This review contains spoilers
okay, like, is this really a game or more of a choose your own adventure visual novel thing? not really much gameplay besides reading and clicking and THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE DONE. i feel like i need to be logging this on Goodreads more than Backloggd lmao.
either way, i'm obsessed. visual design slaps. soundtrack slaps. and the subject matter! the town of Tassing really sits, both literally and metaphorically, at the intersection of my two major hyperfixations, ancient Rome and the Catholic Church. in fact, the confluence of these two disparate worldviews - paganism and Christianity, one ancient and one modern - is a major theme of the game. more broadly, it's a game about how the present is built on the past, for better or for worse. knowing that, how do we reconcile with our own sins? or the sins of those who came before us, for which we are left to suffer? there isn't really a satisfying answer to the second question, which i guess is why the ending of the game was, for me, ultimately unsatisfying.
btw this is also hinted at with the game's name ('pentiment' is when aspects of a painting that an artist originally painted over become visible). it's just all very clever!
(i keep thinking about how my conversation with [redacted] about why transubstantiation isn't real led to him getting burned at the stake in the epilogue LMAO. whoops!)
Pentiment drags a bit in the 3rd act and i feel like i didn't discover hella shit but maybe that's how you're supposed to feel, idk. i might even play it again. 5 stars
either way, i'm obsessed. visual design slaps. soundtrack slaps. and the subject matter! the town of Tassing really sits, both literally and metaphorically, at the intersection of my two major hyperfixations, ancient Rome and the Catholic Church. in fact, the confluence of these two disparate worldviews - paganism and Christianity, one ancient and one modern - is a major theme of the game. more broadly, it's a game about how the present is built on the past, for better or for worse. knowing that, how do we reconcile with our own sins? or the sins of those who came before us, for which we are left to suffer? there isn't really a satisfying answer to the second question, which i guess is why the ending of the game was, for me, ultimately unsatisfying.
btw this is also hinted at with the game's name ('pentiment' is when aspects of a painting that an artist originally painted over become visible). it's just all very clever!
(i keep thinking about how my conversation with [redacted] about why transubstantiation isn't real led to him getting burned at the stake in the epilogue LMAO. whoops!)
Pentiment drags a bit in the 3rd act and i feel like i didn't discover hella shit but maybe that's how you're supposed to feel, idk. i might even play it again. 5 stars