Deep, vibrant and beautiful experience.

First of all, I'm OUTRAGED by how much people misunderstand this game.
Yes, it's rough around some edges: transitions eats time and sometimes occur without warning the player, maybe resulting in a slower experience than intended.
Also, this game is not even close to what Chants of Sennaar is. The only thing they have in common is the fact that you'll be deciphering a lost language, and that's it. The purpose of this mechanic, nor the way it's implemented are similar.

This is an extremely curated and deep exploration of an an ancient civilisation, through observation and interaction with the current context the protagonist moves in (social, cultural and geo-political).
What makes this possible is the unbelievable worldbuilding that's been done, which blew me away at every interaction I've had up until now.
Every character has depth and their motivations and (re)actions make the world feel alive and kicking.
Every place has a unique atmosphere and vibe, and you can breath history sleeping behind them.

The context-dependant way this game handles language learning is so good. Every word, phrase and meaning is tied to places, situations and functions you meet them in, and every piece of lore you find helps building new knowledge or adjusting what you previously discovered.

All of the above concurs to a slow experience: you will need to take your time exploring, making hypothesis and figuring things out. And the sense of emergent discovery that comes out of those aspect is something truly unique and magnificent.
About the complaints on the walking: yes you'll be walking around a lot, but that's functional to the experience of discovery - both through observing your surroundings, and discussing ideas and hypothesis with your traveling companion.

I understand this is not an experience most people long for, but has been to me one of the most impactful gaming experience in the last years.
Can't recommend enough.

I tried hard to like this game, given the enormous hard work clearly poured through many aspects of the game, but I couldn't.

The music is beautiful, as well as the art. Language puzzles are nice and the game pushes you to keep going in order to add more words to your vocabulary.

But, I had an issue with the main character. I didn't expect that the first interactions we see from her are rather rude to people who, according to what we know, has been kind to her. When you are given answer choices from her, only a few of them are actually nice, in different contexts. I know you can't be nice everywhere nor to everyone but I just couldn't pass it.

Another thing that I didn't like is that some words that I supposedly confirmed and added to my dictionary were just given to me without a logical connection. I get this should happen more often at the beginning, when you rely a lot on guesswork, but after playing for several hours it kept happening.

And, finally, and this is still personal, I quickly got lost with the lore. Several hours of exploring, and I still don't know which era came first and which next. And, frankly, while I love to discover things the archaeological way (I kinda do that for a living, you could say), if you are progressing through the story without confirmation of this information, it just feels like I'm just playing a mechanical game without much sense. It his highly probable that I got distracted at some point since I had to pause sometimes in order to attend some occasional chores, but still.

The pace of the game is slow, and because of this aspect of the story and the info it gives you, it felt even slower for me.

I'd recommend this game if you haven't played Chants of Senaar before, and if you have a lot of time and enjoy interstellar stories.

Be aware going into it: the pace is slow. This is not a game for the impatient. I like the way that the history and language gradually comes out over time, though.

If you are prepared to take your time with it, inhabit the character and let the story unfold rather rushing to get things done, it can be an enjoyable journey on the rivers.