FAQ First:

"Is Fates of Ort a good game?"
Yes, absolutely. It has quests, choices, different endings, an open world, interesting mechanics, and it risks to be different, like any game in the NES/SNES era did.

"Ok, what kind of game is it?"
THIS is the first hard question. It's hard to say, because it is really something unique, and hence cannot be hard pressed into a single category. It most probably is closest to the RPG genre, but it features so many awesome mechanics, which haven't really been around that often and it mixes them exceptionally well.

"Is it worth it's price?"
Nah, I really think you are getting a lot more bang for your buck. 12,50 feels almost ridiculously low for the great job that Fates of Ort is. I would have paid 20 bucks and still feel you would get a lot more out of it, than of other games that cost the same.

"What kind of mechanics were you talking about?"
Free choice of spells, allowing you to pick the way you strategically approach fights, and generally this game holding your hand just enough about the unique things. If you don't get something immediatelly, it will come to you. Having different spells is just the beginning, as you discover different elements, each element can be combined with the same spell to produce insane amounts of combinations.

"How's the writing?"
Lovely. It has so many good lines, and it often subverts your expectations as in "Ha! I know this kind of quest", just to smack you over the head with something you did not expect. But in the good way, not in the "final season of game of thrones" way.

"Is the fighting OK?"
No, it's brilliant. Once you get to experiment a bit and get to know the system, it is incredibly rewarding. Especially when you tackle a super tough enemy just with your sword, because, well, you can!

"How's the enemy variety?"
3 hours in the game and it's Dark Souls-esque. There are so many variations and unique enemies. So far I encountered 3 different kinds of knight, all behaving radically different, from ironclad hulk-tank over quick damage dealer to hard-to-hit elite with dodge and counterstrikes that will give you a run for your money at your first encounter.

"Secrets?"
Yes.

"Is the soundtrack good?"
Yes. Yes, it is.

____________________

TL;DR
Fates of Ort plays around with and even redefines certain aspects of RPG, it risks being different in a time of "Formula X for max profit"-games and refuses to be clearly something that you can describe with a few words. It is an incredibly well rounded experience that emphasises combat, skills, worldbuilding and writing, and it does so extremely well for an indie game. To know that there is largely one man behind everything except soundtrack and graphic artwork, makes it even more impressive. Fates of Ort will take any gamer who experienced it, back to the glorious SNES/NES era, where you wouldn't know exactly WHAT a game is, just to find out, that you lucked out and find the one game that will stick with you forever. I sincerely recommend Fates of Ort to anyone who wants a little challenge, wrapped up in an amazing allround experience.

__________

I am finally done with my FIRST playthrough (had to start over), and boy, was it good. The sheer amount of choices, it's obvious that there is a lot of time and heart in this. One of the best indie games I have ever played, and easily among my favourite top 10.

Fates of Ort is awesome.

I'm a picky guy when it comes to games, and this one is a nice throwback. There are a lot of positives, and hardly any negatives to this game.

PROS:
-Side quests give off the same feel as doing the "big trade" in a few Zelda games.
-Game-changing decisions around every corner.
-Bullet hell, but not crazy enough to where it isn't fun.
-Music - especially in some of the boss fights.
-Visuals (Biased, I love pixelated games)
-Good story

CONS:
-A lot of dummy houses that serve no purpose other than to suck up about 30 seconds of your time walking in between loading screens to break a few pots.
-Some maps have a lot of extra unneeded room that cons the player into walking around to find nothing.

In conclusion, this game is undoubtedly worth the price, if not more. I haven't completed the game just yet. In the time I've played, I have only explored half of the map.

+ pretty good quest design that only optionally holds your hand (hint button, which spoils the quest). There were no stupid fetch quests, almost all of them were very long-term and I have barely finished any
+ time stops when you don't move (well, almost always). And it's even part of the in-game lore! Haven't seen any deep worldbuilding based on this, but it was at least brought up

+/- spells are powerful, too powerful even - there is a charm that makes enemies fight for you with a decent area of effect that's cheaper than the simplest magic missile. I haven't seen anything that can resist it (well, maybe bosses). It makes combat with multiple enemies easier than with a single one
+/- I was about as strong after getting two first levels (1 hour of playtime?) as I was at the end. The only thing you get on levels are new spells and the first two seem to be the most important. Equipment seemed basically useless
+/- there is no mana and instead spells cost small amount of life
+/- the world is big and feels well handcrafted. The problem is that it's too big for little reason. There aren't any interesting spots you can come back to later and it feels very... linear. Don't get me wrong, there are many possible paths for you to take and this is an open world game, but said world is rarely designed for you to come back to revisit (e.g. because there was a cave in the early game with a powerful dragon, that you couldn't beat yet or something like that). And I say rarely, since there are cases when you cannot progress without an item so you come back to open a new path metroidvania style. It doesn't feel organic, it's not your decision and instead the game has to hard-stop you to then push you to come back later

