70%PC

I like the concept, and had a lot of fun decyphering the puzzles, although a few were a bit unintuitive for my taste. The navigation through different areas is sometimes annoying, and can take a long time. The fifth and final chapter of the game felt a bit rushed and not as interesting as the previous four.

100%PC

A masterpiece. From the style to the game mechanics, puzzles and everything else.

I was blown away during the whole playthrough with my wife - helping each other I mean, the game is single-player.

I really want its physical/collector's edition now.

90%PC

LOVED this game. I picked it up on a whim and sorely underestimated how much I would love the logic puzzle of deconstructing and translating mysterious languages. The plot was well thought out and it made sense how all the cultures and groups separated from each other and grew apart over time.

Only complaint was the end was a little grindey and I didn't remember where all the teleport stones were (hadn't actually found them all either) and I had to look up where they were because there are SO many screens and no maps to speak of. I had also forgotten the sentence structure of some of the earlier languages by the end of the game and had to re-talk to a couple people to solve the final puzzles (for example "were plurals the same word multiple times, or was there a plural modifier for words?" and "is the subject the first thing, or is it more of an action-first language?")

Still, overall LOVED this game. I kept thinking about it over the next few weeks and wishing there was another game like this, or a sequel to scratch the same itch. When a game has that kind of longevity in your brain despite 100% finishing it, it's earned its purchase price.

90%PC

Sweet short puzzle game with innovative approach in making puzzles. (By having you decode languages). It is pretty good.

85%PC

很有意思的題材
相當對電波
遊玩樂趣在於翻譯各種不同語言
各語言有著不同的文字以及文法
玩法較為單一

90%PC

Chants of Sennaar is an absolute gem! I was completely captivated by its unique art style, inspired by ancient frescoes, which gives the game a distinctive and immersive atmosphere. The puzzles are clever and well-balanced, offering a stimulating challenge while remaining accessible. The story, subtly told through the different languages you need to decipher, is both mysterious and fascinating.

While playing, I felt like a true archaeologist, deciphering ancient writings with the Rosetta Stone, both the historical artifact and the language-learning software. It's an unforgettable experience that I highly recommend to all fans of puzzle and adventure games.

75%Xbox Series X/S

what’s the glyph for “bloated endgame”?

80%PC

As a linguist, this game was pretty darn fun. The fact it was inspired by the Tower of Babel makes the gameplay so much more meaningful. You climb the tower, learning the languages of the people, then connect them through translation, as they no longer speak and basically hate each other.

The third level is easily the hardest in the entire game but if you can make it through that, the rest is so much more fun. Pretty meaningful ending. Definitely worth a try at least. See if it clicks with you.

100%Xbox One

Cannot express my joy with this game experience. It has such great moments of discovery, overcoming puzzle challenges, actual learning expressed through language acquisition, and so on. This game provides an experience of living through a tower of babel and uniting the tower instead having the failure to communicate maintain, and it is so unique is delivering this in the gameplay. You will, by simple exposure, learn language through exploration, inspection and trial/error in order to pass the puzzles. It teaches, which is incredible. Again, too many great things to say, but play this game.

70%Xbox One

71%

85%Nintendo Switch

Fantastic game. Wish I could play it for the first time again. Using deduction to teach yourself the languages spoken across the tower, and using your knowledge of those languages to unite the people was both fun and extremely satisfying. It also makes you feel very smart when you finally figure out a word that's been tripping you up for a while. Some major changes happen to the world based on your actions, such as the gondola being built between the bards' floor and the alchemists. It feels really good to help everyone.

Chants of Sennaar gets an 85 from me for a few reasons. While I loved this game from start to finish, the last section started to drift away from what I enjoyed most about it. While the ending it was very well executed, the fifth language is sort of just handed to you with little deduction required. Once Exile is defeated, there's not much left to do aside from tie up loose ends (Though I'm not sure what loose ends you'd have) or go and finish the game. The dialogue from all characters remains the same throughout the game, likely in case you need to finish a language you hadn't completed translating yet. Overall, my criticisms for the game are mostly nitpicks.

This is a great game. If you're interested in linguistics, deduction, or games with unique art direction and interesting premise, I highly recommend Chants of Sennaar.

