Ultima 8 was previously the red-haired stepchild of the franchise, but worked as canon anyway, and set up an amazing introduction to Ultima 9 ... which was then just ignored. U9's story made no sense and the game was fraught with technical problems. Yet, the engine looked amazing, and all everyone really wanted was Britannia in 3D. What we got though was a broken terrible Ocarina of Time knock-off courtesy of EA's meddling.
