciphering the written and spoken language of the ziggurat’s inhabitants. You wake up at the bottom knowing nothing. Luckily you have your trusty book and a willing friend to show you the first steps. From there you slowly uncover more of the language based on conversations between the inhabitants and written language throughout the world. You can even use your knowledge of the other languages in the game to figure out other languages. By the time you have reached the top of the ziggurat, five unique languages have been decoded and maybe some language barriers have been broken down thanks to your efforts! The journey is filled with lively characters, interesting puzzles and tough but fair challenges for you to work your way through. I am happy I finished this game and sometimes wish I could forget it just so I could experience it for the first time again.
And to add at the end, the community for this game is full of linguistic nerds, some of whom have made attempts to expand the languages, writing full reports and analyses on the structure of the different languages. So if this appeals to you I highly recommend giving the game a try!
Relevant Info
Publisher – Focus Entertainment
Developer – Rundisc
Platforms – PC, Playstation 4 and 5 with backwards compatibility, Switch, Xbox series X|S and One, Android and iOS
Release Date – 5 September 2023
Genres – Puzzle, Indie, Adventure, Single Player
PEGI – E10+
Pictures
Pictures taken from the Steam home page – https://store.steampowered.com/app/1931770/Chants_of_Sennaar/
