Ultima I: Closing Thoughts

My stats, as I went into the final battle.

As I wrapped up Ultima I yesterday, I found myself musing on what exactly it is about the game that appeals to me even in the face of its age (even the remake is older than I am, after all). I come back to the game fairly often, after all, it's one of my go-tos when I need to unwind and want to just smack around a few pixelated monsters, rather than lose myself in an in-depth story. It's a fairly grind-y game, yes, what with shuttling back and forth between stat-raising signposts, whacking monsters for gold and experience... yet even with all that, I don't really find the game boring at any point. I think a good deal of that is that the early grinding feels tense enough to be engaging, and by the time you reach a point where you're not biting your nails when three enemies come crawling inexorably toward you, the game's opened up enough that you can grind in a few different ways - if you get tired of increasing stats, you can go dungeon delving, and if you get tired of that, you can go exploring the continent and slay monsters there. Or go poking around space and shooting aliens. There's enough variety to keep one occupied, and even if it does get rather repetitive after a while, there's just enough to keep it interesting in some manner or another, whether that's changing up what you're doing or changing up how you approach it - spells versus weapons, and so forth.

Ow! My brain!

So with my previously mentioned intent of looking at the games from a storyteller's perspective, how does the tale of the First Age of Darkness hold up? Well, it's a simplistic story, to be sure, but I think for a game of its time, it holds up pretty well. The general premise is laid out decently enough (evil wizard makes monsters that threatens the land, slay them and figure out how to slay him in the process), and the story, such as it is, is well paced. There are three crucial plot points that move things forward in the game - that you need four gems, that you need to travel through time, and that a princess will help a Space Ace accomplish such - and each one of these points comes as part of the reward for finishing a needed quest. More than that comes as flavor text from taverns, which are plentiful enough that they're not too obscure to find. It's a very compact story, of course, necessitating leaving more to the imagination than the game itself, but then again, that's what really caught me about the Ultima games to begin with - they leave a lot open for the player's interpretation. Ultima I sets a good precedent for the games to come in that respect.

As for Ultima I's role in the larger story, coming off Akalabeth's prologue, Ultima I makes for a good first chapter, starting things out strong. We've established a main villain, and though it's not Mondain himself we find ourselves fighting against as the series goes on, we do feel the effects of the legacy he leaves behind at least through Ultima VI, and perhaps even beyond, depending on how one wants to interpret events. Whether it's his comrades or the remnants of his magic, Mondain's role in the events of the Ultima games resound through the series, and it's here that we first lay down what he's capable of. It makes for a fine opening to the tale of Ultima as a whole.

All in all, every time I play Ultima I, I find it to be an absorbing and enjoyable romp, and this time around was no exception. It's simple, but it works so well, and that's the beauty of it.

If only I could say the same for the next game... but that's for another post.

Ultima I: The Fall of Mondain

Today saw the end of the life of the wizard Mondain. Who knows what repercussions Aric's actions will have as they echo down the ages, but for the moment? Sosaria can breathe easily again.

It's like he was waiting for me...

The venture began with a jaunt to the Lands of Lord British. The kindly king (to an extent, I mean he's still got a princess in his dungeon) had asked me to pay a visit, and presumably my respects, to the Grave of the Lost Soul, which I'd found at the end of my last session, so I picked up a strength bonus from him before heading to the Tower of Knowledge in the northeast corner of his realm, for another strength bonus from the King of the White Dragon. I checked my spell inventory, just in case, and saw I only had two Ladder Up spells, so after wandering around a bit trying to find a place to restock them, I was ready for my final dungeon expedition.

It was Doom that I poked into in order to make my way down, down to Goblin-Town-- er, I mean, down to the ninth level to slay a balron. I cast a blink spell to see what would happen, since I hadn't yet, and was teleported about three steps away. Ah well, experiment did nothing of worth, really. I had little trouble until I hit level four, in which I got swarmed badly just off the ladder, but I came through all right. I came across a passage in which I was blocked in both directions by a barrier, and just past one of them was the ladder down behind another barrier - I was glad for my destroy spells yet again! I'm going to have to remember that in future playthroughs, I got some good use of that spell this game.

How many of these have I gone through now?

Levels seven and eight passed without much to comment on, which I was glad for - I was nervous that I'd get hopped on by gremlins and my food stores would dwindle down much too far for my liking. That never happened, though, and as soon as I got off the ladder to the ninth level, I found myself attacked by a balron from behind! I slew it with a cry of INTERFICIO, and that was that. My trek back upward was more dangerous than the way down, I think - I used a few ladder up spells to bypass the gremlins, but got swarmed on level five, and by the time I stumbled back up to level four I was down to about 600 hit points. Ladder up spells saved the day for me then.

What else am I gonna do with that button?

Shamino rewarded me with the final gem, this one white, and nine items from his stores, which I used to replace the armor that had been eaten (yet AGAIN) by a gelatinous cube. After blowing all my stockpiled cash on extra hit points, I headed over to the northwest island on the continent, took a deep breath, and stepped into the time machine. After inserting the proper gems and hitting the LAUNCH button, I was thrown through time and yanked out of the contraption by magic to face Mondain himself.

