Microsoft Pentiment (Obsidian | medieval mystery RPG | videogame version of "The Name of the Rose" or an Oliver Pötzsch novel) - update: "The Making of Pentiment" (Noclip documentary)

[Keyser_Soze]

5 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

I get their decision to kind of introduce a bit of realism, though I use that word loosely here, into the proceedings by giving you a time limit to work with but it does frustrate me a bit on a pure videogame level. I do enjoy the game on many levels but I'm not sure I have time to dedicate three playthroughs to it to try to see 90% of what's going on. Also combined with the skill checks that seem super obtuse, it seems difficult to tell if I'd even get what I want out of a second playthrough. I guess what I'm saying is that I like the system overall but I do think it's just a tad too restrictive unless I'm just a dummy and rushed to bed too early when the game told me to in the beginning. If they loosened it a bit or introduced an option to get out of some conversations so you don't lock yourself out of paths, that'd be ideal in my opinion. I think the Martin questline I described in the spoiler above soured me a bit overall. Just give me a dialog option at the end that has a [LIE] and have Andreas go "Oh it's nothing, talk soon!" or something simple.

 

If you're really stressing some skill check situations you can kind of save scum. Just go to the main menu and reload. The game only saves if you leave the area so you can reload as many times as you want. I know this kind of gets rid of some of the ride or die nature of the game but it's good if you want to see some other pathways. Some skill checks I don't think you can pass even if you get all the positive reactions so don't feel bad if things don't fall your way.

[Bloodporne]

47 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

If you're really stressing some skill check situations you can kind of save scum. Just go to the main menu and reload. The game only saves if you leave the area so you can reload as many times as you want. I know this kind of gets rid of some of the ride or die nature of the game but it's good if you want to see some other pathways. Some skill checks I don't think you can pass even if you get all the positive reactions so don't feel bad if things don't fall your way.

It's weird. I'm not really stressing about it and like the idea of "well, that's how the conversation went!" but just wish I had more of an idea prior how I could possibly influence this. It's hard not to directly compare it to Disco Elysium where you never get stuck in those but can actually opt to influence them in several ways. But I appreciate the tip either way. 

 

I actually have yet to fully finish the game, I'm way at the end I think but week has been crazy hectic so no play time. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I certainly wasn't expecting for an NPC to deliver a very cogent description of Gnostic theology, but I'm very pleased that it's there!  

[legend]

On 12/13/2022 at 10:16 AM, Bloodporne said:

It's weird. I'm not really stressing about it and like the idea of "well, that's how the conversation went!" but just wish I had more of an idea prior how I could possibly influence this. It's hard not to directly compare it to Disco Elysium where you never get stuck in those but can actually opt to influence them in several ways. But I appreciate the tip either way. 

 

I actually have yet to fully finish the game, I'm way at the end I think but week has been crazy hectic so no play time. 

 

Yeah I think they could have communicated how the system worked better. The *only* checks I passed were ones where not only the arrows were all up but, but the bar was 100% filled (which conceivably could depend on responses in other conversations that you never had the chance to pass/fail and therefore wouldn't appear in the list). Maybe that's the intent: that you need 100% to pass any check, but my expectation going in was that it was random and you increased or decreased the odds. If it was a 100% fill to pass, that rule was never made clear except by me never passing anything that wasn't 100% filled!

 

EDIT: Now searching online that does indeed seem to be the case. If the bar isn't 100% filled, you will fail. You will have needed to have made "correct" responses in prior conversations to make it deterministically succeed. 

[Keyser_Soze]

10 minutes ago, legend said:

EDIT: Now searching online that does indeed seem to be the case. If the bar isn't 100% filled, you will fail. You will have needed to have made "correct" responses in prior conversations to make it deterministically succeed. 

 

There are instances, however, where you can make incorrect responses and correct responses and you'll still pass. Like I guess the negative won't outweigh the bad. 🤷‍♀️

[legend]

3 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

There are instances, however, where you can make incorrect responses and correct responses and you'll still pass. Like I guess the negative won't outweigh the bad. 🤷‍♀️

 

 I can see that. I think the key regardless is whether the bar is 100% and perhaps you can get it there for some checks even if you have a negative point. I.e., they probably have a "mini point total to succeed" and if you pass that threshold, the bar displays 100% and you succeed; fail otherwise.

