Ultima IX: Ascension

aka: Ultima 9, Ultima: Ascension
Moby ID: 779
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/23 6:50 PM )

Description official descriptions

For the last time, the Avatar is being summoned to free Britannia from Guardian's curse. The eight Shrines of Virtues, the pride of Britannia, have been all desecrated by this evil and mysterious creature. The glyphs which protected them have been taken, and put into huge columns the Guardian built in Britannia, with their entrances hidden deep in dangerous dungeons. As a result, the people of Britannia have lost their virtues. The Avatar must now cleanse the shrines and let the virtues return to the people. His task becomes particularly difficult because he cannot trust the people he encounters any more. With the help of a few allies, the Avatar will have to help the inhabitants of Britannia, and learn about the true origin of the Guardian.

Ultima IX: Ascension is the last single-player installment of the Ultima series, and the conclusion of its overarching story. The game still contains role-playing elements such as the series' traditional character creation based on ethically ambiguous questions, a quest-based structure (including side quests), a large world to explore, heavy inventory management, financial system, as well as weapon and armor customization. However, the game has no experience points system; the protagonist's basic attributes are increased only after completing certain storyline events.

Similarly to the previous installment, the combat in the game is action-oriented, and the protagonist has no companions that would help him in battles. The Avatar can use melee and ranged weapons (bows) or magic spells to dispose of his foes. The puzzle-oriented structure of the dungeons further emphasizes the game's tendency towards action-adventure gameplay not dissimilar to Zelda games.

The game features support for EAX sound and a fully 3D world with an almost unrestricted freedom of movement: in addition to climbing and jumping, which the Avatar has "learned" in the previous game, he can also swim and dive; some well-hidden locations can only be accessed in this way. The physical interactivity with the game world has been preserved; almost every object can be moved from place to place or taken into the Avatar's inventory.

Spellings

  • ウルティマIX: アセンション - Japanese spelling
  • 創世紀 IX - Traditional Chinese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

183 People (174 developers, 9 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 70% (based on 38 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 104 ratings with 12 reviews)

Once again, we see the genius of Lord British, the master storyteller.

The Good
Chances are pretty good that many of you have never played an Ultima game before. So, I will attempt to concentrate on this game’s good and bad points as if it were a stand alone game rather than comparing it with those before it.

(Note: I played using the official Origin patch (v1.18f) and several “unofficial” patches from fansforultima.com. I elected not to use any cheat codes, but did consult walkthroughs for help in finding some of the special weapons and armour and finishing side quests.)

Story
I thought the story was wonderfully engaging. Basically, huge magical columns erupted from the earth and the 8 Shrines of Virtue were destroyed. Thus the beliefs and thinking of the people of Britannia reversed over time. They became uncompassionate, greedy, dishonest, unjust, and totally disagreeable. To make them see the error of their ways, the 8 shrines must be “cleansed” by reuniting the Sigil and the Rune (glyph) and speaking the proper Mantra. Naturally, those three things are scattered, and finding them is your primary goal. In between, numerous other situations occur to diversify the plot (such as saving the Gargoyle race and restoring the Moongates).

The linearity of U9 didn’t bother me in the least. Sure, certain things must be done before other things happen, but that leads the plot towards the proper direction. There is plenty to do, loads of places to explore, numerous people to meet, and hundreds of monsters to fight so I was never bored. Whenever I got stuck, reading the Avatar’s Journal helped with the adventure aspects of the game.

One of the coolest things brought out in the plot was love. At least 2 women told the Avatar they loved him (one from his past and one from his present). Although he never really reciprocated, it was an interesting twist to an already great story. (The cut scenes of him with Raven sizzled … literally.)

Gameplay
The gameplay as a whole reminded me very much of Redguard and even Sierra’s King’s Quest 8: Mask of Eternity, although your character cannot perform as many actions. He can walk, run, swim, strafe, climb and jump, but he cannot crouch, sneak or hang from ledges. I liked the beginning in-game tutorial which I thought was an innovative way to get familiar with the game controls.

When saving a game, there is plenty of room to type your own description and a picture appears at the top showing where you were when you saved. Assumingly, the number of saved games is only limited by your hard disk space as I had no problems saving anytime and anywhere I wanted. You always restart the game from your last save.

