Let's Play Xenogears, Part 17

Lots of walking and talking in Shevat.  And another convoluted dungeon.



Questions so far

• Who or what exactly is the "Diabolos Corps"?

Various factoids and symbolism

• "Mahanon" may be a reference to the title of "Master Mahan", a title assumed by Cain and Lemech in the Latter Day Saint movement.  Both were said to have made a deal with Satan to kill for personal gain.
• "Diabolos" is a term applied to someone who is said to act the part of the Devil or to side with him.

Spoony Plays Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Part 0 (Intro/Character Creation)

Perhaps the most unique RPG ever created, Ultima is not about defeating some great evil.  Rather, it is a tale of self improvement and discipline, having the player unite the eight clans of Britannia and conform to each of their guiding virtues in order to serve as a guiding example to all the people of the land.  In part inspired by the negative reception to the more, erm, "devilish" aspects of the earlier games, as well as culling ideas from numerous world religions and even the Wizard of Oz (yes, really), the three Principles and eight Virtues served as a building block for many subsequent storylines in the series.

This also marks a major turning point for the Ultima series' design; the world of Sosaria (now rechristened "Britannia") took on a more static design and feel, with its world's layout remaining relatively constant throughout the rest of the franchise.  The game also took a much heavier emphasis on the storytelling aspect, sporting much more elaborate characters and dialog and utilizing a keyword system that the player would have to explore in great depth in order to gather clues from.  It also featured a much more in-depth magic system (featuring the first use of "reagents" as a component) and a larger party size, enabling up to eight characters to be in the party at a time (in fact, having all eight characters present at the end of the final dungeon is a requirement to completing the game).

It is also the only Ultima game to be released as freeware, and can be downloaded from numerous sites at no charge.



My class was selected by putting my IRC channel to the virtue chest; they favored Sacrifice, so I begin the game as a Tinker in Minoc.  Tinkers are relatively strong fighters (being able to equip up to Plate Mail and Magic Bows) but are the worst magic-using class overall, only getting MP equal to 0.5x their Intelligence stat.  Still, they do better there than Fighters or Shepherds, who cannot use any magic...

Download the game for free at GOG.com (comes in a pre-configured DOSBox package)
Scanned copies of the box, manual and cloth map can also be downloaded at no charge from GOG.com.
You can also grab a patch at this site to upgrade the visuals and music.

Spoony Plays Ultima III: Exodus, Part 4

SEIZURE WARNING: This video contains flashing images.

It's time to quell the threat of Exodus once and for all.  Into Castle Death we go!



A few notes on version differences

• The original Apple II version had a couple of notable differences.  First was the ability to tame wild horses and the fact that the Dag Acron spell works differently.  In the Apple II port, it would only work on land and teleport the party to grassy areas.  In the IBM version, however, it will also work while in a boat and teleport the player to a random ocean area.  This can potentially allow you to bypass the Serpent guarding Castle Death if you get lucky.
• The Apple II version also featured music while the IBM version did not.  The later ports to the Commodore 64, Amiga Atari 800 Atari ST also featured enhanced visuals and music.  Of course, I'm using a patch here which improves the graphics and adds some of the music from the latter versions.
• The Famicom/NES port is the most different of all, being redesigned from the ground up.  The game balance is much different, the interface is redesigned to resemble Dragon Quest's pop-up windows style, it sports a completely new soundtrack, all of the playable characters now have distinct sprites, and many aspects of the quest can no longer be bypassed; you must visit the town of Dawn and find a Golden Pick in order to dig up the best weapons and armor, for example.
• The NES/Famicom version is noted for having two major sequence breaks, however.  First, it is not necessary for the player to collect the four cards in order to defeat Exodus; once he is reached, a sequence will automatically play that ends the game, bypassing the checks seen in other versions.  The other allows the player to enter the moongate on Exodus' island over and over again until a ship spawns inside the small patch of sea there, allowing the player to bypass the Serpent as well.  These culminated in a speedrun strategy that allowed the game to be beaten in under an hour...

Spoony Plays Ultima III: Exodus, Part 3

SEIZURE WARNING: This video contains flashing images.

Dungeon diving for fun and profit.

Spoony Plays Ultima III: Exodus, Part 2

SEIZURE WARNING: This video contains flashing images.

We have a ship, so it's time to dig up some top-notch artillery and then hit up the land of Ambrosia, where we can bribe our way to ultimate power and find the keys to Exodus' destruction.



Next time, we dive into the dungeons.

Let's Play Xenogears, Part 16

Another long, annoying dungeon and a filler boss fight with Ramsus.  Yay....



Questions so far

• What ultimately became of Maria's father?

