Iceblade has written another lengthy essay reflecting on an aspect of Ultima 9. This time, his focus is the first dungeon the player encounters in the game, Despise.

It’s worth noting — yet again — that Ultima 9 is a rarity amongst 3D RPGs (even to this day) for the way in which it offers a truly seamless world. Wandering into a dungeon and back out again happens smoothly, with no loading screens to break up the flow of the game. This experience, and the design of the game’s dungeons in general, is not by accident. Iceblade, in his essay, notes that in fact, this design follows naturally from the way dungeon design progressed over the course of the Ultima series:

As this commentary will show, Ultima 9’s take on dungeons is a natural consequence of Ultima’s dungeon progression rather than a major new take on dungeons.  The dungeons you encounter in U9 are filled with puzzles with an even greater variety than U7 was able to provide.  Further, U9 attempted to provide multi-level structures built to fit into the world/lore background for the dungeon (usually). Navigational challenges were even made a more significant component of dungeon traversal.  The dungeons did return to having a common, central plot focus similar to Ultima 4; and similar to U4, you start at the bottom of Hythloth and need to escape it from its entrance.  Another notable feature of U9’s dungeons seems to borrow from Ultima Underworlds with an emphasis on NPCs that you encounter and can help along the way. Further it borrows from Underworld 2 and Ultima 8’s puzzle design with an emphasis on 3d navigation. You could say that U9 simply added UW2 and U8 elements onto U7 dungeon design just with multiple maps.

Reflecting on Despise itself, and the part of Ultima 9’s story that is told there, Iceblade notes that the pieces of lore scattered throughout the dungeon do a good job of teasing the identity of the Wyrmguard waiting in its depths…at least to those players familiar with previous Ultima games:

The layout of the dungeon is little odd following a long linear path as opposed to a more boxy or circular construction.  Given the dungeon’s history as a cave, it could be posited Despise was built this way to follow the natural contours of the original cave system.  The true oddities come in the form of the rooms found along the way.  Past the entrance we get to a T-junction with a storeroom down one path, which feels sensible.  The large antechamber with the pillars down the other path seems odd, so we must assume the room was built or altered this way by Kiran.  Two paths beyond lead to a fountain/pool room.  The weird antechamber followed by a pool room makes me think we off to see the queen being moved from one extravagant room after another. The dungeon progresses through a few more rooms including a dining hall and a chapel.  These rooms offer yet more clues about the “guy in Winged armor” that resides here.  He has a lute, a bow, and loves to eat…

uh oh, I’m having U7 flashbacks here…

He also praises the somewhat more nuanced take on the Virtue of Compassion that is presented in Despise:

[Castro and Felix] are clearly very hungry and probably haven’t been feed or provided water in days.  In fact, if you leave them there, they will die.  Because you know they are trapped in the storeroom, you are not ignorant of their plight, therein you have a choice to make: free them or leave them to die. So, whether you choose to leave them or prefer not to decide, you have still made a choice and your karma will be impacted by it.  Here is thus your first test of compassion in this dungeon – be compassionate in rescuing them or show disdain for their lot in life.  While inaction is often not considered an act of hatred, it carries with it some hallmarks of unvirtuous behavior: fear of the jailer or disdain for others whose circumstances and choices have resulted in being placed in a bad situation. Disdain is a form of hatred as much as direct violence.  

Whereas Iceblade was fairly critical of Ultima 9’s in-game economy, he is much more positive in this write-up. You’d do well to read the whole thing, at your earliest convenience.