Graphics
The world as a whole was creatively drawn and lovely. The many islands and cities all have their own unique settings, terrain and building types. Nice as the graphics are, they are no more detailed or groundbreaking than, say, those in Outcast. They did a good job inside the dungeons and caves, which looked more realistic to me than some of the other areas. I would have liked a change of view to “top down” for the dungeons, since I was continually getting lost. Even a self-mapping feature would have been a nice addition.

When day turns to night, the sunsets are beautiful. The night skies are filled with stars and a big, bright moon. A rain storm can happen at any given moment during the day, turning the whole area appropriately dark. The storms are complete with lightning, thunder, raindrops and puddles. (I have never been fond of weather in games, but I admit that the effects were done very well in Ascension.)

However, monster and character graphics were only so-so, in my opinion, and appeared blocky and unrealistic. The Avatar’s face looks different in the video cut scenes than he does while you are actually playing him. (I thought he was more handsome, albeit angled, within the game than in the cut scenes.)

Music and Sound
The music was nicely orchestrated and different for each locale. The songs even changed after you had “cleansed” each shrine. I never got tired of it, and it did not interfere with sound effects or voices. All of those can be adjusted in the options menu.

Sound effects were appropriate for various actions and environments. When the Avatar walks on a wooden floor or a sandy beach, for instance, his footsteps sound correct. When you hurt an opponent, he/she/it will grunt, whine, groan or gasp. Sounds inside the dungeons were especially spooky and mood enhancing.

The character scripts were really good, and I liked the way they handled each of the virtues before and after the shrines had been fixed. The majority of the actors did a great job with their speech, incorporating the proper inflections and tones, and most of the voices were appropriate to the character you were looking at. I thought that some of the children were a bit stupidly portrayed though.

The Bad
Most of these things involve actual gameplay aspects. Some of them were merely irritating and just required getting used to.

  • Opening up the Journal every time I wanted to save was tedious. A single slot automatically named “Quick Save” would have helped tremendously to speed up saving and loading.
  • Not being able to escape out of long conversations or cut-scenes. This can be annoying if you are replaying a segment.
  • No description for inventory objects. Try to sell something at a shop and then you know what the item is.
  • Not enough room to hold your inventory. This means you are constantly looking for places to stash items or having to decide what to keep and what to throw away. I prefer combination inventory slots with a number count.
  • Fighting is simply “hack and slash” with very little strategy other than your approach and weapon. Odd viewing angles can make it harder than it needs to be.
  • Spellcasting takes too long to be useful in battle. Open book, turn pages, select spell, aim and fire. You must unarm your weapon before casting anything but healing spells, so offensive spells worked best for long range attacks.
  • Swimming is awkward at best. The waters can be dangerous, but the Avatar cannot fight while in the water. Nor can he swim any faster.
  • You can easily get stuck in the graphics. Fall behind a rock and you may find it impossible to get out of there.
  • Crashes to my desktop were common occurrences but I was always able to restart immediately from my last saved game.

    **The Bottom Line**
    Overall I enjoyed Ascension very much. I’m actually sad that there will not be any more of them since this one was up to par with other games having similar gameplay aspects.

    If you liked other 3rd person, single-player action/adventure/rpgs, and you have the proper system configuration, this game is worth playing (but be sure to install the latest official patch). It is not perfect and has its share of glitches, but none of those really hindered me. First and foremost, it is fun and will provide many weeks (maybe even months) of entertainment.

    For those of you who have played previous Ultima games, don’t expect it to look or feel like any of them. Consider the game as a separate entity and try not to compare it to its predecessors. You may be surprised at how much you like it too.

  • Windows · by Jeanne (75956) · 2002

    Well seeing as I could hardly even play it...

    The Good
    Boy, that's a tough one. Um... the design on the box?

    The Bad
    Soon after my first day of adventuring, I didst maketh a fastinating discovery: Ultima IX sucketh! It appears that you need to have all of the most advanced peripherals and about a bazillion gajillion megs of ram just to be able to play this game without it randomly crashing. It appears that either Ultima IX is holier than thou and cannot be played by us meager peons with only Direct 3D accelerators and 96 Mb rams, or it was made by a team who obviously wasn't paying attention to a lot of important details.

    The Bottom Line
    If you're a big fan of the Ultima series... then that doesn't even matter. The bottom line is, Ultima IX is too demanding and too bug-ridden to even play and have fun with. Just don't bother with this one.