65%PC

This was intriguing at first, but I tired of it after a while. I really disliked that it will sort of solve your journal for you, which makes it feel like a process-of-elimination matching game instead of one where you are forced to think until you figure stuff out. The simplicity of the languages also became frustrating, as I often overthought my interpretations, trying to be more complex or nuanced than the game wanted, although I understand why the languages needed to be relatively straightforward.

75%PC

Amazing concept.
The way the cultures in the game are reflected in their respective languages is very fun.

Execution is a little lacking in some departments: it's a little too slow to go back and forth, and sit through stealth sections.
The decrypting was a little easy for my taste after a while, when you can cross-reference some of the other languages in the game.
Despite its shortcomings I think this title is a meaningful one in the puzzle game canon, if there even is such a thing.

100%PC

Incredible game!

80%PC

The Prince of Egypt, a 1998 animated film by DreamWorks, is universally considered to be one of the best animated films of all time. With its sweeping score, impressive animation and cinematography, and heartfelt story, it tells the story of the Book of Exodus—more succinctly, the story of Moses and how he led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. Its success as a story based on a religious tale, regardless of viewer secularity, can sometimes make one question why there isn't more like it. After all, religious tales and myths are often stories of epic proportion, and adapted well, they can certainly leave quite the impression. That's possibly what Rundisc, an indie developer based in France, was thinking during the creation of their 2023 breakthrough hit, Chants of Sennaar. Inspired by the Tower of Babel myth, Chants of Sennaar takes you through a puzzle-based language learning journey that exudes creativity and inspires connection.

Chants of Sennaar is, as mentioned, primarily a puzzle game, and the gameplay is primarily focused upon observing dialogue, noticing patterns, and adding context in order to determine the meaning of each tribe's language. Conceptually, it's simple yet unique and allows for a lot of satisfying "Aha!" moments without the need for too many leaps in logic. The guess system is convenient for noting down your hypotheses without needing to rely too much on memory, and each new piece of dialogue unlocked will help to add context to some impressively implemented worldbuilding. Progression is often steadily paced, and that search for just one more glyph, one more translation, will likely have you finding Chants of Sennaar hard to put down. It's that mix of wondering what's just around the corner combined with fear of forgetting your strongest theories that make the game so enticing, and with its relatively short runtime, it's an easy game to beat in just a few sittings.

There are moments where the pacing falters a bit, though, especially in the tower's second level, where there's a bit too much backtracking for progression to feel meaningful. There are also stealth sections, which, while generally harmless, don't really add anything to the game. But what perhaps feels like the game's biggest missed potential is with its actual languages. It's understandable that any potential linguaphiles who might look to play Chants of Sennaar might be disappointed slightly by the variety of languages here; only the language of the Bards varies from the subject-verb-object sentence structure, so even when working with seemingly alien glyphs, there's a degree of familiarity to it (at least, for most speakers of western languages) that will take a bit of the puzzling aspect out of the puzzle. This does, however, allow the Bard tribe to shine, and at least in that level, Chants of Sennaar operates at its most mystifying—and its most satisfying.

But satisfaction in Chants of Sennaar is, impressively, not solely derived from the player's ability to match glyphs to meanings. As fun as that often is, a lot of the great moments in this title come from the small moments of connection that the player can foster between the varying tribes. Chants of Sennaar is, at its core, about encouraging understanding of others, and every interaction of differing tribe members demonstrates the benefits of such communication. By connecting others, there are tangible effects on the tower itself, and the effect of those interactions on the player is surprisingly poignant. As a result, your victory in translating these languages is doubly satisfying—once as a personal victory and once more as a communal one.

Lots of stories can be boiled down to the simple trope of "we're not so different after all," but Chants of Sennaar does it impressively by relying on more than just a stereotypical proverb. Through its worldbuilding, it feels immersive and organic, and through its puzzles, it feels engaging and unique. It may not quite thematically live up to the myth that inspired it in terms of epicness, but it's an excellent thought-provoking puzzle game, both during and after your playthrough. By demonstrating the commonalities that the tribes of the tower share and how little their core ideologies differ, Chants of Sennaar reminds us that unity may not be as far out of reach as it seems and that it's up to us to help with changing that.

