Fez – Solving the Language Code Puzzle

fez

A lot of text in Fez is encoded, including text from a number of NPCs. I'd assumed that you have to do something in-game to unlock the translation, but I haven't come across anything of the sort yet. Is there a Rosetta Stone-style resource in the game, or is the player actually intended to use cryptographic methods to solve the substitution?

Note that I'm not asking for a translation resource. I want to solve this puzzle myself, but I'd like to know if I actually should have been copying the tiny text from all those NPCs I encountered.

Best Answer

There is one room in particular that provides what you're looking for. You don't need to copy NPC dialog, though part of the fun is copying the other wall-writings for later consideration. So there is no single intended method (I imagine most people will look online)—your method could work, though it sounds frustrating.

Want a hint for that room's location?

It's off of the waterfall room.

Want an even bigger hint?

A pillar in the room links the code to an English pangram (sentence containing every letter of the alphabet).

And to give it away:

In the tree room above the waterfall, a fox jumps over a dog next to this pillar, which reads all the way around: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." (image)