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Pentiment |OT| Art imitates death

Burger

Member
Why couldn't save games sync between PC/Steamdeck and Xbox? Is that so difficult? It's 2022. I'd love to play on the TV sometimes and somewhere else other times.

Game is lovely though.
 
Why couldn't save games sync between PC/Steamdeck and Xbox? Is that so difficult? It's 2022. I'd love to play on the TV sometimes and somewhere else other times.

Game is lovely though.

It’s pretty annoying huh? It would be great if MS made it part of the deal if being on Gsmepass to be ‘play anywhere’.
 

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Finished first murder case and what I presume was Act 1. Story-wise it's only getting better and better. I think I'm happy with my choices so far - both big and small (going through with the evidence against someone I particularly disliked; using my proficiency in law to help one of the npcs keep their property etc.).

It's such a special game.
 
Just finishing up on Requiem and then this is my next game to play. All the positive feedback is great. Brilliant to see Microsoft taking creative risks in this remake driven generation 👏
 

calistan

Member
Just finished act 1.

I thought game was based on murder mystery. But apparently there is more to it.

It's going in wild direction.
After act 1, and me knowingly accusing an innocent man because he was the only one I’d collected enough gossip about, I’m going to take more time to investigate all avenues. Act 2 could be carnage.
 
After act 1, and me knowingly accusing an innocent man because he was the only one I’d collected enough gossip about, I’m going to take more time to investigate all avenues. Act 2 could be carnage.

Yeah, am not sure if I accused the culprit.

Dev's said that was intentional on their part.
 

calistan

Member
Yeah, am not sure if I accused the culprit.

Dev's said that was intentional on their part.
Not only was he not the culprit, he wasn't even the one I meant to accuse. He was just the one I had the most hearsay about, and I didn't want to hold my tongue and leave it to the prosecutors to decide.

I felt a little bit bad for him, but not too much because at least he was a man of faith. This game is just fantastic.
 

ungalo

Member
The game is a blast for me so far. It's nothing incredible conceptually but still very efficient at what it does.

Games based in a very fixed setting where you as a player get to see the place evolves and the stakes and implications get bigger and bigger always work with me. That's why i even like Dragon Age 2 for example, having an established and complex context (in this case an historical context) and witnessing it mature over time.

And the writing is i think very "soft" despite the depth of it, you get what Sawyer wanted to talk about but it's not shoved down your throat or anything. That's cool.
 

ungalo

Member
The ending was...very disappointing. It's The Forgotten City all over again, with an ending so bland and stereotypical you even start to reconsider the entire game.

No it was still good and i recommend it. But i honestly doubt replaying it will have that much interest.
 

Raphael

Member
The ending was...very disappointing. It's The Forgotten City all over again, with an ending so bland and stereotypical you even start to reconsider the entire game.

No it was still good and i recommend it. But i honestly doubt replaying it will have that much interest.
Thats terrible to hear. Im enjoying it immensly so far. Hope i dont get disappointed as much as you did.
 

ungalo

Member
Thats terrible to hear. Im enjoying it immensly so far. Hope i dont get disappointed as much as you did.
Perhaps that's just me that expect too much, but i feel like this kind of story always go in the same direction in the end. But even besides that i think it was rushed out, the end of the investigation i mean (the ending in itself is not that bad, nothing incredible either).
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Finally getting to play this. Really enjoying it so far. However this absolutely is not for everyone. Very slow pace and you have to love history and learning all the glossary references.

The art style is great. If if I had one small criticism, the sound design is a little too sparse and sometimes grating but I think that was probably intentional.
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
The story is definitely engrossing after you explore the church. The level of historical detail is unusually dense and if you're fine with visual novels, you'll be completely sucked in. I've never once played a game that gets this in depth in this kind of time period.

As a side note, I'm an atheist but find the extreme detail about religious history fascinating. This is a history buff's dream visual novel.

An interesting mechanic I've never seen in choice games is the thought bubble. Its subtle but kind of awesome that you get to think through some of the ramifications of some of your choices prior to picking and committing to it, with advice from different perspectives in your head.
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Did you play Disco Elysium? Your bladder and liver give you advice.
That's funny lol. No, I haven't gotten to it yet. I bought it recently though so it's on my list. Heard nothing but great things.

Another small thing I'm liking in this game though is the persuasion system. It's a small change, but kinda neat. Any time you are ready to attempt a persuasion (which doesn't happen that often) you get a breakdown of your past choices displayed and how they positively or negatively affect your chances. Basically just shows you how you can switch things up on a repeat playthrough, so that's kind of a unique approach.
 
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Should I start Pentiment next or A Plague Tale Requiem?
I don't know how long Plague Tale is going to be on Gamepass. But I assume Pentiment will be there permanently.
 
Just finished the game.

Quiet a few new concepts and experimental stuff in game.

I did not expected to be so glad to see characters grow over 25 yrs, kids growing into adults and taking charge of their lives.

I think writing was excellent and while the setting was simple, it really helped to know them and their lives.

As for ending, it was quiet satisfactory and made sense given the games historical context. Am glad they did not go for overly shocking or batshit insane ending typical for games.
 

reksveks

Member
Should I start Pentiment next or A Plague Tale Requiem?
I don't know how long Plague Tale is going to be on Gamepass. But I assume Pentiment will be there permanently.
Think plague tale requiem will be an absolute min of 6 month probably at least a year but yeah, Pentiment is going to be on it permanently.
 

