Pentiment - Josh Sawyer's historical mystery narrative-driven game set in 16th century Bavaria

[Greek Anime God]

It's amazing how Blackshirt types so much but says so little.

It's mental overcompensation. They think that if they write more people won't be able tell how little they have going up in the noggin.

 

[Humbaba]

It's amazing how Blackshirt types so much but says so little.

It's mental overcompensation. They think that if they write more people won't be able tell how little they have going up in the noggin.

If you guys are so smart, then I'm sure we would all like to hear your undoubtedly very clever retorts to what I've written. Even if you're a 100 IQ midwit, you would probably still do better than Harth "I move goal posts for a living" Wain.

 

[Avarize]

I'm sure we would all like to hear your undoubtedly very clever retorts to what I've written

Can't respond because it was too long to read.

 

[Humbaba]

Can't respond because it was too long to read.

Well known sign of intelligence

 

[Avarize]

Can't respond because it was too long to read.

Well known sign of intelligence

Nah, you are just shit at writing.

 

[Humbaba]

Nah, you are just shit at writing.

I guess you could call that a witty retort.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Some concept arts from Josh Sawyer's project

 

[Butter]

 

[Abu Antar]

Obsidian's "Pentiment"
Grubbsnax show, Obsidian's "indie"-style effort is emerging from a small team led by Josh Sawyer, famed for his leadership on what is arguably the best Fallout game; New Vegas, as well as a personal fave, Pillars of Eternity.
I recently revealed the game's name with my co-host Rand_Al_Thor_19 on our Xbox Two podcast. It's being called "Pentiment," which refers to "an underlying image in a painting, especially one that has become visible when the top layer of paint has turned transparent with age," according to the dictionary. This naming convention hints at the game's premise, by which you act as an investigator in 16th century Europe uncovering the truth behind a grisly murder.

Grubb mentioned that Pentiment takes cues from the likes of Disco Elysium and the branching narrative designs Josh Sawyer is known for. You'll be able to investigate and make accusations against the characters in-game, which could lead to cascading consequences if you're wrong. It'll be a dialogue-heavy game with decisions to make and response options to choose from, which will shape your experience as you unwrap the murder conspiracy before you.

I am told that Pentiment is being built by a small team of around 12 people, and is more of a narrative RPG adventure than something combat-oriented. The art asset above may represent some of the designs the game is gunning for. Jeff Grubb also mentioned that Pentiment is exploring "experimental" gameplay elements, too, although they may ultimately not make it into the final release. Speaking of which, Grubb also noted that Pentiment is indeed gunning for a 2022 launch

 

[Harthwain]

Jeff Grubb also mentioned that Pentiment is exploring "experimental" gameplay elements, too, although they may ultimately not make it into the final release.

Wow... They barely announced it and they already admitted they might drop potentially the most interesting aspect of their game?

 

[Infinitron]

Jez Corden on the Xboxtwo podcast said the Sawyer game is named Pentiment

Hah, didn't notice this post last week. Anyway, time to finally give this game a thread.

 

[just]

i dont think this game is for me

 

[Kem0sabe]

Disco Elysium's overwhelming success will open a lot of doors for smaller rpg's with little or no combat. The murder mystery setting is also a good setup for the story because it calls back on all the past media of the noire/detective genre that pulls in a lot of rpg fans who would normally not play games like Disco Elysium.

Sawyers biggest issue is not so much the writing talent he has to work with at obsidian but the type of content they have been churning out for years has trained them to be nothing more than lore dump scribes for the setting. Disco Elysium, despite not being a game i enjoyed very much, managed to garner the praise and success it had due to the "zaniness" of its characters, no one at obsidian is capable of writing entire conversations revolving around your character and his tie, or a foul mouthed udmurt who screams that you are a pedophile trying to fuck him.

I'm certain this will be an extremely "dry" dialogue heavy rpg with walls and walls of text about the setting, politics and whatnot, and very little of interest about the characters themselves.

 

[MajorMace]

Grubb mentioned that Pentiment takes cues from the likes of Disco Elysium and the branching narrative designs Josh Sawyer is known for.

 

[Quillon]

arabian christian?

 

[Harthwain]

Disco Elysium's overwhelming success will open a lot of doors for smaller rpg's with little or no combat. [...] I'm certain this will be an extremely "dry" dialogue heavy rpg with walls and walls of text about the setting, politics and whatnot, and very little of interest about the characters themselves.

I wouldn't call that "opening a lot of doors" when you can't write anything interesting AND don't have any interesting mechanics to back it up.

 

[Darth Roxor]

arabian christian?

prester john, clearly

 

[Shaki]

Non-combat [...] RPG

 

[communard]

Combat is for little babies.

 

[Bohrain]

I don't mind a game having no combat if it has something else with properly developed subsystems and progression. But realistically speaking we'll just be getting a visual novel or point & click game with some dialogue choices being behind stat checks.

 

[Nano]

Visual novels are better than RPGs, so I'm okay with this.

 

[Roguey]

Sawyers biggest issue is not so much the writing talent he has to work with at obsidian but the type of content they have been churning out for years has trained them to be nothing more than lore dump scribes for the setting. Disco Elysium, despite not being a game i enjoyed very much, managed to garner the praise and success it had due to the "zaniness" of its characters, no one at obsidian is capable of writing entire conversations revolving around your character and his tie, or a foul mouthed udmurt who screams that you are a pedophile trying to fuck him.

I'm certain this will be an extremely "dry" dialogue heavy rpg with walls and walls of text about the setting, politics and whatnot, and very little of interest about the characters themselves.

Josh Sawyer is the sole writer so it's going to live and die entirely on him.

 

[Haba]

Well well well. Where is your god now, combatfags?

An entire game full of Josh Soyer's writing. Where is your god now, storyfags?

 

[Viata]

An African setting or any other non-western European setting would be fucking fantastic

RPG devs are unable to make cool setting. Either they go for the fantasy medieval shit or the badly used cyberpunk. I'm still sad we never got the chinese fanmade fallout TC game.

 

[Nano]

An entire game full of Josh Soyer's writing. Where is your god now, storyfags?

I suppose Josh is better than the rest of Obsidian's current writing staff.