Fates of Ort - retro isometric spellslinging RPG

[Infinitron]

https://www.fatesofort.com




https://af.gog.com/en/game/fates_of_ort?as=1649904300

Spoiler

Fates of Ort is a retro inspired fantasy RPG with a focus on strategic action and a story driven by your decisions. It is a tale of sacrifice and difficult choices, in a world under threat of annihilation by the avaricious force of Consumption magic.

Magic is powerful, but it is not free. Every spell you cast requires a little bit of your life energy to spark it. Cast enough spells and you will extinguish your very soul. This means you need to be strategic when fighting, balancing the cost of magic with the risk of taking damage from your enemies.

How each spell manifests in the world depends on what divine power you choose to combine it with. For example, the Evoke Force spell will cause the ground to erupt with a series of sharp ice crystals, summon a thunderous lightning strike, or barrage the ground with a meteor shower – all depending on what the spell is combined with.

Use the magic spells at your disposal to defeat the demons spilling out from the underworld. In Ort, time is frozen whenever you stand still. This means you have the opportunity to plan your attacks and be strategic.

Like any RPG, you will be slaying enemies to collect loot and experience. The items you pick up will improve your magical abilities, though some come with curses... As you level up, you will learn additional magic spells to use against your enemies.

Ort is varied and expansive, an open world for you to explore. Choose the order of the quests you pursue, or just explore to meet new characters. The final battle is available whenever you choose, but... Are you strong enough?

Play as a novice mage, forced to take on the responsibility of saving the world and those that are important to you. Quests can be completed to gain access to new areas, save and unlock allies, gain items and powers, and more. Replays are encouraged because small decisions can have permanent and significant consequences, leading to different game outcomes.

• Learn and use 12 magic spells, and combine them with the three elements for different effects
  
• Time stops when you stand still - take advantage of this to plan your attacks
  
• Use your life energy to weave spells - be strategic in your fighting
  
• Explore various biomes around the world of Ort and meet a diverse set of characters
  
• Atmospheric soundtrack composed by Chris Gray
  
• Pursue truly optional quest lines, and make difficult choices between which characters to save
  
• Save the world, or rule it as a force of evil

Games that inspired Fates of Ort
Diablo 2, Morrowind, Chrono Trigger, Fallout, Eschalon Book

 

[Viata]

I really hate this kind of pixieart.

 

[Molina]

Why not.

 

[Cat Dude]

There are tons similar kind of game on android and ios.

 

[V_K]

Yeah, well, no wonder I haven't seen this post
The title is misleading - it's as much an action-RPG as, I don't know, Eschalon - in the sense that it autopauses after every action. The most apt comparison would be Faery Tale Adventure 2, but nobody played that.

 

[buffalo bill]

Looks ok, quasi-roguelike turn mechanics. Lots of upcoming games seem to be doing something similar, like copper dreams and odd gods. A good thing imo.

 

[V_K]

Looks ok, quasi-roguelike turn mechanics. Lots of upcoming games seem to be doing something similar, like copper dreams and odd gods. A good thing imo.

Depends on other mechanics. I think it's a perfect option for single-character games, but I'm not sure about party-based.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

The magic system appeals to my sensibilities. Nice to see someone finally enabling powerful magic against a personal risk mechanic. I have something similar in my homebrew RPG. The aesthetics are painful though. The game looks like Dink Smallwood.

 

[Life of the Party]

 

[V_K]

The frequency of encounters in that video looks quite a bit higher than I would have liked .

 

[Theodora]

Those wheel interfaces in the top corners are really interesting (if a bit ... unfinished looking?). Looks mechanically unique to me despite heavily going for the retro revival aesthetic. Does anyone recoginise it as similar to any oldies other than the listed influences?

The only thing that really comes to mind for me is 'isometric Noita' – which really, couldn't be a bad thing, but it's obviously also so much more.

 

[luj1]

Actually looks like Diablo

 

[V_K]

The only thing that really comes to mind for me is 'isometric Noita'

Does Noita also have autopause?

 

[CryptRat]

The game will be available on Itch : https://8bitskull.itch.io/fates-of-ort.
That may convince me to buy it.

 

[Falksi]

Hate games which control like that. Shame, other than that I like the look of it.

 

[Ranarama]

Pause with Real-time.

 

[V_K]

Released.

 

[Haba]

2 user reviews

 

[V_K]

2 user reviews

How many did you expect? It was literally released 4 hours ago.

Played it for a bit, and it's an ok game, but not much of an RPG. Character advancement is mostly equipment-based; the only thing leveling does is allows to pick a new spell. Even maximum HP stays the same.
On the plus side, exploration seems to be very open and the visuals have that Westwood-esque charm to them.

 

[V_K]

Played more, it's very easy, even by my standards (and I suck at RPG combat): mind control is cheap (much cheaper than direct damage) and so far works on everything including bosses. There's an enemy that removes all status effects in a given area, but it's stationary, so it's easy to just lead the others away from it. No puzzles or navigational challenges so far too - there are supposedly movement spells, but they are higher level than I am.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Like the graphics. Hope its not as dumbed down as it looks.

 

[V_K]

I know that nobody else cares, but here's my Steam review after ~7 hours:

The best way I can describe the game is "Dark Souls meets Lands of Lore". From the latter it gets the colourful visuals and charming and somewhat whimsical fantasy setting. From the former, the basic structure of non-linear exploration through interconnected levels punctuated by "save spots". Similarly, if you die, you get resurrected at the nearest spot but all the enemies get respawned. The main difference is obviously the time stop mechanic and the fact that it's less hardcore than either of the two. Like, way way less, quite easy even. It's actually one of my main gripes with the game: most of the levels can be just breezed through with liberal application of mind control - it's cheap and works on everything. If things get a bit harder, just throw some turrets into the mix to do the job for you. The game does some reasonably imaginative things with both the PC's spells and the enemy abilities, but why bother when mind control works every time? With no puzzles or other non-combat challenges to speak of (and this is my other major gripe), the game just gets repetitive after a while. I'm marking my review "recommended" because it's not a bad game per se, and I do appreciate its originality and charm, but it would need to nerf mind control and add some more variety to its maps (some Grimrock-style puzzles maybe) to move it into "really good" territory.

Things that didn't make it into the review:
- There is in fact some character development (well, more customization than development), you just have to unlock at around midway point.
- There are quite a few C&Cs - quests can be finished in several ways, and this may lock or open solutions to other quests. The dev claims there are two major endings, and a number of ending slides that change depending on quest outcomes. Quests themselves aren't terribly interesting though, just differently framed fetch quests. Think of, well, The Quest.

 

[Lilura]

Played more, it's very easy, even by my standards

You can tell just by watching the vid.

(and I suck at RPG combat)

It all makes sense now. It's why you prefer RPGs that might as well have been adventure games for all the "tactics" they offer.

 

[V_K]

(and I suck at RPG combat)

It all makes sense now. It's why you prefer RPGs that might as well have been adventure games for all the "tactics" they offer.

Actually, it's why I prefer RPGs where combat can be avoided altogether

 

[fantadomat]

(and I suck at RPG combat)

It all makes sense now. It's why you prefer RPGs that might as well have been adventure games for all the "tactics" they offer.

Actually, it's why I prefer RPGs where combat can be avoided altogether

Have you played jagged alliance 2,it is the game for you.