Ultima Underworld II, Day 6 and 7

I didn't realize I was so far in my "days" of playing Underworld II! In any case, I have devoted this week to being something of an Ultimarathon, because I have made a point of reverting to my traditional 2-hours-a-day schedule from earlier this year before I had legitimate obligations!

So this blog will document my gaming from Monday and Tuesday, whih essentiall involved solving most of the Pits of Carnage and the Scintillus Academy.

The former was pretty rough--The pits are essentially three arenas, all of which are hard to fight in except the Earth arena (just a simple brown floor) and a lot of people who want to kill you. If you go downstairs, you meept a large group of other monsters which also desire your death! Whoopie! I explored all of the second level and only enough of the third to meet the pre-blogging troll named Blog. Appropriate! He assisted in fetching the gym for the world.

The pits are pretty boring, overall, and a bunch of the generic characters have the exact same portrait as other non-generic characters, leading to confusion. The last time I played Underworld II, I distinctly remember using the pits as a place to win huge amounts of gold: There is a fellow who will pay you to fight up to five enemies, and I would slaughter them all. However, this time around I seem too weak for even one of the male warriors, but I can slice up the women pretty easily (disturbing, perhaps, but there it is). I was unable to find much in the way of good weapons, and no one is even willing to train me in swords there, which was surprising.

The Academy is one of my favorite parts of the game, and far easier than I remembered. It consists of eight levels. The most famous are probably the gigantic 3-D maze for which your automap is useless, and maybe the level in which you have to leap onto platforms that cause other platforms to disappear--the aptly titled "non-reversible processes" test. You don't regain mana during the exam, but oddly I didn't really need to use any magic. A good thing, since I never bother learning magic in the Underworlds and can barely cast Lesser Heal!

I ended my game at the exit to the facility--They have this "secure vault" in which are stored a few sweet runes, but unfortunately I can't seem to get through the door in the ethereal void that leads me there. It occurs to me that I never bothered to try the key that got me in the vault in the first place, and I will feel like an idiot if that works. In any case, I'll mess with that awhile longer before I give up and go back to Britannia.

At present, my biggest problem in the game is lack of training. My skill in swords is very high, but not in attack or defense, and no one seems to do a good job of training either of those skills. Geoffery does them, as I recall, but only gives me like one point per training session, whereas the Dupre-like-guy Lothar in Killorn Keep gives me 3 or so points per session of swords! As it stands, I can fend off most monsters, but some things--male warriors and reapers--give me an extremely hard time.

I may post tomorrow again or wait till Friday, but I expect I will finish up my quest in the Ethereal Void by then. I seem to recall that the hardest of all is the Tomb of Praecor Loth, due to the trio of very difficult enemies you have to face at the end, but I also remember the place being truly stuffed with cool magic stuff. In my next few sessions I also intend to identify some of my magical items and discard the less useful ones in order to make room!

Ultima Underworld II, Day 4 and 5

Well, I have played a fair amount of Underworld this week. Perhaps not quite four hours. It does seem like "finishing" each world takes roughly two hours, although given my recollection of the sizes of the upcoming mazes, this may not hold true!

The world I beat in this round of playing was Talorous, where some glowing blobs talked with me and assisted me in developing a plan to fight the Guardian. Well, one of them did, the future-predicting one. How did he not predict that the Guardian would ruin things? Anyway, in the process I faced a moral dilemma in having to murder the Bliy Skup Ductosnore, the guy responsible for creating new members of his species. He also has a sense of humor--he left the i on the floor after it fell off from the sign to his room. On Talorous, I made the mistake I always make--I don't realize that the picture on the wall in the lower level is actually a device I need to pick up and use elsewhere!

That quest took up a few hours. The rest of my time was spent in Killorn Keep and elsewhere, just exploring. As requested, I tried to get the serpent statue from the Goblins in the basement of the castle, but I did not succeed this time. I managed to do it the last time I played--I remember that you have to kill a whole lot of worms, then talk to the goblin leader, and then come back sometime in the future and he randomly gives you the gift. I guess no one really gets that thing simply because there's no point in going back there!

