Ultima IV - Video Review

The Spoony Experiment has another video review in the Ultima series. This time he takes a look at Ultima IV. This one is more a straight forward review of this classic.
More information.

The link doesn´t work?

I didn't know Spoony, but I recently watched his Let's Play Phantasmagoria II. I played (and finished) the first, but never the second. The guy is fantastic at doing rifftrax. Really funny stuff!

I played Ultima I for a while when I was very young and I have often considered to taking them up again, playing them one by one in order. Spoony have convinced me not to do this, but it have still been very enjoyable to watch.

vidder said:

The link doesn´t work?

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Try it again. It worked for me.

@Thaurin His Let's Play's are my favorite. I wish he'd do more, but they take a ton of time to make. You should check out the Ripper and Final Fantasy XIII let's plays. Funny stuff.

I also was thinking about playing Ultima 1 (just to see those tie fighters ), but if I'm going that far back in time I'd rather play Wizardry, Legacy of the Ancients, or even Below the Root. Ultima 1 is just too raw for me. Although, I have been eying Ultima III. That was the first really great rpg I've played and wouldn't mind trying to pass that one again. Only thing stopping me is I'll have to take on "THE FLOOR" again and that there is no way to flee from battles.

Spoony's treatment of the floor (and later the grass) were pretty funny stuff.

His review of FF8 was good stuff, though I skipped the bits where he talked about other games in the FF series. Plus I got to see more of the game. (When I played it, I quit somewhere around the space walk scene. I don't remember if it was the "oh look, there's been a spaceship right near us and we just didn't notice" bit or the song that followed but something right around there finally overcame all the momentum that FF7 gave me and I uninstalled the thing.)

Zloth said:

His review of FF8 was good stuff, though I skipped the bits where he talked about other games in the FF series. Plus I got to see more of the game. (When I played it, I quit somewhere around the space walk scene. I don't remember if it was the "oh look, there's been a spaceship right near us and we just didn't notice" bit or the song that followed but something right around there finally overcame all the momentum that FF7 gave me and I uninstalled the thing.)

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I enjoyed FF8 a lot. Like most I wondered wtf was going on during the first hours since I, as most completists did, begun grinding up to 99 in every spell. Once I got past that and I got into the story, I begun enjoying it. I consider the ending in FF8 to be among the best endings ever, with emotions boiling all over me. Made me cry and sob like a 14 year old girl it did.

The complaints against FF8 make me remember a complaint I got from a friend who loathed Deus Ex. He played the first map half way through and then uttered that "it's just another shooter". It's true that the first map plays out a lot like a regular shooter and you have to play it to the end to see the first twist in the game. Sometimes great games are dumped because of it's first and awful moments, like Gothic (you fight like you had a solid iron bar stuck up your behind before learning some moves and you die by every scavenger you meet), Divine Divinity (the first dungeon was too long and unnecessary) etc. Not saying you did since the space walk scene happens later in the game, but most reviews that lashed out on the game is about dumping the game after a few hours of magic grinding in the very start of the game.

JemyM said:

I enjoyed FF8 a lot. Like most I wondered wtf was going on during the first hours since I, as most completists did, begun grinding up to 99 in every spell. Once I got past that and I got into the story, I begun enjoying it. I consider the ending in FF8 to be among the best endings ever, with emotions boiling all over me. Made me cry and sob like a 14 year old girl it did.

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I enjoyed FF9 the most. The ending got to me, too. It's cliché mushy stuff stuff, but after spending 50+ hours with the characters... ah, who cares. I bought FF8 on PSN some time ago and I should play it through. FF7 and FF9 were some of the most memorable games, even though I played them in the "modern age."

hmmm, I wounder something about the PSN, does anyone know which FF games you can buy on there?

As far as FF8 goes it is definetely one of my favourite FF's not as good as 6 or 7 but still really good.

GothicGothicness said:

hmmm, I wounder something about the PSN, does anyone know which FF games you can buy on there? .

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7, 8, and 9.

If you have a Wii, you can purchase most of the earlier FF games for the Virtual Console.

JemyM said:

The complaints against FF8 make me remember a complaint I got from a friend who loathed Deus Ex. He played the first map half way through and then uttered that "it's just another shooter". It's true that the first map plays out a lot like a regular shooter and you have to play it to the end to see the first twist in the game. Sometimes great games are dumped because of it's first and awful moments, like Gothic (you fight like you had a solid iron bar stuck up your behind before learning some moves and you die by every scavenger you meet), Divine Divinity (the first dungeon was too long and unnecessary) etc. Not saying you did since the space walk scene happens later in the game, but most reviews that lashed out on the game is about dumping the game after a few hours of magic grinding in the very start of the game.

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For the first map are you talking about the tutorial or Liberty Island? Liberty Island was in no way like any typical shooter. Right off the bat you're shown a sneak peak of all the choices that are in store for your character. Even being able to choose which gun you want, sneaking past the guards or taking them head on, how you want to take down the turrets or using lethal or non-lethal weapons against the foes. Up until this point in time I had never seen anything like that before. Maybe because I didn't play enough shooters, but this thing was amazing right from the very start.

As for the other complaints, it's funny because I had the exact opposite reaction. Especially to the dungeon in DD. I loved that dungeon. Everything from the crazed fanatic skeletons trying to resurrect their master to (of course) the skeletons talking themselves to death That first dungeon was one of my favorites from the game. As for Gothic there was a lot of complaints about the combat style, but I found it challenging and fun once I got the hang of it. Victory never tasted sweeter than when I took out a swamp shark when I was still a low level character. Took forever, but it was worth every agonizing moment.

