The art in Chants of Sennaar is amazing, hands down. The game is so artistically unique. The strong yellows and reds help the game stand out, but depending on the area the game is not afraid to stray away from its yellow color palette for cooler blues and whites. No issues there.

Obviously a game like this is going to struggle in the story department, and I have to agree that the story is not exactly ground breaking. Smart people made a tower, others came to the tower, height-based hierarchies formed, racism ensued. No one before you has had the ability to translate between the languages, or if they did it was forgotten a long time ago.

Chants of Sennaar relies heavily on the language mechanics and exploration. The issue I have is that the exploration feels far too similar to a traditional point and click adventure. I had hoped that the game would lean heavier on having to use the languages I’ve learned to gain access to new locations. The game shines brightest in its language learning theme, but it relies too heavily on key-door style mechanics to reward the player for learning the intricacies of the varied languages the game has on offer.

Some counterexamples are the higher level translation puzzles that is revealed to the player early on, but are only solvable later in the playthrough. These puzzles are stimulating and engaging. They make me wish the languages were more homogenized throughout the world in order to allow for basic translation to act as a progression mechanic on a smaller scale.

Even worse are the games stealth sections. Mandatory stealth sections are a horse that was beaten to death years ago. The game has mandatory stealth sections, and their inclusion feels silly and awkward.

Is Chants of Sennar good? Yes absolutely. The game clocks in at about 13 hours for me, and it has an absurdly high finish rate of about 55.5% according to steam achievements. Considering most games have a completion rate of about 13% or lower I’d say this game is very worth your time!

If you do play Chants of Sennar, you should turn off achievement notifications because there is an early game spoiler that gets revealed from them *wipes tears from face*.

The art in Chants of Sennaar is amazing, hands down. The game is so artistically unique. The strong yellows and reds help the game stand out, but depending on the area the game is not afraid to stray away from its yellow color palette for cooler blues and whites. No issues there. Obviously a game like this is going to struggle in the story department, and I have to agree that the story is not exactly ground breaking. Smart people made a tower, others came to the tower, height-based hierarchies formed, racism ensued. No one before you has had the ability to translate between the languages, or if they did it was forgotten a long time ago. Chants of Sennaar relies heavily on the language mechanics and exploration. The issue I have is that the exploration feels far too similar to a traditional point and click adventure. I had hoped that the game would lean heavier on having to use the languages I’ve learned to gain access to new locations. The game shines brightest in its language learning theme, but it relies too heavily on key-door style mechanics to reward the player for learning the intricacies of the varied languages the game has on offer. Some counterexamples are the higher level translation puzzles that is revealed to the player early on, but are only solvable later in the playthrough. These puzzles are stimulating and engaging. They make me wish the languages were more homogenized throughout the world in order to allow for basic translation to act as a progression mechanic on a smaller scale. Even worse are the games stealth sections. Mandatory stealth sections are a horse that was beaten to death years ago. The game has mandatory stealth sections, and their inclusion feels silly and awkward. Is Chants of Sennar good? Yes absolutely. The game clocks in at about 13 hours for me, and it has an absurdly high finish rate of about 55.5% according to steam achievements. Considering most games have a completion rate of about 13% or lower I’d say this game is very worth your time! If you do play Chants of Sennar, you should turn off achievement notifications because there is an early game spoiler that gets revealed from them *wipes tears from face*.