All ye who enter be warned; here be spoilers.
Most game-based storytelling is facile at best. Be honest - we all know it’s true. But, not all – games do exist that stand on their own as examples of what the medium is capable of. Often, they’re no better than an average book or movie. Sometimes, thanks to their level of interaction, they’re incomparable. Irrespective, recognising them and learning from their strengths is important, as it’s the only way we’ll learn how to tell better stories.
Up until the half-baked (and too quickly shipped) Ultima VIII and Ultima IX, the Ultima series was arguably the RPG series by which all others were judged. Even Final Fantasy, for all its mechanical variability, doesn’t come close – where Final Fantasy has fundamentally become three different games developed by three different teams released under the same banner and linked by chocobos, Ultima was one of the few series that managed to maintain plot, playstyle, and character continuity while still completely revamping and extending the engine between releases. Continue reading →