Jude-Emmanuel Nwosu dives into constructed languages in gaming, exploring what makes them unique and how developers weave them into their world-building
Sometimes the voice dialogue in video games is completely unintelligible and the only way to comprehend the characters is through subtitles. Maybe you've seen signs or locations that are marked with cryptic symbols that bear minimal resemblance to any recognisable alphabet. Now you may think this gibberish is employed to reduce the costs of voice actors (which cannot be ruled out entirely) or speed up the naming process. But, shock as it is, many characters are speaking an actual language that exists within the game’s universe.
Fictional languages are one of the most notable features of high fantasy narratives. Tolkien’s Elvish and Dwarvish popularised the idea of creating a fictitious language used exclusively within the context of a story. These constructed languages or “conlangs” can be seen across many different types of narrative media like books and movies but their implementation in games is unique.
Tolkien’s Elvish and Dwarvish popularised the idea of creating a fictitious language used exclusively within the context of a story.
The Nier series of games are known for their fast-paced action gameplay and emotional storytelling but another unique quality of the games is the soundtrack. Every vocal song uses the word of “Chaos Language,” a conlang created entirely by the vocalist of the soundtrack, Emi Evans.
“Chaos Language” was created to emulate what our modern languages would sound like if they devolved over time. This language only appears in the soundtrack of the Nier games and not through the voiced dialogue. The Nier games are set in a far dystopian future where an apocalypse has devastated civilisation, resetting humanity to more primitive times. Remnants of our modern society are treated as ancient relics that the characters do not understand. “Chaos Language” bears enough similarities to our modern languages to sound recognisable, but still remain alien to the listener.
“Weight of the World” is a song used prominently in NieR: Automata. At first glance, the lyrics look otherworldly but there are small traces of Latin languages hidden within. For example, the word “Angelei” sounds and looks similar to “Angel” and the word “sweisch” contains the German word “weis.” Evans is said to have based the lyrics of each song on a different language but altered the sounds and letters.
By retaining this vague relation with familiar languages, “Chaos Language” emulates how the people of the Nier games view the lost civilisation – our civilisation. They can see fragments of the old world, like partially destroyed bridges and ruined shopping malls and are aware of their human origin, but cannot fully understand the ruins.
By retaining this vague relation with familiar languages, “Chaos Language” emulates how the people of the Nier games view the lost civilisation – our civilisation.
Using sounds of real-world languages in the creation of a con-lang is not exclusive to the Nier games. The voiced dialogue of the Gravity Rush duology is spoken in a fictional language that has been unofficially dubbed “Heksevillian” in some online forums and I will continue to refer to the conlang with this term. “Heksevillian” drew inspiration from French and Japanese; it shares these building blocks with the "Chaos Language," but overall the conlangs share more differences than similarities.
Not only is “Heksevillian” actually spoken by the characters in Hekseville but it is used in the names of locations. These location names make the French influence of “Heksevillian” very apparent, for example, Vendecentre is a central hub for trade and commerce in Hekseville. The “Vende” comes from the French word "vendre” meaning to sell. While the name is apt for the type of location Vendecentre is, it sounds too familiar to a recognisable language to retain the mystique of a constructed language in the same manner as “Chaos Language.” The art style of the Gravity Rush games is based on the art of Franco-Belgian comic book strips so the heavy French influence in “Heksevillian” was likely intended to fit in with the art style. The intention behind “Chaos Language” is a lot more speculative than “Heksevillian” but it still manages to suit the aesthetic and the setting of the Nier games.
The art style of the Gravity Rush games is based on the art of Franco-Belgian comic book strips so the heavy French influence in “Heksevillian” was likely intended to fit in with the art style.
But a conlang doesn't have to spring from a futuristic thought experiment to be obscure. The Splatoon games have an original language that’s even more difficult to make sense of than “Chaos Language.” Like “Heksevilian” this language doesn’t have an official name so I will refer to it as “Inkling Language.” “Inkling Language” is vocalised by the Inklings in Inkopolis and also appears in writing like “Heksevillian,” but the implementation is very different. For starters, every voice line is put through a filter which adds more difficulty to discerning what the Inklings are saying. This filter is even applied to some of the vocal songs which are sung in “Inkling Language.” The sounds have very minimal resemblance to any kind of contemporary language making the whole language sound incomprehensible.
The written text of “Inkling Language” is much more approachable. The conlang uses symbols for its written text that, according to Inkipedia, resemble Japanese, Arabic and Cyrillic. Many fans of Splatoon have even taken to assembling an alphabet for “Inkling Language” and decoding the written text within the games. The text is mostly used in small instances like signposts or in-game menus, so translating “Inkling Language” text won’t reveal any serious hidden messages but it shows that there is some degree of coherence to the conlang.
“Inkling Language” is much more alien than “Chaos Language” or “Heksevillian” as its written text is not so easily recognisable and when it’s vocalised the conlang sounds incoherent. While “Inkling Language” keeps the mystique of being a fictional language, its obscurity can result in the conlang being dismissed as incoherent gibberish.
Often, a gaming conlang is a mere decoration for the fantasy setting. It is unlikely that every utterance of gibberish in a game is part of an elaborate language as the team behind the game likely doesn’t have time for such a niche focus. However, the games that accept the challenge of creating a conlang, at least to some capacity, will have an asset that can further illustrate the game’s setting and aesthetic themes.