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)

Nail in the coffin - but what a nail!

The Good
I'm a big admirer of Ultima. I love the open-ended worlds, the meticulous interaction, the flexible role-playing. However, the hardcore elements of the series have declined over its course. Already the seventh game was less of an RPG than the sixth; and the eighth decisively shifted towards more streamlined action. Ultima IX is even less of an RPG: it is an action-adventure game with RPG elements - in fact, something not dissimilar in concept to Zelda games.

But to me personally, the Ultima experience never really depended on what you'd call core RPG traits: leveling up, combat, etc. When I want more dedicated role-playing (and that's what I always want) , I turn to something like Might and Magic. For me, Ultima was (and is), above all, about having my own adventures in a detailed, lovingly crafted world. When I play an Ultima game I want to do things just because I feel like doing them, playing with items and visiting every corner. In that respect, Ultima IX does not disappoint: it is a rich playground full of stuff to fool around with - only this time, realized in marvelous 3D.

Much has been said about the reduction of the game world; but did anyone seriously expect the developers to render in 3D the same amount of terrain as in Ultima VII? It's a wonder they managed to create what they have created using such an advanced engine. At the time of its release, no other 3D game came close to the sheer scope and magnitude of the world of Ultima IX. It was the most detailed, awe-inspiring fully polygonal world ever created for a game.

Ultima IX is the realization of a dream: this is probably how Britannia looked in the imagination of Ultima players, when they were playing the first Ultimas with CGA graphics back in the early eighties. Houses, forests, dungeons, mountains, rivers, seas - everything is absolutely gorgeous. There is an internal clock in the game, so you will see how the sun rises in the morning, or how the first stars appear on the sky, and so on. It is wonderful to see how everything moves and breathes in this world; butterflies fly around, skeletons wander near a dungeon entrance, waiting for their victims; people walk around in towns, the night comes upon Britannia; it rains, and the Avatar, equipped with his sword, is resting on the bed in Lord British's castle, gathering the force for his new quest. I really didn't want to leave this world. It was a pleasure just to run around, listening to the sweet orchestral music, and looking at everything around you.

Following the great Ultima tradition, Ultima IX is wonderfully interactive. Everything that is not nailed down can be examined, pushed, removed, and taken. You can interact with pretty much everything you see, exactly like in the previous Ultimas; the difference is that it feels absolutely awesome when it's all done in 3D. In addition to that, you also have physical abilities: jumping, climbing, and (for the first time in Ultima series) swimming. Every part of the game's world is therefore open now, and you can explore it physically. In every corner there is something to find and try, and at any point during your quest, no matter how linear its design is, you can just wander around and explore, admiring the lovely graphics and enjoying the amazingly high level of interaction.

You can jump whenever and wherever you want to. You can swim and dive everywhere there is water. You can climb on anything which can be climbed on. Most of the game is entirely physical; the dungeons are full of jumping or diving puzzles, but they are not nearly as frustrating as in some other games of this genre. Each time you are facing a puzzle you have to solve, like "how do I enter this dungeon if the entrance is sealed?", you can try many things, look for secret passages, underwater areas, try to cast spells, or anything else that comes to your mind. The new engine makes the game world physically immersive like no other game before it.

It is true that the gameplay is not as non-linear and open-ended as in earlier Ultimas; but it is still very much so for an action-adventure. There is plenty of ground to cover, and if you wish to see everything the game has to offer, expect to dedicate some time to it. The difference between its world and the much bigger playing area of, say, Daggerfall, is the fact everything in Ultima IX is hand-crafted. Every area in the game feels different, and you can feel how much love was put into details such as character animation, beautiful art decorating many rooms, atmosphere-enhancing objects in dungeons, and so on. Even in terms of quantity, the game trumps most of the competition. You'll be restricted at first, but once you get your ship, it's off to explore and have fun like before.

Combat is simple, yet dynamic and more rewarding thanks to the new engine: it doesn't have the intelligent elegance of earlier Ultimas, but I'd take it over the chaotic skirmishes of the seventh game and the frustrating clicking of the eighth any time of the day. The enemies look impressive and range from goblins and spiders to dragons and lyches, as well as cool creatures such as hellhounds and skeletons that fall apart and combine their bones again if you don't take some into your inventory.

