Clearly we value different aspects of gameplay. Not much else to say about it.

Here's one way to describe the main issue I have with Ultima 7:
* The game is described as an RPG. This, to me, implies that the success of actions performed is dependent on the character's skill, not the player's skill, and the mechanics for that would be central to the game.
* The only times these mechanics actually come into play is combat and character growth. (I note that the game does not, for example, have skill checks for social situations or activities like cooking.)
* Character growth, in and of itself, is meaningless without any combat use.
* Given that, we can conclude that combat is the central aspect of the game, as far as it being an RPG.
* This would be fine, except that the combat is garbage, hence the thing that makes the game an RPG is garbage.
* The game could have been improved by taking out combat entirely, but now the resulting game is no longer an RPG; it's an adventure game instead.

In summary, the game is advertised and claimed to be an RPG, but the things that make it an RPG are garbage.

(There's also other quality-of-life issues, most notably inventory and the need to manually feed characters.)

If combat is your only consideration, I'm confused why you look to any Ultima game, as that has never been their specialty.

Regardless, the scope of a roleplaying game is rather more broad than that. Computer rpgs traditionally focus more heavily on the number crunching side of things because that's much easier to develop on a computer, especially an older computer like the
Apple ][.

What I've found compelling about Ultima is the great efforts made to go beyond that, and in most cases they were wildly successful. It often took the rest of the gaming industry years just to catch up.

The number crunching aspect of the game, to me, is what makes an RPG an RPG. (At least when it comes to video games.) Take it out and you just have an adventure games.

One can actually describe much of the Ultima series, at the very least the second trilogy (Ultima 4-6), as adventure/RPG hybrids rather than as pure RPGs.

(Worth noting: I love math, to the point where I have a master's degree in the subject. So yes, it is the number crunching aspect of the games that attracts me.)

Ultima 4, 1, 3, 5, 7, 6, 0, 2, 8, 9. I almost put 1 first, because I love how it changes from Frank Frazetta barbarians to Buck Rogers sci-fi so out of nowhere, but 4's character generator and unique premise put it over the top. 3 eeked in there from nostalgia - it was the first Ultima I ever played.

but how would you compare Black Gate and Serpent Isle against each other?

I've played The Black Gate way more, because I constantly restart games. It's been a long time since I've even played Serpent Isle. I suppose I'll order them accordingly. While I own every Ultima on GoG, not all have gotten thorough play. My ranking is more a measure of time invested - excepting Akalabeth, which I played quite a bit when it was on iOS. I also debated the position of 6 and 7. I played a lot more of 6, especially since it was also on SNES, if I recall. It was the first RPG I can remember that punished me for taking everything that wasn't nailed down. Actually, that might have been Ultima III's distinction on NES. I didn't start ravenously trying to accumulate all my nostalgia till I heard of GoG, to be honest, several years ago, pretty much grabbing everything Ultima and Might & Magic.

Worth noting that console ports of Ultima games are often quite different from their computer counterparts, and hence should be ranked differently.

In summary:
* Ultima 3 NES is similar to the PC version, but there are some significant differences, like the fact that the enemies you face on the overworld depend on your level, and that there are extra items, many of them required (to replace "O)ther command" and "Y)ell"). I prefer PC here, mainly because druids are decent on PC, but not NES (where they lost their fast MP recovery).
* Ultima 4 NES: A rather different experience from the PC version. I can't really rank one above the other; they're just so different, eand each excels in ways the other version does not. I find that combat is much less random on NES, but the dungeons aren't as interesting. (Also, talking is handled JRPG-style, so no choosing what to say.)
* Ultima 4 SMS: An improvement over the PC version, with some quality-of-life improvements. The drawbacks are that you can't just ask everyone about the rune (for example), as you need to learn what keywords go to which person (as there's no keyboard), and that, for whatever reason, dungeons lack the 3D view.
* Ultima 5 NES: This game is kusoge. In other words, any reasonable ranking of the Ultima games that includes this version is going to put it at or near the end of the list. It's the one port that isn't worth playing.
* Ultima 6 SNES: Simplified compared to the PC version (can't attack friendly characters, some spells missing, that sort of thing), but the core game is unchanged, and even the graphics and music are intact. (Ultima 6 SNES and Ultima 4 SMS are the only console ports to retain the original music.)
* Ultima 7 SNES: This isn't the same game as the PC version. It's generally considered to be not as good, but none of the issues I had with the PC version are present here.

U5 - It's got it all, great combat, challenge, dungeons, characters, day night cylcle
U3 - It's just easy to play
U6 - Once you learn the inventory it's pretty easy to play and has most of what I liked about U5
U7 - Impressive and unique but kind of annoying. It's just fetch quests dressed up as something more.
UW1 - A classic dungeon crawl
U8 - Great start but terrible as you keep going, your stats max out at 15 and I suspect this is because you are still mainly fighting ghouls and skeletons in the later game so your stats don't need to increase. Still it's no fun fighting the same couple of enemies and not gaining stats and getting money you never need because nothing gets harder to kill. Somehow I still kind of like it.
U9 - I don't hate it, it was worth a look (and luckily my game glitched in the 5th dungeon and I couldn't progress so I felt no shame it quitting)

Runes of virtue 2 - This is hilariously bad, I have it on the snes classic for a laugh. Next I need to get the Black Gate snes so I can explode some cows.

One day I will play the others.

Personally, I'd put Ascension on top of the list, since it was my introduction to Ultima. Thanks to it, I was able to discover the other games in the series. Even with all the bugs and annoying crashes, I still find it a gorgeous game; I don't think I'll ever forget my first steps around Britain, talking to its people, humming along the beautiful soundtrack.

1 - 3/10
2 - 2/10
3 - 3/10
4 - 8/10
5 - 8/10
6 - 6/10
7 - 9/10
SI - 7/10
8 - 4/10
9 - 2/10 (gets 2 points for the music)
UU1 - 7/10
UU2 - 8/10

Piss, all of them.