    Windows · by Sam Tinianow (113) · 2001

    Rushed? Half-Assed? Too Ambitious? Disappointing.

    The Good
    The graphics were simply breathtaking in more than one location, the character creation was traditional Ultima which really made it special, the introduction was interactive; always a plus, the interface is simple enough not to be irritating and complex enough that it encompasses everything it needs to, the controls are thoughtful, the storyline is well written and well played out, the puzzling gameplay is nice to see in an action/adventure rpg.

    Awesome easter eggs. If you can find them, you'll be laughing your ass off. It's good to see that Richard Garriot never lost his sense of humor.

    The Bad
    The framerate before v1.18 is inexusable, especially since the requirements state 266 w/ 64megs RAM and an 8meg 3D Accelerator. At 2fps in a box that is Lord British's main hall, make damn certain that you have either purchased the remastered version or that you have downloaded and installed the v1.18 path (avalible at all fine file outlets such as ultima 9's website or fileplanet).

    Post Patch Ultima 9 has few problems to speak of save for the most irritating of all, the voice acting. While some of the characters are decent, and some are downright excellent, the good majority of actors come off as complete hacks! I was surprised to hear such underpar voice acting. In fact, I turned off the speech and simply spoke the words aloud MYSELF! Strange? Maybe, but hey when you're an Ultima fan you do strange stuff.

    The character interaction is subpar. I've found that the conversation systems are in sour need of an overhaul simply because I can ask a person their name in the initial conversation, and either ask them their name AGAIN three topics into the conversation or end the conversation and then talk to them again as if I had never met them before. These are mainly inconsequential characters which have little to nothing to do with the storyline, but it's a sad note to hear in such a marvelous symphony as Ultima: Ascension (the ninth installment in a grand series).

    There are a LOT of glitches in this game. I don't understand why, but it seems that when the Origin team gets together for the development of an Ultima game they think about what kinds of bugs they can deliberatly throw into their software. I'm serious, there are a LOT of little glitches, snags, bugs, and just plain errors that need ironing out! These cannot be named simply because they are too plentiful, but after moments of playing you will spot at least a few of them, and by the time you've finished the game, you'll have spotted a thousand of them. While flaws in the level design are few and far between, don't expect not to get stuck in one area or another on some strange obstruction. Save OFTEN and if you become stuck, either reload, or play around and try everything to get free, sometimes you can pull yourself out of a snag by doing whatever crazy shit you can think of (casting spells, jumping, attack air, running and then reversing and then running...etc...)

    The character creation, while groovy, is lacking simply because you can't name your character or pick your gender. True the game couldn't allow this due to the speech, but the voice acting sucks anyhow, I would have been happy with text alone!

    Artificial Intelligence. There is none. Your enemies harken the days of Wolfenstein 3-D (even Doom enemies were smarter. they could find their way around obstacles). Your enemies are dumb as doornails and that way they stay until the end of the game where the Guardian, who is cool, is also simply a moron with a script. Nevermind the NPCs all throughout the realm. I saw a beggar asking a chicken for alms. No joke! I've never laughed so hard in my life, but there he was 'please sir! please...please!!!'

    Finally there is the interactivity which is limited at best. Buggy and lacking, you can sometimes sit on chairs/lie down on beds, and some things that you'd expect to be able to do, you simply cannot! For instance, the ever famed turning grain into bread from U7 is not here. There is the ability to distill potions through alchemy sets, but nothing like UO.

    And while on the subject of UO, the sound effects in U9, along with a good number of graphics were obviously lifted from UO to create U9's environment. I recognized many terrain textures, along with 'gump' (backpacks, chests, bags, menus, etc...) after 'gump' and the fonts as well! The sound effects that were taken from UO are horrid. Bassy or static-ridden, amateurish stuff!

    All these gripes seriously detract from the magnificence that is Ultima: Ascension, thus reducing my love for the game.

    The Bottom Line
    All in all, Ultima: Ascension is a must have for the Ultima fan/Hardcore RPGer and more of a bargain-op for the RPG enthusiast. If you like Zelda, you'll love this bad boy!

    Personally, I just bought this game and while the bugs are plentiful, I'm still enjoying the game. But then, I'm an extremist when it comes to games such as Ultima, and Zelda (I completed Zelda 64 with 96 gold skulltulas).

