Spoony Plays Ultima VII Part 2: The Serpent Isle, Part 2

This was going to be a "wrap up a bunch of quests" video, but Serpent Isle's characters have a tendency to fuck off to parts unknown for long stretches of time, so I don't end up getting as much done on camera as I would have liked...

But at least we cure the Avatar's poison.


I'll document what I was attempting to do, anyway.

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Talk to Harnna about the ring to get referred to Lucilla at the bar.

She'll mention Luther getting a "new shield" (hmm) and tell you that the ring appears to be an engagement ring.

Talking to Luther about the shield will cause him to claim that it's a fairly heirloom and he'll refuse to return it.  Tell him Lucilla's feelings about him and he'll challenge you to a duel at the List Field.  If you manage to beat him in a training session (use the Halberd and have your strongest armor on for best results), he'll return Dupre's Shield and become much more friendly toward you.

(This can be difficult owing to his toughness and the fact that anyone else present tends to gang up on you as well.  Try to catch him there alone in the early hours of the day if you can...)

Once you arrive in Fawn, talk to Delin about the ring and he'll point you to his daughter, Alyssand.  Show her the ring and she'll give you your Magic Gauntlets back.

(He also has the torches we lost, if you want those back for some reason).

Talk to Kylista about the breastplate and she'll return your Magic Armor to get it back.  However, the breastplate is a rather nice piece of gear itself (being equal in protection to plate armor), so another option is to just go to her house and steal your magic armor back so you can keep both.

(I opted for this route, since I couldn't find the dialog trigger to get her to acknowledge the breastplate...)

Items Still at Large

The Black Sword -> Ruddy rock - ?
Spellbook -> Pumice piece - Krayg mentions the dungeon of Furnace, said to be an extremely hot place where rocks like this appear.
Magic Helm -> Fur cap - Frigidazzi in Moonshade is said to have had such a cap.
Blackrock Serpent -> Fine stockings - Unknown.
Glass sword -> Pinecone - Most likely came from the forests to the north.
Dagger -> Severed hand - Said to not be dead by Renfry, kept alive by some kind of magic.
Map of Britannia -> Ice Wine - Said to be made by the rangers of Moonshade.
Rudyom's Wand - Lab apparatus - Ask around in Fawn and Moonshade.
Magebane -> Blue egg - Presumably came from a bird from the north.
Swamp boots - > Slippers -> Ask around at the Sleeping Bull.
Burst Arrows - > Hairbrush -> Made by the goblins that plague Monitor.

Spoony Plays Terranigma, Part 3

We restore greenery and avian life to the Earth, but we still have a long way to go...

Spoony Plays Ultima VII Part 2: The Serpent Isle, Part 1

After the Guardian's little kerfluffle with Britannia (as chronicled in Ultima VII Part 1 and Ultima Underworld 2), we discover a scroll in Batlin's belongings that leads us to a place called the Serpent Isle.  We of course follow him there, looking to stop whatever scheme he plans to unleash as well as find the missing Gwenno.

Unusually for the Ultima Series, Serpent Isle reuses an engine from an earlier entry in the franchise (albeit modified to allow for scripted events and numerous performance improvements).  It's also fairly linear for the most part and possesses relatively few sidequests in comparison to its predecessor.  However, it does make for a more dynamic storytelling experience, so it's not too bad of a tradeoff.

Some things to keep in mind.

• There are a lot of key items in the game.  A lot.  If something seems even remotely important, keep it!
• There is no resurrect spell in this game, so don't go around killing people without a good reason (especially since many of them have plot relevant dialogue and can make the game unwinnable if you kill them).  You do have a means of resurrecting key characters, though - see below.
• The hourglass you get at the beginning of the game allows you to resurrect allies (and yourself) at no charge.  Key word being 'allies' - it will not resurrect most people.  A good rule of thumb is to only kill people if they attack you first.
• The maximum party size is now five instead of eight.  This means that in addition to the mainstays of Iolo, Shamino and Dupre, you have room for just one more.  There are a few worthwhile candidates, though in a pinch you can always just fill it with an Automata.  (and on the plus side, having fewer allies generally makes the game less laggy than Part 1).
• There are now four different currencies in the game - Gold coins, Monetari, Guilders and Fliari.  Each town accepts a different currency.  Though you can exchange money, there is usually a small service charge.  Not that this will matter much once we get the False Coin spell...
• There are far fewer trainers in the game than there were in Part 1.  The majority of them are found at the List Field in Monitor, and raise your combat statistics.  The only Magic trainer is found in the game's add-on, the Silver Seed.
• Stealing works much differently than it did in Part 1.  Your allies no longer care if you steal; however, the townspeople most definitely do.  If you move things around or drop them straight into your backpack, people within sight will take notice and will either attack you or call the guards.  So if you must steal something, make sure people can't see you first - either steal while they're offscreen* or shut a door or window so they don't see you.