100%PC

its one of the best games ive played in a while i am begging for more content please make a dlc

100%PC

My favorite kind of game: clean graphic, good puzzles, nice story. Great.

90%PC

very innovative mechanics

100%PC

A must-play game. The story, visuals, audio, gameplay, everything is top notch and each aspect strengthens the linguistic puzzle mechanism more. It may not have high-replay value but it doesn't matter. It's a unique game with no fault.

90%PC

La lengua y, en general, la cultura, como elemento que divide y que une. Un juego precioso, con un mensaje potente y un desarrollo agradable y adictivo. Sorpresón absoluto.

95%PC

Best puzzle game i have played in recent years. Some of the language puzzle is a bit hard, but overall the game push the boundaries of the puzzle game a long way.

95%PC

A couple of frustrating parts but mostly loved it

80%PC

Great linguistic puzzle, very intuitive and eases the difficulty bit by bit just enough for players to solve increasingly difficult challenges. Controls are confusing in extremely rare occasions.

70%PC

Pros:
Slowly piecing together the language of each area is a very natural puzzle. It uses a similar structure to Return of Obra Dinn as you have to get all the symbols on one page correct before being told whether you were correct, which prevents brute force attacks. At first, I thought the images gave too much of the puzzle away, but later on, it helped with the difficulty and gave you a clue about what you should be looking for.
I liked the ending quite a bit. It is subtly built up throughout the game. You start to notice that the various people are hostile to each other and special doors in each area. Then when you reach the end and are given your final goal, it all falls into place. Seeing the changes in the otherwise mostly static world is a great sense of achievement as what you're doing has a big impact on the areas in the game.

Neutral:
Most of the time Chants of Sennaar gives you a good amount of clues for every letter. There were a couple of times when I got stuck due to stupidity, but then there were times when I felt that there weren't enough clues given, so I had to resort to brute forcing my existing guesses which is never ideal.
The main matching mechanic that helps you beat the game could've been given a better introduction, but that's a very minor nitpick all things considered, you get the hang of it fairly quickly.

Regarding the story, I do wish the exile entity was given a bit more explanation. I think it was created by the chosen ones themselves while separated from the rest of the people but it gained control over them. It wasn't made clear exactly why the tower would be destroyed if the people weren't reunited.

Cons:
There was one time I had to look up how to unlock a specific page due to not realizing I could move a minecart through an interaction menu instead of by just moving it outside of that menu.

90%PC

One of the most unique puzzle games I've played, gameplay and story are a master craft.

You are born into a world in which you know absolutely nothing, what you as a player knows, is what the character knows, and this style of game is the best. But the problem is, you actually know nothing, how do you communicate with the people without knowing their language?

This is absolutely incredible, I found myself astonished trying to work my brain around the maneurisms, the personality in the linguistics and even the drawings, and it was surreal, there are "levels" and each one has it's own characteristics and this is reflected in the languages, to catch these nuances, to understand how this affects how you they talk and you should decrypt them, its one of the best moments in gaming for me.

The story beneath is a huge plus too, you aren't just solving puzzles for the sake of it, or just for a "philosophical explanation" (I'm looking at you The Witness) you are indeed seeing a narrative unfold and having a direct participation in it.

Everything is perfect, but somehow at the last level, it all washes away, the gameplay is overlooked, the whole challenge of finding out what each word means, spending hours trying to figure everything out, just goes out the window, you can figure out the whole language in less than 10 minutes, you just play a "Minigame" and it's all revealed to you, no more complex puzzles, smart workarounds.

The story still continues nicely, but it's such a let down to think you have "one last level" of mystery, to have it all given on a plate to you. I also don't think the true ending sequence was really necessary, the game doesn't need that type of narrative extender, it was perfect as is.

A fantastic experience, you will only get to feel it once, even if I thought the ending was lacking the journey is still worth it!

A 9/10.

90%PC

This is an excellent puzzle / deduction game about language. Highly recommend if you enjoy games like Return of the Obra Dinn or The Case of the Golden Idol.