- enemy encounters are very easy so instead there is a ton of them to slow you down
- coming back to spells costing life - it strongly disincentivizes exploration. The only way to get back your life is to get to the savepoint-crystal, so the game forces you to visit them often. In practice I learned to go directly to the next crystal (all are showed on the map from the get-go), just to be able to reach it on first try. There was barely anything worth seeing in the side areas that I explored before, so it was more pragmatic, but also not very adventurous
- travel felt slow and that's despite very generous free teleportation to every discovered crystal
- again about the spells - since each cast is costly and your resource is finite it's like the game also doesn't want you to have fun during combat. You are supposed to deal with everything in the most efficient manner possible to be able to get to the next crystal. Again - boring. The only exception is when you are next to the crystal, which I think never has anything challenging next to it
- actually I haven't seen any challenging encounters in the game overall - except for the issues you can get yourself into because of life-management (and I already stated before what the answer was - not great)

I really, really wanted to like the game. It looks and feels well crafted, but I cannot look past the fact that it's was simply boring to me. Combat isn't and doesn't want to be challenging or fun. There is little to discover in locations and running past them doesn't fix anything. There is almost no sense of progression after first two hours. The game makes genuine attempts at being original and the ideas aren't bad, but they just don't seem to work as a whole product. From my perspective the world size should have been cut by at least half, combat encounters designed to be very challenging with a full heal after every single one. And equipment that actually enables RPG-like freedom of progression. It sounds great when I write it but that would then be a completely different game. So with no pleasure I have to say I didn't enjoy my time and that's a negative review overall.

Super interesting game. Had a great time.

Pros:
1. Fun Combat
2. Fun premise
3. Cool world map
3. Intelligent quest design
4. Decisions that interact and have a lasting effect on the world

Cons:
1. Too easy
2. Enemy variety
3. UI is a bit lackluster
4. Having an extra wide monitor makes the game look stretched (Have to manually resize it)

Would definitely recommend this game.

There are only a handful of games nowadays that can inherit an old school art style and manage to be both enjoyable yet appealing to players at the same time. Thankfully Fates of Ort does a fantastic job at doing just that, the combat is satisfying and addictive along with an intriguing story that’ll keep you hooked. The open-world is impressively big and contains a surprising amount of extra detail and lore embedded in some of the side quests. No game is perfect but Fates of Ort comes close to being just that.

• Satisfying and addictive combat
• You’ll get attacked by spells and demons if you overuse your spells, forces the player to be mindful when casting spells
• Lots of spells to acquire, each working differently depending on which element you’re casting them with
• The majority of NPCs have useful dialogue that either talk about points of interest or gives you a side quest
• Boss battles are extremely fun, though there isn’t much variety till the end of the game
• Controls have been made to switch to different spells and elements easily
• Side quests can be handled in different ways to complete them
• Big open world to explore
• Soundtracks are amazingly produced
• Lots of variety in the environments

• The game punishes you for using spells too much, though I couldn't see any indication of when I was using too much magic until it was too late
• Dungeons and caves don’t have individual maps to help navigate where you haven’t explored yet
• Isn't any penalty for dying (as far as I’m aware)
• Long pauses between soundtracks / no looping soundtracks
• Little to no animations in the environments

Being a fan of these old school RPGs, I was intrigued by not only the graphics of this title but by the mechanics that this game had to offer. The time-freezing ability accompanied with the use of magic seemed like an intriguing set of mechanics that would allow the player to be more strategic in combat. With spells being casted by both you and the enemies, it was extremely satisfying to slowly weave around these spells to avoid getting hit. The controls are precise and responsive allowing for last-second adjustments to avoid taking damage from spells that are approaching you.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2060727961

Boss fights were extremely enjoyable, despite fighting the same mage over and over again until the end of the game (for reasons I won’t spoil here) it was still a lot more fun than fighting a bunch of regular enemies in the wild. Fighting another mage made the boss battles intense at first, as you would be stopping every few seconds to strategically dodge his attacks and land your own, but slowly became too easy due to him not learning any new spells to keep you on your feet.

Surprisingly the world of Ort is rather large, spanning across multiple biomes and having lots of dungeons, caves and secret areas to explore. I was never bored in this world always looking for additional side quests and secrets that would aid me on my journey whilst traveling the world. The side-quests have genuine reason to ask you for help that fit in with the main storyline of the game. Though the rewards are mostly just items to complete other side quests with, you will occasionally get another party member who will fight alongside you.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2060727780

The game doesn’t punish the player for dying and therefore the fear of losing money or equipment upon death isn’t there anymore. It might affect your ending (the end dialogue of the game subtly noted this) but apart from that you don’t lose anything besides getting respawned back to the last Fate Spike you visited. Though I doubt you will die very often, it became way too easy due to the amount of spells you acquire over the course of the game.

Leveling up grants you the choice of picking a new spell to learn, admittedly at first you might not think there are that many spells even if you obtain them all, but having all three elements makes the spell change depending on what element you’ve selected. For example, selecting a basic debuff spell will be the plague for the Shadow element, Slow for the Life element and Persuade for the Mind element, each applying different debuffs to your enemies.

There’s a lot of variety when it comes to spells as you might expect, from your basic elemental spells, spawning reflective blocks, teleportation, force push, elemental traps, turrets etc. However, as I collected more spells it became slightly overwhelming and for the majority of the game I stuck with only 3 or 4 of them. It’s nice to have a variety to be able to pick which spells suit your playstyle, but it felt overwhelming with the amount of spells you obtain through the course of the game.

The game takes a different approach when it comes to limiting your spell casting capabilities. Instead of using a standard mana bar the game allows you to infinitely cast spells but at a price. Depending on what choices you make at the start of the game will depend on what the repercussions are for using spells. For me using spells too much resulted in the game retaliating by attacking me with spells and spawning high-level demons. Whereas the other choice will cause you to lose health every time you use spells. Either way, this forces you to be a lot more mindful of how much to use spells in battle and adds another layer of strategy to this title. The only problem with this is that there isn’t anything to indicate when you are using too much magic until it’s too late. I was never completely certain when it would reset so I could use my spells again without getting attacked.

Each soundtrack that plays has been beautifully produced to suit the atmosphere of any situation that you find yourself in. From intense boss battles to more emotional moments that the game occasionally throws your way, I was never disappointed or tired of listening to any of these soundtracks. My only complaint is that some of the tracks don’t loop and leave you in silence with subtle ambient sounds for a minute or so until it starts playing again.

The art style definitely sparks a nostalgic feeling as you roam the world of Ort, staying faithful to the old school RPG style whilst managing to create different biomes that are very distinguishable from one another. From volcanic underground caves to overgrown mossy jungles this game has a lot of variety to keep the entire experience fresh and making the world fun to explore.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2060727908

Despite the environments having a lot of variety however, practically nothing has any animation and makes this amazing looking world feel static at times. Even if there was a small amount of animation like waves in the ocean or the trees rustling in the wind slightly, it would add a lot more life to the world.

Fates of Ort is definitely a fully driven passion project that combines the fantastic old school RPG graphics with extremely satisfying and addictive combat. With the addition of a large open world full of secrets and interesting side quests, you’ll never get bored exploring this world through the multiple biomes this title has to offer. With an expansive list of spells at your fingertips, who wouldn’t want to be a mage that can freeze time whenever he stops moving?

This product was reviewed using a free key provided by the Developers

For more critically honest reviews of mine, check out Metro’s Review Corner

when I see tag of Open World and the inspiration for this game (Diablo 2, Morrowind, Chrono Trigger, Fallout, Eschalon Book), I am hoping to play one of those games but with simultaneous turn-based battle system ... but I wrong

few thing that I found
- this game has NO MERCHANT ... you will find items to equip, but you will not find any merchant that you can buy or sell
- you can access and equip items only at a certain spawn points ... you cannot open inventory any time you want
- no RPG and skills upgrade ... each time you gain a level, you can choose one new magic, thats it ... no abilities or skill point that you can distribute to

in the long run, this game become boring and repetitive fast ...

It has a lot of good ideas and runs great but the ideas never develop into anything interesting. The game ends up being incredibly boring. Combat is a slog with no depth, so despite the fun idea of time stopping, and the potential of the rock/paper/scissors magic system, I ended up trying to avoid combat as much as possible.

Other problems: the story is just a villian's exposition dump, characters are paper thin, loot is minor number upgrades, you find chests of loot in the wild but you have to pay to open them instead of being rewarded for exploring, the maps are void of much worth exploring anyway, the enemies are boring and don't help flesh out the combat system, and the quests are all one-note fetch quests.

This is a really tough review for me to write.

I'll start with saying that this game does almost everything very far above par (particularly since this appears to be a first-time developer). The world design is interesting, the art is beautiful, and the music is very evocative. The levels/regions are all pretty interesting, and the quests can be completed in multiple ways.

What just feels like a huge "♥♥♥♥ you" to the player though, is the final boss. It requires you to beat a series of bosses in a row, and if you die, contrary to how the rest of the game operates, you have to start over and fight ALL of them again. FFS. I can't imagine having the patience to do that over and over again; which you most likely WILL have to do, as it can take a while to figure out how to be a couple of them.

Overall, amazing game, and I *do* recommend it, but with a caveat that the end feels really punishing, and unfair. This is probably underscored by the fact that almost all of the achievements have less than a 5% completion rate (and half of the achievements deal with the ending). If not for the end, which ruined the experience for me, this would be a slam-dunk "yes" recommendation.

I bought and played this game last summer, until constant crashes and a bad framerate made me quit the game prematurely. Since then I have built a new rig and decided to come back to finish the game, because really liked what I saw. I haven't experienced any hitches since then, and the game has been patched thoroughly. I can't attest if it is the patches or the new machine though, so caution might be advised for people with older PCs.

The game itself is a casting-based hack and slash RPG which is far more Diablo than Divinity; the magic realm of... Ort, I guess?... has been taken over by a magic plague, the royalty is more than useless and therefore it is on our chosen one to whack the ♥♥♥♥ out of hundreds of bandits, skeletons, demons, beholders and liches to bring back peace through violence. The underlying themes of the story are actually quite beautiful, the way it plays out can get a bit tropey at times, but it's all in good fun. There is a surprising amount of NPCs ready to deliver tons of exposition, but don't expect any deep discussions here - this is about adventure, and good, and evil, and about blowing stuff up.

And when it comes to blowing stuff up, you have an intimidating and ever growing arsenal of spells in three different categories which - however - overlap far more than descriptors such as "life" and "death" might suggest. Your arsenal includes necromancy, fireballs, walls, traps, plagues, lightning bolts and dozens of other ways to stun, poison or grill your enemies. As usual in such cases, balancing does not quite work out so I just stuck to two or three of the stronger weapons in the game, but it is nice to have options, I guess.

Speaking of options: besides disintegrating everything that stands in your way, you'll be presented with a variety of non-combat problems over the course of the game, which always boil down to using the right item at the right place. Since some of the items are hidden or even given out randomly, this can get a bit tedious at times, especially when you are stuck and seemingly can't progress in any direction. There is a robust help-system though, and always more than one way to reach the goal, so you can't get stuck completely.

The game looks beautiful and is clearly a labor of love. The soundtrack is okay, some tunes are really good, some not so much. I recommend giving the game a shot - it is a good time for the asking price and if you are into mindless killing with some good story-beats and chill exploration inbetween, you can't really go wrong with this delightfully open world.

An interesting take on the time stop mechanic which is reminiscent of Superhot but put into a diablo / story rpg type of game.

Depending on your previous gaming experience it takes a bit of relearning as your health is also your "mana" when casting. I tried to avoid casting at all but then found I lost more health overall as even one hit from an enemy is significant. I then noticed that reusing the same spell over and over gets progressively more expensive so this encourages experimenting with using different spells.

My experience so far (4 hours) has been very good, I like the theme, and the characters brought me a laugh. The music fits well and the minimap is essential for navigating the world. I felt a little lost at the start of the game as the quests are quite big overarching "save the world" kind of goals but I quickly found progression by exploring the world, unlocking quick travel points and levelling up my character. I then found smaller quests that were more directly achievable and so I felt I then had more agency and control in the game. I've enjoyed trying to figure out the "best" way to play the game and still don't feel like I've got it all worked out yet!

Sometimes the levels feel oversized for the number of monsters but I think this is so you have the space to try out different tactics such as laying traps and walling off sections to create a choke point. It also fits the theme of the world - no spoilers! The story so far is compelling and I look forward to seeing the rest of it.