Chants of Sennaar | Review in 3 Minutes
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- čas přidán 4. 09. 2023
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Jesse Galena reviews Chants of Sennaar, developed by Rundisc.
Chants of Sennaar on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/19...
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![Eminem - Houdini [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/22tVWwmTie8/mqdefault.jpg)
I'll never forget when I played this with my partner and we thought this one person was saying "I hug money" when he was really saying "I love music"
Studying linguistics in university, I always wanted to make a language acquisition game. Glad that someone making first attempts in the genre!
You might also enjoy Heaven's Vault! You play as an archaeologist, exploring ancient ruins and deciphering a hieroglyphic language to understand what happened to that society.
@@VNdoug thank you for the recommendation!
@@Toporshik I absoluty second this opinion, because it isn't just a "translate" mechanic in Heaven's vault. You have to consider the historical context and use of an inscription when translating (like a military slogan on nautical tools, a warning in a industrial area, etc).
I was wondering, how they would use grammar. They do it on a very low level, like I speak, when I stay for a holyday in a foreign country. Want rice no spice and toilet. Coffee no sugar. Where station?
@@limonade2684 In HV, it's pretty unvaried; in Chants, each language can vary the sentence structure and other meta concepts - sometimes wildly.
Should have ended with "give it a Chants"
I smiled at this.
I knew heaven vault couldn’t be the only game to use language decyphering mechanics !
There’s also a game called Sethian, and TUNIC also has elements of this but it’s a minor feature.
I haven’t been playing Chants for very long, but so far it blows Heaven’s Vault out of the water
First Land is also similar, although its mechanic is more like learning to play a new instrument than a new language.
How did you find Heaven's Vault, just out of curiosity. I would have much preferred to enter my own guesses for words like this game, but I feel like HV didn't give anything enough context, but maybe I missed something😅
@@LizTiddington
I agree that the language system looks more involved in the chants of sennar.
i liked Heaven’s Vault purely on a unique vibes basis. It has a unique artstyle, unique worldbuilding, an unusual story rythm, and it was experimenting with this language system.
I would not necessarily recommend it to everyone because it’s understated story and sometimes slow rythm can be a dealbreaker for some, but it made me care about the characters, which is what i expect of a story-driven game, and it gave me what i’m mostly looking for in indie games : an experience i never had before.
@@narcozero8410 yes I loved the vibes and the art too! Even the flying which in most games would have been a fast-travel mechanic was really zen and lovely. I got a very unsatisfying ending though! Kind of my fault, but I assumed the "I need more time to think" option would have given me more time to go back into the world and tie off loose ends... it does not.
This is brilliant as I was watching I was thinking a game would be great like this if you could journal what you think the word mean in game and then you said that exact mechanic is used in game. Super cool!
Hey thank you for a really well-tailored review! We really put some thought into the music system to find the right balance between presence and annoyance. Seems we're in the right ballpark in the end!
Just finished the game after seeing a recommendation on Twitter from Jason Schrier.
Wow! What a game. The atmosphere was phenomenal and the music and sound cues were a huge part of that.
Im still utterly delighted reflecting on the game and I thank you for being a part of it.
@@edlike Nothing could please more than hearing that the game resonates so deeply with you. So much hard work went into polishing every mechanic. Rundisc sure deserves the attention. Many thanks, don't hesitate to write a few words on steam 🙂🙏
Me and my brother Kyle beat the first language of words (I forgot the correct term) but the game is such a great puzzle game and your music is really good. Thank you
I just finished the game and absolutely loved it. Something I need to know, is this game inspired in any way by the comics of François Schuiten? The artstyle of Senaar reminds me a lot of Schuiten's work, plus one of his comics (La Tour / The Tower) centers around a giant tower that's also very inspired by the Tower of Babel and looks a lot like its representation in the game.
@@Snowpanelyes, he is one of the sources for the artstyle of the game, along with Druillet and a few others.
I think my favourite part was the message translation for the different peoples trying to talk to each other. Maybe that's not so surprising since I also help out with fan translation for manga 😅
I’ve played for about an hour so far and I really like it. I feel like getting lost and frustrated is just the price you pay for plying a game this open ended and with really challenging puzzle gameplay.
Also, there’s a demo available on most platforms, and your progress carries over if you buy the whole game.
tried the demo, got me the full game on release date and freakin loved it. What I also loved was an optional quest, where you basicly have to play translator so the different groups can communicate with each other and there you notice also more subtle differences. For example the first group not having plurals and instead repeating the word. So instead of Warriors, they say warrior warrior.
