Ultima Overdone
Jun. 8th, 2009 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroMy gigantic post on my thoughts about Ultima.
Ultima 9: Ascension was supposed to be the culmination of the series, bringing the Avatar back to Britannia one last time and revealing the true identity and origin of the Guardian, the villain of the last three games. Because of executive meddling, the game itself apparently barely qualified as beta when it was released, requiring patches to run properly. The Guardian was revealed to be the Avatar’s evil half (shed when he became the Avatar), in a twist that might have been surprising a few decades ago, and didn’t fit with the tone or timeline of the series terribly well.
My thought was this: In U2, the sorceress Minax changed history so that Earth devolved into war and was destroyed in a nuclear holocaust, to get revenge on the Stranger (who later became the Avatar) for killing her lover Mondain in U1. The stranger jumps through various time periods via Time Gates, finds a magical sword, and goes back to the Time of Legends (essentially a “beginning of time” magical period), kills Minax, and puts the timestream back the way it should have been. In U3 he comes to Britannia and kills Exodus, the demonic computer created by Mondain and Minax (with magical punchcards. Don’t ask), and then in U4 he returns again and undertakes the Quest of the Avatar, learning and practicing the eight virtues and eventually receiving the Codex of Infinite Wisdom.
Thing is, in U2 history was changed and a separate timeline was created. The Time Lord shielded the Stranger from the changes so that he could use the time gates to restore everything, but what would have happened to him in that alternate history? Let’s say that the “nuclear holocaust” timeline was the “real” one, and the Stranger that was born there knew only a world full of war and Minax’s tyranny. But he still would have travelled to Sosaria and killed Mondain (if he didn’t, there’d be a paradox when Minax changed history, because Mondain would be alive and she’d have no reason to change history), so he’s also a badass hero. What happens to him when history changes back?
Add to this the fact that Sosaria (in U1) was originally made up of four continents, which were dimensionally sundered when the Stranger went to the Time of Legends and killed Mondain. The Lands of Lord British became the Britannia of U3 – U9, and The Lands of Danger and Despair became Serpent Isle (from U7 part 2). The Lands of the Feudal Lords were eventually used in Ultima Online as a samurai empire, but The Lands of the Dark Unknown were never heard from again.
So basically, U2 causes history to split. In one branch, the Stranger kills Mondain, travels back in time and kills Minax, then travels back and forth to Britannia and becomes the Avatar. In the other, the Stranger kills Mondain, but Minax changes the timeline of Earth and it’s destroyed, so the Stranger flees to the Lands of the Dark Unknown. There’s no Lord British setting up shrines of virtue there, and the Stranger whose home was destroyed is a very different person than the one who saved it. So the “alternate” U3 (because there’s no Exodus there) is the Stranger deposing the Kings of the Black Dragon and setting up himself as the ruler of the land, and the “alternate” U4 is the Quest of the Guardian, where he teaches himself a set of virtues similar to the ones espoused by the Fellowship Cult (which he was behind) in U7. Then while the Avatar is fighting the Shadowlords and making peace with the gargoyles in U5 and U6, the Guardian, having consolidated his power, travels back to Earth (presumably intent on taking it back from Minax) and discovers that history has been changed and the world he knew no longer exists…and it’s all the fault of this “Avatar.” So he sets his sights on conquering the Avatar’s beloved Britannia and basically making his life suck.
I don’t know enough about the specifics of U8 to know how much retconning would be involved, but perhaps the land of Pagan is all or part of The Lands of the Dark Unknown (a theory that made the Ultima wiki independent of me), that the Guardian conquered. That would tie things together nicely—the Avatar is freeing Pagan while the Guardian is conquering Britannia. Then they finally confront each other in U9, which, given the awesome superpowers they’d both acquired by this point, can’t end well.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Ideally, remaking all of the Ultima games could be awesome, but as PC games, a simple graphics/gameplay patch isn’t quite enough to make them worthwhile as new games. (Especially since the games are still available online and such patches exist.) No, this would call for a full Sword of Mana style overhaul—a brand new set of games that use the plot and characters of the original series, but flesh them out and tie everything together.
One option for that would be to remake all of the games using one engine, basically creating a smoother, prettier, cleaner, easier-to-play version of the ¾-view RPG setup used up through U7, standardizing the combat and magic systems (though it’s already pretty consistent) and plugging all of the games into it. The thing is, that gives you ten nigh-identical games that appeal only to the core group who really, really love the system/series. It’s also problematic for U1, U2, U8 and U9, because the Avatar didn’t have any companions for those, so the plot would need to work them in for the system to work.
So was born the idea for “Genres of Ultima”. Take the plot for each of the games, make sure the map and the characters all match what they’re supposed to be, and then make each game in a different genre. U1 is a first person RPG, a la The Elder Scrolls series. U2 as a Metroidvania action/adventure game. U3 as a puzzle game. U4 as a love song to the original in the new clean-and-pretty rpg engine. U5 is a Zelda/Crystal Chronicles-style action game. And so on (possibly depending on which games sell, of course, but ideally nothing would be rushed out the door, as that was what killed the original series).
