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.