I remember as a kid I absolutely hated the direction they were taking the series. The guardian plot was being shoved down our throats and had no logical ending. Who was he, what was he, why was he doing the things he was doing to absolutely dismantle and destroy the world I've fallen in love with. Ultima 7 he is a thought... literally. He keeps his cultists from drinking, he's formed a church which is, actually, efficient in what they do and not always corrupt … just like any church. The games should be played Ultima 7, Ultima Underworld 2, Ultima 7 part 2 in that order. Characters from one show up in the other, and the plotlines roll seamlessly with one another. The black rock serpent, for example, that helps you even go to serpent isle is given to you by one of the goblins living in the sewers under Lord British's castle in Ultima Underworld 2. That and the primary characters in Ultima Underworld 2 were taken from Ultima 7; Finnigan, Patterson, Mariah, Nystul, Geoffrey, Julia, Iolo, Dupre, Lady Tory, Nana, Nel, Nelson, Syriah and of course Lord British himself. Now here's where things start falling down for me; the ending of Ultima 7 Part 2 was such a rush job that without a walkthrough I would not know what to do. Get the buckets of water from various temples, make sure you pack the Philanderer's Friend when you go up against Vasculio, the Dispel Field spell scroll... ONE ONLY in the game... is absolutely vital to the game so if you burn it being stupid be prepared to back track because you need it to get the Horn of the Gwani. Then there's NPC's that happily tell you what their town is about while they're wandering the blood-filled wasteland that their town has become. It was sloppy, in the gaming world it was like completing the Mona Lisa with a happy face in crayon because your patron was EA games.
To call this a RPG or an action game would be wrong; it is a puzzle game, and super Avatar Brothers is very apt.... the solution of the game exists by jumping, dodging and running away. Zombies will kill you at the beginning, and they will kill you at the end. Interrupting the Queen's lunch, repose, or just looking at her wrong will kill you. Falling in the water will kill you. Attacking the domestic animals of any form will kill you. Axe wielding skeletons will corner you and triple hit you to death like an old-school arcade game. You summon a demon, the enemy you were trying to kill wanders off screen, it wonders why the hell you summoned it, then it kills you. All ghosts will kill you and are essentially unkillable. The little green lizards are fair game, as are the tiny spiders, but you can't hit them with your weapon. Mimicks can be killed and efficiently, so kill them with absolute impunity. This game would have been more efficient as a fantasy novel and actually inspired MANY short stories of my own since my childhood. I loved it when it came out, I read and reread the clue book and swag that came with the box. I spent many frustrating hours casting various spells, and making your own True silver Stratos idol is a memorable moment. BUT.... on the coat-tails of the highly successful and one might say legendary Ultima 7 part 2, it just doesn't hit home. Dialogue issues, story issues, that as a kid I let pass but as an adult I'm like WTF. You literally saved Morgrim in Ultima 7 part 2, who had fled Pagan, and yet.... returns to Pagan, is elderly, and can't remember you. Arcadion, your pet demon from the black sword, has no idea who you are. The theme of the game is isolation, nobody knows or cares who the Avatar is....and yet they put story choices in there that make no sense and might have been hastily written to hit a deadline. It's great in its concept, yet is a gasping sucking wound of a failure compared to Ultima 7 part 2.
To understand why Ultima 9 is so bad you need to understand the drama behind it. First off... the economic climate in the 90's and 00's was very different. Richard Garriott has said himself that he rushed the Ultima 8 project to appease investors. He fell on his own sword concerning this project. I don't think it was entirely EAgames fault. and yet..... and yet it was. When a creative project of this magnitude is on the work-bench getting ironed out, its important to get all the details right. The plot was garbage. The plot of this game was cobbled together not by the team of creative individuals Garriott had at his back, but by the remnants of the writer's room trying their best to put together an IP with an impatient giant of a game company who would rather pump money into the next Madden game then give lip service to a work of art. "is it done yet? is it done yet? I want it on the shelves on Monday... blah blah blah" so corners got cut, plotlines got dropped, things don't make sense, an entire species got betrayed ( gargoyles are 100% wrong and are the Jar Jar Binks of the Ultima series ), and details got overlooked ( like Dupre's soul being fused with the Earth Serpent for eternity and thus incapable of ever coming back in the form of resurrection )…. the creative team that finished the game were not the same people that started it. https://ultima.fandom.com/wiki/Bob_White_Plot for more details on what the plot should have looked like. With that being said, the scene where the Avatar confronts the Guardian is powerful, and the end-game is actually one of the best. Bob White had Brittania being blown up, which is abit like cutting your nose off despite your face, or drinking cyanide to attempt to cure cancer. The whole point is to save Brittania not destroy it utterly. So I think the practical release ending is far superior than the intended ending. But beyond that.... many details were lost in translation when Garriott was fired.