-------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, there’s the bit where we get to the last scene in U9 (or if they make U10, or whatever), where a fade reveals that the entire series has been a series of stories an exceptionally-old Iolo told to a group of young Britannian children. One of the children asks about a continuity error or something that they know was wrong, and he gives some pat answer about how he forgot that or “a wizard did it”. And that ties up all the loose ends in the series—it “really” happened in a way that made perfect sense, but Iolo changed or forgot details in the telling. Can’t go wrong with an unreliable narrator.
Ultima 9: Ascension was supposed to be the culmination of the series, bringing the Avatar back to Britannia one last time and revealing the true identity and origin of the Guardian, the villain of the last three games. Because of executive meddling, the game itself apparently barely qualified as beta when it was released, requiring patches to run properly. The Guardian was revealed to be the Avatar’s evil half (shed when he became the Avatar), in a twist that might have been surprising a few decades ago, and didn’t fit with the tone or timeline of the series terribly well.
My thought was this: In U2, the sorceress Minax changed history so that Earth devolved into war and was destroyed in a nuclear holocaust, to get revenge on the Stranger (who later became the Avatar) for killing her lover Mondain in U1. The stranger jumps through various time periods via Time Gates, finds a magical sword, and goes back to the Time of Legends (essentially a “beginning of time” magical period), kills Minax, and puts the timestream back the way it should have been. In U3 he comes to Britannia and kills Exodus, the demonic computer created by Mondain and Minax (with magical punchcards. Don’t ask), and then in U4 he returns again and undertakes the Quest of the Avatar, learning and practicing the eight virtues and eventually receiving the Codex of Infinite Wisdom.
Thing is, in U2 history was changed and a separate timeline was created. The Time Lord shielded the Stranger from the changes so that he could use the time gates to restore everything, but what would have happened to him in that alternate history? Let’s say that the “nuclear holocaust” timeline was the “real” one, and the Stranger that was born there knew only a world full of war and Minax’s tyranny. But he still would have travelled to Sosaria and killed Mondain (if he didn’t, there’d be a paradox when Minax changed history, because Mondain would be alive and she’d have no reason to change history), so he’s also a badass hero. What happens to him when history changes back?
Add to this the fact that Sosaria (in U1) was originally made up of four continents, which were dimensionally sundered when the Stranger went to the Time of Legends and killed Mondain. The Lands of Lord British became the Britannia of U3 – U9, and The Lands of Danger and Despair became Serpent Isle (from U7 part 2). The Lands of the Feudal Lords were eventually used in Ultima Online as a samurai empire, but The Lands of the Dark Unknown were never heard from again.
So basically, U2 causes history to split. In one branch, the Stranger kills Mondain, travels back in time and kills Minax, then travels back and forth to Britannia and becomes the Avatar. In the other, the Stranger kills Mondain, but Minax changes the timeline of Earth and it’s destroyed, so the Stranger flees to the Lands of the Dark Unknown. There’s no Lord British setting up shrines of virtue there, and the Stranger whose home was destroyed is a very different person than the one who saved it. So the “alternate” U3 (because there’s no Exodus there) is the Stranger deposing the Kings of the Black Dragon and setting up himself as the ruler of the land, and the “alternate” U4 is the Quest of the Guardian, where he teaches himself a set of virtues similar to the ones espoused by the Fellowship Cult (which he was behind) in U7. Then while the Avatar is fighting the Shadowlords and making peace with the gargoyles in U5 and U6, the Guardian, having consolidated his power, travels back to Earth (presumably intent on taking it back from Minax) and discovers that history has been changed and the world he knew no longer exists…and it’s all the fault of this “Avatar.” So he sets his sights on conquering the Avatar’s beloved Britannia and basically making his life suck.
I don’t know enough about the specifics of U8 to know how much retconning would be involved, but perhaps the land of Pagan is all or part of The Lands of the Dark Unknown (a theory that made the Ultima wiki independent of me), that the Guardian conquered. That would tie things together nicely—the Avatar is freeing Pagan while the Guardian is conquering Britannia. Then they finally confront each other in U9, which, given the awesome superpowers they’d both acquired by this point, can’t end well.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Ideally, remaking all of the Ultima games could be awesome, but as PC games, a simple graphics/gameplay patch isn’t quite enough to make them worthwhile as new games. (Especially since the games are still available online and such patches exist.) No, this would call for a full Sword of Mana style overhaul—a brand new set of games that use the plot and characters of the original series, but flesh them out and tie everything together.
One option for that would be to remake all of the games using one engine, basically creating a smoother, prettier, cleaner, easier-to-play version of the ¾-view RPG setup used up through U7, standardizing the combat and magic systems (though it’s already pretty consistent) and plugging all of the games into it. The thing is, that gives you ten nigh-identical games that appeal only to the core group who really, really love the system/series. It’s also problematic for U1, U2, U8 and U9, because the Avatar didn’t have any companions for those, so the plot would need to work them in for the system to work.
