Let’s Play Ultima IX #06: At Your Service, my Liege

[@Jarumo76]

Enemies bested by the Avatar; 3 Wolves 1 Spider 1 LARPer 6 Rats 1 Fish 1 Gazer 1 Wyrmguard

[@bryanbradford2829]

So, the Avatar is finally throwing all of those stones that Kiko collected over the past 5 years and horded in his inventory. :)

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

The past 5 years? Probably over a decade, in any game he played, somehow brought through a vortex to Britannia by Hawkwind :D

[@mrmoneybags]

"What evil has been unleashed in Bitannia?" "I'm not entirely sure."

[@SBaby]

Yet he has a museum right outside of the castle that tells you exactly what evil has been unleashed.

[@Farimere]

@@SBaby Also he has runestones on the roof of the castle that looks right at the guardians fort.

[@LordBritish-hi5cp]

Give it time and I’m sure Avatar, you will find a way to help

[@Awoken_Remmuz]

"Your knowledge of the land shall be great"

[@Taranchule]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6enoImtZbmhrLs Oh, that is going to get a workout in the coming days :D

[@muffinboymcgee7411]

11:58 In all fairness, calling for the Avatar and waiting for him to fix all of Britannia's problems while he lounges on his throne is absolutely in character for Lord British.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

25:37 A criticism of calling the Avatar to solve all of your issues? Better call the Avatar!

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

I've seen that somewhere else while the Princess is having cake. Lots of cake. Can't blame her though

[@FoxyStoats]

Not going to lie, Lord British sounds like the kind of guy who would call the Avatar to open a jar for him in this game.

[@blizzerdkong]

like the mayor in the powerpuff girls lol

[@LordBritish-hi5cp]

I probably would

[@SBaby]

9:06 - "I'm not entirely sure." Remember this line when you get to a certain building coming up soon, because it becomes one of the funniest things in this part of the game.

[@Zalure]

16:34 They built a dome over Ambrosia? So the gargoyles had the cure for the Gray Death this whole time?

[@yeismeload]

Lord British ruling over Britannia from Castle Britain while listening to 'Rule Britannia'...subtle Mr. Garriot.

[@Julius_Vandelf]

9:05 Legendary Line 17:48 Another Legendary line

[@cr0c0gator]

9:10 lol that eyebrow waggle is magnificent

[@TheCastellan]

Dwayne, "The Rock" Johnson must have visited Britannia in the past.

[@LordBritish-hi5cp]

Who do you think showed the Rock how to do the peoples eyebrow

[@Diamondfist1]

The keyboard commands you brought up in video #3 stated that pressing and holding 'X' while holding the reticle over an item will let you examine it. It will also work for the 'hand' cursor. For me, not casting Richard Garriot as the voice for Lord British is one of the more questionable choices by the game designers. He voices another character, but I feel like it's a bit of a slap in his face, if one chooses not to look at it in a positive way (I don't know how he felt about it).

[@animex75]

Oh Avatar, you shouldn't have looked into that mirror. That's seven years bad luck.

[@Kane-5263]

Lord British twitching eyebrown is... captivating

[@XX-sp3tt]

9:06 Why are you asking that? You already know it's the Guardian.

[@Shadeius]

But Lord Brittish isn't entirely sure.

[@SorcererDave]

I have to admit as someone who knows feck all about the lore of the Ultima series (was before my time, really. Only ever played some of Underworld), I'm liking the look of this game so far. Though I have to admit the entire tutorial segment was a bit odd. I suspect had I played this in 1999 I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. Hell I'm enjoying watching it now. Reminds me a bit of Gothic. For a game with such a reputation for being a disaster I expected worse than what I'm currently seeing. It's no Trespasser or Daikatana.

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

Thanks for reminding me of The Arm Simulator :D NGL though, I completed that game back in the day and a decent VR remake of it would be absolutely stunning. They basically had the concept for a VR game without VR hardware available (except for the VFX-1 a few years back) and it failed because you usually ended up fighting the control mechanisms instead of the actual adversaries in the game...

[@ctsnicky]

"But... how did you KNOW I was the Avatar?" this game... I'm super looking forward to this LP as I never could bring myself to actually finish the game.

[@douglasbest867]

Game looks awesome so far, I gotta day I’m impressed.

[@lukab0i]

23:19 - The golden age of balooning

[@JStankXPlays]

Oh, Kikoskia would have made a much better voice for the Avatar!

[@papperstejp]

So very true!

