I only set out to level up a bit but I ended up finishing Ultima 5 last night. I wandered round a couple of dungeons clearing out monsters for a while but it wasn’t all that entertaining so I figured I may as well clear out Shame to get a nice easy path to the final Dungeon Doom.
This is the first room of Shame and there is nowhere to go. A lot of axe throwing at walls and eventually I find a way out.
Shame once again has new graphics for the dungeon, and looks like a mine. The dungeon doesn’t prove to be particularly difficult even with my low level party. I get down to level 8 in no time and use a des por spell to exit out into the underworld.
Once out I make my way to the center of the underworld. There is a large area of darkness here as seen in the above gem view. Using the amulet of Lord British clears this enough to see the entrance to the dungeon. I yell veramocor, rest up and head in.
I really don’t expect to have a change of making it through here but I figured I could clear out some rooms of monsters, get some experience and try again later. The first room has no exits. I have to use the sceptre to dispell some fields on one side. Doom is much harder than any of the other dungeons and very maze like. Despite this I get down to the lower levels pretty quickly and start to get the idea I might just finish the game with this party.
Just when I thought it was easy I hit this room. Dragon, demons and giant mouths in the sand. The ladder is under the monster in the middle. To escape I have to kill it, then take all the treasure it drops before the ladder is visible. I use a load of negate time scrolls here and manage to get 3 of my party through alive. This takes me straight to another screen full of dragons. I negate time again and make a dash to get out. By the time I do only the avatar is left alive.
Even though I’ve only got the one level 5 character I push on. There aren’t all that many rooms I have to get through now and using the last of my negate time scrolls I actually make it through to LB.
LB is trapped behind the mirror. I walk upto it and get sucked into the mirror image.
He asks me if I brought his box (and thankfully I did) and then takes his moonstone out of it and Britannia is saved.
I’m sent straight home without really finding out what happened but this is all covered in a nice endgame sequence.
Blackthorn is banished, Britannia is saved and I’m back home again. I’m really surprised I made it through Doom. My party was level 1-3 with a level 5 avatar. I really needed all those negate time scrolls I got robbing the treasury at the start.
Now I’ve finished the game, I’d say it improved on almost every aspect of Ultima 4 but I really didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much. This engine and gameplay really was taken to the limit with this game as far as I’m concerned and a new approach which we got in Ultima 6 was definitely needed. The combat is a bit too slow and difficult for my liking – the fact I got a single character through to the end of the game is interesting – I really think the game would be more fun with no party and it would speed up combat no end.
Next: Times Of Lore
Ultima V is by far my favorite ultima game. Some of the aspects you seem to dislike I find are interesting, like the difficulty in the game or the schedule for all the characters.
I must say I’m surprised you managed to get through Doom with a party like that. I remember it being hell with a leveled party, and had to use tons of magic to survive there.
I was surprised I made it through myself. If I’d had a level 8 avatar who could cast negate time and the like rather than relying on scrolls I think it would have been easy though. I’d be interested to try playing the whole thing again without recruiting a party.
The Ultimas have varied that much that everyone has a different favorite, I’ve seen people argue for everything from 3 thru 9 + both the underworlds. I don’t like long combat screens (if you’ve read the Knights Of Legend pages you will realise this). I play games more for the storyline, exploring and puzzles – if anything I’d be more into adventure games than RPG’s because of this. For me spending too long on combat screens gets boring fairly quickly as they just come across as padding.
I’m definitely enjoying Ultima 6 more than any of the others so far as you would probably expect from that. Before playing them all here, I’d say my favorite was Ultima Underworld but I may change my mind before the end. I’ve never even started SI or 8 and barely played 7.