Pentiment is a supremely human tale. What at first seems like a simple murder mystery reveals itself to be something altogether more interesting when you're forced to bring your half-baked accusations before the tribunal well before you’ve gathered all the facts. But time waits for no man, and if it means saving your friend you'll just have to point the finger at... well, someone. Time's up. Heads must roll. And they do.
Pentiment is a game about making peace with the past and sense of the present in a changing world. You have to come to terms with both the choices you've made as the player and the tragic facts of Andreas's life that are simply out of your control. Your impact on this community for good or ill is measured not in days or weeks, but in decades. Time marches on, old resentments linger and new bonds are forged, and through it all you wonder what might have happened if things had gone differently.
There's a quiet melancholy to Pentiment as the seasons change and years pass. The only soundtrack to your days in Tassing are the scritch scratches of quills on parchment. Speaking of which, I absolutely love how obsessed Pentiment is with FONTS. I nearly started the game with the easy read fonts, but I'm so glad I stuck with the stylized option. The fonts as much as anything tell the story of this community, providing texture and even voice to its inhabitants.
One minor mechanical note: The game occasionally presents you with persuasion checks, tallying up all the ways your previous actions have made a character more (or less) willing to heed your sage advice. I failed nearly every check the game offered, sometimes with little explanation, leading me to wonder if I was missing some important and opaque aspect of the game. After some googling I learned that nope, everything was working as intended. Whether this is some kind of reflection of the fact that the characters each bring their own interiority to situations and aren't easily swayed by this outsider, or just a quirk of my impressively uncharismatic protagonist, I don't know, but I definitely found it occasionally frustrating and disappointing.
Pentiment can feel slow in its pacing, especially if you're the kind of person who presses every witness statement in an Ace Attorney game just to make sure you don't miss a single line of dialogue. But the tapestry presented is rich, full of well-realized characters, and replete with fun twists and occasional moments of deep beauty. It’s a journey well worth taking. Especially if you like fonts.
Pentiment is a game about making peace with the past and sense of the present in a changing world. You have to come to terms with both the choices you've made as the player and the tragic facts of Andreas's life that are simply out of your control. Your impact on this community for good or ill is measured not in days or weeks, but in decades. Time marches on, old resentments linger and new bonds are forged, and through it all you wonder what might have happened if things had gone differently.
There's a quiet melancholy to Pentiment as the seasons change and years pass. The only soundtrack to your days in Tassing are the scritch scratches of quills on parchment. Speaking of which, I absolutely love how obsessed Pentiment is with FONTS. I nearly started the game with the easy read fonts, but I'm so glad I stuck with the stylized option. The fonts as much as anything tell the story of this community, providing texture and even voice to its inhabitants.
One minor mechanical note: The game occasionally presents you with persuasion checks, tallying up all the ways your previous actions have made a character more (or less) willing to heed your sage advice. I failed nearly every check the game offered, sometimes with little explanation, leading me to wonder if I was missing some important and opaque aspect of the game. After some googling I learned that nope, everything was working as intended. Whether this is some kind of reflection of the fact that the characters each bring their own interiority to situations and aren't easily swayed by this outsider, or just a quirk of my impressively uncharismatic protagonist, I don't know, but I definitely found it occasionally frustrating and disappointing.
Pentiment can feel slow in its pacing, especially if you're the kind of person who presses every witness statement in an Ace Attorney game just to make sure you don't miss a single line of dialogue. But the tapestry presented is rich, full of well-realized characters, and replete with fun twists and occasional moments of deep beauty. It’s a journey well worth taking. Especially if you like fonts.