Rajaah's CRPG Blog

Rajaah · Tuesday at 3:10 AM

Kajiimagi said:
Was 9 the 3d one? Yeah I really felt ripped off on that one. Years later I cheated my way through the game, pretty much had to as much as you got caught in walls/worlds.

Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 are the 3D first-person Everquest style ones.

I think Ultima 8 and 9 are 3D third-person, after 1-7 being top-down. But it might just be 9 that's 3D. I'm the last person to ask, cause I'm only familiar with what Majuular has covered (everything except 8 and 9 at this point).

Vinjin said:
Ultima brings back so many memories. I started with 2 and loved it. Then finished 3 before going back to play the first one where the villain was Minax.

Ultima 4 was awesome for me and my friends. The four of us were pretty much locked in my room for almost two weeks playing it non stop.

I don't remember much about 5 but I do remember feeling disappointed with 6. And 7 was decent but I can't remember if it was the base game I liked more or the Black Gate expansion.

I was so excited when I got my copy of Ultima 8. Good Lord did it suck. It felt like a completely different game (it was still isometric though). I thought for sure Garriot was gonna redeem himself with Ultima 9 but that was such a buggy, hot garbage POS mess that I never ever even got it to work on my PC.

My brother played it but I remember him telling me something along the lines of "be glad you didn't play it". LOL

It'd be awesome if Garriot got a big infusion of cash and started work on an Ultima X. Top-down isometric, classic-style, only in HD and with modern game QOL.

In this era of retro games being brought back or having spiritual successors, it seems like a no-brainer to put out an Ultima 10.

General Antony said:
The Icewind Dales are worth a play.

I agree, and I have both of them. When I left off with the CRPGs I was trying to decide whether to play Icewind or NWN next. Ended up going with NWN and totally fell off with the whole thing. I think if I'd gone with IWD instead I would have gotten a few more CRPGs down at the time. I really liked what little of IWD I played.

IWD1+2, Pillars 1+2, and Divinity 1+2 are all high up enough that I'm guaranteed to run all of them at some point in the not-distant future, whether any of them wins here or not. Probably in that order due to QOL improvements from game to game. That'll probably be my next burst of CRPGs.

Urlithani said:
20 points in Raise Skeleton
20 points in skeletal mastery
10 +/- points in corpse explosion
10 +/- points in Revive
1 point in: clay golem, golem mastery, summon resist, iron golem, teeth.

How many points in Amplify Damage? I'm guessing that's while leveling, and the list up there are for character creation?

Corpse Explosion sounds fun.

Khane · Tuesday at 6:44 AM

Rajaah said:
When I D2, it'll be the original version, not Resurrected. I think there might even be an HD port of the original now, not sure. I still have the guide:

View attachment 606136
Soured on remakes a bit after some of the debacles we've gotten so I'm more inclined to go with the original versions of things whenever possible, unless it's a basic upscaling / HD texture situation.

Project Diablo 2

www.projectdiablo2.com

Kajiimagi · Tuesday at 5:33 PM

Rajaah said:
Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 are the 3D first-person Everquest style ones.

I think Ultima 8 and 9 are 3D third-person, after 1-7 being top-down. But it might just be 9 that's 3D. I'm the last person to ask, cause I'm only familiar with what Majuular has covered (everything except 8 and 9 at this point).

It'd be awesome if Garriot got a big infusion of cash and started work on an Ultima X. Top-down isometric, classic-style, only in HD and with modern game QOL.

In this era of retro games being brought back or having spiritual successors, it seems like a no-brainer to put out an Ultima 10.

I agree, and I have both of them. When I left off with the CRPGs I was trying to decide whether to play Icewind or NWN next. Ended up going with NWN and totally fell off with the whole thing. I think if I'd gone with IWD instead I would have gotten a few more CRPGs down at the time. I really liked what little of IWD I played.

IWD1+2, Pillars 1+2, and Divinity 1+2 are all high up enough that I'm guaranteed to run all of them at some point in the not-distant future, whether any of them wins here or not. Probably in that order due to QOL improvements from game to game. That'll probably be my next burst of CRPGs.

How many points in Amplify Damage? I'm guessing that's while leveling, and the list up there are for character creation?

Corpse Explosion sounds fun.

yeah I said 3D I meant third person. Just looked and yeah its the same game. Buggy as all be damn. $6 on GOG currently and they probably have the bugs squashed , probably.

