A lot of what this does is fucking genius but the way it uses fonts to portray someone's culture, accent or tone is pure distilled captial G Genius.
There's a bit where you're talking to this farmer and he starts talking with this hard to read, messy handwriting because, y'know, he's a farmer, he's got a thick accent, the font represents that. Then in some throwaway line of dialogue he mentions that he's actually quite well read and suddenly the font changes to this beautiful script, as if the guy writing the text also got to that line in the book at the same point you did and hurriedly tried to correct himself.
And it does this a ton, playing with something as simple as font choice to give these character interactions so much more "character". If you're talking to someone who speaks another language, it prints the original first, then scrubs it out, and then prints it in english. If someone's angry, the entire text box shakes, or the ink splatters across the page. If someone's whispering, the text is miniscule. The town printer firsts speaks in printer press blocks, which then pull away to reveal the printed text underneath. It's a fucking genius way to make up for the lack of voice acting, it's not just text, it's text with a personality and culture attached.
Pentiment is so good because everything has this amount of thought and care put into it. It's a game about history that revels in the details. It's a game about art that is full of gorgeous, culture specific, time period accurate art. It's a game about making hard choices with limited information, and forcing you to live with the consequences of those choices. It's a game about a village, the ways it evolves and changes through the ages, and the impact you can have on it. Absolutely adore this game.
There's a bit where you're talking to this farmer and he starts talking with this hard to read, messy handwriting because, y'know, he's a farmer, he's got a thick accent, the font represents that. Then in some throwaway line of dialogue he mentions that he's actually quite well read and suddenly the font changes to this beautiful script, as if the guy writing the text also got to that line in the book at the same point you did and hurriedly tried to correct himself.
And it does this a ton, playing with something as simple as font choice to give these character interactions so much more "character". If you're talking to someone who speaks another language, it prints the original first, then scrubs it out, and then prints it in english. If someone's angry, the entire text box shakes, or the ink splatters across the page. If someone's whispering, the text is miniscule. The town printer firsts speaks in printer press blocks, which then pull away to reveal the printed text underneath. It's a fucking genius way to make up for the lack of voice acting, it's not just text, it's text with a personality and culture attached.
Pentiment is so good because everything has this amount of thought and care put into it. It's a game about history that revels in the details. It's a game about art that is full of gorgeous, culture specific, time period accurate art. It's a game about making hard choices with limited information, and forcing you to live with the consequences of those choices. It's a game about a village, the ways it evolves and changes through the ages, and the impact you can have on it. Absolutely adore this game.