Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Game 3: Ultima: Exodus (NES) - Introduction

The original game, Ultima III: Exodus, was released in 1983 for many PC platforms including the Apple II (I have fond memories of trying to play it with my dad). It was a great advancement for the series with many new additions, and much polish. Battles now take place on a separate screen, and with multiple party members, it takes a more tactical approach to defeat the enemy. The setting takes on more focus with a fully medieval-fantasy setting, gone is the futuristic themed parts. Using what the party can realistically see, the player now has a limited view of their surroundings based on the terrain. Dungeons are drawn with textured walls, and sprites are animated.
Wow, the music here is maddening...
This game may have had the greatest influence of all on the console RPG genre, so it's great to see it ported to the NES. All games that followed it show strong evidence of the impact it had. From the use of an over-world map; separate screens for battles, towns, and dungeons; and the four character party to magic points used for spells, and the proliferation of the medieval-fantasy setting, the game echoes throughout time.

An NES port was an obvious choice as the leading console of the time; following the success of games like Dragon Warrior (1986 JP) and its sequel (1987 JP), which take most of their inspiration from here, and seeing Dragon Warrior II become the first blockbuster game in Japan (seriously, people camped out days in advance to get the game), cashing in on this market is a no-brainer.

Changes were necessary though as the NES had no keyboard. To fit everything to a 2-button controller interface, the game used nested menus to fit all the options (much like Dragon Warrior). The graphics are more colorful than the original versions of the game, and the music changed to fit the NES hardware. All the manuals were reduced to one, and no map was included. I feel like I'm in for a bit of a challenge with the reduction in exposition.
The party that never was (also this music is pretty catchy)
I remember having rented this game as a kid. I never beat it. In fact, my memory of it is all rather hazy. The most memorable part of it is my struggle with understanding the moon phases. Moon gates were the bane of my young addled brain. I'm fairly certain I didn't get very far, and would jump on my brothers save file to check it out.

Mostly, I'm going into this blind, and from what I hear I'm going to struggle with unhelpful NPC hints. There's also mention that it is not possible to brute force through the game, and the final boss is more of a puzzle to pass. I've tried to keep this research spoiler free, so I don't have much more to report. There's evidently a 64-page hint book floating around as well, which I'll take the time to peruse after completing the game.

There's not a lot of mention of this game when reminiscing about classic console RPGs with friends and forums, so I have to wonder how the Ultima series continued to be released on consoles through Ultima VII. In fact, there's two Ultima games released for the Game Boy that look more like Zelda than Ultima, but I'll give them a chance based solely on the series. One of the most unfortunate omissions of the series on console is the lack of an American release to the PlayStation port of Ultima Underworld.
I didn't even vote in this poll...
I had a poll up for the last week to help me decide characters. It looks like Ranger & Thief edged out Paladin & Lark. This gives me a party of Ranger, Thief, Cleric, Wizard; in honor of the CRPG Addict, The Trickster, and my top two commenters, I'll be naming them Chet, Trick, AmyK, and CanaG respectively. Thanks for all the inspiration and support guys. I'm really looking forward to this one.

17 comments:

  1. Wow, thanks, Zenic! Canageek gets to be the wizard, waaah. That's cool, though. I can settle for being a cleric. I still have magic running through my veins. ;)

    And what do you mean, no keyboard for the NES? I just saw one the other day, next to the Blu-Ray add-on. :P

    This will be interesting for me, as I first heard of this game a few days ago... on this blog! It must one of the lesser-known Ultimas.

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    1. Yeah, the gender is based on the profession (how sexist right?), so the cleric as the only female seemed like a good choice. She's currently the only one that can heal; that definitely makes her a key character to have.

      You'd probably be amazed at the devices made for the Nintendo: it actually connected to a piano at one point. Look up Miracle Piano if you're interested in learning more.

      I can't tell if you're joking about not hearing about Ultima III... do you mean this version of the game?

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    2. This version. I guess this is a port of Ultima III then? I must have not been paying attention during your post(s), sorry.

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    3. Yes, this is mostly a direct port of Ultima III. Dialogue and sound, as well as interface, changed. But, the main story and structure remains true I believe.

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    4. How did you pick who got which class anyway? I get Amy K. as the only women, and The Trickster as the thief, but why Chet as the Ranger and myself as the Wizard? Not that I mind, I always see myself as a wizard: I'm a geek who pours over tombs and equations all day, then goes home and does the same at night for fun. I'd only do this MORE if I could get magic powers from it!

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    5. Chet as the leader seemed more fitting. So, the wizard was kind of a default. It would have been really awkward had the Paladin and Lark been chosen (since profession dictates gender, and both of those are female).

      In any case, I'm glad it all worked out in the end.

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  2. I played this waaaay back on the Atari ST which was basically the DOS version with better graphics and sound. It'll be interesting to see how the NES version compares. I'm not keen on the cutesy characters for a start....

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    1. Well, you'll have to remember the NES was targeted at kids, plus this port was first made for Japan.

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  3. I love your character names, nice tribute!

    By the way, from what I remember from this game (never played the NES version, though), you're in for the long haul... Good luck with it! We'll support you through this ;)

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    1. I'm fairly sure it will take a while (a month maybe) just based on things I've heard like, "there's no way to beat this game without the hint book" and "how in the world am I supposed to figure out that the end boss..." I stopped reading at that point.

      I'm sure a lot of these PC ports are going to take some time, especially since none of them have good reviews. So far though, Exodus is fun, if a little slow going. I've already died once, and not due to combat. Stay tuned for that one.

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    2. Chases after Zenic with his new Fireballs and a giant tome marked "Chrontendo"

      There is one decent review, just saying.
      Or did you mean walkthrough? I'm sure the walkthroughs for another platform would still be useful, wouldn't they?

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    3. I must catch up at some point with Chrontendo. I think I stopped at episode 30...

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    4. Shouldn't be hard to do: He hasn't put out any episodes in a while, though he has updated the blog saying he is working on them.

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  4. As The Trickster, I was always going to be the thief. I'm truly honoured Zenic! You look after me though... ;)

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    1. You're doing well, I got you a blowgun and you're taking out enemies from a distance (like a good thief). If only you could avoid poison traps more reliably... ;)

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  5. Wow, sweet! Double bonus for being the wizard (My favourite class in most games, though not one I play much). *Runs around the blog fireballing slimes*

    It does feel odd to play this before Dragon Quest, but I guess this came to North America first.

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    1. U.S. release order does tend to mux things up for the first few years.

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