Something about the games where the “puzzle” involves translating languages fascinates me. Maybe it’s my own background as a Ukrainian interpreter, someone who had to juggle several languages in his mind since early childhood. Or maybe it’s the curiosity of how such a complex idea could get “gamified”. But it feels like something finally “clicked” for the developers when the fantastic Return of the Obra Dinn got released, as its central idea of assigning assumptions to concepts and then having the game confirm or refute those assumptions in bulk became the basis for now two language-focused puzzle adventure games: Heaven’s Vault and Chants of Sennaar. Games that are similar in many ways, but also extremely different in where their focus lies.
As you might’ve gathered, Chants of Sennaar is a puzzle adventure game, where the central mechanic of the title is translation of languages. You will find yourself in a strange space that is populated with people speaking a language you don’t understand. Using the written signs and conversations, you will need to assign assumed meanings to the glyphs of the language. And you need to do that, because there will be obstacles on your way that are usually very simple in concept, but their meaning is obscured due to your lack of knowing the language. And as soon as you know enough of it and can translate the instructions, you will remove the obstacle and be able to move forward. Only to quickly discover that there are several groups of people, all of whom have their own language that may follow a different grammatic structure and syntax.
Of course, the game doesn’t expect you to translate an entire human language sized dictionary, so a lot of concepts are simplified. People “speak” in glyphs you see, disregarding the difference of written and spoken text and every language uses a very small dictionary that you can eventually complete. For the context of a puzzle game, this works wonderfully and the process of deciphering languages is highly engaging and fun. As hinted, the Return of the Obra Dinn confirmation of assumptions exists, so from time to time, when the game considers that you’ve encountered enough examples of what each glyph might mean, you will be presented with a page where you can confirm or disprove your assumptions. Once proven the game will auto-fill the “official” translation of the glyphs and every sentence, where all glyphs are translated, will use a literary translation instead of translating each glyph separately.
Before it is confirmed, you must write the assumption yourself using the keyboard (or a virtual keyboard on platforms that don’t have one). Which is a welcome change, as most of the “Obra Dinn”-inspired games (including Heaven’s Vault) provide you with a set of choices to use as your assumption, which shapes your expectations from the start, whereas in Chants of Sennaar this “hand holding” aspect is delayed until later. If on your first encounter with a glyph you think that it may mean “shovel”, that’s what you write. And if you later see the same glyph used in context and “shovel” makes no sense there, you go back and reconsider your assumption. Maybe it’s a verb for “work”? Maybe it’s “ground”? What if it’s about a “garden”? You don’t know until you gather enough context and/or the game gives you a chance to check your assumptions.
The biggest difference from Heaven’s Vault, however, is not in the mechanics or typing the words manually, but in the overall game intent. Heaven’s Vault was a choose your own adventure game about a non-linear journey, where translation provides you context for the choices you make as you travel. It wasn’t about the translation, you were never expected to do everything and translate everything before the choices lead you to an ending. Chants of Sennaar is puzzle game about translation, it expects you to do everything, to translate everything, to talk to everyone and see everything. You can be a completionist, just like Return of the Obra Dinn or The Case of the Golden Idol. Which isn’t a question of “better” or “worse”, but rather a very important difference in what you should expect from this game.
Because as a puzzle game about translation, Chants of Sennaar is super fun. Sure, some parts of the game were weaker and one of the late game hints could’ve been handled better. And the point and click controls with the mouse would’ve benefitted with holding the mouse to follow instead of being a classic “click only” interface. But I loved playing it. If you liked the already mentioned Return of the Obra Dinn or The Case of the Golden Idol, this is basically a no brainer choice – you will like Chants of Sennaar as well, because it operates in a very similar mindset. Just with more classic point and click adventuring bits in between the language translation. But if you were expecting a choose your own adventure-type game, like Heaven’s Vault, this isn’t it. There are no choices and consequences here, just puzzles and solutions.