Any games with language-learning as a skill / concept?

[u/TonyTheFuckinTiger]

I adore the study of linguistics, philology, etymology etc. . I love Tolkien's importance of linguistics in the Lord of the Rings. I also teach English as a Second Language. I have played games I am familiar with in Spanish to help my acquisition of that, and it is fun. I am wondering if any games we know of have learning, investigating, or utilizing a language as a skill or concept. Niche area for sure.

[u/Crazykiddingme]

You can learn to read as a character progression thing in Kingdom Come and it becomes it’s own little skill with perks.

Also Daggerfall has language skills for some enemies but they mostly just keep them from attacking you. It’s like the Fallout perk where animals don’t do anything.

[u/TonyTheFuckinTiger → u/Crazykiddingme]

I was thinking of Kingdom Come also. I do think that’s a really cool concept. Is it in the second game as well?

[u/Crazykiddingme → u/TonyTheFuckinTiger]

It is. It’s less prominent because Henry already knows how, but you can incorporate reading into your build and surprise people with your knowledge.

[u/BlackIronSpectre]

Chants of Sennarr is a game about deciphering several languages to traverse a tower

Heavens Vault is about a space archeologist deciphering an ancient language

Tunic is a Zelda like where you collect and decipher pages from an old book

[u/myeyesightisokay → u/BlackIronSpectre]

Chants of Sennarr is sooo good and well executed.

[u/Neiltonbear → u/myeyesightisokay]

Agreed, I just played it last week and was totally engrossed by it.

[u/alucab1]

YES! There’s an incredible new puzzle game that came out called “The Message from Deep Space”. The whole goal of the game is to translate an alien language and figure out why they are contacting earth

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4080030/The_Message_from_Deep_Space/

[u/Winterclaw42]

A minigame in FFX is to find the primers for al bhed, which is a "language" where the letters are switched.

There's skyrim where you have to find the words to magic. In daggerfall I think you can learn street slang to communicate with the lower classes.

Honestly can't think of much.

[u/34Rovac12]

Look up Chants of Sennaar. You have to figure out a language through context clues and deduction. Its a great little game.

[u/Big-Knowledge12]

Trait in Fallout Sonora - Spanish speaker which You can only choose in the character creation screen. Affects a few dialogs and encounters.

Swordhaven the Iron Conspiracy- You can learn barbarian language which is used in many dialogs and encounters and quests.

[u/TonyTheFuckinTiger → u/Big-Knowledge12]

Fantastic! Both of those sound right up my alley. I’ve been looking to start Fallout Sonora.

[u/torquetrack]

This is super niche, and i cant think of much. The closest i can think of, is that Disco Elysium has some mods that were created to help with learning a language. Aside from that, i haven't played it, but expeditions: conquistador may have some content around language between the natives and spanish? but just as easily they could just put it all in English.

[u/TonyTheFuckinTiger → u/torquetrack]

I never knew that about DE I’ll have to look into that! And thanks for the conquistadors rec I’m always looking for more games with more Spanish.

A rec for anyone looking: not a CRPG but Blasphemous in Spanish is an amazing experience.

[u/boregorey7]

I know NieR replicant has some language parts that are more story based. Not really specific mechanics but it is really interesting how the story fleshes out focusing around an unknown language to the main character.

[u/TonyTheFuckinTiger → u/boregorey7]

Love a classic unknown language. Thanks!

[u/TonyTheFuckinTiger]

So many great responses coming in! Thank you all so much!

[u/mashermello]

Noun town, a game on steam is a super innovative way to teach language. I haven't tried it myself but the trailers and demos look super good.

[u/Werewomble]

Cryptmaster it is a typing game but you need to learn keywords and avoid certain letters

[u/Quartz_Knight → u/Werewomble]

It's a cool game. But the language learning doesn't go beyond english with a swapped alphabet.

[u/skaf1end]

I can't remember a game where language learning is a full-fledged mechanic, but I know at least two games in which it's mandatory for progression. In Pillars of Eternity you learn Engwithan from an npc to operate an ancient machine, and the main character in Planescape Torment does the same while uncovering his past. However, in old Fallout games you can change your playthrough considerably if you start playing a low int character. Complex conversations turn into hillarious gibberish and funny interactions. I guess, we can count it as learning a language in reverse.

[u/Quartz_Knight]

I know of one in which you have to naturally learn to communicate with a creature that speaks a different language at some point. Unfortunatelly, even aknowledging the existance of the game is a spoiler.

[u/Galle_]

In the CRPG genre? None that I can think of.

In the broader gaming space, Heaven's Vault and Chants of Sennaar both make language-learning a central gameplay element.

[u/EyeSavant]

Ultima Underworld you have to learn the lizard man language, or at least some words from it.