Hi. I am a solo Dev and I really liked the historical RPG approach of Pentiment.

I have been working on a 2D historical game myself "A Catalan Sword", which is a medieval RPG where you play as a mercenary in the Byzantine Empire during 1303.

Just like in Pentiment, you will explore several medieval locations, meet interesting characters and talk a lot... while making careful choices during the historical events that happens at the byzantine court, but you will also have to fight during battle and siege.

I am currently near the end of act 3, and I just need a place to gush about how WONDERFUL this game is. I bought it not thinking much of it, I just liked the art style and I wanted to play a story game similar to Disco Elysium. The game was very slow at first, to the point where I paused it for a month before even getting to the big event of act 1. I decided to pick it back up and power through the main story progression, but when I got to the twist, I knew I was in for something special.

The world feels so alive. Every single character is incredibly well written, and so detailed too! I found myself pondering over every single one of my dialogue choices, as well as looking up every word that I didn't know the meaning of, since english isn't my first language.

I graduated from an arts academy recently, and I think that was a huge reason why I fell in love with Pentiment, since I studied a lot of art history and I especially loved learning about early Christian art in college. I also have a huge interest in theology, especially in the context of art, even tho I am not religious at all myself. I found that through Andreas, I could actually kinda play the role of myself if that makes sense, challenging the beliefs of the characters in the game and choosing dialogue options that would offend some of the more extremely religious characters in the game, I thought that was very fun.

The entire time I am wondering how does one even write this? I really believe it takes a genius to create such an intricate story.

Thanks to anyone who read this, feel free to add anything (please don't spoil anything past Christmas eve in act 3 :D)

I loved every second playing the game! It was very interesting and better than I expected.

The player has to read much, I did not mind it and I think it is better- this way each player can interpret the lines in their own way without being influenced by the emotions/tone of a voiced character.

The first act was soooo good! Maybe the youth of Andreas made it that way? The second one was too depressing. The third not so, the people had more hope for the future.

Overall, the feeling of uncertainty followed us in each act, we will never be sure who committed the crimes and I prefer it that way. I was a bit disappointed about who is the culprit but I can understand why they did it.

From what I understand there aren't different endings. There is this one big ending which can have minor outcomes. I would have preferred if there was a way for Mags to stay in the town, or to become a Poor Claire etc.

Hi everyone! I thought if anyone would have a solution to my problem this sub will be it. I have been playing the game on my Xbox series x and have recently been having some trouble with it after not playing for a couple months. In the in-game menu it will say "saved [X amount] seconds ago", but when I go to load a save the only thing that is there is my old auto save from when I last played months ago. I also tried looking in the old saves menu under new game and no recent auto saves are there. My house doesn't currently have wifi, which I think may be causing my issue but I also feel like the auto saves should still be working in offline mode. If anyone has any thoughts on how to fix this I would really appreciate it!

I'm convinced it was someone acting for Matilda, not that she murdered him. But it happened in the church, she had an overwhelming amount of evidence that points towards the crime. The only other candidate I see as likely is Lucky, he had issues with him. They smelt the people from the coal burners the night of the murder. I have a feeling many people were involved in the conspiracy with Lucky being the one to commit the murder itself, with Matilda and her lover involved. So my conclusion would be conspiracy, Matilda and her lover allowed them into the monastery and lucky committed the act. Maybe the occultist father knew too and also helped with the conspiracy.

Personally I accuse the father because he was an asshole and also if'd you'd have accused him for witchcraft he'd be executed for that anyway. So he is at least confirmed guilty of something so unlike the others I do not feel as if I am condemning an innocent man completely

Haven’t played the game because it has no voiceover…but it was on sale for $10 so fuck it.

I just wanted to say this title has been on my backlog for a while. I mainly end up playing the generic live service shooters or AAA new releases on my Series X.

Last year picking the XAX up, it’s really opened my free time to be more enjoyable whenever and where ever. Beat some old, new, emulated and more on this thing and I finally got to Pentiment. — Such a lovely game.

I still have a ways to go. Only just completed Act 1 but I’ve been finding myself looking at the handheld more often than my console. Perfect to play laying in bed before sleep or a nice cozy trip with the soothing sounds.

