TheGreatOne
Arcane
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2014
- Messages
- 1,214
Real time combat where you have as much player input over your actions as you do in strategy games that have streamlined combat to a minimum. That is none, apart from issuing the command to attack or stop attacking. U4-6 had turn based combat.
No party creation, character creation consists of choosing a name and a portrait (at least the game lets you play as a black/female character and have gay sex, so it's got all the most important choices covered!)
Streamlined stats/RPG system, there aren't any stat requirements for wearing items apart from strength reflecting in a character's ability to carry things.
Not very challenging, and as a result of your lack of input in combat, that one hard boss fight there is can be solved by finding a glass sword. Casting spells aside, whether you win or loose in combat is really just up to whether you and your party members have better stats and equipment than the enemy or not. I guess it's a very pure RPG in that regard then.
I guess you could say that the challenge lies in keeping track of the nonlinear storyline, finding out all the necessary spells and items and so on rather than in combat.
The storyline consists mainly of doing different fetch quests to various people. Oh you want my book? It's in the warehouse, but you'll have to go through 7 switch puzzles and stack a bunch of crates on top of each other (I actually liked this part) to reach it! Who cares that you're the Avatar trying to save the world. Same goes for the answer for life and death, you'll have to do a bunch quests for other ghosts before he'll tell you the answer, which is trololo fooled you.
I guess that's common for RPGs and overall U7 didn't feel too much like it was making me do tedious tasks just to make the game longer.
There wasn't much of C&C that I can think of (Guardian gave you a choice not to destroy the black gate, you could try lying to the unicorn and some other minor stuff like that) and Black Gate didn't have that great of a story (Serpet Isle was a lot better, also a lot more C&C from what I recall), even though the premise is great. I think Spoony went over this in his review of U7: Why would the Guardian let the player know that he's controlling the Fellowship?
Of course the stand out feature of this game is the interactivity, and although it should be more commonplace in RPGs and games in general, I don't see it as a prerequisite for a great RPG. High level of interactivity with menial objects is more of a common feature of Ultima games rather than CRPGs in general. Which makes a better game, party creation&combat of Wizardry 7/8 or Ultima 7's combat AND the ability to make bread? You know what other RPG series is also known for it's world simulation elements? Elder Scrolls. U7 is technically very impressive, but having a big budget to blow on creating a virtual world does not excuse lack luster game design (see: Oblivion, Skyrim, World of Warcraft)
Don't get me wrong, there are some nice things you can do with the interactivity, like blowing doors open with cannons to steal stuff.
So why is U7 hailed as one of the greatest CRPGs of all time? At least Wizardry 7 beat it in RPGCodex top 50 CRPG list. But then again, in that very same list Morrowind, Fallout New Vegas, Gothic 2, and a JRPG with real time combat (*) placed higher than Wizardry 7, Ultima 5 and gold box games so it's not the most credible list.
*= If you're going to allow Japanese console games on a list of the greatest CRPGs of all time, then Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is much closer to a pure CRPG than Dark Souls is, as it's turn based, party based, has more deep battle system&combat, has party micromanagement, C&C and Wizardry-esque maze like dungeons and it's just as challenging as Dark Souls is if not more so. It even has a similar solemn doomsday atmosphere.
Also it's interesting to note the direction which the series took after games based on the U6 gameplay enginge: FP, 3D Dungeon crawler with RT combat, U7+U7pt2 (almost adventure/RPG hybrids in certain sense), a game that was Diablo before Diablo was released, a MMORPG and a Gothic/Elder Scrolls style single player MMO.
No party creation, character creation consists of choosing a name and a portrait (at least the game lets you play as a black/female character and have gay sex, so it's got all the most important choices covered!)
Streamlined stats/RPG system, there aren't any stat requirements for wearing items apart from strength reflecting in a character's ability to carry things.
Not very challenging, and as a result of your lack of input in combat, that one hard boss fight there is can be solved by finding a glass sword. Casting spells aside, whether you win or loose in combat is really just up to whether you and your party members have better stats and equipment than the enemy or not. I guess it's a very pure RPG in that regard then.
I guess you could say that the challenge lies in keeping track of the nonlinear storyline, finding out all the necessary spells and items and so on rather than in combat.
The storyline consists mainly of doing different fetch quests to various people. Oh you want my book? It's in the warehouse, but you'll have to go through 7 switch puzzles and stack a bunch of crates on top of each other (I actually liked this part) to reach it! Who cares that you're the Avatar trying to save the world. Same goes for the answer for life and death, you'll have to do a bunch quests for other ghosts before he'll tell you the answer, which is trololo fooled you.
I guess that's common for RPGs and overall U7 didn't feel too much like it was making me do tedious tasks just to make the game longer.
There wasn't much of C&C that I can think of (Guardian gave you a choice not to destroy the black gate, you could try lying to the unicorn and some other minor stuff like that) and Black Gate didn't have that great of a story (Serpet Isle was a lot better, also a lot more C&C from what I recall), even though the premise is great. I think Spoony went over this in his review of U7: Why would the Guardian let the player know that he's controlling the Fellowship?
Of course the stand out feature of this game is the interactivity, and although it should be more commonplace in RPGs and games in general, I don't see it as a prerequisite for a great RPG. High level of interactivity with menial objects is more of a common feature of Ultima games rather than CRPGs in general. Which makes a better game, party creation&combat of Wizardry 7/8 or Ultima 7's combat AND the ability to make bread? You know what other RPG series is also known for it's world simulation elements? Elder Scrolls. U7 is technically very impressive, but having a big budget to blow on creating a virtual world does not excuse lack luster game design (see: Oblivion, Skyrim, World of Warcraft)
Don't get me wrong, there are some nice things you can do with the interactivity, like blowing doors open with cannons to steal stuff.
So why is U7 hailed as one of the greatest CRPGs of all time? At least Wizardry 7 beat it in RPGCodex top 50 CRPG list. But then again, in that very same list Morrowind, Fallout New Vegas, Gothic 2, and a JRPG with real time combat (*) placed higher than Wizardry 7, Ultima 5 and gold box games so it's not the most credible list.
*= If you're going to allow Japanese console games on a list of the greatest CRPGs of all time, then Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is much closer to a pure CRPG than Dark Souls is, as it's turn based, party based, has more deep battle system&combat, has party micromanagement, C&C and Wizardry-esque maze like dungeons and it's just as challenging as Dark Souls is if not more so. It even has a similar solemn doomsday atmosphere.
Also it's interesting to note the direction which the series took after games based on the U6 gameplay enginge: FP, 3D Dungeon crawler with RT combat, U7+U7pt2 (almost adventure/RPG hybrids in certain sense), a game that was Diablo before Diablo was released, a MMORPG and a Gothic/Elder Scrolls style single player MMO.
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