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Pentiment |OT| Art imitates death

TintoConCasera said:
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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It's Obsidian game. What do you expect?

Even your choice of who to have lunch with will have bearing on investigation. Also you will be short on time so choose carefully.
 
Burger said:
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
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There are some really cool touches, like the fonts changing when a character starts speaking to you in a more/less formal way, and the bookprinter's words being initially mirrored, like the plates in a printing press.

I'm looking forward to the patch to speed up the text and to tone down the scratchy writing sound effect, but I think I'll probably have finished the game by then.
 
My investigation is nearing a turning point and I still have no great options lol. This has been a ton of fun so far.

Its extremely tempting to replay this. Already bungled multiple things and put my foot in my mouth repeatedly.
 
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I can't do it. I'm super happy games like this arrive at such critical acclaim but I'm falling asleep every time I try making progress. Impressive branching and tons of replay value but it's just not for me. Maybe one day I'll re-discover it.
 
Bartski said:
I can't do it. I'm super happy games like this arrive at such critical acclaim but I'm falling asleep every time I try making progress. Impressive branching and tons of replay value but it's just not for me. Maybe one day I'll re-discover it.
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I know the feeling. I'm glad I have time right now to play it during the day, because I would totally fall asleep playing this at my usual gaming time: around and past midnight. This is why I never had energy to finish Pillars of Eternity even though I loved the game.
 
TintoConCasera said:
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?
Click to expand...
Choices don't affect plot, but they do have a lot of weight and consequence to the story because it affects which characters are alive/dead and their trajectories in life, among some other things.
 
In act 3, do really like this game and just want to go and see all the different routes after I complete my canonical ending.

Spent 3 minutes on the choice at the end of act 2.
 
Made it to the end.

Didn't really click for me till halfway through chapter 2, the story gets better the deeper you go but it still requires a lot of patience and I think a certain set of interests outside gaming helps.

And some real-life skills like fast reading, I don't think I would get this far if I had to listen to all the dialog in full VO.

Definitely not for everyone.
 
Act 2 has been extremely interesting so far. Definitely went places I wasn't expecting. The writing is very well done and unlike almost anything I've played due to the time period and subject matter.
 
Just finished and really enjoyed the ending, minor lull at the start of act 3 but cause act 2 ends dramatically and well but as soon as I hit late December, I was back in completely.

Need to see if there are some divergent paths regarding certain characters.
 
In the middle of act 2 and loving this!
I'm addicted to the "scritch scratch" writing sounds.
We need more games like this!
 
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Its a legit 10/10 for me. Act 3 gets a bit too slow. The gameplay could be better. But the score is there from sheer originality and the extremely high quality of the writing and the story. Layers of high quality story on top of each other in such a cool way.

Damn. I hope more people play it but it's just truly not going to hit this way for everyone.

On to the conclusion. I must be near the end. At about 30 hours playtime.
 
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Punished Miku said:
Its a legit 10/10 for me. Act 3 gets a bit too slow. The gameplay could be better. But the score is there from sheer originality and the extremely high quality of the writing and the story. Layers of high quality story on top of each other in such a cool way.

Damn. I hope more people play it but it's just truly not going to hit this way for everyone.

On to the conclusion. I must be near the end. At about 30 hours playtime.
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30 hours? My first playthrough was between 17 and 18 hours and I explored around talking to everyone in every act.
 
Handel said:
30 hours? My first playthrough was between 17 and 18 hours and I explored around talking to everyone in every act.
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🤷‍♂️ I may have taken my time a bit here and there to soak in what was happening and think about things. But I explored every single area at every single break. I dunno.

Anyway, loved the ending. Only game I've ever beaten with a bibliography in the credits.
 
Punished Miku said:
🤷‍♂️ I may have taken my time a bit here and there to soak in what was happening and think about things. But I explored every single area at every single break. I dunno.

Anyway, loved the ending. Only game I've ever beaten with a bibliography in the credits.
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The thing I'm really excited about in my second playthrough is picking different mural options, the mural I had in my first playthrough hit me harder emotionally then I ever thought it would. I had the wolf leading Mars to the spring in first part, the three saints in the second, and Otto giving a speech to the villagers while soldiers surrounded the city in the third. The family tree of the villagers done by Andreas also teared me up.
 
Handel said:
The thing I'm really excited about in my second playthrough is picking different mural options, the mural I had in my first playthrough hit me harder emotionally then I ever thought it would. I had the wolf leading Mars to the spring in first part, the three saints in the second, and Otto giving a speech to the villagers while soldiers surrounded the city in the third. The family tree of the villagers done by Andreas also teared me up.
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Family tree was done by little Andreas. Muller instead of Mahler. I really enjoyed the little windmill section at the end.
 
