Remove the author, studio and graphics from the equation and think about it for a second. Even though good graphics are always a plus for me the important part is the story and how it is delivered. If you got this game with average graphics by an unknown author what would you rate it as?

The writing: Mediocre with useless exposition dumps. It seems like the writers want to show that they have studied the era. Good for them. The setting should be researched in any game. That does not mean that boring trivia must be discussed at length in dialogs especially if such trivia is irrelevant to the plot. And it IS irrelevant. The first time I went through such a dialog and the second time I paid attention. Thought it will have something to do with the story. It does not. The authors want to create a feel of the era by pasting parts of Wikipedia. I have read Wikipedia articles on events in the Middle Ages and it was a more entertaining experience.

The characters: When the dialog doesn’t inform us of random trivia we get some of the characters story and goals. This is blandly given. There is no witty dialog, no humour, no personality. There’s some stereotypes: the angry peasant, the oppressive abbot, the evil rich guy. Not much depth to the characters and no shades of grey. It seems like they were just writing to get it over with. And they wrote a lot of characters! Couple that with how colourless and boring they all are and the player struggles to remember who Susan is and why she dislikes him.

The gameplay: Go over and over the same areas in hope that THIS time something is happening. This is not the joy of exploring the mountain top. It is the tedium of going to the same mountain top for the tenth time in hopes that something might finally be happening there.

The language: While they tried to convey education with the font they have put little effort in conveying it in any other manner. The educated guys and the farmers speak more or less in the same manner. Thankfully they are patching the text visuals and speed, I can only imagine how more tiring it would get on a second play-through.

Animations of the menus: Slow. They are pretty but the thirtieth time you open the map you could do without them.

The mini games: I HAVE NO WORDS! Wait! I do. Is shaking 20 jars till the NPC tells you you got the right one entertaining? Challenging? Interesting? Is it even a game? Then at some point I was asked to say two Hail Maries and three Our Father prayers. It actually changed to a mini game screen and wouldn’t let me out till I clicked on the Hail Mary dialog three times (once for each sentence). That was one Hail Mary. Click. Click. Click. Second Hail Mary. Let’s go to Our Father now. Click. Click. Click… Just put me out of my misery please. To say nothing of the priest reading the absolution slooowly to each character that went for confession. The exact same text. Again. And again. And again. Is this a boredom simulator?

Things that didn’t really bother me but I would have liked: more agency over the central characters personality. More personality for that matter. At some point you find out that something tragic happened to him out of the blue. I felt nothing because there was never any connection with him. He is as bland as everyone else.

Another thing I missed is music. It can do much to set the feel of a game. Won’t quibble about that one though. It was a choice of the devs, I can get that some may like it and it didn’t really bother me.

In conclusion. If I were asked whether I would like to watch paint dry or play Pentiment, I would choose playing Pentiment.

After a significant pause.

Cheers!

Remove the author, studio and graphics from the equation and think about it for a second. Even though good graphics are always a plus for me the important part is the story and how it is delivered. If you got this game with average graphics by an unknown author what would you rate it as? [b]The writing:[/b] Mediocre with useless exposition dumps. It seems like the writers want to show that they have studied the era. Good for them. The setting should be researched in any game. That does not mean that boring trivia must be discussed at length in dialogs especially if such trivia is irrelevant to the plot. And it IS irrelevant. The first time I went through such a dialog and the second time I paid attention. Thought it will have something to do with the story. It does not. The authors want to create a feel of the era by pasting parts of Wikipedia. I have read Wikipedia articles on events in the Middle Ages and it was a more entertaining experience. [b]The characters:[/b] When the dialog doesn’t inform us of random trivia we get some of the characters story and goals. This is blandly given. There is no witty dialog, no humour, no personality. There’s some stereotypes: the angry peasant, the oppressive abbot, the evil rich guy. Not much depth to the characters and no shades of grey. It seems like they were just writing to get it over with. And they wrote a lot of characters! Couple that with how colourless and boring they all are and the player struggles to remember who Susan is and why she dislikes him. [b]The gameplay:[/b] Go over and over the same areas in hope that THIS time something is happening. This is not the joy of exploring the mountain top. It is the tedium of going to the same mountain top for the tenth time in hopes that something might finally be happening there. [b]The language:[/b] While they tried to convey education with the font they have put little effort in conveying it in any other manner. The educated guys and the farmers speak more or less in the same manner. Thankfully they are patching the text visuals and speed, I can only imagine how more tiring it would get on a second play-through. [b]Animations of the menus:[/b] Slow. They are pretty but the thirtieth time you open the map you could do without them. [b]The mini games:[/b] I HAVE NO WORDS! Wait! I do. Is shaking 20 jars till the NPC tells you you got the right one entertaining? Challenging? Interesting? Is it even a game? Then at some point I was asked to say two Hail Maries and three Our Father prayers. It actually changed to a mini game screen and wouldn’t let me out till I clicked on the Hail Mary dialog three times (once for each sentence). That was one Hail Mary. Click. Click. Click. Second Hail Mary. Let’s go to Our Father now. Click. Click. Click… Just put me out of my misery please. To say nothing of the priest reading the absolution slooowly to each character that went for confession. The exact same text. Again. And again. And again. Is this a boredom simulator? Things that didn’t really bother me but I would have liked: more agency over the central characters personality. More personality for that matter. At some point you find out that something tragic happened to him out of the blue. I felt nothing because there was never any connection with him. He is as bland as everyone else. Another thing I missed is music. It can do much to set the feel of a game. Won’t quibble about that one though. It was a choice of the devs, I can get that some may like it and it didn’t really bother me. In conclusion. If I were asked whether I would like to watch paint dry or play Pentiment, I would choose playing Pentiment. After a significant pause. Cheers!