I figured dungeons housed more powerful monsters than outside all the time, but they seem more or less fixed at a certain difficulty instead.Ī lot of the the classes in the game seem superfluous when you can raise everyone's strength to the highest, equip them all with the exotic arms (called mystic sword and armor in the NES version), and HP is all the same. Early on I jumped in one and met Gargoyles and Demons are level 1. One of the biggest things that held me back, and increased my time, was avoiding the dungeons. Here you use the Pray command to interact with them I believe.Īlso, the game makes reference to an Anhk symbol you retrieve before racing to the exit. After the second fight there are two more squares from which you can see the altars across the water. I don't know how it is on the PC version, so I'm trying to describe it best I can. After this, you need to step up one more square into another fight. So you step in this area and get into one fight. Basically there's a 4 x 2 area where the fight automatically occurs. They're still invisible, about 8 or 9 enemies (whatever the maximum was), and there are two fights. The fights with the floor are in the NES version as well. Before that I have the NES port of Wizardry. I have Ultima IV coming up soon (will probably get to it next January or so). I hope that the other Ultima games prove to be better. It was more of a single device that requested you place the cards in the proper order. The ending did reference altars, but you didn't interact with each one. I didn't quite understand the clues to get these, and one in fact required stealing, which I decided I wouldn't do. Replacing the Dig command are the silver and gold picks used to dig up the exotic arms. I realized it afterwards, and found it is given by an NPC you need to speak to twice to enable. I did my best not to steal anything, and I somehow missed the bribe command. This meant it took a few attempts to get the correct order, which I guessed at being related to the cycle of life.

I didn't find the clue for the order to use the cards, which in this version of the game is given by an NPC hidden in a dungeon, but he doesn't show up as a point of interest on the gem map. I didn't get the exotic arms, which made Exodus' castle take quite a few attempts more than was really necessary. The ship has no bombard or shoot option. The enemies still attack diagonally, but you cannot. Maybe it was port differences, but it took me about 30 hours to get through the game. Basically I leveled too quickly, and found myself short on cash not able to take on the higher level monsters that were appearing. It has been one of the least enjoyable games, mainly due to constant grinding, and unbalanced combat.

I really should have come back here as soon as I beat the game, but it continued to slip my mind until today. I'll continue to read through, although it may be a couple weeks before I catch up.Īgain thanks, and good luck! Reply Delete The final boss in that port is a set of pulsing alters: I had played the Nintendo version, which was released in 1988, and also didn't have a keyboard available. Like many other comments in your blog, this was because it was a different port. The game seemed (in my fuzzy memory) more refined and didn't feature a computer terminal as the final boss. Also it is very nice to see how some of the basic CRPG elements - that we now take for granted - were developed and refined over time.Īt first I was confused about how your Ultima III screens and experiences differed from mine. You've satisfied my curiosity about some of the older games (rogue/wizardry/ultimaI&II) that I no longer feel the need to spend (or waste) time on. I've only recently discovered your blog and have been reading through from the first entry.

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