Ultima IX: Ascension

aka: Ultima 9, Ultima: Ascension
Moby ID: 779
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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

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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)

Ultima IX: growing stronger in 2001: Review update

The Good
I even loved the bugs... But most important: Ultima IX is still up to date and was clearly ahead of its time.

New (unofficial) patches are available from http://www.fansforultima.com/ They greatly improve dialogue and trading.

In general: Graphics are still among the best in its genre. The game leaves later releases like Summoner and all online games (among others Asherons call) far behind.

Game (engine) has a few novelties that are (as far as i know) still unseen in other games: - enjoy rpg under water! - pick up/move/throw all available items - realistic gravity. objects can actually tumble down stairs and you can slide down steep hillsides.



The Bad
It came to an end... Most reviews note 1)bugs 2) bad speech acting and poor AI. Personally I didn’t mind the speech acting and most bugs were solved by the official patch.

The Bottom Line
Best RPG ever. You're not playing a game: your on vacation. Dont go on vacation without insurance: download the official patch from www.ultima9.com and check out the unofficial patches at www.fansforultima.com

Windows · by frank rieter (146) · 2001

The final proof that Ultima is dead

The Good
It was called Ultima. The intro sequence in "the Avatar's house" was pretty cool, including some nice special effects.

The Bad
Buggy as the Everglades. The descent to a platform jumping game, started in Ultima VIII, is complete - there is almost nothing left except place and character names from the "real" Ultima games. Real-time 3D blah blah, no character development, no story except "on to the next level, I mean dungeon". Ultima used to be about free-form exploration of a simulated world, with a plot that was mostly optional and served as a tourguide. This monstrosity has none of those elements.

The Bottom Line
A waste of bits you could use to store last year's shopping lists.

Windows · by weregamer (155) · 2003

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

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XP? MasterMegid (723) Sep 27, 2007
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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

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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
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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.