90%PC

jogo otimo. final surpreendente. musica boa

algumas vezes a camera atrapalhava a jogatina, deve ser melhor jogando no controle

100%PC

A great concept. Could have added another level instead of the monster chase ending which was a let down. The game is best when it remains the language puzzle game instead of forced chase or stealth sections.

Not enough to detract from the score.

70%Xbox Series X/S

Starts strong but eventually feels like it's dragging on and becomes a bit of a chore to wrap up.

100%PC

This game is just extremely good man. The satisfaction of solving puzzles and finding out what glyphs mean, the ending reveal etc. it's just great. Absolutely recommend.

60%PC

Normal ending, the game didn’t hook me enough for the perfect one. The game features 5 whole languages, each with their own quirks and rules. Achieving the perfect ending requires a lot of translation from one language to another, and with my memory, it’s simply impossible to remember all the rules for writing in 5 different languages (even if they are relatively simple). If all the dialogues were saved in a journal and could be reviewed later to recall the grammar, it would be much better. Additionally, various Quality of Life features wouldn't hurt.

The actual deciphering of the languages is so-so. When you figure out a word on your own and it turns out you deciphered it correctly, it feels great. But that was rare for me. More often, the game either just gives you some words or doesn’t give you enough information to decipher for sure, and compensates this with the possibility of guessing the meaning. And I don’t like guessing.

Also, the game places a strong emphasis on aesthetics, with even separate screens meant solely for admiring the view. I know people who can admire visuals for hours, but I’m not one of them, and the style didn’t particularly appeal to me. 6/10. If the game interests you, you can play it and have a decent couple of evenings.

100%PC

Amazing game. I had lots of fun playing with a friend and discussing what the glyphs might mean. Every glyph decoded feels like an achievement. Compared to Heaven's Vault, this game has much fewer mechanics that distract from the language decoding. If you're a language nerd, this is the game for you.

90%PC

Très bon jeu chill. Les énigmes ne sont pas très complète mais c'est très satisfaisant quand on découvre le sens des glyphe. J'ai eu un peu de mal pour comprendre la langues des Bardes mais à part ça tout est bien ficelé

100%PC

A beautiful game in its aesthetics, writing and themes. And a fiercely intelligent one as well. As someone who LOVED Return Of The Obra Dinn for it's immaculately crafted main puzzle, this game scratched all those same itches. Successfully deciphering a group of glyphs always made me feel like a real clever clogs.

90%PC

Clever gameplay that make you feel smart, even if you progress by guessing the result at times. Getting the right answer by process of elimination was likely intentional to dissuade you from just looking up the answer. This is a great 10ish hour experience that looks pretty with an art style that gives it a throwback 'Out of This World' type feel. Sewers in games are still not fun and the puzzle(s) with formulas and converting numbers near the end was equally not as fun for me. Would highly recommend to anyone who wants a relaxed experienced that ditches the zombies but keeps the Resident Evil type puzzles.

80%PC

An incredible premise, idea and universe. Unfortunately, eroded by cumbersome gameplay and taxing moment to moment transitioning from one scene to another. If the developers had instead focused on creating a more seamless, meditative experience (like for example COCOON), rather than making separate disconnected puzzles, I would have enjoyed this game a tenfold more. Towards the end I almost exploded with frustration, during my final play through for the true ending.

Each society and language have their own distinct personality. Their highest ideal and how they differ are extremely interesting and elevates this whole experience/universe. Their respective vocabularies are formed around their drives and ambitions, this is deliberately and intelligently made, and leads to a more believable and organic world. I would say that the world here is much more interesting than the puzzles, which in the end are only supplementary and an afterthought to the languages.

This game has gotten high praise, and well deserved so. Unfortunately, at least for me I had a feeling of un-reached potential, creeping up towards the end of my play-through. If the developers ever plan on making a similar game in terms of puzzles and such, here is some constructive feedback: Instead of focusing on creating disjointed puzzles, rather make them build on each other. The flow of going from one room or puzzle, to the next, should be favored to be organic and calming, rather than frustrating and/or solely being challenging for the sake of being challenging. I am not speaking about challenging in the traditonal sense here, more so in the distance between each puzzle. Bottom line; Give multiple ways of tackling the same obstacle, not by making something obsolute, but let's say you make several paths towards the same destination.

