PATRON UPDATE: Talking about the next few videos
Howdy Patrons!
It's been a minute since the last update, so I figured I'd fill everybody in on the video topics I've been kicking around the old noggin.
First of all, I'll probably continue with this "one video Ultima, one video not-Ultima" thing I've been doing this year. Seems to be a good balance. It's crazy to reflect on how much of the Ultima series we've chewed through, and just how long I've been at it by now.
In case you're curious, here's what we've got left:
Ultima VII: Serpent Isle
Ultima VIII
Ultima Online
Ultima IX
And that'll be all she wrote. I may find a place to squeeze in Ultima II: Runes of Virtue for the SNES, since I think that could be a fun break from things. Will I have to acknowledge Underworld Ascendant's existence? Please no.
As for the next video... I hope we've got some King's Field fans round these here parts, because I'm currently working on the KINGSLIKE MEGAREVIEW. In this video, I'll be taking a look at a collection of King's Field-like games. Mostly newer indie (or indie-adjacent) games, such as Lunacid, but there may be some surprises in there too. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments below. I may not have the time to get around to every single King's Field-like game, but I hope to cover a bunch of them. If you enjoy the grab-bag videos, like RPG Maker games or Saturn RPGs, I think you'll like this video!
A lot of the time my personal litmus test for stupid ideas is waiting to see if they go away. TekWar, for instance, popped into my head one day. I thought "Man, it'd be kind of funny to do a TekWar review on the whole series". The thought lingered for many months, so a TekWar video manifested itself into reality.
During a stream a few months ago, Two Worlds came up. I don't know why, but I found the idea of doing a retrospective on the Two Worlds saga intriguing (and also silly). I actually have some history with these games. I purchased the original game on PC, and (for some sickening reason) PRE-ORDERED the second game on Xbox 360. I was 15 years old... and I literally, figuratively, lyrically, miracally don't know what the fuck I was thinking. But you know what? I kinda liked Two Worlds II... I even KINDA liked Two Worlds I. I haven't seen a deep-dive on this series before, and I'm morbidly fascinated by the increasingly bizarre & unethical """expansion packs""" that were released for the second game. I think it's high-time that somebody do an autopsy on the so-called "Oblivion killer".
Given the place we're at in the Ultima series, I've also had a compulsion lately to take a look at the System Shock series. I've been more reticent about this, because System Shock is a game that has been extensively covered on YouTube. As a rule, I try to keep my video topics to ground that isn't so well-trodden. However, while digging around for information on Ultima Underworld II, I found a wealth of really insightful interviews from the Looking Glass Studios staff, much of which related to System Shock 1 + 2. These interviews and documents really changed my perspective on the series, and made me appreciate certain design decisions in a way that I hadn't before. I can't say for certain whether somebody has analyzed the games through this sort of historical lens, but I'm interested in taking on the challenge, and I'm curious about what your thoughts are. I adore System Shock 2, and deeply appreciate System Shock 1, so I think this would be a fun project - and a timely one, given the imminent release of the SS2 Remaster from Nightdive.
That's about it for now. I have a few other ideas, but I'll let them ferment a little while longer before I decide whether or not it's worth talking about them.
Thanks for your support, and have a great summer!
Comments (43)
Hey, it's my first time as an insider - woo! You may have already addressed this, but why not take a peek at the console versions of Ultima? For a lot of us, that was the first exposure we had to the series. Also: I'll +1 to the Falcom games, Dragon Slayer and the early Ys games. I kept hoping Clyde Mandalin might do something about those games, but I think he's... on hiatus? Either what, whatever you do it'll be awesome. Cheers!
Majuular + System Shock sounds like peanut butter and jelly to me, I would love to watch that! Also wanted to chime in and say as a huge fan of the shining series, your Saturn video has me yearning for more Majuular deep dives into Sonic! software's games and history (and the shining series as a whole)
Don;t know how much you know about them but any of the falcom games or series would be a good, long-term group of games to look at.
I recently did videos on Lunacid and Labyrinth of the Demon King, so I look forward to hearing your takes and seeing how I could have done them better lol. I'm not sure it fits the theme for the video, but I can also highly recommend Dread Delusion if you're in a lofi indie mood. I've also had Two Worlds in my list for years so, like always, looking forward to whatever you choose to make.
Hey Maj if you do check out Two Worlds. Check out the hard difficulty it adds more enemy's to each fight, creating some absurd looking encounters.
I've never heard that before. Sounds like chaos, I will definitely give it a try on hard. Thanks!
I'd love to see you do Two Worlds - the second game still has my favorite magic system ever.