[@Irredine]

Mystic art of ballooning? What about the mystic art of flying carpets and landing them on small squares =) Also people asking for food in flight lol

[@CommanderZx2]

I guess the giant statue of the Guardian is too subtle for what is causing the problems.

[@JohnSavant]

Gargoyle's grammar is indees curious. They know how to use verb tenses, but can't seem to use finite forms, meaning there is no subject in their sentences, only infinitive verb forms.

[@dennisdistant]

Considering that this game was released somewhere between Morrowind and Daggerfall I'd say it looks pretty good. Also the voice acting is top-notch. Usually it sounds a bit fake but not here.

[@joe--cool]

It came out a year after Redguard (that didn't look too bad on a Voodoo 2 or 3). Also Unreal Tournament was out the same day as Ultima 9.

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

The voice acting even was top in the German version. Nowadays I just switch to English right away... because reasons :D

[@GM_Darius]

In the fairness to the game, having reminders about events that have happened in games passed isn't terrible. There was a LOT that went down over the course of those games! I'd argue that the delivery of that information really sucks though. like "Dude, how could you forget about this thing, man!!?" I know that for those more on the LORE, it's all obvious stuff, but the game prior to this was release in 1994, 5 years before Ascension. Back then, that was a long while for a sequel. That doesn't excuse Lord British being "not entirely sure" what the heck is going on in HIS OWN KINGDOM while you're away, but still.

[@Lightice1]

It's all a result of the game being cobbled together from the pieces of earlier story drafts because of executive meddling and insufficient production time. The story they were aiming for would still have had a lot of corny bits, but at least it would have been internally consistent -- Lord British would have been impotent because the Columns make him sick, and Britannia would have been on the brink of a civil war because of his weakness.

[@tylisirn]

My favourite thing is Avatar asking "What's a paladin?" when *my class* was a *paladin* !

[@Farimere]

15:05 Oh the gargoyles? You wouldn't know them. You only slaughtered their people to steal their most holy book, dropped the earths core onto their land and spent all of Ultima 6 trying to make peace with them.

[@SBaby]

19:11 - Especially if you're the Starlights. Their songs were literally like sending out a beacon.

[@wishcraft4u2]

Infinite rapid-fire magical rock throwing... Hm, I'm beginning to notice some weaknesses in the game's mechanics I believe!

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

I wonder if I will see the Magical Staves Staircase being used by Kiko... :D Just stack those like: | || ||| |||| ... and scale them with that C key... to get everywhere. Gotta love the physics! XD

[@UndeadEggmiester]

I am a little disappointed that the avatar couldn't say " no I won't help you because this isn't my problem and I am sick of always saving you fools".

[@Quimper111]

Oh, how many of these horrid question/dialogue alternatives that could have been remedied by an alternative "recollect" option (perhaps marked with blue text) instead...

[@Lightice1]

To be fair, even in Ultima VII you could ask Lord British and your companions who they are, though their answers were even more incredulous than poor Vasagralem's. On the other hand, Lord British seems to have gone senile and neither he nor the Avatar remember that they used to be friends, not just a liege and a servant; I don't think that either of them have been that formal since Ultima IV. And apparently somebody just dug the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom back from the Ethereal Void for some inexplicable reason, but forgot that it would render the Codex Lenses pointless. I think that the mirror cutscene was from an unused bad end-scenario of the game. Apparently you were supposed to cast the Armageddon even in the good ending and destroy Britannia, but you were supposed to save the people first. That cutscene would have happened if you missed a step in your preparation.

[@NarmyHiiragi]

Yeah you could always ask stuff that you should already know. I think the reason it feels weird in this game is because they have to write dialog for the Avatar, rather than him just asking Name? Job? at everyone.

[@s.m.2523]

@@NarmyHiiragi It probaly doesn't help that this is fully voice acted and animated in a wy that make quite unambiguous tha the avatar is compellty lost.

[@LordBritish-hi5cp]

The Avatar and I were never friends.

[@danthefatman009]

It looks like the developers were having trouble with scaling... things seem way too large or too small. It’s very odd.

[@kawrght]

Something farts wrong. CALL THE AVATAR. something blows the wrong way. CALL THE AVATAR. something falls off. CALL THE AVATAR. I seriously hope one of these days, if this franchise is ever remade, one of the options is "the avatar grabs a beer, sticks a middle finger up and says unpolite drunken things to lord british.

[@letto18]

Ultima, My Summer Car Edition!

[@Iceblade423]

A Free Room and anything in the castle... well its about time, you tight wad... oh, a few scrolls and pocket change, oh thank you.. Oh Hey, that is a lot of reagents to do ...magic...with... and magic doesn't work; sigh Such a great help there, LB.