There are lots of weapons in the game, also many secret ones, and most of them look cool and are worth looking for. In addition, you can cast spells using the complex system reminiscent of earlier Ultimas. You can memorize spells you find using the classic Ultima system of combining various ingredients scattered throughout the game. There will be surely many things you still haven't tried out after you have finished the game for the first time. In each town there are sub-quests to perform. Each location is full of unexplored areas, which you can search for some items, spells, or other things. Since the game offers you full contact with its world, there is always plenty of things to try.

The Bad
It is quite clear that the most glaring flaws of Ultima IX are, for the most part, a result of the unfortunate rushed release of the game. Given the proper time, its problems could - and should - have been ironed out.

Interaction with NPCs has been greatly reduced, sometimes to the level of rather pointless information-hunting reminiscent of much earlier installments. While there are still a few interesting dialogues and books in the game, most of the writing lacks the depth and the refinement of the conversations in previous Ultimas. The dialogues in Pagan weren't better, but there, the writers had the excuse of setting the game in a hostile world. Back in Britannia, it looks like most characters have lost any charisma they might have had before. The poor voice acting didn't help, either. The formulaic, thoroughly old-school storytelling harks back to trite fantasy cliches, neglecting the clever touches of the Age of Enlightenment Ultimas.

The realistic character behavior of Ultima VII is gone: characters often don't move at all and don't seem to depend on the game's internal clock. Britannia is also severely underpopulated; combined with the lack of AI routines, it almost looks like the Guardian has not only deprived the inhabitants of Britannia of their virtues, but also reduced them to the "signpost" status they have enjoyed in Ultima IV. It's not even the smaller size of the world that hurts the hearts of fans, but the coldness and indifference of the characters populating it. I'm sure that, with a little more time in development, those issues would have been addressed.

The initial release of the game was infamously buggy, to the point of refusing to run on many machines. Subsequent patches helped greatly: but even with the latest patches installed, sudden freezes, collision detection problems, awkward movement, and an occasional corrupted saved game are not too uncommon. Be sure to install the community patch as well as fan-made enhancements to the poor dialogue.

The Bottom Line
Ultima IX fails to reach the level of its predecessors in gameplay depth, losing many essential design elements in transition. And yet, it blows every other 3D game of its generation out of the water in terms of interactivity and physical immersion. That says a lot about the incredibly high standards Ultimas had us accustomed to; but it also speaks for a game that was ahead of its time, breaking its own legacy to pave the way for modern 3D game design.

Windows · by Unicorn Lynx (181780) · 2017

Sucks to be you Avatar!

The Good
For years Mr. Garriot had to submit his creative impulses to immense technological limitations, yet as with most games of those years, the player's imagination managed to patch up the holes and bring forth the ideas and concepts in the developer's mind. No more!

With ever-increasing processing power, gigantic data storage possibilities, humongous production values (courtesy of EA as usual) and the new possibilities brought forth by the 3D revolution, Origin and Richard Garriot finally set out to deliver what the world had been waiting for all along: the final "next-gen" Ultima game... if only we had known...

Anyway, first what's right: the graphic and physical design of the game is fabulous. It's hard to believe that one could ever have believed those clunky sprite-based flat backgrounds could have immersed anyone in it's gameworld, everything is shattered the first time you fire Ultima IX up. Done in full 3D, the game is Extremely easy on the eyes, proving to be one of the most impressive pieces of eye candy in it's time (and still holding it's ground to this day). The 3D environment brings Brittania to life like never before, not just by allowing you to see the same locations you know and love from a much closer and detailed perspective, but also by giving the land a facelift with hills, mountaintops, valleys and all sorts of detailed accidents that make exploration a much more involved and rewarding experience. Following that line of thought, Ultima IX's 3D environment also allows the player to interact with the world like never before, as the avatar now has to navigate a true virtual world that calls for him to run, jump, swim, climb and generally explore as never before.

