Ultima IX - Full Plot Documents

[Dhruin]

We recently posted about some Ultima IX plot summary documents at Ultima Aiera but Segorn writes that they now have the full final revision of the "Bob White plot", which runs to a massive 53 pages.
More information.

 

[Sergorn]

I definitly recommand this read for any Ultima fans, it's very insightful. There are some pretty mindblowing stuff in there and suprisingly some of the most controversial aspects of the final game where already there from the start.

For those not willing to go through the couple of hours needed to go through the full doc, we've also put up a separate article writing out the main details about the plot, notably in comparaison to the summary Bob White provided back in 1999.

-Sergorn

 

[ManWhoJaped]

Hmm, seems to me like ed didn't invent anything at all, but there were significant cuts that made things make much less sense.

 

[TheMadGamer]

U9 wasn't a total dissapointment to me. It was better than U8 but failed to live up to the gameplay and world simulation of U7. I also didn't care for the rinse/repeat action of purifying each dungeon. Still, I thought it was an interesting world to explore with a few secrets peppered here and there. Combat was poor and magic, while interesting, was a bit cumbersome to rely on.

Like what has already been discussed to death, the plot is flawed from a canon perspective and from just the U9 perspective, lacking and inconsistent.

But I still regard it as worthwhile romp and play it on occassion. I just wish, after nearly 20 years, there was a new Ultima that would make U7 look like child's play.

Gothic's 1 & 2 actually rival U7 (and I loved playing each of them), but both those games still lacked in the object interaction department.

Ah well, I'm rambling...

 

[HiddenX]

Gothic's 1 & 2 actually rival U7 (and I loved playing each of them), but both those games still lacked in the object interaction department.

The Piranha Bytes crew are huge Ultima 7 fans.

 

[TheMadGamer]

The Piranha Bytes crew are huge Ultima 7 fans.

Oh yes, I'm aware of that! G1 had been released for a bit over a year and up to that point I had never even heard about the game here in the U.S. Then I came across a interview with PB where they were talking about G1 and how Ultima games were one of the inspiring factors behind it. Next, the scene cuts to a shot of me peeling out of my driveway heading to the store to buy G1!

 

[blatantninja]

Great find! I'm definitely going to do a stroll through that. I'm probably in the minority, but the plot of U9 didn't bother me that much. Event he combat and magic, while lacking, didn't bother me too much. What really bothered me was that the world just fell empty. It was like 90% of the people of Britannia had disappeared and there were just a few left here and there.

 

[ManWhoJaped]

Great find! I'm definitely going to do a stroll through that. I'm probably in the minority, but the plot of U9 didn't bother me that much. Event he combat and magic, while lacking, didn't bother me too much. What really bothered me was that the world just fell empty. It was like 90% of the people of Britannia had disappeared and there were just a few left here and there.

I didn't mind the plot. I think the original described here made it a lot more coherent, though. I was sort of surprised the first go through, but it made a kind of sense, otherwise the behavior of the guardian until then was really sort of senseless.

I did dislike the combat and the constant respawns, but probably even worse was the emptiness you pointed out. In every ultima game until then every NPC was worth talking to and you could completely forget the main goals or any sort of goal and just chat and explore. That was what made ultima as far as I was concerned, and it was completely gone here.