There he was, cloaked and robed in a fiery chamber, chanting over the still-forming Gem of Immortality. That was my first goal, I knew - if Mondain completed the Gem, then all of my hard work would be for naught! So I hurried my way over and smashed the Gem to bits - and wracked myself in the process! It hurt, a lot - I went from over 8000 hit points to just barely above 2000. I slung a few spells at Mondain, discovering that Kill spells only seemed to make him stronger, before resorting to my blaster. Time and time again I fired at him, until he turned into a bat. I chased him into a corner, where he turned back (!) into his wizardy self, my world shifting as he shot his telekinetic attacks at me, before I forced him to flee as a bat once more. After a good deal of chasing (and crashing into a wall for even more damage at one point, in my gusto to defeat the evil wizard), I finally managed to strike the finishing blow, undoing all of Mondain's evil actions as they echoed through time.

Ow. Ow ow ow.

The effects put me in stasis of some sort for a thousand years, back to the present, where Lord British expressed the gratitude of himself and his people for my actions - which left me wondering how exactly he knew what they were, if I changed time and all. But in any case, the wizard is dead, and Sosaria is at peace again.

So ends the tale of the First Age of Darkness. It didn't take me all that long to finish up the game today, but I certainly felt powerful while doing it (I think the fact that Pandora decided to blare Nightwish in my ears while dungeon crawling may have aided that along a bit)! It was a fun romp this time around, giving me a chance to play around with aspects of the game I haven't really done much with before - the destroy spell really helped a lot more than I expected! It was also the first time I'd seen Mondain transform back from a bat, and it was the first time I tried a kill spell on him as well - which the game claimed made him stronger. All in all a good time. I'll compose some final thoughts on Ultima I in the coming days, and then it's off to the next game. I hear Mondain had an apprentice who's none too happy with Aric
now...

Ultima I: Spacing Out

My play session this time around was a little on the short side, but I still managed to get a few important things accomplished! First and foremost of tonight's adventures was my venture into space, the natural place to begin after having bought a space shuttle and stocking up a good deal of cash with which to refuel.

Hostiles everywhere!

So after making sure I had my reflect suit equipped (I'd had to replace it yet again after a gelatinous cube got to it), I hopped in and blasted off into space! After maneuvering my way into a docking station, I parked my shuttle in favor of a speedy attack ship, pulled up a scan of the vicinity, and went hunting for enemies! They were plentiful to the south, so I decided to circle my way around, making my way to the eastern edge of the map and then turning back around. I was hoping I could defeat twenty enemy ships in one go, without needing to refuel - though I had enough cash on hand for three refueling trips - and kept pushing my luck, thinking I could go just one more sector before needing to find a place to refuel! When I started dwindling down to about 100 fuel, though, I relented and stopped by a refueling dock, which happened to be in the very sector I'd just cleared out. Back on the starways, I found out I'd been just two ships shy of making it to a Space Ace on one tank of fuel - and jumped the gun on attempting to get my screenshot, so you'll just have to take my word for it on that one!

Get back here! You can't escape me that easy!

There's not a whole lot to say on playing through that section of the game, but its presence is certainly worth talking about. In a game full of castles, knights, swords and sorcery, the sci-fi elements can make things feel a little disjointed, and this is most flagrant during the space section. Yet, somehow... it works. Maybe part of it's due to having established time travel as an integral part of the plot, and for a plausible sort of reason - if the gem is what makes Mondain immortal, then clearly the secret to his demise must lie in doing so before the gem made him immortal. Time travel is an important part of Ultima II's plot as well, but it's not played with quite as much, I feel, which I'll get to in more detail when I cover that game (assuming I remember). In any case, it feels less out of place than it does in Ultima II, to my mind, and I can't quite put my finger on why, much as I try to puzzle it out. As wacky as it is, and as dissonant a chord it strikes against the more properly fantasy elements of Ultima I, it works and it's enjoyable. And maybe therein lies another part of its secret - it's a fun little diversion, a shaking up of the way the game has gone up to this point, something different that's still meaningful.

What do you mean that's the wrong key??

Back on Sosaria, having actually landed safely rather than needing to burn up in the atmosphere and kill myself due to not having enough money on hand to change ships like I did the last time I played the game, I hopped back in my aircar and headed for the Lands of Danger and Despair, what will become the setting for Serpent Isle several games down the line. Having hit level eight last update and becoming a Space Ace this one, of course I had to go rescue a princess while picking up the quests for the kings. The Castle of the White Dragon was closer, so I paid him a visit, and once he told me to find the Tower of Knowledge (back in Lord British's territory, if I recall right), I fired my blaster at his jester followed by practically all of his guards. And it turned out the jester had the wrong key! So it was off to Shamino's, where I was told to kill a balron. But I misheard it as a bard-ron, and shot his jester too, who had the right key this time, and the princess (Dianne by name) in her gratitude told me a time machine was on the northwestern part of the continent. I found it right by the Grave of the Lost Soul (which Lord British wanted me to find, another reason to pay his domain a visit), and that was where I called it a night. I still need one more gem to power the machine, and that'll come from slaying a mighty balron (and surviving to tell the tale, of course).

