Y’all Slept on Pentiment But Now You Have No Excuse

If I had my way, Pentiment would’ve won Game of the Year in 2022. But instead, it was Elden Ring, which was also deserved, I guess.

The smaller game from developer Obsidian Entertainment may get more well-earned attention now that it’s making the jump to the Nintendo Switch starting on February 22. The release follows weeks of rumors that Xbox exclusives would come to other platforms, and Pentiment is leading that charge.

Set in sixteenth-century Bavaria, Pentiment follows the misadventures of one Andreas Maler, an artist who gets roped into a grand murder mystery and must question nobles, nuns, peasants, and thieves for their role in the crime. It’s a slow burn of a tale that explores families across multiple generations in a small village in Germany not too far from where game director Josh Sawyer’s grandparents grew up.

“This particular time period is very interesting to me because it’s a time of a lot of social unrest,” Sawyer told me during a game preview in August 2022. “So I just thought it would be interesting to tell a story, that is ultimately a very personal story about this guy Andreas and the community that he lives in, within the historical context of these events that are happening around them.”

From both a craft perspective and a narrative one, Pentiment is worth another look. It’s inspired by woodcut printing and historical books like the “Nuremberg Chronicle” circa 1493. You must play as Andreas and cannot customize his personality too much. It’s a departure from Obsidian’s past games, including The Outer Worlds, Fallout: New Vegas, and Kickstarter-funded Pillars of Eternity — all role-playing adventure games with tons of customization options.

Pentiment also sets itself apart by being extremely easy to play.

“We cannot have the controls be confusing, and while we do have a number of mini-games to open up, they’re designed more for vibes and immersion rather than a challenge,” Sawyer said. “We’re not trying to give the player very complicated things to solve.”

It’s in this way that Pentiment, which came out the same year Wordle went viral, feels most like a game that anyone can pick up, since for the most part, you play as Andreas who walks around town, questioning suspects, and breaking bread with friends. Such simple controls and a narrative that takes hours to unfold and truly sink in made Pentiment easy to overlook.

When you look at how Pentiment was made, launching a few years after Microsoft acquired Obsidian and giving a very small team creative freedom to pursue an offbeat passion project, it explains a lot of the art gem’s uniqueness. The title comes from an art term, meaning an element within a painting that reappears after an artist has painted a layer over it. And knowing the broader themes of the game, it’s fair to say that name has multiple meanings, one of which could be shedding light on history and the truth.

Narratively driven and character focused, Pentiment feels like a natural fit for the Nintendo Switch, where I have whittled the hours away on games like Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It’s not a game that demands the fastest graphics and best mechanics. It simply asks that you be open to slowly embracing life and all its potential wonders and heartbreak.

Pentiment is available now on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.