Ultima VII: The Black Gate Retroview
Ultimately Dreadful
Well before my days writing and streaming for RPGamer, I was part of an RPG book club. A group of RPG enthusiasts voted on what to collectively play so we could discuss our journeys through these games. Two such games ended up being on the SNES, and both were series I had yet to experience. Ultima VII: The Black Gate was one of those games, and while it was recommended to avoid the SNES port and play the PC version, I did not. Eventually, I stumbled my way through the clunky mess, and ultimately, it left a bad impression of the series, as it is still the only Ultima game I have played.
The Black Gate has players taking the role of the Avatar, a hero who has saved the realm of Britannia numerous times before, but this time it has been 200 years since his last visit. A string of kidnappings has caused citizens concern. All the while, a newly found religion known as the Fellowship has taken root across Britannia. Lord British, the benevolent ruler of Britannia, asks the Avatar for assistance in solving these matters. It is obvious to the player from the start that this group is hiding a nefarious agenda, but the Avatar must find concrete proof of wrongdoing before they are able to make any connections. Finding the Fellowship guilty is done by a string of seemingly never-ending fetch quests, where NPCs in the different towns will give the Avatar what he needs, but only after he ventures to a local dungeon to retrieve the requested item.
The graphics in The Black Gate are forgettable. The Avatar and Lord British stand out, but every other NPC falls into a small group of reused sprites, and the locations all end up looking very similar. Most NPCs have unique faces when interacting with them, and this is how the Avatar will gather most of his intel. The game offers a set of questions the Avatar can ask NPCs, with each response opening new conversation branches that point the player to the next point of interest. There is also the central antagonist, known as The Guardian, who will chime in every now and then during the Avatar's journey. Initially, it seems The Guardian pops up randomly, but in actuality, he pops up when the player is heading in the right direction, usually trying to dissuade the Avatar from continuing his journey.
[caption id="attachment_188663" align="aligncenter" width="412"] This guy secretly helps players![/caption]
Ultima VII has an action RPG battle system. The Avatar can equip weapons and smack enemies in front of him. As enemies charge towards the Avatar, he basically stands his ground to battle the oncoming attackers. It's not great, and if the player moves around too much, they can get cornered or stun locked to death. Most enemies will get slightly knocked back when hit, so it makes sense to stay put and wail on foes until they turn to puffs of smoke. Unfortunately, monsters only carry junk and, at best, dungeon keys after being defeated.
In fact, much of the game will be spent managing the Avatar's inventory. There are tons of treasure chests and loot to collect in the game, but most of it is useless and will only serve to fill a limited inventory system. If the Avatar walks over a loose item, it will automatically go into his inventory. There are also skeleton keys, which are stored separately, and special keys that take up inventory space as well. Players will be battling micromanagement as much as enemies in this game.
The Avatar can gain up to eight levels in this game, and as they level up, new spells are acquired. Spells can be configured to be used with the L and R buttons, and for the rest, the Avatar will have to go into his spell book to manually trigger each spell. Spells cost Ankh points, and players can restore these with potions or by being idle. Many locations have numerous areas that will require spell usage, like unlocking magical doors. If not prepared in advance, the player will have to wait for their spell energy to restore before continuing. This poorly implemented bloat unjustly inflates the game's run time.
[caption id="attachment_188664" align="aligncenter" width="411"] Bad guy go poof![/caption]
Even using the very expensive, very necessary, magical boat costs magic to activate. There is one spell that costs no magic to use called Kal Lor. It is easy to get lost in this game. This spell will teleport the player, wherever they are, back to Lord British. The only drawback to using this spell is that it drains the Avatar of his gained experience, usually costing one level per use, and takes half of his gold from his person. Use this spell with extreme caution.
There is a distinct lack of musical tracks in The Black Gate . The outdoors, dungeon, and enemy encounter tunes take up the majority of what players will hear during the game. None of these melodies are noteworthy for good reasons.
Ultima VII: The Black Gate for the SNES is not a good port. It's hard to compare it with the PC version, but most people would say that adaptation is the way to experience and appreciate Ultima VII . The Black Gate on the PC also has a few expansions that the SNES version did not implement. The SNES limitations are evident as the graphics, story, battles, magic system, and music are all lacking. This is not a game I plan to play again, at least not on the SNES.
Disclosure: This review is purely comparing this game to other SNES RPGs.
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