Actual medieval instruments played by actual early music specialists on a video game soundtrack in 2022. Pentiment's score by the ensemble Alkemie uses shawms, hurdy-gurdies, vielles, bagpipes, and recorders to build something that sounds genuinely centuries old.
Read more
The Saint John's Eve adaptation of Hildegard von Bingen's Karitas hits you with real 12th-century sacred music and it just sits there, heavy and beautiful. City of Melancholy lives in this low, aching register that matches the game's darker acts perfectly.
Sister Amalie's visions get these tense, sparse arrangements that feel like something breaking. Obsidian let the music be historically honest instead of cinematic and it paid off completely. If you care about game audio doing something nobody else is attempting, Pentiment is it.