Pentiment came out of the shadows on June 12th. During the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, the new Obsidian game was indeed unveiled with a surprising and unexpected aesthetic. Less RPG than narrative adventure game, Pentiment remains a somewhat incomprehensible curiosity for many. What should we do there? How will we play the game? Fortunately, Josh Sawyer confided in Gamekult’s microphone to tell us a lot more about his latest project.
A heart project
Josh Sawyer is an iconic figure in Western RPGs. From Fallout: New Vegas to Pillars of Eternity, his name resonates in the hearts of lovers of the genre. So when he announces 18 months ago working on a personal project, with a small team, the man gets our full attention. This project is Pentiment, an adventure game that takes place in the heart of 16th century Bavaria in a German monastery.
This new game, Josh Sawyer himself defines it as “the most personal” of her career. A title that draws on his personal life, he whose grandmother is German and who speaks the language perfectly, but also in his student life. “My research focused on the Holy Roman Empire, from the 15th to the 18th century” he specifies before emphasizing that he also wanted to highlight this country, often used for Nazism in video games. “It was important for me to talk about it differently, as the most stimulating cultural crossroads of its time” he confides.
If Germany quickly appears as obvious, it is also the case of the ambitions of Pentiment. Josh Sawyer “dream of making a game based on real history” and does not want to redo yet another RPG. The brilliant designer wants to try out a different genre, “a narrative adventure in the spirit of Night in the Woods or Oxenfree” and naturally embraces the indie spirit. Results ? The game enters development with less than 10% of Obsidian’s workforce: thirteen people.
Atypical visuals
However, this does not prevent Pentiment from having ambition. A narrative ambition, carried in particular by a system of choices/consequences which is at the heart of the experience. But also a visual ambition, with a neat artistic direction, inspired by illuminations. Again, obvious. “With my artistic director, Hannah Kennedy, we immediately agreed on this style to symbolize the era” says Josh Sawyer before explaining the meaning.
The illumination makes it possible to formalize a central idea of the game: the 16th century was a pivotal period, full of political and social upheavals, which made the switch between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. For example, it marks the transition from parchment and illumination, which had been the dominant forms of communication for centuries, to the printing press, which will gradually replace them. If we chose an abbey as the central setting of the game, it’s because the monasteries of the time were the last bastions of resistance in this way of writing.
Writing is precisely one of the important themes of Pentiment. The developers have paid particular attention to this subject in order to “show the diversity of styles of the time”. They thus integrate six styles of writing, five of which are entirely handwritten. From French cursive to Italian, passing through Gothic, all have been modeled by hand. “A time-consuming sinkhole for our developers” with the aim of “to make the players feel the physicality of the writing, the effort it required of the monks, the way the parchment absorbed the ink,…”.
Obsidian and Player Picks
The other difficulty mentioned by Josh Sawyer? The casting. Pentiment presents nearly 200 people whose all the lines of dialogue and all the trees of behavior had to be written and anticipated. A task on which the creator has “could really concentrate” fully during development. And even if he recognizes that this is the part he prefers, the work carried out was not easy to allow “it is up to the player to understand that events happen because he has caused them”. A challenge that is at the heart of Pentiment’s proposal.
As we said, Pentiment is more of an adventure game than an RPG. No fight is present there but the players will have to personalize the artist that we will embody. Or rather, to draw the contours of his life, of his journey. Was he a student in Switzerland? In Italy ? Did he learn different languages during his travels? It will be up to the players to decide. Choices that will determine “the way you carry on a conversation or solve the puzzles of the game”.
The choices will therefore be at the center of the experience. During the investigation that will be conducted, each of our actions, our decisions will have repercussions on the village and its inhabitants.
Are you going to accuse someone because you sincerely believe that he or she is guilty? Or just because you don’t like it? Or because she is the one your community will miss the least? Nobody will tell you if you’re right or wrong: there are no right or wrong answers in the game. Just a series of suspects and an incomplete amount of information to rely on. On the other hand, the village community will react accordingly to your intuitions. Since the game takes place over 25 years, you will have to confront the consequences and the weight of your choices, over several generations.
Penance and its hidden meanings
In the end, Pentiment therefore promises to be an atypical project. Far from Obsidian’s blockbusters, Josh Sawyer’s title is more of an indie work than the usual AAA for the studio. Moreover, his parent concedes, the other indies have necessarily inspired his work. “The style of Oxenfree or Mutazione had a real influence on our way of doing Pentiment. Much more than Disco Elysium, to which we have often been compared, wrongly…”.
Smaller, more personal, Pentiment is almost a niche game, reserved for experienced players. Almost ? “In fact, we were amazed to see how many people were enthusiastic. Which is always a relief, but also something very intimidating. Not only do we have to do everything to release the game in November, but we now know that we are expected at the turn” shares a Josh Sawyer a little more under pressure than a few months ago.
In any case, the future looks bright for the man and his small team. His heart project is coming to an end and he will soon be able to share it with millions of players. Will there be any other surprises to reveal about Pentiment? “I won’t spoil anything! I can only say that the title indeed has several layers of meaning” he likes to challenge us. A challenge that we want to be significant, like so many other works directed by Josh Sawyer. See you in November for the answer!
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