    Overall, post-patch Ultima has good performance and a nicely reduced bug quotient but if you have no patience for a thousand niggles, avoid it. Love Ultima? Love Zelda? Buy it.

    Windows · by tantoedge (19) · 2000

    [ View all 12 player reviews ]

    Discussion

    Subject By Date
    XP? MasterMegid (723) Sep 27, 2007
    the game phoenix fire Aug 27, 2007

    Trivia

    Cover

    In an interview with Richard Garriott in the mid-1990's, he stated that the original idea for the Ultima IX cover art was to show the standard Ultima logo in crystalline letters against a cloud/sky background. Another prototype cover, published as a poster in 1996, was done in a stained-glass window style and showed the Avatar rising (ascending) with the Guardian's huge red hand attempting to pull him back down.

    Development

    The creation of Ultima IX has a very entertaining history.

    After the completion of Ultima VIII in 1994, Origin started work on the ninth episode -- the finale of the third trilogy. It was supposed to be a bitmap game like Ultima VIII; 3D graphic was no issue back then. However, another project was soon deemed more important: Ultima Online. Ultima IX was put on ice, the complete staff was sent to create the online game. When it was finished in 1997, work on Ultima IX continued; as the graphics were hopelessly out of date by now, a 3D engine had to be programmed.

    In 1997, there was only one major manufacturer of 3D chipsets: 3Dfx with its Voodoo technology. So Ultima IX was streamlined to exactly that hardware. After all, the game’s release date was supposed to by not too far away, by the end of 1998. Not surprisingly, the creation process took much longer. One particular reason for this delay was a series of ugly staff changes during 1998.

    With Dan Rubenfield and Marshall Andrews, two of the designers for Ultima IX left Origin in May 1998. The departure was not a peaceful one. The two ex-employees blamed Origin to sacrifice gameplay for the sake of a fast buck. Richard Garriott, the father of the Ultima series, reacted equally harsh: both renegades hadn’t got a clue about game design and would have been thrown out anyway. Rubenfield and Andrews went to Ion Storm to work on Deus Ex.

    Only one month later, lead designer Bob White followed the two to Ion Storm, although this time there was no bad blood.

    The big bang came in July: project leader Ed del Castillo had to resign. Castillo was considered a whiz kid after his work on Westwood’s Command & Conquer series, and had been enticed away by Origin only a year before. He was responsible for some controversial design decisions for Ultima IX, like giving up on the party. After some serious arguments with Richard Garriott, Castillo took his leave due to “philosophical differences”. He went on to found his own software company, Liquid Entertainment, in 1999.

    With most of his design team gone, Garriott, who had been acting as a supervisor up to that time, decided to take charge once again. He became executive designer for Ultima IX in Fall 1998.

    Development for the game continued. By 1999, the situation on the market for 3D accelerator boards had changed considerably. 3Dfx had lost its supremacy, the Nvidia Riva TNT chip was the new darling of the gamers. Ultima IX was not prepared for this situation. The game ran perfectly well on a Voodoo board under Glide, but was hardly playable under Direct3D. The problem needed fixing urgently. However, there was no time for that. When winter 1999 came closer, Origin decided that it was time to publish Ultima IX to take advantage of the Christmas business.

    The game that reached the public was a technical catastrophe. Despite the enormous hardware requirements, it wouldn’t run fluently on any but the most advanced computers. Many owners of TNT-cards didn’t even manage to get the game working. A serious bug in the storyline made it impossible to finish the adventure without cheating. As the complaints poured down on Origin, the company published a series of patches to address the most urgent of problems.

    Although these updates gradually eliminated most bugs, Origins reputation had suffered strongly by then.

    Glitches

    There is a design flaw in the game where, if you know where to try, you can climb / jump up the side of the mountains in the park at the beginning of the game (it's all trial and error). Once you crest the mountains and descend the other side, you are now outside the game world looking back in. It's a big floating island where you can walk underneath it. The ground is transparent from your point of view like a one-way mirror. Weird / creepy!

    Joshua

    If you perform a side-quest and save Joshua in Moonglow, a book will appear on a table in his house. Read this book. It is called: "Everything an Avatar needs to know about sex".