Punished Miku said:
Its a legit 10/10 for me. Act 3 gets a bit too slow. The gameplay could be better. But the score is there from sheer originality and the extremely high quality of the writing and the story. Layers of high quality story on top of each other in such a cool way.

Damn. I hope more people play it but it's just truly not going to hit this way for everyone.

On to the conclusion. I must be near the end. At about 30 hours playtime.
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I'm dying to play this but no Windows PC in the house and playing Scorn on xcloud made me a bit bitter towards cloud streaming. I'm hoping for at least a mac version since I know they'll never release it on PlayStation. Game looks perfect.
 
tommib said:
I'm dying to play this but no Windows PC in the house and playing Scorn on xcloud made me a bit bitter towards cloud streaming. I'm hoping for at least a mac version since I know they'll never release it on PlayStation. Game looks perfect.
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I don't think they are expecting much demand for it. Josh Sawyer already had pretty low expectations for the game.

Wouldn't count on getting it ported to more systems.
 
Handel said:
The thing I'm really excited about in my second playthrough is picking different mural options, the mural I had in my first playthrough hit me harder emotionally then I ever thought it would. I had the wolf leading Mars to the spring in first part, the three saints in the second, and Otto giving a speech to the villagers while soldiers surrounded the city in the third. The family tree of the villagers done by Andreas also teared me up.
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I just finished it too. Took me 12 hours and I got two thirds of the same ending as you. What a beautiful game, I'm sure that's going to stay with me for a long time.

Fear of people finding out that the saints are just old legends rebranded for a new religion is a great plot twist. Common knowledge today, but probably considered heretical in a 16th century rural community.

In my town, the old pagans worshipped Sulis, goddess of the hot springs, and when the Romans came over they were smart enough to say "Hey, we worship her too but we call her Minerva." So she became Sulis-Minerva, and the locals could cope with that. The monks of Tassing could have learned something there.

One thing I was confused about - in the family tree at the end, it looks like Vaclav (? the friend of the charcoal guy) is being burned at the stake. Is that an event I somehow missed?
 
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tommib said:
I'm dying to play this but no Windows PC in the house and playing Scorn on xcloud made me a bit bitter towards cloud streaming. I'm hoping for at least a mac version since I know they'll never release it on PlayStation. Game looks perfect.
Click to expand...

Surely a game like this would be better suited for cloud streaming vs something like Scorn?
 
calistan said:
I just finished it too. Took me 12 hours and I got two thirds of the same ending as you. What a beautiful game, I'm sure that's going to stay with me for a long time.

Fear of people finding out that the saints are just old legends rebranded for a new religion is a great plot twist. Common knowledge today, but probably considered heretical in a 16th century rural community.

In my town, the old pagans worshipped Sulis, goddess of the hot springs, and when the Romans came over they were smart enough to say "Hey, we worship her too but we call her Minerva." So she became Sulis-Minerva, and the locals could cope with that. The monks of Tassing could have learned something there.

One thing I was confused about - in the family tree at the end, it looks like Vaclav (? the friend of the charcoal guy) is being burned at the stake. Is that an event I somehow missed?
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It's an epilogue event that can happen depending on your interactions with Vaclav. From what I've read Vaclav can have multiple potential endings, from being burned alone, being burned with Ursula(if you foster her keeping ahold of old traditions without warning her about keeping them to herself), or Vaclav marrying Ursula without either burning(don't know how this one works)
 
Handel said:
It's an epilogue event that can happen depending on your interactions with Vaclav. From what I've read Vaclav can have multiple potential endings, from being burned alone, being burned with Ursula(if you foster her keeping ahold of old traditions without warning her about keeping them to herself), or Vaclav marrying Ursula without either burning(don't know how this one works)
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I thought he was driving the cart to take Magda to Prague at the end. It's a bit unfortunate that he ended up getting torched - with so many minor characters over such a long time, it was hard to keep up with everyone's background and relationships. A little text explanation would have been welcome there.
 
calistan said:
I thought he was driving the cart to take Magda to Prague at the end. It's a bit unfortunate that he ended up getting torched - with so many minor characters over such a long time, it was hard to keep up with everyone's background and relationships. A little text explanation would have been welcome there.
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I prefer it as something to catch when seeing the ending, without extra detail. Not everything needs to be laid out, if you ever talked to the dude his fate is not surprising.
 
Handel said:
I prefer it as something to catch when seeing the ending, without extra detail. Not everything needs to be laid out, if you ever talked to the dude his fate is not surprising.
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Yes, the way they did it is definitely more in keeping with the feel of the game. I'm just no good at remembering names or backstories, especially when I'd put the game down at the end of a chapter, spend the next week on Call of Duty, and come back to find all the journal entries have been erased. I could have used a "previously on Pentiment" recap.
 


The best interview with Josh about Pentiment that I've listened to so far. The part about not including alibis as part of the investigation is the highlight for me.
 
Handel said:


The best interview with Josh about Pentiment that I've listened to so far. The part about not including alibis as part of the investigation is the highlight for me.
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Great interview. I especially liked the way he chose his writing collaborators based on their knowledge (or lack of) to write specific characters and dialogue. Also, I will buy the game so that Sawyer can hire a cleaning lady and sort that mess in the background.

Anyhoo. Phew, I finished it. For the lack of a better word, this was monumental. It asked me to be patient at the beginning and the better part of the third act, but it all came together beautifully at the end. I'm still absorbing it all but I don't think I have ever felt playing a videogame like I did at the end of Pentiment. Just a profoundly satisfying feeling that you just witnessed something special. You know, I felt like that at the very end of The Wire's last episode, some movies and books I read over the years, but never with a videogame. Just so much rich history, exceptional writing, humour (it can be a very funny game) and the fact that it is one of these rare exceptions when a game is about something and thematically resonates because of the times we are living right now.

Obsidian, you talented bastards!
 
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Just finished it myself tonight. Fantastic experience. When people talk about "games as art", this is up there with the best of them.

That segue into the final scene is real goosebumps stuff.

Amazing work from all involved.
 
I hated this game, a complete waste of time. I liked the art design and the music and wondered where the mystery would take me. The game is so slow that the subject to be told in 2 hours has extended to 10-15 hours due to the clunkiness of the game. Highly praised finale was terrible too. Like I said, a complete waste of time. If you haven't played it yet, watch it at 2x speed on youtube and skip 2/3 of the game. Oh my god, what did I play? How can I take back my free time?
 
ChoosableOne said:
I hated this game, a complete waste of time. I liked the art design and the music and wondered where the mystery would take me. The game is so slow that the subject to be told in 2 hours has extended to 10-15 hours due to the clunkiness of the game. Highly praised finale was terrible too. Like I said, a complete waste of time. If you haven't played it yet, watch it at 2x speed on youtube and skip 2/3 of the game. Oh my god, what did I play? How can I take back my free time?
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Props to you for giving it a chance and sticking with it too the end.
 
So is anyone playing this on the new formats yet? I thought it was a fantastic game, and seeing that they added a new area seems like a good reason to go back and play it again. I played on PC, which seemed like the best way at the time, since it's a point and click. Does it support touch screen / touchpad on Switch and PS5?
 
The physical card deck is still in stock for anyone interested.

gear.xbox.com

Pentiment Samuel’s Lansquenet Playing Cards

If you enjoyed playing Samuel’s Lansquenet in Pentiment, then you’ll enjoy playing it anywhere you go with this beautiful playing card deck! Each deck includes instructions for the 40-card game and has additional cards so the deck can be used to play more modern 52-card games. 2.5" x 3.5"
gear.xbox.com gear.xbox.com
 
XXL said:
A high frame is always welcome, regardless of genre.

What a weird fucking comment.
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The fucking weird thing is getting a hard on because a game...a point and click adventure of all things, is now running at a frame rate that would not improve the fundamental gaming experience at all.

Pentiment could run at 10fps and it would still be bloody great. Its strength is in its story telling and atmosphere not in it's ways of providing ammunition for graphics whores and sad fanboys.
 
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SirTerry-T said:
The fucking weird thing is getting a hard on because a game...a point and click adventure of all things, is now running at a frame rate that would not improve the fundamental gaming experience at all.

Pentiment could run at 10fps and it would still be bloody great. Its strength is in its story telling and atmosphere not in it's ways of providing ammunition for graphics whores and sad fanboys.
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To be fair, the higher the framerate, the less blurring you get when images move. You get used to whatever you have in front of you, but I've got a 144 Hz monitor next to a 60 Hz one on my PC, and it's massively obvious when dragging a window from one to the other. Smooth... jerky.

Not that it's going to make a difference when reading text in Pentiment.
 
SirTerry-T said:
The fucking weird thing is getting a hard on because a game...a point and click adventure of all things, is now running at a frame rate that would not improve the fundamental gaming experience at all.

Pentiment could run at 10fps and it would still be bloody great. Its strength is in its story telling and atmosphere not in it's ways of providing ammunition for graphics whores and sad fanboys.
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I dont see why 120fps would be a detriment though. So why not? 120fps improves my web browsing by making scrolling more fluid to the eye. I'd expect Pentiment to look a little nicer when it pans the landscape and or your character moves across the screen. Its a plus. And if you want to lock it to 60 as before, you can via the PS5 OS settings. Seems like a win win to me.
 
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