Would love to see this kind of game mechanic used for real language if possible.
and sorry for the small rant, but having seen at least six "video games are not fun anymore" videos this year, I can only say, screw tripple A, games like this are what we need more of. smart and creative, not hyper realsitic and open worldish
I've got to disagree with the comment about the story being thin. While, yes, the base story itself is quite thin, it feels a lot more metaphorical than that. Oh yeah, spoiler warning, I'm spoiling the whole thing here.
Each society has their own representation of a god, whether that be literally God, duty, beauty, transformation, or exile, and they all use these as excuses to separate themselves from one another. It's a beautiful story about how cultures use their alleged differences to separate themselves and refuse to understand eachother (in the game's case, literally, since they speak different languages), yet the thing they all seek is the same thing: connection (since the glyphic representations of the 5 societies' gods are all the same symbol in different rotations).
I think the game tries to tell the player that forming connections, especially with people you don't know and don't fully understand, is the most important thing that we can do. Just because somebody seems different: has a different culture with a different language in a different script with different histories, doesn't mean you can't learn to understand eachother. It just means you need that communication.
This is pushed further when looking at the primary antagonist, Exile itself. Exile is, realistically, the one keeping everyone separated, most literally shown with the final culture, the fairies, by keeping them locked in a virtual reality. The fairies themselves are also the catalyst of communication, since they built the tower. Less obviously:
- The alchemists' desire for transformation, for ascension, stops them from connecting with the lower levels
- The bards' desire for beauty, their obsession with themselves and their egos over the warriors, have made them unbothered to connect
- The warriors' obsession with duty, their cyclic busywork of moving boxes around, has made them antagonistic to the devotees
- The devotees' worshipping of God, their need to ascend, renders them incapable of connecting with anyone along the way.
In the end, in their pursuit of their culture's philosophy, they all reject connection, the very thing their philosophy's glyph represents. Exile is especially clear here: despite being yet another incarnation of connection, it only serves to divide people
This is a bit more speculatory, but I also think Exile (and the tower as a whole) represents the internet and, more specifically, the way its used. It was built to be a hub of connection and communication, but has since been used to either divide people into factions incapable of intercommunicating, or isolating people entirely. It's completely severed the fairies from other cultures and eachother, and in doing so has made the other cultures unable to communicate. The devotees hate the warriors for closing the door, the warriors consider themselves lesser than the bards and dare not enter, the bards are too scared of the monster to meet the alchemist, the alchemists are too scared of the monster to meet the fairies, the cycle repeats.
Thanks for this! Just finished it today and your comment clarified a few ideas I had as well.
What a cool concept for a game! And taking it one step further, like you said, to play around with real world languages would elevate the medium as a whole. Games are great ways to learn, unconventional as they may be.
Shit, I'm an white American who's thought about picking up a Spanish word book several times just because I think learning the language could be a useful tool. Give me an really large game with a lot of basic words like this for Spanish? I bet I'd be learning pretty quickly.
@@gregvs.theworld451I learned quite a bit of English through early Pokemon games.
@@Crootcovitz That's awesome!
As a puzzle games lover and languages enthusiat, I really love this game.
1. The arts and music are top notch
2. The language puzzle is one of the creative way to show how complex the languages are in the simplest way possible
3. You don't need high spec computer to run a beautiful game
First Heaven's Vault, now Chants of Sennaar. Xenoarchaeology and Xenolinguistics never felt so fun.
Thanks for this review! I bought the game a few days ago on your recommendation and it was absolutely beautiful. My wife and I just finished the game and I was in tears at the wonderful message of the game. I really needed that - chicken soup for the soul.
This is a cool idea for a puzzle game! Love the idea of taking language and building a video game around it!
Another great review from the Escapist, im going to buy this for sure! This seems really cool.
If you like this game, I also recommend trying 7 Days to End With You, which has a similar language mechanic.
Does that one have a bunch of stealth crap too
For some reason watching this reminded me of the Star Trek Next Generation episode "Darmok", where Picard is trapped on a planet with an Alien whose language can't be translated, and he spends the episode trying find ways to communicate. Love the episode, so this game brings a lot of feelings of nostalgia along for the ride.
Would love to see some DLC or a sequel for this game that presents some new and unique language styles to interpret.