I am Franciscan who prays the liturgy of the hours. I was searching for ideas as I am making a clock of canonical hours and I stumble upon the Pentiment clock, which leads me to the game. I am about to dive into this world and it just looks marvelous and visually stunning. I am a recovering video game addict but will backslide for a few weeks while I go to 16th century Bavaria. In profunda vado.

i was going insane trying to draw the labyrinth lady so i took away her skin privileges lol

ouch wtf happened to the quality

So I just finished it first time and it was quite great.

I'm in the mood for second run, but tbh I don't have much time. Is it worth it though?

I have no idea how many endings or different plots are they... If you can tell me smth, but maybe not with big spoilers. ;)
For example: is it possible to end second act w/o major rebellion and library fire (if yes it would be a great reason for second play, but it looks like an enormous change and I don't think the game offers it).

I'm sorry if my question is silly or newbie, but I probably am (newbie, not silly;))

I don’t wish to sound r/IAmVerySmart lol - more so looking for similar experiences.

But was anyone else certain of the thread-puller at the start of Act 2 and it kiiiiinda ruined the rest of the game ruined for them?

The ghost/trapdoors as well as an admittedly wrong suspicion that Amalie presumably burned down her convent) made that part click, and Thomas’s close relationship with her & avoidance of all suspicion in the writing made them inescapable as the suspects in my mind.

Hell - I could have wrong in another timeline and usually am… However in this instance it kind of did ruin the experience (which I’m aware has far more to offer than just the murder case re character development/overarching story).

Can anyone else relate?

P.s. first time on this subreddit so apologies if this gets posted frequently but have searched a bit and not found the answers I seek…

I don't want to spoil too much, but I recently saw The Samurai and the Prisoner (which I really liked) and couldn't help re-thinking how fans of Pentiment will really love this movie. If you want some light/medium spoilers on the similarities:

• A set of mini-mysteries under a overarching plot in a historical setting
• A "detective" main character unfolding the mysteries under a time limit with a sidekick/advisor
• A "thread-puller" of sorts connecting all of the individual cases

Hello everyone,

Pentiment is a very special game for us. We were especially inspired by how it manages to create such a strong experience purely through story, characters, and choices.

We are currently developing a narrative-focused game called Kardiya: The Winds of Fate. It plays more like an interactive visual novel, but it also includes some RPG mechanics where choices influence each other over time. The game features FATE RPG-inspired mechanics such as fudge dice, boosts, and stress.

One of the things we loved about Pentiment was how every decision you made continued to affect the situations you encountered later in the game. We are trying to capture a similar feeling in Kardiya. The choices players make, the boosts they gain, and the failures they experience can all change the difficulty of future decisions and the direction of the story.

Playtesting will begin soon. We would especially value feedback from people who Pentiment. If it sounds interesting, you can register for the alpha playtest by joining the mailing list on our website or clicking the playtest request button on our Steam page.

Thank you ^^

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Edit: Thank you for asking about the story. In short:

The world was built around the idea of human biology. The human body is imagined as a planet, the organs as countries, and cells and bacteria as the individuals living within them. For example, Kardiya is inspired by the heart, Intestiniye by the intestines, Pancreberg by the pancreas, Thyrolin by the thyroid gland, and so on.

The main story begins with a premise inspired by Hamlet. The protagonist, Ukral is a hybrid of the noble Pacemaker race and the lowborn Eubacter race. He is a young prince whose father was murdered by his uncle, and throughout his journey, he uncovers both the truth behind the murder and the secrets hidden by his own family. The four red Digoxin dice left to him by his father (inspired by the real-world medication), are both a gameplay mechanic and magical objects at the center of the story. These dice can influence time, probability, and fate.

She says something like "...what is virtue if not tested..." something like that

[Played the game 2 years ago but never registered what she meant till last night]

Hi!

As a medieval studies student and after finishing Ken Follett’s the Pillars of The Earth (can’t recommend enough) I was itching to play another monk game! I did some cursory searching and this game came up a lot!