Ultima™ 9: Ascension

Prepare to embark on the final adventure in Ultima--the best selling role-playing saga of

www.gog.com

Rajaah · 2025-10-22T02:50:53-0400

Kajiimagi said:
yeah I said 3D I meant third person. Just looked and yeah its the same game. Buggy as all be damn. $6 on GOG currently and they probably have the bugs squashed , probably.

Ultima™ 9: Ascension

Prepare to embark on the final adventure in Ultima--the best selling role-playing saga of

www.gog.com

Ultima 9 was enough to kill the series forever apparently. (Well, besides UO)

For a while in 2000, gaming magazines were publishing screenshots and info on "Ultima Online 2" but it got cancelled at some point in 2001. They realized how dumb it was to release a sequel to an ongoing MMORPG and cannibalize/split your existing fanbase (Everquest should have gotten that memo).

Kharzette · 2025-10-22T06:57:38-0400

Rajaah said:
Pretty much ready to call it for votes, I'll give it until the end of this business week and then shut it down. Once I actually start playing I'll post thoughts on 'em. Still aiming at this being a January thing once I'm on break, but I'll start it whenever I've got a chunk of free time.

Speaking of CRPGs and Ultima, anybody who missed it might want to check out Majuular's Ultima series:

Majuular

Welcome to my channel! Mostly long-form videos about RPGs and other old/weird/interesting games. PFP by @Fenrir_Lives on Twitter

www.youtube.com

This series actually got me back into the idea of resuming the CRPG quest. He believes the series peaked with Ultima 7 and Ultima Underworld, then it was pretty much downhill.

His Kings Field series video is also a good watch, interesting to see the genesis of Fromsoft when they were basically making CRPGs on consoles.

Hard to believe we've never gotten any sort of Ultima series remaster or collection that modernizes/adds QOL/makes them all playable easily in the modern era.

I love that video series.

I remember Richard asking me what my favourite ultima was and I said serpent isle but only the first half. I didn't know any of the history of the series really or that he barely did anything on serpent isle but I doubt I'd have changed my answer just to make him happy.

The video reminded me what a mess the last half was. I can't remember if I figured everything out on my own or ended up cheating bits of it. I was very purist back then so I probably had pages and pages of notes and toughed it out.

The video on 7 part 1 really made me realize I need to replay it. I think I was in too much of a hurry so I didn't really take the time to get into the small bits of the npcs lives.

Gameplay wise, 7 and 7 part 2 both seem to have a 3 way stat focus where you can sort of tank or go magic heavy. I think the mage path is probably valid in 7, but 7 part 2 there's almost no way to get your mana back.

I started working on a mod for exult that would let you make potions via alchemy like in some of the other games but I never finished it. One of the things I learned is that the potion colors and effects changed wildly over the years and were never consistent.

Tuco · 2025-10-22T08:29:45-0400

Kharzette said:
I love that video series.

I remember Richard asking me what my favourite ultima was and I said serpent isle but only the first half. I didn't know any of the history of the series really or that he barely did anything on serpent isle but I doubt I'd have changed my answer just to make him happy.

The video reminded me what a mess the last half was. I can't remember if I figured everything out on my own or ended up cheating bits of it. I was very purist back then so I probably had pages and pages of notes and toughed it out.

The video on 7 part 1 really made me realize I need to replay it. I think I was in too much of a hurry so I didn't really take the time to get into the small bits of the npcs lives.

Gameplay wise, 7 and 7 part 2 both seem to have a 3 way stat focus where you can sort of tank or go magic heavy. I think the mage path is probably valid in 7, but 7 part 2 there's almost no way to get your mana back.

I started working on a mod for exult that would let you make potions via alchemy like in some of the other games but I never finished it. One of the things I learned is that the potion colors and effects changed wildly over the years and were never consistent.

Yeah, Serpent Isle just kinda hits different. If Ultima's world, Britannia, is literally "Let's do Britain but gamify it.", Serpent Isle is, "Let's imagine an entirely new game world". I dunno if they fixed all the issues in the rushed second half of it, but it's still a top CRPG to add to any list.

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Rajaah's CRPG Blog

Rajaah

Honorable Member

Khane

Got something right about marriage

Project Diablo 2

Kajiimagi

Ultima™ 9: Ascension

Rajaah

Honorable Member

Ultima™ 9: Ascension

Kharzette

Watcher of Overs

Majuular

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!