Ultima IX: Ascension

About Ultima IX: Ascension

Ultima IX: Ascension (1999) is Origin's final main Ultima, in which the Avatar returns to a Britannia corrupted by the Guardian's eight columns for one last battle, a game whose troubled development divided fans.

Ultima IX: Ascension in Depth

After escaping Pagan, the Avatar is transported to a Guardian-controlled Britannia, arriving on a mountain overlooking the Guardian's keep. Hawkwind the Seer, from Ultima IV, takes him to Stonegate and explains that great columns have appeared across the land, bringing plague, famine and natural disaster, while the people, under their power, have twisted the Virtues into mockeries of themselves, with Lord Blackthorn and his Wyrmguards enforcing the Guardian's will. The Guardian has stolen the Runes of Virtue and turned them into the glyphs at the heart of each column, and most of the game is spent travelling through dungeons to recover the glyphs and cleansing them at the Shrines of Virtue. Finally it is revealed that the Guardian is the Avatar's own dark half, and the only way to save Britannia is for the Avatar to ascend to a higher plane, taking the Guardian with him.

The world is rendered in a detailed, seamless way, but Britannia is much smaller than in earlier games; Britain, its largest city, has only a few buildings. Unlike previous Ultimas, it gives the player less choice of path, with most areas blocked off until specific tasks are done. Critics praised the play but criticised its lack of polish and its disregard for the series' history: many fans felt it was unfinished, and it was said to be aimed at players new to Ultima, so earlier events were ignored or altered, epitomised by the Avatar's infamous line "What's a paladin?".

Making Ultima IX: Ascension

Origin Systems developed it and Electronic Arts published it for Windows in December 1999 as the ninth and final main Ultima. Richard Garriott originally conceived the third trilogy as three worlds, Britannia, Pagan and the Guardian's homeworld, but criticism of Ultima VIII changed the plan; Garriott told Computer Gaming World in 1994 it would go "back to the virtues that made Ultima as distinctive as it was originally". A second version was developed between 1995 and 1997 before further rewrites, and the released game received "mixed or average" reviews according to GameRankings.