[@LordBritish-hi5cp]

I have always told the Avatar that he’s welcome to anything in my castle

[@TheCastellan]

22:15 Reminds of what probably happened at Mohenjo Daro.

[@commanderuseless1685]

I think what cements this incarnation of the Avatar as dim-witted is not just the questions he asks that he should blatantly already know the answers to, but also his voice actor. Yikes.

[@SBaby]

It gets worse. Waaaaaaay worse.

[@tylisirn]

My favourite is Avatar asking "What's a paladin?" when the class I was playing... *was a paladin* !

[@SBaby]

7:03 - Well, it's nice that they had a teleporter to Britannia right by Stonegate. I mean, they could have used it to invade the castle themselves.

[@SBaby]

8:21 - How is he this old? I know 20 years may seem like a long time, but in Britannia time, it's pretty much nothing. Characters live for an inordinately long time in this world.

[@SBaby]

15:23 - You know, Avatar. The Gargoyles. The race you almost exterminated by accident and had to spend an entire game sorting out to prevent a war. The race you literally put your life on the line to help. But nah, that's probably not worth remembering...

[@SBaby]

15:35 - What's next? Are you going to tell me the Avatar doesn't remember what the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom is?

[@SBaby]

17:50 - It's like the Pope asking what the Bible is...

[@BahamutZerodragon]

ooh Lord British... you could have done a bit more but oh well. also Armageddon? who cast the Armageddon spell in that mirror? i have my eye on you Avatar.

[@kacpergrochowski5393]

The way in which the Avatar scratches his head really sells how dumb some of the questions you can ask are. I'm not sure what I expected from Lord British's castle, but "Hail Britannia" as the background music definitely wasn't it.

[@muffinboymcgee7411]

"Rule Britannia" had been used as Lord British's theme song since Ultima 3. What else would they use?

[@TheCastellan]

Was in Ultima 7.

[@Farimere]

17:18 Thats not how the lenses work. The lenses were used to bring the codex from the void so it can be read. With only one lens you could see the codex but would not open without the other. Once again you did this in U6.

[@andy7614]

I wonder if Kiko installed any of the unofficial patches.

[@Diamondfist1]

In a previous video (the Extra #01 Journal video), he brought up the Journal page with the game version number 1.19f, and that is definitely an unofficial patch.

[@andy7614]

Ah, I didn't notice that. Thanks!

[@Diamondfist1]

@@andy7614 Any time! 🙂🥓

[@kawrght]

The reason the avatar(and most hero protagonists) don't have their equipment in the next adventure is because that stuff was built for that adventure, and would be fairly useless, and while they will keep momentos here and there, its mostly sold off. Magic also wears out and requires practice, so the avatar, living in the real world with no magic, has forgotten how to use it. Also don't get me wrong, but im with the people here because lord british seems to have become very stupid with his rulings. Why are any of these leadership issues the avatars problem?

[@papabones8753]

For some reason Ultima 9 reminds me a lot in the way it looks of Gothic(and Gothic 2) though not nearly as good as those games.

[@Eshaktaar]

When Gothic came out I thought that this was what Ultima 9 should/could have been.

[@Iceblade423]

Risen 1 feels a lot like a complete and polished U9 gameplay wise.

[@papabones8753]

@@Iceblade423 Risen 1 is also made by former devs of Gothic so that doesn't surprise me in the least ;)

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

To be fair, Gothic 3 and Ultima IX are very similar, could also throw Heroes of M&M 4 in here... not too shabby games, but bad parts of their respective series that at least have a totally grand soundtrack :D

[@drake8050]

What evil has been unleashed in Britannia?

[@commanderuseless1685]

Lord British, what the heck is going on with your eyebrows?!

[@CakePrincessCelestia]

Must have some severe migraines :D

[@LordBritish-hi5cp]

I have not been feeling well lately

[@s.m.2523]

