Game introduction:

"Pentiment" is an adventure mystery detective game developed by Obsidian Entertainment, a first-party game studio of Microsoft (premiered on XGP). The game adopts a medieval hand-drawn art style throughout, presenting a turbulent medieval period marked by religious conflicts, distinct social classes, and unstable living conditions through excellent scriptwriting, narrative design, and remarkable restoration of medieval history.

"Pentiment" incorporates a time-lapse feature into its adventure mystery detective gameplay, where players will accompany the protagonist through 25 years of medieval social changes, thereby intensifying the tension and immersion of daily detective work. Drawing inspiration from the RPG-like character development system and scene-branching dialogue settings of "Disco Elysium", it also diversifies the gaming experience.

At the same time, "Pentiment" has put a lot of effort into character design and dialogue. Unlike the core mechanism of advancing the plot with key items in previous adventure mystery games, "Pentiment" further emphasizes the importance of game dialogues, where players can progress the game by conversing with the right characters. Players need to sort out the information from different characters' dialogues for comparison to uncover the truth.

Moreover, the hand-drawn medieval art style and excellent scene music are also key bonus points for the game's popularity overseas.

Regarding the medieval theme and setting:

The setting of the medieval period against the backdrop of religious conflicts and cultural renaissance has always been one of the popular themes in the gaming industry. Whether it's the previous "Assassin's Creed" series, "The Witcher 3", or "Mount & Blade", the shadow of the medieval period can be seen in these games.

As more and more games with medieval settings are released on Steam, Steam has consequently created a dedicated "Medieval" tag section to categorize these games.

However, the popularity of medieval games has long been lukewarm. With the recent release of the medieval adventure mystery game "Pentiment," a new wave of interest in medieval-themed games has once again surged within the gaming community.

Game Analysis:

• A discerning process of investigation where choices are continually made

"Pentiment" adds a time passage element to the conventional side-scrolling adventure mystery detective gameplay. As players investigate cases, they must make choices; the passage of time means they cannot thoroughly investigate all clues at hand within a single day, forcing them to choose to investigate the aspects they find most interesting. Both character interactions and case tasks in the game are time-sensitive, often meaning that choosing one direction for investigation implies the abandonment of another. This continuous decision-making detective setup means players often can't see the full picture of the events, creating a sense of being in a fog, which in turn deepens the tension and immersion of the game's investigative experience.

• Dialogue-driven narrative progression model

The progression of the story in "Pentiment" also differs from that of conventional adventure mystery games. Many of the puzzle-solving segments in the game are of moderate difficulty, and there isn't a setup for so-called key items. What players need to do is to find the right characters to converse with and try to persuade the target characters to obtain vital information. Comparing different pieces of key information to deduce the full picture of events is the primary method of advancing the game's storyline.

This setup further emphasizes the importance of dialogue in the game. Additionally, the excellent textual design within the game's dialogue contributes to this emphasis. The game developers have integrated numerous medieval grammar structures and words into the game's text, which, while increasing the reading difficulty to some extent, greatly enhances the player's sense of immersion. Even NPCs of different social classes in the game use different fonts (such as cursive, Gothic) when conversing with the player to reflect their status. There are many such details in the game's dialogue system that have been meticulously crafted.

Player Research:

• Increasing demand from players for narrative-driven art games

Games like "Pentiment" and "Disco Elysium" initially targeted a niche audience, primarily those who are interested in art games, rather than the mainstream gamers of today. As the saying goes, "art imitates life" and "history serves as a mirror." Narrative-driven art games, with their exploration of history and reflection on the real world, stand in stark contrast to many of today's mainstream games. Compared to mainstream titles on the market, these types of games often convey more serious content and carry deeper real-world and historical significance.

However, these narrative-driven art games often have a lengthy production cycle, resulting in many fans experiencing a game drought after completing titles like "Disco Elysium." Nonetheless, the player base for this type of game is not insignificant. The successful release of "Pentiment" has once again brought narrative-driven art games back into the public eye, attracting even more players to delve into this genre.

Design Analysis:

1. The investigative rhythm of making constant choices, while enhancing game immersion and experience, can significantly reduce the player's sense of satisfaction in solving the case, also known as the sense of "global understanding." Players may find it difficult to grasp the overall direction of the event, as they will invariably miss some information in the game. This sense of fulfillment can only be resolved through multiple playthroughs or by retracing progress, which diminishes the overall game experience.

2. Moreover, advancing the player's investigative progress with the passage of time can create an intangible sense of pressure. Detective reasoning games primarily emphasize plot reconstruction and logical deduction. Binding the passage of time to the investigative rhythm not only shortens the player's thinking time but can also lead to missing key information during repetitive daily conversations.

3. The developers of this title have conducted extensive research on medieval history, writing a wealth of dialogue and scenarios for characters of different classes and backgrounds. The game's narrative progression model is also dialogue-driven (persuasion), and the extensive text and story content can easily overwhelm players with various interactions and conversations with scene characters, thereby diluting the main storyline of the game.

4. An excessive focus on historical accuracy and restoration can attract a number of truly hardcore players, but it also increases the difficulty and threshold for new players to engage with the game. After all, those who enjoy such serious art-oriented games are a minority. Insisting on increasing the game's professionalism and artistic value can easily lead to a situation where the game is critically acclaimed but not commercially successful.

Summary & Outlooks:

1. "Pentiment" excels by offering players an almost authentic medieval experience, showcased through the game's attention to detail, whether it's the use of medieval grammar and vocabulary or the differentiation in fonts between social classes. It is precisely this meticulous handling of detail that has allowed it to outpace other medieval-themed games in its genre.

2. The dialogue-driven (persuasion) narrative progression model used in "Pentiment" could be further adopted in more detective games, eliminating the need for key item setups and allowing players to directly obtain crucial information, thereby making the deduction process more compact and structured.

3. "Pentiment" streamlined the narrative RPG development elements compared to "Disco Elysium," which means this semi-RPG dialogue model could be adapted to different game dialogue systems. (This point wasn't elaborated earlier, but it's worth mentioning briefly.)

4. A significant innovation in "Pentiment" is the binding of the concept of passing time with the traditional puzzle-solving mode, further segmenting and organizing player actions into different time slots throughout the day, which allows for better control of the game's pacing.