Obsidian’s latest offering, Pentiment, stands out as a remarkable entry in the gaming landscape of recent years. Set against the backdrop of 16th-century Bavaria, players step into the shoes of journeyman artist Andreas Maler, who finds himself embroiled in a series of murders plaguing the town of Tassing. The game presents a rich tapestry of potential suspects, each with their own motives, yet players must make choices even in the absence of concrete evidence. A notable aspect of the game is that no matter the decision made, players are left with an unsettling feeling that they may have pointed the finger at the wrong person.
Creative Choices and Moral Ambiguity
In a recent discussion with PCG at the Game Developers Conference, Pentiment director Josh Sawyer emphasized that this uncertainty is a core element of the game’s design. “From the very beginning, I said, ‘I think that for this to be compelling in the way that I want it to be, there cannot be a right answer,'” Sawyer explained. This philosophy extends to the game’s narrative, where even Sawyer himself refrains from identifying a definitive culprit. “People on the team would ask me who the culprit is, then people at Xbox would ask me, and I’m like, ‘No! There isn’t!'” he remarked, hinting at the complexity of the characters involved. “There are people who, in retrospect, seem more likely to have done it, but that doesn’t mean they did it.”
With a background that includes leading development on acclaimed titles such as Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, Sawyer approached the mystery from an RPG developer’s perspective. He expressed a desire to break away from the traditional puzzle-solving mechanics that often dictate a clear right or wrong answer. “When there’s always a right answer and it’s a puzzle, you kind of either get it right or you get it wrong… I just don’t think there’s a lot there from an RPG developer’s perspective,” he noted. This led him to ponder a different approach: “What if you didn’t know and you just had to keep going? In the way that we do RPGs: choice and consequences, we say, ‘You made this choice. If you have second thoughts, you’ve just got to live with that.'”
In Pentiment, players are not cast as detectives but rather as an artist navigating a morally complex landscape. “You’re not a detective, you’re a fucking artist. You’re not good at this,” Sawyer candidly stated. The primary motivation for Andreas is to save his dear friend Piero, an elderly monk wrongfully accused of murder. “Andreas will not allow Piero to die. You have to pick someone else,” Sawyer explained, underscoring the emotional stakes that drive the narrative forward.
