As a fellow fan of Gregorian(and not only)chants - I deeply appreciate you highlighting how intertwined this “genre” of sacral music is to both the time period as well as to the artistic stylings of this game! I still haven’t had the time to do a full playthrough of Pentiment but your vid is one more reason to do so! Cheers bud!
I'm glad that you dug that section! Certainly worth a mention when talking about the game's authenticity and how it intertwines with the story. It's well worth a play and I highly recommend it!
What's most impressive regarding the historical detail is that even stuff that barely get a mention fit perfectly with real-world phenomena. The lack of Protestant fervor is more or less a sign of Bavaria's position in the religious wars, or that clocks began to appear in more and more settlements bringing their own form of development are just two that immediately caught my attention. The historian in me wishes I was a fly on the wall of their development offices, so I could witness the historical debates when they wrote Pentiment. To me it's pretty obvious that a good chunk of their knowledge preceded the research that took place during development. Information from dozen of sources that matures over the span of years or even decades comes out radically different than what someone who read a dozen of Jstor articles the past few months is able to come up with, imho. Great review!
Agree on all fronts - My only real complaint is the vagueness around the impact of your final big decision. There's no comment from the towns people about what you might have told them, and given how much the game responds to other decisions it felt like a bit of a let down. Excited to play through again with different traits/choices to see how it impacts the story, definitely a game with a lot of replay value.
Thank you so much for bringing up The Name of the Rose! I never thought about Pentiment in this way - and it really makes sense. I am really looking forward to playing this game. And thank you so much for the video, it is great as always.
Thank you so much! Your compliments mean the world to me and I'm so happy you enjoyed it! Especially if I'm humbly able to spread the good name of Eco around! Haha
Thanks for this, the trailers made it look leg shakenly pretensious which put me off giving it a go. But after watching this and realising Lingua Ignota is on the ost. I'll give it a go!
I did check this out, didin't do it for me. Glad you enjoyed it and so forth. You should check out The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante But this game, it ain't even an adventure game, it's all about the dialogues and picking the one with background flavour. It's not a point and click game, it's literally a visual novel. Its Sawyers pet project, man who claims to be an historian, but there were these traditional comments from California: " It is the Medieaval ages and women have it so bad. Why they must suffer silently, while few men hold all the power?" Shame since HRE history is interesting and complicated to say the least. How about the murder mystery? There are multiple suspects you can accuse, and everyone has a valid motive. But it does not matter what you choose, since you can't choose the real mastermind behind it all? There is no choice and consequence? And don't worry about GOTY awards. Its gonna win awards from journalists, since it is a perfect game for them. Like some shit poster said: No gameplay, nothing you do matters, shits on religion, subverts European history and it has a stupid twist. 10/10, best (game) since Disco Elysium.
I highly disagree with the take that nothing you do matters. Choices and consequences runs deeper than altering endings or having canonical outcomes. Like I said in the video, the games strength shines through its use of choices and the results of your relationship with characters to unravel the bits of information as you go through your investigation. In that sense, the game is great. And it's hardly a visual novel as I feel that you're doing much more than simply sitting back and reading. There are actual gameplay elements here that alter the way you interact with the game, something that is (usually) missing from VNs. I also don't see what's wrong about that comment. It's entirely true: the life of the average medieval woman wasn't great by any stretch. They've always had the deck stacked against them, and several characters demonstrate this throughout the game. In fact, as a friend pointed out to me the other day, this speaks to the strength of the writing as the peasants are depicted as people with thoughts and feelings and opinions about the world around them. They may not entirely understand the political nuances of the situation they're in, but they understand enough to know how it affects their livelihoods. I have actually played Sir Brante and it was pretty good, if a bit too "video gamey," especially when compared to Pentiment (the multiple lives and overt magic and what not). Solid game though. I do need to run through it a few more times. See, to me, Brante is way more of a VN than Pentiment is. Either way, thanks a bunch for watching and commenting!
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Yeah, I enjoy your reviews. Length and detail are nice, considering every review (retrospective) here needs to be at least 1 hour long.
@@gronndar I really am not liking that trend. Like, it's fine for a one off but I don't go to UA-cam to watch movies. The only time my videos will be that long are for games that I have A LOT to say about (like Battle Realms or VtMB) or a video essay about a topic or series or something. But even then, I'd likely split up a series into multiple videos.
I played it when it dropped on Steam and I couldn't get into it. Skyrim just doesn't do anything for me and it feels like it's really aged badly. So, I'm not sure. Maybe someday? I do have some plans to shift the direction of my content a bit this year and Enderal certainly fits the bill, so who knows? It could happen!
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Fair, I just really enjoyed the storyline of Enderal, even if it is hampered too much by being stuck with Skyrim's engine. But yeah, Forgotten City was also great
I really hate finding myself murdered!
Oh, it's the worst feeling, isn't it? Bad way to start the day!
Obsidian really did something special here. Definitely agree that this game will be looked back on as one of the best in this genre.
If it can win someone like you over, I think that it really just speaks to how well put together the whole thing is, truly.
There is a Name of the Rose videogame. It's called The Abbey of Crime Extensum. It's available on Steam.
I was not aware that this was a thing. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!
As a fellow fan of Gregorian(and not only)chants - I deeply appreciate you highlighting how intertwined this “genre” of sacral music is to both the time period as well as to the artistic stylings of this game!