Actually, maybe there is. A reaper who has the key to the armoury is nearby, as I recall. In spite of the fact that I just hit the 11th level, I am still too weak to take him out :-(

My general thoughts on the game are quite positive. The game manages to fuse the good points of Underworld I--mainly a strong atmosphere (the ice caves seem very lonely, for example)--with the strong plot of...Well, Serpent Isle, I suppose; in that game, the plot moved forward and there are consequences to your actions. Just a few minutes ago, Dupre told me he's going to go to the ice caves and fetch water for the castle. Granted, he never actually does it, but it's conceptually neat that people are going out and doing things.

My favorite quote from the game so far is a character who found a mysterious key, and who asserts that it "looks as if it might date from the time of Minax!" If this is hyperbole, why not go all the way back to Mondain? It was only a few decades before. And if it wasn't, what dates it specifically to Minax? Does it say "DIE FOOL" on the handle? :-P

Anyway, my recollection is that it opens a door with a mean ghost and some treasure. Thus far I've acquired a magic sword, a magic vest, and some other magic thing (a shield?) but my Lore is too low to identify them. Perhaps I would be better served just raising my mana and casting to be able to cas Identify? I'll have to ponder that one.

-Zac

Ultima Underworld II, Day 2 and 3

Well, another four hours of Underworld II have passed me by! I can very quickly summarize what I did--in Killorn Keep, I explored and found very little worth having. Well,besides a gem, which I found by accident, and which was accompanied by a key that didn't seem to unlock anything. It is rather see the decrepit old Lord British clone named Lord Thribis. In the realm of the ice world, I was able to dig out the lost city of Anodolous and talk to an unhappy ghost. That city always struck me as weird, due to the mass of locked massive doors, and I can't remember if I ever found a key for them in previous playings of those games.

That city, however, features one of the best parts of the game--You find a crystal ball, and looking into it you see your past and future. Sadly, the game sometimes breaks, and the crystal ball doesn't work. I like it particularly because it's the only in-game reference I am aware of to Martian Dreams! In fact, the fact that the crystal ball did not work was sufficient to make me angry enough to quit playing for the evening.

The variety of environments in Underworld has been pretty exciting, but I have some quibbles. The main one is navigation--I am CONSTANTLY getting stuck on pointy walls. In some cases, like with sliding ice, I have had to re-load a saved game because i just couldn't move. I've also had some trouble keeping myself going in the intended direction. I should probably use the keyboard for combat, too, because nothing is more frustrating than accidentally clicking your compass instead of swinging your weapon!

I appreciate the small details though--the talbes and chairs, and the blood spatters on walls (though British really ought to have a throne). I also like the slow collapse of the ecosystem in the courtyard of the castle. Well...Slow is the wrong word, it's insanely fast. They shut off the fountain and an hour later plants start dying! Ah well.

The game's fun, though. I've picked up an array of magic items that I need to identify. I even found a mani runestone so that I can finally cast heal. Still, there is one unresolved question that is surely on everyone's mind:

Where's Shamino!?

Now, unresolved concerns from other blogs:

Screenshots: They will appear eventually. I feel less pressure to get them for the Underworlds, because they are almost always terrible--you see too little to have any clue what's going on. But they are there and I'll post them sometime.

Akalabeth phone number: For some reason, it doesn't work exactly as it is shown in the display. Try this: Search for (415) 569-9126, no quotes.

Ultima Underworld II, Day 1

Well, my sojourn into the gem-encrusted castle of Lord British over the past few days went well. What surprises me about Underworld II is how short it is--or rather, how the various worlds in the game vary so substantially in size. The best example is Lord British's castle where the sewers are full of details that you for the most part will never need to explore! In any case, I zipped down very quickly to the gem on the lowest level--This was mainly because it's easy to get there, and because even the relatively wimpy monsters kill you swiftly when you are a weakling level one chump! I found the lair of a gazer and of a reaper, both of which I will kill at some point.

I also believe I have completed the quests associated with the goblin tower, because I got a blackrock object of some form from a leader there. It's curious how cordial the goblins are in that tower, at least to me. Well, there's a trio that call me monkey boy (hey, morons, you're bipedal monkey-like things too, just green!).

Underworld II is very much like Underworld I. The only aspects that have changed are the size of the view window (a little bigger) and the graphics, which are also slightly improved. Oh yeah, there is also "digitized sound," which means that you hear some rather out of place splats and dings and so on when you fight monsters.

