And some game recommendations by me to add on to the post:
Taiji
A 2D puzzle game where you slowly unravel how to solve each different element of the puzzles, eventually culminating in a massive puzzle gauntlet. Basically identical in concept and execution to The Witness, but still very much its own unique and fun game.
The Golden Idol
A puzzle game where each level you must examine a scene to figure out exactly what happened, eventually piecing together the full story over several levels. Don't let the art style put you off, it's an incredibly well done game. Most similar to Return of the Obra Dinn in concept.
Stories: The Path of Destinies
an action RPG with a branching choice-driven storyline, but not every story has a happy ending... You'll piece together the true story over multiple playthroughs and eventually find the one true path. It wasn't a particularly life-changing game but it was still a lot of fun and worth checking out if it sounds interesting!
heavens vault is superior in terms of translation more accurately representing the puzzle. although the game is horrible to play and the MC is just so fucking mean
yeah I definitely enjoyed the translation gameplay in heaven's vault more, but otherwise chants of senaar way outclasses it for the reasons you mentioned.
I'm so mixed on heaven's vault. I think my steam review calls it the worst game I unquestionably recommend.
Like the moments of jaw dropping insight, when suddenly something clicks and a new interpretation comes to light. you go through the timeline updating, reinterpreting, and recontextualising. Coming out the other side with a revolutionised understanding of the world's history mwah. Or revisiting old sites and having a chuckle at how wrong you were.
Yet between that is completely pointless vehicle sections, arthritic walking frame point and click navigation, dialogue choices presented as "yes" that are acted out as "Well I know you are practically working yourself to the bone to give me a better life but have you considered that you're a shitstain and I hate you? well I'll consider it" that make the character horrible to play.
honestly I don't remember, I played it for less than 2h and refunded it years ago. The only thing that comes to me is the timeline screen which was just? dafuq is this and why should I care? It looked important but nothing was explained
Honestly just smoke a joint so you're in less of a hurry and do it. It's really quite good.
The character is at least not written awfully, like she's a reasonable take on a young person beaten down and mean through lifetime injustice. I think it's made worse by having you participate in dialogue choices but forcing you to be a giant arsehole.
Like I fucking hate almost all of the game that isn't the linguistics. The art can be nice I guess. Even so I think everyone should play it, it's really that good. I have a binder full of notes and translation attempts etc. Few puzzles grip me so.
if I got high for it it'd be even worse. I mainly struggled with jagged movement, no time to answer properly, and the UI being shitwank. That'd give me a headache and frustrate me even more when high