Reviews

[Boeroer]

Josh wrote on Twitter that they got some bug reports & feedback and that they would fix some things. Number 1 on the list was a slider to turn down/off the scribbling sound. There you go!  

 

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Boeroer

[Sven_]

I wonder what the expectations are on the commercial end of things. This is clearly a passion project. E.g. del Toro doing "At The Mountains Of Madness" for realz (though that's probably a bit too "mainstreamish" a comparison, considering that Lovecraft is a fairly established fictional writer -- but you get the idea). 

But for all the accessibility in terms of mechanics, this is as almost as anti-mainstream as you can get, even within the adventure/CRPG niche:

- 16th century Holy Roman Empire
- no action, boobs'n'monsters
- main character is a scholar of the finer arts
- woodcut printing instread of raytracing (un-state of the arts!)

Ok, there's murder going on, just like in Freddy VS Jason. But it's all steeped into 16th century  Central European politics, religion and life of the not-so-party. And this seems to show in the low number of Steam reviews already. It may be a miracle that this was actually green-lit though, so that's already a huge success (except for upper management, perhaps).


German media outlets from outside the gaming bubble start picking up on it anyways. "Pentiment": Adventure-Game im mittelalterlichen Bayern | BR24
BR.de, fittingly, is part of the "Bayrischer Rundfunk".

Edited November 16, 2022 by Sven_

[Boeroer]

It was mainly made for XBox GamePass - so the sales on Steam might be lower as they would be if it wasn't a GamePass title - I guess.

Also the requirements for GamePass titles seem to be somewhat different: a game that is not played by millions but gets overwhelmingly good criticism as well as press outside of the usual gamer bubbles may be more valuable to Microsoft than a GamePass title that would appeal to a broader audience but is otherwise unexciting. 

Besides that: some merch of Pentiment is already sold out, for example the playing cards.

Also keep in mind that this game was made by only 13 devs in 3 years. That is a very small team and a rel. short time compared to other games that cost about the same. Also it has no VO (= 1 cost explosion out). So of course the sales don't need to be that high to turn it into a profitable project.

Anyway: I just hope that the sales numbers somewhat follow the praise - Josh and his teammates at Obsidian deserve that after Deadfire's disappointing release I think. 

PS: it runs well on the Steam Deck and in general seems to be a title that would work well with any sort of mobile device. It is made with Unity3D again (as were PoE and Deadfire).  

Edited November 17, 2022 by Boeroer

[xzar_monty]

4 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

Anyway: I just hope that the sales numbers somewhat follow the praise - Josh and his teammates at Obsidian deserve that after Deadfire's disappointing release I think.

Couldn't agree more. Heck, despite the fairly unimpressive trailer I decided I'm going to buy this title if only to support Sawyer after the Deadfire disappointment; that fantastic game surely deserved a lot more than it got.

Now, it looks as if Pentiment is an excellent game after all, which is just wonderful.

[Sven_]

Pentiment wouldn't have been possible without Game Pass, says Obsidian's Josh Sawyer | Eurogamer.net

[Sven_]

Finished. This was an "experience". If you're unsure, save this one for the holidays, thank me later.

Nassau-Saarbrücken DLC next? 

[xzar_monty]

How strange, btw, that discussion on a brand new game just stopped about ten days ago, without ever taking off.

[Wormerine]

7 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

How strange, btw, that discussion on a brand new game just stopped about ten days ago, without ever taking off.

Discussion here? Or in wider media?

[algroth]

I've seen plenty of discussion in other places regarding Pentiment, but it's true that this forum has felt a little quiet on it. Not sure if it's just because there's less to discuss/speculate on than a game like Pillars for example, at least in places like this. Which is still odd, considering how rich the game is in terms of history, themes, etc.

[Boeroer]

I read a lot of feedback on Twitter, often to Josh directly. Much more than for PoE and Deadfire. 
I think Pentiment is a game that is mostly played by a different target audience than the other titles of Obsidian. And most of those people might not want to post here (or don't even know this forum even exists) and use less "gamorphile" platforms.  

And also: the sales numbers will not be at AAA level of course.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Boeroer

[xzar_monty]

On 12/2/2022 at 6:38 PM, Boeroer said:

And also: the sales numbers will not be at AAA level of course.

Do you have any idea of the numbers? Of course they're still growing, but still. There are titles that sell in the millions, some sell in the six figures, etc. Where would Pentiment be?

[Boeroer]

After the first day of release it was estimated to have sold around 20K copies on Steam iirc, now it's between 20 and 50K - but that's just numbers from SteamSpy and so on, so not really reliable. It also doesn't take into account non-Steam purchases (Microsoft Store for example). Also - since it's an XBox GamePass title - a lot of players won't have to buy it in order to play it.

I don't think neither Josh nor Microsoft expected Pentiment to really make money from sales alone - but given the very good receptions and  the buzz, combined with the very small team (13 devs in total), the presumably small budget and the solid price ($20) it might do?  

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Boeroer

[kozzy]

Beat the game on my steamdeck and had a blast, just loved it. Wonderful job Josh Sawyer and everyone else at Obsidian that worked on it. The characters, dialogue, story, audio and the art design are fantastic. I am still thinking about The Abbey and all the characters weeks after finishing it. Glad it is got a good amount of praise!

[InsaneCommander]

On 11/28/2022 at 3:42 AM, xzar_monty said:

How strange, btw, that discussion on a brand new game just stopped about ten days ago, without ever taking off.

I just installed the game. I'll start it soon, maybe today.