But before you think this is just a flat-shaded polygonal upgrade to the classic Ultimas you should know that the graphics are fully textured and even feature some impressive special effects that remain spectacular to this day (check out the specular glow on the plate armor!). To it's credit the game's artists managed to exploit some barely impressive 3D tricks like volumetric fog and other niceties to create truly unique effects that compose Brittania's magical surroundings. Dynamic lighting and particle effects make spell effects a sight to behold, and the descent to a dangerous dungeon with only a torch to light your way brings new meaning to the word "ambience".

The gameworld also has it's unique day/night cycle, which cycles the sky textures and the ambient lightning accordingly, and you also have a nice collection of weather effects that go beyond being just eye candy and actually help increase the game's more dramatic elements (the localized weather around the corrupt shrines being the foremost example). But enough about the amazing graphics, the sound department is no slouch either, with one of the most pleasing instrumental soundtracks developed for a game of that time that dynamically changes according to the situation at hand.

Uh... well, I guess that's were I stop for now. I can point out other interesting details, such as the nice ritual-like way you have of binding the spells to your spellbook (which includes hunting the ingredients and then chanting the correct incantations by typing them down), as well as the interesting and often challenging traps found on the many dungeons, which make each one a unique experience regardless of their common objective; the mapping of each of the F-keys to a quick access item; the lovely made tutorial intro that starts you in modern day earth and includes the classic meeting with a fortune teller; or other subtle details such as armor bringing you down when you swim, etc... I don't know, I could continue to point out other elements that brought forth tremendous quality for the game such as Raven's boobs and the ocasional interesting quest, but unfortunately they are isolated patches of greatness when one is confronted with the overall reality of the game.

The Bad
Well... the final entry in the Ultima series pretty much serves it's purpose as to be the final nail in the coffin of an aging and ultimately forgotten rpg series. Plenty of old geezers might be willing to rip me to pieces for having the balls to uther those words, but not even the most jaded Ultima fan is able to ignore the dismal flaws in it's final title.

Yes, I've never been a "true" fan of the Ultimas, disliking their goody-goody approach at gameplay and it's stories (only being able to really enjoy the spinoffs from the series such as the genius Underworld games), but before you go on and dismiss me as just another one of those stupid kids that have no respect for "ye olde ways" let me tell that that is EXACTLY why you should listen to me: after all I couldn't care less about what it does with it's virtues or parties or rpg angles or whatever regarding it's previous outings. I only regard Ultima IX for what it its: and that's a boring, generic, fantasy-adventure failure. And a buggy one too!

First of all, one of the cornerstones of every game of this kind is it's story. After all it hasn't been long since medieval/fantasy developers realized that we have played one too many generic fantasy games about the valiant knight rescuing the kingdom, so from that point on they usually try to deliver something more in the way of premise and storyline.

Not so for Ultima IX, oh no. Ascension harkens back (almost in an intentionally retro way) to the generic fantasy games of yorne, and while that might have it's charms it's undeniably dumb and boring in these days. Not just because of the basics (good and honorable land in distress needs the help of a saviour that must defend everything that is right and destroy the evil, evil bad guy that caused all the problems), after all those are the primordial elements of every Ultima, but because of how it's additional elements are brought into the new age: the kingdom's inhabitants are bidimensional goons that can barely open doors without the aid of the mighty Avatar and await, devoid of any emotion, the arrival of "He who shall fix things". The bad guy is your typical evil evil EVIL badass that awaits you sipping a daikiri while he sits comfortably in his Caribbean island (no, really, he awaits you in his "Island of Evil" (tm)) and not even the use of a devious henchman and the involvement of the whole good vs evil, virtues, et al in your final confrontation can change the fact that the Guardian is your typical cardboard cutout fantasy bad guy (fact that most fans sniffed out early on back in the Black Gate).

I really don't know what else to point out story-wise, there's just nothing more! Basically the bad guy fucked up the land and you have to go around fixing his mess as an excuse for us to see all over again those virtues and how they work and marvel at Mr. Garriot's finely crafted moral values... right. I'm not even going to get into that...