*There is one exception to this, namely the armory in Monitor.  No matter where the guard is in that building, he will see you if you attempt to steal anything.

Teleport Storm Items

At the beginning of the game, most of the valuable items in your inventory get whisked away by a teleport storm.  Sadly there is no way to avoid this (short of the debug menu), but the items you get in exchange do at least provide clues to find your missing stuff.  So just for the hell of it, I'll document our missing stuff and the item we got in exchange from the Teleport Storm, as well as where we found it.

(Harnna gives you quite a few clues to go on, so be sure to talk to her!)

Items Recovered

• Magic Bow -> Bear skull - Found just outside of Monitor
• Iolo's crossbow -> Urn of ashes - Found in Monitor's crypt.  Was swapped with the ashes of Caladin's grandfather.

Items Still at Large

• Magic Armor -> White breastplate - Was made for Kylista in Fawn.  We'll have to pay her a visit.  But in the meantime, it makes a pretty good piece of armor!
• The Black Sword -> Ruddy rock - ?
• Spellbook -> Pumice piece - Krayg mentions the dungeon of Furnace, said to be an extremely hot place where rocks like this appear.
• Magic Helm -> Fur cap - Frigidazzi in Moonshade is said to have had such a cap.
• Magic Gauntlets -> Silver ring - Seems to be a wedding or engagement ring.
• Torches -> Filari - It's the currency of Fawn.
• Blackrock Serpent -> Fine stockings - Unknown.  Andral mentions possessing a similar serpent statue until recently, when Batlin and his cohorts passed through town...
• Glass sword -> Pinecone - Most likely came from the forests to the north.
• Dagger -> Severed hand - Said to not be dead by Renfry, kept alive by some kind of magic.
• Map of Britannia -> Ice Wine - Said to be made by the rangers of Moonshade.
• Rudyom's Wand - Lab apparatus - Ask around in Fawn and Moonshade.
• Magebane -> Blue egg - Presumably came from a bird from the north.
• Dupre's Shield -> Monitor Shield -  Could be from anyone in Monitor.
• Swamp boots - > Slippers -> Ask around at the Sleeping Bull.
• Burst Arrows - > Hairbrush -> Made by the goblins that plague Monitor.

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As a bonus, here's the original version of Serpent Isle's intro, which was changed for the final product due to its enormous size and 364kb floppy discs still being the standard medium at the time (of which this intro would have taken up more than twenty).



And here's a "complete cut" I made that composites the in-game version with the extra footage from the "uncut" version.

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Serpent Isle on GOG (bundled with Ultima VII)

Spoony Plays Terranigma, Part 2

We restore the rest of the world's continents and prepare to set out on a world-spanning adventure.

Spoony Plays Ultima VII: The Black Gate Bonus: Armageddon

Say, what does that seemingly innocuous spell in Rudyom's catalog do, anyway?

Oops...



The ferryman is still alive as well (since he's not technically an NPC) but he doesn't have any special dialog for the Armageddon event, so it's a bit pointless to talk to him.

Ultima 6 also had the Armageddon spell, but its effect was slightly different - all NPCs on the planet (sans the Avatar and LB) vanish and Lord British goes catatonic.  It also disables the ending, preventing you from winning the game.

Spoony Plays Ultima VII: The Black Gate Bonus: Cheater's Paradise

Ultima VII has quite possibly the most fully-featured debugging tool ever, and you don't need to download an external program or even modify the game in any way to access it.  All you need to do is start the game with the command line paramater "abcd<ALT-255>" (where <ALT-255> is a special character created by holding ALT and pressing 255 on the numeric keypad.  It looks like a blank space, but isn't.)

This video shows off the debug mode, as well as some of the more interesting hidden elements in Ultima VII.



Ultima VI has a similar debug menu as well, though it's not quite as impressive as this one...

There is also a third hidden entrance to the cheat zone, located just outside the Gargoyles' house in Britain.

Set a chest at the foot of the tree and step onto it and you'll be there.

And for a complete overview of the teleporters in the cheat room, check this link.

Spoony Plays Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Part 9 (Finale)

We're off to the Isle of the Avatar to confront Britannia's would-be invader.



And the "bad" ending for those curious:

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The big underlying message of Ultima VII

Rather than a lesson about virtue being its own reward, or the self-defeating nature of virtue as law, or the futility of racism and being blinded to it by faith, Ultima VII has a far simpler message: Electronic Arts is pure evil.

No really, let's take a look at the major plot elements of the game.

Britannia is threatened by an entity called the Guardian, known as a "destroyer of worlds" (as highlighted in this game and later entries).  This stands contrary to Origin's slogan of "we create worlds."

Several murders in the game were carried out, at least in part, by Elizabeth and Abraham (E and A). One of their victims was Inamo the gargoyle, whose name means "Create Love" in Gargish. So in essence, EA kills love.

But the real kicker are the Guardian's three constructs which he utilizes to wreak havoc on Britannia: The Cube, the Sphere and the Tetrahedron. Sound familiar?

