Ultima X

[Macaw]

aaaarrgghghuuughghg, anyone else mad that the next ultima online is going to be called ultima X.. It completly ruins Garriotts trilogy, he must be pissed

[MV]

Yes. We've all been fuming for many months now.

[Sean Whalen]

Aye

[Clock Nova]

What else would they call it, though? And couldn't it be the start of a new trilogy, just as VII was?

[Armchair Avatar]

A trilogy of online games?

[Daemongar]

That Ultima X stinks sooooo bad of marketing is what kills me - "Hey X as in Xtreme is hip - we couldn't miss with the 13-18 male demographic." This stinks so bad of EA's crapulent hand I feel like honking!

Why don't they just call it Ultima XXX and have everyone running around naked and kill me now...

[Waren Al'Kar]

The reason they called it Ultima X is that it's apparently a continuation of the Ultima 9 storyline. I never played 9, but after the Avatar merges with the Guardian he begins to lose the battle of wills. So he creates a world comprised of all his old memories where PC characters pursue virtue and then ascend to help in the mental battle against the Guardian.

I'm not too much a fan of the graphics. A bit too cartoony for me. But the premise sounds decent enough, though the virtue system is a bit gimmicky. Wherein you build up points in a virtue and eventually gain magical powers from it.

One thing I don't like about the MMORPG genre is that they don't convicingly convey a vibrant, believable world. That was one of the huge strengths of Ultima 7. The kind of minute detail required doesn't seem to interest MMORPG developers, unfortunately.

Short of turning this into a tirade on the issues I have with all MMORPG's, let me just say that from what I've seen and read Ultima X doesn't seem to stray too far from the standard formula. Other than using a private quest system similiar to what Richard Garriot is planning on using for his online endeavor.

[Macaw]

A team not led by Garriott who are continuing the ultima story makes me feel uneasy..

[Dominus]

*cough cough

not that Gariott had much to do with the Ultimas following u4 or u5

[Macaw]

Well maybe not in SI, but at least in BG he 'guided' its development enough to say he had impacted it in some way, and whether or not he came up with its story or not he must have liked it to let it in the game and thats good enough for me

[Oblivious]

He guided it enough that there are several details in the games reflecting real life, like Geoffrey being his bodyguard (the character he is based off of used to live in RG's garage and keep an eye on his property for him), the falling sign bit (actually happened to RG, though it didn't kill him... gave him a nasty concussion and many stitches, though... It's mentioned on a tombstone in UA as well...) Most of the characters in the games are based loosely on real life people that RG knows, though this does not seem to be the case for UA (big surprise there...) Candice mentions paintings of famous artists in the museum. Every artist she mentions are real people (often their aliases) who worked on the pre-renderers and digital art of the game. RG also advertises some of his favorite books in U6 and 7, as well as the Prima book "The Ultima Adventures".

Most big-time RPG plot writers have other people assist them. Unfortunately, one of the common things is to have separate groups of script writers, lock them into a room to brainstorm, implement their ideas into the game, etc. The reason this is unfortunate is because if the company has to meet a strict deadline, the plot of the game will be riddled with many holes and seem very akward. A perfect example of this would be Chrono Cross.

Normally, the lead producer (Masato Kato in this instance) will make repeated, skin-deep attempts to cover their asses by trying to come up with a reasonable explaination for the plotholes. Anyone with half a brain, however, can see straight through this for what it really is--- a pathetic attempt at covering one's ass. Even if you're not normally into console RPGs, I would suggest every Ultima fan at least rent this game for its worth as a reference. It is like a very mild form of Ascension. Game itself generates numerous plotholes which could easily have been patched up by one or two extra proofreads and a few extra days of programming, poor explaination behind certain plot devices and tasks you have to perform, and way too much clutter dialogue. The fact that there's so much clutter dialogue is proof that the production of this game was managed EXTREMELY poorly. (this is normally not a problem in console or computer games, because the script is normally proofread and corrected, including clutter dialogue, BEFORE it is implemented into the game!)