Most people like to point out the many encounters with familiar Ultima characters and seeing how they fared and what revelations they have as a way of compensating the storyline, but these amount to barely more than in-jokes and extra info for those who care. I do not, and can clearly see how they bring nothing to the game. Oh but wait!! There's the love story!! What a fantastic collection of scripted events that is! Let me run you through it: Basically the pirates need your services at one point in the game and in order to fetch you the pirate leader sends his daughter your way to save your life and take you to him (you can tell early on that she's gonna be a romantic interest thanks to her massive boobs and her propensity to lean forward and show you her cleavage). After that she becomes sort of your ferryman in the game with the only interaction between the two of you being you asking her to take you to x place, and after clearing out a number of shrines she tells you that she has feelings for you after all the things you've both been through (??). From that point on the "romance" develops with the same credibility as a late-night Cinemax movie, with Raven going all "I have so much feelings for you" and the Avatar retorting with such genius "passionate" phrases such as "Hey... waddaya say if we go below deck and...(nudge-nudge, wink-wink) huh.. "Drop anchor".. heh <wink>"... (I swear I'm not making that up, save for the gestures, the line is taken verbatim from one of the game's most... uh... "romantic" moments).... anyway.

So much for the game's plot, what about the gameplay? As stated elsewhere the game takes a departure from the previous installments in the series by forgoing practically all of it's rpg elements in favor of a more simple 3D adventure design. Once again, I couldn't care less if the Ultima legacy is roleplaying. Well actually I lie, as I did care somewhat, mostly because I enjoyed the amount of depth it brought to the games. But I was prepared to let that go and heck, if I had to be content with a PC version of Zelda then I could do that, I have done worse really. Unfortunately as far as gameplay goes Ascension doesn't even come close to being a sub-par clone of Zelda.

Basically the game is a glorified scavenger hunt in which you have to go around the gameworld looking for a pair of magic items that when used in conjunction allow you to cleanse a virtue shrine, usually each of these items are held in a dungeon or similar location that you must clear out and then take the magic pearls of the dragon or whatever it is you went looking for to the shrine, clear it out and repeat.... for about 8 TIMES. And then when the developers get really creative they have each of these magic items locked in some special way that requires you to find another group of magic thingamathingies and on and on and on... It's Outcast all over again! But this time it also teaches you morality in the way... yay!! See? It makes you cry, but it also makes you think!...

Anyhow, while that is the basic gameplay concept, the rest is based around having inane conversations with the many stupid npcs (whose dialogue trees reset after you talk to them, so you have to go through introductions again and again and again just so you can get to whatever mr. signpost has to say) in order to find out what it is you need to do to find those stupid thingies, and then you proceed to trek around the gameworld hacking away at the most braindead enemies you can find this side of Robotron, with the world's most sluggish combat engine (there goes your action gaming), and possibly the worst non-customizable control scheme ever built for a game of this type (mouse button for movement instead of a "forward" key? Genius!), I mean, my memory is a bit rusty here but I think I needed to press like 8 keys plus the left mouse button to make the Avatar walk backwards...

Moving on, after you get tired of shaking down giant rats and spiders for their lunch money, you'll get to whatever dungeon you were supposed to get and then it's time for platform puzzles!! Oh boy, let me tell you, you don't know what excitement is all about until you point your target across a pit, hit the space bar and watch as the Avatar winds up for a full second and makes a fool of himself and an entire generation of gamers by attempting to do something that barely resembles a jump...

Forget about any promises of non-linearity, there is only one way to play the game and it only admits minor variations such as doing one shrine first before the others or doing/not doing the stupid sidequests. The different classes offer only a different starting point, but the Avatar you finished your game with is pretty much the same as my Avatar, as the only "extras" as far as character advancement goes revolve around doing more sidequests and thus getting a bigger karma, or finding all the trainers or every piece of the Blackrock armor. And after you've had enough of the "fetch me this, fetch me that, FedEx quests" you'll see why the little karma points they give you are not worth the hassle (neither are the many treasure hunts as you have a ridiculously low money cap, and killing enough rats can make you just as rich in the end).