Bingo.

Ironically EA bought out Origin before the game was completed and apparently approved the game for release despite its underlying message.  Though they did have a degree of petty revenge later, as we'll see in Ultima VIII.  And of course there's Ultima IX, which is revenge against an entire franchise and fan base at its bloodiest...

Mysteries

A few odds and ends I've never figured out.

• Is there a key that opens the locked gate in the jeweler's shop in Britain?  Lockpicks won't open it, and Sean the jeweler doesn't have it either on his person or in his house...
• Does the key in Gregor's house in Minoc unlock anything?  If so, what?
• Does the key in the western room of Serpent's Hold (under a pile of clothes in the corner) unlock anything?
• Is there any butter in the game?  You can sometimes spawn it with the Create Food spell, but I don't recall ever finding any of it placed in the game world...

Port Information

The SNES version of Ultima 7 is perhaps the most notoriously butchered "port" in the entire series.  Cutting Ultima VII down from a 20 megabyte DOS game to a mere 1 MB cartridge meant nearly all of the dialog was trimmed, the graphics and music were greatly simplified, the game world was greatly scaled down (albeit with more dungeons added) and the gameplay was reworked into a solo Zelda-styled adventure game rather than a party-driven RPG.  As per Ultima 6, it also underwent heavy censorship due to Nintendo's "family friendly" policies at the time, resulting in many aspects being changed or cut entirely (enemies instantly vanish when killed and the numerous murders throughout the game are changed to kidnappings, for example).  The end result is a dreadfully  mediocre game that bears only a faint resemblance to the original...

If you want to see me attempt to play it, I posted a video here.

Spoony Plays Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Part 8

We take down the Cube and uncover a boatload of evidence in Buccaneer's den, as well as a very important key.



Just one more sidequest to go.

Two old pirates in Buccaneer's Den named Blacktooth and Mole have fallen out in recent years, but have come to miss one another's company.  However, you can talk to them and tell each other what the other said, and they'll patch up their differences.

The noteworthy thing about this quest is that you can "complete" it as many times as you wish by selecting the proper dialog option, getting ten experience points each time.  So if you're up for a couple hours of clicking the same option over and over again, you can max out your entire party's level without fighting a single monster. Not a very efficient way of going about things, but it's on the table...

Oh, and what became of Sullivan, the Avatar's impostor?

He's locked up in the catacombs of Buccaneer's Den, having gotten on the Fellowship's bad side.  (Take the north path to find him).

Alagner's apprentice Anton is here too.  He got caught collecting evidence against the Fellowship...

You can free both of them if you wish (the troll outside has both cell keys), but you don't really gain anything from doing so.

Spoony Plays Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Part 7

We finally manage to put a sizable dent in the Guardian's war engine.  But at a cost...



And for our off-camera goodies this time:

You can find another Magebane sword in the ruins of Stonegate, but it's a bit tricky to get there.  Travel along the path to Minoc through the swamp until the road turns right.  Continue going up and you'll see a series of wooden planks going to the left across a narrow muddy path.  Follow those a short way in and you'll find the ruins, and Magebane within them.

Moonglow has a few sidequests for us to tackle.  Might as well, right?

There is a group of three farmers in town - Cubolt, Tolemac and Morz.  Cubolt is suspicious of the Fellowship and wants you to talk Tolemac into leaving the fellowship (and Morz into not joining).  So talk to all three of them (easiest during the morning hours when they're all working the field).

Tolemac refuses to leave (and will refuse to speak to you again after you bring it up), but Morz will agree not to (just as long as you don't offend him by mentioning his stutter).  That's all there is to say about that.

(This earns you 10 experience)

Speak to Brion about his telescope and his orrery, and about his collection of crystals.  He'll mention that he can create a portable orrery viewer for you, but he'll need a special crystal to do it.  Talk to Addom (usually found in the pub) and he'll just happen to have such a crystal.  Buy it from him for 20 gold, then take it to Brion and he'll make the viewer for you.

The alignment is just a rough measure of how close you are to the end of the game, since the Guardian plans to come through on the day of the alignment.  It's a bit pointless, really, but it's a sidequest nonetheless.

Speak to Phearcy the bartender and he'll tell you some gossip about Zelda.  Talk to Zelda at the Lycaeum to find out that she is attracted to Brion.  Then talk to Brion, who will admit that he has no feelings for Zelda.

His brother Nelson (also at the Lycaeum) does, however, so you can report that to Zelda as well and she'll agree to give him a chance.  Return to the pub and talk to Phearcy to get some experience and a small amount of food (five pieces of jerky and five bottles of beer).

Spoony Plays Terranigma, Part 1

The third and final entry in what has come to be known as Quintet's "Resurrection Trilogy" and the only one that did not get a North American release.  However, it was translated to English and got a limited release in Europe, and as a result that version of the game is now sought by collectors and quite expensive.  As I don't really have the funding to spend over $150 on a single game, though, I'll be playing this one emulated.