Sorry, getting into a bit of an off-topic rant, there.

[Oblivious]

By the way, has anyone ever played the NES version of Ultima 5? (yes, there is such a thing). It's almost as bad as Ascension. Actually, it is equally as bad if one weighs them both in. Here are the problems with U5 for the NES:

-Lots of bugs, especially for a console game. The most annoying bug is the one that causes character's stats to reset when they leave the party. In this game, only the Avatar can gain levels, the rest don't, but their stats increase when you meditate at the shrines then go to the Codex (a la the regular version of U5), which can only be done once.
The most prevalent bug is that when 5 or more sprites are lined up horizontally on the same line, they begin to blink out and the game becomes slow.

-Poor controls. Like most NES games, you have to slam down on the controller in order to get the blasted thing to respond (even the emulators have this problem!!) and half the time in U5, the controller doesn't respond, anyway.

-Nintendo of America's censorship. Holy ****, this crap makes me want to kill people, and you will, too! In Buc's den, there's a pirate who says "Hello, Matey, Care to join me for a BEVERAGE?" Even worse, Capt. Johne says that "The Shadowlords drove me insane and made me HURT my friends."
Yeah....

-Game is so rushed it's not even funny. It's worse than Ascension in this aspect. Want an example?
*Guess what the sprite is that is used to represent missile attacks? Skeletons. FRIGGING SKELETONS!!! Not just any skeleton, mind you, but a pile of bones version! (you know, stack of bones with the skull on top, a couple of stray bones scattered around) That means that when Iolo shoots his crossbow, HE SHOOTS A PILE OF BONES at the enemy. When hydras breathe fire at you, they breathe BONES at you! :/
*Geoffrey and Julia are nowhere to be found. 4/5ths of the U5 cast are also missing. Each town has on average, about 3 or 4 residents.
*Half the spells in the game are non-functional, and the spellbook looks almost exactly like Ultima 6's.
*Poison fields are splattered randomly across the landscape. They're actually supposed to be toxic marsh, but that was never implemented, thus poison fields are used instead. Their placement doesn't even make sense, though.
*Save unique portraits for Avatar, Shamino, Dupre, Iolo, Blackthorn, and Katrina, there are no individual portraits. In fact, there are only 4 standard female portraits, and 6 standard male portraits. There is also a gargoyle portrait, which looks absolutely nothing like the gargoyles of U6 and 7.
*The game is unwinnable. Why? Because the final dungeon was never implemented.
*Monsters do not drop gold or items. There is a set amount of gold in this game. It was never programmed in. In order to rectify this a bit, the programmers left a pile of 65some-odd thousand gold in a room in... Skara Brae, I think. (the maximum value the game would allow)

Don't play this game to enjoy it, seriously. Hell, the only points of value this game has going for it is that we get to see what Katrina looked like during U5 (her portrait doesn't make much sense, really, she is wearing a brass helm and probably a skimpy armored vest of some sort.) as well as Blackthorn's portrait (looks pretty cool). It's also interesting that if you get hit by a missile of any sort while flying on the carpet, the carpet will get shot down. Sometimes you can get hit once or twice before finally getting shot down. It would have been neat to see this in U5 or 7, but then, there are very few monsters in U5 capable of shooting at you.
You are also able to talk to Shamino and Iolo, though they don't say much (esp. Shamino)

[Sean Whalen]

I had Ultima 5 for my emulator just to see what it was like and erased it off my hard drive since.

[drcode]

Sometimes you just have to lower you expectations a bit. The GameBoy "Ultima - Runes of Virtue" game was mostly just a dungeon romp, but it was still enjoyable.

[Oblivious]

Dr. Code, you obviously have never played the NES version of Ultima 5. It had the potential to be really awesome, but it went the way of ET for the Atari. This game is truly incomplete, as the final dungeon was never implemented before it was released, making the game unwinnable.