Furthermore, blatant design flaws manage to drive what little enjoyment is to be had in the ground. The Journal is a useless piece of crap, as it just writes down whatever happens without following any sort of ordering or logic (not to mention that you can never go directly to the last entry, in order to do that you have to go to the next topic [the bestiary] and then turn the page back.... How lame can you get?) really, anyone who thinks Morrowind's journal is a mess should check out this bad boy.... Do you know the difference between a scimitar and a longsword? Neither do I, or the Avatar, or the manual. You have to equip each item to figure out for yourself if it's any good for you! Don't you love shopping in those conditions? Need to pull a lever underwater but you dropped into that pool while in combat mode? Sucks to be you pal, you can't change modes while underwater and need to reload :). Want to take another potion with you? Forget it. Items are non-stackable and you have barely enough room as it is (but don't worry, a battleaxe takes the same space as a pearl. Isn't that nice?). Do you want to know how to keep track of your position in a map? Duh! On the patched readme they explain how you need a sextant in your inventory to do so... Couldn't you figure that out on your own? Pffff...! Do you know what time it is? Neither does the Avatar, good luck figuring out how much you need to rest to recover your health.

And last but certainly not least you have the bugs. Ohhhh the bugs. Do I need to elaborate on this? I played this game twice: upon it's release and early this year (finally finishing the bastard). The original release is UNPLAYABLE. Period. The final .18 patch and the unnoficial patches move the game up towards "Barely Playable", really, to say that Ultima IX is buggy is an understatement, to say that it's "just as buggy as every other 3D game" is a blatant lie. Ascension is probably the buggiest game I have ever encountered in my gaming career.

One just has to assume that the code must be irrevocably fucked up and there's just no way to fix it without rewriting the whole thing, as even with all the fan made patches the Avatar still gets stuck on pixels, enemies swim out into the air, and entire areas need to be cheated out of as they become corrupt and kick you out whenever you want to access them. Other assorted nightmares come in the form of corrupt savegames (and since the game automatically loads up your last savegame on startup guess where does that lead us to..?) Oh, and don't forget about those lovely and completely unpredictable times when the game just decides that you've played enough and kicks you back to Windows! Don't you love those? Only Adobe Premiere kicked me out so much, and that's saying something! Really, some people say bugs shouldn't affect your enjoyment of a game. To those people I say: play Ultima IX.

Oh and the voice acting is even worse than in the horrible (yet groundbreaking) opening for Ultima Underworld, ironic, isn't it? Truly horrendous too, but ironic.

The Bottom Line
I think I've written more than enough. Ultima Ascension has it's share of interesting details, and for what it's worth, it's probably the first game of it's kind to provide gamers with a physically impressive gameworld free for exploration.

Unfortunately since it happens to be dull as a rock, buggy as hell and is about as fun to play as hammering your testicles to a wall, I would say that there are better things to do with your time. Then again if you are into that sort of simpleminded, retro, naive, fantasy heroic thingie... well, you should really get your hands on the latest Zelda game.

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2004

Extremely bug-ridden game but its actually quite fun!

The Good
The game was fun to play as I played it all the way through with only the last and final patch from Origin. Its an experience worth going through only if you have been an Ultima fan from way back in the beginning. Truly an interesting experience.

The Bad
I did not like the way the game was handled and released by Origin. Its got a lot of bugs and playability might be impossible for some people. The storyline disappointed me a little bit as well but it was acceptable overall.

The Bottom Line
Its basically a Tomb-Raider like RPG set in the Ultima world. Its definitely worth experiencing if you've been a fan of the series. The sheer vast size of the world can seem quite amazing at times and the landscapes simply look marvelous.

This is the final game in the Ultima series. You once again become the Avatar and are warped to Britannia on your quest for the final battle between you and the Guardian. A long epic-like journey you will take through land, sea's and dungeons like no other Ultima and it culminates with a surprising ending.

Might be great for fans of the series but not much fun for everyone else. I personally liked it in a strange sort of twisted way as I've been contemplating finishing it again!

Windows · by cimerians (49) · 2002

[ 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
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
Released 2019 on PlayStation 4, Windows, 2021 on Nintendo Switch...

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.