I still haven’t had the time to do a full playthrough of Pentiment but your vid is one more reason to do so!
Cheers bud!
I'm glad that you dug that section! Certainly worth a mention when talking about the game's authenticity and how it intertwines with the story. It's well worth a play and I highly recommend it!
What's most impressive regarding the historical detail is that even stuff that barely get a mention fit perfectly with real-world phenomena. The lack of Protestant fervor is more or less a sign of Bavaria's position in the religious wars, or that clocks began to appear in more and more settlements bringing their own form of development are just two that immediately caught my attention.
The historian in me wishes I was a fly on the wall of their development offices, so I could witness the historical debates when they wrote Pentiment. To me it's pretty obvious that a good chunk of their knowledge preceded the research that took place during development. Information from dozen of sources that matures over the span of years or even decades comes out radically different than what someone who read a dozen of Jstor articles the past few months is able to come up with, imho.
Great review!
Agree on all fronts - My only real complaint is the vagueness around the impact of your final big decision. There's no comment from the towns people about what you might have told them, and given how much the game responds to other decisions it felt like a bit of a let down. Excited to play through again with different traits/choices to see how it impacts the story, definitely a game with a lot of replay value.
Great review man! I gotta hop back into the game soon. Maybe even today. I really like it and this video made me wanna play it again.
Thank you very much! Jump back in and finish it! The ending is well worth it!
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Will do I no doubt the ending will be great
Thank you so much for bringing up The Name of the Rose! I never thought about Pentiment in this way - and it really makes sense.
I am really looking forward to playing this game.
And thank you so much for the video, it is great as always.
Thank you so much! Your compliments mean the world to me and I'm so happy you enjoyed it! Especially if I'm humbly able to spread the good name of Eco around! Haha
Ah yes, a fellow Umberto Eco enjoyer. Great video dude!
Thank you! Eco is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors the more I read his work.
Obsidian doesnt miss!!
Such an amazing game
Thanks for this, the trailers made it look leg shakenly pretensious which put me off giving it a go. But after watching this and realising Lingua Ignota is on the ost. I'll give it a go!
You definitely must. The art style is unique but certainly not superfluous. The game is one of the better narrative experiences I've had in a while.
I did check this out, didin't do it for me. Glad you enjoyed it and so forth. You should check out The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante
But this game, it ain't even an adventure game, it's all about the dialogues and picking the one with background flavour. It's not a point and click game, it's literally a visual novel.
Its Sawyers pet project, man who claims to be an historian, but there were these traditional comments from California: " It is the Medieaval ages and women have it so bad. Why they must suffer silently, while few men hold all the power?"
Shame since HRE history is interesting and complicated to say the least.
How about the murder mystery? There are multiple suspects you can accuse, and everyone has a valid motive. But it does not matter what you choose, since you can't choose the real mastermind behind it all? There is no choice and consequence?
And don't worry about GOTY awards. Its gonna win awards from journalists, since it is a perfect game for them. Like some shit poster said:
No gameplay, nothing you do matters, shits on religion, subverts European history and it has a stupid twist. 10/10, best (game) since Disco Elysium.
I highly disagree with the take that nothing you do matters. Choices and consequences runs deeper than altering endings or having canonical outcomes. Like I said in the video, the games strength shines through its use of choices and the results of your relationship with characters to unravel the bits of information as you go through your investigation. In that sense, the game is great. And it's hardly a visual novel as I feel that you're doing much more than simply sitting back and reading. There are actual gameplay elements here that alter the way you interact with the game, something that is (usually) missing from VNs.
I also don't see what's wrong about that comment. It's entirely true: the life of the average medieval woman wasn't great by any stretch. They've always had the deck stacked against them, and several characters demonstrate this throughout the game. In fact, as a friend pointed out to me the other day, this speaks to the strength of the writing as the peasants are depicted as people with thoughts and feelings and opinions about the world around them. They may not entirely understand the political nuances of the situation they're in, but they understand enough to know how it affects their livelihoods.
I have actually played Sir Brante and it was pretty good, if a bit too "video gamey," especially when compared to Pentiment (the multiple lives and overt magic and what not). Solid game though. I do need to run through it a few more times. See, to me, Brante is way more of a VN than Pentiment is.
Either way, thanks a bunch for watching and commenting!
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Yeah, I enjoy your reviews. Length and detail are nice, considering every review (retrospective) here needs to be at least 1 hour long.
@@gronndar I really am not liking that trend. Like, it's fine for a one off but I don't go to UA-cam to watch movies. The only time my videos will be that long are for games that I have A LOT to say about (like Battle Realms or VtMB) or a video essay about a topic or series or something. But even then, I'd likely split up a series into multiple videos.
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Indeed. Mostly those videos just retell games plot, nothing more.
You should make a video on Enderal
I played it when it dropped on Steam and I couldn't get into it. Skyrim just doesn't do anything for me and it feels like it's really aged badly. So, I'm not sure. Maybe someday? I do have some plans to shift the direction of my content a bit this year and Enderal certainly fits the bill, so who knows? It could happen!
@@CultoftheCyberSkull Fair, I just really enjoyed the storyline of Enderal, even if it is hampered too much by being stuck with Skyrim's engine. But yeah, Forgotten City was also great