This game was a great refresher to take my mind away from Baldur's Gate 3 for a while :D

The layers of puzzle-solving, especially the language-decoding ones, made this game a really interesting experience, with the right difficulty so you could feel challenged without ever feeling frustrated or too overwhelmed.

The language learning process was the key selling point and it really shone for me, both the specifics of figuring out a single language in isolation and also the conversion rules to translate from one to the other. The dialogue puzzles @ the machines felt especially satisfying for me, as you could see how you were finally connecting people together.

I really appreciate games trying to weave mechanics and the narrative together and IMO Changs of Senaar achieved it.

If I had to point anything I missed it would be having floor maps. As you progress you end up unlocking a teleport feature, and some areas do use signs or simplified diegetic maps, but when you had to backtrack remembering the layout could become a bit annoying.

Beyond the puzzles there were also stealthy bits, and the controls to pick up valid hiding spots felt a bit rough. While I don't dislike stealth mechanics (it depends on the game) I could have lived without them here, to be honest, but there weren't too many and were reasonably easy.

Visuals were gorgeous, and the overall atmosphere felt pretty relaxed for the most part.

PS: Fully played on a Steam Deck. No issues at all.