    Message board

    One controversial move by Origin that was the final slap in the face for many gamers was its decision to shut down its message boards. Quite simply at the height of the tech-support madness surrounding Ascension's bugs, Origin decided to shut down Ultima Ascension's official Bulletin Boards, leaving them as read-only versions for a while while they re-directed traffic towards fan-managed sites such as The Wayward Avatar and Ultima Horizons.

    Patches

    Because Electronic Arts pushed Origin to get the game out for Christmas, the game was notorious for its technical problems and bugs. After numerous complaints, EA responded by mailing a remastered cd with the latest patch plus a bonus copy of Ultima Online to the registered owners of the Ultima IX. Unregistered owners had to download the very large patch from their website. This has to be one of the few known cases where it actually paid to register the game!

    Soundtrack

    After all that Ultima sequels, it was to expect as the music level was progressing, that there can easily be soundtrack expected. It was released in 1999. Soundtrack can be bought at http://www.synsoniq.com.

    Tracklist: 1. Stones (chamber) - Britain (positive) - Introduction - Valoria Ships - Paws - Gargoyles - Minoc (negative) - Moongate - Terfin - Undead (intense) - Moonglow (negative) - Good vs. Evil - Moonglow (positive) - New Magencia - Rats & Spiders - Samhayne - Walking Theme - Humanoids - Pyros - Ambush - Good End Game - Stones (electro) - Ambrosia - Yew (positive)

    References

    • North-West of Britain there is a hidden mountain shrine to the late Phyllis Jones, mother of Scott Jones, the lead artist.
    • When playing the game, if you go to the jailhouse of Castle Britannia, you will see a character in prison . This character is Richard Garriot screaming "Release me, I am the real Lord British!"
    • A lot of the textures used for the paintings found in the game are really just recycled box covers from the previous Ultimas, including Richard Garriot's first game Akalabeth: World of Doom (often referenced as Ultima 0). The Tapestry of Ages however, is a completely original illustration done by the famed Hildebrandt brothers, fantasy artists known for their trading card and poster illustrations of several comic books heroes.

    Awards

    • Computer Gaming World
      • March 2000 (Issue #188) – The Outpost Memorial Award
    • GameStar (Germany)
      • Issue 03/2000 - Best Game World in 1999
      • Issue 03/2000 - Hardware Devourer Nr. 1 in 1999
    • PC Player (Germany)
      • Issue 01/2001 - Biggest Disappointment in 2000
    • PC Powerplay (Germany)
      • Issue 03/2005 - #9 Biggest Disappointment

    Information also contributed by -Chris, cpc64, Dan Homerick, Henry Aloni, MAT, Unicorn Lynx, woods01, Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe and Zovni

    Analytics

    MobyPro Early Access

    Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

    Related Games

    Ultima: World Edition
    Released 2000 on Windows
    Ultima IX: Ascension (Premium Edition)
    Released 2000 on Windows
    Romance of the Three Kingdoms IX
    Released 2003 on Windows, PlayStation 2
    Exodus: Ultima III
    Released 1985 on DOS, 1986 on Amiga, Windows...
    Ultima VI: The False Prophet
    Released 1990 on DOS, 1992 on SNES, Windows...
    Ultima VII: The Black Gate
    Released 1992 on DOS
    Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
    Released 1992 on DOS, 1997 on PlayStation, Windows...
    Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
    Released 1993 on DOS, 1995 on PC-98, Windows
    Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
    Released 1988 on DOS, 1990 on Amiga, Windows...

    Related Sites +

    • Ascension Fan Site
      Ultima 9 fan site affiliated with RPG Planet
    • Hacki's Ultima Page
      A site listing various inconsistencies within the Ultima series. The majority of the content focuses on Ultima IX: Ascension. (English/German)
    • Hints for Ascension
      Get the solutions you need with this question and answer type file.
    • Review List
      Reading all of the many reviews on this game is easier with this extensive list
    • The wayward avatar
      Newssite on Ultima, Origin and related subjects The wayward avatar had the best walkthrough on Ultima IX available

    Identifiers +

    • MobyGames ID: 779
    • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

    Contribute

    Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

    Contributors to this Entry

    Game added by JubalHarshaw.

    Additional contributors: Trixter, Terok Nor, Unicorn Lynx, frank rieter, Jeanne, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, Robin Adams.

    Game added January 23, 2000. Last modified March 14, 2024.