along with the even more accessible The Forgotten City, this is likely what i would rec to those interested in this new, difficult-to-define wave of "knowledge based games", or "world-based puzzle adventures" or "things u would recommend to ppl who liked outer wilds" or whatever we end up calling it. chants of sennaar nails everything that is lovely and engrossing and satisfying about these games, which for me is two primary things. (1) the framing of puzzles first and foremost as about understanding the worldbuilding, puzzles as something that bring you closer into the places and people around you rather then purely abstract logic or test of real-world knowledge. (2) the underappreciated Power Fantasy of knowledge, of using abstracted and approachable versions of intimidating real things for a series of satisfying game puzzles that provide an unbelievable amount of satisfaction relative to their actual complexity, which even at their trickiest tends to be Quite Low In The Grand Scheme Of Things...in other words, chants of sennaar uses language learning in the same way outer wilds uses space flight and astrophysics, or how obra dinn uses forensic crime scene analysis. few will defend the non-puzzle gameplay sections, but theyre too short and easy to make a dent in the experience. what rly pushes it over the top for me is the starry-eyed optimism that it pulls thru by the end...combined with the biblical slant, its even slightly heretical