Loved that episode! One of my favorites. Steam has an early-access game called Noun Town that looks promising. It teaches real languages like Japanese, Spanish, and English (for non-English speakers, of course).
Great review! Hadn't heard of this, but looking forward to trying it out. Seems right up my alley.
what a wonderful concept!
Thank you for these reviews! It introduces me to games I otherwise wouldn't know exist. :)
Kinda like Obra Dinn except just words. Interesting...
It's not just words. Decyphering languages is required and it's the essence of the game, but it's a puzzle/adventure game as well, go there, do that, solve this.
Demo available on steam! Sounds pretty cool. Gonna check it out.
no engaging narrative? did we play the same game?
This game is definitely on my radar. And for those who want to learn real-life languages, Steam has an early-access game called Noun Town that looks promising. It teaches languages like Japanese, Spanish, and English (for non-English speakers, of course).
I bought this game because of this review, and it was fantastic.
Wow that last point was actually really good, i would love to have the same game with actual languages. The game should give option to pick the languages
Closest thing out there is Earthlingo !
Sounds like a unique game with a clever loop and just the right amount of resistance to progress.
That looks amazing!
can they add actual languages later so the player can learn real words?
What a cool idea
Thanks for the video
Super interesting! Awesome looking game.
wow I never buy/play new games these days but will have to get this
Cloudy with a Chance of Sennaar would be a brilliant way to learn words in languages with no similar etymological origin (EnglishRussian, MandarinSpanish).
English and Russian a both Indo-European languages, and share basic etymology for many core words.
Plus, both languages heavily took words from Latin, Greek and French.
You would still need to recognise them due to different alphabets.
Tried the demo and absolutely loved it. Already tackling a few games so gonna wait a bit to get this one (unless there’s a sale)
Consider me hooked! I think i'm gonna get this this weekend!
I want this in Tibetan.
Looks awesome - might buy this after Block Buster Billy (BABA is Maths) while the initial sale is still on.
Thanks
I was linguist for the military, to place into the program we took a test using a made up language, this looks a lot like that test
I’ve been thinking I might like a game like this after playing games like Tunic and Outer Wilds. I’ll have to give this a try.
Tunic is the main thing this reminded me of watching this review
an interesting concept for a game
Ive dreamed of a game like this for japanese for soooo long I would 100% love to play this for a real language
i just finished it and liked it a lot.
looks fun
Since this is a word game that seems very crossword puzzle like, I wonder if Yahtzee will be doing a ZP on it
I was just thinking that it sounds like Yahtz would love this, and was wondering if this'll get a ZP.
Interesting!
This is such a cool game.
super cool! a similar game is Heaven’s Vault
I read the article you based this video on. About how the Bards being the first to inquire into their world, the Alchemists being the first with numbers, the Warriors only having collective. It's kinda just stealing the whole article but im glad you did because i feel like SOMEONE had to point out these glorious little cultural points in this marvelous game. Im glad someone is talking about it. This game deserves to be talked about so much more. It's the shortest game I've ever paid that much money for and i regret nothing.
Perfect for linguistics nerds!
I've played the demo and ended up getting the game on sale........HOURS of fun. 😄
Seems like people who enjoyed Tunic might like this?
i really want to play this game without confirming the meanings of words in order to beat the game while being as lost as possible
One if those games where you wonder why Duolingo didn't do it first. But then a full game by them might have had microtransactions all over the place.
So it's Heaven's Vault with thin story?
Whoa
The Sekiro of Duolingo
2:22 That was a bullshit death, you barely touched those boxes
The language mechanics are super fun but man, I hate the stealth segments. Absolutely kill the game for me
I would be 100 times mroe inrterested in this game if it was a real language, espeically japanese. Or if the game allowed you to choose the real language to learn.
Didn't final fantasy 10 do something like this?...
Think I liked this game better when it was called Heaven's Vault. ;)
Though, to be fair, that game had the most horrid QoL I've seen ever, and my life as a gamer includes stints with 80's dungeon crawlers and early-00s text adventures, so I know some stuff about bad UX. So maybe re-doing the concept in a more user-friendly fashion is warranted.
it's more of a traditional puzzle-adventure than Heaven's Vault imo. From what I remember of HV, translation was the main goal. Here you have to use your decoding skills to solve puzzles to advance to the next area, and there are multiple languages you have to translate between.
BS generic review
These 3 minutes reviews are soo easy to consume, i love it.