One more thing about this game:

*There are only 4 songs for the entire game. The start menu song, 2 songs for the introduction, (actually, the two intro themes are the same song, just remixed) and...

Hail Britannia. Whether you're in a dungeon, towne, castle, the underworld, etc., Hail Britannia is ALWAYS playing.

So, let's review what's wrong with this game again, shall we?

*Guess what the sprite is that is used to represent missile attacks? Skeletons. FRIGGING SKELETONS!!! Not just any skeleton, mind you, but a pile of bones version! (you know, stack of bones with the skull on top, a couple of stray bones scattered around) That means that when Iolo shoots his crossbow, HE SHOOTS A PILE OF BONES at the enemy. When hydras breathe fire at you, they breathe BONES at you! :/
*Geoffrey and Julia are nowhere to be found. 4/5ths of the U5 cast are also missing. Each town has on average, about 3 or 4 residents.
*Half the spells in the game are non-functional, and the spellbook looks almost exactly like Ultima 6's.
*Poison fields are splattered randomly across the landscape. They're actually supposed to be toxic marsh, but that was never implemented, thus poison fields are used instead. Their placement doesn't even make sense, though.
*Save unique portraits for Avatar, Shamino, Dupre, Iolo, Blackthorn, and Katrina, there are no individual portraits. In fact, there are only 4 standard female portraits, and 6 standard male portraits. There is also a gargoyle portrait, which looks absolutely nothing like the gargoyles of U6 and 7. (looks like an anthropomorphic bull)
*The game is unwinnable. Why? Because the final dungeon was never implemented.
*Monsters do not drop gold or items. There is a set amount of gold in this game. It was never programmed in. In order to rectify this a bit, the programmers left a pile of 65some-odd thousand gold in a room in... Skara Brae, I think. (the maximum value the game would allow)
*There are only 4 songs in the entire game. One is played in the start-menu, two are played during the intro (when choosing New Game), and the final one is Hail Britannia, the ONLY song that ever plays in-game, and it is ALWAYS playing in-game.
*The Avatar is the only character who gains levels in the game. Everyone else remains at level 2-3 through the whole game. The only way to raise their stats is by meditating at the shrines then returning to the Codex, which can only be done once per virtue. Due to a bug, however, if you ask a member to leave, their stats will reset to their default level.
*There are several other bugs in this game. A minor one that I recall is that I once used a healing potion on Shamino, and it drained HP instead of restoring it.
*The controls barely respond in this game, and it is common to have blinking sprites and lag.
*Did I mention the censorship?

This game belongs with the stack of 'Worst games of all time', along with ET the Extraterrestrial, Brian's Quest (GB color port of Quest 64... same plot and everything, but with many options removed, and the graphics and song are now in 8-bit mode!), and Action 51.

[SB-X]

But tell us what you really think!

What does this mean "the spellbook looks almost exactly like Ultima 6's"?

What is Action 51?

[Armchair Avatar]

Maybe it's another word for "affirmative action".

[drcode]

So... does that mean you don't like it?:-) Other than GameBoy, I've hardly ever played or seen console games.

[Oblivious]

But tell us what you really think!

I already told you what I think. This game had great potential, but its amount of incompleteness makes it amlost unplayable, and Nintendo of America's censorship makes you want to gag, as usual. We're talking SNES-era censorship, here (i.e. beer is changed to lemonade, juice, milk, or 'beverage', references to death are removed, hell and references to dieties are removed, but at the same time references to Hindu dieties are ADDED, much dialogue is removed to save space, characters are made far less sadistic, etc.)

"What does this mean "the spellbook looks almost exactly like Ultima 6's"?"

As in its spell list is almost identical to Ultima 6's. This includes spells that have only been purchasable by Horance such as poison wind, energy wind, and wing strike.

"What is Action 51?"

