Ultima The Ultima Series Discussion Thread

[Doctor Sbaitso]

"I wiill help you, when you bring me, the Blackrock Crystal Ball."

I still find the shrine healing sequences in U9 to be very cool.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

I'd say that Ultima IX would be a decent game in isolation, or 'so bad it's good' at the very least. It's got way more personality than Oblivion.

Ultima 7 was so good I could even forgive the combat at the time as the world and story were just so fascinating. Combat had never really been the focus of Ultima, anyway (other than the early ones), or at least it had never been so dominant that removing it would have eviscerated the game. So what was left was diminished, and could have been the greatest game ever, but was still a memorable experience.

What annoys me about Ultima 8 is that it's almost like a tech demo that escaped. Unlike 7 the plot wasn't strong enough to carry it and the action combat and jumping was terrible. Just forget it's Ultima and you can have a reasonably good time.

Ultima 9 - well, I can't say I agree with your comments. There really are no redeeming features at all, but if you enjoyed it even a bit then who am I to judge? I'd much rather play Oblivion! If it had been a parody then it might have gone down well, but by that point Ultima was so deadly serious that it could never have happened, at least not intentionally. Sad, given what's happened since.

 

[Shin]

uhh... Ultima Online?

 

[Infinitron]

Ultima IX found a certain audience among the kind of Ultima fan who had disengaged entirely from playing single player RPGs after U8 and spent the rest of the 1990s playing narrative-lite games - thereby missing the memo that RPGs had become a genre with high narrative expectations.

Here's a chat I had about that a few years ago: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-can-kill-it-again.74084/page-24#post-2329595

 

[the_shadow]

- thereby missing the memo that RPGs had become a genre with high narrative expectations.

Who held those expectations? Who issued the memo?

 

[Neanderthal]

Back in day after IX released an old GM mate o mine ran an Ultima campaign under GURPS, and told his version of what he would have wanted to happen in Ascension, and it were pretty fucking good.

So he started wi that last cinematic of Pagan, you know where Avatar arrives back in Britannia and sees Guardians head carved in a mountainside. Cept this int up top in Britannia, this is an ancient temple in underworld. Anyway long story short, you know bones o that bloke Zog who died millenia ago after casting Armageddon that he'd learned from Wisps, well that were Guardian, first wingless Gargoyle and he wanted to come back home. We'd destroyed his body in Black Gate when blowing up that portal so he needed something else to inhabit, in short Avatars body that had been readied by hosting Titans of Pagan. It was all a plan to come home by Guardian, everything made sense suddenly.

Anyway we (Avatar and a Gargoyle Prince) go back to Britannia and find it engulfed in war, with the Guardian leading a newly raised army of Gargoyles, men and Demons that have slain British and taken most of the land. Iolo is leading a resistance, but we find out that nothing can harm the big red muppet, only his own power could do that, so we make a dagger out of Zogs stolen bones and try and use that against him. Doesn't work, the form he's inhabiting is an old mate, Arcadion the Demon who's freed of Guardians influence when we sink the dagger in him.

Guardian seems to be triumphant, the Zog dagger has shattered, the Avatar, Iolo, our Gargoyle mate (can't remember name as it were in Gargish) and the resistance are being hunted and its only a matter of time til they're caught. Anyway that's when Wisps and Time Lord turn up and offer a way out. They whisk Avatar away in time so that the Guardian can't take his body and fully materialise in Britannia, but big Red follows and possesses Avatar anyway. Avatar doesn't even struggle.

Guardian looks around in his new flesh, happy in his victory and sees a small red, wingless form on a distant hilltop raise his arms and cast a spell. This seems familiar and then he remembers. Zog/the Guardians Armageddon spell wipes all life from the world, including the newly Avatar fleshed Guardian whose only weakness is his own power.

Pretty good fucking campaign, and a nice finish to the Ultima saga I thought. Wrapped everything up nicely, wish i'd have thought o that.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

 

[Akratus]

 

[the_shadow]

Buccaneer's Den:



For extra atmosphere, watch this:



Classic!

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

What the hell was it with that Sitar arpeggio. So amateur.

 

[Jaesun]

WANT TO PARTY?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

If the Minoc bug in U7 is caused by the Avatar needing to be the first man through the door, the solution is simply to lock the door with an Exult patch.

I first played U7 on my 386/DX 40Mhz with 8 MB of RAM. It ran pretty well. So did the Underworld games.

Then I tried to run U8 on it. I'm still surprised that it actually worked...

And watching that U9 video...*shudders*

 

[Jaesun]

If the Minoc bug in U7 is caused by the Avatar needing to be the first man through the door, the solution is simply to lock the door with an Exult patch.

