Fate/Empire of Dirt is an adult fan game Visual Novel RPG based on the universe of Type-Moon. The game mixes elements from the Visual Novel genre, with the way the story is presented to the player; simulation elements, with a calendar system that gives the player the opportunity to spend time and bond with the heroines; and RPG elements, with dungeons and a combat system inspired by the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, in which the player can pick 3 different kind of attacks with different properties each as well as selecting skills to use during combat.
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I can tell a lot of effort and passion went into this, but it didn't result in something I can bring myself to continue. I got around 6 hours into this (a little after you get your third servant), and it already has a lot of problems.
The most obvious issue is how meandering the game feels; there are so many stretched-out points of nothing happening that I don't know why they made it like this. There are so many weird choices that make this worse, like every day having a scene in front of your house that usually adds nothing but an extra step between you and the overworld map. Speaking of the overworld map; 60% of the time there is only one option on the map, it should just skip it at those points.
The combat in this is slow and bad; it’s like a shitty version of Fate/Grand Order’s combat, which is already only serviceable at best. it’s like they didn’t understand what made it work in FGO. Everything in this takes too long to kill, adding to the meandering feel the game has.
The game has nice art, even if it can look a little wonky at times, but I can give it a pass. All the original monster designs are great of the ones I saw, they could be in SMT games. The sprites in combat are very good too, as I said; you can tell a lot of effort went into this. However, after all that praise I will say; the protagonist looks bad every time you can see him. I don’t know why they went with that design, but it is so fucking bad.
It kind of goes for a Persona-like system with bonding with characters, and it feels kind of flat with the few I did. It is also like Persona 4, where you have to gather information before you can go to the dungeon, but it is so basic and easy that it might as well be automated.
I should also mention the game has voice acting and they do a pretty good job at sounding like the originals of the characters I’ve seen, for the most part. Raikou doesn’t really sound remotely close in my opinion.
The premise of the story really didn’t interest me, to be honest, and learning more didn’t really help. It’s a premise of convenience, so you can have a bunch of servants and not really worry about anything before the start of the game or the consequences of supernatural events in the city. There are a lot of story choices that don’t really jive with me, like Raikou being your wife; it just feels like it's there; maybe more will come from it later, but I don’t care. It feels… pandering? Superficial? Basic? Something like that.
A lot of my problems also come from the protagonist, which I already mentioned as having a bad design. His personality is very unappealing to me as a protagonist, he’s very uninteresting, like a generic insert-type character that they stapled some things onto him to trick you into thinking he’s more than that. His power and how the Servants treat him give him some "OC DO NOT STEAL" energy. The fact that it is called Abyss magic might be a major part of that. Raikou being your wife, Rama being your best friend, and Brynhilder being your student all at the start of the game feels lame to me; it wouldn’t bother me if it was just one of those things, though the Raikou one might still bother me.
The worst thing I can really say is that it just doesn’t feel like Fate; it’s a bad urban fantasy VN-RPG hybrid with vague Fate-shaped things in it.
I might come back to it to give it a fairer shake but not right now.
The most obvious issue is how meandering the game feels; there are so many stretched-out points of nothing happening that I don't know why they made it like this. There are so many weird choices that make this worse, like every day having a scene in front of your house that usually adds nothing but an extra step between you and the overworld map. Speaking of the overworld map; 60% of the time there is only one option on the map, it should just skip it at those points.
The combat in this is slow and bad; it’s like a shitty version of Fate/Grand Order’s combat, which is already only serviceable at best. it’s like they didn’t understand what made it work in FGO. Everything in this takes too long to kill, adding to the meandering feel the game has.
The game has nice art, even if it can look a little wonky at times, but I can give it a pass. All the original monster designs are great of the ones I saw, they could be in SMT games. The sprites in combat are very good too, as I said; you can tell a lot of effort went into this. However, after all that praise I will say; the protagonist looks bad every time you can see him. I don’t know why they went with that design, but it is so fucking bad.
It kind of goes for a Persona-like system with bonding with characters, and it feels kind of flat with the few I did. It is also like Persona 4, where you have to gather information before you can go to the dungeon, but it is so basic and easy that it might as well be automated.
I should also mention the game has voice acting and they do a pretty good job at sounding like the originals of the characters I’ve seen, for the most part. Raikou doesn’t really sound remotely close in my opinion.
The premise of the story really didn’t interest me, to be honest, and learning more didn’t really help. It’s a premise of convenience, so you can have a bunch of servants and not really worry about anything before the start of the game or the consequences of supernatural events in the city. There are a lot of story choices that don’t really jive with me, like Raikou being your wife; it just feels like it's there; maybe more will come from it later, but I don’t care. It feels… pandering? Superficial? Basic? Something like that.
A lot of my problems also come from the protagonist, which I already mentioned as having a bad design. His personality is very unappealing to me as a protagonist, he’s very uninteresting, like a generic insert-type character that they stapled some things onto him to trick you into thinking he’s more than that. His power and how the Servants treat him give him some "OC DO NOT STEAL" energy. The fact that it is called Abyss magic might be a major part of that. Raikou being your wife, Rama being your best friend, and Brynhilder being your student all at the start of the game feels lame to me; it wouldn’t bother me if it was just one of those things, though the Raikou one might still bother me.
The worst thing I can really say is that it just doesn’t feel like Fate; it’s a bad urban fantasy VN-RPG hybrid with vague Fate-shaped things in it.
I might come back to it to give it a fairer shake but not right now.
Empire of Dirt is a fan attempt to create a Persona inspired JRPG within the Fate universe. The result is impressive with an ambitious goal like that in mind. The characters, both OC and reoccurring, are quite well handled. The art is gorgeous, even if the CGs can be a bit rough around the edges. The battles are tricky and can be enjoyable in that way, even if they do get tiresome by the end. I can respect and admire what the creators were attempting.
However, the result is still decidedly mixed. As a JRPG, the mechanics feel underdeveloped. There's places to go, but almost nothing to do. There's battles, but no leveling or items or what have you. There's social sim elements, but only in a romantic context, and you're also barred from romancing anyone until the last portion of the game.
Meanwhile, from a Visual Novel perspective, the gameplay elements seem pretty tacked on, an interruption from the story that adds little at best or acts like pointless filler at worst. Ideally, the gameplay elements would have been more fleshed out to make this a proper hybrid, but at times I couldn't help but feel that it would have been a better experience had it just been a visual novel with no JRPG elements at all.
The game has some great elements. Characters like Witch deserve a place in Fate canon despite being OC. But sadly the half-and-half approach to the gameplay just wasn't fully realized, and it does drag down the experience.
However, the result is still decidedly mixed. As a JRPG, the mechanics feel underdeveloped. There's places to go, but almost nothing to do. There's battles, but no leveling or items or what have you. There's social sim elements, but only in a romantic context, and you're also barred from romancing anyone until the last portion of the game.
Meanwhile, from a Visual Novel perspective, the gameplay elements seem pretty tacked on, an interruption from the story that adds little at best or acts like pointless filler at worst. Ideally, the gameplay elements would have been more fleshed out to make this a proper hybrid, but at times I couldn't help but feel that it would have been a better experience had it just been a visual novel with no JRPG elements at all.
The game has some great elements. Characters like Witch deserve a place in Fate canon despite being OC. But sadly the half-and-half approach to the gameplay just wasn't fully realized, and it does drag down the experience.