In Hamham Heartbreak you can buy popcorn and you just get one big popcorn and it's adorable
[YT clip of ClownDepot playing HamHam Heartbreak]
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxkDMFWjrsjzBGWInuaLbWcImncSmTq2YM
Hamtaro, Hamhams Unite: "Everyone is doing stuff around town. Learn hamchat and get everyone back to the clubhouse for Boss' big surprise!"
Hamham Heartbreak: "The devil is causing mayhem around town and making people angry! You have been tasked by an angel to foil his plans and help people repair their friendships!"
I really like the Hamham model of a puzzle-adventure game. You start with 4 adventure-game verbs (talk, sniff/get, hit, dig/get/enter) and the main mechanic is solving social puzzles and having conversations so people will say other words that you can learn.
So lots of stuff has contextual extra verbs, and if you don't know the word you need it shows up as ??? and you know to cone back later.
So you wander round and someone will say "Hey, can you [Tah-da] this to my crush?"
Dead easy task, one step.
BUT now you know [Tah-da] and might think "Wait! This is probably what I need to solve that problem in the amusement park!"
It's a big web of a logic puzzle built with a bunch of adorable language and sprite animation.
@rockario So the words you learn are verbs and you-the-player needs to puzzle out their meanings?
@robryk No, the verbs are silly hamchat like "Hif-hif" and "Tak-Q" but you always get the English meaning with them. Part of the game is filling out the dictionary, and puzzles will usually be what word to use on what object/person.
BUT when you try to interact with something, you are given a list of contextual verbs you can use. And if there is a word you can use here that you don't know, that is when you see ???
// TIL about hamchat
Ah, so this is rather like a puzzle of getting someone to say the words you need (like that thing from Sneakers where the protagonists were recording words that someone said in order to splice them together to fool a voice identification system)? I.e. it's similar to the case of "I know them all, but can't say them/use them until I hear them at least once"?
@rockario Hm... if you think you might enjoy the thing that's sort-of in the direction I described earlier, then Heaven's Vault might strike your fancy.
@robryk Oh yeye, I have seen Heaven's Vault. That genre of learning a conlang through puzzles is so cool.
@robryk Basically yeah! The theming of them being silly hamster words accompanied by a cute little emote-animation makes it a fun thing to collect.