Various factoids and symbolism

• Seibzehn and Achtzehn's names are German for "Seventeen" and "Eighteen".  They may be a subtle reference to Android 17 and Android 18 from Dragon Ball Z.

Spoony Plays Ultima III: Exodus, Part 1

SEIZURE WARNING: This video contains flashing images.

We set out on another quest where we hunt clues, discover lost lands and hidden treasures, and fight great evil.  Mostly the treasures part, though.



Sadly, there's not really any way to speed up the ship-finding process; you just have to wait for one to spawn and hope the whirlpool doesn't get to it before you do.  I also hear your entire party has to be at least level 5 first, but I'm not sure if there's any truth to that...

Let's Play Xenogears, Part 15

We follow Stein to an abandoned Solarian mine, where a mysterious ancient relic awaits.  Then it's time for some of the toughest fights yet...

(Also, a small mistake corrected: The shop in Nisan continues selling Holy Pendants after this dungeon.  Once you proceed up Babel Tower, they stop).



Answered Questions

• The red-haired man is named Id.
• Jesiah's long disappearance was apparently due to a search for a way into Shevat.
• Zeboim is an underwater city sunken by a nuclear disaster.

Questions so far

• What is Elly alluding to during her dialog in the facility?  She doesn't even seem to know...
• What is the significance of the humanoid nanomachine colony, and why does Solaris want it?
• Was that Fei in his flashback, or just someone who resembles him?
• What is Id after, and why?
• Id's fighting style is very similar to Fei's.  What is their link?

Various factoids and symbolism

• "Id" is a concept defined by Sigmund Freud, the component of the human psyche that consists of one's instinctual drives, desires and impulses - at its core seeking pleasure and avoiding displeasure.
• The names of the four Elements are based on four of the orders of angels - Throne (Tolone), Dominion (Dominia), Seraphim (Seraphita) and Cherubim (Kelvena).  Their powers are also of course based on the four Greek elements of fire, water, wind and earth.
• Buntline is named after a model of gun, the Colt Buntline Special.
• The "Malakh Plan" is derived from the Hebrew word "mal'akh", which means "messenger".  It is usually used to refer to angels as messengers of God.

I did some grinding off-camera to get everyone's Gears fully equipped.  The best place for this is fighting mecha in the small desert along the Kislev-Aveh border - not only do they give 1000 gold a battle, but they also have a chance of dropping Magnetic Coats, which sell for 2000 each.  I also bought two more Holy Pendants at Nisan since they allow for some rather hilarious game-breaking later on...

(One could potentially be even twinkier by buying a second or even a third Ether Doubler to make Elly's ether powers even more OP, but I'm not going to do that - I do want there to be some challenge in this game, after all).

A quick look at Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash

The so-called "lost" Ultima game which series head Richard Garriott had no involvement in creating. Mt. Drash was long rumored to have been released by Sierra On-Line without his knowledge or consent, though this has since been proven to be false; it was actually programmed by a friend of his, Keith Zabalaoui, and Garriott allowed the name to be used as part of a deal with Sierra to get the game published. Still, as the VIC-20 had already been supplanted by the Commodore 64 by 1983 and the game also required a tape drive and an 8 KB RAM expansion to run, Sierra had no faith in it being a commercial success. As a result, the game had only one advertisement run in Compute! Magazine and was given a very limited printing run of about 3000 copies - the bare minimum needed to fulfill their contract with Zabalaoui. Sure enough, Mt. Drash sold very poorly, with most copies of the game being unceremoniously disposed of by retailers and distributors. One shop in Canada even literally dumped its unsold stock off a cliff, which is where at least one surviving copy was eventually found. Only around thirteen copies of Mt. Drash are known to still exist today, making it an extremely rare title and a holy grail among retro computer game enthusiasts and Ultima fans.

In an effort to prevent counterfeit copies from surfacing on auction sites, a full image of the original tape has never been made available. However, the game is playable through VIC-20 emulation as well as a fan port to the PC platform.

(I did not create this video, but props to Georgc3 for enduring the music long enough to complete the game!)

As a couple extra bits of trivia, Mt. Drash is the name of one of the caverns in Ultima 1.  The name of the game's villains, "Garrintrots", are most likely a corruption of Richard Garriott's last name.

Keith Zabalaoui also contributed to Ultima 2 and went on to become the president of Atomic Games, best known for creating the Close Combat series.

• An article on the game from Hardcore Gaming 101
• CRPG Addict's entry for the game
• Dino's Complete Guide to Mt. Drash

Spoony Plays Ultima III: Exodus, Part 0 (Intro and Character creation)

Ultima III: Exodus is the first game published under the Origin Systems label, as well as the first RPG to feature animated character sprites and the first Ultima title to be ported to a video game console (the NES) in addition to about thirteen computer platforms.  This game also finally introduced a party system to the series, allowing up to four characters of varying classes to form a team and explore the game world (and up to twenty being stored on-disc at a time).

