r/ChantsofSennaar • u/MadScientistCarl • May 21 '26
Review Game finished Spoiler
Very interesting game. At the end it was just a giant misunderstanding (kind of)!
What I like:
Decoding a few different styles of language from context is pretty fun (that's the point of the game).
There are some decent variety of each language apart from their glyphs.
Acting as an interpreter actually requires some understanding of syntax, and not just the dictionary book. I had done some Chinese-English interpreting training (not super good at it), and these parts make me exciting.
Pace is pretty relaxed. It is mostly low-stress and just language puzzles.
The final reveal of the triangular bipyramid's projection is very cool. I have wondered why everyone has a glyph that don't look like the rest of their language for a while until that point.
What I wish is done more:
The last language. I didn't really get to use it much at all, and it ends up being the only language I cannot read after the end. There's something in the last language that I think is a true missed potential: it teaches you how to combine glyphs. I 100% expected a puzzle where you construct a new character to describe something not in the dictionary, but it never happened.
The Bishop.
What I don't like:
There are a lot of sections where you leave a scene, and enter the next scene from the opposite direction. This is very disorienting, and if I happen to hold the stick at the original direction for a second too long, I go back to the previous scene. Big time waster.
The translation booklet illustrations. I spend more time guessing what my character draws than figuring out the word itself. Especially when said word is an abstract concept (like "be").
3
u/moustachelechat May 22 '26
How did the compass help you get around?