This video is a pretty concise look at Ultima 7, its significance to the RPG genre, and its impact on same. And it’s also a pretty fair analysis of the game’s strengths and weaknesses.

In fact, my only quibble is with the subtitle it is given on YouTube: “Discover the Original Open World CRPG”. Because let’s face it, Ultima 7 is not the original open world CRPG. Arguably, the earliest Ultimas could stake a claim to that label, and certainly Ultima 6 deserves credit as being a very open-world game. Though, to be fair, Ultima 7 was probably the first open world CRPG which didn’t require some sort of area transition (e.g. when moving from an overland map into a town, or — in the Ultima 6 context — when entering a dungeon).