Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire | |
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Developer(s) | Origin Systems |
Publisher(s) | Origin Systems Pony Canyon (SNES) |
Distributor(s) | Electronic Arts |
Producer(s) |
Richard Garriott Jeff Johannigman |
Designer(s) | Steve Beeman |
Writer(s) | Aaron Allston |
Composer(s) | George Sanger |
Platform(s) | DOS Super NES NEC PC-9801 Sharp X68000 Microsoft Windows OS X |
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Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
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Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire is a role-playing video game set in the Ultima series, published in 1990. It is considered a "Worlds of Ultima" game, as it is not set in Britannia. It uses the same engine as Ultima VI (and Martian Dreams). In June 18, 2012, Electronic Arts released the game as freeware through GOG.com.
After the events in Ultima VI, the Avatar is transported by a friend's failed experiment with an obsidian "moonstone" to the otherworldly Valley of Eodon, a large jungle-like world filled with various tribes. These tribes have been magically drawn from varying periods and locations in history, such as the aboriginal nations of Mesoamerica and tropical Africa. The valley of Eodon is actually on Earth, but it is inaccessible and unmappable.
At the time of the arrival of the Avatar, the place is under attack from the insect-like Myrmidex. The Avatar needs to understand and master some aspects of their stone-age tribal culture and their "jungle magic" to find a way to bring peace to the valley. The main plot involves getting all thirteen tribes to join in an alliance against the Myrmidex. Each tribe has its own demands before joining, ranging from defeating a Tyrannosaurus rex to recovering their holy statue. This mixture of worlds was created by a huge corrupted moonstone that the Myrmidex possess, which has to be destroyed to prevent it collapsing in instability.
The player commands the Avatar and a party generally consisting of up to four other characters. However, two set events in the game add a character to the party even if this limit has been reached, resulting in a maximum party size of seven characters.
Origin sold a "Special Edition" of the game autographed by Lord British. It came with a hint book and T-shirt.
A port of Savage Empire was released in Japan for the Super Famicom, using the game engine from the Super NES version of Ultima VII: The Black Gate. The game was localized and planned for a USA release, but that was eventually cancelled.