THE REVIEW / Puzzle
Chants of Sennaar
Chants of Sennaar is a focused recommendation for patient puzzle solvers who want observation and language to drive progress. Deciphering languages makes understanding the world itself the main form of progression.
The programme
Game facts
- Developer
- Rundisc
- Publisher
- Focus Entertainment
- Released
- 5 September 2023
- Platforms
- Windows (Steam edition)
- Model
- Paid game
- PEGI
- 7 — Nintendo Switch download edition edition; not a separate PC classification
- Players
- Single-player
- Length
- Short
- Difficulty
- 3 / 5 · Moderate
- Steam Deck
- Verified
PEGI source ↗ · Steam Deck status source ↗
Edition: Base game
The score, explained
The interest and responsiveness of the core decisions and actions.
How progression, exploration and goals fit together.
The coherence of the visual, musical and narrative presentation.
How clearly the game explains its rules and offers useful ways to engage.
The depth of optional goals, alternative approaches and reasons to return.
Language is the obstacle and the tool
Chants of Sennaar asks the player to infer unfamiliar languages by observing people, places and repeated symbols. The notebook provides a way to organise those working ideas, making understanding an activity with practical consequences. The strongest element is that close connection between observation and progress. A symbol is not only something to collect; its meaning has to explain the context in which it appears. The recommendation depends on enjoying uncertainty while an interpretation develops. Readers who want immediate confirmation after every interaction may find the process frustrating, while those who like comparing clues across several scenes have a clear reason to explore the tower and its communities. The notebook supports comparison rather than removing the need to infer.
Separate communities become connected problems
The game presents five peoples whose languages and separation shape the tower. Moving between them extends the puzzle beyond learning a single vocabulary. The player has to consider how communication and understanding relate across different spaces. We rate the structure highly because individual observations can contribute to a larger purpose instead of remaining isolated riddles. It also requires attention: an early mistaken interpretation may make later information harder to read until the assumption is reconsidered. The game is best approached with a willingness to revise notes. It offers less appeal to someone who wants every puzzle to be an independent task that can be completed and forgotten before the next one begins.
The tower communicates before its words do
Distinctive architecture, colours and cultural details give the tower's communities visual identities before their languages are understood. That is useful in a game where context carries so much information. The presentation works through supporting the deduction process rather than merely giving it an attractive setting. The game also describes exploration and moments of stealth, so prospective players should not assume every obstacle consists only of notebook work. This assessment concerns the available creative design and imagery. It is not an independent test of whether every symbol or colour distinction will be accessible to a particular reader, and individual visual or reading needs should be considered separately from the strong aesthetic identity.
Choose the pleasure of changing your mind
Chants of Sennaar fits players who enjoy a theory becoming more useful as additional evidence appears, or being replaced when it no longer explains what they see. The main reward is understanding, which also means known solutions change repeat play substantially. Our reasons-to-return score is more measured than the core puzzle score for that reason. COCOON provides a useful alternative for readers who want a connected puzzle adventure but prefer manipulating spaces to interpreting languages. Choose Chants of Sennaar when learning how people communicate is the question that interests you. Its strongest appeal is the relationship between careful observation and a growing ability to make sense of a place that initially seems unreadable. Deciphering languages makes understanding the world itself the main form of progression.
The verdict
Chants of Sennaar is a focused recommendation for patient puzzle solvers who want observation and language to drive progress. Deciphering languages makes understanding the world itself the main form of progression.
Reasons to play
- Language deduction gives observation a concrete purpose
- The notebook connects individual clues into a wider system
- Distinct environments help separate the tower’s communities
Reasons to think twice
- Progress can stall when a language inference is wrong
- Solutions lose their novelty on a repeat playthrough
- Stealth sections introduce a different demand from deduction
See the game
Assist & accessibility
Parents’ guide
Players: Single-player. No in-game purchase marker in the checked Steam listing. Separate downloadable content may be sold.
Age classification: 7. Nintendo Switch download edition edition; not a separate PC classification
A useful starting tip
Keep a word meaning provisional until it explains more than one context; a plausible first guess can make later scenes misleading.
A different direction
Compare this with COCOON: A disciplined puzzle adventure whose nested worlds make a small set of interactions support surprisingly rich spatial reasoning.
Official sources
Reviewed: November 2026
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