Ultima Merits a Few Mentions In IGN’s List Of the Top 100 RPGs

Ultima Franchise Producer Jeff Skalski was pleased to see the results of IGN’s attempt to list the top 100 RPGs:

And indeed, Ultima does well enough on the list. Ultima 4, as Skalski notes, is ranked #26, Ultima Underworld captures the #39 slot (although IGN rather predictably fails at choosing appropriate game artwork for it), Ultima Online ranks a quite respectable #33, and Ultima 7 …wait, what the heck is Ultima 7 doing all the way back at #53? Not even a top-ten mention?

It’s impossible to quantify the profound influence this game has wielded over subsequent games, and not just RPGs but any open-world game in which the player is allowed to explore and live in a bustling world. Creator Richard Garriott lauded it as the “most masterfully created” of his series. It was a work of that era when text and keyboards were being swept aside by mouse and slick graphical interfaces, when grand high-fantasy themes were being tested and subverted. Players could hang around in a pub or bake a loaf or bread and, although the plot circles around a murder investigation the game could be enjoyed without absolute adherence to the main plot-line.

The game that has had an “impossibl[y]” “profound” influence on all subsequent RPGs — that’s twenty years of games, Dragons and Dragonettes — doesn’t even crack the top half of a list of the top 100 RPGs “of all time”?

I suppose we’re just lucky that IGN didn’t accidentally put the map for Serpent Isle on the article.

5 Responses

  1. Micro Magic says:

    Wow, FF6 is number 1. There is -some- justice to the universe!

    Panzer Dragoon Saga isn’t even mentioned. That’s kinda interesting, seeing as how other lists have put it as high as 2nd. And seeing skies of arcadia and… ugh, tales of destiny are even on the list to begin with.

    Wait a second, New Vegas is rank 89 and Fallout 3 is rank 10. I guess if you disregard the lore, and offer fewer story choices, and no party members: you make a substantially better game.

    Of course, taste is subjective, but I’d have imagined UO or Ultima 7 to crack the top ten.

  2. Natreg says:

    It doesn’t seem to be really an all time list at all. Very few mentions to games from the 80s or 90s.
    And way too many Final Fantasy in there too.

    I like Final Fantasy VI but it’s in no way innovative. There are better games out there. Chrono Trigger is also a great game that I have finished several times for different platforms, but so great to get a second spot…. not so sure…

    I really doubt FF8 should be there at all. Really awful gameplay. And where are games like Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore, Wizardry, Dark Heart of Uukrul, Rogue, The Black Onyx… and so many others that deserve a place there.

    This is way I don’t like those kinds of lists. They tend to say “all time” and they just name a few old games to justify that. it’s closer to the best rpgs from the last 15 years, and even then there are a lot of them that deserve to be there, and some that doesn’t

    Even some images (Ultima Underworld), and some dates are not right at all. I could understand that they have added dates from the first PC version, or english translation, but a game deserves to have it’s original date instead of the one from a port/translation.

    • Micro Magic. says:

      No Gothic either.

      It’s just another bs list designed for gamers to bitch about and reminisce about their favourite games..

      Chrono Trigger better than FF6? Heresy! Thems is fightin’ words!

      I can’t say for sure, but FF6 is the earliest game I can think of to use a bar to fill up before you can do combat. Although, I may be wrong on that.

      I dunno, I liked the setting, plot line, and characterization of FF6. I never really “got” Chrono Trigger. Although it had great characters and was very atmospheric as well.

      • Natreg says:

        The active combat was first used on FF4. FF6 is a great game, it’s my favourite FF but is not by far the best rpg of all time.

        Chrono Trigger is a bit more original than FF6, but I don’t put it as a better game, I actually don’t like to put a game over another game if I like both of them.