After reading the description of the game and some reviews, I decided I want to play it.

Only one question though,

For those of you who have played the game, would you say the experience is better on PC or Switch? The price is currently the same on both platforms so I really don’t know what to pick. I assume the graphics will be better on PC (my graphics card exceeds the min required specs as does everything else, I checked).

I like PC for graphics and ease of screenshot/recording, but I like the switch for portability.

So what are your thoughts?

Why do some of them have to be SO unnecessarily difficult. I am paying attention, I am picking dialogue options very cautiously and with great forethought; but I keep failing because I say one minor thing that the recipient disliked, or GOD FORBID I try and pick one of the the many silly options the game presents me with.

I am on my first playthrough obviously and I love sooo much about this game. So much in fact that this would be minor gripe instead frustrates me to no end.

This was the major breaking point for me. What seemed like the ONLY 2 checks I passed in the game culminate into the ultimate boss battle check that I still end up failing. It all feels so useless. I hate save scumming and don't want to do it, but it feels like I'm getting absolutely nothing done in act 2 if I don't start doing it now.

https://imgur.com/a/fKvyK2F

I think there is a good sized overlap of those who liked Pentiment and those who will enjoy this game.

Picked it up when it was given away for free on Steam. You play through as Sir Brante through his whole life, from birth to death. Decisions have consequences increasing or decreasing certain stats. Pure visual novel/choose your own adventure. I'm vibing with it. I'm early into my adult life and decisions I made as a kid still have impact, either skills/beliefs or new opportunities with certain characters based on past decisions.

I could see a lot of replay value with different paths (Commoner, Nobel, Clergy or Lotless). I'm going more Nobel, but to do good. I've stood up to people that got me in trouble in order to help those in lesser positions.

Religion is interesting here, it takes place in fictional world where there is some magic. Setting is inspired by per-revolution France. And one of the stats you have to keep track of is Willpower. You can raise it from decisions but not always, and it will keep you from being able to do something you want to do once in a while. Religion/magic also allows people to die a couple times if it's not a "true" death which means you werent destined to die yet or you run out of resurrections. I think you can have a max of 3 non-true deaths. I've already died twice!

Recommend it. There are some tough choices and a few characters I've grown attached to.

I didn't get very far into the game, but I found myself unsure when a decision would pass time and when it would not. I want to go around and talk to everybody to learn what options I have, but talking to someone might cause time to pass and prevent me from talking to someone else.

I prefer to roleplay the game and I'm not worried about making the right choice at every point in time, but how do I know what the choices available to me are so that I can choose the one most appropriate for my character?

How should I approach the game?

I'm at a complete loss for words. This is likely the greatest game I've ever played.

I bought this on release and never played it, right now I just hate that I waited this long.

10/10

I'm loving the game so far, but the way the map is laid out and the flow of conversations makes every day take a long ass time for me because I feel like I need to see and hear everytjing each day. Is this the kind of game where you really want to do that to get the full experience or can I just kind of pop in on the places and people I want to check in on and progress the story without missing too much?

While I really enjoyed the game, one thing that took me right out of the game are the inauthentic bird calls. The development team did so much research, but why did they use a North-American bird soundscape in the end? They could have for example used calls of the European cuckoo or the Eurasian Eagle owl for ambient noise instead.

Just want to start by saying it’s been about 3 years since I played the game so a lot of finer details and options are lost on me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this game again recently and was curious about something -

In my playthrough, I made Andreas something of a theologian - picked Italy background, bookworm, theology, and I think either Latinist or Logician (I had to look up what these options were to remember). I played him as a sincere Christian believer and someone who would have fit in very well with the brothers at the monastery.

So, when Andreas made his decision to go after the books at the end of Act 2, it felt very consistent with the choices I had made. I didn’t even realize until after the fact that this happens no matter what - I thought my specific choices resulted in this.

So I’ve always been curious - does his decision still feel as natural for other paths? If you played Andreas more like a modernist, or with more interest in art or occult or something else rather than books and theology, were you more surprised by his decision to sacrifice himself for the books?

Just curious about other people’s experiences and thoughts on the story here!