The end is in sight! Watch out, Mondain. I'm coming for you.

Just one more gem...

Ultima I: Back in Action!

Well, that was something of an ordeal. But here I am once more, back to the Ultima!

I feel stronger!

The first part of my adventures today were trying to remember exactly what it was I was doing. According to my notes, the last thing I'd done was visit the Pillar of Ozymandias for the King of Olympus, then return to him to get a bonus to my strength, halfway through my explorations of the Lands of the Dark Unknown. So to kick things off, I did it again. And again. Since I'd started the game as a mage, my strength was low to begin with, so I made the trip back and forth a couple times to give myself a much needed boost.

Once I had three or four strength boosts under my belt, I went poking around the signposts of the continent - The Sign Post and the Southern Sign Post (descriptive names!), the latter of which being what the King of Barataria wanted me to seek out, which meant another strength boost, although I forgot to do that until just before I called it a day. I shuttled back and forth between the two signposts to up my stamina and my charisma, and reflected on that mechanic. I like the idea that finding places can boost stats, it encourages exploration and reflects the insights that visiting new places can bring, but it leads to a lot of shuttling back and forth, which can get tedious after a while.

Exactly how is this city Poor?

Which led me to pause in the middle of my Quest for Max Stamina, and go run around the rest of the continent. Here I found a lot of other oddly-named places: the city of Wealth barely had anything, just a food shop, a pub, and an arms store, whereas the city of Poor had everything a wayward adventurer could ask for! I also found it odd that the city of Imagination had nothing more than food and arms to sell me... I suppose I just had to imagine the rest of it? Oh well. I also stumbled across a dungeon that I didn't see any indication of on the game maps, which made me do a double-take briefly. I also paused briefly by Castle Olympus, with the town of Nassau sitting in its shadow. There's a couple instances of cities right by castles in Ultima - Lord British's Castle and Britain, Barataria and Arnold - and I like that touch. The foot of a castle is a good spot for a settlement, after all, and I like that Ultima I actually displays that.

If only this spell destroyed the skeleton, too.

After another round of stat boosting at the signposts, I gathered my wits about me and dived into The End..., another dramatically named dungeon. This was considerably less tense than the last time I went dungeon-diving for a monster - I think I'm getting better at finding my way around them! I played around with a couple other spells on my way down, since I'm playing a mage and all - having the 'Destroy' spell around was actually fairly convenient, as those barriers that normally I'd have to find secret doors around I could just blast out of my way.

I got a little nervous when I got to level seven of the dungeon, as that was when the gremlins started showing up and swiping my food - just as annoying in Ultima I as it was in Akalabeth! I was down to about 100 food when I found the lich that the Black Dragon King wanted me to slay, which I did with a single Kill spell. Musing briefly on the irony of killing a magical undead creature with magic that supposedly stops a creature's heart for a few beats according to the manual, I clambered my way back out (relenting and using a few ladder up spells to be on the safe side) and restocked my food in the nearby town of Gauntlet. Visiting the King to tell him of my victory earned me my third gem, along with the knowledge that a princess (like the one in his own dungeon) would help a Space Ace through time.

Die, lich, die! Er, again!

I spent a good deal more time in the dungeons after that, exploring through the first five levels or so of The Long Death in order to garner enough gold for a spaceship, which I bought in Gauntlet for about 700 gold (not bad!) along with a replacement reflect suit (the last one had been eaten by a gelatinous cube), then again in The Viper's Pit - which did indeed have a lot of vipers, making it one of the rare accurately named locales thus far! - in order to gather enough gold to get me through the space section. Last time I played through Ultima I, I found out that you can't change ships if you can't pay the refueling fee, so I ended up becoming a space ace then burning up on reentry because I didn't want to redo it. Live and learn!

I also managed to hit level eight during all this dungeon exploration, so once I become a Space Ace, I'll be all set to rescue a princess and find out how to travel through time!  Of course, I have one more gem to collect before I can do that, but one step at a time.

This being my first entry in quite a while, I have to say I'm enjoying getting back to it. Sparse as the early Ultima games were, they certainly know how to spark the imagination, and I was gleefully making notes and biting my nails when my food was running low while I was playing today. I'm especially looking forward to taking on space next session - somewhat out of place for a standard fantasy sort of setting, but yet it feels like it fits regardless! I'll have more to say on my thoughts on that next time, but for now - Ultima is fitting me like a glove once again. Onward to space!

Time to head for the stars!

The Best Laid Plans...

Well, this was bound to happen at some point.

Astute readers may note that this entry happens in the middle of May, whereas the previous one occurred sometime in January. The past few months have been a veritable deluge of real life stress, whether due to work, medical problems, or computer issues. None of which were terribly dire or overly concerning on their own, but when happening in concert with one another - well, something had to give, and that was this project.

However!

Things are beginning to quiet down again, and I've got both the gumption and the time to return to recording my adventures through Sosaria, Brittania and beyond! Stay tuned.