Ultima IX
| Ultima IX: Ascension | |
|---|---|
Cover art
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| Developer(s) | Origin Systems |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Distributor(s) |
Electronic Arts GOG.com (digital release) |
| Director(s) | Richard Garriott |
| Designer(s) | Seth Mendelsohn |
| Writer(s) | Brian Martin John Zuur Platten |
| Composer(s) | George Oldziey |
| Series | Ultima |
| Engine | Ultima IX Engine |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | November 24, 1999 August 23, 2012 (GOG.com) |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Ultima IX: Ascension (1999) is the ninth and final part of the main series of the role-playing video game series Ultima.
Following the Avatar's escape from Pagan, he is transported back to Britannia for one final battle with the Guardian, who is increasingly ruining the physical and moral fabric of that land by use of eight columns. The Avatar must fight his way to the runes of virtue found in each of the columns, and cleanse them in the shrines of Virtue, then face off against the Guardian himself.
A difference from previous Ultima games is that in Ultima IX the player has less control of what path to take in the game. Most areas of Britannia are blocked off until specific tasks are completed, reducing the amount of initial exploration available to the player.
The game world is rendered in a detailed and seamless manner, but Britannia is much smaller in overall area than previous games. For example, Britain, the largest city of Britannia, consists of only a few buildings.
Combat also changed significantly from previous Ultima games, controlling more like an action game than the turn-based strategic combat of the earlier games.
In the beginning of Ultima IX, the Avatar had somehow returned to Earth for an unspecified amount of time before getting back to Britannia. The game starts just after the end of Ultima VIII, in which the Avatar is transported to a Guardian-controlled Britannia. He arrives in Britannia on a mountain overlooking the Guardian's keep in Terfin. The Avatar is transported to Stonegate by Hawkwind the Seer (from Ultima IV), who informs him that great columns have appeared throughout the land, and their malignant influence has caused plagues, famine, and other natural disasters. Under their power, the people of Britannia have twisted the Virtues into mockeries of their true meaning. The Guardian is helped by Lord Blackthorn, who leads the Wyrmguards and forces the people to obey the Guardian.
As the quest progresses, the Avatar learns that the Guardian has stolen the Runes of the Virtues and twisted them into the glyphs that form the heart of each of the columns. Most of the game consists of traveling through the dungeons to recover the glyphs and visiting the Shrines of the Virtues to meditate and cleanse them. Eventually, it is revealed that the Guardian is nothing other than the dark half of the Avatar himself, and the only way to save Britannia is for the Avatar to ascend to a higher plane, taking the Guardian with him. The player is able to accomplish this via an Armageddon spell cast behind a Barrier of Life, which takes the Avatar and the Guardian to a higher plane out of Britannia.
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Wikipedia