Chants of Sennaar, Duolingo with Dark Souls sauce – TEST

Better late than never as they say so well. Last September, Rundisc came out the famous Songs of Sennaartriple rewarded since Pegasus with the prizes for best game, best independent game and best game design. Intrigued for a long time by this atypical adventure in many aspects, I finally decided to give it a try and I was not disappointed. This is also the opportunity to publish the test which was sorely missing from our numerous publications.

A remake of the Tower of Babel?

Songs of Sennaar tells the journey of a mysterious hooded individual waking up at the foot of a gigantic tower. The protagonist, of whom we know neither the past nor the motivations, sets out to climb the building. To do this, he will have to count on the help of the inhabitants of the tower, but this is where the problem arises: they speak a completely unknown foreign language. Like Egyptian hieroglyphs, this language is made up of multiple symbols, each having a very specific meaning but which remains very obscure to the uninitiated. And when we understand that there is not one but several languages ​​to translate throughout the game, we understand the titanic task that awaits us. Songs of Sennaar is therefore above all a game of reflection and a real linguistic challenge which reveals all the genius of Thomas Panuelgame designer of the game.

To decipher and translate the different languages ​​of the game, your sense of observation and deduction will be essential. Through numerous diverse and varied situations, Songs of Sennaar gives you many opportunities to understand the meaning of this or that glyph. For example, a game of hide and seek with a little girl will be the perfect opportunity to learn the words “Find” And “Seek” but it will sometimes be necessary to hazard a few hypotheses. Between verbs, coordinating conjunctions, common words, adjectives and other grammatical structures, it will be easy to get confused from one word to another with, sometimes, quite picturesque confusions and this is precisely what makes the charm so special. of this game. Like Champollion trying to decipher the Rosetta Stone, you will sometimes have to juggle from one language to another to decipher a third and demonstrate a certain flexibility to get by.

In fact, and despite a contemplative and serene atmosphere, Songs of Sennaar imposes a sometimes tough challenge. Because beyond the language barrier which will regularly slow you down in your ascent, certain puzzles will remain very difficult. On very rare occasions, I had a hard time understanding the developers' logic, but with a little courage and patience, we ended up finding the solution with a joy that we were careful not to hide. Songs of Sennaar is indeed one of those brilliant games that knows how to reward the player's efforts, not by obtaining a rare item or some trophy, but through a deeply satisfying feeling of triumph. In summary, you will be dealing with a complex and demanding game in its own way but which is all the more exciting.

Cultural coherence

If the reflection of Songs of Sennaar is so popular, it is also because it is integrated into a very pleasant environment. From this, understand that the game is simply magnificent. All competing in beauty and elegance, the different floors of the tower are an explosion of colors all in a graphic style close to cel-shading. I personally really appreciated the effort put into distinguishing each floor from the others with different peoples, specific architectures and very distinct color palettes. Even the grammatical structure differs from one language to another: one people tend to place COD/COI at the beginning of sentences while another will repeat the same word twice to make it plural. For a few hours, you become a true ethnologist with an effort to understand the way of thinking of this or that people in order to be able to translate their language and complete the codex accessible at any time.

This diversity of colors and environments has the merit of punctuating our adventure. In this sense, we will also welcome the frequent intervention of different gameplays: infiltration, chase, element manufacturing and other one-off mechanisms vary your translation activities. Even the latter take varied forms from one floor to another: observing the orders of a captain to his soldiers, having fun on a game console, attending a play… all kinds of micro-events are scattered to move forward in Songs of Sennaar. End to end, these tests will make you reach the top of the tower and, if you have been diligent, will allow you to witness the true end of the game, much more satisfying compared to the one you will obtain otherwise. But we will say no more: the genius of Songs of Sennaar is appreciated in its progression and the understanding of its basic message.