[Keyser_Soze]

7 minutes ago, legend said:

 

 I can see that. I think the key regardless is whether the bar is 100% and perhaps you can get it there for some checks even if you have a negative point. I.e., they probably have a "mini point total to succeed" and if you pass that threshold, the bar displays 100% and you succeed; fail otherwise.

 

I still think there are ones you're not supposed to pass no matter what, so maybe it's a bit misleading.

 

Minor spoilers for Act 2 - When you go into the church (Towards the end of the last day)

Spoiler

When you go into the church with the nuns to take food to the priests, you have to pass a dialogue check with a guy who's guarding the crypt. You talk to him to let you in, you can turn the conversation sour in that conversation and he won't let you in. But you can say good things he still won't let you in. (Note: The only negative here was from a previous day where I spoke lewdly in front of him or something - so I couldn't change that at the time) so no matter what I chose he wouldn't let you in.

However, if you let the nun speak for you none of that matters.

 

[Bloodporne]

I do know that the bar has be filled in order to pass but yeah, it frustrated me after the fifth or so failed check because there is nothing to indicate how much the positives or negatives contribute nor what you missed. It's just a very obtuse system and like I said, I passed one in the entire game and I'm a pretty anal-retentive player in general. I think the game absolutely is a total win on the story, dialog and art front but gameplay and pacing are sometimes pretty flawed. I do give it a huge pass though in general on that stuff for the obvious reasons. Like who the fuck even decides to make a game like this, that alone is impressive to me. 

[Keyser_Soze]

12 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

 I passed one in the entire game and I'm a pretty anal-retentive player in general.

 

Damn. Git good. I've passed at least 5. I even got an achievement for it and I wasn't even trying hard.

[Bloodporne]

15 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Damn. Git good. I've passed at least 5. I even got an achievement for it and I wasn't even trying hard.

[Keyser_Soze]

Just finished the 2nd act.

 

Damn!

[Keyser_Soze]

Well got around to beating it. I definitely would be interested in going through it again to make some difference choices. In the first act for sure but I'm pretty content with how the second turned out.

 

As for the 3rd

 

Spoiler

I went kind of safe on my mural decisions. I'm certain the pictures would change if I went more "extreme" in those decisions.

 

[TheLeon]

I’m into the second investigation now. I’m finding this game to be simultaneously boring and compelling. Don’t make me explain that, because I can’t! 

[Keyser_Soze]

So I recently started up another playthrough of this game and I think it's better the second time around. I think you know what to expect (in a good way) so you actually know what you can do. I think about Vinny's criticism of the game and why he didn't enjoy it as much as others but he said he didn't like the idea of running out of time in a day. But I think something you learn the more you play the game is that other than big time events you have as much time as you want. So you can play the game at the beginning knowing this. In fact one thing I never did in my first playthrough was go to the Mill, I never went up there. So this time around I know there isn't an actual rush so I went up there.

Also, I picked completely different backgrounds. You know that some personality traits are kind of useless. I picked hedonist my first time and other than flirty dialogue it didn't seem to help much. This time I went with a book background and already I'm not through the first day and there are so many differences. If you have the time you should definitely go through it again.

[Keyser_Soze]

A patch hit

 

1.2 Patch Notes - Pentiment: Announcements & News - Obsidian Forum Community

FORUMS.OBSIDIAN.NET

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Added localizations for Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese.

 

New Outer Farms area allowing you to find more of the character's homes.

 

Optimized game resources which may result in a larger patch download size.

 

Many bug fixes and improvements.

 

PC Only: String Override support allowing users to change the text in the game and make localization mods

 

 

 

[TheLeon]

No buff for Hedonism? Lame patch

[Brian]

Xbox Games Pentiment and Grounded Confirmed for Nintendo Switch - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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Xbox games Pentiment and Grounded are both confirmed as coming to Nintendo Switch.

Pentiment coming to Switch tomorrow. 

[Keyser_Soze]