Pentiment - Take a look, I'm in a book!

Pentiment is really, really good you guys. It's an adventure game from a small internal team at Obsidian that takes place in the mid 1500s Bavaria. You play as Andreas - a journeyman artist finishing his masterwork under the tutelage of a old monk at one of the last religious scriptoriums in the area. Once he finishes and presents to the council in Nuremberg, he'll be a full fledged master and can make art and take contracts of his own. Basically, he's finishing his graduate thesis. The game is a wonderfully slow burn as you get to know the peasants and townsfolk in the village as well as the monks in the abbey for a good long while before the first mystery presents itself. The game makes sure you're invested in the world it's building before really introducing the stakes.

As befits how an artist who works in a scriptorium would see the world, the game is presented like a 16th century manuscript with all the characters looking like they stepped out of an illuminated page.The behind the scenes video they put out for it describes the art style and structure really well, so I'd give it a watch. There are some mild spoilers for act one, so if you want to go in completely blind, skip the story section.


What's got me still thinking about the game is the way its structured. The story is solid from beginning to end with lots of good characters, but how you build Andreas and what choices you make with him impact how the story moves forward. I don't think you can get stuck, but there are multiple conclusions to each act that impact the world going forward. What skills and backgrounds you choose for Andreas influence what clues he picks up on and which path becomes more natural for him to follow.

TL;DR - if you like adventure games at all, try this one out. It's on sale on Steam right now too.

This is on Gamepass too! I've only played a couple hours or so and really enjoy it so far. I also like that they have the option to turn off the script if you find it hard to read, I'm okay with it but could see that being tough for some people.

This sounds super boring but at the same time, I'm extremely interested???

I've been slowly making my way through this and really enjoying it over the past month or so. Thought about making a thread too, but couldn't decide on a title. This was a very good choice, here are some of the ones I considered:

Pentiment: Luther, I barely even know 'er!
Pentiment: I've got 99 theses but a bishop ain't one
Vent about pent-up Pentiment sentiment

Olli said:

This sounds super boring but at the same time, I'm extremely interested???

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I do want to note that I generally dislike adventure games but am enjoying this a lot. There's so many fascinating details and historical info. It's absolutely a slow game and one that benefits from long play stretches.

karzac said:

Pentiment: I've got 99 theses but a bishop ain't one

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This is great

I feel like I failed a lot of the personality checks/convincing people tests, but maybe you're only supposed to pass a few? I'm glad I at least convinced (spoiler for the end of Act 2) Caspar to leave. Interestingly I'm reading that a lot of people think you have to be incredibly rude to him to make him leave, but I felt like I was nice to him other than when he refused to leave to get the rope so we both fell in the ruins so I gave him an earful.

Anyway, beat it tonight, so good. I expected to see more of an impact in the epilogue of my decision to tell everyone the truth about the saints, but oh well. Also I know enough Latin and Greek that the very first time I saw St Satia's shrine I said "wait what, that's just Diana". I assumed it was just the developers using an odd reference or being lazy but nope!

I finished up my first run a couple days ago as well.

I’m curious what everyone’s Andreas was like and how much that affected the act I and II conclusions. Mine had a bookworm background, studied in Italy, had medical training, with logic and life sciences experience.

Act I - I accused the prior of witchcraft after I found his magic supplies and a blackmail note from the noble fixing him to perform a ritual that would have gotten him probably burned at the stake.

Act II - After act I, I was on the outs with the abbey but the town was fine with me and ended up finding out Guy was cooking the abbey books and skimming off the top. Otto caught him hiding evidence.

Mr Bean said:

I’m curious what everyone’s Andreas was like and how much that affected the act I and II conclusions.

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Also started with bookworm and medical. I came from Basel and was a medical school dropout. I'm definitely curious how different the hedonist background makes things but didn't want to pick it on my first one.

I also chose the Prior on Act 1. I didn't dig up the grave after the one monk started crying in terror when I suggested it. I'd be very curious what the rest of the game is like if the Abbot likes you since he hated me.