-Kudos to the creators here, 7,5/10 / UPDATE: Since this game is rather revolutionary and with a limited budget, I have upped the score to 80/100. A very interesting play for puzzle fans alike. I also consider 2/3 endings pointless and too vague. Only the good/true ending gave any pay off here. Open endings are cool if done right, these are not.

95%Xbox One

Only wish it had a run button.

100%PC

A game built around an innovative and stimulant mechanic, with a phenomenal art direction and evocative music. Some puzzles are not perfect in their execution, but all the minor flaws can be overlooked when the complete package has such an high level of quality.

70%PC

100% Complete: 7/10 - I thought it was very good!

- a very well designed and very enjoyable puzzle game! piecing together the languages is thoroughly satisfying, and the game has a nice way of making you feel smart and accomplished
- very Return of the Obra Dinn but not quite as satisfying
- not too challenging at all—very doable—most of the ~challenge~ comes from navigating the map and figuring out where all the doors/interactables are rather than the actual language deciphering. most of the downtime playing through this game was just aimlessly wandering looking for more glyphs to decode or pages that would let me confirm them! the maps are well built, but they are large and take some real wandering before you understand them
- music is great, atmosphere is great
- story is sweet—connecting the different levels is a really special experience—but the overall narrative feels like it doesn't quite stick the landing. the ending felt a little more rushed than i would have preferred, and the stakes never really felt too high. i got jumpscared a few times, and the boss sequence is fun, but it feels a little thrown in—the good ending is lovely, but doesn't feel earned after the weird non-boss
- overall would certainly recommend, but it definitely doesn't have that same detective itch like Obra Dinn that leaves me wanting to replay it in the future

60%PC

Chants of Sennaar is a groundbreaking title for the world of puzzle games that really tries something new. IT has its issues which I will get into but overall I genuinely love the fact that this kind of game exists because it has a sort of niche beauty to it that I think everyone should be a part of at some point in their lives.

I want to start with what I loved about the game, first off it is a beautiful it gives the a similar art style to sable which is another great game but really decides to pop off with the color and any point in the game I could make that into a background for my computer or cellphone. I also want to point out how awesome of an idea this game is, which different languages, how they are organized, the tones that are represented. It is such a cool concept to try and solve different languages. I lastly want to point out that this game makes you feel smart, it makes you feel like you really solved a puzzle and are the mastermind behind the whole thing.

With three major points out of the way I want to talk about the annoyances of this game. The UI first off is rough, I used my controller to move the character around and then I used my keyboard and mouse to change and guess the langues. It's really annoying using one or the other. I recommend the controller for movement and the keyboard and mouse for the language items cause otherwise it's just a pain in the ass.

I also want to bring up the specific exact languages options you have to use. There is no nuance in the different parts of a sentence you can bring to a conversation. Toward the end of the game you need to have full conversations with other people of other languages and it can be hard guessing and checking for the perfect answer when I wish there was a way to make multiple answers be the correct answer you know?

With two major issues and three major positives I give chants of Sennar a 6/10 with a * that it is a great game but with two bigger issues it can be annoying if you are unaware of them going into the game.

80%PC

This was a really fun puzzle game that gives some Obra Dinn vibes. Slowly building your knowledge of the world and solving puzzles to either further build that knowledge or using that knowledge for the solution was fun all the way until the end. Translating between cultures was tricky at times but always rewarding. The only downsides for me were the "stealth" sections which felt a little flat and the last part of th true ending where you're just moving from room to room.

90%Xbox Series X/S

It's the first game that I play that the main mechanic is learning a language, it's really an unmatched game!
The puzzle are clever and well made.
The people and the levels are all unique in their own way and the end was touching.
In summary, it was really a good game that i enjoy playing, it was one of a kind!

100%PC

Esse jogo é um absurdo, uma aula de como aprendemos, tanto conhecimento em si, tanto como aprendemos a jogar um jogo novo, e, principalmente, como aprendemos línguas novas. Fantástico, recomendo para todos.

100%Xbox Series X/S

cba with that stupid weight puzzle near the end tho

95%PC

This is what fun puzzle solving is: no memorization, no planning 10 steps in advance, just pure use of spatial, verbal and social clues to gather knowledge and solve the problems those who tried before could not.