Hope to see some Dungeons of Blood and Dream in the Kingslike Megareview! Dread Delusion too. Also, this isn't out but looks so cool https://store.steampowered.com/app/1799840/Queens_Domain/ Daggerfall's been done to death but would love to see you do a review of Battlespire lol.
After Ultima is done I think it would be good to not do more Origin Studios content for awhile. Though I loved that company dearly, one thing that drew me into your channel was your coverage of console games that I had to miss when life happened: Tales of Symphonia, for instance, was something I saw someone else play here and there but could not enjoy and your video let me close off that loose end. Failing that... dungeon keeper and bullfrog entertainment, perhaps? --- Additionally ... have you, by chance, heard of a game called Moonring? It is a freeware Ultima-like that hit 1.0 in 2023. I finally took some time to play it recently and it is nice. And it gave me a thought. At the risk of wishlisting or backseat driving ... if it appeals to you, I think there may be enough meat for -maybe- one more Ultima video after U9: Children of Ultima. A quick survey of the impact and legacy of the series while also listing off all the dead-ends and failed attempts to keep it going. You could: 1. Acknowledge the cash-grab-incomplete efforts like Shroud of the Avatar, the Ultima Mobile Game, Underworld Ascendant but not have to go into full playthroughs of each. 2. Touch on successors and love-letters like Moonring and Nox Archaist, those fan-efforts to keep things going or celebrate nostalgia 3. Touch on what happened to the Ultima Dragons / Richard Garriott / Warren Spektor / Dr Cat (David Shapiro) / etc... a "where are they now" segment for anything that could not fit in the regular videos 4. Look at how Ultima Online evolved and persisted to this day (somehow) 5. Take a brief look at each cancelled sequel like UO2 / UWO:O Or none of the above. I trust your judgement and have been happy with everything you have produced thus far. I am just grateful you are putting a more professional and thorough documentary together for Ultima so future generations can somewhat appreciate what came before and inspired so much of the modern market. You could put this sort of epilogue content into the U9 video, but that might make it uncomfortably massive. And since your structure has been more-or-less chronological it seems appropriate to separate it from U9.
Thanks for the suggestions AD! Your idea of an Ultima "loose ends" video is a good one, and in fact it's something I've thought of for a while now (the name 'Ultima Addendum' has been kicking around in my head since I started the series). So great minds think alike. I feel like you're right on the money in terms of the post-Ultima properties being beyond the scope of the IX video. I might pull the brakes for a little while (you know, give all of the people who have Ultima fatigue a chance to recuperate) before doing a final revisit in the form of that video. As for taking a step back from Origin, I agree with that too. Truth be told, I don't think there'd be much fodder for a continued Origin deep dive anyway. Since I made this post, System Shock 2 Remastered released and a flood of new System Shock Retrospectives have hit YouTube. It's pulled the brake on my desire to make a System Shock series video in the immediate future. As for Origin's other properties, my hope with the Ultima videos is ostensibly to tell the story of Origin in enough detail that by Ultima IX, it'll have been well covered. Go in wanting to learn about Ultima, walk away having learned about Origin, so to speak. I appreciate your reply. I didn't see it since Patreon is so fickle about sending me notifications.
The people cry out for a 3 hour Thief series video
Not certain if any of these fit into your definition of Kings-like (as I never played any of those), but the 2000s game Dungeon Lords seems like it might fit, and it enamored younger me so. Also heard some really great things about the Gothic series. My buddy won't shut up about those and how amazing they were, at least one of them anyway. Edit: now that I've signed up, my wife is yelling at me to recommend Aidyn's Chronicles: The First Mage. Though I don't think it fits in a Kings-like list super well, haha. Edit2: Okay she's on a roll now - she says Drakan: The Ancients' Gate should fit
Not quite on the mark for my personal criteria, but I remember a kid named Tyrel on my school bus in junior high telling me about how awesome Dungeon Lords was. Also definitely plan on covering Aidyn Chronicles when I do the inevitable N64 RPG video. Will look into Drakan - thanks to you and your wife!
Lunacid will be a TON of fun to hear about! And I certainly wouldn't mind your insights on System Shock, popularity be damned.
Oh, also. Kingsfield-like. Check out Labyrinth of the Demon King. Fuedal Japan with silent hill vibes, with combat like condemned criminal origins. It's really magnetic.
On it!
I would totally buy physical copies of your reviews on bluray. I hope that can one day be a thing.
It'd be a matter of untangling copyright laws and swapping out background music that I used from video games OSTs... maybe on VHS or Laserdisc.
Wild Arms 1 retrospective when lol. Absolutely brilliant game brudda
As someone that’s been putting it off, I would be excited to start the series in anticipation for a video from him. Backlog just kicking my ass is all.
