Pix Plays Ultima 4 For the Sega Master System
Having bested the Nintendo port of Ultima 5, Origin historian Pix has turned his attention instead to the Sega Master System port of Ultima 4. His first article begins with a look at the packaging of the game, but he quickly dives into the title itself and begins playing through it. And the early signs are good:
I’ve played 3 Nintendo Ultima games so far and for all their good and bad points it’s fair to say that they have been a departure from the original source. Right from the start it’s clear that this isn’t going to be the case on the SMS and it is as true to the original as is possible. The graphics are a huge leap forward however and arguably better than those on the PC VGA patch. The original music is used throughout which is great for the traditionalists among us.
But things go off in their own direction soon enough:
Combat is where the first real change to the gameplay shows up as it uses the same system as Ultima 5 with attacking on diagonals allowed and any angle of attack using a range weapon. This does have the effect of slowing things down and it could potentially be worse in that regard than PC Ultima 5 with the option menu adding in an extra delay. The menu does default to attack which is going to be the most used command but with the hitch that it often makes strange choices on which monster to go for after this. The game really does love to select monsters that are out of range which may not be a problem when I get my party fully equipped with bows but is an issue right now. With a party of 8 I have concerns that combat could end up being extremely slow and I’m tempted to try to keep my party size down.
Click on through to read the rest of the first entry in this new Pix feature! He has included an ample quantity of screenshots, and in this case they are literally “shots” — photographs of the television screen, in fact.
B…but… the U5 combat system is the best thing about this port! :O
I found the combat in Ultima 5 to be extremely slow once I had a large party and it was a real detriment to how much I enjoyed the game. I much prefered Ultima 6 handling the rest of the party for me and always felt that engine struck the best balance before it went too far the other way in Ultima 7.
It’s just my personal taste – the combat aspect of RPG’s usually isn’t what appeals to me about them. To be fair to SMS Ultima 4 it’s not been a problem so far for reasons I’ll go into when I get around to another post.
I must be the only person in the world that loves the combat system in Ultima VII
Kludgiest combat ever…if you don’t count NWN.
I respectfully disagree. I’ll admit there are a few sticking points such as party members dying quite unnoticeably or dropping their weapons deep inside Dungeon Despise but other than that I have always loved it.
Actually, for me, it’s more that it devolves into a mob of people just randomly swinging weapons at things. Even the Avatar is, by and large, “hands off” during combat; there’s almost no need to get involved in the fighting at all, other than to occasionally double-click a target.
Which…YMMV, but that doesn’t do it for me. Not that I need the twitchiest twitch combat (although I do love Reckoning’s combat system), but something like Ultima 6 — where you are DEFINITELY in control of the Avatar and can even be a bit tactical — is vastly superior to Ultima 7’s mobs of companions.
While the combat systems are different, you can do the same things in each game. Suffice from focus firing on a target with all your companions, I honestly can’t think of one thing you can do in Ultima 6 that you can’t do in Ultima 7.
Ultima 7’s combat was a lot more fun for me. The free for all chaos of your companions chasing down fleeing enemies or themselves wounded and fleeing from enemies added a sense of realism. Rather than the stuffy turn taking, focus firing, body or item block fest of Ultima 6. And don’t get me started on lone Seagulls or insects triggering turn based combat when I just want to walk to the next town!
One thing you can do in u7 that you can’t in u6 is track down enemies by following their trails of gear. Ultima 7’s combat also went a lot faster, and since you can do the exact same things as you could in Ultima 6, I’d say it’s painfully clear Ultima 7’s combat is vastly superior.
Ultima VII’s combat doesn’t even warrant being called a “combat system”. Pressing C and doing nothing while your party kills everything is not a gameplay system – it’s like the ancestor of MMO’s sandwish combat, except worst.
“I honestly can’t think of one thing you can do in Ultima 6 that you can’t do in Ultima 7. ”
Control companions ? Have magic for companions ? Use actual tactics in combat ? 😛
I mean it’s fine if some people don’t like combat and are okay with U7’s combat basically consisting of doing nothing, but there’s no question U5&6 were better. They actually had a form of tactical combat that the series completly thrown out the windows after that
“Control companions ? Have magic for companions ? Use actual tactics in combat ? 😛 ”
You could put a spellbook on a companion in Ultima 7, ie use magic. True, you can’t individually control companions. What kind of actual tactics could you use in Ultima 6 that were impossible in Ultima 7 due to that limitation?
Earlier I said due to having control of companions you could focus fire in Ultima 6, but you could focus fire in Ultima 7 as well. It was just less reliable. Everything else I did in u6 I can do in u7, lure enemies away one by one, block passages with energy fields or items to break up enemies, etc.
My favourite solo tactic in Ultima 7 was to lure enemies to my flying carpet so I could lift off to duel them. That’s an actual tactic you couldn’t do in Ultima 6. 😛