The egg triggers in Exult for that event work just fine. ALL of the game breaking DOS bugs are fixed in Exult.

To actually fix it in DOS, you would need some kind of editor that can change flag/types of egg events. I am not aware of any though.

 

[made]

Oh man, what a throwback to the glory days of the Codex when we would discuss the same few games over and over.

Tough call between 5, 6, and 7. They all have something unique going for them, and yet each is one step further along the path of decline.

PS: Thread needs some mondblut to rage on Garriott for destroying the genre.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

WANT TO PARTY?

Somehow I've managed to wipe almost all memories of playing Ultima 9 from my mind, presumably from self-preservation. Almost the only thing I can remember is looking up from the coast near where Empath abbey was and seeing Minoc in the distance in glorious crap-o-vision. It felt like I was on a large bouncy castle instead of the massive dark continent I'd explored every inch of in Ultimas 4-7.

But thanks, Jaesun, for trying to revive those memories!

 

[Jaesun]

As much as it is fun to be all cool and berate Ultima IX (which IS an absolutely fucking shitty "Ultima" game) when it was released, it still was a mostly enjoyable (and horribly horribly broken/bugged) action game. There actually are some fun parts in the game, but those are very very few and far between sadly.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Tough call between 5, 6, and 7.

In terms of atmosphere, 5 by a country mile. I think it was partially due to the dual scale world that made exploring Britannia feel like a real step into the wild unknown, and also the black backgrounds and simple icons that gave everything a dark and oppressive feel, perfectly in keeping with the tone of the plot. Six was a eyewateringly gaudy by comparison and the overhead map was too constricted.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

As much as it is fun to be all cool and berate Ultima IX (which IS an absolutely fucking shitty "Ultima" game) when it was released, it still was a mostly enjoyable (and horribly horribly broken/bugged) action game. There actually are some fun parts in the game, but those are very very few and far between sadly.

Rage building...

Seriously, without the baggage of history and weight of expectation I can accept you could be able to find some fun in there. But who at that time really would have gone into the final game of the armageddon trilogy without expectations. To test a variation on this theory I actually bought 9 on GOG a while back, but I just can't bring myself to play it.

I can remember seeing those initial screenshots of the isometric 3D version and nearly drooling myself to dehydration.

 

[almondblight]

I'll always have a soft spot for the Ultima series, ever since Ultima III was one of the first RPGs I played on the Mac in the early 90's, along with Exile 1 and Realmz.

Did you ever play Cythera? It was supposed to be an Ultima-like.

Spoiler

 

[made]

In terms of atmosphere, 5 by a country mile.

True enough. U5 was certainly the darkest title in the series (rivaled, perhaps, by U8, but I never got far in that one). Its atmosphere resulting from themes of oppression and despair coupled with the Amiga's one music track will always hold a special place in my heart.

I liked the move to a single perspective in U6, it gave the world a feeling of cohesiveness. Never been a fan of the 3D dungeons in U5, but as dungeons go they were better designed than the endless boring corridors of U6. Similarly, I preferred the WYSIWYG combat encounters over random monsters popping out of nowhere, but combat itself was pretty lame. U6 was also one of the very first RPGs I played extensively and the unprecedented plot twist completely blew my mind.

U7, finally, improved on scope and attention to detail as well as world interactivity (not to mention graphics), but fell flat in terms of mechanics and story. Big Red was a joke of a villain compared to previous installments. SI had a better storyline but felt even more like an adventure game.

 

[the_shadow]

Did you ever play Cythera? It was supposed to be an Ultima-like.

Spoiler

Nahh. We ditched the Mac for the PC around 1995.

 

[Junmarko]

Toss up between U6 and U7 for me. They both have things I like/hate equally.

Just going to leave this remix of the U6 intro theme here...your welcome

 

[Malignant Manor]

I don't like the remix at all. It constantly has way too high music going. The rest is also shit. I listened for less than 2 minutes but I doubt it gets much better. Are you and the remixer deaf?

 

[Infinitron]

The details weren't ever all worked out. My personal preference would have been to link it back to the kind of spaceflight which occurred in Ultima 1.

If I recall correctly, the moongates had been destroyed which was the reason for the mission: to get more moonstone, so there could be moongates again.

 

[Junmarko]

I don't like the remix at all. It constantly has way too high music going. The rest is also shit. I listened for less than 2 minutes but I doubt it gets much better. Are you and the remixer deaf?

Calm your tits. It's from 2002. I thought it was cool, but then maybe it's because it evoked a level of nostalgia - Ultima VI had one of the best intro tunes.