Your first act in Pentiment is a simple one, yet loaded with layers of deeper meaning. The game begins with the camera zooming in on a thick book, propped up against a large wooden board. Suddenly, it flips open to reveal a page of Latin text – at which point a smooth, oval-shaped stone appears, inviting you to press it down against the page to erase the printed words and images.
Even without any additional context, the process feels taboo – effectively charging you with rewriting history. It's tied to the game's title, too: like a palimpsest, it refers to visible traces of a prior work, scraped away or covered up by fresh paint or ink. As game and narrative director Josh Sawyer puts it, "You're creating your own version of the story that is going down. But also, your story is built upon many other stories that have come before you."