To be fair, I don't necessary fault the devs to put in exposition for new players, in itself this is somewhat comendable. However what is not is they didn't seem to make it so the avatar doesn't look like, at best, an amesiac if not a short attention span idiot (and very very bland of personality at that, though be fair that last part is a stapple of video game and movie writting, the whole 'blank protagonist the uaience can more easily idetify as and project the emotion they want")). Would it have been so hard to phrase things so the avatar looked like he at least half remembered things ? "Oh a gargoyle. Why it's been so long since the false prophet crisis, how are the gargoyles doing now?" "To be sad that after having lived peacefully in britania for generations another shadow is exteding over the proud race...." and continue from there. "The codex of Wisdom, it's been so long yet I remember it's page clearly" "To be sure, the avatar wouldn't forget the holy book of my people and his ho let him ascend. To know yet that without it's pages it's wisdom is beyind reach and our questions unanswered. To be sad and troubled." (.. okay so I'll admit it's clunky but I've never pretneded to be a professional writter who could make it smoother). Or they could have made it a plot point that the guardian was mudying the avatar mind and soul (somehow) as part of his sinister plot (TM), Or maybe the transfer from Pagan wthout a moon gate did it. Would also explain nicely , why you started on earth instead of britania (still a snarl compared to Pagan ending but at least it'd feel more jsutified) and why all that titan power from last game is gone or at least not accessible yet.

[@animex75]

Could've also put it in some books or something in the early areas.

[@s.m.2523]

@@animex75 They sort of did this with the journal and the book in Lord British room and others. But books can be more easily missed or ignored by a pler so having some element of exposition in dialogue s fiarly understandable.

[@Lightice1]

A modern game would most likely have woven the exposition into the dialogue a bit more smoothly, as well as included a diary that would update whenever you encounter something or someone you should know already -- see The Witcher-games, for instance.

[@SBaby]

Exposition is fine, but the Avatar could be that exposition. He could say, 'Hey. I remember this. It did this when this happened.'

[@sharkforce8147]

i feel like those questions you can ask that would feel very out of place to ask could have been handled much better by having the avatar do an internal conversation. edit: maybe leave books on the last page deliberately so you can tell when you've already read them. also, it's a bit of a shame that there doesn't seem to be a method at hand to keep a copy of certain books. the ones that tell you what each potion colour does, for example. that would be nice.

[@LukeWalkGaming]

I've been writing a Standalone RPG for GZDoom for some time now and I just wanted to clear some misconceptions about "AI" that people have trouble with. 1. NPC's WILL NOT take items unless they are programmed to. 2. In any and all Video Games that apply the player is treated as a "Controllable NPC" thus all Non-Controllable NPC's in the game will have an inventory if they are programmed to have one. One such example is The Elder Scrolls Oblivion in which the player in the construction set is listed as an NPC yet is controllable by the player. 3. NPC's are unpredictable to some degree. 4. It's programming... which means nothing has to make any sense what so ever unless the programmer makes it so.

[@TMTVL]

Computers are very good at doing precisely what you tell them to, but very bad at inferring what you want them to do.

[@farbekrieg355]

game looks really good for 1999, also we the tribunal of the internet have deemed this game to be awful... stop liking it.... no... no fun.. stop, STAHP with the fun having.

[@Urkel2]

It seems like most of the hate from this game is due to the lore being butchered. From a purely gameplay perspective, this seems to be pretty impressive for its time. Aside from the heavy-handed tutorial (which seems to assume this is your first time playing any videogame) I'm impressed with what I see. Maybe the game falls apart later on, but so far I feel like I missed out not playing this game when it came out.

[@s.m.2523]

@@Urkel2 The hate definitively come mostly from the lore and plotholes. Although there were also quite a few bugs that didn't help.

[@muffinboymcgee7411]

I've always maintained that Ultima 9 would be a fine game, if only it weren't Ultima 9. Played in a vacuum, its fine; if it's your first Ultima game, you won't understand what the problem is; even if the story is a bit daft, the gameplay is decent enough and the graphics and engine were phenomenal for 1999. But, if you've played the rest of the Ultima games, that somewhat daft story will make you very angry. There are a few specific spots that will make you quite livid ("What's a Paladin?" is infamous, but its not even the most insulting scene in the game.)

[@Igor_Blimey]

You would have needed an absolute monster of a computer to have it looking this nice in 1999 - it was basically a juddery slideshow when I tried playing it on my reasonably new and quite powerful PC unless every graphic setting was on the minimum. And even then there'd be blue screens of death crashes at least once an hour. Buggiest game I've ever tried to play - and some of the bugs are bewildering (there's a plot critical NPC you need to talk to who crashed the game and corrupted every save later on, and the 'fix' was 'only talk to him if the Avatar is standing on top of a bookshelf'...)

[@Iceblade423]

Plot - meh Lore consistency - hahaha no Music - fantastic World - living yet not quite alive (although how many games since 1990s have done a good job with proper NPC scheduling and housing) Gameplay - good fun, though the combat leaves much to be desired Polished? - this game is to polished as coal is to a diamond The game crashes (still present) and sporadic bugs (fewer after 1.19f) held it back from high praise by the broader audience.