The characters in Journey do vocalize with a chiming sound, though. It isn’t just an element for communication between players either since it grows more feint as you progress up the mountain near the end so their health definitely has an effect on “speaking”.

That’s kind of the whole point of Journey. That players communicate with each other through non-traditional language. Its body language (jumping, sliding, floating, etc) and chiming with the speed and timing of chimes allowing players to “feel” what their companion is thinking and what they want each other to do.

It wouldn’t really work as a show not because they don’t talk with a literal language; but because the language used requires both people to be experiencing the moment together, at the same time in the same place in their control. A show does not give a viewer that control.