I'm impressed by your self control regarding System Shock. Regarding Two Worlds, I'd never heard of those games until reading this update and am excited for that! I also would really love to see Part 2 of Golden Sun this year. It's my favorite GBA series and while I don't think The Lost Age fixes one of your big complaints (lack of character depth and the restating of things already said) I believe it expands incredibly on all the stuff that the first game did well: the sense of traversing a large world, of exploration, giving you a wonderful dim sum selection of various cultures, and even more awesome music.
Interesting! I loved the weirdness of both two worlds games, though i never finished 2 (despite multiple attempts) due to the insane enemy stat spikes between each main region of the game. I would certainly be interested in learning more about them.
Dungeons of Blood and Dreams is an excellent kingslike
Man, I have some (fond?) memories of Two Worlds 2. I very strongly remember pirating it shortly after release, and then having software issues... And emailing the developers! I was too poor to buy it (being a high/middle schooler, idr) and figured it wouldn't hurt... And the devs EMAILED ME A PATCH!!! I almost couldn't believe it. I don't think I ever beat the game, but remember loving the magic system in particular. Maybe I should revisit it after all these years, and try to pay the devs some money.
That is awesome. It's a shame what's happened to Reality Pump over the past few years. The magic system in TW2 absolutely kicked ass.
Can't believe you mentioned Underworld Ascendant but totally ignored the true final Ultima game: Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues! Just kidding, I feel liking asking a true Ultima fan like you to review that would feel like torture...
Personally I agree that system shock should be a low priority project because of the extensive coverage. Perhaps you could do a spin-off special on it that’s shorter in the future, not covering the entirety of the games as people usually do. I don’t need, like probably many others, a walkthrough for medical one more time. Thanks for all the videos brother, take care
P.S. - Since I’m already here, might as well. Golden Sun cont.? Great suggestion below. Breath of Fire like the other fellow mentioned sounds great. Going off my love for oddball games, perhaps a grab-bag video on RPG spin-offs/Metroidvania entries of popular franchises like the Shaman King GBA, Klonoa GBA, Monster Rancher Advance, LOTR GBA, X-men RPGs, etc Non-1v1-fighting MK games? If speaking of deep dives - seeing your take on the Digital Devil saga would be great. I think Monster Rancher was never extensively covered. Post Gen 5 looney tunes games? Fun project imo.
Pumped for the kings field likes, your retrospective made me purchase all of them including a patched version of the first off Etsy manual and all! I think my favorite parts of any and all of your videos is where you give big background to the companies that developed the game during that time! Keep up the amazing work!
A Wizardy retrospective series would go so hard, but follow your heart, king ❤️
Speaking of videos, there's one game out there, one of my all time favorites that has like 0 content about it on Youtube, and it's so under-rated and so deep if you actually dig into it that it truly deserves *someone* to actually do so for the first time ever. The much maligned, misunderstood, decade ahead of its time: Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Had it been released a decade later in the era of roguelikes and soulslikes, it'd have thrived, but was a late 10's game released in the late 00's and everyone didn't know what to make of it thus it fell away into the annals of history, it's brilliance tossed aside with a reputation of "that bad Breath of Fire game". I truly wish someone of your caliber would give it a solid retro. There's *nothing* on Youtube about it, and it deserves so much better. You'd be doing something truly original as a solid retrospective would be the very first of its kind, which is crazy for a big budget retro jrpg title in 2025. Also, really hyped for Ultima VIII. That was my first Ultima game oddly enough, and it's nostalgic as hell.
I'd like to do the whole Breath of Fire series eventually, Dragon Quarter included!
System Shock 2 is one of my favourite games of all time, and the recent System Shock Remake is right up there as well. I would personally *love* to hear your take on the series!
Not really on topic, but I LOVED the tekwar video, really ticked me. Will you include the SS remake as well?
Thank you! Yep, I would definitely include a section on the remake.
Question, since you are a fan of RPGs( though you hide it so well =D) have you considered covering the Might and Magic series like you have with the Ultima one? Also you are cool and handsome and the best guy ever!
I'd really like to do something on M&M. Sadly it's tough to do something on the same level as Ultima, just cuz Ultima has SO much information on it. I'd really have to hunt down some primary sources.
I was actually going to suggest system shock in the discord chat. I trust your judgement, but it would make an awesome episode.
Can't wait for new content. Just wanted to put some love for the (eventual) second golden sun video~ Much love
🫡
Oh, you are going to cover UO at some point? That's a pleasant surprise.
Dread it, run from it, Underworld Ascendant still arrives.
😭