Back to the plot--My recollection is that there are eight worlds to explore, and the first, the goblin tower, is by far the easiest. There is a troll in a jail cell on an upper level, too, but I have forgotten how you get it open. There's a guy named Janar or some such who has the keys, but he's fairly friendly and I don't much want to slice him up. Moreover, being wimpy, I can't! I think the next order of business is to go to Syria and others in the castle and get them to train me so I can hold my own in a fight a bit better.

As a final note, I have heard that the castle caretaker Nanna has been grumbling about worker's rights, and soon I'll need to tell Lord British about it, an infamous source of bugginess in the game. I will actually need to consult a walkthrough to remind myself how to solve this quest exactly correctly and not cause a game-stopping bug. Finally, I will need to cheat--Stupidly, I misspelled my name and I will need to break out some save game editor to fix it. Actually, I might be able to simply open one of the files in a hex editor. We shall see.

I only did four entries in all of July! How sad. But then, that's what employment does for you I guess. Underworld II may go faster than I speculated, but I am taking it at such a snail's pace that it may be awhile before I am done!

Runes of Virtue, Day 4

Well, strictly speaking my 4th day of Runes of Virtue was sometime at the beginning of this past week, but somehow I have not gotten around to blogging about it until today. A large part of the reason is, of course, that there's so little to say. The Isle of the Avatar's Stygian Abyss is, as one would expect, chock full of crazy traps and creative puzzles. Some of them, for example, require you to push rocks around and create passages in walls with them using a lever that makes walls vanish and reappear (it's difficult to explain...), and on more than one occasion you must take advantage of your enemies' capacity to kill each other and/or destroy spider webs. My least favorite puzzles, however, are the big rooms full of blinking teleport arrows. You must use them to move to the exit, but the fact that a screen full of dozens of blinking arrows gives me a headache added to the challenge significantly! There's some magic armor in the abyss and it was, to my surprise, not very difficult to get to. The endgame, as one might expect from the Game Boy, is relatively anti-climactic. You disappear from the dungeon where you got the rune of humility, and appear kneeling before Lord British. The end.

OTHER UNINSPIRING ULTIMA ENDINGS
-Ultima II, which gives you an ad for another game in the Sierra version (anyone recall which game? I can't get my Sierra copy to work)
-Escape from Mt. Drash where you are told in block text on a mold-green background you achieved the title of "Questor." Woo hoo.
-Ultima IX, where that idiot Raven and Lord British look up to see that for some reason you have exploded and have turned into an ankh made out of stars in the sky.

I was tempted not to include Ultima II because of my fondness of the "ALL HER WORKS SHALL DIE!" message that you receive upon Minax's death.

Back to the issue at hand--Runes of Virtue. Overall, and amusing diversion. THe only serious flaws of the game are the irrelevance of the premise (retrieving runes related to virtues) to the dungeons (which have nothing to do with the virtues) and the odd game mechanics (pushing levers and eating mushrooms seem to have about the same effect, and how does a rope build a bridge?). Beyond that, the game is not overly challenging, and the ability to restart over and over makes up for its lack of a save feature (though in a world of emulators, who cares about poor save features anymore?) I would not suggest the game, however, for an actual Game Boy due to its length and the repetitive nature of gameplay when you cannot save. As a final note--I still think those wizards look like vampires! Look at the big black cape with high collar and the pointy teeth!

One could argue that the game is canonical--After all, it appears to take place sometime following Ultima VI, and the goal is to rescue the Runes and become knighted, and a certain drunken paladin has just recently been knighted as of Ultima VII. Never mind that he was apparently a "Sir" long before that. And even if he wasn't, Lord British has some pretty stringent requirements for becoming a knight if it takes, what, 300 years of continuous service?

Expect a slower rate of updates for the next two games--Underworld II and Serpent Isle. The reason is simply that playing them is less fun because it's only been a little over a year since last played the games, and Ultima is more fun when you've forgotten a large portion of the game. On the other hand, it's been about 7 and 12 years since I played Ultima VIII and Ultima IX, so those will be a lot more fun for me. Plus, those two games are not particularly good, and it's a lot easier to write criticism than praise :-) I remember when I started the blog I speculated that it might take a year to do--but I kept up a pretty intense pace back when I was unemployed, and it seems like I'll probably be done before Christmas as I result, despite my much slower-goings lately.

I also need to take some time at some point and reply to comments and other feedback again. Maybe during my Underworld II blogging!

