Took me back to when I first played Tunic, though in this case engaging with the translation is the main mechanic. At first, I'd feel bad if I brute-forced a translation with the notebook - it felt like cheating. But after thinking about the larger context of the game, you can't brute-force anything unless you have a general understanding of what characters mean what.

I wish there was more game here - referring back to Tunic, translating was part of the game but there were excellent mechanics elsewhere. Here in Sennaar, there is awkward stealth and super light point-and-click style puzzles. Those criticisms aside - I had a good time with this game and have recommended it to a few other folks in my life.

I'm not sure what part of this game didn't click with me, but it didn't. I didn't love the fishing, it felt like a bit of a grind. Mashing buttons as fast and often as you do is bad for a SteamDeck. The Tapper minigame during food service wasn't particularly gripping either. I found out almost 5 hours into the game that I was doing the restaurant management drastically incorrectly but still was making enough money to move along the power curve at a normal level. The writing felt generic and shallow - the parody characters are the most basic parody elements rolled into a character (Shopkeeper = sketchy, weeb loves figurines, the cool sushi chef is cool and mysterious).

It's not a bad game, but it was not for me.