The way language deciphering is handled as a main mechanic is great: each language is unique in its lexicon, syntax, and the way you learn it. They take after those who speak it: organized, eccentric, idealistic, and the like. Some stealth sequences to keep things fresh, and it never ends up feeling like a chore. Although the walking mechanics are a bit sluggish.

Style is as good as it could be: beautiful, silent and minimalistic character designs which leave so much welcome room for interpretation. Larger than life architecture, warm colors always pleasant on the eyes.

Not much else to say: a gorgeous and captivating take on the puzzle genre.

85%PC

If you like puzzles, give chants of sennaar a chance, its main game design mechanic (the translation of the various fictional languages) is extremely original, as well as being very well made, it also has a very deep moral behind it in my opinion .
The only flaw it has is the stealth system which seems very forced and isn't really well made, in any case the checkpoints are very frequent so it's not a very significant problem.

100%Xbox Series X/S

Really fun in my experience. I love linguistics. I had to use a guide for the endgame translation parts though, as it does get tedious, having to account for sentence structure as well. Plus, going through all the glyphs looking for the right word is a slog. Overall though, great game. I am so glad it exists.

80%PC

A fun and unique puzzler. Great to play on the Steam Deck.

90%PlayStation 4

Solid puzzle game about language. The hints to learn words are cleverly done. It might be one of my favorite deduction games. Far better than my time with Obra Dinn. However, the stealth sections aren’t great and I personally would have been fine if they were cut from the game.

75%PC

As often is the case, I wish I could rate the game equal to the clear efforts that were put into making it, as this is one of such products that clearly was a labor of love for someone, but I felt some moments near the finish line, drastically muddied and dragged down a otherwise fantastic and unique premise and gameplay mechanics.

The entire premise of the game is that you want to learn languages, one word at a time. Among the tools at your disposal you have several environmental clues, pictures, murals, dialogues with characters, etc. Essentially, anything that wants to convey a message will be presented to you in gibberish symbols that you have to take notes and try to figure out what they mean, occasionally giving you prompts to permanently learn parts of the vocabulary after you demonstrated you really know what the words mean.

And it doesn't stop there, on top of vocabulary you also need to learn grammar, as each language might have a different way to convey things like negations, questions, and plurals. They did their best at keeping learning new languages fresh.

It might all sound like an un-fun chore for a premise, but trust me that I don't think I can do justice in a review as to how seamless, interesting, and smart it makes you feel the more "puzzles" you solve.

So what went wrong then? Well, I think that mainly parts of the final acts really have no reason to be as hard as they are essentially.
1. At some point the game will halt you until you demonstrate that you understand how a numeric system works. Which would've been fine if they kept the maths appropriately simple enough, but the problem is that there are no previous instances of anything similar that served as a prior difficulty for this to step up with. You are left to your own devices until you understand how scattered notes are telling you about decimal values (also, why is this the only thing in the game that isn't auto saved to your auto generated notes?).
2. You HAVE to do everything for the "true" ending, else you are left with something painfully insulting. (And personally, I think that said "true" ending is quite bad and doesn't fit the rest of what the game was building up to, just better than what you're left with otherwise, they could've done something cliché like "let's get over our differences" and it would've been incredibly better).
3. The "true" ending sequence is even harder than the number puzzle mentioned before, they really started going quite cryptic with what you had to type in to move on. Instead of it being a matter of asking you to learn new bits and pieces of a language as a final sequence which I think would've been more thematically more appropriate, you are left trying to sherlock holmes what context clues spell out what words you have to type in, and it's never immediately obvious.
4. This is an extra one as it's not the end of the world, but it really is a slog to backtrack in this game. I would've killed for a map with the areas I've been on that I can just click to teleport back to. I'd understand disabling this until parts were cleared, but an omission of more generous means of fast travel really is to the detriment of the experience.

I really feel they had something incredible here, but it feels as if the vision this once had was lost by the end. The score I'm leaving is still more generous than it should, given the frustration I felt for genuinely enjoying essentially 90%+ of the game, to then be blocked off the ending until I completed things that felt completely different to the experience up until that point.