So was born the idea for “Genres of Ultima”. Take the plot for each of the games, make sure the map and the characters all match what they’re supposed to be, and then make each game in a different genre. U1 is a first person RPG, a la The Elder Scrolls series. U2 as a Metroidvania action/adventure game. U3 as a puzzle game. U4 as a love song to the original in the new clean-and-pretty rpg engine. U5 is a Zelda/Crystal Chronicles-style action game. And so on (possibly depending on which games sell, of course, but ideally nothing would be rushed out the door, as that was what killed the original series).
-------------------------------------------------------------
Finally, there’s the bit where we get to the last scene in U9 (or if they make U10, or whatever), where a fade reveals that the entire series has been a series of stories an exceptionally-old Iolo told to a group of young Britannian children. One of the children asks about a continuity error or something that they know was wrong, and he gives some pat answer about how he forgot that or “a wizard did it”. And that ties up all the loose ends in the series—it “really” happened in a way that made perfect sense, but Iolo changed or forgot details in the telling. Can’t go wrong with an unreliable narrator.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-08 07:35 pm (UTC)Practically any attempt to make the first three games (not counting Akalabeth) into later-series canon is doomed to failure. I mean, time travel, Earth, space ships.. punch cards. Yeah. My one attempt: The "Fuzzies" from U3 turn out to be the Emps later on.
I totally see what you're going for, and it basics a bit more sense than what they actually did in U9, but the alternate history thing doesn't work well with the rest of the series, especially when you have a Time Lord wandering about. The primary concern is that the Big Red Muppet was out conquering (Tarna/Pagan) and destroying (Anodonus, according to the wikia, I called it "Ice Caverns") worlds well before Britannia. It works if Pagan is the dark lands, sure, but what about the others, like the Goblin world of Tarna? Basically, most of the better Guardian backstory is from Ultima Underworld II which is double-plus canon since you get items from it when you start Serpent Isle. He's referred to as extra-dimensional by some Wisp in U7 and the whole ability to speak into people's minds and manifest giant red hands from the ether makes me think the character is much better explained with the simple background: An angry super-powerful being from another dimension that gets bored and takes over planets. I rebel against the idea that all villains have to be related to the heroes in some backstory fashion.
People remake, or try to start projects to do such, the old games all the time, I don't know how much it's worth it. The first few Ultimas, as mentioned above, have so little resemblance to the rest of the series and the sci-fi/fantasy thing was clever but not really all that special (see also: Might and Magic, Wizardry, SaGa..). I love U4 just because it was a game that was beaten with a morality test instead of a final boss, and in U7 you could bake bread with the blood of children, so that's cool, but aside from that, I'd really like to just see a new game in the style of the old ones with a new universe - one not championed by Richard "I AM SO GOD DAMN CRAZY" Garriot.
In terms of retconning things to make actual sense though, having the games be stories told by Iolo actually makes perfect sense. The guy's like a thousand years old by the time the series ends, no wonder Covetous and Wrong get swapped so often.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 02:00 pm (UTC)The thing is, I think they did a half-decent job with Mondain and Exodus being "load-bearing bosses" that caused cataclysms to reshape the world afterwards. That, combined with Minax's screwing with time, means that all of this stuff could have existed and stopped when reality got rearranged.
That's also, though, the stuff you typically address with retcons when you do a remake. In a remade U3, the Fuzzies are called Emps and the other races get adjusted to fit, and your primary character (the Stranger/Avatar) must be a Hume. The Ys series did this when YsIII was remade as Oath of Felgana, and the Castlevania games do it all the frickin' time.
especially when you have a Time Lord wandering about
If comic books have taught me anything, it's that the presence of beings with power over time always makes things worse, not better. Waverider, Rip Hunter, Doctor Who, the History Monks...things always end up with random loose ends and world-destroying snarls as a direct result of their (well-meaning) influence.
He's referred to as extra-dimensional by some Wisp in U7 and the whole ability to speak into people's minds and manifest giant red hands from the ether
The Avatar is extra-dimensional: He comes from Earth, in a different dimension. Likewise, the Avatar can cast a spell that kills everyone in the world. It's not that different a level of magic.
I rebel against the idea that all villains have to be related to the heroes in some backstory fashion.
That's totally fair and valid. I prefer my stories more tightly woven; that's why I typically play more Japanese-style rpgs. My gripe is that if the Guardian is part of the Avatar, they should have done it better, and if he's just a random celestial supervillian, then he needs more backstory and motivation.
Richard "I AM SO GOD DAMN CRAZY" Garriot.
That's Lord #$^%ing British, to you.
I'm pretty sure that my ideas for a remade Ultima (or Dragon Warrior, or any of the other remake ideas flitting around in my head) will never be done. That's part of why I'm perfectly happy to post them on a public blog: It's the only way anyone will ever know about them. It's can go on the list of "In the dream world where I'm obscenely rich and have my own game company, I'll do this," along with the tabletop rpg house I'll own and the comic book company that will throw gobs of cash at Milholland, the Foglios, Jacques and Williams.