Runes of Virtue, Day 3

My third day of adventure in Britannia, or in some domain that has a certain amount of resemblance to Britannia, I retrieved the rune of honor and the rune of humility. After the last rune, I took an underground passageway to an island that presumably represents the Isle of the Avatar, and where Beh Lem allows me to borrow his boat. And look, he has wings now!










The game is somewhat devoid of plot, so there's not much to comment on. I guess I can talk some about the various items and creatures you encounter. A lot of the Ultima denizens we know and love are there, including reapers (which are stationary and shoot laser bolts), trolls, various forms of rats, skeletons, and the now-violent-again wisps, which teleport around and zap you. Less tied to the computer games are the vampire, the rolling-boulder-thing-with-a-face, tigers, and unfriendly giant heads a la the Olmec. The hardest monster is the black shadow guy, which I don't recognize. Most of them are easy to avoid, though sometimes they hit you just by going past you.


As far as player characters go, you choose between Iolo, Shamino, Dupre and Jaana. Iolo is fast and has a bow, Shamino starts with a magic axe, Dupre starts with armor, and Jaana...I don't know what she does. The game claims she can wield powerful magic weapons, but i already am using a magic sword as Shamino. The world itself resembles Britannia, but islands are much farther away from one another, and the main continent seems to have been chopped into a couple of pieces. The towns and castles just have one or two characters, who also oddly are wandering in the dungeons as well, offering advice and/or sarcastic comments. Among others, we get to see Ultima 6 characters including Dr. Cat, Sherry the mouse, Chuckles, Ariana, that horse seller who wants to sleep with you in Trinsic, Beh Lem, Finn, Kilp/Klop the two headed horse, and Budo, the pudgy armorer from Yew. Wait, that's not Budo...Budo was the fat theive's guild man. What was the fat armorer's name? Anyway...


In the game, you can use soup to raise your health and panpipes to freeze your enemies. I am not very inspired by the controls, because they make it difficult to attack in a direction without also walking in that direction--there is no "turn around" button, just a "walk in this direction" button. Sometimes I can get it to work, and I can move left and right while firing downward at something, but often I walk forward right into someone's fireball!

The game is nearly finished after a good five to six hours. One more hour will probably wrap it up, once I complete the abyss. It might be amusing to go back and play as Jaana, to figure out what exactly she can do that Shamino cannot.

Runes of Virtue, Days 1 and 2

Ah, it's nice to have a PC again, although it is sad to see the skeletal remains of the old one, after I yanked out all the cards and drives. It was surprisingly hard to find a motherboard with floppy support for my 5 1/4 drive! Oh well













Runes of Virtue was an Nintendo Game Boy adventure game released sometime around 1992, either before or after Ultima VII, and I suspect after. It features Birtannia, approximately, and various characters you might recall from Ultima VI, including Dr. Cat, Sherry, Finn, Lord British, and some woman I don't remember. The basic premise is that someone has pilfered all of the Rune of Virtue, and you have to go on a quest to retrieve them, with British telling you where to go, although strictly speaking in some cases you can ignore the guy. They are hidden in caves, with the caves full of traps, mazes, and assorted monsters, including wisps, slimes, trolls, blob things, gremlins, vampires, and even the seahorse, not seen since Ultima V! There are also some shops scattered about


Each dungeon tends to have one or two items, sometimes a weapon and often some sort of useful device. For example, one has a fire wand to burn dark spider webs, one has a lightning wand to zap knights, and one has a rope to cross water (No, this doesn't make sense). The game's something like a combination of Zelda and Lolo, with the puzzle-solving and such of the latter with the wandering enemies of the former. The graphics are pretty good, but I miss the blurriness of the LCD display, which an emulator just doesn't give you!





You choose Iolo, Shamino, Dupre or Jaana; I chose Shamino, who has a magic axe and a transparent face(!). When you find a rune, incidentally, you look JUST like Link in the original Zelda, when he lifts up a piece of the triforce. Thus far, I've gotten through 6 of the dungeons, many of which have been renamed for the ignorant among us--Hatred, Cowardice, Selfishness, Pride, etc. No more Covetous. The game's non-canonical, but nonetheless an amusing diversion from the much longer, hardcore games I will be playing soon! Four hours has gotten me this far, and I have to say...thank goodness for save states, or the game would probably become outrageously repetitive.