Sethian

Sethian - лингвистическая головоломка, ставшая огромным разочарованием. Геймплей меня поначалу привел в восторг. Наш персонаж – космический исследователь, который прибыл на когда-то населенную планету. Теперь там никого нет, был но найден инопланетный компьютер с ИИ, которому можно задавать вопросы, чтобы узнать, куда же делись все автохтоны. Общаться с ним можно только на местном языке, и задача игрока – разобраться с его устройством и в правильном порядке вводить символы, чтобы получился вопрос. Первый минус я была готова не принимать в расчет: значения отдельных слов подсказывает «друг-лингвист» по мере раскрытия сюжета, самостоятельно догадаться о значении по контексту, как в Chaints of Sennaar, не получится. Но все равно разбираться в структуре выдуманного языка, чтобы правильно задавать вопросы, было очень увлекательно. Пока не выяснилось, что это абсолютно линейный процесс. Ты просто упираешься в ситуацию, когда правильно формулируешь вопрос и получаешь ответ «я не понимаю», поскольку разработчики прописали только один следующий «правильный» вопрос. Конечно, все возможные реплики со стороны игрока сложно предугадать и учесть, но я задавала логичные вопросы по основе сюжета в момент, когда буквально игра дала задачу разобраться в местном лоре. Ну и финал, конечно, фигня полная – размытая философская простыня без какой-либо конкретики, максимально унылая. Ужасно обидно, придумали целый иноплатнетный язык, а игры из этого не получилось. Да, и за выбор шрифта для журнала с заметками кого-то точно надо поставить в угол на горох, это примерно такой же интенсивности издевательство над человеком. 5/10 только за первый час игры https://youtu.be/9saZqrhsAtM

NÃO. ABSOLUTAMENTE NÃO. JOGO PODRE HORRIVEL HORRIPILANTE. O DEV SCAMOU QUEM APOIOU E SUMIU COM O DINHEIRO.

I did not get very far in this game. I started taking written notes immediately, and based on the two definitions the game gives you at the start, I started trying to study and extrapolate the rest of the language. I feel like I learned a couple of things, but it was very slow going. The entire time I felt like I didn't really have enough information to go off of. Most questions I asked resulted in the same reply (presumably meaning something like "I don't understand"). The few that didn't were exciting, but I wasn't able to do much with the replies. I eventually gave up. Reading the other reviews, apparently you can unlock more journal pages by writing exactly what it's implying you to write. Even knowing this information, I don't understand what symbols I'd use for anything other than "you", "me", and "what". Even if I'm correctly understanding what it is the game wants me to write, I don't know how to write it (how am I supposed to get the symbol(s) for "friends"?). There apparently are no alternative paths for me to travel to get past whatever it is I'm not getting, so there's not much I can do. The premise of this game is very enticing, but I don't think the execution is there. Edit: After a bit more experimentation, I realized what had happened in my case. Asking "You are what" and "What are you" gets the same response from the computer, but only one of the two will actually unlock the next journal page. I asked the wrong one without realizing I had swapped the order, and that sealed my fate. There's also no sound or other indication that you have unlocked a new journal page, which is an odd QOL feature to be missing. It's clear to me that these issues could have been fixed with more playtesting. It's a shame that I bounced off this game so thoroughly, but it's still an interesting case study for games of this type.

TLDR: Good, and I recommend for people who find languages and science fiction interesting, but people looking for a puzzle game might want to give it a pass. I do recommend this game, though I would also like to set some expectations. As a brief explanation of the premise and the gameplay, you are a researcher who has found an in-tact AI running on an abandoned colony on an alien planet. The gameplay is a terminal-based conversation with this AI, using the native language which you only have a partial dictionary for. As you seek an explanation for the colony's abandonment, each answer to your questions only leaves you with more mysteries. This game is NARRATIVE based, not puzzle based. Of course, you do have to translate and interpret the language, but it is not so much a process of discovery, as in games like Chants of Sennaar or Heaven's Vault, but rather a lot of cross-referencing definitions and filling in the gaps with context clues. I think it would be better to consider this similar to a visual novel or walking sim than a puzzle game. As other reviewers mention, the questions you are able to ask the AI are rather limited. Your journal entries give you certain questions to ask, and pretty much any other entry leads to a canned "I don't understand your query" type response from the AI. If you go into the game expecting a deep branching interactive puzzle game, you are going to be disappointed, and I think this is where many of the negative reviews come from. I think the best way to approach this game is as a showcase of a cool language with a decent story built on top of it. If you find languages interesting, you'll have fun working out your translations and guessing at the meaning of compound words. It feels good towards to end of the game when you can really start speeding through the translations too. Its a good, fairly short game at a price point that's not too difficult to swallow.

冲着里面的架空语言入库的 一开游戏直接被吓到：这么多符号要玩到什么时候？！ 但意外的是流程超短（？ 所以我决定试试能不能把这游戏翻译成中文和世界语 挺好玩的一个小游戏，但英语水平是刚需 （原来这游戏还有双结局的？） 但是一定要注意语言输出这一块：这游戏只接受固定的句子，即使某些合式的句子也会被说看不懂，会有点难受；还有就是这门造语不算特别有趣，大差不差吧

this game is good but i feel like there's a lot missing from it

i dont have the neurons for this game

Sethian has one of the best game con-lang I've seen, unfortunately constrained by an extremely linear gameplay. There are about 30 different sentences the game will respond to. The game does a great job at teaching the player how to read and write sentences, it is a shame that so many gramatically correct sentences are answered by " I don't know" or "I can't explain this concept" Good idea and fun theme. For 5€, if you like conlang, I'd recommend it.

10/10 alien computer my beloved

I was on the border between whether or not I wanted to give Sethian a bad review here. It has a really cool concept and a really cool story and themes but is heavily (and I mean HEAVILY) weighed down by its structure. Most of the game is completely railroaded until close to the very end and is bogged down by the necessity for incredibly specific wording. The game isn't actually interested in mastering Sethian as a language, which is what I think a truly great version of this game would be; it just asks you to mastering the syntax for the specific questions it wants you to ask. Sadly very wasted potential.