I agree that the third act was weak. In fact, I played a couple of hours of it then quit and watched a youtube clip of the last bits and I think I just saved myself some time.
I still really enjoyed the game though, the first two parts were memorable (although I wish they put some more meat on the bones of the second act and trimmed the third act liberally).
I read the Cheese and the Worms in college and it’s stuck with me ever since as something I’m glad I read even if the particulars have faded over time. I recently discovered Carlos Ginzburg has another cheese-like in Old Thiess, a Livonia Werewolf, You can guess the setup from the title. I’ve only read a bit of it - turns out not having to write a freshman-year paper will sap my momentum when approaching dense sociology texts.
So, I’m currently at the start of Day 3. Can someone give me a non-spoilery idea of how far into it I am? I really don’t want it to end.
Well, 66% of the way through? Is that spoilery?
Wait, really? I’m only like three hours in…
The murder just took place on Day 2.
Sorry, I misunderstood your question. I was referring to the fact that you’re on act 3, and there are 3 acts.
Is each day an act?
No, you’ve slept multiple times in the earlier acts right?
I’ve only slept twice, period. So I guess I’m still in the first act.
OK, sorry, I’m goofing this up. You’re on day 3 of the initial act. You still have a ways to go. You’ll know when you hit an act break.
Oh, awesome! I’ve been loving everything about this so far. It’s a relief to know it won’t be over soon.
Bit of advice: take your time. Don’t think that you have to ‘go eat’ when they say to go eat or ‘go to sleep’ immediately when they say it’s time to sleep, etc. You might have the chance to still complete more if you don’t advance the day, where you will run out of time for sure if you do things that use up the clock. There are situations where the person you talk to will tell you right out that you’ll have to spend a bunch of time to do their thing.
At various points, you will have to decide between doing two or more things that take up time, and you’ll have to choose what fits best for you. That’s part of what’s good about Pentiment and gives some replayability to the story.
Also, there isn’t enough time to follow all the threads that the game will open up for you, you’ll have to choose which ones to follow. Which also gives you good opportunities for replayability.
Thanks for the advice! I was worrying a bit about not maximizing my time, but I’ve been trying to approach it naturally, and follow leads/explore when it feels like my character should.
I’m almost certain this will be something I replay, so I can run through a second time and track down what I’ve missed.
Walking doesn’t advance the clock and the same mostly goes for talking to people. Therefore feel free to walk through each area again after time passes. Sometimes people will appear in an area after time passes or they’ll have new dialogue because of stuff you did in that last activity.
My playthrough took I think about 14.5 hours.
I finished the first act and I feel like I kind of bungled things with the investigation. I get the feeling that I wasn’t supposed to actually solve it, but I ended up spreading myself too thin and pursuing multiple threads partway, but not far enough to feel satisfying.
Did I really miss much? I wonder if it would be worth restarting. I’m pretty sure this is a game I’ll replay in full anyway, though…
Don’t restart, just accept your decisions and move on. This is not a game where you can optimise your first playthrough as it is not upfront and transparent with its mechanics. It will make sense in the end, and you’ll have a better idea of how it works and what you want to do in subsequent replays.
Fair! I mainly just felt that my investigation didn’t feel narratively satisfying. I guess I wanted to feel a bit more confident in my wrong decision?
But I hope none of this sounds like a complaint. This is pretty firmly in my number 2 spot for 2022 games.
I mentioned above that they don’t give you enough time during the investigations to follow every lead. You kind of have to go with your gut to see which seems like the best avenue to follow, and it may not turn into a conclusion that feels like the right one. You will eventually reach a conclusion to the over-arching story and I believe it’s satisfying, but I don’t think you’ll ever be able to definitively point the finger at any suspect for the individual murders. Maybe I’m just a poor detective. Anyway, definitely don’t restart, would be my advice. Try another playthrough, if you think you have it in you, check out a different investigation path. I did that, and I really enjoyed it.