Bridges

Member
Just finished this. Really incredible game. When it was announced I honestly had very little interest. I've never cared about this time period and I thought the art style was off putting but I figured, hey, it's Obsidian and it's on Game Pass so I may as well give it a go. I'm so glad I did. The game actually is beautiful in motion and there is so much heart and soul and emotion in the writing. Really after the first hour/hour and a half ish I was hooked.

I will say, my one nitpick, is I feel act III is a fair amount weaker than Acts I and II, I guess it has the misfortune of having to wrap up and resolve all the plot threads, which it does a decent enough job of. The game ends in a much more subdued way that is fairly atypical for games and would be (fittingly) more akin to a book.

Really really loved my time with this. One of the more compelling worlds I've seen this year, and you might even learn something if you stick with it long enough.
 

Burger

Member
It's not often you see a game invest so much in Typography. Not just the fonts themselves (which in Pentiments case are all custom) but an actual system for displaying them. The fonts appear initally glossy when drawn, slowly fading to matt as the ink dries on the paper. The other touches like the ink slowly fading as the quill runs dry, to the little errors that get corrected. I've not seen this in a game before and it's really nice.

There is a little explainer here about the creation process of the fonts themselves: https://lettermatic.com/custom/pentiment
 

Handel

Member
I'm in the final act of the game(I think), and this is my GOTY at the moment. This game has incredible presentation, from the way different characters dialogue is written based on their background and the speed of their writing+number of errors being based on relative education, to how certain conversations bring the characters on a journey through the books being discussed, and of course the mealtime talks that give such a down to Earth feel. Even though dialogue choices don't seem like they actually change plot full on, I can see many ways in which the characters/town would change drastically had I made different choices, and the choices I have made way ever heavier on the mind due to that. This town and it's people will stick long in my memory.

The pacing has taken a dip in the third act, for understandable reasons but still jarring, now the game just needs to stick the landing with the ending. Unless I'm really disappointed with the ending, I'm likely to start up my next playthrough shortly after finishing my first, to go for that full Hedonist Rapscallion experience of seducing nuns and headbutting people.
 

H4ze

Member
I think this is my GOTY, even if it is more of a book tho.
The story could take place just a few kilometers away from me. I live in Bavaria, very close to Austria, all the citys and places in this game just feel unnaturally real to me, well, since they are real. It truly has a special vibe to me.

I am on act 3, would be done already, but the game just did not save two times, I lost around 4 hours of playtime to this, but it's just so good, that I replayed the lost sections while choosing the exact same answers again.
 

Handel

Member
Ending of the game was solid, like a good mystery it's one you can piece together before the end, but still was a punch to the gut at times :

RIP Caspar, you were the best boy. Also, RIP Vacslav, your ideas were fascinating if heretical

Between this and Grounded, Obsidian is just knocking it out of the park this year with such tiny development teams. Pentiment is my GOTY, Obsidian my Developer of the Year. The wait for Avowed is going to be excruciating, my most anticipated game after BG3 and BOTW : TotK
 

Roberts

Member
Finally sat down to play this. If only for an hour.

Sexy fonts aside, this felt unlike any other game I have ever had the pleasure to play. Just walking around the countryside and casually discuss Martin Luther and other topics related to period art and literature - it might not sound as exciting as blasting zombies in the face with a shotgun, but it felt satisfyingly surreal. Will return. I'm hooked.
 
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gela94

Member
Just finished it a great game but still I've quite some complaints. Like the choices feel artificial and why does the book has a section for who is who but its always only a fraction, sometimes it was a bit difficult to know who was related to who. I also found
Andreas decision to save the book, very weird
They also don't make it easy to replay the game . . . .But overall still a good game.
 

Filben

Member
It's not often you see a game invest so much in Typography. Not just the fonts themselves (which in Pentiments case are all custom) but an actual system for displaying them. The fonts appear initally glossy when drawn, slowly fading to matt as the ink dries on the paper. The other touches like the ink slowly fading as the quill runs dry, to the little errors that get corrected. I've not seen this in a game before and it's really nice.

There is a little explainer here about the creation process of the fonts themselves: https://lettermatic.com/custom/pentiment
Yep, don't forget that the font is different for peasents, clerics and nobles. Peasents even have typos in their texts.
 

Handel

Member
Just finished it a great game but still I've quite some complaints. Like the choices feel artificial and why does the book has a section for who is who but its always only a fraction, sometimes it was a bit difficult to know who was related to who. I also found
Andreas decision to save the book, very weird
They also don't make it easy to replay the game . . . .But overall still a good game.
I think with my Bookworm background it made a lot of sense for Andreas to care so much for saving the books, though I think the general justification for why he goes into the flames regardless of background is that he is somewhat suicidal. He has lost his love of life, largely due to the loss of his son, the wedge that drove between him and his wife, and not even being able to enjoy his art having grown to hate the kind of works his clientele fund. Now he has returned to Tassing in a dire time, and thrust back into making decisions that sentence people to death, madness taking reign.

I also contemplated before the reveal in act III that Andreas faked his death to keep from going back to his life in Noremburg, but at least with what was stated in my playthrough that doesn't line up.
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Sup bro, quick question for those that have played the game.

Do choices have a lot of weight and consequence? Or is it one of those that give you the illusion of that but nothing else?
 
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