For Act 2, I blamed Martin because I found out he's not actually Martin and had committed a murder he didn't get punished for so that was suspicious as hell. I actually didn't bother going up to the Abbey much so Guy wasn't even an option for me to blame, just Martin and the Innkeeper's wife.

For Act 3 (very big spoilers for anyone who hasn't finished Act 2, seriously!) Magdalene was a polyglot who tinkered with the inventor and was good at negotiating. I felt like this was a pretty good skillset honestly.

Other notes that are spoilers for the arc of the game:

• I loved that Matilda ended up happily married. I wanted the best for her and just abhorred the idea of accusing her in Act 1.
• I went to Prague and left Otz in the dust. Dude if you can't even get my name right fuck off. This may be related to so many real-life issues with people mispronouncing my last name.
• My Andreas spent time in Poland between Act 1 and 2, so I was delighted that meant that he understood Czech and talked in Czech to the visitors.

And things I missed:

• I wanted to go back to Ottila and help her out with chores but ran out of time.
• No one was able to translate the Historia Tassiae. It sounds like this is normal but would have been interested in a bit more about that.
• It's just so clear you can't do everything in one playthrough, there were so many little things I had to choose between.

Adrenaline said:

Nobody can translate the Tassiae before the ending because it has the answer to the game's overarching mystery.

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I thought it would be interesting if Father Thomas lied when translating it or said he needed to keep it to study since it was difficult or something like that.

The singular thing that annoyed me a bit about the game is that I figured out who the real killer was through the first avenue of investigation I pursued, but the game doesn't allow you to further investigate or accuse the true culprit in Act 1. I felt WAYS about making that first accusation when I was near certain of who it really was so I guess the writing still definitely succeeded. I do fully get why, both from Andreas's unique headspace and just on a technical design level but still.

Otherwise this is a damn good and extremely well-written game.

Oathbreaker said:

The singular thing that annoyed me a bit about the game

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I'm really curious how you figured that out so early, I don't remember anything that would have hinted at it for me but maybe I missed that.

The game doesn't give any proof, but during the conversations my Andreas had with Cecilia and Matilda it got mentioned that the note Matilda received was written in such accurate script that only Cecilia or Thomas were likely to be capable of it, and I fully trusted Cecilia. Or at least I *think* that was the conversation, there was so much in the game I may be slightly misremembering that. I guess "I figured it out" might be a bit strong but it felt like the game tipped its hand a bit when I couldn't find a way to investigate the notes after having a hint as huge as that dropped on me.

@SilentSnake very kindly gifted me this on Steam last week (thank you again!).

I’m looking forward to delving into it once I have my new PC together. It looks so good.

Adrenaline said:

Nobody can translate the Tassiae before the ending because it has the answer to the game's overarching mystery.

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Violentvixen said:

I thought it would be interesting if Father Thomas lied when translating it or said he needed to keep it to study since it was difficult or something like that.

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What I like is the game foreshadows the twist quite a bit. A constant theme is the old being built on the new. The town was built on the Roman foundations. Lucky uses scavenged Roman stone in building the town hall. Researching the mural, you get 3 very similar origin legends for the town from 3 different time periods. Ill Peter and the widow follow the old ways and the new simultaneously, and most of the town does too with the Christmas and bonfire celebrations. Those are definitely pagan ceremonies that were adapted. Roman and Catholic religions are notorious for absorbing local customs into their own belief structures. The rest of the town (and the previous abbot) seemed fine letting the Catholic and the pagan exist in superposition - only Thomas had a problem with it.

Mr Bean said:

A constant theme is the old being built on the new.

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Also something worth pointing out that I noticed a lot of people don't know is that this is the definition of the title of the game. It's a term used in art for painting over something else.

I’ve started a new game with a scoundrel background who interned in the low country, and studied law, Latin, and the occult. So far the biggest difference has been that Andreas is much more aggressive and suggests problem solving with his fists much more frequently. I’ll let you know if things change significantly as I go forward.