While Exodus is still heavily based around gold grinding, its gameplay is much less monotonous than its predecessor. This is in no small part thanks to a much more rudimentary combat system and the game being significantly more generous with money.  There are also a couple of handy tricks you can use to get money relatively quickly, which I'll show off in Part 1.

The IBM-PC version of the game is unfortunately one of the few to not include music.  Thankfully, the Exodus Project's patch adds in some MIDIs from the Commodore and Amiga versions of the game in addition to enhancing the graphics and adding in some very useful hotkeys.



Party

Unlikely the Elven Barbarian - Barbarians are essentially Fighters with a touch of thieving ability.  They can wield any weapon, but are limited to Leather Armor and have no magical ability.

Spoony the Bobbit Cleric - Clerics are the pure healer class, which will be extremely useful throughout the game.  They also have the extremely useful ability to navigate through dungeons quickly and disarm traps (which we'll be using a lot - bomb traps hurt!).

EEE EEE the Fuzzy Druid - Druids are poor fighters, but they have the handy ability to wield both Cleric and Mage spells, with their MP maximum determined by the higher of the two governing stats (Intelligence and Wisdom).  They also apparently regenerate MP twice as fast as any other class, which is a very helpful trait.

Radislav the Fuzzy Mage - The other pure magic user. Mages, as you may expect are primarily centered on offensive spells.  They can quickly clear out groups of weaker foes and severely damage tougher ones, which makes them invaluable in the late game.  Just keep them in the back row as they have very poor equipment choices...

(Radislav started as a Human but I ended up rerolling the party during Part 1 because of a dumb mistake)

Box/manual scans
Exodus Project's very sexy patch

As an additional fun fact, there are rumors of a tie-in anime for Ultima III made by TV Osaka.  It never aired on television or saw an official release in any format, but there were allegedly some VHS tapes of it found in a TV Osaka-owned warehouse that was destroyed in the 1995 Kobe earthquake. It has never appeared on the internet in any form; however, some footage for the project may have been reused in a Japanese commercial for the game.

(Note that this information is based on an unsourced page on a long-dead Finnish website, so it's not exactly a reliable foundation.  Take it with a very big grain of salt!).

Spoony Plays Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress Part 2

SEIZURE WARNING: This video contains flashing images.

After gaining enough gold through countless long adventures (COUGHhexeditorCOUGH), we're finally ready to acquire the legendary Quicksword Enilno, meet with the Antos family and defeat Minax.



Featuring music from:

Batman
Deja Vu
Double Dragon
Ninja Gaiden II
Uninvited

Let's Play Xenogears, Part 14

Billy's Gear is revealed and a plot-bomb gets dropped.



Questions so far

• What is Stein's motive?  He seems to have it in for Billy and Jessie in particular...
• What kind of technology does Zeboim have?  It's apparently good enough to convince the Ethos to betray Solaris...

Various factoids and symbolism

• Alkanshel is a mis-Romanization of "Arc-En-Ciel", which is French for "Rainbow."

Spoony Plays Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress Part 1

Showing off some of the basics and important elements of the game.  I won't be doing a lot of grinding on-camera since that would be extremely boring to watch...



Items

Ankh - Needed to start the spaceships in Russia.

Blue Tassle - Allows you to pilot ships. 

Boots - Protects your lower body from paralysis (inability to move). 

Brass Button - Allows you to start the airplane in New San Antonio. 

Cloak - Protects against upper body paralysis (inability to attack). 

Green Idol - Protects against magical sleep. 

Helm - Allows you to view a map of the time period, dungeon floor, or planet you are currently at (via the V key). 

Ring - Prevents harm when passing through magical fields. 

Skull Key - Allows you to fly an airplane. 

Strange Coin - Stops time for a short while (via the N key), allowing you to move but nobody else to. 

Tools - Allows you to escape from traps unharmed. 

Torch - Lights up dungeons. They burn out after a short while. 

Tri-Lithium - Allows your spaceship to warp. 

Wand - Enables you to cast spells. 

 Gems, Red Gems and Green Gems have no effect as far as I can tell.

Oracle clues

The queen is a king and the king is a spy.
The evil men do is a horrible thing.
But dispelling means that you must have the ring.
Just where it is I cannot say.
But I'll tell you right now, there is no other way.
I hear in a town where the water runs free.
There is an old man living under a tree.
He has not a name but he does have a clue.
Mayhaps if you find him he'll tell it to you!

Featuring music from

Earthworm Jim 2
Ironsword: Wizards and Warriors II
Kid Icarus
Shadowgate
Solar Jetman
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles