diff --git a/desktop_version/CMakeLists.txt b/desktop_version/CMakeLists.txt
index 9551b50b..0d4b8a7e 100644
--- a/desktop_version/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/desktop_version/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ set(VVV_SRC
     src/FileSystemUtils.cpp
     src/Finalclass.cpp
     src/Font.cpp
+    src/FontBidi.cpp
     src/Game.cpp
     src/Graphics.cpp
     src/GraphicsResources.cpp
diff --git a/desktop_version/src/Font.cpp b/desktop_version/src/Font.cpp
index 642ff95a..3024bd87 100644
--- a/desktop_version/src/Font.cpp
+++ b/desktop_version/src/Font.cpp
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 #include "Constants.h"
 #include "CustomLevels.h"
 #include "FileSystemUtils.h"
+#include "FontBidi.h"
 #include "Graphics.h"
 #include "GraphicsUtil.h"
 #include "Localization.h"
@@ -1301,6 +1302,11 @@ void print(
         y -= h_diff_8/2;
     }
 
+    if (bidi_should_transform(text))
+    {
+        text = bidi_transform(text);
+    }
+
     int position = 0;
     uint32_t codepoint;
     while ((codepoint = UTF8_next(&text)))
diff --git a/desktop_version/src/FontBidi.cpp b/desktop_version/src/FontBidi.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d5df4cfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/desktop_version/src/FontBidi.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+#include "FontBidi.h"
+
+#include <SDL.h>
+
+#include "Alloc.h"
+#include "UTF8.h"
+
+extern "C"
+{
+#include <SheenBidi.h>
+}
+
+namespace font
+{
+
+bool bidi_should_transform(const char* text)
+{
+    // TODO
+    return true;
+}
+
+const char* bidi_transform(const char* text)
+{
+    uint32_t utf32_in[1024];
+    int n_codepoints = 0;
+
+    const char* text_ptr = text;
+    while ((utf32_in[n_codepoints] = UTF8_next(&text_ptr)))
+    {
+        n_codepoints++;
+
+        if (n_codepoints >= 1023)
+        {
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+    utf32_in[n_codepoints] = 0;
+
+    if (n_codepoints == 0)
+    {
+        return text;
+    }
+
+    static char utf8_out[1024];
+    size_t utf8_out_cur = 0;
+
+    SBCodepointSequence codepoint_sequence = {SBStringEncodingUTF32, (void*) utf32_in, (SBUInteger) n_codepoints};
+
+    SBAlgorithmRef algorithm = SBAlgorithmCreate(&codepoint_sequence);
+    if (algorithm == NULL)
+    {
+        return text;
+    }
+    SBParagraphRef paragraph = SBAlgorithmCreateParagraph(algorithm, 0, INT32_MAX, SBLevelDefaultRTL);
+    SDL_assert(paragraph != NULL);
+    SBUInteger paragraph_len = SBParagraphGetLength(paragraph);
+    SBLineRef paragraph_line = SBParagraphCreateLine(paragraph, 0, paragraph_len);
+    SDL_assert(paragraph_line != NULL);
+
+    // Make sure )brackets( are mirrored correctly...
+    SBMirrorLocatorRef mirror_locator = SBMirrorLocatorCreate();
+    if (mirror_locator != NULL)
+    {
+        SBMirrorLocatorLoadLine(mirror_locator, paragraph_line, (void*) utf32_in);
+        const SBMirrorAgent *mirror_agent = SBMirrorLocatorGetAgent(mirror_locator);
+        while (SBMirrorLocatorMoveNext(mirror_locator))
+        {
+            utf32_in[mirror_agent->index] = mirror_agent->mirror;
+        }
+        VVV_freefunc(SBMirrorLocatorRelease, mirror_locator);
+    }
+
+    SBUInteger n_runs = SBLineGetRunCount(paragraph_line);
+    const SBRun *runs = SBLineGetRunsPtr(paragraph_line);
+
+    for (SBUInteger i = 0; i < n_runs; i++)
+    {
+        bool is_ltr = runs[i].level % 2 == 0;
+        for (size_t c = 0; c < runs[i].length; c++)
+        {
+            size_t ix;
+            if (is_ltr)
+            {
+                ix = runs[i].offset + c;
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                ix = runs[i].offset + runs[i].length - 1 - c;
+            }
+
+            int out_room_left = sizeof(utf8_out) - 1 - utf8_out_cur;
+            if (out_room_left <= 0)
+            {
+                goto no_more_runs;
+            }
+
+            // TODO prolly do something with reshaping here
+
+            UTF8_encoding enc = UTF8_encode(utf32_in[ix]);
+            size_t n_copy = SDL_min(enc.nbytes, (size_t) out_room_left);
+            SDL_memcpy(
+                &utf8_out[utf8_out_cur],
+                enc.bytes,
+                n_copy
+            );
+
+            utf8_out_cur += n_copy;
+        }
+    }
+    no_more_runs:
+    utf8_out[utf8_out_cur] = '\0';
+
+    VVV_freefunc(SBLineRelease, paragraph_line);
+    VVV_freefunc(SBParagraphRelease, paragraph);
+    VVV_freefunc(SBAlgorithmRelease, algorithm);
+
+    return utf8_out;
+}
+
+} // namespace font
diff --git a/desktop_version/src/FontBidi.h b/desktop_version/src/FontBidi.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f2064775
--- /dev/null
+++ b/desktop_version/src/FontBidi.h
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#ifndef FONTBIDI_H
+#define FONTBIDI_H
+
+namespace font
+{
+
+bool bidi_should_transform(const char* text);
+const char* bidi_transform(const char* text);
+
+} // namespace font
+
+#endif // FONTBIDI_H