On Saturday I played six nearly-unbroken hours of Pentiment, where you play as an artist investigating murders in a 16th-century Bavarian town. The core aesthetics of Pentiment that appealed to me were its historical narrative, and the fantasy it crafted around being a 16th century artist. The game has a strong sense of historicity and visual style that build up this aesthetic appeal. While playing it, a dynamic that really stood out to me was the amount of detailed information I was receiving from the game, about the locations, cultural references, politics, and current events of the time, a depth of everyday and academic knowledge that helped me further embody my role as Andreas Maler. This dynamic is created by the game’s glossary mechanic, which can be referenced during dialogue scenes of all the unfamiliar terms and proper nouns that come up in conversation.
Another mechanic is the use of art and typeface design in its construction of its narrative. Pentiment incorporates a variety of art styles and typefaces based on medieval and Renaissance art/manuscripts. It uses these to characterize the different people you meet, and position them within their personal and collective histories. Art and font is an indicator of country of origin, profession, class. Clergy and nobility speak in a fancier font than peasants. The local printmakers have a custom dialogue animation that resembles printing blocks. Brother Guy has a custom-made backwards “y” for his dialogue and writing to reflect his native Burgundian script. Pentiment’s narrative may on the surface seem to be about a mystery, but what drew me in was the deeper story built on uncovering the rich backgrounds and personal lives of the characters you meet and interact with, spin and break bread with, a story that the game’s art is integral to telling.
