Ultima III

Ultima, third of its kind.

Well, well, well.  The third installment of the Ultima series.  I have to admit, I'm wasn't much of a fan of the first two.  As examples of very early RPGs they are interesting, but as games in and of themselves, they are lacking.  But then, in 1983, Ultima III is released.  My main experience with Ultima III is from the NES.  It is probably one of the first few computer RPGs I ever came across.  There was The Bard's Tale and Wasteland on the C64 then Dragon Quest and Ultima III (Ultima:Exodus) on the NES.  For nostalgia's sake, I'm playing through the NES version this time.  I did some research and it appears that the differences between the PC and console versions are negligible and do not affect the core game.

An audience with the king.

Continuing, loosely, from Ultima I and II, a being known as Exodus is now threatening Sosaria, the world from the first game.  Exodus is creation of Mondain (Ultima I) and Minax (Ultima II) and he is now summoning creatures to threaten humanity (and others, I guess).  Lord British summons "you" to begin your quest and defeat Exodus.

Adventurers, party of four!

You begin the game by creating your party.  It's a bit confusing as there are a lot of options to choose from: 11 classes and 5 races.  The classes are mostly combinations of the standard Warrior, Thief, Priest and Mage classes and the races determine your maximum stats.  For example, a Paladin is a Warrior/Priest while a Ranger is a Thief/Mage type and a "Fuzzy" might make the best mage with higher max intelligence and a "Elf" might make the best Thief with highest max. dexterity.    It's the first time you're granted a party in the Ultima series, the previous incarnations have been solo affairs.  On the NES you will see all four members of the party trailing behind the leader.

Ahead on our way!

Once you've gathered your party, you are on your way.  Beginning with Lord British's Castle and the local village (Britain) you need to explore the world and talk to as many people as possible.  Each town you come across has important information for proceeding on your quest.  From locations of hidden towns and equipment to learning some extra skills, it's important to talk to them all.  Some locations will require you to use the 'moongates' in order to get there.  These gates move location and destination according to the phases of the world's two moons.  Figuring them out is important to proceed in the game.  One town is invisible until a particular combination of moon phases is present.  Then the town appears and you can enter to purchase some of the best equipment of the game.

Have at you!

Along the way, you'll fight many, many enemies.  The enemies are visible on the map still and you can usually avoid them if you'd rather.  In the NES version, with your train of party members, avoiding some of the encounters is tricky as contact with enemies anywhere along your "train" will initiate combat.  Combat has also been overhauled.  Instead of the "exchanging hits until one dies" method of combat, each encounter takes you to a combat screen which allows a simple, more strategic battle.  Dungeons have the same 3D view but look a bit better and are actually important this time around as you must explore almost all of them to procure "marks" (tattoos that provide immunities) and other information needed to beat the game.

Into the underdark.

Fighting enemies and exploring dungeons will net you experience and gold which you can use to level up and buy gear, but skill points can only be increased at the shrines in Ambrosia.  Ambrosia is a separate map that can only be accessed by boat.  Specifically, by driving your boat into the ominous whirlpool which wanders the oceans.  When you wake up, you'll be there.  There are few enemies in Ambrosia and you can explore fairly easily.  The four shrines (one for each stat) are there and donating money to them will increase the relevant stat for your characters.  It's an expensive process but necessary.  Once you have all the marks, all the cards, all the clues you need and your stats and equipment are good enough, you can assault Castle Exodus and face Exodus himself.

Tranquil Ambrosia.

I chose to try Paladin, Ranger, Thief and Lark for my party.  This gave me access to low-level spells from both Priest and Mage schools while giving me a good amount of melee damage as well.  I probably would have done things slightly differently playing through again, though, as some of the equipment selections are quite limited with this combination, esp. the Thief and Lark had limited ranged weapon selection.

Castle Exodus!

The game was engaging from the first and I enjoyed exploring the local continent.  Eventually, I procured a boat from some off-shore pirates and explored the wider world out on the oceans.  One of my biggest sticking points was cash.  You need a lot of money in the game and it doesn't come easily.  The dungeons will often cost you more than you find and you also have to keep your party fed at all times. Buying food is not expensive, but you have to constantly keep enough cash on hand for it.  The gear starts out fairly expensive, but the second tier weapons and armor (found in the hidden city) are incredibly expensive.  I found a town that had a ton of treasure chests hidden behind a store and was able to "farm" it to gain lots of gold.  Even this, however, was a long, tedious grind. It basically involved entering the town, heading to the back of the shop, stealing everything in sight (while avoiding guards), teleporting back to Castle Britain, then heading to Ambrosia to increase stats or Dawn to purchase gear.  Occassionally, you'd have to restock your teleport items, keys, food or other items.  It took hours of grinding to make enough money.  The rest of the game, however, became much easier afterward and I considered it worthwhile.

Loot, loot, loot, repeat!

Overall, I found the game very enjoyable.

The plot was a bit thin and the NPCs were a bit shallow but exploring and finding bits of information scattered throughout the game world was fun.  The selection of classes to choose from was good and your choices matter.  If you pick the wrong combination of classes in the beginning, you're going to have a rough time.  My picks were not terrible, but I think the game would have been easier had I picked others.  No class is particularly bad, but combinations of classes can be.  Party makeup is important.

I found the layout of the world and the way it gradually expanded as you acquired new travel means to be much better done than the previous Ultima games.  The scifi elements are mostly gone as are the references to Earth.  The towns and dungeons were fairly generic, but they all were unique and had different layouts and items.

The graphics are standard 8-bit in the NES version and glorified ASCII art in the PC version.  Nothing to write home about, but it's still and improvement from the previous Ultimas.  One of the more interesting additions is the line-of-sight restrictions.  You'll notice in some of the screenshots areas of black behind walls, trees, etc.  It shifts around as you move and adds some difficulty to exploring.  It's a concept I've only seen very rarely in games.  The sound in both versions is better as well and I'm fairly partial to the NES version here as well as it has a nostalgia factor for me.

Ship, with status windows, moon phases and line-of-sight visible.

The base mechanics of skill points, damage, health and experience was underwhelming and easily exploited.  I didn't do it much this time (other than the gold farming) but it wouldn't be too hard to create some super characters early in the game and cruise your way through it.  Levels increase every 100 experience and skills increase at a rate of 1 per 100 gold donated.  It's a linear scale so it tends to speed up near the end rather than the typical exponential systems that slow down leveling later in the game.

Some might find grinding experience and/or gold a bit boring and I can relate to that.  The game is also still pretty rudimentary as it is early in videogame history.  The lack of depth in plot and world building might dissuade modern players as it can seem pretty casual and light for an RPG.  However, if I were advising someone wanting to experience the Ultima series, I would probably recommend they start here.  The first two were forgettable and I don't think you'd miss anything from skipping them.  Ultima III, though, has a lot of unique qualities that you'd do well to experience for yourselves.

You bet you will!  Good game!