I'm not saying your wrong in your opinion, it's an opinion after all(although your friend is dead wrong ). I just found it funny that the things that bugged you are what drives me to play a game further. Like Gothic's controls or DD's dungeon.

I can't comment on FFXIII because I hate that game with a passion. It's not the story or the stats, or the silly characters. No, it was the fact that I could not skip past those summoning movies. You HAD to watch every one of them. They were cool the first couple of times, but after awhile I dreaded having to use any of my summons because of those time wasting spells. I quit very early in the game because of that. After seeing the let's play it looks like I didn't miss much. That game is weird.

As for Spoony's review. I did disagree heartily with what he said about the magic system. I loved that system. I still remember writing every one of those spells down with the ingredients or finding new spells. I'm not sure if it was Ultima 5 or 4 where it had the food spell that you found from some fat guy traveling around the country. That was a great idea putting spells available in the game that weren't in the manual. Also, mixing the spells together was a ton of fun. It made being a mage so much more than being able to cast magic spells. I wish more games would have that kind of complexity in them. Sadly, I don't think we'll see those anymore.

Thaurin said:

I enjoyed FF9 the most. The ending got to me, too. It's cliché mushy stuff stuff, but after spending 50+ hours with the characters… ah, who cares. I bought FF8 on PSN some time ago and I should play it through. FF7 and FF9 were some of the most memorable games, even though I played them in the "modern age."

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I agree. The ending of FF9 made me cry like a little baby. The ending felt a lot like Disney. The main thing with Final Fantasy 9 was characters who faced difficult questions. I thought that was a great setup for a game. It's also the best looking PS1 title I know of.

skavenhorde said:

For the first map are you talking about the tutorial or Liberty Island? Liberty Island was in no way like any typical shooter.

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I agree, and I played the game just like that. He didn't, he expected a shooter and tried to play it as one. Not my loss it wasn't, but I wonder how many ignored the game since it looks like a shooter.

As for Gothic there was a lot of complaints about the combat style, but I found it challenging and fun once I got the hang of it. Victory never tasted sweeter than when I took out a swamp shark when I was still a low level character. Took forever, but it was worth every agonizing moment.

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I agree, I took the challenge and like you I ended up enjoying it.

I'm not saying your wrong in your opinion, it's an opinion after all(although your friend is dead wrong ). I just found it funny that the things that bugged you are what drives me to play a game further. Like Gothic's controls or DD's dungeon.

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I am speaking about complaints others have had. I have finished and enjoyed most of those games we talk about.

No, it was the fact that I could not skip past those summoning movies. You HAD to watch every one of them. They were cool the first couple of times, but after awhile I dreaded having to use any of my summons because of those time wasting spells.

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I do not remember which summonings you speak about. You mean the esters (or whatever they are called in FF8)? I do not remember if I used them.

I wish more games would have that kind of complexity in them. Sadly, I don't think we'll see those anymore.

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Reminds me of mixing potions in Risen, which I am playing at the moment.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness View Post
hmmm, I wounder something about the PSN, does anyone know which FF games you can buy on there? .

7, 8, and 9.

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Still no way to buy and legally play FFX , XII … I hate sony :X

do not remember which summonings you speak about. You mean the esters (or whatever they are called in FF8)? I do not remember if I used them.

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That was a pain in the ass… but you didn't need to use them so it doesn't really matter, after you get tired of them, just don't use them anymore….. the first few times it was really fun to watch though!

JemyM said:

I do not remember which summonings you speak about. You mean the esters (or whatever they are called in FF8)? I do not remember if I used them.

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These summons:
Shiva
Ifrit
and the others.

Even seeing them now leaves me with a sense of dread.

@ GG If only they made it so you could skip past that after viewing it for the 100th time. I'm always a mage player and to do that to me was too much. The only way I could play my mage was to suffer through those cut scenes again and again. There is no way that I'm doing that for a game that sounded silly to begin with and from what I can tell it only got stranger from there.

JemyM said:

I thought that was a great setup for a game. It's also the best looking PS1 title I know of.

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Hmmm, I think it's a big tie up with Chrono Cross. That was probably the best-looking game on PS1. It even had a character screen with high-resolution models! (640x480, I think.)

Thaurin said:

Hmmm, I think it's a big tie up with Chrono Cross. That was probably the best-looking game on PS1. It even had a character screen with high-resolution models! (640x480, I think.)

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I've had Chrono Cross for years, but have never played very far. It just doesn't seem to have the same charm that made Chrono Trigger so enjoyable to me.


@Skavenhorde: I totally agree about FF8, that game bored the shit out of me. I actually played it all the way to the end, but I had to force myself to do so, and I definitely have no desire to ever replay it. I pretty much felt the same way about FF9 as well.

I've had Chrono Cross for years, but have never played very far. It just doesn't seem to have the same charm that made Chrono Trigger so enjoyable to me.

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Yeah it plain out sucks compared to Chrono Trigger...... but it has a lot of C&C that's what I liked about it.

Ultima V posted today;
http://spoonyexperiment.com/category/game-reviews/ultima-retrospective/

JemyM said:

I played Ultima I for a while when I was very young and I have often considered to taking them up again, playing them one by one in order. Spoony have convinced me not to do this, but it have still been very enjoyable to watch.

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If I were to select/recommend only one of the Ultima games, it would be Ultima 7.