Just finished this, after playing it on and off since November. Really enjoyed it - I thought the third act especially was really wonderful, and I loved the themes it was exploring. It kinda lulls you into forgetting that there's a murder mystery at all, and I was surprised by the conclusion ( in part because the idea of saints being based on Roman Gods is so straightforward to me that I just took it for granted ) but I should have been expecting it, because it's very in keeping with the Name of the Rose inspiration.

Violentvixen said:

For Act 2, I blamed Martin because I found out he's not actually Martin and had committed a murder he didn't get punished for so that was suspicious as hell. I actually didn't bother going up to the Abbey much so Guy wasn't even an option for me to blame, just Martin and the Innkeeper's wife.

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I didn't pursue this plot, but I strongly suspected this would be it's outcome, because it's based on a famous story which was the basis of a famous book on medieval history The Return of Martin Guerre . I imagine the book was also a general inspiration for the game too.

Come to think of it, this is the sort of game I would love a bibliography/inspiration list for, because it's very clearly pulling from specific places.

karzac said:

it's based on a famous story which was the basis of a famous book on medieval history The Return of Martin Guerre .

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Whaaaat

karzac said:

Come to think of it, this is the sort of game I would love a bibliography/inspiration list for, because it's very clearly pulling from specific places.

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Oh yeah very much so.

It's a great book too, I recommend it

Rob Zacny of Waypoint was interviewing director Josh Sawyer about the game and realized to his surprise that they both had the same history professor in college. Later they did another interview that included two of the historical consultants on the game, including that professor. They're cool conversations about the interests Josh had that influenced the game, but not so much specific cultural inspirations. The Name of the Rose is the most obvious one, especially if you find the book in the library that describes a labyrinth in another abbey.

Adrenaline said:

the book in the library that describes a labyrinth in another abbey

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Oh dang I did not make that connection at all. It's been at least 20 years since I've read The Name of the Rose so not a huge shock I didn't remember but still.

My spouse was playing through this and I was kind of bummed that he did about 90% of the same things I did! Oh well.

So now I'm going through another playthrough and specifically choosing perks and decisions to see what's different. Went with the rapscallion personality which has been the biggest difference so far as I have a lot of different prompts for that. Also went with knowing a lot of Imperial Law, and then the Heavens and Earth and Occult interests.

Also I'd never eaten with Agnes and Lucky before, I'm in the first act and they mention two innocents and he told me about the hidden door to the library! Didn't expect that.

I hooe there's a patch for this eventually that fixes the compendium. Seems to be a bug right now that causes the terms to double up and it makes many unviewable.

karzac said:

Come to think of it, this is the sort of game I would love a bibliography/inspiration list for, because it's very clearly pulling from specific places.

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Here’s the bibliography, as typed up by Tumblr user viasplat:

Thank you! Very shocked that The Return of Martin Guerre isn't in that list, given what I mentioned upthread about one of the subplots.

MetManMas said:

I hooe there's a patch for this eventually that fixes the compendium. Seems to be a bug right now that causes the terms to double up and it makes many unviewable.

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I don't know what this means?

Violentvixen said:

I don't know what this means?

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It's a glitch in the glossary is what I mean. Here's a photo.

It's supposed to display all four of the term entries on a particular page but for whatever buggy reason it doubles up on two of them. Really hope this gets fixed.

MetManMas said:

It's supposed to display all four of the term entries on a particular page but for whatever buggy reason it doubles up on two of them. Really hope this gets fixed.

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Huh! I'm on Xbox and haven't noticed this, but could have missed it. I'll have to check next time I play.

karzac said:

Thank you! Very shocked that The Return of Martin Guerre isn't in that list, given what I mentioned upthread about one of the subplots.

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Yeah, that’s odd. For the record, Martin Guerre *is* on this list of recommended reading from the game’s director. I wonder if it just fell out of the bibliography by mistake. (Was somebody not using Zotero?)