Pentiment is a superb game that marks an important step forward for its genre. Quiet, contemplative and intelligent, it is a shining example of what happens when a team is allowed to expand their horizons and take risks.
Pentiment is the kind of masterwork that Andreas chases early in the game, and it's equally as flawed, biased, subjective, and captivating as the pieces he's inspired by. Play it and decide for yourself whether it's worthy of that kind of comparison. That's the point.
Pentiment is not going to be popular. I do think however that it will become a cult classic… It’s a unique, dazzling work of art that will stand the test of time for as long as we remember it.
Pentiment is one of those games that seem simple but enclose you more than what they show from the outside. It is a narrative with a strong classic adaptation, which many lovers of the middle ages and the genre will love. It is not the perfect game, but it will give us a very interesting story.
Learn to move at Tassing’s sedate pace and patience will be rewarded as a seemingly simple murder mystery makes way for a rich portrait of village life and the difficult choices that come to define it.
Pentiment strives to exist somewhere between a history book and historical fiction, not quite committing to a detailed look at history or fulfilling a narrative arc. This is a detriment to the game's conclusion, dampening my memories of the game save for the stories of individual characters. I retain a soft spot for the wise Illuminata and her conversations with Andreas about literature and religion, and I have a parental fondness for a young peasant girl who I watched grow from a gurgling toddler to a young woman. Witnessing their lives play out is a narrative delight, only enhanced by the creative use of Pentiment's different fonts to better convey a person's societal station or education. But limiting how much time the player actually has to engage in the game's best parts hurts the overall experience too much.
A narratively-brilliant, excellent, and original medieval adventure game with a unique art style and extremely deep choice and dialog reactivity. There's a good amount of the Persona games here with Pentiment's time management system, where you only have certain amount of time segments in a day, and have to pick and choose what to do with each one. You also build up relationships by talking to people and saying the right things, which ultimately helps you achieve your goals. Pentiment also reminded of Frogwares' Sherlock games because you spend most of your time investigating and following up on clues, usually to solve a murder.
The reason I can't rate it higher is that there isn't that much gameplay to speak of. It's almost all clicking on things and choosing dialog options. One of the selling points of the game, the feeling of authenticity, is also a negative, as most NPCs are fairly mundane, and talking to them isn't that interesting. It's a masterfully-crafted adventure game, but I found a lot of it dull, talking to villagers about raising kids or a monk about life in a monastery. I seldom say this, but it could have used some more whackiness and excitement.
Went into this not knowing a thing, but found the writing pretty banal and the gameplay tedious. Personally didn't like the writing, feels high-handed and pretentious, and the art is overrated
SummaryStep into a living illustrated world inspired by illuminated manuscripts and printed woodcuts in a time when Europe is at a crossroads of great religious and political change. Walk in the footsteps of Andreas Maler, a master artist who finds himself in the middle of murders, scandals, and intrigue in the Bavarian Alps. Choose your backgr...