Pentiment Review Summary

Stunning art and a gripping, choice-driven story are marred by poor Chinese localization, a rushed ending, and slow early pacing.

Stunning and unique art style: Players frequently praise the game's distinctive and beautiful art style, describing it as phenomenal and visually striking. The art direction is a standout feature that enhances the overall experience.

Fantastic and gripping story: The narrative is widely commended for being engaging, well-crafted, and emotionally resonant. Many players find the story to be the game's strongest aspect, pulling them in with its depth.

Choices have meaningful consequences: A key strength is that player decisions significantly impact the story, character relationships, and world outcomes. This creates a strong sense of agency and encourages replayability.

Exceptional soundtrack and audio: The music and sound design are consistently praised for perfectly complementing the game's atmosphere and scenes. Many players find the soundtrack immersive and memorable.

Medieval manuscript inspired art: The visual design is heavily inspired by medieval manuscripts, religious paintings, and murals. This unique aesthetic contributes to the game's immersive historical atmosphere.

Poor Chinese localization quality: Many reviewers report the Simplified Chinese localization is riddled with typos, grammar issues, and contradictions of the original meaning. Some also note the calligraphic feature was not preserved well.

Unsatisfying and rushed ending: Reviewers frequently describe the ending as underwhelming, rushed, or only partially conclusive. Several mention disappointment with how the story wraps up.

Slow pacing, especially early on: The game starts slowly and maintains a sluggish pace, with the third act also dragging or becoming less interesting. This contributes to overall boredom.

Minimal gameplay beyond dialogue choices: Players feel the game offers very little actual gameplay, mostly limited to walking around and picking dialogue options. The experience is often described as boring or insufficient.

Choices have little impact: Decisions barely affect the story, and character stats do not significantly change outcomes. Many expected a detective game where choices matter but found them largely inconsequential.

Choice-driven narrative with consequences: Player decisions significantly affect the story, characters, and world, often with non-obvious outcomes. This central mechanic encourages multiple playthroughs to explore different branches.

Detective murder mystery gameplay: The core gameplay involves investigating a murder, gathering clues through conversations, and making deductions to identify the culprit. The mystery unfolds across multiple acts.

Visual novel narrative experience: The game is presented as a narrative-driven visual novel with limited player interaction, focusing on story unfolding and dialogue. It blends point-and-click adventure elements with visual novel style.

Dialogue-heavy with choice-based conversations: Gameplay primarily consists of selecting dialogue options that affect conversations and the story. Dialogue choices can lock out story parts and are influenced by the protagonist's background.

Medieval historical setting: The game is set in the medieval period, specifically in 16th-century Bavaria (1518 AD) or medieval Europe, with historical events and culture influencing the ambiance.

Flawless Steam Deck Performance: Multiple reviewers praise the game for running flawlessly on the Steam Deck, with great controls and performance. This indicates strong optimization for the platform.

Bugs and Lock-ups: Players report various bugs, lock-ups, and hanging screens that disrupt gameplay. These issues appear to be widespread.

Ideal for story-driven players: Many reviewers recommend the game specifically to those who enjoy narrative-driven experiences, including mystery and detective stories. The game is praised for its well-written story and adventure elements.

Appeals to medieval history enthusiasts: The game is highly recommended for players with a deep interest in European medieval and Renaissance history, art, and culture. Those without such interest may not enjoy it.

Requires tolerance for heavy reading: A common caveat is that the game involves a lot of reading, and it is not recommended for those who dislike extensive text. It is best suited for players accustomed to reading books or long dialogues.

General recommendations: Some reviewers give broad recommendations without specific reasons, simply stating that they highly recommend the game to everyone.

Not for action-oriented players: The game is explicitly not recommended for those seeking action, combat, or traditional RPG mechanics. It focuses on narrative and exploration rather than fast-paced gameplay.

Community fair range: $14.99 - $19.99.

Game completion: 20.0h.

Story completion: 15.5h.

Pentiment is a slow burn: many players report a slow or boring opening with pacing and reading friction, but the story and mystery become compelling after roughly two hours or once they get acquainted with Tassing. Mixed reports note either a later drop starting in Act 2 or no click for action-focused players.

Reported time to anchor: 2h.

Friction: Slow opening pacing; Tedious backtracking between repeated locations; Lack of teleportation or markers for new dialogue/info; Unclear time-cycle mechanics and missing tutorial; Heavy reading and minimal action; Early overwhelm from learning Tassing and its residents.

Unlock drivers: Story/mystery picking up after the slow start; Getting acquainted with Tassing and its residents; Continued play through later acts as the story improves.

Literary Narrative Immersion Seeker: Reads extensively, savors dialogue, makes choices at an unhurried pace, and treats the game as an interactive book. Motivation: To lose themselves in a dense, literary, choice-driven story that feels like reading a novel. Stance: buy.

Medieval History and Art Enthusiast: Immerses in the setting, appreciates manuscript-style art, reads in-game encyclopedia entries, and may do side research while playing. Motivation: To explore and learn about medieval history, art, religion, and daily life through an interactive historical tapestry. Stance: buy.

Choice-Driven Replay Completionist: Replays for alternate branches, pursues achievements and 100% completion, and carefully weighs consequences. Motivation: To see how every choice, background, and action reshapes the story and community over time. Stance: sale.

Steam Deck: The dataset is dominated by praise for Steam Deck performance, controls, and full-playthrough stability. No technical barriers are reported: no Proton Experimental toggles, external launchers, anti-cheat errors, unreadable text, battery drain, or crashes. Minor non-blocking issues include one offline playtime tracking complaint and one general control/traversal critique. Overall friction is minimal, and the game appears to work seamlessly on Steam Deck.

Linux and Proton: The filtered reviews contain only positive Steam Deck compatibility feedback. Users report the game performs, looks, and plays great, runs flawlessly, and provides a perfect full-playthrough experience on Steam Deck. No Linux, Proton, SteamOS, Wine, anti-cheat, DRM, launcher, or graphical compatibility issues are mentioned.

External guides: The audit finds a clear Wiki Tax: players rely on encyclopedic or external lookups to understand historical and cultural dialogue, the in-game character codex is disorganized and sparse, and guide or choice information carries spoiler risk. Strict priority scanning found no Tier 1 farming, drop-rate, or loot-table evidence. However, it did find the Tier 2 strict keyword 'Spreadsheet', so the review set is classified as Tier 2: The Hoarder and scored 75.

Setting and Era: The game is set in 16th-century Bavaria, specifically in the fictional village of Tassing and Kiersau Abbey, during the Reformation. It spans over 25 years in a small, isolated mountainous region.

Comparisons to Disco Elysium: Reviewers frequently compare the game to Disco Elysium, often describing it as a medieval version or noting similar emotional impact. Some view it as surpassing Disco Elysium, while others note differences or inferiority in psychological and theological discussions.

Comparisons to The Name of the Rose: The game is often compared to Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose' for its detective investigation style, murder mystery in a medieval setting, and yellow-tinged mystery elements. It is recommended alongside the novel for deeper understanding.

Religion as Central Theme: Religion and faith are a core thread throughout the story, with the game set during the Reformation. It is not intended to indoctrinate but has anti-religion vibes according to some.

Historical Themes and References: The game has strong historical and cultural references, including explanations of historical terms and events. It is a period piece with deep historical themes.