So I often hear this game's story get brought up a lot in best stories in CRPGs discussions. Is the story actually that good? What makes it so good?I've never played an Ultima and want to try one. I also like the graphic style but the combat I think will take some getting used to.
>>724904851ultima 4-7 was peak iso CRPG and if EA hadn't completely screwed over Origin / Lord Garriott, we'd all be talking about Ultima and not the Elder Scrolls. Yes, the games are a bit dated at this point but they were incredible for their time and I'd recommend for people interested in the history of CRPGs to at least play U4-7. 8 is 'meh' at best and 9... Well... 9 is there. I'd also recommend both of the Worlds of Ultima as well since they were interesting.
>>724904851The story is interesting, but it's not like, super amazeballs. Ultima's strength was never its storytelling, but the concepts contained within the stories.But yeah, U7/7.5's combat is an adjustment. If you're playing 7 without something like Exult, be especially careful, because routing party members can and will drop shit like keys and plot-critical items.
>>724907051Honestly, even without EA, I'm not sure ultima would've held out all that long. The Avatar saga was definitely over-extended. It would've saved us from the nonsense that was Ascension though.Like, after three, they had to Kefka things up and rape sosaria to hell and back to consolidate things a little more sanely into Britannia. After whatever a true 9 would've turned out to be, they undoubtedly would've either had to turn to that shit again, or gone completely out of pocket, wrote out the Stranger/Avatar, and started basically anew with something. At which point it'd be ultima in name only anyway.Not to mention if they'd done Online without EA, it still would've been game over for the single-player franchise anyway. I think it was inevitable that other series' like TOS and Divinity rose up and overshadowed.Fuck, as we saw with Underworld, they couldn't even do that right when the old schoolers went back to it.
>>724904851Its good because of how it connects to previous Ultima games. The game feels like you looking at the sunset of a golden age and fighting back to reverse the rotation of the planet and bring back the past. The world is leaving its age of heroes behind and you are the last hero doing all you can to prevent that. This really only works if you've played a few of the previous Ultima games to get a sense for the change. I'd at least play Ultima 6 first, to just get a vibe for what it is contrasting against. Ideally you'd start at Ultima 4, but its extremely dated and not something that a person with just mild curiosity would find worthwhile to play. It isn't literally the best thing ever, how the main villain is handled is weird and awkward in particular. But the sense of the world moving on and people outgrowing the idealism that your player character represents for the sake of practical and grounded philosophies is impactful if you go in with some experience with the franchise.
>>724907784It doesn't hurt that 7 was a giant rip on Scientology, combined with the subtle digs at EA.
