Alright. Chants of Sennaar is done and dusted. This is an interesting isometric adventure set on an enormous tower where all the world's people seem to live and yet are separated via six levels of said tower. Each level represents a society, be it a religious society, a warrior society, a society of builders, of bards, of scholars, or, well, something else. Each society has its own unique language which features different runes to represent words, as well as different sentence structure in some cases.

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You play as an unnamed heroine, who wakes from some sort of crypt and whose goal is to reach the top of the tower. In order to do so though, you must learn each society's language and rules. And unfortunately, each society/level of this tower is separated from the others via policies of fear that keeps them divided. There is certainly quite of bit of subtle social commentary to be found in this premise, and one which feels important for people to acknowledge.

As you learn each society's language, you will use this to solve a number of puzzles in order to breach through to the next level, all the way to the very tippy top of the tower. In some areas, this takes the form of simple item puzzles, in others, you will play cat and mouse with enemies while still also trying to find necessary items. Some of the puzzles can actually get somewhat complicated.

In order to learn these languages, you will need to speak with everybody possible and read everything possible. You will then begin to associate certain runes with certain meanings. These will all be stored in a journal. The game allows you to type in your guesses, and there will be multiple times in a level where you will be given a journal puzzle wherein it shows you various images that can be associated with various runes, and you need to correctly guess or surmise which rune is needed for which image. Completing these puzzles will reveal the actual meaning of each rune used in these puzzles. There are ways to find enough of these puzzles to solve every rune's meaning for each language. It is also possible to miss some of these, and so being thorough is your key goal for each level.

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You also will find ancient terminals that are/were used to communicate between levels. These have three features. First, they serve as a fast travel system, and you can freely travel between any of these terminals you have found. Second, they serve as an essential story unlock system if you intend to see the game's true ending. Third, they each also feature a puzzle which unlocks...something important. Some of these puzzles will be correctly translating and matching runes from two languages to complete a conversation stored in the terminal. The other puzzles are more complicated and require you having reached a certain point in the story to access them.

I thought the level design in this game was particularly well thought out. The devs really put a lot of thought into sensible interconnectivity, and it shines throughout the game.

The story itself, as mentioned, is all about reconnecting people who are divided by fear and hate and a lack of understanding due to language and cultural differences. In so doing, people have a chance to do something better with their world.

Visually, this has an almost cel shaded appearance. It's a lush and vibrant world filled with really cool and distinctly different levels/societies. The vistas as you enter new levels can be simply stunning and do a great job of showing off the sheer scale of this tower. the actual lives in areas make you wish you could visit them IRL. The graphics style is reasonably unique IMO, and everything is done by incredibly talented artists. The audio tracks are likewise well done with very believable sounds provided by living breathing societies and a soundtrack that is always perfect for the moments of the game it represents. When at certain points, people are laughing, it kinda made me chuckle, lol.

I encountered zero technical issues while playing this game.

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Personally, I thought this was a fantastic and challenging experience where words are central to everything. Very cool, very well thought out, and a lot of fun. I received this as a gift, but it 100% earns its $19.99 asking price. And I'd say there is nothing else quite like this game on Steam. Definitely worth a look.

One of the best adventure-puzzle games I've played. 10/10.

I absolutely LOVED this game. Played with another linguistically inclined friend, which enhanced the experience even more. Genuinely feel like this is one of, if not THE, best games I've ever played.