Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ultima VII Revisited

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 99 posts

Re: Ultima VII Revisited

#61

Post by Cpoll »

mtillman wrote: post #58
cholantesh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not good, I imagine; IMO part of the magic of a game from the era is that blocky aesthetic. I'm reminded of how Dracula X Chronicles completely sucks all the joy out of Rondo of Blood with ugly 3D models and weird arrangements of the compositions with 'real' instruments (or just a different synth).

The only reason to play that version is the SotN unlock for the PSP and even then, easier to just download the PSX iso.

The PSP SotN was different enough than the NA PSX release, including a new Maria mode (different than the Saturn one), and a new translation (technically better, but retranslates some iconic lines).

Re: Ultima VII Revisited

#63

Post by cyrialize »

jakebasile wrote: post #29

There's a YouTuber that's been going through and making in-depth retrospectives of each Ultima game that some here may find interesting. I've found them a pleasant watch and I don't usually go for this type of content. I never played the Ultima series until Ultima Online so I don't have the nostalgia goggles that I'd need to go back and play games this old (sorry, it's the truth) so these videos are as close as I'll…

I'm a huge fan of Majuular, these videos are amazing. I like that he dives deeply into the history behind each game as well - like the company, Richard Garriott (Lord British), etc.

His other videos on other games are great as well!

Re: Ultima VII Revisited

#64

Post by raldi »

anthk wrote: post #11

Exult did this decades ago :). On Ultima VII, can you play the 7th series without playing the previous ones? I mean, are these games standalone? Because Ultima IV it's always praised to be an incredible RPG to play. BTW, Scummvm will happily play Ultima 4, 6 and 8 games too, with better controls and support.

You can jump right into U7 but U4 and 5 are some of the best games ever created. 6 is skippable; just read the plot between 5 and 7.

Re: Ultima VII Revisited

#65

Post by entropicdrifter »

Cpoll wrote: post #61
mtillman wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason to play that version is the SotN unlock for the PSP and even then, easier to just download the PSX iso.

The PSP SotN was different enough than the NA PSX release, including a new Maria mode (different than the Saturn one), and a new translation (technically better, but retranslates some iconic lines).

Perhaps most notably, the "What is a man?" scene was completely retranslated

Re: Ultima VII Revisited

#66

Post by cubefox »

aidenn0 wrote: post #57
cubefox wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never played an Ultima game, but I remember that many years ago, there was a period where Ultima VII was commonly mentioned as "the best RPG of all time" by PC players. Nowadays it seems Ultima is rarely talked about anymore compared to classic SNES RPGs like Final Fantasy VI, which came out two years later.

JRPG games like FF VI are far more accessible than the Ultima games. The Avatar trilogy (Ultimas IV, V, and VI) are essentially unplayable without having all the manuals and taking detailed notes[1]. Even doing that, they are quite hard. Nearly every single Final Fantasy game is easy to beat just by taking a bit of time to grind levels whenever you get stuck. There is a blogger who teaches a class on old games (I can…

I guess back in the day, PC RPGs like Ultima were more targeted toward high-IQ nerds, while JRPGs were targeted toward kids or more average adults.

Nowadays RPGs are pretty much always as accessible as the JRPGs of old. Or more accessible, as even random encounters and turn-based combat are increasingly perceived as not streamlined enough.

The question is whether the hand-holding approach makes certain types of games impossible now. For example, if an old RPG derived its appeal from executing successful note-taking, the game can't be made approachable by taking out the note-taking requirement (e.g. with automatic quest logs, quest markers, in-game hints etc) without removing the core of the gameplay.

Though I'm sure there are many other clunky aspects that could be streamlined today without loss.

Re: Ultima VII Revisited

#67

Post by dunham »

vancroft wrote: post #7

So funny to see this here, I was just looking into Ultima remakes last night, and saw this one among others. Looks really awesome. I never played any of the Ultima games back in the day, and have bounced off them when trying in later years. This should make Ultima VII a lot more accessible and playable. There's also a remake of Ultima Underworld being made in Godot: https://github.com/hankmorgan/UnderworldGodot Hopin…

I played them (starting with 4) back in the day. And 35 years later, I fixed a bug in the ScummVM version of U4. I discovered it while showing the game to my kid.

I couldn't have predicted that back then. Although as a kid, I did fix a "bug" in Ultima that required the floppy disk when you had it installed on HD.

Re: Ultima VII Revisited

#69

Post by cubefox »

anthk wrote: post #36
cubefox wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never played an Ultima game, but I remember that many years ago, there was a period where Ultima VII was commonly mentioned as "the best RPG of all time" by PC players. Nowadays it seems Ultima is rarely talked about anymore compared to classic SNES RPGs like Final Fantasy VI, which came out two years later.

The best RPG of all time should be either Ultima IV, Chrono Trigger+, that's it, with the Plus patch or Pokémon Crystal (a hacked ROM) with improving patches, such as: - all mons ingame - level cap - no trading - improved Battle Tower Ultima VII shines with the in-game simulation, but today Cataclysm DDA:Bright Nights curb-stomps U VII in that area. Pokémon, well, it's about battling with your favourite mons, the gam…

Another RPG that is praised a lot is Disco Elysium (2019). Though I guess this one is quite different from the ones you mentioned. "RPG" is a wide term.

Re: Ultima VII Revisited

#70

Post by jdwithit »

aidenn0 wrote: post #57
cubefox wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never played an Ultima game, but I remember that many years ago, there was a period where Ultima VII was commonly mentioned as "the best RPG of all time" by PC players. Nowadays it seems Ultima is rarely talked about anymore compared to classic SNES RPGs like Final Fantasy VI, which came out two years later.

JRPG games like FF VI are far more accessible than the Ultima games. The Avatar trilogy (Ultimas IV, V, and VI) are essentially unplayable without having all the manuals and taking detailed notes[1]. Even doing that, they are quite hard. Nearly every single Final Fantasy game is easy to beat just by taking a bit of time to grind levels whenever you get stuck. There is a blogger who teaches a class on old games (I can…

The "ancillary" materials like manuals and maps were crucial for old games. Even simple ones. The other day I was going through some of the old SNES games in the Switch online catalog. I found F-Zero, a racing game I played the heck out of as a kid. I started telling my son some info about the different cars and drivers and he was like how the heck do you know that? At no point is that info presented in game. You just pick a car and start driving. There's no tutorial or opening cinematic. If you want to know what's going on, RTFM as they say. Except you can't because it's 2025, nothing comes with paper manuals anymore.

Not saying one style is good or bad. But it's definitely changed since the 80s and 90s, when every game came with a printed 50 page manual full of crucial information. Which often doubled as copy protection. I remember firing up King's Quest 6 and having it challenge me to type the 15th word in the second paragraph on page 26 or whatever.

Post reply on HN