Ultima VII: Part Two - Serpent Isle
released on Mar 25, 1993
This game takes place 18 months after The Black Gate. Batlin, the leader of the Fellowship has disappeared, as well as Iolo's wife Gwenno. A map is found that points to the Serpent Isle where the Guardian is still planning to destroy Britannia. Lord British sends you, the Avatar, and your companions to this new land. Once there, you discover that a great imbalance is upon the isle and it is up to you to fix it. To do so, you must learn the philosophies of the original inhabitants of this land who worshipped giant serpents symbolizing the principles of Order, Chaos and Balance.
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One of my favourite games from childhood. A lot of isometric and 3D western RPGs would do similar stuff to this later, but this (and Ultima VII part 1) was the first game I played with deep, branching dialogue. It's also one of the last western RPGs with a pixel art aesthetic. I love talking to all the NPCs, learning all the details of the ancient religion, filling out the spellbook and the serpent jawbone. I'm also a huge fan of the inventory system which is very visual and spacial, no long text lists here.
The writing is very good, the game is crammed with characters with a shocking amount of depth, names, jobs, schedules, and their own little personal intrigues. Optional quests like ferreting out every last traitor in Monitor are fantastic fun. The second act climax blew my mind as a kid, and honestly still kind of blows my mind as an adult. Part of it came about due to a rushed development schedule, but it's kind of wild in a way I don't think you see any more.
That said, I'm giving this a perfect rating out of nostalgia, and if you're actually interested in going back and playing it, caveat emptor. The game is janky, with many, many bugs. Game breaking bugs. Sometimes you can use cheat mode to work around the bugs, sometimes you can't. Even without bugs there are awful foibles- you can easily lose plot critical items by misplacing them, NPCs can just forget what they're supposed to be doing or get lost in critical cutscenes, bricking the game, etc. etc. etc. Save regularly, have a guide handy, and don't be afraid to use it.
The writing is very good, the game is crammed with characters with a shocking amount of depth, names, jobs, schedules, and their own little personal intrigues. Optional quests like ferreting out every last traitor in Monitor are fantastic fun. The second act climax blew my mind as a kid, and honestly still kind of blows my mind as an adult. Part of it came about due to a rushed development schedule, but it's kind of wild in a way I don't think you see any more.
That said, I'm giving this a perfect rating out of nostalgia, and if you're actually interested in going back and playing it, caveat emptor. The game is janky, with many, many bugs. Game breaking bugs. Sometimes you can use cheat mode to work around the bugs, sometimes you can't. Even without bugs there are awful foibles- you can easily lose plot critical items by misplacing them, NPCs can just forget what they're supposed to be doing or get lost in critical cutscenes, bricking the game, etc. etc. etc. Save regularly, have a guide handy, and don't be afraid to use it.