A game made by some teen programmers for the NES from a small podunk town. Has about 51 short and simple games for it, but they were programmed poorly. The story goes that the families of these kids had to move to another state because they got harassed by their neighbors for making a crappy game that they wasted their money on. On polls, most console gamers argue that it is the worst game of ALL TIME.

[Oblivious]

Oh, and to expand on what I think:

No, I don't really like the game. I might play it ONCE IN AHWILE for inspiration on mapping for my U5 fic and such (on NESticle with the sound off, of course!), and to take screenshots of the items, but that is absolutely it. The only reason I can give for anyone to play this game is curiousity. Compared to Ultima 5, this game is the embodiment of feces, but that's really not saying much.

Oh, one more bad thing about this game:

*There are no sound effects whatsoever.

As for other FCI-made console Ultimas:

**The Terror of Exodus:**
This game is not too bad for the time it was made. Actually, I can recall this game being loads of fun, but it doesn't compare to the original.
PET PEEVES:
-You cannot select your gender. Your gender depends on the class you selected
-No dialogue tree
-There's a glitch once your experience exceeds 9999 that causes weird little sprite things to appear to the left of the numeric value. Barely worth mentioning, really...

Actually, that's all I can remember, but then, I still have yet to play the original U1-U3

**Ultima: Path of the Avatar** (lit. translation is 'way of the saint')
PET PEEVES:
-It is clear that the programmers originally intended that you could ride horses like in Terror of Exodus, but for some reason this was never implemented.
-no dialogue tree
-cannot perform as many actions as in the original
-encounters are all random
-you cannot choose your character's gender. Your gender will be the same as the companion of whatever your outstanding virtue is.
-For some odd reason, Julia has been replaced by a big bald tinker named Julius.
-The US translators seem to have taken a few artistic libertiesl; most of the characters have completely different dialogue than they had in the Japanese version. In fact, in the Japanese version, most of the characters speak a few of their respective lines from the original U4.
-You can only take 3 companions with you at the time, with a maximum of 4 party members. This isn't really the programmers' fault, though, but rather a limitation of the engine they used.

Of all the FCI Ultima games, this is the one I recommend the most. IMO this game is way better than runes of virtue, though it is quite dated. This game is a bit easier than the original, though it still contains plenty of challenge (it's not until a few years later that the console industry dumbs down the difficulty in games for the first time, the second time occuring when the PSX is released) The Japanese version stays for the most part, true to the original as far as plot and dialogue goes. The equipment has Dragon-Quest/Warrior-esque names in the Japanese version, and both Geoffrey and Katrina get special items that can only be used by them in exchange for not being able to use magic (though Katrina's items aren't very useful, the Fighter's Axe is the 2nd strongest weapon in the game, right behind the mystic sword. If you must know, Katrina's items are the shepherd's robe and the shepherd's flute. The defense power of the robe is completely unknown, and the flute functions much like the sleep spell...) Another major change is that instead of an ankh atop of Serpent's Spine, there is a cave. Inside the cave are several people, a talking ankh, and a treasure chest with a scale from Exodus. I do not remember what the NPC's say in the US version, but in the Japanese version they tell you the story of Ultimas 1-3. The scale is supposed to be taken to Zircon so he can forge the Fighter's Axe, though it takes a LONG time for him to finish it.

[Armchair Avatar]

SB-X >> But tell us what you really think!
Oblivious > I already told you what I think.

SB-X was being ironic, hence the smiley.
Actually, I'm not sure if "ironic" is the right word, but you know what I mean.

[drcode]

Censorship: Reminds me of a story. I once worked with a Lebanese fellow who told of seeing a John Wayne movie in Saudi Arabia. In that version, Wayne walks into a tavern and says "Give me a shot of milk."

Ultima 1-3: I've played I and II, and you're not missing much, especially since they're impossibly fast on modern PC's. IMO, Ultima IV is the real start of the series.

[Skutarth]

Marc Winterrowd, I think the word you were looking for was "sarcastic."